Happy New Year!

New Year's day we headed up to Grandpa Lamb's in Prescott for his 80th birthday party. We went the back way, up Yarnell hill. We love the rock frog and get pictures on it when we can!

Jackson was all partied out.

We had some fun times with some New Mexico sparklers:) Thanks Grandpa!

Ethan.

Ethan on guitar.

Here the kids are getting ready to eat. We had our dinner and watched Ice Age 3.

Emma the carnivore. Out of all our food, the hot wings were her favorite. She chowed down on them like crazy!

Andrew is getting really good at the drums. I am amazed at how good he does!

It's hard to believe that another year has started! Where does the time go? The boys always look forward to New Year's eve. It is the one night they are allowed to stay up really late. If it were up to me, I'd probably be in bed by 10:00. I'm a bit of a party pooper! They get so excited, so we do our best to make it fun. This year their Uncle Nathan, Aunt Aubrey and cousin Jackson came over to party with us. We had lots of good food, played lots of Wii, and had fun with sparklers. It was great! Eli, Emma and Jackson went to bed around 10:00. Late for them! Ethan and Andrew made it to midnight. Not without getting a bit delirious around 11:00 though! It was a fun night!

Merry Christmas!

Eli's favorite toy of the day. The Batcave!

My Dad got a new "elf" hat this year to pass out presents. It sings and the top wiggles back and forth. It was so funny.

Gram and Grandpa Scooter made everyone marshmellow guns. The boys loved them.

Emma had to have a ride to try out her new pants.


Emma got a pair of motorcycle pants. Now she can be like the boys!

Here are the kids with their quilts. I'm so glad they loved them.

Getting ready to open their quilt boxes. They were dying to know what was in the big presents under the tree.

Eli got a Transformer from Ethan.

Andrew loved his dinosaur excavation. This was really cool. Thanks Aimee!

Let the noise begin!

Emma bear and her new kitchen. She loves it!

Emma's kitchen was the first thing everyone saw. It was a big hit!

Ethan was reeling in a big one!

Andrew fishing.

Aubrey helped Emma get her first "fish".

Eli getting his turn with the fish pond.

Here is Aunt Kari with her nieces and nephews that live here in AZ. Everyone dressed in their new froggy pajamas. Thanks Kari, they were the best!

Christmas Eve at Gram's house. Jackson was nice enough to share his potato heads with the other kids.

Eli loves to make goofy potato heads.

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. We enjoyed lots of time with family. It was also fun getting ready for all of the festivities. School parties, secret Santa's, decorating, baking, looking at lights, watching movies, drinking hot chocolate. It's all the fun things you do leading up to Christmas that make it special. Jeremy and I made quite a few homemade gifts this year. We were pretty busy the last few months getting everything done.

Christmas Eve we went to our annual get together at Jeremy's parent's house. We had a ton of delicious Mexican food. The chimichangas were my personal favorite. Yum! The kids got to play with some of their cousins. Although we sure missed Aimee, Greg and their kids! Gram had the "fishpond" again this year. That is one of the favorite things about Christmas eve. They get to "fish" for prizes. So much fun! Another highlight of the night was Aunt Kari's pajamas. She gets all of her nieces and nephew's pajamas every year. This year she decided to make everyone matching ones. They turned out so adorable! She is awesome. The kids loved them so much!

Once Christmas eve was over, we headed home and the kids were hyper. It took Ethan a long time to fall asleep. Once he was out, Santa did his presents and we got to sleep :)

Christmas morning the kids were up at 7:00. Not too early, but I wouldn't have minded more sleep! They were so excited. I love Christmas morning. Seeing the looks on their faces and how happy they are. I wouldn't trade it for anything. So much fun! Emma got an beautiful kitchen from "Santa". He worked hard building it and it turned out so good. It's nicer than my kitchen cabinets are!! Around lunch time, Jeremy's family came over for some presents and visiting. Then after Emma had a nap, we headed to my parents house. We had a yummy dinner and more presents. Boy my kids are spoiled! We were so tired by the end of the day. It was a great time. We sure love Christmas! We are so grateful to spend this time of year with each other and our families.

December Fun

Andrew and Ethan, all bundled up, ringing bells.

Eli with his antlers and cookies.

Emma at Eli's Christmas party.

December is such a fun time of year. It seems like we are always so busy with all of the activities going on. Eli had a fun party at preschool. He got quite a big goodie bag at the end! They made antlers and decorated cookies.
We spent a Saturday morning bell ringing for the Salvation Army. It was a really good experience. The kids were really excited to do it. It was the first really cold morning here. It was 34 when we left the house. It was cold to be outside, but we still had a good time. Eli was freezing, but eventually warmed up enough to ring the bell.
We are grateful for this time of year and all the blessings that our family has. We are so glad that we have time to be with our families and feel the true spirit of Christmas.

Eli's Field Trip

Here is Eli's class.

The highlight of the morning, spraying the fire hose. They were knocking over cones. Very fun!

Eli in the fire truck.

Eli and Emma with their firemen hats.

We took a trip to the local fire station this week with Eli's preschool class. The kids all had a great time. The firemen at the station were really patient and took the time to show the kids all kinds of neat things. I love spending time with preschool kids. They have so much enthusiasm for everything. They also say the darnedest things. When the fireman asked what they should do if the smoke detector goes off one boy replied "Change the batteries!" another said "Take the burning food off the stove!" Too funny.

Eli loved the fire trucks and especially spraying the fire hose. Then at the end they got fire hats and badges. Very fun morning!

Ouch!

Poor Eli! This boy has more accidents involving his head than all the rest of our kids combined. This one was the worst yet. We were getting ready to say prayers Sunday night and he was running to Andrew's bed. He tripped and fell right into the metal bed frame on the bunk beds. I saw it happen and knew it was going to be really bad. Thank heavens Jeremy was there to help. He can remain calm in scary situations. He got Eli cleaned up and pressure on his face. I couldn't handle looking at that huge gash under his eye. It was awful!

So, 4 hours in the ER and 8 stitches later, Eli came home. He was really brave. They had to wrap him up in a blanket and hold him down. They were really nervous because it was so close to his eye. He never cried or screamed. He just would stiffen up and say "Oh, that one hurt". He was very fortunate that his eye was not damaged at all. Very lucky! His face is really swollen and sore, but he is being a trooper! He is still running around, making us laugh. The hardest part is keeping him off the trampoline and from getting to active. We love this little guy and are so thankful he is okay. He'll just have a few more scars to add to his collection :)

Emma's Birthday

Emma's favorite kind of cake. She helped with the sprinkles.

Singing "Rock a bye baby" to her new doll.

Feeding her new baby. Thank you Grandma! She loves it.

Emma was so excited for a baby doll. She has been carrying it around all week!

Emma opening her presents.

Emma's birthday topped off our busy week of activities. I cannot believe she is 2 already. Where did my little baby go? She is such a big girl now. She's talking more and more everyday. She loves to be helper. She is my shadow. Some days it makes me crazy, but I am so grateful she loves me and wants to help me out! She's always sitting on the counter, helping me with dinner and lunch and breakfast and snacks... Her favorite thing to do is put cheese on thing. She loves helping with enchiladas and lasagna. She is spoiled by her Dad and brothers. They love her and give her tons of attention. I would say she is one lucky little lady.

Happy Halloween!

Here is the whole gang at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

At Granny and Papa's.

Tinkerbell :)

Emma was Tinkerbell this year. I loved her hair.

Eli was Batman for the third year in a row. He chose a costume from our costume box, which was fine by me! Although he kept insisting it was not "just" Batman, but Batman Beyond (which is totally different than regular Batman :)

Andrew was Ron Weasley (hence the orange hair). He was horrified that someone might mistake him for the mean kid Malfoy from Harry Potter since he has really blond hair. Thanks to Grandpa, we were able to fix it with some spray!

Ethan was Harry Potter. I made their robes and Grandpa homemade their wands. It all turned out pretty good!

We had a great Halloween this year. After a morning of soccer games, we had a little rest, then headed off for some fun. Our first stop was my parents house. Grandma and Grandpa surprised us with Ice Age 3. We were really looking forward to seeing it. Thanks guys! It was a much better treat than candy. We ended up getting a ton of it!

Then to Granny and Papa's house. Kari fixed us some great potato soup and chili, then we headed off for a night of trick or treating. Everyone got a ton of candy! Their buckets were almost full. Emma loved it. She had much more stamina than I thought she would. She just kept going...

It was lots of fun to see family and get some good treats in the process :)