Christmas Surprise

For the kids To Cherish gift, we surprised them with a trip to Fairmont Scottsdale Princess Resort!  I think I give gifts like this as much for my benefit as I do the kids.

On our way to the resort we picked up Aubrey and Nolan from the airport.  Aubrey is coming to live in Arizona and finish up her last semester of high school.  Nolan just came for the week to visit and see everyone.

Nolan has been growing his hair out while Rieley is on his mission.  Kind of a funny way to mark your brother serving a mission.  But to each their own!  We did Nolan and Ella's hair alike...lol.  It was hilarious, but Ella didn't appreciate it much.

Heated pool in December was fun!

The kids enjoyed the water slides.  It was an abnormally cold few days while we were there which was kind of a bummer.  The extra 10 degrees would have been nice.

Thanks for always supporting my ideas babe!

He keeps me grounded and I help him have fun!

Not a bad pair if you ask me.  I can't even imagine what he would be like if his depression was lifted from him.  He is pretty awesome even struggling like he does.  

The resort is all decorated for Christmas.  It was fun to see.

It's gonna be a ton of fun having Aubrey stay with us.  Kiersten is super excited!

What would the Princess Resort be like without a real princess?

Ella loved the clear glass shower.  It was so funny!

Any time the kids get to swim in the winter they love it!

Such a treat!

Man for living in Chicago, Aubrey sure came to Arizona tan.  Come to find out she'd been working at a tanning salon.  Yep it all makes sense now.

Logan and Ella are like two peas in a pod!

They have so many same personality characteristics isn't unreal.  Ella is like a girl version of Logan.  And they share a unique bond that is undeniable! 

Notice that Justin and I didn't swim much.  Yep it just wasn't quite my kind of warm :)

I did enjoy sitting in the hot tub often. 

The resort has outdoor ice skating.

We all enjoyed it.

Grant wished they had the little skating walkers to help him not fall.

Kiersten LOVED it when they made it snow!!!  

Such a fun added bonus! 

There was a carousel at the resort and it was included in your stay.  I can not fully express how happy this made Ella!

Every time, and I mean every time, she road it she was as excited as the first time!

She must have road it at least 50 times!

She literally never wanted to stop.  We would run around and get back in line.  Which really wasn't a line, they just made you get off and then you could get right back on if you were guests at the resort.

It was so much fun to watch Ella be so excited!  And to see the kids enjoying something just because they could see how happy it was making Ella.  It was a fun evening of carousel riding!

Then it was smores' time!

The boys made sure they road on each spot on the carousel.

They had a fun time with Nolan!

Kiersten can't believe she gets to have Aubrey come stay.  

We took the train ride around the resort to look at their Christmas lights.  It was fun!

We couldn't resist a picture with the resorts Elf!

Before we headed back to Pima, we got the boys haircuts.  We tried to talk Nolan into cutting his too. Hahaha.... he wasn't having it!

It was a fun 4 days at the resort!

I love trips as Christmas gifts!

Sad Goodbye to Mona

We had an interesting 5 months with Mona.  It wasn't always easy but we are grateful for what we learned from her.  My niece, Aubrey is coming to stay with us for a couple of months while she finishes her last semester of high school.  So we had to find Mona a different host family to live with. It was just a crazy turn of events but family comes first.  Mona understood that, even though she cried and said he didn't want to leave our family.  We will miss some things about having Mona in our home.

Mona went to her new host family the day after Christmas.  We plan to still do things with her even if she won't be living with us.  

Santa Came!!

Christmas has came once again....

We got smart this year and decided instead of having Cluff waffles with the fixings Christmas morning, which is A LOT of work for me.  We decided that we'd have that one other night for dinner but that Christmas morning we'd have Smith Cranberry muffins with sauce.  So we decided that is what we would leave out for Santa and he loved it!  

We all woke excited and surprised!  Santa knows what this boys likes!

Lots of gifts for this bunch....

Hunter and Logan were in shock to see that Justin and I bought them hover boards.  Hunter said, " I wanted to tell you I wanted one of these but I just figured there was no way you'd get me one!"

This is proof that we are cool parents!

The hover boards were a HUGE hit.....

Ella was so happy with her new kitty's!

Kiersten got a box of macaroni......look at that smile.  Maybe I should have just got her mac-n-cheese instead of the clothes and money we got her.

Doing the 3 gifts for each of our kids.....a To Use, To Cherish and To Amuse has continued to work for us.  Then of course Santa brings them a few little things.  With 6 kids, including Mona it always ends up looking like a ton.

Grant is super happy with his gift for Silvio.  I would say Silvio know Grant pretty darn well!

I love Mona's smile!  She really is a beautiful girl.  She has a heavy past that sometimes catches up with her but she shows a lot of strength.

Hunter's looking pretty good there in his Fitzgerald jersey.... Merry Christmas to him.

Mona was so sweet and she made this gift for us.  It turned out cute.

Ella found every kitty we own.  She might grow up to be one of those single ladies that have like 50 cats living in their house.  Justin was excited to get bleacher chairs for all the sports games I think we will start having to attend.  Ella liked our chairs as well.

This was the first Christmas or any holiday for that matter, in about 10 years that Justin has actually bought me a gift himself.  He got me an iPad air.  Honestly I cried!!!  Not because it's a nice gift, but because I couldn't believe he but some thought into getting me something.  Even the kids were shocked!  Could this be a new tradition?  I don't know but it is something I could get use to.

Okay I have to admit I might have bought two hover boards so Justin and I can use them...lol!  

I LOVE them!  They are so fun to ride!  I felt like a kid this Christmas!

One big highlight was getting to Skype our favorite Italian!

We visited with Silvio for 2 1/2 hours and it was GREAT!  He is doing wonderful and we miss him so much!

Christmas wore her out!  I love that she fell asleep with her kitties of course.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Christmas Traditions

This year I found a 25 days closer to Christ idea that fit our needs perfectly!  There is an ornament for each day that has scriptures and a video about Jesus Christ's life.  Every morning as we started our day the Christmas season, we started it out opening the ornament, reading scriptures and watching the  corresponding video.  I wish I had taken pictures of it.  It definitely brought the spirit I was looking for, into our home.  I decided to buy a few extra kits, you had to make the kits, paint the ornaments and then put them in bags or boxes to be opened each day. 

 I gave one of these kits to Melinda Nelson.  She is my pianist in Primary and I absolutely love her!!!  She is also the bishops wife and one of the sweetest women I know.  Anyway I had Hunter drop this gift, along with a small Christmas tree for the ornaments to be placed on, to the Nelson's house the first of December.

I thought she would appreciate it and I knew it could bring a sweet spirit into their home.  

What I didn't know was that she had been searching the Internet looking for something that they could do each day to bring the true meaning of Christmas and keep them focused on the Savior.  She wasn't finding anything that fit what she wanted.  That morning she had knelt in prayer pleading Heavenly Father to direct her to find something to help her family with this goal of hers.  She got up from her prayer and about 5 minutes later Hunter arrived with our gift.  He told her it was to be opened as a family tonight.  When she read my card and saw what the gift was she bursted into tears. She said it was a complete answer to her exact prayer.  She was very emotional receiving this gift and I get emotional when I think about it.

I am grateful I was able to be an answer to someones prayers, especially someone who I love and appreciate so much!  It was such a sweet experience and make me even more positive that my search for something to bring the life of the Savior into our Christmas was heaven sent.

We decided to still do a few of our past traditions that we love.

One was our Jerusalem Dinner!

The kids search through the house looking for where Joseph and Mary and baby Jesus are (aka Justin, I and a baby doll).  The kids are the wisemen.  Mona seemed to enjoy the dinner and experience.

Justin reads us scriptures telling the story of Jesus's birth as we eat.

We enjoy a simple dinner or flat bread, hummus, crackers, cheese, meats, olives, nuts and juices.

We do enjoy our visit from Peppp.  He went all out this time and wrote on Justin's face as he slept.  He was pretty hilarious!

I loved finding Kiersten decorating our chalkboard wall with a beautiful Christmas message!

She did a fabulous job on it!

Thanks for the reminder Peppp.  Love how the message was left on my bathroom counter.  Guess I needed the reminder more than the kids did?

Ginger bread house decorating is a must at Christmas time!  Ella was excited to get to decorate one this year!  I usually make a couple extra houses and send them along with the extra candy over to the Shupes so Ryker and Carsyn can decorate a house themselves.  Some years they have done it with us.

I think the kids eat as much candy as they are decorating their houses, as they actually put on their houses!  That is kind of their tradition!

Mona had a fun time decorating her house.  She had never made a ginger bread house before.  She seemed to enjoy all the holiday things that we did to make this time special for our family.

I love the way we focus more on traditions, family, the Savior and those around us during this time of  the year.  It is a great reminder of the important things in life!