Winter Wonderland

Our winter vacation is always a highlight for my children cause they get to play in the snow. Living here in Arizona, they don't have that luxury. They look forward every year to putting on their snow clothes and rolling around in the snow. This year there was plenty of snow for them. One day alone I think it must have snowed 8 or 9 inches. Rob even go to shovel the driveway - and he was happy he does not have to do that every day. The weather was also very cold. Our high a couple of days was only nine degrees. People say we are crazy, but I still love the snow. I am not a fan of driving in it, but it is so pretty and fun to play in. The kids tried to make a snowman (Skyler had to ask us how), they made a ramp in grandpa's front yard, they made snow angels and of course went sledding. Another hightlight of our winter vacation.

My New Niece

Rick and Tina set off on the adventure of adopting a little girl from Ethopia about seven months ago. She became a part of their family the first week of December. She is the cutest little girl....huge eyes and soft, curly black hair. She has adopted well to her new family. She is one year old (on December 22). I was a little concerned about how she would react to us since she had never seen us, but my worries were short lived. She loved me from the start....came right to me. In fact, she wanted me over her own father during the week we were there. I think it is because I look like her mother.

They had Taysha sealed to them in the temple the week we were there. I was asked to be the one dressed in white to hold Taysha at the sealing alter...what a wonderful blessing. I prayed so hard she would not cry, but she cried - hard. She did not want her hand on the alter; she just wanted me to cuddle her. It matters not that no one in the room could hear anything the sealer said cause our Heavenly Father and the angels in heaven heard every word. She is now a forever part of their family.

I love that little girl so much. She has the sweetest spirit. I am just hopeful we will always have that special bond and that she will always want to come to me when she sees me. Forever families are wonderful

Christmas Day

Christmas Day is always wonderful. We were awakened early in the morning by 10 anxious children who wanted to see what Santa Claus had brought. It took a little while for those ten children to use the bathroom, get Grandpa and Grandma out of bed then convince them not to run over each other as they came up the stairs. (we had them all sleep in the basement and Rick slept at the bottom of the stairs to guard them from sneaking up to see Santa's elves). It was wonderful to hear the squeals and excitement of all the kids. There were art easels, bikes, golf clubs, nerf guns, clothes, laptops, luggage, musical toys and so much more. It seemed to take us forever to unwrap all the gifts but it was so much fun. McKay I think was the most excited over each toy - at least he waved his hands the most. Every musical toy was a new adventure for him and he was not very patient as they were being taken out of the boxes. In fact, he spent the entire day playing with his toys - not even coming to eat or get dressed- and played until 11:00 that night. My children faired very well considering Disneyworld was part of their trip. It was fun trying to stuff it all in the van to get home.

That afternoon, we were joined by Coby and Shawn's families for a large Christmas dinner. It is so fun to get together with everyone. We have not been "home" for Christmas for almost 16 years. I still enjoy just Christmas with my husband and children, but my heart yearns every year to be with my extended family. This year we had that opportunity and I will be forever grateful to Rob for allowing that to happen. He is always a trooper and goes along with my ideas. Thank you dear for giving me yet another Christmas gift...the gift of family.

Thanksgiving Blessings

What a wonderful time of year!! I love the holidays. We just had the most wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends. The best part was that my daughters were home. Cortnie has not been home since school started and Britt has only been here once. It was great to have the laughter back and to have another female in the house. Rob's parents also came for the weekend which is always great. Thanksgiving day brought my dear friend Chris from our ward and our best friends Rich and Kim from Vegas (of course, the twins came too ). We had a house full but that is okay. My house is not very big and we ran into each other but we managed. I love to cook and did it all this year - from homemade bread in the stuffing to homemade pies. It was great. The rolls are always a top seller too.

Thanksgiving though makes me reflect on my blessings. I have so many to count. First and foremost would be my best friend and the father of my children. I am so blessed to have a man whom loves me; who treats me with such respect and love; who would do anything for me. He is the love of my life and I can never tell him that enough. My children are next on my list. My house is so empty with my girls gone. Don't get me wrong - I love my boys - but there is just something about a mother having daughters around. Boys are not much fun to dress up and they don't paint toenails very well. How I did not want them my girls to leave today. Please, hug your children all the time cause they grow up way to fast. I am so proud of each one of my children. They bring me such great joy.

I would never be complete with the gospel of Jesus Christ. My brother gave his life for me so that I can have my family forever. He bled from every pore just for me. He died for me!! I am so grateful for the days when I feel his spirit so near. For the days when I feel my Heavenly Fathers arms around me. I am grateful for living prophets, for scriptures, for friends in the gospel. I am so thankful for wonderful parents who made me what I am today. They taught me right from wrong and helped me to be the mother that I am. My siblings are some of my best friends - especially my sister. My deepest desire is to move closer to her and my parents. To be able to go to lunch on our birthdays; to make cookies; to share in our childrens events. Someday, I hope that will happen.,

Thanksgiving as an awesome time. There are way too many blessings to name, but I am thankful for them all.

Surprise Trip of a LifeTime!!

So, the last time I posted, I mentioned that we had big plans for our future but I could not write them at that time. Well, now I can (actually I could have a month ago but have been so busy). We took our family on a surprise trip to Disney World in Florida! We have been planning and saving for our trip since last January. Of couse the girls had to know so they could make arrangements to miss a week of college, but no one else knew. I say no one...cause it was not just my family. My siblings..Tina, Coby and Scott and their families as well as my parents all went. What a site - 26 of us! It was such a blast and I would love to go again.

Like I mentioned, we did not tell our boys that we were going. They were under the impression that we were going to Las Vegas for the weekend to spend a few days with Brittnie. We told them she had not time off and we had an entire week. We also told them I had to work all week long so the time in Vegas would be our Fall Break. We drove to Vegas on Friday night and had dinner with Rich and Kim. We always love doing that. After dinner, we had the boys come to the living room where we gave them each a bag with goodies in it. They had to take each item out of the bag one at a time and try to guess what it was for. They had all kinds of Disney items but still had no clue. Finally Boyd guessed that we were gonig to Disneyland in California. We told him we were not and asked them to get the final item out of their bag. It was a shirt that Rob had made (for all 26 of us) that said DisneyWorld 2010 on it. They started to scream and yell and asked us if were seriously going there. They were so shocked and had not clue that is what we were doing. It was great!!

We left Rich and Kim's to spend the night in a hotel since we had to be at the airport at 4:30 in the morning. Surprisingly, everyone fell asleep fast and slept well. The alarm sure went off early though. We looked so cute wearing our Disney shirts walking through the airport pulling our suitcases. We looked like tourists :-). Boyd has only been on a plane once in his life and that is when he was a tiny baby; Skyler had never flown. They were excited to get on the plane and both wanted the window seat - but their sister beat them out. The plane ride was long but very smooth. (Thank goodness cause I am not one who likes to fly). The worse part was not being able to walk around and stretch our legs. We landed in Florida about 4:30, rented a car, and headed to our first hotel. Here we met up with Tina and Coby. We were only staying here the first night until our condos at Walt Disney World were ready for us. (It is nice to have a sister with connections and a time share). Our condos were absolutely beautiful. They were huge!! We definitely did not feel like we were in a hotel room. We had a full kitchen, huge bathrooms and bedrooms and a full living room. We even cooked some at our condo to save money.

Our first day in the park was somewhat busy. We had to take rental cars back and meet up with the rest of the family - including Cortnie. She flew out with my parents from Salt Lake since she is going to school up there. The boys got tired of waiting at the gate for everyone to get there, so they actually were laying on the sidewalk - you would think it was our last day and they were so tired. Finally, everyone had tickets and we were off and running.

Disney World is composed of five different parks unlike Disneyland that had two. We choose to go to one park each day and then repeat our favorite one. I can not really say which was the best but probably it was Magic Kingdom. The Animal Kingdom and Epcot center were nice, but they were definitely only a one day park. There were a couple of rides in those parks though that we loved. We are all big on roller coasters and fast rides. I think one of our favorites was Fast Track and Everest. Fast track races you along at top speeds in a car testing out a new race car. Everest is a roller coaster that actually goes backwards - through a loop even - part of the time. We will never go on a space ship ride again though - can't remember the name - but even now it makes me sick. It was way bad.

It was so much fun having out entire family there. How we wish Shawn could have brought his family though. We just had so much fun. The kids all got along well; we laughed and played together. We were able to sleep in some mornings and spend some afternoons just in swimming pools. We are definitely spooled now and will always want to stay in the condos. One of my favorites was when we went to the two buffets. The pocket book did not like them but they were a blast. The first one was a Polynesian buffet where they just kept bringing food - pork, steak, shrimp, rice, vegetables, ice cream. The kids were able to do a hula dance and we all got leis. The next morning (no we really were not that hungry), we went to a breakfast buffet with Winnie the Pooh and his friends. The food there again was wonderful!! To see the kids laugh and have such a great time was so worth the money.

Vacations are always wonderful and so are there memories. I pray the kids will always remember this one. It was so much fun and I look forward to another vacation soon with my family. To see them happy and just being together is priceless.