New Years

We went to safford to visit Ryan's dad and his wife Tasha. We mostly hung out. The kids love going to Pooh Pa's house.

Tasha took the big kids to the park to play with some friends.






For New Years Eve Pooh pa & the kids went to bed. But we stayed up and played Wii and toasted in the New Year



Don't worry it's only sparkaling Cider. =)

Temple lights

We try to make it to the Temple lights every year. A few years back we had explained to Hailey that what we are really celebrating at Christmas is the birth of Jesus Christ so she started calling the Temple lights "Baby Jesus Birthday Party"

In the visitors center they also had a display of Nativity Scenes from all over the world I took pictures of all of them but I'm just going to include a couple of my favorites.

Christmas Day

Jacob has this funny habit, when he comes out of his bedroom door before he starts down the hall to our room he shuts his bedroom door, so we always know when he's coming. We heard the bedroom door shut and waited to see what would happen. Next we here Hailey scream "We got Sock Monkeys, we got sock monkeys" Santa had brought them Sock Monkeys, and she was very excited about it. My sweet boy is so cute. I jokingly said "Where's my sock monkey" and Jacob said to me "I'm sorry Mommy Santa didn't bring you a Monkey, but you can have mine". We waited for Grandma Jammie, Aunt Ashley,and Aunt Mammy to come over, and then we let the kids rip into there presents and stockings.

Hailey's favorite Present was the color copy machine she got from Santa,

Jacob's favorite present was the cowboy dress up outfit he got from Hailey and Ben

and Ben's favorite present was the dog Bones Bear got from Santa.

Then we went over to Grandma Jammie's to exchange presents with Jammie and the girls good times were had by all. We got Ben to open a few presents but mostly he wanted to steal things other people had already opened.

We had a great dinner. We all pitched in and made part of the meal and then hung out. Ryan's cousin Melanie and and her husband Toni came over and we visited with them for a while.

The boys were both really tuckered out by the end of the night.

I love Christmas it's my favorite holiday and my favorite time of year. I use to really stress about everything being perfect and just right but I decided this year I wasn't going to let anyone ruin my Christmas especially myself. So I was just going to go with the flow and enjoy my kids, so that's what I did and we had a great 2 days.

Christmas Eve.

We celebrated Christmas with Ryan's family this year. So we had Christmas Eve at our house and Christmas Day at Jammie's. When we lived in Safford when we were first married Ryan's dad's cousin would host a Mexican food party at her house and everyone in the family would go. It was great to visit and see everyone. And then we would go to back to the house and all read the story of Jesus birth and out act it out with this cloth nativity Jammie made years ago. So we did our own rendition. We Made green chili, and Mandy made her home made salsa, and we tried to read the story and act it out with our little people nativity scene. But with 3 little kids trying to help it didn't work out to well but oh well it's the thought that counts.



I like to get the kids special Christmas Eve PJ's and this year I was lucky enough to find 3 pair that match.



So we got them in there PJ's and they played a quick game of attack the Daddy, that's one of there favorites and then I helped them get Santa's plate ready. I'm not sure where they got it put they decided Santa's reindeer needed goodies too. So we made 2 plates and my sweet little Hailey decided she needed to label them so there would be no confusion.






Aunt Mammy read them their bed time story and off they went to bed.


As my little Angels were falling asleep and I was preparing for "Christmas Morning" I wondered what must be running through there minds. As a child we opened our presents on Christmas Eve, so I never went to bed as a child wondering about what was to come the next morning. It occurred to me that my children were experiencing something I had never experienced before. I don't know how any child could fall asleep with that kind of anticipation, but they did, when I went to check on them they were all sound asleep.

At some point in the evening we watched the movie "the Christmas story" i know it's un American but I hate that movie. It annoys me. I watch it to make my husband happy.

Mandy, me, Jammie

Gateway Dental Care Christmas Party

I started working for Dr. Barber when Jacob was a baby. This is my 4th Christmas Party with him. It's always a nice adult night away from the kids. Our office has grown quite a bit. It started as me,him and his sister and it has now blossomed into 2 dentist, 2 Hygienist, 2 front office girls and 4 back office girls. We are really growing.

This is our first Christmas party in 2005 Dr. B, Joyce, Kim, Ryan, Me, & Jodi.

This is all of us now, we don't fit in one picture anymore. We went to Cheesecake factory. (Yummy)
Joyce, Dr. B., Eileen and her hubby, Eileen, Dr. Erskine & His wife Sheri,

Lindsey & her husband Bill, Sam, Marci & Her hubby Craig, Amanda, Joyce

A horrible picture of me and Ryan. Myrna & Sarah weren't able to come.

After stuffing our faces we went back to Dr. B's house and gave the Dr.'s there gifts from us girls and had one of those gift exchanges where you can steal someon else's gifts. It was fun I got Itunes Gift card which I used right away. After the gifts we watched Batman in There Home theater it was great.

The week from Hell

Yes I said hell. This bad week just won't end.



-Monday started with a sick baby. Ben was hacking and all stuffed up and had a huge fever and had been up half the night before. I got him a Dr. appointment. Our Dr is out and we have to see the other Dr. and don't get me wrong I like him but he's not our Dr. So I had to explain everything to him that our other Dr. would have known. So Luckily he just had a cold but unfortunately that means no antibiotic to speed up the recovery. We leave the Dr's while it's pouring rain, and I still had a bunch of Errands to run so I pull into Michael's parking lot and as I'm pulling into the parking spot I run into the truck parked next to me. I only scratched his but broke my light and scratched mine all up. Luckily he and his wife were really nice and sweet to me. I think they felt Sorry for me. So I run around like a crazy person with a sick baby strapped to me. That night I had Ryan set up the play pen in the toy room so I could sleep on the pull out, so Ben wouldn't keep Ryan or the big kids up. So he had such a bad fever that even with the Tylenol it only helped a little so he kept waking up every hour or 2 so it was a very short night.



-Tuesday I had to work. Luckily I have a very sweet husband that came home from work early to take care of the baby so I could go to work, and while I was gone did most of the Laundry. While I was in the shower the school called to tell me Hailey hit her head, she was OK but had a big bruise. Then as I'm waiting for Ryan to get home Ben falls hits his brand new tooth, his gums were bleeding and he's screaming. I call the sitter and tell her what's happened and that I know Jacob is going to hurt himself at some point probably at her house. I get home from work and Jacob hasn't hurt himself so I think we're home free. I'm in our room and I hear Jacob start screaming and Ryan's yelling don't touch it. He comes running into our room holding Jacob by the armpits while blood is gushing from his mouth. He fell and hit his lip on a toy and split his lip, he finally calmed down enough and let me clean his face up. I told him you'll be OK but your going to have a fat lip. My Jacob's kind of sensitive so he goes out and tells Ryan "Mommy said I have fat lips" If the hadn't been long and eventful enough Jacob was being super quite in the toy room so i decided to check on him I open the door and this is what I find


this is what happens when your stupid enough to in trust a 3 year old with a pair of scissors and he promises to only cut pictures out of his magazine. It's only half his fault. Yes he is the one that cut a big hole in the playpen but I was the one dumb enough to believe him.
-Wednesday was completely uneventful. I deserve one good day. Ben's still sick and spent the week coughing all over me and Ryan so now Ryan and I are both sick.
-Thursday I had a Dr's appointment which went OK my sugar levels have gone down which is good. but I have a sinus infection, so he gave me an antibiotic. By the time I get home I am so miserable, my whole body hurts. Ryan has to go Home teaching, so I'm sick as a Dog and stuck with 3 kids. I slept half the evening while they watched a movie and played with toys. I took NyQuil right before bed, so I slept like a log
-Friday I woke up a miserable as I was on Thursday. I took Hailey to school and laid in Bed all day. While the boys watched cartoons. I finally got up the energy to get up and take a shower so we could go to my office Christmas party which was fun but we both just wanted to go to bed and stay there.
So sorry to anyone I was grouchy to this week, but I think I can say this has been the worst week in a long time. Here's hoping next week will be better.