Christmas 2010

This year I actually got up at 5am and went to Walmart for some Black Friday deals. I only ended up getting one of them. The rest were all gone. Fun experience though! Thanks to my mom for coming over to sleep with the kids while I went shopping. Scott was at the dunes. :)

Gifts received..
Scott got ASU cups and a shaver. (he's hard to shop for)
I got a nook light and a scentsy candle.
Ty got a Nintendo DS with some games, The Diary of a Wimpy kid series & his own set of scriptures (we meant to get them for his baptism but forgot).
Kaycie also got a Nintendo DS, crayons, paper and barbie clothes.
Kendall got a pig tent and a horse learning bike thingy :)

I love this time of year. I love the beautiful lights and music and message of Christmas. This holiday always brings a wonderful spirit with it. Beyond all the gifts, we love telling the story of Christmas each week at Family Home Evening and finding others to help. We were able to participate in helping a local family out with gifts for the kids. We did this with another family from church. We went shopping for the kids and wrapped their gifts and left them at the door. The kids always have fun doing this and I hope they learn to love giving more than receiving. It's a work in progress. Unfortunately they're still "i want, i want...gimme, gimme kids".

So Fun To See Family!

This month we had lots of family come to town all at the same time. I love having my siblings visit. I am currently the only child in Arizona with my parents. My brother Sean is in dental school at Ohio State, my sister Shanna lives in Kentucky and goes to school across the river in Cincinnati for audiology school, and my brother Gil lives in San Diego with his kids. They all came to town for a few days and we rode around on the ATVs and bikes and had lots of good food. My older brother Gil brought his girlfriend and kids.

For anyone who doesn't know the story, my younger siblings and I found out about Gil when I was about 17 years old. My mom was engaged and pregnant at age 19. Her fiance left her and her dad put her in a home for unwed mothers to give the baby up for adoption. 10 years later she joined the church and met my dad. Fast forward about 17 years....we were watching Geraldo and they were talking about mothers being reunited with their adopted babies. My mom couldn't stop crying and proceeded to tell us her story. We were shocked! She said she thought about him every day and we had never had a clue! We convinced her to go to LA and search for his records. The courts wouldn't give her any records but said she could leave her info if he ever wanted to find her. Fast forward about 7-8 more years...my sister and my sick grandfather were living with my parents and my sister had some time on her hands. She decided since she had so much of his birth info, she would try to find him again. My grandfather said he would pay any fees because he always felt bad about the whole adoption thing. Well my sister located a woman who had all of the hospital's records and was able to track him down. It's a long story from there but we surprised her with the info for her birthday and flew Gil out the next weekend. He had known he was adopted since a very young age and had a good life. It's been great knowing him and his family. He's the one behind me with the mustache. Handsome guy! His girlfriend Vicki has the black hat. She's as sweet as can be and my daughter loves her. His daughter Mellissa has the black sweater. She was here with her husband and 2 dogs. His other daughter is Ariana (red shirt) and Austin is his son (grey shirt, brown hair). It's been about 10 years since we met them.

Grandpa's Contraption

My kids love going over to Nana & Grandpa's house. They have a huge fenced in acre with a garden and plenty of play room. My dad got the idea to tie up the red wagon to his bike and take the girls for a ride. They thought this was a great idea. It was pretty funny to watch. At first he had the rope tied to the wrong side of the bike and it kept getting stuck in the wheel. Then he figured out that he could only turn right to avoid that. Anyway, he got it down eventually and he got some good exercise!

Ty's Birthday Party

So we have a birthday party every other year for our kids. Ty really wanted a Star Wars party this year. I made the invitations, found a cute star wars bingo game on ebay, made some light sabers from pool noodles, had the cutest cupcakes made by ruth butler and a bouncy house to fight in. Oh, I also made jedi vests out of pillowcases. My mom embroidered the jedi logo on them. The boys loved it and all the hard work is always worth it in the end.





Of course Kaycie and Kendall had to play in the boucy house too.

He's 8!

Wow. I just spent hours looking through thousands of photos to find some of my favoites of Ty. He turns 8 this year. A big milestone! I love his red hair. I love his crazy faces. I love how responsible and helpful he is. I love his sarcasm (sometimes). I'm so glad he's mine!

He loves pickles. He didn't even flinch at 2 years old eating this giant one.

His aunt Lisa said she'd pay him a dollar to wear this Napoleon Dynamite wig. He was extremely upset that we made him put it on.

Ty's first day of kindergarten.

His first night at cub scouts. He was really excited.

Baptism Day! I didn't think I would cry when I saw his dad baptize him but I did.

I'm so proud of him and Scott. The extended family photo is only some of Scott's siblings and their families and then my mom and dad. Big difference between the two!