Fabulous!

It has been a great week! I finished a book I was reading, got the house clean AND had lots of fun playing with my kids...pictures will come later. Today was such a great day starting with my kids sleeping in until 8! 8:00 people! Thats REALLLLLLLY late for my kids to sleep in and I am loving it! Then I did an awesome workout and the day has just been great. Now we are getting things ready for some friends to come over and play games tonight for The New Year! We are excited and I thinking about all the resolutions I am wanting to make for this coming year...and I must say, I am extra excited because I realized most of the things I wanted to accomplish in 2010 happened!

Hope everyone has a safe and Happy New Year and may all the Resolutions on Blogs start pouring in so I can get in some good reading!!!

---Elizabeth

All Things Christmas!

These past two weeks have been so busy, fun, exciting, wonderful and stressful to say the least! I don't know what happened to me this holiday season, but I turned into a major stress freak. I mean, seriously phsycho- like, seriously. Every other year we go to AZ for Christmas, so that means usually planning to get everything done for Christmas a week early. I have done this for many years. So why was I a freakazoid this year? I dont know. I did my Christmas baking, my house cleaning, my usual Christmas calendar for my mom, all things usual...and yet, somehow I had mini breakdowns every other day or so. And once I got to AZ, all Christmas shopping done and all stressful issues gone, I was still a freakazoid. But somehow, with Christmas Eve came a peace and the stress melted away and the true spirit of Christmas shone through. And it was wonderful!

But first things first, before we left, Brayden had his preschool Christmas performance!

Doesn't he look thrilled??
Singing, sitting well.

Finally decided to pull his tie out from under his sweater.

Then Santa came! Of course, the kids were thrilled and it was wonderful!

Did I mention I was stressed a little??

I took the above picture of myself one night for myself at first. I though, I need to remember how crazy I look right now. I was truly crazy. Now I laugh at it. Seriously- why was I so stressed and forgetting what really mattered this holiday season??! Oh if I could only change how crazy I was...

Tuesday night we celebrated Christmas with my Dad. He and his wife and her son came to Phoenix and we had dinner and dessert and it was great!

These two pictures are priceless. One if further away so you can see what was going on, and the close up is soooo sweet. My Grandma was restless to get out of the house...she is in poor health so it is hard to take her out and she usually doesn't feel up to it. But she felt like she needed to see some of the hussle and bussle of Christmas. We took he out and Kyler grabbed her hand as we were walking...SO SWEET!

And finally, Christmas morning! Stockings first!

Still tired, but loving every minute!

Wow, lots of neat stuff!

The boys admiring their new toys.

Keaton was the first to dig into his candy. I think he cared more about the candy than anything.

My neice- one of the twins- this picture, it just HAD to be taken!

My handome brothers! Seriously. It was so fun being all together on Christmas Day.

All of us siblings together.

Just ignore the fact that my arm looks so incredibly FAT in this picture.

My beautiful sisters and I!

All in all, a wonderful Holiday in the beautiful Arizona. Next year I am determined to be more relaxed and try hard to focus on what is really important. Like my family, who I love! And of course, the birth of our Savior!

Hope eveyone else had a wonderful holiday as well....now onto New Years! Let the New Resolutions Begin!

Christmas Happenings

Lot's of fun things have been happening around our house this Christmas Season. Lot's of crazy things too, but let's focus on the fun today right? So, Friday night was our ward Christmas Party. The kids got to sit on Santa's lap and loved it!

Brayden told Santa he wanted a jumping castle. Uh, sorry bud, dont get your hopes up!

Kyler told Santa he wanted a chain-saw with special protective glasses. How did he even know about a chain saw? Seriously?? What the what dude?
Santa noticed Kyler had a lot of silly bands. It is always funny when people comment on his silly bands. But it only encouranges him. *SIGH* He is getting better...espeically after they were taken away last month for a LOOOOOONG time. Anyways.

Keaton was cute. He just sat there and talked with his thumb in his mouth. Santa kept taking it out to help me try and get a picture of him. It was really cute.

This is the best we could do. So cute, but the thumb right there ready to go. Don't you just love his cute rainboots?

Tonight we went to Temple Square to look at the temple lights. It was so fun. Right as we were parking, we ran into some of our neighbors literally parking right in front of us, so we walked around with them for a little bit and the kids had a great time.

I was actually trying to get a profile pic of Keaton looking out at the water, but the second he saw the camera, he turned and said "cheese" to me...So cute that boy!

My kids and my neighbors kids playing around. She has three boys the same ages as mine! We found out our 3rd boys were "boys" the same week in our pregnancies cause we were due the same week and we both cried together! ;)

Silly faces.

Family pic. It was a very nice night I must say. The weather was perfect- not too cold and the kids had a great time.

But most importantly, we talked about the true meaning of Christmas with our kids. We had a great time!

Finally!

First, a couple items of business. I am not asking for much people, but HELLLLLOO-O...comments? Like, once in a blue moon please? Leave comments! I always hear about people reading my blog, and I rarely leave comments for others, but come on, like 5 posts in a row with like one comment from the same person?? (Thanks Becky!) Come on peeps! Show me the love ;)

Secondly, after the last two weeks of pure stress and trauma, on to something positive!

Drumroll Please.....

The Summer-long project of building a pergola in our backyard is 99.9% DONE! Wootwoot!

Now, I *could* write a complete sob story about my husband taking on this project and me not being prepared for him to be spending every waking second that he's not watching a football game working on...but really- I think neither of us realized that this project was going to do for us.
And my husband has heard waaaay too much nagging and complaining from me...but I DID help...A LOT (while kids were climbing up the ladders and I am holding a beam that if I drop will cause serious damage to work done)...so in my defense, I had some good reasons to be grouchy. ;)

It was a lot of work. I DO NOT recommed anyone taking on a project like this EVER unless you have guaranteed that like 4 other guys will help you. I am not even joking. I am dead serious. It is a BIG project and a LOT of work.

So what is the .1% work left we have to do? We are going to build flower boxes to go around the bottom of each beam (thats a project we will take on next summer)- having the boxes will add a lot of class to the structure, and also hide the exposed metal at the bottom of each beam. It will be nice. And next summer we plan on getting a table and chairs so we can sit and enjoy the shade this will provide. And I have visions of having vines growing down the sides as well. So, we do have some work left to do. But obviously the hardest part is over and it looks fantastic!

Great Job Hon! :)

----------------------------

SIGH

It was a very long night.

I am extra emotional and sensitive right now. I am over-tired. I am on the verge of tears constantly today...but let me just say that I am so grateful.

All I need to say is that I am so grateful for everyone. My family, my friends and neighbors.

Mostly my husband and kids and for the happiness and blessings they bring to my life. And my Heavenly Father. I know he is watching over my family right now.

I am just grateful.

Life, you know...Life?

Sometimes we need a little perspective. Soooooo cool.




Have a great week and keep your fingers crossed that my car gets fixed for REAL tomorrow.

Christmas Wish List

Okay folks. A lot of my friends this year have posted their hearts desire's for this season. I am trying not to be too selfish this year. I only want to go with my needs here. So here's my Christmas Wish List for this Christmas December 2010:

1. A maid (only twice a week would do for me)

2. A personal driver

3. A chef (I would settle for 3 days a week on this one)

4. A nanny

5. A personal hairstylist

6. A fashion designer

7. Unlimited amounts of money

Too much to ask for? I think NOT! HA HA Hope you are having a great holiday season. This week has been tough for me, but I am hoping now that the car *should* be really truly fixed, things will start looking up! Here's to a Happy Friday tomorrow and a great weekend!