AZ trip part 2! Christmas with the Smiths

The second week of our time in AZ was spent with the Smith side of the family in Sedona.  Everyone is coming from all over the world now, so it was great that all could make it!  It had been too long since we were all together.  Wish we could do it more often!  We have Arizona, Utah, California, New York, England, and Japan represented.  I'm curious to see where we'll all be in ten years or so when we are settled down.   I'm thinking most of us will be settled down somewhere by then..  It was so much fun catching up with everyone.  Here are some of the fun things that went down Christmas 2011!

Lots and lots of treats and eating!  In one day we frosted and decorated sugar cookies, made cake pops and chocolate covered pretzels, and Jenni made caramels.  

We finally got to meet baby Asher and baby Emmy!  Super cuties.

Lots of gaming went on!

One day Mila painted Ella's fingers and toes!  Mila is pretty awesome at it.

Fun times being silly with cousins!

Grandma and Grandpa surprised the kids with a ride on the Polar Express.  We watched the movie earlier that day and then everybody took off for Williams, AZ where the train was.  It was the only time the kids saw snow on this trip.

Huddling around the heater to warm up while waiting for the train...

And it came!

I love that they have chefs like in the movie aboard the train :)

I think we took up at least half of the train car :)

Luke didn't remember a lot from the first time we took him on the Polar Express a few years ago so it was great to revisit.   More pictures from the train...

Checking out the North Pole..

Santa hopped on the train!

He gave all the kids a bell and a compass.

Santa with the kiddos.

The night before... when everyone got their new PJs... (Have to get the pajama pics!)  Here's the whole gang.

The kids..  All 18 of them!

The 2006 cuties.  It seems crazy that they're all 5 now!  I think this is the first time they were all happy for the 2006 picture.  They're sitting in order from oldest to youngest too.  

Austin, Luke, Logan/Seth, Lane/Lucy and  Gunnar!

The girls!  Hailey, Lauren, Shawna, Kristen, Jenni, Melanie, Me, and Sherry.  We added the final 2 sis-in-laws since the last Smith Christmas!  

And the guys :)

I like Ella's cheesy grin in our family pj pic.

Christmas program...

Santa delivered all of the presents to Rick and Sherry's condo, so the kids didn't get to see what they got until we got home from church!  Talk about torture!  haha.  Here are some of them after changing back into their pjs after church... waiting to see what they got!

Random Christmas morning pictures...

Playing outside Christmas day.  Luke got to test out his new bow and arrow set.

White Elephant Exchange... hilarious.  

Girls day out!  Abby got to come down from Flagstaff to go with us!  We had fun getting nails done and then eating at a tasty Mexican place for lunch.  Love these girls!

Swimming!  It was warm enough to swim the last couple of days we were there.

The kids went on quite a few hikes.  Usually the older guys would take them.  I wish I would have gone on one!  I was a bum though and stayed home.

Jake, Josh, Joe, and Ben went golfing one day...

After church pictures...  I like the first sibling one best.

All 7 couples!  The sun was just a little in our eyes!  We're all squinters :)

And another with everyone.

Ok, I've got a lot more pictures, but that's all I think I'm going to include!  Another fun Christmas season down in the blog books!  After we left Sedona, we went down to Mesa for another day and then flew back to London the next.  It was nice having Jake there with us on the way home.  We had a night flight, so the kids slept all but about an hour or two on the flight back. It took a good week before we were all back on England time once getting home though.  I'm glad we had a few days to veg and sleep in until after noon before getting back to school/work!  

Christmas in AZ! Week 1

Ahh, I've been putting off blogging for too long.  After the holidays I had so many pictures to wade through that it just hasn't sounded like much fun to upload and blog a few of them.  Time to get moving though!  Hopefully this year I'll get moving again on this thing. 
So, the kiddos and I took off on Dec. 10 to Phoenix, and the first week of our vacation was spent with the Gift side of the fam.  Jake joined us later on during the week.  It was so nice to be around family again, and to be in sunny Arizona.  It was the first time we've gone home since we moved to England.  A year and a half is a long time to be away!   Luke and Ella were great on the flight there.  The only real challenge was keeping Luke from putting his feet/head/arms on the guy sitting next to him once he fell asleep toward the end the flight.  Luckily the guy sitting by Luke was pretty nice, and the kids were content coloring, looking at books, and watching TV when awake.  I started The Hunger Games before we moved to England, and hadn't sat down with it to finish until this flight.  Thanks to hours of sitting on planes I've gotten through the first and second books  in the series.  I'm a fan :)
We were up bright and early every day that first week in Arizona because of the time change.  The kids would be telling me to get out of bed at 5.  They were ready to play hard at Grandma Pam and Grandpa Paul's house!   Todd and Amy were there for the week, Dak flew down to hang out from Utah, and Abby came down from Flagstaff.  We missed Chris!  He had to stay in Flag for work.  We loved hanging out with everyone!  Here are a few highlights of the Gift side Christmas celebrations :)
Luke and Ella have a lot of fun with my dad's trains.  Since he put one around the tree, they were loving controlling it.  I snuck in to take a picture one night.

The clubhouse!  Still a hit.  Grandpa put lights on it for Christmas. 

Last time we were in AZ, Amy was still so young.  It was a lot of fun getting to play with her this time!  She is such a cutie.  We love her.  I'm glad these two can be buddies as they grow up!

 We went to Organ Stop Pizza one night.  You should check it out if you're ever in Mesa AZ and you haven't eaten there.  It's quite the show and their pizza is tasty.  I loved this picture of the girls with Aunt Abby there!  They were loving the show!

A few more of Organ Stop!

The kids had fun picking oranges off of the trees in the morning and making fresh juice with my mom.  Delicious!  I hope we live somewhere where we can have citrus trees one of these days!

Taking advantage of grandma giving them whatever they want for breakfast :)...

We spent one day in Scottsdale at the train park and then headed over to Scottsdale Fashion Square after.
Siblings!  Youngest to oldest!  Dak, Abby, Todd, and Me...

Mom and dad with the kids!  We took some family pictures while in AZ, but I still need to get those.

And more random pics from the train park ...

The kids were having fun on this and then a minute after I took this picture Amy fell off  ;(

Waiting to ride the merry-go-round...

Dak practicing his planking skills...

Luke showing off his monkey bar skills!

And dad impressing us all with his tricks :)

Christmas PJs.  Gift family version!

Presents!

Boys in their cheesy macho man pose.  They must be macho if they got tools for Christmas, right?  :)

Love this little face!

More cousin fun!

It was a great week!  Thanks mom and dad and everybody for such a fun time!  We love you all.  And thanks Ab for letting me swipe so many of your pictures!!
Up next:  Christmas vacation, week 2 with the Smiths

School Pictures '11!

Luke brought these pictures home from school this past week.  I almost didn't buy any since you have to buy the package before you even see the pictures, but now I'm so glad I've got them.  I love this Kindergartener!

November!

 This month has flown by and I haven't done a single post.  Ahh!  So in no particular order, here's a little of what we've been up to.

*I went to Stoke on Trent one weekend with a bunch of girls for the pottery sales!  Stoke on Trent is famous for English pottery, and we all scored some fun things.  We stood in line from 8:45 in the morning until 12:30 in the afternoon (it was freezing cold) to check out Portmerion's sale.  We got things like cute Spode baking pans for just £5.  We made other fun stops after that at Burleigh and Royal Doulton/Wedgewood.   I wasn't so sure I'd be into pottery, but it really is fun.  Good thing I don't really have a place to put it or I'd be tempted to buy more!

*The kids have been busy with swimming, and Ella is having fun with gymnastics.  I've taken some fun videos of them at their lessons.. maybe one day I'll get around to posting them.

*We've been looking forward to going to Arizona in a couple of weeks!  Can't wait to see everyone.  A year and a half is a long time to be away!

* Spent Thanksgiving with the Smiths again.  Logan and Stacy are fun to have around.  Angela and her cute kiddos came over this year, too.  Oh, and Ben came over for a little while.  Jake made a turkey and I did rolls and mashed potatoes.  Stacy and Angela made some awesome desserts and some other sides.  I always forget how much work Thanksgiving is.  It was fun though!   Here's the crew.

*Went one weekend to Elveden to see Santa and browse the estate shops.  Cute place!  We always pass it on the way to church but had never gone in the shops.  Luke is requesting a bow and arrow from Santa, and Ella says she wants a "DS".  I'm thinking a DS is a little advanced for a 3 year old, so we'll see what Santa brings.  After sitting on Santa's lap, he gave them each a present and a baby Christmas tree to plant.  Ella was super disappointed when she opened her gift and found a game.  She thought Santa was going to give her what she asked for right then and there!  haha.  I was surprised this year.  Ella talked more to Santa than Luke did.   

Here they are with their little saplings and presents.  Luke was trying not to smile.  Stinker.

 Ella rode the 'gallopers.'  The merry-go-round used on Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and a few other classic movies is here.  She was terrified of the thing.

*Jake spent one weekend helping Luke put his Hero Factory guys back together.  Luke and his buddies had taken them all apart and the pieces were all mixed up in a big bucket.  They were pretty excited to have the Heros back.  Can you tell Jake likes them, too?

*It's winter again in England which means the sun starts setting at like 3, and by 4 it is dark.  Blah!  Can't wait to get to AZ to see the sun.

*Jake has been working hard and got a 99 on his PT test.  Pretty awesome.  He missed 100 by just one push up!  I saw his name up on the board at the gym so took a pic with my phone :)  Only 6 people on base got a 100.  I bet next time he will get 100 too!  He did the run in like 9:12 or something like that.  Speedy boy.

*Found a really fun indoor play spot about 1/2 an hour away.  I think we'll be visiting Curve Motion a lot more in the future!  The slides are big enough for adults to have fun on.

I know there are probably some November things I am forgetting that I wanted to include, but I'll just have to add them later.  Good enough for now.  I'm going to bed!