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!

Halloween Fun

Can't move on to November without getting some Halloween pictures on here!  Here are my two cuties.  This year Luke went as a Jedi (He said he was Luke Skywalker about half of the time and Anakin the other half.  I don't know which he really was..) and Ella as Snow White.  

We had a big block party with our neighbor friends the Lakes, Listellos, Meldrums, and Willeys. Other friends outside of the neighborhood joined us too for some chile, cornbread, and trick-or-treating.  It was a lot of fun!  Here are the kids at one of the first houses they trick-or-treated at.  A lot of people around here go all out with decorating!  

Ella was so excited after every house and would run up to Jake and I to show us the treat she got.

Calla as dracula lady, Liberty the strawberry, Hunter the ninja, Luke the Skywalker, and Snow White...

Yep, the streets here in Liberty Village are this crowded on Halloween!  From 6-8 it's crazy.  Our neighbors passed out more than 1000 pieces of candy.  Most houses run out.  At the houses with cool decorations, you have to wait in line for your treat.

Loved this costume.

The kids got tired and cold pretty early on, so after an hour or so they were done.  Here they were checking out their candy!

Not sure what Luke was doing here with his starbursts... some Jedi move maybe?

 
A few nights before, we carved pumpkins with the Willeys.  Ella's pumpkin is the happy face in the middle, Luke's is the skeleton guy to the left of that, and mine is the ghost on the very left.  Baby Olivia was super cute checking them all out!  She loved them.

We made haunted houses again this year.  Jake and Matt ended up finishing them after the kids lost interest.  

There was some intense decorating going on!

And last but not least of Halloween pictures, my mom sent me the cutest little spider cupcake holders, so we made cupcakes one day to put in them.  So fun!  

Hope you had a great Halloween! :)