Christmas in the Desert

Christmas card pictures (courtesy of Amy Daniel photography)

At the temple lights

Kyle and Chase being goofy!

Landon and me

Our Christmas tree

Chase taking his turn putting up the star


Landon's first time putting up the star!

This week we finally started getting REALLY excited for Christmas! Parties have been attended, cards have been sent out, gifts have been purchased, preparations have been made, there is not much left on the once lengthy and DAUNTING "Christmas to do list". We have finally been able to spend the last couple of nights reflecting on the true meaning of Christmas. Sunday night we went to the Mesa Temple Lights and then came home and sang Christmas songs by the Christmas tree. It has been wonderful to have the time as a family each night this week to teach our kids about why we really celebrate Christmas.

Sometimes it gets hard to celebrate big holidays so far away from any real family. We have been so grateful this past year for the tight bonds of friendship we have with friends and our ward family here in Arizona though that have helped us to really enjoy the holidays.

We really love living in Arizona. There is just something about this place...

Here are some pictures to commemorate our Christmas in the Desert 2010...

Merry Christmas to all and to all a GOOD NIGHT!!!

1st set of wheels

Sweet brothers

Hugs!

Big smile!

Thumbs up!

One of our friends recently gave us a Power Wheels 4 wheeler that they weren't using anymore. I honestly don't think they had any idea just how happy they were going to make our little boys by doing that. They are crazy about it! We have been taking it to the park pretty nearly every day so the boys can drive it all over the big open field. I do mean boys plural. Landon knows how to accelerate and gets the biggest smile when he's riding around. Of course I have to steer for him but he loves thinking that he's a big boy riding this little 4 wheeler. I just LOVE these boys!

2nd Annual Pecan Creek Boutique

All my East Valley peeps (or all of Arizona for that matter)! Pecan Creek is having it's second annual boutique on November 20th! I went to this last year and it was awesome! This year is going to be even bigger and better. There were samples, things you could buy on display right then and there, or you could place an order to have it just in time for Christmas. They had super cute vinyl decor, boys ties, women's jewelry, hair accessories, designer jeans at 60% off, photography, gourment cookies, etc. Click here http://www.pecancreekboutique.blogspot.com/ to find out more about some of the vendors!

All Hallows Eve 2010

Mr and Mrs Potato Head (I know it's a lame attempt) and Buzz and Woody!

Buzz Lightyear!

Woody and Potato Head

The Holiday season is most definitely upon us and the Holiday that Kyle and I are the WORST at celebrating is Halloween. We try to get as into it as we can for the kids' sake, but we are not great Halloweeners by any stretch of the imagination. Chase has been SO into Halloween this year. Anything that slightly had anything to do with Halloween he was all over. He said to me all month, "Mommy, I LOVE Halloween!", "Mommy I LOVE spooky things," etc. He loves it all! The dressing up, the candy, the thrills, it's completely intriguing to him.

The boys went as Buzz and Woody this year thanks to the super cheap costume deal our friend Juliana told us about. Kyle and I seriously NEVER dress up, but this year I thought maybe we could do something easy like Mr and Mrs Potato Head, easy right? Not so much. I realized a little too late that it was not as stress free a costume as I had thought it would be. Maybe we'll think ahead this time and buy our costumes for next year when they go on sale tomorrow so we are not at the mercy of my lackluster imagination and craft ability.

Birthday cupcakes

I recently got called in YW's as the 1st counselor a few weeks ago and while I've needed to be more places with this new calling, I have actually had more free time than I did with my previous calling as RS secretary. So I've been asking the President what I can do to help her or anyone else in the Presidency out. I got assigned to find a new idea for birthday gifts for the girls and put them together. I found an idea I LOVED online but like I've admitted so many times before I am NOT crafty. Really I'm not, that's not just modesty, it's flat out honesty. I am so proud of these birthday bath cupcakes though that I had to blog about them. They are made with a loofah on top and a bag of bath salts to weigh the loofah down in the cup. The little card says, "Have some good clean fun on your birthday!" on the back. Here's how the finished product turned out. One down fifteen more to go! I know what my 10 hour project will be this year...I wish that were a joke.

Per Katy's request here is a close up of my new hair cut. It has taken some getting used to and I still miss my long hair...a lot but it is for the most part easier to do and keeps me a lot cooler. So here's my mug shot...

Flour power!

If I were a smart mom I would wake up before my children do and be completely ready for the day before their little eyes have even opened. Indeed I am not a smart mom. That would require waking up before 5:00am. So I wake up when the first child does and we all scramble together to get ready for the day.

I'll come back to that, but I have to say that Chase and Landon are becoming VERY good friends. They do a lot together now. They actually interact with one another sit together, read together, eat together, and get into BIG mischief together. Chase was never one for mischief but Landon has an appetite for tomfoolery like no other baby I've seen. He can get into 3 different things he is never supposed to get into in sub 1 minute! Luckily when it's just him it's relatively easy to recover, fix, clean, etc. Now that Chase and Landon play together more often though, Landon will find the activity of the moment and Chase will amplify it for the both of them.

So getting back to my opening statement. On Tuesday morning I was getting myself ready for the day after feeding those little monkeys breakfast. I was already showered, already dressed, hair didn't need doing, I just needed some make up. It took me about 3-5 minutes and I came out to find this...

I just said, softly, "Oh.My.Goodness." Then I went to go get the camera. This was how the shoot went...

Me: OK look at the camera boys!

Chase: Hahahaha! Mommy! You take pictures of Nandon and Chase playing in the flour?!

Me: YES! I'm taking pictures, but this is not funny at all! You are in very HUGE trouble! Now smile!

Chase: (nervous, confused, still questionably happy, smile?)

Chase got a looooong time out while I cleaned what I could immediately. I needed to bathe both of them, but they love baths so much that I didn't want it to seem like if they get into flour they not only would get to make a big fun mess but they get a fun splashy bath afterward. So I decided I would give them a no frills shower, individually. Landon hated it. All Chase could hear was water running and he would say, "Mommy I want to take a bath tooooooo!!!!" I told him he'd get his turn. So I get Chase in and he stands and takes his shower without a single complaint knowing that I wasn't very happy with him. When I was helping him get dressed and warmed up afterward he looked at me with a confused look and said, "Mommy?" Nandon got a bath and Chase got a high bath (putting his little hand in the air to show 'high')?" It melted my heart that he thought he was the only one that got a time out and a "high bath" on top of it all, even though they both were equally rascally. Poor guy. I explained to him that what they did was not good, and that Landon got a time out and a "high bath" also, not just Chase.

So yesterday we had a little bit of a breakthrough. Chase definitely learned his lesson from the flour incident and I couldn't have been more proud of him. I let them both play out in the backyard for a little bit while I did the dishes. I could see them from the kitchen every once in awhile and they usually stay out of trouble as long as they're outside. Chase runs in a few minutes later though and says, "MOMMY! Nandon is in the mud and he is larry messy!" I was so proud of Chase that he didn't join in, that must have been very hard for him. He is such a great boy! He really tries hard to always do the right thing and is a great big brother. I love my sweet little nark! I love you too Landon, but oh boy are you a turkey?! I guess this should be expected since you were an absolutely perfect newborn! I love you little monkeys despite all your monkey business!

The joys of having boys!

The Running Man

The runners

brothers embracing after finishing their feats

Our Little Ohana

Uncle Brent entertaining Landon

Chase, Payton, and Cam treating us to the gun show

Me, Kyle, and Nick (half pictured) at mile 21, providing some encouragement for Kyle

Team Scotty!

Team Kyle!

The group of supporters! Mom White is behind the camera and I'm pretty sure Nick was busy giving me directions in this picture. We made it just in time to see Scott coming in thanks to her!

I am finally getting to post about Kyle's first marathon, thanks to Chase waking up at 5:20 am! I wanted to go back to sleep after I put him back in his bed and told him he was only allowed to wake up if the sun was awake, but when I laid back down all I could think about was what I needed to get done today. We have around 4 showers, birthday parties, and receptions coming up over the next 2 weekends; I have YW in Excellence in a week and a half, YW stake rodeo this weekend, taking the kids to story time at the library, and lots of shopping for the various events! Makes me want to take a nap just thinking about it. I thought I would take some time to post about this momentous occasion on behalf of my studly and super awesome husband.

So we made a little trip up to Layton Utah a couple weekends ago where Kyle participated in his first marathon, the Layton Marathon. He ran it with his brother Scott, who did the half marathon due to a knee injury. Can you believe that?! I can barely imagine running 13.1 miles without an injury much less with a sore knee! We were very proud of Uncle Scott! It was the marathon's virgin run and surprisingly seemed to go off without a hitch, at least to us. The "loot" bag was a little disappointing...OK a-lot-a disappointing considering it contained no LOOT just the technical shirt. The spread afterward was not very impressive either, but other than those things it was a great run for being their first year. I appreciated that it was small and we were able to catch Kyle at a few different places. I made shirts for the boys and myself with iron on letters and heat transfer paper and we sported them with pride! Kyle finished with a time of 5:03:(not sure about sec's) and he was pretty sore but didn't feel too bad all around. He seemed like he felt a lot better after doing his marathon than he did after he finished his 1/2 which is surprising. He recovered relatively quickly with just a little stiffness and is thinking about his next marathon already. He's crazy, but man we are proud of this lunatic! What an accomplishment it is to be able to say that you've run a marathon?! One that I don't know if I'll ever be able to say I've achieved. Ask me after I've run a 1/2 and we'll see how I feel about a full.

We really are so proud of you Kyle. You put in the blood, and sweat and trained so hard for it and you did it! You are an inspiration to many and we look forward to the great things we will see you accomplish in the future. Congratulations to our running man daddy! We love you!

Here are a few pictures from the marathon. I couldn't find our camera ANYWHERE in our bags the morning of the race, so all the pictures are courtesy of Mom White, Christina White, and Nicole White. Thanks for capturing the memories!

The Happiest Place on Earth

Kyle trying to pull the sword out of the stone

The Celebrate Street Parade

Princess Tiana. We loved hearing her perform while we had a funnel cake at Cafe Orleans

Getting ready to canoe! Don't even get me started on the yahoos in front of us. That's a whole other story!

On Thunder Mountain

Look it's Darla, scuba diving for more Nemos no doubt!

On Finding Nemo's Submarine

At the entrance by the Mickey flowers

Kyle eating the yummiest hand dipped corn dogs known to mankind

On the jungle cruise

Darn monkeys!

Headed for the Indiana Jones attraction

Took a picture of Buzz up close and personal on our way to The Buzz Lightyear attraction where Kyle kicked my bum! My laser gun must have been broken.

Kyle posing with the "C" for Chase

Me posing with the "L" for Landon

Headed out for dinner

Playing at the beach

Kyle flexing his guns

Earlier this year Kyle and I took advantage of the "Give a Day, Get a Disney Day" promotion that came and went quickly at the beginning of the year. We volunteered to make teacher kits for teachers that don't have the money to afford necessary school supplies (thanks for the tip Brianne). We filled our kits with pencils, erasers, scissors, stickers, staplers, white out, pens...you get the idea. We wrapped it up in gift wrap and attached a card that expressed our appreciation to the wonderful teacher who would receive it. Not so long after we delivered our kits we received our free tickets each to Disneyland!

Well a couple weeks ago we put those tickets to GOOD use. We had wanted to do something big for our 5th year anniversary last year but Kyle had just started with UOP and it just wasn't in the budget. So we wanted to make this trip an early anniversary trip and go to California for a little getaway. Another reason for this trip was to go on a REAL honeymoon. Kyle cheated me out of a honeymoon big time after we got married. We went to Sedona and spent the week at a GORGEOUS resort in the Red Rocks called Los Abrigados. We were going to go hot tubbing by night and play tennis, ride bikes, do pink jeep tours, etc by day. One problem. The mister got the worst case of strep throat I have ever seen in my entire life and was beyond miserable. We stayed in our room THE ENTIRE TIME! I rented Harry Potter movies while Kyle slept it off. Needless to say Kyle has been owing me some semblance of a honeymoon since then.

Our wonderful friends Juliana and Cory watched our kids for the weekend (bless their kind hearts) and Chase still relishes in the fun times he had with their little boys Christopher and Andrew. We couldn't have gone without you guys! Thank you for being SO incredible!

So we left early on a Friday morning and headed straight to Newport Beach. We spent the afternoon shopping and dining on Balboa Island then we went boogie boarding in Newport Beach. The water was of course freezing (it always is, even when we go in July or August). We (meaning I) just jumped right in anyway, haven't changed much have I mom? I had to force Kyle in, but once he got used to it, he started playing along with me. We caught some tasty waves on our boogie board and had a splendid time. We relaxed on the beach until it was time to check into our hotel then we washed up and went out for dinner at Olive Garden. We did some more shopping, had some frozen yogurt then headed back to our hotel.

Saturday was Disneyland day! Since this was Kyle's first experience we really wanted to go without kids. Our kids are just too young and they would have maybe enjoyed the first little bit but then really would've hated us and life if they couldn't get some naps. So call us what you will, but we went to Disneyland without our 3 year old and our 16 month old! We got to the gates at 7:30 a half our before they opened and we were first in line. We were all business about this day. Our mission was to get in as many rides as we possibly could so Kyle could get the full fledged magical experience. Mission accomplished. We leaped through the entrance (literally. OK I leaped through the entrance while Kyle pretended who kneweth me not). We went on everything on our "must ride" list (12 rides) before 11:00am. After that we just went on our favorites over and over again and tried out some other ones that Kyle thought looked interesting. We. Had. A. Blast. Kyle's fave was Indiana Jones so we went on that one 4 times and sang the theme song throughout the day as we frolicked through the park. By then end of the day we were wiped. Kyle wanted to stay for fireworks and Fantasmic but by 7:00pm we were both ready to call our day good. We will definitely be coming back with our kids when they are old enough to enjoy and remember the magic and we won't miss the fireworks then!

After our day at "the happiest place on earth" we came back to our hotel and literally collapsed on the bed for about 3 minutes then we went to Islands for dinner and watched Eclipse at the cheap theater.

Sunday we made the trip back home to see our sorely missed little guys. We had a wonderful time but we really missed those guys and couldn't wait to kiss their soft, squishy cheeks! Here are some pictures from our memorable vacation/honeymoon/anniversary.