Christmas Lights and Diapers...

Last night we went to see the Christmas lights at the Mesa Arizona temple with my mom and Dave and my brother David and his family. It was beautiful! I love the Arizona Temple. It's crazy to be back. Jeff and I went to the temple in the morning and we saw our old bishop and someone else that was in our ward growing up. Last night we saw a family we grew up with. She was my YW leader. It was so great to see them and their family.

We missed all the excitement at the temple on Friday night. First of all, Brooke White was there to turn on the Christmas lights. (of American Idol fame) There were also about 150 mostly peaceful demonstrators there, protesting the passing of Proposition 102. (Arizona's equivalent of California's prop 8) The only excitement was they had a dirty diaper thrown at them. (I'm sure whoever threw it was trying to get it in a garbage can. But it makes me wonder... who drives around with a dirty diaper in their car? Or did they just rip it off the baby and then throw it... confusing)

Our evening was much less eventful. It was great to see all the lights and share that tradition with our kids. Let the Christmas Season begin!

Happy Birthday Amy!

Happy Birthday Amy!
If you are in Las Vegas and are lucky enough to know Amy, call her and tell her Happy Birthday and that her friend in AZ misses her. She made me a better person and I am grateful for the things I learned from her. Besides that she is a lot of fun and pretty funny too. (See doll head picture, long story but very funny:)
Thanks for being a great friend and hope this day is a great one. You are missed!

I'm grateful for my family

It has been four years since our last family picture. Here's our picture from Sunday with all of my siblings except my brother

James who is currently on a mission in Argentina.

I am definitely grateful for my family this Thanksgiving.

(We didn't color coordinate, but that's what black and white pictures are for! :)

TMI

My sister in law Whitney tagged me, so here goes...
everything you didn't ever care to know about me :)
8's
8 Shows I like:
1. Lost (if it's even on anymore?!?)
2. Biggest Loser
3. Criminal Minds
4. The Office (at least I used to, this season has more junk in it and doesn't seem as funny to me)
I can't think of any more, we didn't have TV for over a month because of the move and I got out of the habit. Give me time, I'm sure I'll have more :)

8 Restaurants I like:
1. Cheesecake Factory
2. Panera
3. P.F Changs
4. Coldstone
5. Sweet Tomatoes
6. Mimi's Cafe
7. Cafe Rio
8. Bajio

8 Things that happened yesterday:
1. I cooked a turkey, thought it was done but it wasn't so I had to microwave it for a few minutes...
2. Had 23 people at my house for Thanksgiving Dinner
3. I got to see all of my brothers and my sister and their families
4. Went to church in our ward and realized I need to start making friends, I forget that I don't have any yet. It's so weird to be starting over with all of that again.
5. We celebrated my sister in law Julie's birthday (Happy Birthday Julie!)
6. My brother David got thrown in the pool
7. Did I mention I had 23 people at my house for Thanksgiving dinner? I think that about covers it!

8 Things I am looking forward to:
1. Putting up our Christmas tree
2. Christmas Traditions
3. Having my husband home on Sundays
(no tithing settlement, well, just one)
4. Going to Florida with Jeff in January
5. Scrapfest!!!!
6. Christmas shopping
7. Seeing Arizona Temple lights. They are always amazing!
8. Christmas morning

8 things on my wish list:
1. Not too many, I feel pretty blessed this year.
2. World Peace :)
3. Healthy happy new year!

Happy Turkey Day!

We celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday because then we could have everyone there (for at least part of the time).

It was great to be together and have the cousins make memories. The highlight was David getting thrown in the pool (he said he'd jump in for $20, so we "pooled" the money and decided that to earn it he would have to be thrown in!) That water is cold!!! I'm not sure it was worth $20 but it was fun for us.

Hope you all have a great Thanksgiving!!! Eat some pie for me!

Can today be over already?!?

Let's just say I want to put today behind us.
4 poopy "accidents" ...yikes! I kept my cool for 3 of the 4 :(
2 diet Pepsi's
way too many oreo's (does a Pepsi and oreos count for a balanced lunch?)
2 Car registrations and 2 Driver's Licenses at DMV = $960
(I guess I know what I'm getting for Christmas...)
1 grumpy wife
1 grumpy mom
and a partridge in a pear tree...
Here's to a much better tomorrow. It couldn't be worse :)

O.k. - Here's the disclaimer, today I can't even tell you where the day went or what I did, so not every day is super productive. Yesterday however, I got a lot done in the front yard. There were a lot of bare spots and also a few very straggly bushes. I planted 2 new citrus trees, a pomegrante tree, some flowers and several lantanas and palm trees. It's fun to see the difference and man was I tired! I love working outside and planting. I think one reason is that when the kids get home from school all my work is not undone! It's also fun to see it grow and mature (and it doesn't talk back or cause laundry). Overall a great day!

Jeff and I gave talks today in Sacrament Meeting. Yay they are done!
Last night in our family prayers, each one of the children (including Tyler our 3 year old) blessed mom that “she could do a good job on her talk” They didn’t mention Jeff – I think they know I need their prayers a little more than he does... I guess we're officially in this ward now. It still hasn't completely sunk in.
Thanks mom and Dave for coming. It was great to have the help with the kids and nice to see friendly (and familiar) faces in the crowd!

"I am a Child of God too!"

Yesterday while driving with Tyler he was singing a song about "flush you down the toilet, hope you enjoy it.." (Thank you older brothers...) Trying to get him to sing a new song, (we had already had the "bathroom talk" talk about the song) I said, "Do you know "I am a Child of God"? Incredulous, he answered, "YOU ARE? I AM A CHILD OF GOD TOO!" So he may sing songs about flushing you down the toilet but at least he knows he's a child of God. :)

Also yesterday, 12:30a.m. Grant came in to get us up because Dallin was hurting. (Too much tackle football at the park) The next morning Grant said to me, "I'm glad I came to get you, it's just like when Haley went to get you when I was quacking like a penguin."
I wasn't sure what he meant at first, but then I remembered when he had croup and was "barking like a seal" (close enough)

Who needs TV... kids are entertaining enough! :)

I'm thankful for Grandpa Albrecht

Jeff's Grandpa Albrecht passed away a couple of weeks ago. I have thought a lot about him these last few weeks. Whenever I was around him I always felt like he had one foot here on earth and one in heaven. He was so good, through and through. This picture is of him just a couple of months ago at a reunion celebrating his 60th wedding anniversary to his sweet wife. We are lucky to have a good history of his life, including stories from his childhood and time spent in Germany in WWII. On this Veteran's Day I will be thinking of you Grandpa Albrecht. Now that both feet are in heaven I'm grateful for the time I got to spend with you here on earth. You made it a better place. You made us better just by being around you. Thank you. You are loved and missed.

Laundry and some fun stuff

We are getting more settled in. It has been good to get the house put together so we can get on with life. It's too bad that my family still needs to eat and have clean clothes. Life would be a lot simpler if they would wait on those things until we were all done getting settled!

Here is the shot of my laundry on Monday. I put the first load in at 5:40 a.m. and took the last load out of the dryer at 7:30 p.m. Yikes!!!




















One difference in our house here is a lot less wall space. There are more windows and it has a more open floor plan. I wasn't sure where I was going to put everything, so I basically combined all the different kid's pictures I had around the house onto one wall. I wasn't sure how it would turn out, but I am really happy with it. It goes up pretty high but it is fun to look at.
I am beginning to catch my breath. It has been a crazy couple of months. I am looking forward to some sort of routine and a little less chaos!

Happy Wedding Mom!

Yesterday my mom was sealed in the Mesa Arizona Temple to Dave. They are very happy and we wish them the best. It has really been wonderful to see my mom so happy. It was nice to meet some of his family as well. It was a special day and a beautiful ceremony.

Happy Halloween!

We're here in Arizona and getting settled. I would like to say I have some amazing post after not posting for so long... but if I try to be too creative it will just take me longer to get this posted. Here's a quick recap...

Angie and kids come to AZ

House gets painted and ready to go

Jeff and Tyler join us (yay!)

The kids start school (they are doing great, BTW :)

Big truck full of all our stuff comes and gets delivered

We unpack and unpack and then unpack some more

I have yet to catch my breath, but it is starting to sink in that we are here. We did have a good time on Halloween. It was great to have cousins (my sister and 3 of her kids were in town) and my brother and his wife and kids came over too. It is really nice to have family around.

Here's some pictures from Halloween...