MERRY CHRISTMAS

We wish you a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!!!

Love you all!

Holiday Concert

This past Wednesday, (12/17) Tage had his holiday concert! Tyson went to work late that day, Tage was excited that Dad came (it was a surprise). It was so cute to watch all the kindergartners walk in with their costumes on. Tage was a proud soldier. One of his favorite parts in the play was when the soldiers said "Hut 2, 3, 4. Hut 2, 3, 4" HIs favorite song that he sang over and over at home was 'Up on the house top.' They all did such a cute job. Tage didn't sing much, he just stood up there and sometimes did the actions to the songs just a tad too late. Oh well, it was still fun to watch him. Tyson got our video camera to work and yes, I think he is one of those parents that focus right on the child and nothing else, even when they are just standing there doing nothing.

Wednesday night was a crazy one. I flew Tage up to Utah and turned around and flew right back. Because of SNOW in VEGAS (are you kidding me?!) the Vegas airport was closed and cancelled and delayed many flights here in Phoenix. Of course ours was delayed as well as my return flight. It was a long night and I returned home at 2:00am. And I had to work in the morning. Ahhh, sleep!

Iowa

My sister Jennifer and her hubby, Jonathon, live in Des Moines, Iowa while Jonathon attends Drake University for law school. This past weekend I went out for a visit.

THURS. 12/11

Met Jonathon and Jennifer at baggage claim at about 2:20pm. I waited patiently for my bag but it never showed up. LOVELY. They said that it might be on the next and last flight, that that didn't arrive until 11:45pm and I was to call around then. Great, just great. I had to pay $15 for it to be checked and it never showed up. I was a bit annoyed, but what could I do? Nothing but be positive and not let it ruin my trip. Besides, I had my skinny sister, I could just squeeze into all her clothes. NOT. We walked out side and I was hit with cold wind and 34* temp. FREEZING! "Welcome to Iowa," Jen said. hahahah. After taking a little sight seeing detour downtown we got home to their cute little townhouse. We played a round of Phase 10 and then decided to go to dinner. After dinner we hit Wal Mart for a few essentials for the night. Then returned home to play more games! I LOVE games! (Ty never plays with me so I had to soak up the opportunity)

Iowa State Capital

At 11:45pm I called U.S Airways (I don't recommend flying with them after all this). No answer. I tried every 3-5 min until finally the last call I thought I would make that night literally laying in bed at 12:21 they answered and said they had my bag. WAHOO! They were going to deliver it in the morning.

FRIDAY 12/12

Jonathon made breakfast for us girls. Ahhh, cute. My bag finally arrived at about 10:30....almost 21hrs too late. Today was Jonathons major study day (finals ya know) so Jen and I got ready and went to see the movie 'Four Christmases'. It was cute, but not as good as I expected it to be. The day was nice, but still temps were around 33*. Cold. Jonathon was still studying when we got home so Jen and I played more games. Yatzee, Phase 10, Mille Borne....it was so much fun! Game after game after game.

After some warm soup for dinner I bundled up with 4 layers to go caroling with Jen. (Jonathon stayed home where it was warm to study. It was a bitter 28*, but it turned out to be fun! We got into the Christmas spirit....cold weather and all.

After caroling we had to warm up with some hot chocolate! Then.....that's right, more games! Jonathon joined us this time.

SATURDAY 12/13

We woke up early and drove 2hrs to Winter Quarter, Nebraska to go to the Winter Quarters temple and visitor center. It was a beautiful day! 55* and clear, so nice! Besides spending time with Jennifer and Jonathon, this was the highlight of my trip. I thoroughly enjoyed walking through the visitor center reading about the pioneers and going to the temple. It was great! The temple was beautiful. Small, but still had the same peaceful feeling inside. It was perfect. We walked around a pioneer cemetery that was on the temple grounds. So sad. Many of them children. Over 600 died at Winter Quarters that winter. What a brutal plague and harsh winter conditions. No after experiencing that bitter cold wind (which actually got much colder than that, into the negatives) I now have a deeper testimony of the pioneers. They had so much faith. Coming to Zion was their trial, many made it, but many died in following the Lords way. They entered into the Salt Lake Valley on July 21, 1847. Prophet Brigham Young entered 3 days later and said, "This is this is the place," what a glorious day that must have been for the pioneers. They started building Zion and the Salt Lake Temple. Completion of the Salt Lake Temple took 40 years!

Replica of the Nauvoo Temple

Replica of the Salt Lake Temple

After returning home, Jonathon did more studying and Jen and I made bread and played more games. That night was their ward Christmas party. It was a nice dinner and I enjoyed meeting a few of their friends. The ward is about 70% young couples and a lot (if not all) are in medical school. Jonathon is the only person in law school in their ward. There are a lot of little kids and babies! they have 3 nursery's! WOW!

I bet you can guess what we did when we got home.....yep, your right! More games!

SUNDAY 12/14

Went to church. it was actually warm outside! 48* at 9:00am! In the meantime while we were in Sacrament meeting, the temp. had dropped! At 10:30am it was only 24* with a bitter, bitter cold wind. SO COLD!

A last few rounds of Phase 10 before leaving for the airport. So sad to leave, but i was glad to head back to warmer weather. When I talked to Tyson, he said that it was cold here too.....only 60* hahaha, I can't wait! Jonathon and Jennifer said that I brought the warm weather with me. It was very unusual to have the weather that we did. They typically have been in the teens and negatives at might and early morning. FREEZING! Now that I left it turned cold again and their week looked like it will be cold with temps around 16*/17* and snow coming.

Bye cold Iowa, hello warm Arizona!

I had such a great time! Thank you so much Jonathon and Jennifer for letting me visit. Thanks for playing games after game after game with me. I'm sure you are so sick of games. You both are such a great example to me. I love you!

Phoenix Suns

Tonight we went to the Suns basketball game. Ty got extra tickets for the suite so he let Tage and I tag along. We had a good time. It's actually really fun living in AZ where there is so many pro sports teams that we could go see.
Final score:
Phoenix Suns 125
Milwaukee Bucks 110

GO SUNS!

Here Comes Santa Clause

Saturday Tage met Santa! Well, one of his helpers....

Our community had a meet Santa day with crafts to do and sugar cookies to decorate. We first met Santa. The first thing Tage asked as we were standing in line was "if he was the REAL Santa?" I said, "why do you say that?" He said, "because his beard doesn't look right" I then told him that it was probably one of Santas helpers because Santa is busy at the North Pole getting everything ready for Christmas so he has lots and lots of helpers. He said that I was right and that it was "for sure" not the real Santa and is one of his helpers.

Tage with Sabasitain (a friend from school)

Temple lights

Last night we look a drive down to the Mesa Temple to see the lights. Every night at 7:00 they have some sort of a concert. It was nice to listen to the beautiful Christmas music and feel of the Spirit on the temple grounds. It was a nice way to spend time as a family on a Sunday evening.

Notice that Ty doesn't even have a jacket and we are among palm trees! If we were in Utah, there would be snow and we would be frozen. Ahhhh, so nice. Though I do have to admit that it is hard to get into the Christmas spirit with no snow.

Garland

I have dreaded putting it up. But tonight I gave in and did it. It took me an hour and I hated doing it. Last year my friend Brooke convinced me I needed garland, but she also put it up. I about called her and told her that she has a job to do at my house. Oh well, its done and I do think it looks good.

Gingerbread House

Grandma Donna gave us a gingerbread house to take home so that we could do one with Tage. So tonight was the night. At Tage's school they have a little baby gingerbread that is 'hiding' all over the room and leaves notes that say "you can't catch me." Tage says that if he catches the baby gingerbread he will bring it home so it could live here. Ahhhh.

Decorating the tree

Last night for family home evening we decorated the Christmas tree! Tage was so excited to finally get to put up our Christmas stuff. He was begging me way before Thanksgiving.

So now the tree is up and we are on the count down!

Thanksgiving weekend

Went to Utah of course. Tage was with his 'other mom' so Ty and I spent some time with our families.

We left Wednesday night at about 6:00 and drove through the night. Ty and I switched off driving so we each could get a little sleep. Tage had no problem with the sleeping part, he was knocked out pretty much the whole way. We have not done this before so I was quite nervous, but we made it, and it wasn't as bad as I thought. We dropped Tage off at 4:00am and made it to Ty's parents at 5:00am for a couple hours of sleep. Up at 7:30 and Ty was out pheasant hunting with his dad, brother-in-law and other family members. They seemed to have a good time and got about 10 pheasants. I spent the morning at my moms and then at my grandma and grandpa Bairds' for a bit. Then Ty and I met back up at 1:00 for thanksgiving dinner at his grandma Donnas' house. The turkey is always the best! Grandma Donna gets it from down in Moroni, UT right at the Norbest turkey farm. SO GOOD!

They had a picture game after dinner. It was a whole bunch of pictures of family members and we had to guess who they were in the picture. I of course knew none, but Ty and everyone else seemed to think it was a fun game.

After dinner, Ty had to play a little Guitar Hero.

Black Friday shopping of course! Ty is one of those people that gets a rush out of this. We hit Target at 5:30am for the 6:00am opening. The line went across the front of the store, down the side and around back. CRAZY! We got some good deals, and what we came there for, but was among the crowd to get them. We also hit Wal Mart, but it wasn't as bad.

Since a lot of family was in from out of town, Grandma Donna decided to get right into the Christmas spirit and have the Christmas party the same weekend. Friday night included dinner, games, making gingerbread houses and a pinata for the kids. Everyone seemed to have fun and get into the holiday spirit.

I spent Saturday with my family. Didn't do much but hang out with my parents and Wesley and Michelle. Decorating the tree was fun with them. Wesley put on some Christmas music....Alvin and the Chipmunks. Got to love it!

Tage said that he had a good Thanksgiving as well. He said that he liked eating on the floor. (adults on the table I guess) He enjoyed playing with his cousins and helping his mom decorate the Christmas tree.

Long drive back to AZ on Sunday, but we survived.

Happy Thanksgiving

Just wanted to say Happy Thanksgiving! I can't even begin to say how grateful I am.
I am so thankful for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I can't imagine my life without it. I am thankful for my testimony, the scriptures and prayer. I know that my Heavenly Father loves me. He listens to my prayers, and answers them. What a comfort that is. I love my family. I love my parents and I love my sweet husband. He is always trying so hard to keep me happy. Thanks Ty. And I love my little Tage, he is so caring and sensitive. He always wants to make me happy.
I am SO blessed!

Hope everyone has a safe and happy turkey day!

Raining!

It's raining! I love it! I absolutely love the fresh smell and the cool air. This morning as Tage and were walking to the bus stop, the ground was wet and we saw a full arched rainbow! Tage thought that was cool. So I thought that the rain was over and went for a walk. WRONG. Not even half way into my walk it started to sprinkle. Then it started to rain. It wasn't too bad though, a little rain won't hurt anyone. 10 min after coming home it started to dump it. And it's still raining! I made it home just in time.

Grass

Seriously, nothing going on....the only thing we are excited about right now it that we have GRASS!
You have summer grass and winter grass. Over seeding for the winter grass then letting it die for the summer grass to come back. SO COMPLICATED! We tried last year to do winter grass but it looked pathetic all winter. (Well, so has our summer grass sad to say) This year we told ourselves that we would pay someone to do it. But on Halloween Ty started the process. And this is our results....

We are so happy to have grass in our backyard! Finally after 2 years of living here....GRASS!!

Arizona Cardinals

Monday night (or should I say football night?) we went to the Arizona Cardinals game!

Arizona played San Francisco 49ers. It was actually a great game. Arizona gave the 49ers a run for their money! (or I could say that the other way around) I had never been to a professional football game, so it was fun. It was a bit of a rush to get there seeing that both Tyson and I had to work, but we made it just in time to see the Cardinals make their first touch down of the night!

Final score:

Cardinals - 29

49ers - 24

Dad talkin' a little football

Word on the street says that they are doing awesome this year and hope to make it to the playoffs!

GO CARDINALS!!!

Veterens Day

A celebration to honor Americans veterans for their patriotism, love of country, and willingness to serve and sacrifice for our country. Let us honor those that serve.

Last night we went to the Arizona Cardinals football game. (more about that later). Tage must have had a lesson about Veterans Day at school yesterday because the first police officer we saw last night he told us that he needed to tell them 'thanks for saving our country.' So every officer we saw he said that he needed to tell them that, and each time we walked by one (and many times seeing the security was high) he would chicken out and say that I should tell them because he was scared. But I think it was the last officer we saw as we were walking back to our car that we passed and he said, 'thank you for saving our country.' The officer then just smiled and partly chuckled and in return said, 'your welcome.' Tage then said that he made the policeman feel good inside. How stinkin' cute was that?! My sensitive, cute little Tage. Love him.

In loving memory....

Connie Burrie Kerr
(April 20, 1954-November 3, 2008)

Connie was a person everyone could love. She was like a second mother to me. She was my angel. I will always remember the times I spent with her having talks about life in general, dating, and religion. I know that she loved me and cared about me by her loving, positive and encouraging words. She will deeply be missed.

I am so grateful to have the gospel apart of my life and to know that she lives. That there is life after death and that I will see Connie again if I am faithful to the teachings of Christ. She has returned home to Our Hevenly Father and is surrounded by loved ones in Heaven. She is in the most beautiful place imagined.

Election Day

Don't know what to say. Don't know what to do.

Barack Obama elected the 44th president of the United States.
First black president elected.

CHANGE is definitely happening

I'm not ready....I need to get my food storage, I need to read my scriptures everyday, I need to pray everyday, I need to be more Christ-like. I need My Savior.

I'm not ready for the CHANGE

Yea for marriage!

One man, one woman. That's marriage. Simple. That's the way God made it.