Merry Christmas Family and Friends!

We took "real" family pictures this year and I am quite pleased with how they turned out. I can't believe how time just seems to go swiftly by these days. Jorden has already finished one semester of Med School and has been doing great and studying hard. Maren started first grade and has a great teacher and really enjoys her classmates. She is my big helper and loves telling her younger siblings what to do. Celiese started full-day kindergarten and she's handling it quite well..although she does get pretty tired. She's had a few play dates with a girl in her class that happened to live a 2 minute walk away from us. She's still singing and dancing the day away and enjoying life. Luke just started going to a co-op preschool once a week (he's been twice) and absolutely loves it. It's so cute to see him put on his little back pack. We were a little worried because he still doesn't like to go places without mom or dad...but he did great. Luke is great at folding towels and putting laundry away. As for me, I had a hard time sending my girls to all day school and I missing them more than I thought I would..but I'm starting to get used to it. Luke follows me around all day and we play his favorite game UNO together to pass the time until the girls get home and play with him. We love our new place in Sahuarita, Arizona as well as our ward. There are a lot of young families here and it makes for lots of fun for the kids and moms for me to talk with. We hope you all have a wonderful year and send you lots of love!

WOW, I have not posted since January...that's almost a whole year! Well..let's just say 2010 has been a Fabulous year and we've been having lots of fun.

Merry Christmas!!

SnOw sNoW SnoW

In December we got tons and tons of SNOW! And I can't complain, November was pretty nice with no Snow so it was actually fun to have the beautiful snow fall...that is until I couldn't find my scraper for my car. But not to fear, all is well, Jorden found it in storage and now we're prepared. This winter I have decided to change my attitude towards the snow; which is that I hate it and I hate being cold. Not this year. This year we will play, play, play in the snow and enjoy sledding down the hills behind our apartment! Wish me luck:)

Celiese and Maren love sledding down a hill by our apartment. Our neighbors/friends let them use their sleds and yesterday we bought some of our own...afterall, this is only the beginning of winter and loads of snow.

Of course...the best part of snow is eating it.
(sigh) Yesterday morning we just returned from Arizona which was 72 degrees when we left Phoenix. Oh well...atleast the Spring, Summer and Fall will be nice here, right?

LUKE

I forgot my camera in Arizona where we spent the holidays and decided to post some old pictures...considering I haven't blogged in almost 2 months. The first picture is Luke's first day of Nursery taken in September. He loves going to Nursery...but we'll see what happens when Celiese isn't there because she is now a Sunbeam! Maren was really excited to have Celiese with her in Primary today. It was fun to be with both of them and see them smile at me.

Last month Luke started folding his arms for prayers! It is so cute and I just had to post these pictures.

Ring Around the Rosies

and Toddlers Galore

Several weeks ago Neil and Michelle and their twins (Jackson and Haley) were at are house and it was so fun to see Luke interacting with them! The twins will be 2 in Janurary and Luke in March and their other cousin Braden (who live in AZ) in March as well!

Bruce and Braden

(I took this in August when we visited family in AZ....i love this pic!)

Luke also has two girl cousins his age on the Marble side, Julia who will be 2 in December and Hannah 2 in February.

We made a visit to Az in August and here are some cute pictures of Luke and Hannah.



Julia and Luke (this pic was taken in March)

It's fun to make cousin memories; I love it.

First You Take a Pumpkin...

Nana and Papa came to visit this weekend and Nana made her famous--"dinner in a pumpkin." While her and Celiese were cleaning out the pumpkin Celiese started singing this song she learned in "Joyschool" (we are in a group with 4 other moms in our ward) I love her ability to light up a room with her beautiful voice!

I have so so many cute pictures to post from this summers vacations to Safford and San Diego. My excuse is that I'm trying to balance my new calling with family life and well....learning to use my time more wisely:) I'm sure I have plenty of time to blog....I just haven't discovered it yet. Here's to time management!!

Happy Birthday Celiese!

3 Years Old

Wow! I know I always say this on birthdays...but Celiese is 3 already! She has grown up so much this past year and thankfully is still my little spunky, fun loving girl. Grandma Bryce was in town on her birthday and all the family that lives in Utah, Grandma, and us celebrated her birthday together. We went swimming, which Celiese loves....she is so fun to watch in the water...so in her element. Afterwards we ate pizza, opened presents, ate cake, and played on the playground. I was so glad...I got to spend time swimming with just Celiese and it was so fun to have some quality time with her...a rare occasion you know if you have more than one kid...she is soo smart and funny and we love her very much!

This picure will be a classic!

Cake, glasses, swimming, the park.....this is the life!

Leah, Celiese, and Maren
Celiese having a great birthday!
My mom came to visit and I really wanted to make a Cup Cake-Cake(a cake made out of cupcakes) I got the idea from my cousin Michayle who got it from her sister in law Bryndee. I wanted to make a princess crown and it actually turned out really cute!

"Blowing" out her candles....unfortunatley the wind blew them out but Celiese was a good sport.
Celiese, Hannah, and Maren
Opening Presents. She's looking at a Dora book from her Bryce Grandparents and she also loved the ponies from her Marble Grandparents. I don't have a picture..but we gave her a "Fancy Nancy" doll that is sooo cute! Maren gave her some sunglasses (pictured earlier)
Jorden, Jeff, Grandma,Bryan, Neil
Luke and Jackson started to play with eachother! They are so funny together...two little teases.

All the girls checking out the loot. Celiese was very kind to share her toys.

Leah, Celiese, Haley, Maren, Hannah

Cute Story: So the other day Vance told me Celiese and Hannah were fighting over a plastic spoon and Vance said, "Celiese.." to which Celiese said, "(sigh) I'll give it back, she had it first" and she did!

So Sleepy...but...oh..so Hungry...

Dissclaimer: This is not child abuse because I, his mother, did try to take the food away to take him to bed and he was very upset...he wanted to continue eating while falling asleep :)