Stuff we did in AZ

• We roasted marshmallows in the backyard 

Barefoot and shirtless in December is the way to go in Arizona according to my brother!

• We hiked! Camelback Mountain and the Windcaves with my family minus Elizabeth and my dad. I was surprised at how much both Jack and David loved it. I can't wait for it to warm up so that we can hike the... farms here :)

• We ate my favorite food/drink in the whole wide world at my favorite boba place in the whole wide world! I now like the strawberry coconut flavor better than chocolate coconut, fyi. 

 

Jack did not like the black boba balls in his drink and I've never been so disappointed in him.

• We shopped at Last Chance. Nordstrom clothing that is 80 percent off is the best.

• We rang in the New Year with my grandparents and cousins from California. (My grandparents gave Jack and David awesome Utah State sweat shirts for Christmas. GO AGGIES!)

My grandma is more flexible than I am

See, the most flexible thing I can do is sit in a very awkward and weird looking position for a picture.

 
 

When we were younger and had family reunions at the beach together, we played the card game "scum" every single night. We brought it back on NYE.

Last selfie of 2014. I am so proud of it:

Spencer, James and I all jumped in the pool at midnight, then watched fireworks from inside. (Don't worry, we weren't burning down the Christmas tree, it's just the reflection.)

And I started the year off right with my first breakfast of 2015 - peppermint ice cream with an oreo crust. YUM!

• We went to Bahama Bucks! James' Christmas gift to us was a Bahama Bucks gift certificate. Love that place.

• We saw the movies Annie and Unbroken and loved them both! I never want to see Annie again thought because it takes a full two weeks to get the songs out of my head.

• We went to the Gilbert Temple. I still can't believe that Gilbert has a temple. It is so beautiful!

• David ate his "pre" birthday cake and he loved it! 

 

• We went to the zoo, of course!

• And the park a few times. Man, I love Arizona weather in December!

 
 

The flight home from Arizona was a nightmare. Spencer went home before me because I decided that flying by myself with both kids was worth staying in the warm weather and with my family a little longer... AND IT WAS!!!!.... I think :)

I got to the airport, checked through security with both kids and with their bulky double stroller and with three carry on bags, waited to get on our delayed plane, got on the plane, sat on the plane for an hour and nursed David on the plane next to a rather large man. Then we were told to get off the plane! We had to wait for two plus hours to see if they could fix the maintenance issue and it turned out they couldn't so our flight was canceled. Then we had to wait another hour or so for our luggage to get off the plane. 8 1/2 hours spent at the airport for nothing! It was so awful. God sent me an angel to help me though - Ellen carried David and a backpack off the plane, played with Jack while I chased David, watched my kids while I went to the bathroom, and made sure I got dinner before the gift shop closed.

 
 
 
 
David was SO DONE by the end of the first day.

They both fell asleep within two minutes of getting into my mom's car.

The next day we had to be at the airport at 5 am (!!!) and it went a lot smoother - it was a regular kind of hard flight with two kids, unlike the day before :) It wouldn't have been as smooth without the whole flight of people basically helping me - by the end of the second day I'm pretty sure every single person on the plane knew my kids names!

Jack REALLY liked talking to the 22 year old guy behind us (I know he was 22 because Jack asked him how old he was about 50 times :). That kind young man let Jack talk his ear off and answered all of Jack's questions for about an hour and he was so nice! I am so grateful.

There is nothing like two days of flying to get you excited to get to your zero degree home! We had such a great time in Arizona and are so grateful that we got to go! 

Christmas in AZ

I am so grateful that we were able to go to Arizona for the holidays this year! We had my whole family sleeping under one roof on Christmas Eve for the first time in four years and I truly didn't think that was ever going to happen again!

To say that Jack was excited to go on an airplane to "Nana's house" is an understatement -he was dancing and screaming when he saw our plane for the first time. Our flight left late on the 23rd, and because I had heard so many horror stories about Allegiant Airlines, I thought it would be funny to text my mom and tell her that our flight was cancelled and that we couldn't get on another flight until after Christmas - I got just the reaction I wanted from my mom and once she found out I was joking, she called me names that I can not post on this blog :) But you know what they say, Karma's a b**** and that canceled flight joke came back to bite me on the flight back to Iowa.

Jack wanted me to hold his hand while we took off and he was soooo nervous. It was so cute.

Christmas Eve day looked like this - the best kind of Christmas's are GREEN!

 
We did a Sub for Santa and delivered Christmas to a family in need. James said that the neighborhood that they lived in looked like neighborhoods from his mission in Mexico.

Our only complete family picture was a selfie that Spencer took on the way to deliver the gifts - David's crying, Elizabeth is pulling a typical Elizabeth face, Jack's putting my mom's lip gloss on and for some reason my dad is in the very back of the van pulling a very weird smile :)

Christmas Eve is my favorite night of the entire year and this year did not disappoint! My favorite family Christmas tradition is our Christmas Eve dance party in our new Christmas jammies. It has slowly evolved into Christmas Eve dance solos and everyone's dances were pretty awesome this year. A summary of Spencer, James, and Isaac's dances can be found on my instagram account here, here and here. (some other performances cannot be posted because there was just too much twerking involved :) I know this is hard to even believe based on Spencer's incredible dance performance, but he was one of those lame-os that was too cool to dance at high school dances. He has come so far and I'm so proud! hahaha
Jack got Christmas pjs but wanted to stay in Elizabeth's old Gilbert Tiger costume all evening!

Christmas morning:

 
 
 We had an amazing and very merry Christmas!

I replaced my computer, Grandma!

My grandma faithfully reads my blog and when I saw her over the holidays she told me not to wait too long to replace our computer so that I could keep updating. She is a pretty talented blog stalker and facebook stalker - it runs in the family. I'm so glad that we got to see my grandparents over the holidays!

I want to attempt to catch up but right now I am just going to enjoy my last two days in Arizona and celebrate the fact that the high will be eighty one degrees tomorrow and not a high of negative 8 degrees like it will be in Davenport! (And a low of -17?! I have never experienced negative teens before! I am so going to die of either cold or depression this winter.) When we were booking plane tickets, I really debated if I should go home with Spencer (this last Sunday) or stay a few more days in the happy warmth with my family (but fly home by myself with both kids). I think avoiding Davenport's weather tomorrow alone will make the flight by myself worth it!

The thing I'm not loving

My 7 1/2 year computer gave up the ghost yesterday afternoon. I really can't complain, because 7 1/2 years of essentially no computer problems is pretty impressive for a computer. Also, I miraculously backed up the computer two days before it died.. RIP 2007 macbook. Blog therapy will have to start up again once we get a new computer :)

Things I'm Loving

• My father-in-law came to visit us! He had a business trip in Fort Dodge, IA last week and was able to come stay with us for the weekend. It was also his birthday, so we got to celebrate with him. Jack had so much fun with him and talked his ear off the entire time :) 

 
 

• The tool set that grandpa gave Jack for his birthday. Jack AND David love it! 

Jack said he was working on his car

• This. AMEN. #imsotired

• The family "zoozeeum" (museum) I think we will most likely spend all winter here.

• This picture. 

• Santa's visit at our church Christmas party

• These two

• Jack, who insists on sleeping with hard trucks and in a hard pack n' play. My three year old has been sleeping in our room in the pack n play for over a month now. Yep. David has his own room and the three of us share a room. #davidrulesnighttimealways

• This situation - with tears in his eyes, Jack sobbed, "Where's my chocochip? I put it in my belly button for later. IT'S ALL GONE!!!" #threeyearoldproblems

• And this statement from my sister: "The thing I like most about December is that your deodorant doesn't run out as fast!" That's what I like the most about December too, girl ;)

Thanksgiving weekend

We had a great Thanksgiving weekend! On Thanksgiving day, we ran in a five mile Turkey Trot (that had free childcare!) and ate Thanksgiving dinner with friends at our church. When we told Jack that he got to do his birthday party again at the church he was thrilled :)
 
 
The rest of the weekend we spent cleaning, eating too many leftovers, moving around furniture, getting out Christmas decorations, shopping, and playing indoor soccer.
Jack is finally into putting up ornaments and not pulling them down!

We baby proofed our tree this year

One of my favorite Christmas traditions growing up and one I want to continue is sleeping by the Christmas tree the first night we put it up.

David was not invited because he is the lightest and craziest and worst sleeper ever (taking this picture woke him up)

Ham with fresh pineapple all in one bite may be on my top ten favorite foods ever.

I love this article about picky eaters soooo much. These four were my favorite and really hit home for me :)

 
 
 
I have been thinking a lot about my friends who are having a difficult time during this holiday season and I really love this quote from this article:
"How can you be thankful when your doctor says it’s cancer? How can you feel grateful when the one you love just walked out of your life? Or when you’ve been fired, or your dream has collapsed, or an economic tsunami has wiped out all you’ve worked for? This year became the worst year of my life when my youngest son, who’d struggled since childhood with mental illness, took his own life. How am I supposed be thankful this Thanksgiving? When your heart’s been ripped apart, you feel numb, not grateful.
And yet the Bible tells us “Give thanks IN ALL circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” The key is the word “in.” God doesn’t expect me to be thankful FOR all circumstance, but IN all circumstances. There’s a huge difference. The first attitude is masochism. The second shows maturity. We’re not supposed to be thankful for evil or sin, or the innocent suffering caused by these things. But even in heartache and grief and disappointment, there are still good things that I can be thankful for....
So what am I thankful for this Thanksgiving?
I’m thankful that although life is not always good, God is always good. Having had a close friendship with him for nearly 50 years, I know without a doubt that God sees all I go through, he cares, he grieves with me, he is close and his strength is available at all times.
I’m thankful that even though I don’t have all the answers, God does. In tragedy we seek explanations, but explanations never comfort. It is God’s presence that eases our pain.
I’m thankful that this life is not all there is. It’s not the end of the story. One day God will right all wrongs, even the odds and settle all accounts. Justice will be served. Evil will not win.
I’m thankful for the hope of heaven. I won’t have to live with pain forever. In heaven, there are no broken relationships, broken minds, broken bodies, broken dreams or broken promises. The Bible tells us, “God will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain.”I’m thankful that God can bring good even out of the bad in my life, when I give him the pieces. It’s his specialty. God loves to turn crucifixions into resurrections, and then benefit the whole world. God never wastes a hurt if we give it to him."
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