Unfortunately, we forgot to bring our cameras along when we traveled to Utah for Christmas this year, but we had a blast anyway. All the gifts we received were so generous and thoughtful. Thank you everyone! One of my favorites was a pedicure gift certificate.
I met my sister-in-law, Claudia, at Bonny Nails, and we had a lot of fun talking while our toenails were worked on. I totally felt like I was in Legally Blonde... talking away about life and being pampered. It was great!
On Christmas Eve, the kids received matching pajamas and we played the infamous White Elephant gift game. Before that happened though, Mason's father, Terry, read us the Christmas story. He also shared excerpts from the Book of Mormon in 3 Nephi, where the Nephites are awaiting the sign of the Savior's birth. Terry also bore his testimony of the reality of our Savior on the earth. The Spirit was felt strongly and I can't tell you how much I am grateful for the sacrifice of my Heavenly Father in allowing His Son to suffer for us, and for my Savior to have accepted and fulfilled His mission on the earth. I am also grateful for Terry to have expressed his feelings to our family. I think our society avoids showing emotion and discussing religion. And these things are very important. The Spirit touches us through our hearts, and we're here because of God. I'm grateful whenever my family can hear added witnesses of the truthfulness of why we're here on the earth and who we need to look to in order to return to live with our Father in Heaven.
I also had the opportunity after Christmas to meet up with two old friends of mine: Laura Lund and Amy Monson. Laura and I had lunch at the Olive Garden. I always feel so at ease talking with Laura. Laura taught kindergarten part-time while I taught 6th grade at Aspen Elementary in 2003-4.
We met Amy and her family (husband, Eric, and little girl, Hailey) in Salt Lake City. We ate at the Crown Burger ( I LOVE that place!) and then went to look at the lights. Mason's parents and his sister, Tiffany ("T"), and her husband, Miguel, came too. It was FREEZING, so we had to call it quits earlier than expected. I sure enjoyed seeing Amy again. She and I were roommates a LONG time ago.
Mason and I also had the chance to visit his friends at the Mangum's home. Their house was so beautiful, and everyone was so nice. All the food was delicious too. The kids had a blast running around with all the other kids too.
Mason and I celebrated our 5th Anniversary on the 21st and Mason's mom, Robin, and sister, T, were nice enough to wath ALL 3 kids for us while we went on a day date. This was the most fun day of all for me. We began our day at the Mount Timpanogos temple where we were sealed on our wedding day, and it was a wonderful experience being with my honey in such a beautiful, quiet, and peaceful setting.
Next we went to the movies and saw the movie Blind Side with Sandra Bullock. I think this movie was amazing. I loved how the family in the movie made space and time to take care of someone who was in need. It was such an uplifting story, and it was one that made you think and want to change to try and do more for those in need in our community.
What elese? Shopping, of course! Mason was so good to me. I got 1 pair of jeans. 2 jersey-lined pants, and a cable neck sweater all on sale. I had such a grand day!
Other fun things we did while we were in Utah was go sledding with the kids on the Perfect Hill. There's a hill at the church building on Battlecreek Road that was made for sledding. Asher went all by himself. I was quite surprised. I was also surprised to see my little Ruthie loving the rides. We even took little Katie-Bug down a couple of times. I loved watching Mason be all daring on his little circle of plastic. He'd go down backwards and off of snow jumps. Thanks for buying all the sleds Grandma and Grandpa! Mason's parents and Miguel were a huge help in taking the kids up and down the hill. That was my exercise for the week!
After the sledding we went to see The Princess and the Frog. It's a cute movie. Mason really enjoyed the music in it, and Asher quoted it yesterday. Katie was pretty good in the theater as well.
It was such a nice relaxing time while we were there. Robin was always up with the kids when they woke up and fixing them wonderful breakfasts. Thank you, Robin! It was fun visiting with family (including Bob and Jasey). We look forward to visiting again... hopefully this summer when it's a lot warmer!
We were very grateful to pull into Tucson once more. The air can be chilly and then balmy the next minute. There's no snow. No sidewalks to shovel, or windshields to scrape ice off of. I love the snow, but it's nice not to have to worry about doing those things... or having a second wardrobe for the kids. There was one day when it snowed and our van wasn't going to make it up the hill to the house. We started sliding in slow motion into the sidewalk at the bottom of the hill, right when the road turns and starts going up. Luckily, we all were safe and there were no accidents. And I'm learning to appreciate Tucson more!
I hope everyone else had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Since I didn't have any pics from Christmas posted, I decided to put some recent ones from today. Katie is starting to show her personality more and more each day. She loves grinning. I love how her smile takes up the entire bottom half of her face.
Ruthie is such a girly-girl. She loves dressing up in her new princess dresses from Grandma and Grandpa Poyfair and wearing all her new shoes and putting Katie's bows that Christie sent in her hair and everyone elses'.
Asher loves video games. We need to watch out or this kid's going to be addicted fast! We bought this cool joystick game at Target that has all the old school arcade games on it. Jason, pay attention, you'll probably want this. It has several versions of Pac-Man, Rally-X, Galaxar, Mappy, Dig Dugger, etc., etc.
Asher loves video games. We need to watch out or this kid's going to be addicted fast! We bought this cool joystick game at Target that has all the old school arcade games on it. Jason, pay attention, you'll probably want this. It has several versions of Pac-Man, Rally-X, Galaxar, Mappy, Dig Dugger, etc., etc.
We've had a lot of fun playing it all together. Sometimes he tries to stick his tongue out at us to be silly.
