Arizona 2011

We made it to Arizona!!! It had been a long 2 weeks leading up to the trip. We have put our house on the market and it was a race against time to get it ready before we left....but we made it! Boys were woken up at 3:30am so we could catch our 6am flight but they did great. Owen slept on the flight down, ryan watched a movie. We ate breakfast, mommy got her tea latte :) and then off to Surprise to watch the royals practice.....

Only to find out that they had the day off. What else do you do???? Well, go to the rental house and start swimming!

Thursday morning was Pinnacle Peak....exactly what I was waiting for. Couldn't wait to go hiking! Boys did great....they made it a little over 1/2 mile up and then back down. Oh, and then had to stop at Coffee Bean and Tea leaf to get my tea latte again :)

The theme of the week for the little boys was SWIMMING! They did not want to go to any baseball games. so while the big boys watched ball, mommy and the boys were swimming. it was nice and relaxing.

We did make it to Phoenix Children's Museum one morning, which the kids really enjoyed.

The rest of the time, we were just enjoying our 5 bedroom rental house. Owen called it his "yellow house." When we told him saturday night that we had to pack our bags b/c we were flying back to owen's house in the morning, he told us "no stay at my yellow house." he loved that house! a few other great comments came from ryan. my #1 comments from ryan was "mommy, we did not come to arizona for lattes." well, ryan, sorry but mommy did come to arizona to have some great tea lattes from Coffee bean and Tea leaf :)

back to the airport to fly home. it was a great vacation!

daddy and ryan on the plane

beef, callie, and emily sat right behind us.

The next weekend we were back to Sedalia for Callie's baptism. Owen was a cuttie in his sweater!

Is it Christmas yet?

Oh, this last week before Christmas seems as if it is going so slowly. No preschool. Kids ask to open presents every morning! Had to pull out the halloween costumes to keep the kids busy. This was the result.....a pirate and spiderman!

And we decided to make our first ever Gingerbread house. i was informed by Ryan that we need to buy two houses next year b/c "Owen just keeps messing it up."

Ryan's Christmas Program

Preschool....can't believe my baby is in preschool. I have to say, it was hard to decide if i wanted to put ryan in a real preschool @ our church or just have him go to his daycare two-three times a week. there were pros and cons...the biggest being how was i going to work my schedule so that i could take him to school every m/w/f @ our church. I am SOOOOO happy ryan is at school at Bethany Lutheran. Mrs. Brzon is amazing and Ryan has learned so much. Was so excited to go to his Christmas program. Ryan was one of the three wisemen.

They all took a bow at the end.....

And then sang us some songs :) Below is a video of the kids sing "Away in a manger" if the video actually downloaded.

Oh, and on dec 12, we baptized baby maddie, although, she isn't a baby anymore! Maddie is a one year old!

Santa, Christmas parties, and Family gatherings....

(Dec 6, 2010)

Can you guess what this picture means????? It's time to meet Santa!!!! Dinner @ Fritz's and then to see Santa has become our family tradition. Scott and i decided the game plan this year would be to go earlier in the month so we could attempt to avoid the lines....and it worked! No wait at Fritz's or to see santa. It made for two happy boys and two happy parents.

Playing in Crayola land.

We finally made it to santa, after playing for so long, and we had plenty to tell him. Mommy made the rule that we can only tell Santa three things that we want...b/c santa isn't able to bring EVERYTHING that is on our list. Ryan's top three thing...a vulcan nerf gun, marble run, and legos. Owen's top three things...zhu zhu pets, legos, and mommy can't remember the third item (opps!)

Then it was off to see the pretty trees all lit up in the white lights...and to climb away in the little crown center town.

Next up, it was the neighborhood "kids christmas party." Including choc covered pretzels, cheeseball, lil smokeys, root beer, and gift exchange. I think Owen thought it was the coolest b/c he got to play with all the big kids.

The gift exchange....it was kinda like hot potato, once you were out, you picked a present and had to wait til everyone had their present.

Owen and Evelyn waiting with their presents.

The next day, it was off to the Wolpers family Christmas. As the years have passed and the cousins have gotten married and started families of our own, we are only able to get together once a year. 6 of the 8 cousins or grandchildren were there. Here we all are with our sig. others and grandma :)

And all the great grandchildren (minus baby Callie, but plus mommy b/c Owen would not cooperate).

Grandma, with her children and their spouses.