Happy Birthday to me!

Okay so this is not the most attractive picture, but I did not have anything to choose from since I am always the one taking the pictures! We enjoyed a nice day today with my parents, grandparents and nephew. They came over after church to help us eat left over mexican food from a party we had last night. For dessert we had a wonderful sampling of Sprinkles Cupcakes that Ryan picked up for us yesterday- yum! It was nice to be able to have a small gathering and be able to have time to sit and talk to my grandparents while my parents and husband cleaned up!

Christmas Morning

Here is a sample of all the gifts that were opened from Santa, Mom and Dad. It was a great morning!

Of course Mackenzie finally got a pair of Jack Percells!


We take a picture of the kids on the stairs every year before they come down to see what Santa left for them. It is our way to see how much they grow each year!

Here is what Santa brought:

A Camcorder for Mackenzie

A digital camera for Madalyn

A baby doll that talks and moves just like a real baby for Meredith.

Star Wars Legos on the Wii for Trevor.

Christmas Day Continued....

Christmas dinner at my mom's- this is part of the gang!

My children are always mooching Pop Tarts from Grandma and Grandpa Wright when they go over to their house. My parents decided that they would fix the problem and buy all the children their own box of Pop Tarts. I think this was probably one of their highlights :o)!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was spent with Randy and Cathy's family in Carlsbad. We had a yummy dinner and acted out the nativity. It amazes me the costumes the kids can come up with out of fabric scraps! It was a great evening (as always with the Jones cousins)! We did miss spending time with Grandma and Grandpa Jones- it was our first Christmas Eve without them. Hopefully next year things will be back to normal so the whole family can be together again!

Christmas Sunday

Just a picture to show the kids all dress in their Christmas dresses and ties!

Don't mean to brag, but these are some good looking kids! They must look like their mom lol! Don't mind Meredith's blue mouth from the candy cane she ate on the way home from church!

Early visit from Santa

Thanks to Jon, Santa came a little early this year! We had just gotten home from the girls Singers Company performance when we received a knock on the door. We thought it was one of the wonderful little tokens that our friends pass out at this time of year. However we were super surprised to see Santa on our door!!! He was checking up on the kids to make sure that they were being good so that he could come back and visit them on Christmas Eve. The funny part was that when he asked Trevor if he had been good Trevor was afraid to say yes because he had a difficult day :o)! I think all our kids were shell shocked when Santa came to the door. They did not quite know what to do! What a special treat-
we are thankful for good visits like this! Thank you!

Southern California Snow!

So it really did not snow at our house, but last Friday morning this is what we woke up to! The nights have been so cold that a thick layer of ice was left on our roof and the grass area next door to our house. It was a pretty cool sight to see so much white on the green grass. The kids got a kick out of it. In fact Trevor got up early the next two mornings so he could rush outside and see the "snow" ;)!

Christmas Card Disaster !!

Let me start off by saying that it is usually really important for me to get my Christmas cards out the first week of December. Obviously that did not happen this year. Since my life decided to change this December I had to change and just let some things go (like getting my cards out on Dec. 1st).

So I decided to go the easy route on the cards and just order some from Snapfish. I spent a few hours deciding on some good pictures that had been taken throughout the year and putting the card together. Well, our cards came a few days ago and they are TERRIBLE!!!!! I will never use Snapfish again. It looks like they photocopied all of our cards. You know they are bad when Mackenzie is insisting that I do not send them out and Ryan quickly got online so we could return them for a full refund.

So where does that leave me???? Yes, cardless- Christmas is only 11 days away and I have nothing. I am so sad!!!! My friend Lisa has offered to help me put something together to send out (even if it is the cheapy Costco cards). Now hopefully we will both beable to find time to actually get together to do it.

Don't even ask about our annual Christmas party that is not happening.....I promise to make it larger than ever next year :o)!! After all I could always use some naked lady yardwork. yard o' beef, glow in the dark toilet seat, and a burping reindeer :0)!!! Who knows, maybe we will put a twist on it and make it a "after Christmas regifting party?!?!"

Hair today, gone tomorrow!

In primary the children were challenged to do something nice for someone else this Christmas season. They were asked to write down what they did (annonymously) and put it in our "Christmas box". Each week the primary will read what some of the kids in primary are doing. Madalyn decided that her act of service would be to donate her hair to locks of love. So on Saturday we went to the hair salon and Madalyn cut off her hair! You can see the before picture above.

During

After ( I think she looks darling!)

Meredith decided that she too needed a new "do" so she got about four inches cut off:

She looks so grown up!

Merry Christmas

After the first Presidencies Christmas Devotional last night the kids all got to open their Christmas Jammies. I usually give them their jammies on Christmas Eve, but this year I decided to do it earlier in the season. That way they will have the opportunity to wear them all season (yeah it only took 11 years to figure this out- duh)! They were all so excited to have warm snuggly jammies- after all it was freezing that night (50 degrees)- for us Californians that is FREEZING!

For Family Home Evening we went to the mall so the kids could tell Santa what they want for Christmas. Here is the list: Meredith- dolly; Trevor- Star War Lego's for the Wii; Madalyn- digital camera; Mackenzie- her list is so long yet once she got up there with Santa she could not think of a darn thing. So I told Santa a few things on her list: Jack Percel's and a camcorder. I think she thinks she is getting "too old", but in our family you are never too old for Santa! Let all the festivities begin!

Eat your heart out!

Eat your heart out Randy!! "Don't you wish your mall was as hot as mine?"

I am thinking show and tell for all Trevor's kindergarten buddies?!? j/k

It was all about the sparkly pom poms for Meredith!

While visiting with Santa tonight, the San Diego Charger Cheerleaders happen to be at a men's store right across the way. They were selling calendars- no not the modest ones ;)! The money from the calendars were going to benefit the American Cancer Society. We had to show our suppport! Anyway, since I had my camera with me Ryan just had to get his picture with some "hot girls"!

STOP READING!!!!!

My post all published backwards for Thanksgiving so scroll down three post to get to the beginning!!

And More...Sorry to bore you....

The newly opened pirate ship at the North property

Meredith is dead asleep here! I thought it was funny so I took a picture.

As you see we were on a sleep when ever you can schedule!

Trevor loved doing flips in the pool with his Dad!

More Maui fun!

Meredith in front of the beach by our villas


The girls got taken down by waves and had a blast! (Trevor too) Meredith on the other hand just wanted to go into the pool. She did not like all that sand.


Madalyn's hair and face covered in sand. It was so hard to get out!!!


On Monday night I made a spaghetti dinner and Mackenzie surprised us all with this beautifully set table- look out Martha!!


Ryan and Trevor formed this sea turtle in the sand. For those who do not know Ryan is an excellent artist- it is a talent he keeps hidden!

Thanksgiving in Maui

Aloha! This year we did something different than our normal dinner at Aunt Milena's and then a second dinner at the Jones'. We decided to get away and go to Maui :o)! Randy, Cathy and their kids were all there too. It was a wonderful vacation full of 85 degree weather, lots of swimming, playing in the waves and relaxing. When I say we relaxed I mean it- we did not do much (which is rare for our family)! It was pure heaven! I read an entire book in one week- don't laugh- it is hard to find time to read when I am at home and it usually takes me a month! Anyone looking for a good book I read Molokai- it was really good.



Here is the low down in summary form: we ate Hula pie (yum), ate $1.00 taco's at Lahaina Cannery Mall, ate delicious fish, took a day trip to a white sand beach, enjoyed the water slide, drank virgin pina colada's, played in the warm ocean, etc- get the picture ;)!?!


The Jones beauties in front of a christmas tree at Whalers Village



We bought a turkey meal from Safeway and made our own turkey dinner to eat in our villas. It was yummy and we had lots of left overs for turkey sandwiches- yum!