Goodbye 2008!!!

I thought, as I'm sitting here watching the ball drop in New York, that I might add some pics of fun things about 2008. However, I just realized that I only have pics on this computer from the past few months. So you just get those!  And you've probably already seen some (most) of these, but they're cute, so too bad!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!! I hope you have a wonderful 2009!

The sunset from the mirror of the car in Yuma AZ

Mike and the kids at the Yuma Prison (we were just visiting, I swear!)

Adrie and Caile running to the playground.  They actually are the best of friends!

Conner on the peak of the mountain on the Yuma climb.

A very rare sight.  Conner rarely smiles in pictures.  He must have liked the guns!

Yep.  I'd say he liked the guns!

Always photogenic, Alia at the Yuma Quartermaster Supply Depot.

What's better than presents???

Alia on the first day of school.

See, once they did like each other!  I have proof!

Is she gorgeous or what???

HELP!  Me and the kids in "jail" at the Yuma Prison.

There's the 'tude I know so well!

I'm speechless.  She's so beautiful!

In a few years...

Cheese!

Hmmm, that's just Adrie.

Peek a boo, I see you!

Love her!

Merry Christmas

Such a big girl!  Caile opening one of her presents.

Conner hiking with dad (taking the pictures), Uncle (big) Mike and Uncle Chris.

The kids posing themselves at the Yuma Quartermasters Supply Depot.  Cool place!

Uncle Kenneth arrives!

Aircraft is all over the place down here.  Mike could tell you what this is.

I hope you all enjoyed a wonderful Christmas. We have had a wonderful week and love visiting with long lost family and friends! 

The Camel Farm

We went out the the Camel Farm today.  It was really cool!  They have a bunch of desert animals.  Fun stuff.  The kids loved it!

Make a Smilebox photobook

The first few days of vacation

Ann-Elise on the cool dragon slide

Alia taking a minute to pose

Adrie

Adrie again (oops, I thought one of these were of Caile, my bad!)

A rare pic of Conner actually smiling!

One of the visitors that we see in the back yard.

Caile, the water baby

All the kids at the rest stop outside of San Diego

Alia and Ann-Elise burning off some energy.

Our carry on luggage for the flight.  Looks fun, right?

We flew into Ontario California on a late evening flight, stayed the night at my cousins house and then headed out in the morning for a 4.5 hour drive to Yuma.  We stopped at a rest stop along the way, just outside of San Diego and let the kids burn off some energy.  Of course, as soon as we hit grandma and grandpa's house, they were in the pool!  As were they every afternoon after!  Yesterday Mike and grandpa took the kids to a really cool play area by the Colorado river.  The kids LOVED it and we're looking forward to going again!

Of course, we're missing the 8 inches of snow at home, but we're loving the sunshine here in Arizona!

I'm such a cheater!

I have had SO many compliments on our Christmas Scrapbook that I have to make a confession. My friend, Coral, had this really cool book on her facebook. I just followed the "make your own smilebox" link and signed up for the service (it's free for 14 days, then like $30/year). You pretty much just pick the format that you want (anything from 1-400 picture options are available) and then add your pics. I really liked how well smilebox woked with my Mac. I was able to just open my iphots and then drag the ones I wanted into smilebox and add them to the book. Way easier than other programs that I have attempted to use. Honestly, it took me a lot longer to cut and paste all the email addresses than it did to actually make the scrapbook. You can import your addresses, but it didn't work the first time I tried and I didn't want to mess with it, so I just did it individually. I really loved making the scrapbook and love that I could email it, put in on facebook as well as add it to my blog or even print it out. I loved all of the different themes that they offered and can tell you that you'll be seeing a lot more of these picture books on my blog (and in your email box!). Ok. That's my plug for www.smilebox.com. Check them out!  And I know, I'm such a cheater, but honestly, you know you thought I rocked for a minute there!

Merry Christmas from us to you!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

An early white Christmas

Because we are going to be away for Christmas, we decided to open our family gifts early. We weren't sure when exactly we would be able to do it. However, we woke up yesterday to beautiful snow falling. We missed church and decided that after the kids had played outside all day, it would be nice to spend a quiet evening at home opening presents. 

Mike with his new digital frame

Conner got a new Nerf accessory that he had to try out.  Looks like it works pretty well!

Alia got the digital camera she's been begging for.

Adrie with her "Fancy, Fancy Nancy" doll.

Caile with her new baby doll.  She can take it in the bath.  It's so cute.

Conner got 3 new air soft guns

Ann-Elise with her American Girl doll.

Caile ready for the snow.

Caile out in the snow.  She was good for about 10 minutes!

The scene in the morning.  Just as the sun was rising.  Beautiful!  I love it before all the tire tracks and foot prints!

Ward Christmas Party

Alia and Ann-Elise with one of their good friends.

Adrie with her buddy Deacon

Caile and William enjoying the show.

It's the Grinch!

Ann-Elise playing "cat's cradle" with Allysia.

Tonight we had our ward Christmas Party.  It was a lot of fun.  We had a great turn out and awesome food.  The theme was "The Grinch who Stole Christmas".  There was a cute play and everything.  I'm including some pics of the fun night.