The first thing that comes to mind is our ward Christmas party. I felt like this one had such a nice family feel and it really brought to the true spirit of Christmas to the party. Our ward did a Nativity play. It began with an angel choir which consisted of Rebecca Squires, Erin Parrot, Ashley Stone and me. Then there was a narration by Bonnie Solheim and the Nativity began. Andrew and Kristin Briggs were Mary and Joseph and Dawson and his friends Bo Tenney, Andrew Hudson and another boy were shepards and the ward missionaries and another ward member were the 3 wisemen. It was really cool. Here are some pics:
Here is our Angel Choir (totally awful pic, but all Mike could get with Peyton in his arms):
Here is Mary and Joseph, The Shepards and The wisemen:
Next on the list is our family pictures. These will be special since they are the last ones my brother Billy will be doing for a loooonggg time. He is quitting the photography buiz to focus on school in hopes of entering Medical School. It sucks but he needs to follow his heart. I will add more once I get the disc from him or an email with the rest of the pics HINT....HINT BILLY!!!
Here is what we have so far:
We also got to go to Mike's company party. It was at the Hyatt Regency in Scottsdale. I found a really nice dress and actually pulled off something semi fancy on a low budget..SCORE! We jad so much fun. We had such a fancy gourmet meal, dance a lot, and Kareoked (sp??). We also had fun watching people go crazy drunk. I am so glad I don't drink. Oh and Mike was runner up on a dance contest and he wasn't even drunk! It was a great time!
Next ofcourse was my 27th ;) Bday. Okay, Okay I am actually 31 now. Wow that sounds so weird. I do not feel one bit of 31. I still feel young and I don't know it all yet like I imagined I would by 30. My Mother in law was in town and she got us a Cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory it was soooo dang good. Mike made pot roast and it was sooo yummy. He had taken the kids out the day before to buy my gifts. Emmalee got me a super cute necklace, Dawson got me a nice watch and Mike did great and got me 2 Michael Buble CD's. He is one of my new faves! My mother in law gave me moolah which went to Bath and Body Works Semi annual sale! My mom gave me some voice lesson CD's with lots of vocal warm-ups..much needed and wanted! It was a GREAT BDAY!
Since my bday was on a Sunday, Mike had his parent's watch the monkey and he took me out. We went to Serrano's and then he took me to see Twilight for the 2nd time(his first). He like dit but thought it could have been made better (which I sooo agree). It actually perked his interest and he is thinking of reading it. We shall see. We also went shopping while we were out. I found Emmalee the cutest Christmas dress at Mervyn's closing sale. It was $50 dress and I got it for under $20!! It was nice to get out.
Christmas was a lot of fun. On Christmas Eve we got together at our house iwth my family. We had a pot luck dinner, sang some carols, opened gifts and the kids decorated sugar cookies. They had so much fun doing that. We wanted to just do gifts for the kids this year and focus more on the real meaning of Christmas. It was great. Here are some pics..I added the kids in their Christmas Eve PJ's and setting cookies out for Santa!
Christmas morning was a lot of fun. Mike and I or should I say santa had a lot of things to put together and it was fun!
This is the living room Christmas morning:
Peyton got a Big Wheel, TMX Elmo, Farmer Elmos set, playskool cars and legos! He was pretty excited to tear the wrapping paper open, though he thought his Big wheel was for Elmo at first!
Emmalee got a rose petal cottage, the sansa kid mp3 play, some barbies, little tykes camera, a boy cabbage patch she named Ethan (she reminded me for months that her CP Emma needed a brother) and ofcourse play baby stroller, carier and highchair and a bunch of stocking stuffers.
Dawson got Wall E, an MP3 player, little tykes camera, magnetix, Lego Star wars set, wii games (Lego star wars and a cra racing game) and he got his dog Bella for an early gift in Sept.
I was so prud of myself. Usually when I get Mike a big gift, I ended up blabbing i before his bday or christmas. Well not this year. I got him a new car stereo and he didn't find out till Christmas! His old one wasn't working so well anymore. He loves it! I also got him mechanic gloves and All the superman movies.
Mike got me a jewelry Armoire which is so nice. You can see it in sme of the old pics. My necklaces don't tangle anymore! He also got me a super nice sewing machine travel case! I love both gifts so much!
After Christmas we headed to St Johns to see Mike's family. We had a lot of fun sicne there was snow everywhere! The kids were constantly outside. Peyton was in love with the snow. He didn't want to go back in. The kids had slumber parties nad lots of play dates with their cousins. We also went down to Showlow to see Bedtime Stories. I highly reccomend seeing it. It was really funny and cute! I enjoyed Sandler humor in a clean movie.
Here are some pics of the snow!
Emmalee making snow angels! She wasn't happy about wearing Dawson's old snow coat!
Emm and I helping Peyton make a snow angel!
Don't you love my snow baby!!! Reminds me of a Christmas story!
Dawson making a snow angel!
Well it is late and sadly I took so long to post that I may have forgot some things. Hopefully i will remember later! I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!
