Family Christmas Party

Every year we have a huge family Christmas party in Mesquite. It is always so much fun but this year we did some different things. Like every family had to sing a Christmas song that went along with the Christmas story. We also had a game 12 guys were chosen and they had to blow up balloons and stuff them into pantie hoses and the team then had to put the pantie hose on their head and sing Rudolph the red nosed reindeer. Let me tell you it was SO funny to watch them during the game. We also did our normal stuff eat, chat, play basket ball and did I mention eat.

The mens game:)

A few of the kids playing after the gift exchange

All of the kids singing

Happy Thanksgiving

So I know this is WAY late. But hey better late than never right. So this thanksgiving I did the turkey for the very first time! I was sooo scared but in the end it all came out great! We had a crap load of food. But it was all yummy Erik was the biggest oink I have ever seen and ate enough for a 5yr old and AJ was still his very picky self and hardly ate anything. I am happy to say that I stuck to my diet and did not eat too much:) Yay me.

Some things I was thankful for this year were:

That I have the gospel in my life

I have Arli I do not know what I would do with out him sometimes

For AJ he is the sweetest little boy and is so happy and funny I am so blessed to be his mother

For Erik, he is such a handful but his spirit is so strong that I can not explain. He is always happy. I can count on 1 hand how many times he has been something other than happy. I am proud & blessed to be his Mommy.

For my family and friends.

That my Dad is safe and will be coming home from overseas sometime in January

I could go on and on, but do not have the time.

But one last thing I am thankful for is....I am not pregnant! Even though some of my good friends do know how much I do want another one after dealing with both boys I realize I want to wait awhile. Arli and I are going to start trying in October of 2010.

Me and my turkey! And my lovely turkey apron

Erik and his new favorite food...deviled eggs. I love how you can see how full his cheeks are.

Just a good shot of Kenton I thought I would add in

Everyone ready to eat. And all of the food we had

Crazy Boys

So awhile back after nap time I heard Erik crying so I went into get him and this is what I found. AJ in Erik's bed jumping up and down and having a good old time(with out his pants on to boot) while Erik was crying his little eyes out. Since then AJ has gotten in trouble many times for doing this because it seems the only time he wants to do this is when Erik is asleep and every single time he jumps on Erik.

In the dog house

We went over to my good friend Kim's house and she has a chocolate lab who of course has a big dog cage. Well AJ loved the dog cage so much that he wanted to stay in there.

Saying good bye to crush

So in the beginning of November Arli and I came to the conclusion that the family pet Crush our desert tortoise had to go. AJ, who we thought was scared of the thing, was actually tormenting him. He would try and move Crush and would not do it softly and would toss him across his house. I think AJ ended up getting bit by Crush. Then the whole issue with the heat lamp. I would turn it on in the morning and when the boys went in for a nap AJ would take it off. So that was a big safety hazard. So we gave him to my good friend who has 7 kids and a whole bunch of other pets so I know he will be well taken care of. Plus we can go visit him when ever we want.

This is how I found out that AJ was throwing Crush

I like this pic a lot because my friends boys are 3 and 4 but if you look at them compared to AJ he is the same size as her 4yr old.

AJ(2 1/2), Carson (3) and Jake (4)

Family Visit

So these 2 visits were both surprozes but also about a month apart. But since I have been busy and very behind on my blog I figured I would combine them and make my life a little eaiser. So in the middle of November we got the wonderful surprize of my cousin and his wife coming out here for both buisness and pleasure. So of course we had to get together. It was so fun to see them as I have not seen them for about 10yrs and neither of them had met Arli.

The next visit was just as good of a surprize but my Aunt Jo came out here from Indiana from Indiana and so my Aunt Rosie who lives in Arizona came in to town to see Jo too. I have no seen Aunt Jo for a very long time so it was so fun to see her. We had a blast just catching up and shareing stories and mostly talking about sewing as we all love to sew.