Christmas Fun

So we finally broke down and set up the tree today! Yeay...

Photos here of tree

Mike went up to the superstitions to hike Flatiron with his friend Brian and his boys. It was a tough hike , but he made it. He came home and took a little nap.

Photos here of hike

I finished up a little bit of baking and then we headed out to our new mall up the street to go see Santa. The kids had written up their lists to give to him. You can see Niko's in his hand in the photo.

Today Mike and the kids had a very busy day while I was at work. Mike got up in the wee hours of the morning to work and get stuff done for today with his job. I got Matthew off to daycare on my way to work.

After a 9:00 am standard conference call with his boss, he was off to the school to do jingle-jog (click for photos) with Bethany at the school. Then he had a Christmas lunch with her. It was an early out day for them so Mike and the kids spent the afternoon watching Christmas movies and Niko got out some of his birthday toys to play with. It was a relaxing afternoon for them.

Work was painfully slow again. Everyone had seemed to go home by lunch time and there was not a whole lot for us to do. Monday should be joy of joys as the anticipation is that it will be even quieter-ahh...

After the kids went to bed, I headed out to do some mid-night shopping. Amazing that you can still manage to stand in line for 45 minutes at 11:45 at night!

Anyhow. Looking forward to this weekend.

Niko's 7!!

So Niko turned 7 today. WOW....Mike had the day off to spend it with him. HE picked him up from school about 11:00 so that he could celebrate with his classmates and do his star of the week stuff. Then they went out to lunch at In and Out and then went to go see a movie. They saw Bee Movie and really liked it. Mike made Niko's cake for tonight...Yep, you heard me right...Mike made Niko's cake today. It turned out AWESOME too. He did a great job.

I got home in the evening, then Nana and Popo came over to do cake and presents. Niko had a lot of fun and a great birthday.

I had my Christmas potluck at work today. I'm feeling very bloated and unattractive at the moment- just kidding (but not kidding about the bloated part-hehe) Good times!

Mike's 33!!

Mike turned 33 today. I think he had a good birthday. They give him his birthday off as one of his paid holiday's at work, but he was able to switch that day to tomorrow so he can spend Niko's birthday with him and they can celebrate together. So he did end up working today. It's all good.

So, he took the kids to McDonald's for ice cream after he picked them up from school and they celebrated together that way. I got home at my usual time, we ate dinner and then the boys and I ran to Wally-World to get cupcakes for Niko's class tomorrow. He is going in to celebrate with them tomorrow morning and then Mike will pick him up before lunch. Anyhow, It was a busy night again, as usual. But fun, as always.

Extra Photos

Family Photo Shot

Here's our goofy family today

Star of the Week

Niko is star of the week this week in his class. So he gets to share this poster with his class today and then throughout the week has special assignments that he gets to do in the class that make him feel special and important. Fun times.

Let it Snow!

Today after church, we headed up to Flagstaff to play in the snow. After countless repetitions of the question, "Are we there yet?" we finally got to the good "fluffy" stuff. We had some good snow ball fights, built a snowman, made snow angles....(Matthew learned how to make 'yellow snow') :)...and played around until we froze. We all had a blast.

We changed into dry warm clothes and headed home. It was a fabulous day. Beautiful weather, everyone was in a great mood, we were happy and made some awesome memories. After such a busy week with work and school schedules, the time on the weekends becomes more and more precious as we reconnect as a family unit and refocus.

Here are some photos and a video

Birthday Date Night

Tonight we (meaning Mike and I) celebrated Mike's birthday. We got a sitter and went out on the town....Kind of...

We went to Carrabas Italian Grill and each got a bowl of soup to go with our free bread-hehe. It was so yummy and I think the waitress was a bit disappointed in our choice, but we made her happy with the tip so it's all good ;)...

After that we went and got a couple Christmas gifts for the kids and spent some time together...Now we're home and grateful that we got to spend some nice time together.

Seussical

Bethany went on her class field trip today to see Seussical at the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts. They all had a real good time. I'm sure it was alot of fun to take a break away from the typical school day as well.

Christmas Caroling

Tonight Bethany and Niko went with a group of kids and parents to go caroling through a neighborhood. We'd knock on doors and just start singing when the door was answered. It was a lot of fun and cool to see the faces of everyone behind the doors. There were teenagers literally running down the stairs to get to the door to hear and see the singing; people ran and got their cameras to take pictures of us; Kids, dogs, grandparents, all sorts of people with smiling faces, blessed by the kids singing. It was really cool and a lot of fun for everyone.

I brought the camera, but forgot the memory card. Oh well...

The past couple of days Mike has been working at home because Matthew hasn't been feeling to well. He's on the up road now though, so that's good.

Miracles - Jesus Commercial

Jury Duty

I got a summons for jury duty and was called to report on Monday. I was over-confident that I would not get picked because of my job mostly. So, wouldn't you know, i got picked to be a part of this jury. I am actually honored and feel kind of privileged to get picked. It just would be nice if I wasn't having to miss work because of it.

This trial should take me through tomorrow afternoon. Then I can tell you all about it. I served on a trial in Idaho a number of years ago. I was surprised that here in Arizona, the jurors are allowed to ask the witnesses questions, as long as they are approved of by the attorneys and the judge. I don't remember that option in Idaho....

It's been nice to get back to the family earlier in the evening, being that the court is on this side of town.

I have enjoyed my time with the kids this week. Matthew has been doing so well in daycare and adjusting well to that. Bethany is working on a penguin project in class and reading a ton of books. Niko went to the zoo a little bit ago on a field trip. I don't think we mentioned that on the blog here. He had a great time and it was special to be able to go with his friends from school.

All the kids really are doing well. They are growing up so fast as this school year flies by. They all have their beautiful and extraordinary gifts. And I just love them more and appreciate them more each day. It truly is amazing what wonderful gifts they continue to prove to be. It's easy to see that as you hold them in your arms as babies, but sometimes I miss it the older they get just how much of a blessing each of them are to us and how awesome they are, no matter what they do or how they behave.

If you watch the video Mike posted on sending the kids away, it is meant to be funny. Our sensitive and empathetic Mister Niko was appalled that we were laughing at such a thought and kept saying that it was NOT funny. So don't y'all dare to tell him that we posted it out here for you all to laugh at. I don't think he'd appreciate that.

Anyhow, hopefully I'll get back in the swing of things updating you all more often. It's time to get into a better routine.

Our Weekend Get-a-Way

This weekend Mike and I had an opportunity to get away for an overnight trip without the kiddos. My mom and Dave came down and stayed with them while we headed down to Bisbee.

Mike and I had been to Tombstone when Bethany was a baby, but we had never made it all the way down to Bisbee. We went down with no hotel reservations and so checked out all the hotels once we arrived there. We decided on the Copper Queen Hotel because of the character and quaintness of the hotel and also because of the claw footed tub in the bathroom :) (the discount made it enticing, as well)...

It was cold, windy, rainy, and blustery, so we spent the afternoon looking through antique shops and sipping freshly roasted coffee from the Bisbee Coffee Co. We were on a mission for a couple of things. One was a big popcorn popping pot, which we were unable to find. However, I found one of the things I was looking for at the first store we went into. The item was actually a portion of Mike's anniversary gift from me. It was a wooden shaving soap container. This one happened to be made in Denmark around 1920. Here is the container in the complete set in this picture:

Anyhow, after taking pictures and seeing the sights of the town and exploring some of the history that surrounded us and climbing countless stairs, 'just because'...we ate dinner and enjoyed our hotel, playing cards and reading...

We got an early start out on Sunday morning. Our plan was to go over Mount Lemon and on through Florence to home. But upon arriving at the top of Mount Lemon (9150 ft in elevation), we discovered that the road was closed at the top because of the snow that had dumped over the weekend. So, it was back down the mountain we went, back through Tuscon, and on up the I-10. It was fun nonetheless and we were able to see a lot of beautiful sights that we had never seen before.

We had a very relaxing weekend and appreciate the time we got to spend with one another.

Bisbee Trip

Adriana and I had the opportunity to visit Bisbee Arizona this weekend for our 10 year anniversary. More on this soon………….

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