Christmas Day

A wonderful Christmas day was had by all in our family! We hope you have had the same.

Enjoy the sounds of "We Wish You A Merry Christmas..." sung in the dark by the light of the Christmas tree by Jacob and Josh!

Christmas Greeting

Make a Smilebox greeting

Snow!!!

This weekend was very exciting for our family. Jon's sister Alison graduated from Northern Arizona University with her Master's degree. Go Ali! We all drove up to Flagstaff to attend the ceremony on Friday. Flagstaff was not only inundated with graduates and family members, but also 2 feet of snow from a blizzard that had blown through on Monday.

Thankfully, all of our family members made it safely up north in time for the graduation. Right after the ceremony, giant white flakes of snow started to fall from the sky. The boys were simply in heaven! It was their first experience with the stuff.

Later that night at the hotel, all the cousins decided to have a snowball fight. We made our way down to the hotel's tennis court. With all the snow, the tennis court had turned into a giant snow pit, complete with outdoor lighting! Totally awesome.

Here's a brief video of a bit of the snowball fight action:

The next day, we took full advantage of the winter wonderland right outside our doorsteps and had a family outing to partake in some sledding. Thanks to our friends, the Martins, we were fully equiped with sleds (an otherwise unknown commodity in Phoenix).

What a wonderful weekend with SNOW! Congrats to Ali on her graduation as well. We're certainly in the holiday mood now and ready for more celebrations with family and friends. The countdown to Christmas has begun!

Happy Ha-Ha-Holidays!

That was one of the songs that Jacob sang with his class at this evening's Christmas party: "Happy Ha-Ha-Holidays!" It was fun to see all the daycare friends and families together, enjoying these fun moments of the season. Both kids got to see Santa also, as an added bonus. Joshua was a bit nervous, but did ok on Santa's lap as long as his brother was there next to him.

We've got the tree, lights and other various festivities up at our house now. On the way home tonight, Jacob informed me that he's going to sing "Jingle Bells" everytime he sees Christmas lights on someone's house as we drive around. There was a lot of singing in our car, as you can imagine! The cutest thing is that Josh is now old enough to join in the singing of Christmas songs this year. The sounds of two adorable children's voices singing brings such joy! We thank the Lord for such sweet, wonderful, healthy boys and are looking forward to celebrating Jesus's birthday soon.
:)

Macy Photos

Our friends John and Erin took some amazing photos of our kids when we were visiting Oregon a few months ago. Let's just say, they rock!!! Here is a sampling (because we can't help but show these off when they make our kids look so adorable):

We Are Thankful for Friends and Family

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with both. Our friends, the Evans, hosted their annual feast and we enjoyed catching up with everyone. It was warm enough that we let the kids ride their bikes around the neighboorhood after dark to look at Christmas lights!

Our own little family post-Thanksgiving meal was a little bit low-key. Both kids ended up getting sick: Jacob had a fever while Josh threw up over several days. Even though I should have been disappointed after cooking for five hours only to have Josh puke at the dinner table all over his meal, it was still worth it just to be with our family all weekend. We've been getting better and watching lots of Christmas cartoons!

Speaking of family, here is an adorable project that Jacob brought home from school:

Jacob's Family

This is the house where I live with my family.

This is my Mom and Dad. I love them.

This is me and my little brother.

My family likes to go to the movies together.

This book was the sweetest thing to have over Thanksgiving! We hope you enjoyed time together with friends and family, as we did. We are thankful for friends and family!

Staycation

We had the most wonderful family weekend in Prescott. It was so much fun, that we've decided we need to take more "staycations" when time allows. We only had to drive about 1 hour north to feel like we were completely on vacation. And, it was chilly with fall leaves in abundance! We loved every minute of it. Some highlights:

Hiking on the Peavine Trail

Prescott's Minor League Hockey Team: The "Sundogs"

The hotel we were at had an indoor swiming pool which was also a perk. We honestly just hung out and enjoyed being together as a family (and watching cartoons, as you can see below).

Happy Fall-o-ween!

Hello everyone! It's been a busy month, so we're going to have to combine this post to include fall updates, halloween activities and the like.

As far as the "fall" goes for Arizona, we've still been getting a few heat waves. It was 85 degrees earlier this week. I know--we can't complain. However, it does make the soul yearn for some hot-chocolate drinkin' weather. Here's a few photos from our pumpkin patch escapades, despite the warm weather. The pumpkins were later turned into silly, scary, and U of O jack-o-lanterns (wonder who had that idea?). A bonus photo of Jacob being very scary is included.

Halloween was a fun time this year. Both kids were old enough to really enjoy it. They boys were ketchup and mustard, which is a really cute combo costume. However, it didn't go over as well at school since they were separated into their own classrooms for the costume walk. Plus, one of Joshie's classmates wore a Star Wars storm trooper outfit which made our kids super jealous. But, we got through it and the boys even managed to enjoy holding Marty long enough for one photo: he was the "hot dog."

Due to the warm weather post-Halloween, we decided to enjoy a fun day off for Veterans Day at the Phoenix Zoo. We decided to try the family bicycle for the first time. Doesn't it look like fun?!?

It is fun. For the first 15 minutes. Then, the muscles start to really burn. The zoo has a few steep hills and windy paths which makes the hand-operated break kind of interesting. Too bad we paid for a full hour, so we sweated and huffed our way through it in order to get our money's worth. We've checked the bike off our list, so we probably won't do that again. However, Jacob did mention wanting to do the paddle boats next time... we'll see!

We are escaping the heat this weekend and heading up north to Prescott, Arizona. There's guaranteed cold weather and even a slight chance for snow!!! We can't wait. First order of business I think will be some hot chocolate. Yum!

We Love U2!

For Jon's b-day (officially today), we went to the U2 concert last week. It was honestly the most incredible concert we had ever been to. I think what took it to the next level was the fact that we worked our way up on the floor to standing 15 feet from the stage. Seeing Bono and The Edge up close... unreal.

It's really nothing that can be described, except maybe as pure musical genius and exhilaration. They rocked the concert and we partied all night long with them!

Happy Birthday, Jon!!!!

Oregon Trip

Earlier this month, we took a vacation to Oregon. It was a wonderful time. The weather was turning crisp, but not too cold. We only got a drizzle of rain on one day, which was fine for us: we never see the stuff. The leaves were turning and it really felt like autumn.

They boys and I went out early to see Nana, Papa and Uncle Andrew. There was a little "snafu" when we arrived because Josh threw up all over my parents car on the way home from the airport. Thankfully, nothing else eventful occured on the flight and the boys were perfect angels. Upon arrival, Jacob kept asking when we were going to "see Oregon," and we kept emphasizing that we were "in Oregon."

One of our favorite parts was playing at the park with Nana and Papa. The boys couldn't get enough! What a wonderful park Salem's riverfront park is. The boys also took full advantage of the carousel rides.

As an added bonus, I was able to reconnect with some old high school friends (without Facebook, by the way) which was super fun. Steph and Kevin have the cutest girls and I loved seeing the boys playing with dollhouses and princess dress-up toys! Tara has a little boy on the way, so we're excited about that too.

One of the days, we decided to go and feed the ducks which was very thrilling. The only kind of wildlife we see in Phoenix besides pigeons, are the crickets and scorpions (boo) living near us. We tore up some bread slices and gave the Salem ducks and geese quite a feast.

For the ending of our trip, we spent several days up by our alma matter to see "Uncle David" playing soccer for George Fox Univesity. Go Bruins! It was awesome to see him playing and the boys just adored being at the games.

We enjoyed chatting and catching up with so many good friends that came to watch the soccer games as well. Several of us headed out to Abby's pizza (the old spot) on the last night. Jon was loving the shrimp pizza and all the old stories that were told around the table.

We always cherish our times in Oregon. We can't wait until our next Oregon trip!