Safford Trip part 1

On Saturday Dec. 27th we went to Safford for a baby blessing. Jake's brother Austin and his wife just had a baby boy and they named him Trayven. The blessing was real nice and we had a fun spending time with Jake's family.

On the way there we saw lots of mountains with snow on them. It had snowed the day before. It was a pretty site to see.

Kayla just chillin in the car

Jake and I on Tom's Harley(Shera's husband), it was so cold! But it was a lot of fun! Its been so long since I rode on the back of a motorcyle. Jake had a motorcyle not to long ago but it had no back seat. See the snow on the mountain behind us?

The reason we were all there, little baby Trayven. What a cutie!

The whole family after the blessing. See my little nephew in the front...what a stinker!

Jake's grandparents with Austin and Mary after the blessing.

Jake's parents, Paul and Joyce with Trayven.

All of us at Clay's house Sunday afternoon. This picture was just supposed to be just our family but for some reason Mary's neice got in the picture on the far left.

Part 2 is coming up soon!

Christmas Day

Our tree a few days before Christmas. We usually only put a few presents under the tree and all the rest Christmas Eve night. I think it makes it more exciting for them to wait till Christmas morning. I wish I had thought of taking pics of the what the tree looked like Christmas morning before we opened gifts. We woke up about 7am and right away opened our presents. The girls were so excited! Jake and I just got each other a few small things while we gave more to the girls.

Kayla got a Frog Webkinz and a Orca Webkinz. She also got clothes, bag full of little toys, and a bike. And lots of stocking stuffers.

Samantha got a Pig Webkinz and a Rhino Webkinz. She also got a Littlest Pet Shop Club house, clothes, bag full of little toys, and a bike. And lots of stocking stuffers.

Opening presents!

Jake got me these end tables that I've been wanting for a long time. Jake bought them at a yard sale and the girls helped fixed them up really nice.

Their bikes from Santa! They have been riding them everyday since Christmas. Samantha's bike is a little too big for her so I have to help her so she doesn't fall over.

Later we went over to my mom's house for dinner and to open more presents. We first opened presents and then ate some delicious Mexican food. It was just us with my mom, stepdad Jerry and my grandma. We had a really nice time.

Kayla got walkie talkies from grandma and grandpa.
My mom gave Kayla her rock collection from when she was a little girl. Kayla loves to collect different rocks so this was a really special present. She also got clothes and a couple of small things.

Samantha got a princess bank from grandma and grandpa which makes sounds every time you put in money. She also got more LPS, My Little Pony, a Little Einsteins bingo game and some clothes.

We hope everyone had Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Joy School

Samantha started Joy School this week! For those of you who may not know what Joy School is its a do-it-yourself preschool which involves from 3 to 6 mothers who rotate as teacher, holding school in their homes twice a week. A lady I just met like 3 weeks ago at church told me that she and 2 other ladies from our ward were doing this with their daughters. I had told her that Samantha wasn't in preschool cuz I couldn't afford it. So she invited me and Samantha to join! Oh I was so happy and excited! I had never heard of Joy School so its been an intersting thing to learn about. So Samantha just got done with her first week and she absolutely loved it! The other ladies are so nice and I am just so thankful that Samantha is a part of this because I felt like I wasn't teaching her enough of the things she needs to know for kindergarten. And plus it will help with her social skills. She can be really out going and funny but she can also be really shy. The only social life she has is once in a while with some neighbor kids, primary and the library once a week. So preschool will be so good for her in so many ways! And I'm also excited to teach these little girls...and a little nervous. Luckily one of the ladies used to be a preschool teacher and has a lot of ideas and materials to use. We start again Jan 5th when kids go back to school. I wish I had thought of taking pictures today at preschool so I took pictures after we got home.
Samantha working on the letter I, they learn about a new letter every week. You can see she didn't want her picture taken. I don't know why cuz she usually likes to have her picture taken.

Luckily I was able to get another one with the crafts she made today. The theme was island like Hawaii. So they made a island, turtle and grass skirt. The grass skirt is really cute, its made out of different colored streamers!

YUM YUM!!

Every year the girls and I make Christmas cookies. Most of the time I make about 3 different kinds of treats and hand them out to friends and family. Well this year I had to cut back on Christmas expenses so I chose to just make one treat and I chose sugar cookies. Its the girls favorite thing to make. Monday night we made the cookies and decorated them but mommy forgot to capture this wonderful tradition on her camera! So yesterday when Samantha and I were decorating more cookies, I snapped a pic or two of her. But I feel bad that Kayla isn't in these pictures, but she wasn't there and I knew I wouldn't have time later that night
cuz I had to be at work. I will be making more next week so maybe then I will remember to take pictures. They turned out really cute, the girls are such good helpers! Samantha loves to pile a bunch of frosting and sprinkles where as Kayla is more detailed with her frosting and just a little bit of sprinkles. Don't they look so yummy!

Santa

Last night I took the kids to see Santa at a Frys grocery store. They took pictures with him, colored Christmas pictures and decorated cookies, but the best part was, it was all FREE! When I told my kids, Samantha was sooooo excited! Kayla wasn't all that thrilled about the idea(since she knows the truth about Santa) but she had fun anyways. I thought for sure there would be a long line when we got there but when we walked up to Santa, there was no one in line! They should of got a older guy to play Santa but oh well, its better than nothing and paying high prices at the mall.

Thanksgiving 2008

We went to Safford for Thanksgiving this year because my sister in law who lives there couldn't travel because she's gonna have a baby any day now. We all met at Jake's uncle's house where there was about 50 people. His parents drove down from Las Vegas and his oldest sister drove from Dallas Texas. For the past 8 years or so we have spent Thanksgiving with Jake's family and then Christmas with my family. It works out very well. We eat our Thanksgiving meal usually about noon and then visit, eat more, visit and eat even more for the rest of the day. Then the next day we have our Christmas gift exchange and play games. I already talked about what game we play in my last post where I didn't know the name of it but now I do its called Christmas Basket. We played it a little different this time because one, we had a lot more people and two we didn't just yell out names we yelled out things like, anyone who has a red shirt on switch seats. I thought it was a lot more fun that way!

Some of Jake's family from left to right: Jake's dad Paul, uncle Clay, sister Shera, brother Austin, sis n law Mary, Jake, Jake's mom Joyce, sister Jesa, and sister Tara.

This is Kayla and her cousin Erin, these two are about a year and a half apart but they best of friends! They played the whole time we were there, whether it was getting dirty or playing with dolls. Seeing them like this makes me kinda wish we lived in Safford again.

Samantha getting a makeover! Jake's aunt Shelly's sister who came for Thanksgiving had a bunch of left over Mary Kay makeup where she showed some of the girls how to properly apply on makeup. This is Samantha's before picture.

Samantha applying eyeshadow. She also put on blush, eyeliner, mascara and lipstick! Of course mommy had to help her, she's not that good yet!

Samantha's after picture, doesn't she look gorgeous!

Jake was playing with different settings on our camera. I thought this one was kinda cool. Its just pics before we started playing our Christmas Basket game.

Samantha looking so pretty in front of the Christmas tree!

Thanksgiving 2007

I was looking at some pictures from last year and came across these. We are all at Shera's house(Jake's oldest sister) for Thanksgiving in Mesa. She doesn't live there anymore because she got married and moved far away to Texas. :( Anyways, we had a fun time! Lots of good food cuz we have some of the best cooks in our family! Ok so I'm a little bias! Then the day after we exchanged Christmas presents to the family we've been assigned to because we all can't be together for Christmas Day. But before the wrapping paper flys off the presents we played a game. I don't know the exact name of the game so I'll call it the "Switch a Roo" game. It started a couple of years ago with Jake's mother. I don't know where she came up with this game but I'm glad she did because we all have such a fun time playing it. We all sit in a circle(on chairs) and one person stands in the middle and yells out two names. Then those two people try as fast as they can to switch seats along with the person in the middle which leaves someone in the middle again. And it keeps going until you want to stop. Its a good game for everyone, Samantha was 3 at the time and she loved playing it. So if your looking for a fun game to play with your family, you should give this one a try.

All the cousins anxiously waiting to open presents.

Uncle Matt throwing down candy to the kids. I think we didn't have a pinata so this is what we came up with. Whatever the reason was, the kids had a blast!


Then later that night we went to look at the Temple Christmas lights. For some reason Samantha wasn't happy.

I'm looking forward to doing it all again this year!