Christmas!!

We headed up to Payson a few days before Christmas so that we could get in the cooler weather and enjoy some family time!! This year was extra special because my cousin Jennifer was able to come and spend the holiday with us!!! Something else that was special was Filip shared with us some Swedish Christmas traditions!! We had a great time and had lots of yummy foods and some good laughs!!

The girls were very excited about Santa coming and Patsy left him a special note!

Here is Christmas morning when everyone first woke up. Monroe was so excited that she was giving kisses to everyone!!

This is a tradition in our family that every Christmas morning everyone lines up in the hall before we can go and open up presents.

Patsy opening up a present.

After opening our presents we headed back down to the valley for some more Christmas celebrations. On our way to Aaron's grannys we got a flat tire and Aaron had to change the tire in the rain!! I did stand out there with an umbrella but it didn't help much he was still soaked!!

Here is Patsy giving granny a hug thanking her for her Christmas present!

Next we went to Aaron's parents house for yet another Christmas celebration!!

Monroe waiting to open up a present. All the grandkids take turns opening theirs first going from youngest to oldest. Everytime right after Monroe would open a present she would start saying "is it my turn yet"

Here is Aaron and three of his brothers: Kyle,Brett and Tim (Chad didn't make it)

Twin Uncles = Wrestle Mania!!

One of the girls' favorite thing to do while in Payson is to wrestle with their Uncles! This time I snapped a few pictures. This is Spencer and his friend Caulin inflicting some head trauma!

Here is Patsy!! Even in the mist of chaos she has time to pose for the camera!!!

He did it!!!!!!

Aaron got into dental school!!!!! He was accepted today to Midwestern University in Glendale!! We feel so blessed!! After lots of prayers,patience, and some tears we finally are going to be able to start our new chapter in life!! Now we are just trying to decide whether or not to move to Glendale or stay here in Gilbert and make Aaron drive over there. But I guess we have time to decide about that!!

Globe then Tucson

On friday we went to Globe to hang out with my parents who were there for a roping.We had a really good time hanging out and relaxing and letting the girls run around and play in the dirt!! Globe is a great place for mexican food lovers!!! So much mexican food all around!!!

Here is my dad roping he did really good. He made it back to the short go but his partner missed!!!

The girls and I with Filip (our foriegn exchange student)

Aaron and I

Monroe having a ton of fun running around playing with Patsy!!!

On Saturday we went to Tucson with Brett and Lisa and all the kids and had another great day!! We started out by going to the Reid Park Zoo and it was WAY better than the Phoenix Zoo I would recomend it to a friend for sure!!! The animals were right there to see up close and it wasnt so huge that you were walking forever to see the next animal!! We spent about three hours looking at everything!!

Here are the kids by the giraffe they were so close that you could almost touch them so we were able to get a good look at them and see how pretty they really are!!!

Checking out the Rhino's!!

The Zebra's even gave us some action and we didnt even have to pay extra for it!!!!

One of my favorites the Flamingos!!!

After the zoo we went and drove up Mt. Lemmon and it was such a beautiful place!!! It took us about forty five minutes to get to the top and when we got up there it was a real treat because it was covered in snow!!

Thanksgiving!

Our Thanksgiving was really low key because we didn't really have anything to do until this evening when we went to Aaron's parents house so we had all day to hang out so we decided to put up the Christmas tree!!! The girls had a really good time and Monroe said that this is the best tree ever!!!

When we got our new TV we had to get the the dvd with the fireplace scene on it so it could feel more like Christmas here in the valley!!!

While we were decorating we had the doors open to watch the rain (that we never get) and we caught Monroe like this serveral times!!!






Hanging out at the Thanksgiving feast!!!


All the kids playing in the rain!! It even started to hail!!!

Little Pilgrim Girl

Today Patsy's class had pilgrim day!! They made these cute little hats and I had to take a picture with her wearing it!!!

Target Practice

Today while up here in Payson we all went out and did some shooting with the guns and had a great ol time!!! No this gun is not real!!! Well it is a Beebe gun!!

The girls had a ton of fun playing in the dirt and with all the sticks!!

Here is Aaron shooting his gun making tons of holes in a tree stump!!

Here I am giving it a try!!

Monroe with her ear plugs in she called them her purple earring's!!

The crazy shooters going to check the damage they did to something!!!

Sheyla was brave and shot the bigger gun!! I was not so brave!!!

The Fam!!