Utah Trip

Last Wednesday we headed up to Utah with all of Aaron's family and had a really good time!! The girls love road trips and were so excited!! We went through Payson and picked up Filip so he could come and hang out and experience good ol Utah. And as Aaron says see some Utards!!

Aaron and Filip standing outside of the cabin.



Here are all the girl cousins getting warm by the fire. They all had so much fun having a four night sleep over together!!



Monroe playing in the snow.

Trying to make frosty the snowman.

Here are all the kids helping to make a snowman.

And of course you can't go out in the snow without having a massive snowball fight!! Aaron made three kids cry!! So everyone gained up on him and by the time it was over he was soaked :)

On Friday we went Snowboarding at Brian Head with Filip, Brett, and Kyle and Mandy and had a really good time!! It was Aaron's first time going and he caught on pretty fast and had a good time. It was my second time going and I was still on my butt most of the time :)

Filip put us all to shame!!!

On Saturday we went to Zions National Park. It was so pretty there and made you really thankful for all the beauty around us!!

Aaron dressed Monroe this day and put her in Patsy's pants and when she was walking in front of us we got to laughing so hard because she looked just like her papa Charlie!!

This was a great time of the year to come because there were so many waterfalls coming off the mountains!!

Aaron and Filip acting crazy! They took a bunch of "Rotary Club pictures" but I spared all of you and only posted one!!

Filip and Patsy!!

New Years

This year for New Years eve we went out to the Flake's ranch out on Ironwood.

Here is the big fire that I am sure you could see for miles away!!

Here we are hanging out by the fire and enjoying all the good company.


The girls being silly.

Here is Aaron and Spencer roping the dummy.

And here is little Monroe enjoying some potatoe soup that my mom made. And Reed made some really good mini weenies wrapped in bacon that were to die for :) -For Amy!!

I think that the potatoe soup gave Aaron some gas or something........

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!!!