Christmas and New Year's Eve

We had a very fun Christmas vacation this year. Anthon has tons of vacation time at work so he decided to take a week off for Christmas and New Year's Eve.

Here is our Christmas tree this year. It's so big that we had to take out of our living room our sofa, sofa table and coffee table. I think we need a smaller tree =).

I think I need to get bigger bulbs next year! =)

So, this year, we spent Christmas in Thatcher with my parents. We got there the Wednesday before Christmas. As soon as I got there I was put right to work making tamales! My whole family was there so it was very enjoyable.
That night was the beginning of a lot of sickness though =(. Mason got sick and threw up 3 times throughout the night. Thursday, Makenna threw up and then I got sick. Then, at our Christmas Eve party my niece, Aubrey, threw up. I spent the rest of the night sleeping while everyone played games. Christmas day, I was still feeling sick and McKay started feeling sick too. He ended up throwing up about a dozen times that evening and through the night. Then, on Saturday, Anthon got sick and threw up about a dozen times too and my Dad and Brother-in-law, Kent, got sick too. Sunday was great because everyone was finally feeling better and then on Monday, my little sister, Amy, started throwing up. Nice, huh?
Believe it or not, it was still a really enjoyable time! Here are some pictures!

The gifts went from one end of the room to the other and then up the coffee table!

Mason playing with his cars from his stocking

Makenna was so excited to get Barbie Thumbelina because the little girl in the movie is named MaKena too =)
McKay was WAY excited to get his Thomas the Train set! You'd think I would have tried to get a better picture.....
Opening her Vtech laptop!
Uncle Kent helping Mason open up his very first Christmas present!

This little toy that we got for Mason has been AMAZING!! It keeps him so happy!
McKay watching his Cars movie
Makenna also got a bike which she LOVED!! But I didn't get a picture =(

My camera broke Christmas morning so I didn't take anymore pictures while we were in Thatcher =(. We had a great time though. My sisters and I sang 'My Son, My King' in my parents ward on Sunday. It's a pretty song!
On Tuesday night, my parents watched the kiddos and Anthon and I went to see Sherlock Holmes. GREAT movie!!

We headed back home on Wednesday so we could start getting ready for our annual New Year's Eve party! A friend of ours in the ward was having one too so we decided to combine parties and have it at her house. Thanks Stephanie!

They have really great karaoke equipment and like 300 karaoke songs!! That's what we did most of the night.


NOBODY sings Love Shack better than Nathan Pies!! LOL ;o)
Makenna and McKay were SOO excited to go and play with all of their friends and then totally crashed at like 10:00!! Mason stayed up until around 1:00 with all the grown ups!

This is how they looked before AND after everyone was yelling 'Happy New Year' and blowing all kinds of loud noise makers. They were out COLD!!
Danielle and Marla =)Silly Natasha thinking she can get drunk on Martinelli's sparkling grape juice =)

Makenna and McKay totally missed out on the sparkling cider so they had some the next day with their lunch =)

So sad the holidays are over and I wish I had taken WAY more pictures! But it was an enjoyable time and I can't wait until next year.

I hope everyone else had a wonderful and safe New Year's Eve!!

Halloween, Polar Express & Fun in the snow!

Halloween

Halloween was a little stressful this year. I decided I wanted to do a theme and I thought we had the perfect amount of people in our family to do a Wizard of Oz theme! Makenna REALLY wanted to be the witch but I couldn't find a Dorothy outfit for me that wasn't outrageously priced! So I decided she would be Dorothy and I would be the witch. Anthon was the Scarecrow, McKay the Tin Man & Mason the Lion.
Luckily, Makenna has a friend who has a Halloween birthday and they did a costume party. So...Makenna got to be a witch for that! She LOVED it!

We carved pumpkins for our FHE activity one night. The kids were a little more willing to get their hands dirty this time =).

Daddy and Makenna made a ghost!
McKay and I made a spider!

Mason didn't participate. He was sick and fell asleep in his high chair
Our pumpkins only lasted one night. The next morning, our spider's legs were shriveled =(
The Tin Man, Lion and Dorothy

The Polar Express

November 14th we took a drive up to Williams, AZ with most of my family to ride the Polar Express. You take an hour and a half long ride and they read the book to you and give you hot chocolate and cookies. At one point, you get to "the north pole" (you don't get out) and Santa gets on the train and hands out bells to everyone. Everyone goes in their pajamas, it's really cute!
We got there a little early but they had stuff to do. They have an area where you can take pictures with Santa. Here is ours. The only ones missing are Emily and her hubby Sam and their daughter Brooklee.

All of my kiddos look a little freaky in this pic, but it's the only shot we got with everyone looking at the camera!

They also had room where you can write a letter to Santa and give it to Mrs. Claus.

Mrs. Claus is reading Makenna and McKay's letters to Santa. McKay was too busy worrying about missing the train to pay any attention to Mrs. Claus =)

Getting ready to board the train.
Aubrey, Austin, Aunt Julie, McKay & Makenna

Waiting to get going!
McKay was happy after he got his hot chocolate and cookie
After Santa gave them their bells!
Mason LOVED his bell!
Snow Day

Every year, a group of businesses get together and bring snow down from up north. They set up little booths off to the side and sell food and hot chocolate and stuff and advertise their businesses. It's really fun!

We forgot their gloves so they didn't play in the snow very long =(

Thanksgiving

I didn't take any pictures of our Thanksgiving but we had a great time. We spent this Thanksgiving with Anthon's family. We had dinner at his Uncle Matt's house. We ate, we talked, we laughed and then we slept. Well, I slept. Anthon let me take a 4 hour nap since I was going to go stand in line at midnight for some Black Friday shopping. Yes, I know you can do it online! But I like being out there with all the crazies!! =) I got some good deals and got about 80% of my Christmas shopping done. I was pleased =)

Anyway, It's been crazy around here lately but I will try harder to keep up on my blogging and to keep up with everyone else's =).

Catching up!

Don't worry, I won't talk a lot! This will mostly be pictures.
As you know, McKay turned 3 in September! For his birthday Anthon took him to a Diamondbacks game. They bought hats before the game and McKay LOVED his!!

Mr. Cool =)

Digging into his birthday cupcake. Those Costco cupcakes are HUGE! But they are SO good!

Can't believe my boy is 3! Stupid me, I forgot to take pictures of his swim party =( So this is pretty much all I got. Happy birthday MacMan!!


Some good friends of ours in the ward, the Pies, invited us to go to Disneyland with them and Danielle's parents. We haven't ever taken the kids before and thought it would be fun so we went. It was AWESOME! The kids LOVED it! Anyway, we got a 3 day park hopper pass. We left on the 7th of October and got back on the 11th. We didn't take Mason with us =(. My wonderful parents watched him while we were gone. I cried 7 times the day we left him....
Thanks for watching him mom and dad!!!

Left to right

Madison, Larry, Danielle, Brady, Nathan, Makenna, Anthon & McKay.
Everyone was SO tired by the end of the day! Can you tell

Larry and Brady were nice enough to watch our kids for us several times while rode the bigger rides together. Thanks you guys!!!

Grizzly River Run.

We were able to get Makenna on the Grizzly River Run once but the second time they wouldn't let her on =( She was SO sad!

On Dumbo

Anthon and Nathan waiting to watch the 3D Bugs Life movie

McKay was asleep and didn't get to see Sully =(

On the Monorail headed to the Rain Forest Cafe

The Mr. Toad ride
Bumper cars
Danielle
Makenna, Madi & McKay

On the tram that took us into the park (yeah, these pictures are not in order =))

When we first got to Cali on Wednesday, we had a little bit of time before we met Anthon's cousins for dinner. So, we went to beach. The kids saw all of the oil rigs out in the ocean and they thought they were boats with pirates in them. It was funny because they kept saying that they were going to swim out there and get the pirates.
Makenna's favorite rides were Splash Mountain and Space Mountain. Yeah, Space Mountain!! The whole time I was riding it I kept thinking "Holy Cow, I can't believe Makenna rode this!!" She loved it though. The only one she didn't like was Tower of Terror....I don't blame her! I loved it but I totally hurt my throat from screaming so much!
McKay's favorite rides were Pirates of the Caribbean & the Buzz Lightyear ride.

On the drive home they kept asking if they could go on the rides again and were so bummed when we told them that we were going home. We are already saving up for our next trip to Disneyland. Hopefully it won't be long!

Thank you Pies family for the wonderful time!!! It was AWESOME!

Happy Birthday Macman!!

At 5:45 pm today McKay will be exactly 3 years old. He can be a handful sometimes but boy do we love him. He can ALWAYS make us laugh and he can be so stinkin' sweet too. He always tells me how pretty I am =) (He's too young to know any different ;o)). He is such a fun little boy and I am so thankful have him. I honestly can't imagine our lives without him!
Here are just a few pictures of his life so far.

2005

Not a very good picture but this was taken a few hours after he was born. He was the chunkiest newborn I have ever seen! I was seriously in shock when I first saw him. It took me a minute to realize he was mine! Haha! He was two weeks late (yeah, NOT FUN!) and weighed 9 lbs 8 oz!! He has been my biggest baby so far.
2006

I had to put this one in because of how much he looks like Mason in this picture! It's CRAZY!!2006

We have been really blessed with such smiley & happy babies.
2007 2008
Cute picture of his Chubby cheeks =)2009

Happy birthday McKay! You are such a sweet and fun little boy. Mommy and Daddy love you very much!!