The Christmas Blues

One night, a few days after Christmas, Ellie was haing a hard time going to bed. Finally, I went into her room to see what was the matter. I found her crying and asked what was the matter.

"Christmas is really over!" she sobbed.

Fun With Nana

A few years ago my sister-in-law made a scrapbook for my mother-in-laws birthday. It was filled with stories and pictures of the grandchildren doing their favorite things with grandma. While we have no shortage of stories I was disappointed to find that I didn't possess many pictures to contribute to her scrapbook. So this vacation it was my goal to ramify the problem. Thankyou Nana, for all the fun things you love to do with your grandchildren.

Feeding the Ducks

The three on the right are the Marble triplets, born five months apart, Wyatt, Meren, and Emma.

The Big Fish Fry

A favorite of all the grandchildren, listening to Nana read stories

Planting bulbs, or trying to at least.

Trying to Catch Up

Well, we made it home from our wonderful vacation. It was so nice to be with family again. I always enjoy the recharge I get when we visit Arizona. We try and live it up. We went to all three of the great Mexican restaurants in Safford, we went on dates every other night(thanks Nana and Papa for all the babysitting), and the girls had cousins to play with everyday.

But it was wonderful to finally make it home. Even Ellie was began to miss her house. She asked us several times near the end of our trip, "When are we going to back to our house in Thomaston. I miss my bed?"

Our house however, did not neccessarily put out a warm welcome for us. First thing we noticed is the garage door did not work. The problem, a broken spring. Next problem, our phone was not working. Its status is still a mystery. And lastly and most seriously, no water. Thankfully Greila Drilling came our on a Saturday and was able to fix that problem for a hefty price. PS. A new pump and motor is not cheap.

PPS. Adam's Sunday shoes made it home, and so did our mountain of mail.

Emma's 2nd Birthday

"Dora" was the theme,
the candles were almost blown out by the birthday girl,
and she continued to sing Happy Birthday to herself the rest of the night.

"Pat pat earth day to yoo"
"pat pat earth day to yoo"

Never-ending Cousin Supply

Family Christmas Party- KK Skousen Park

NO one can wack a pinata like my girls!


Except the five year old boy that smashed it to pieces. Afterwards Ellie came up to me very upset, "Mom, I didn't hit it good enough. That boy is five. Someday I will be five and I will hit it just like him." A worthy goal I believe.

Christmas Morning

Christmas is so much fun now that I have children to share it with. Ellie especially enjoyed the holidays. Adam took her shopping to buy my presents and she had a blast and kept her secrets very well. I was even able to pull off a few secret presents myself which doesn't happen very often with my snooping husband.
Emma loved her Dora doll, Ellie loved her dancing princess barbie doll, and to complete Christmas a brand-new pony for each of them. This year was supposed to be the "Nongirlie" Christmas by Adam's request, thus the dinosaurs and the digital camera, but I couldn't help myself. I have Girlie girls and they need their dollies.

A White Christmas

Brought to you by Nana Marble's bathroom jet tub

Trying to Remember Our Savior

Reenactment of the Nativity Scene

Staring

Ellis as Mary

Emma as the Angel

Uncle Kurtis as Joseph

and Aunt Shanna as a Shepard and Wiseman

Too slow to Add Pictures

Out here at my mom's house, you have to have a lot of patience to try and load pictures to blogger on account of her slow internet connection, which I do not so. . .

Check out my sister-in-laws site for our family news.

So, So Much to Show

Wow, this Christmas vacation has been a big one, with family events at every corner with weddings, a missionary farwell, family parties and picnics, Christmas, New Years, and birthdays.

First, Adam's youngest brother, David was married in the Mesa temple to a wonderful girl on Dec 18. The whole family was together with all six siblings, five spouses, and eleven grandchildren. Welcome to the family, Amber!!

Christmas in the Desert

I grew up in a very rual part of Southwestern Arizona. My parents are grass farmers. And my girls love to visit the desert. We always pack lots of play clothes and we never buy new shoes before we visit the grandparents, because we plan on getting dirty everyday we are there. There are tractors, four-wheelers, dogs, kittens, and a bunch of fun uncles and aunts to play with. Every afternoon Adam takes us for a drive to the only gas station near by and
we chat with the store owner and get a soda.

I Have A Question

Well, everything went off well last week as we scurried to go on vacation. I finished all my finals pretty well, although Spanish was a killer. We stayed up super late packing. We made it to the airport on time. We had succsessful flights, although our DVD player decided to quit on us. Did you know in some airports you can rent a portable DVD player for $15 and it comes with a movie. Totally worth it!!

We stopped in Phoenix where Grandma and Grandpa picked up the girls and Adam and I went on to Utah to attend a distibutioner's meeting and retreat.

I love visiting Utah. The whole Mormon culture is so dominate here. I get a kick out of the billboard advertisements and radio commercials. But I still have the question, What is Fry Sauce?

Oh, one more thing, I met the owner and founder of "Stampin' Up" and we went on a tour of her distribution center and I have visited three different scrapbook stores. I am feeling very crafty all of the sudden. It must be this Utah air.

Two Down, Two to Go, Yes it's Finals Week

And we leave to visit family in Arizona on Sunday.

Let's do the math:

School+tests+laundry+house cleaning+emptying the refrigerator+Christmas shopping+packing=

A stressed mom who has five lists going and who keeps adding to them instead of crossing things off