Merry Christmas and so much more!

OK.... so much to post about to get caught up! First of all, Derek had a little Christmas program for his school. It was a nice little production at the college fine arts auditorium. Derek is wearing a green shirt on the top left.

Last week we grew candy canes! We ordered special north pole candy cane seeds and special north pole dust. Grandpa martin even let us plant them in his garden, glitter and all. We planted at just the right time because that night it rained. When we inspected the next day, we had a bunch of new candy canes!

Tad inspects the mountain everyday to see how much snow is on it. Hopefully we'll get some in the next few days so we can go play!

We took a trip to Mesa to visit cousins....

While we were there we went and saw an elaborate display of garden trains (these pics are for both Grandpa's!!). It was pretty impressive and I'm sure pretty expensive!

Darci sure loves her baths. I turned around the other day to grab a towel and she hopped right in with Paige and Kevin.

We had a Christmas Eve party at Nana and Grandpa's this year, complete with the grandkids performing the nativity, a talent show and a white elephant gift exchange. It was a lot of fun.

Cute little angels...

Uncle Brad as the donkey...

What a messy girl!! It doesn't take long for her to go from clean to a complete mess. She definitely had fun!

Christmas Day... Since Tad was working, we all got up bright and early at 5:15 to open presents so he could participate. So thankful for all the grandparents and aunts/uncles and Santa for all their gifts! This year Darci understood what was going on and sure got excited with the little baby dolls she got. Derek got some dragon things, Kevin got some trains and dragon stuff, and Paige got a doll and necklaces. Tad and I are still arguing about whether Santa should leave the presents wrapped or unwrapped under the tree. I think they should be wrapped because otherwise they wouldn't have that many presents to unwrap and he says that Santa should leave them unwrapped.

We are also very grateful for the birth of our savior, Jesus Christ, as he has given us the best gift, the gift of eternal life where we can be with our families forever! We are grateful for his ultimate sacrifice for us, and we are glad that our children are learning about Him in the midst of this crazy season and the excitement of getting and giving presents.

She can ride a BIKE!

A few weeks ago Paige came in and told us she taught herself how to ride her bike without training wheels. I said, no way, and went out to look and sure enough the girl taught herself how to ride a bike!

This is the third bike she's had this year. Her first princess bike with training wheels got ran over by grandpa when she left it out in his driveway when we first moved here. The second bike, the "big wheel" got ran over by daddy when mommy left it too close to the driveway (you can't see a darn thing when you're driving that truck). So we were lucky and found this bike - a little beat up - but just like her first princess bike at a goodwill for about $10.

This video is the day she learned. Now she's a pro and rides whenever she gets a chance and wherever she can and without shoes most of the time because that is just Paige.

Christmas Fun

We have been having a lot of fun this month getting ready for Christmas. I took the kids to the Safford light parade - no, it is not quite the same as the APS light parade in Phoenix or the luminaries in old town Albuquerque, but it was pretty good. Lots of lights, not too cold, and Santa was there, so the kids loved it.

Darci is waving at Santa. We ask her, What does Santa say? And she'll say Ho Ho Ho.

Yummy Family Home Evening treats after we learned about the true meaning of all of our Christmas fun.

Darci eating dinner the other night. Apparently the food is better if you lick it off the plate.

Making goodies for our neighbors and friends...

We went to the Festival of trees in Safford. It was fun. Anyone can enter their tree to be shown. We might have to do that next year.

Kevin's preschool class made a tree and he was proud to show it to us.

Walking around main street Safford.

Our cute Christmas girls.