Snow in Thatcher and visit from cousins

My mom brought my sister's kids to visit a few days after Christmas. For a few days the weather turned cold - 17 degree nights - and we got a little bit of snow in Thatcher. Not enough to stick on the ground, but enough to have fun in. This video was on Dec 30th.

We drove up on Mt Graham hoping to play, but they had the gates closed off because they hadn't been snow plowed yet, so we had to just pull off the side of the road somewhere. Unfortunately it was VERY windy that day, so it felt closer to ZERO with the wind chill.

Almost as soon as they got out of the van, they got back in because the wind was so intense.

Vinyl lettering for the door

It was a lot of fun for the kids to have their cousins come visit (hint, hint)

And of course, they had to ride Grandpa's train, which was just painted by Uncle Brad.

We also had fun with our other cousins, Max, Maya and Cooper who came over to play while they were visiting Nana and Grandpa. They loved riding on Grandpa's train also!! We also enjoyed seeing Jake and Garrett who are getting so BIG!! We're glad that we're back in AZ and the kids can see all of their cousins more often.

Missed Videos

I've been looking at old videos and realized I never posted this one and thought it was cute enough to share.

This one too!

And this one when she was 18 months singing in the car...

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.