Christmas 2011

Christmas morning was awesome!!! We got up at our usual Sunday time, everyone got ready in record time, I made a french toast casserole for breakfast (yumm) and we were at church in our seats 25 min early!! We enjoyed a beautiful Christmas musical program and headed home to FINALLY open presents.

I actually enjoyed waiting to open gifts due to church, it kind of made the day last a little longer and I think I was more coherent to actually enjoy it! I love that even though our kids aren't small anymore they still get excited about Christmas and its magic. I love how excited they get about opening their stockings (that was a favorite for me when I was younger too). I love how appreciative they are for the things they receive, they always say thank you and seem to genuinely appreciate what they are given! I love just sitting back, enjoying and soaking it all in.
When we finished gifts we just spent the rest of the afternoon being together, and relaxing.
We went over to Darin and Carey's for a Christmas dinner with Grandma and Grandpa Perkins, and Russ and Jen. Good food and more relaxing. When we got back home we were kind of scrambling to finish packing and getting ready to head to Utah the next morning to join all our Wright cousins and family!! It was a great Christmas filled with many good memories and experiences, We have much to be thankful for.

December 2011

SOME of the highlights for the month of December include...

My first child (Braydon) got his drivers license (heaven help us!!!)-
Its bitter sweet. I love the fact that they are growing up to be these amazing people but at the same time each little mile stone makes them a little closer to growing up and leaving the nest which I don't want to even think about!!!
Kileys first dance recital at Centennial HS. It was so fun to go watch the girls perform! There was such a fun variety of music, fun costumes, dances and plenty of adorable girls!!! I'm looking forward to many more in the years to come.
We hosted a baby shower for Jenny Perkins (my niece in law). So fun, I always love a good baby shower with all the tiny, adorable baby things!! We can't wait to get our hands on that sweet little baby (only a couple more weeks)!
We welcomed a new niece and cousin (#26). My youngest sister Becki had a beautiful, perfect baby girl, Dempsey. We had to wait almost 2 weeks to get our hands on her but once we finally did we hardly put her down. We had to fight Kiley to get our turns though, grrrr!!!We had our friends the Mcleods over for dinner and games!! Always a good time!!

Malerie went to her first junior high dance and had a great time!!!

A personal favorite for me was my friend Krysta and 2 of her kids coming to visit from Oklahoma for the weekend!! We love their family so much and had a great time with them. We went to the Stake Christmas presentation, church, had a fun Sunday dinner, her and I went on a hike up Thunderbird for old times sake, we went to Bj's for lunch with a friend, we went to see the new Sherlock movie (which was awesome!!!!) and drove over to see the new temple site!!! Not bad for a quick short weekend!!!

The rest of the week was spent in a frenzy finishing up last minute Christmas preparations, you gotta love it!!!

CHRISTMAS EVE
I was determined to be ready and rested for Christmas this year and I think this is closest I have yet to come. Christmas Eve morning Eric and I and the boys went for a hike at Thunderbird. When we were coming down the back side I gave the boys the go ahead that we could run and that's all it took, they both were gone!!! I caught up to Braydon but Keat left us all in the dust!! He isn't familiar with the trails so he just kept going making a second loop. Eric had to chase him down. The kid is a machine!!!
We spent the rest of the afternoon just relaxing (Eric and I were relaxed, the kids were just anxious to get the show on the road!!!) Keeping with tradition we picked up our usual order of mexican food from Mixteca, our 4 bottles of Martinellis (one for each kid) and a few other little things. We set our little spread out downstairs, the kids opened their traditional Christmas pjs and threw them on and we settled in to watch our favorite Christmas Story!! Good times, just how we like it!!!

Beyond behind!!

I have no idea why I let myself get this far behind!! There have been so many fun changes and things that have happened this past year and a half that I should have been journaling about. I don't know if it is even possible to catch up?
As part of getting excited about a new year I have recommitted myself to try and be better about blogging and taking photos (we shall see!!) I think I will start with December and back track when I feel inspired or can squeeze it in!
As always it seems like the whole month of December just whizzes by. I'm sure in part that is due to the overwhelming number of activities we try and cram in!! I was especially thankful for the couple weeks we had of cold, almost wintery like weather. For me it definitely helps to get in to the holiday spirit!!

OKLAHOMA

At the beginning of the school year one of my dearest friends and her sweet family moved to Oklahoma when her husband was stationed at the Army base in Lawton. I was surprised by my difficulty in losing a friend to the long distance. It was an emotional few weeks when she left. In January I found out she would be coming back to Arizona for her brothers wedding at the end of April and I was of course ecstatic!! We texted back and forth about dates and plans and then it occurred to me that I could really take advantage of the situation. She had planned to drive from Oklahoma to Arizona with her 2 daughters and her husband and boys would fly later. I offered to fly there and drive back to "keep her company" so she wouldn't have to drive/travel alone. Purely selfish on my part, because I knew that would ensure more time visiting and catching up!! I did not book my ticket right away because that is the kind of slacker I am. When I eventually remembered and got around to it the ticket was about $50 less, so who says procrastination doesn't pay!!! Also instead of flying in the day before it was less expensive to go 2 days early, BONUS!!! As it got closer and I worked out arrangements for all kids while I was gone, Malerie was the only one that did not have things going on while I was gone. I contemplated taking her but was leery about spending the extra money. The day before I was flying out another amazing friend hooked us up with a ticket so Mal was able to come for VERY cheap! I did not tell her until that morning, it was an awesome surprise. It was such a fun experience for her first flight to be just her and I. She did amazing on the flight, she didn't seem the least bit nervous and was just soaking it in. At one point she borrowed my camera and was taking all kinds of pictures of clouds, and the wings etc.

After we landed the four of us went and grabbed lunch and drove a little over an hour to Lawton. It was much different then what I had expected. It is a small town but not nearly as small as I pictured. It was so fun surprising Kate and Jill. They were expecting me but not Mal. The next Day the 3 of us ran errands to finish getting ready. It was just fun being together and being able to talk. Mal was a good sport just tagging along. One of our errands was getting the oil changed at the dealership. The salesmen were really sweet to Malerie. They have a pet parrot that lives at the dealership that apparently loooves kids. We went to meet Paco. I have to admit it was very entertaining!! We got him dancing which was hilarious! Malerie helped lift him from his perch back to his cage but the problem is that one she got him on her hand he was quite happy with her and rather going back on his cage he climbed up her arm to her shoulder and was intent on staying there!! He stayed on her shoulder playing with her hair and talking/dancing till we had to go and it took some serious coaxing to get him to leave her.

Friday we finished packing, and loading grabbed the girls and hit the the road for our 18 hour journey. I have to admit, it is NOT a pretty drive from Oklahoma, through Texas and New Mexico. We drove till we were tired and found a hotel for the night! The girls thought this was a great sleep over! Saturday we made it into town around early afternoon. It was good to be home and out of the car. That night a group of girls met up at Cafe Rio (one of our favorite places!!) for dinner and some more catching up. I am so thankful I was able to make this trip and take Malerie along. I have a deep appreciation for priceless friends and the impact they have on our lives.

Our little Fitzgerlad

Keaton FINALLY got his chance to play football (to his dismay it was flag football) but for their age and it being his first time it was ok. The team was the usual group of buddies (which we love playing with, they are such a good fun group of kids). Chuck and Tony coached the team. They had a great season and learned a lot. It was so fun to see the improvement from the beginning through the end. Keaton is quick. We never get bored watching him and are sometimes perplexed at where he got his talent and competitive drive from. The kid is just plain passionate about playing sports, and football especially! I look forward to watching him play for a long time! At the end of the season he and his best buddy Jake were actually scouted out to play on a competitive team. Man you would have thought they got drafted into the NFL, they were so excited. Unfortunately after a couple practices their dream was crushed due to the fact that there were a lack of teams in their age group to compete against. Im sure it won't be the last opportunity. These boys have talent.

Conference Camping and Easter

We have been doing the conference camping thing for so long now I feel like I am being repetitive when I journal about. It is sometimes hard to differentiate between trips. This one was a little easier considering it actually fell on Easter weekend.
We did some Easter egg coloring, an Easter egg hunt, rode quads, did some hiking, played games, watched a movie on the big screen around the fire, we had our big group Saturday night dinner (which I think was my favorite so far). Chalee's dad cooked a brisket and it was soooo good. The boys went to Priesthood meeting (mine looking a little questionable but I guess I should be happy they went!!) Of coarse our favorite part is enjoying conference and the messages being shared. Saturdays sessions were my particular favorites. I love looking around the big white tent and seeing so many friends (families) together and listening so intently. The other awesome part is how much the kids love it. They play from early in the morning till late at night and have such a blast together! These are memories I hope they cherish forever.

the kids seemed to really enjoy coloring eggs and a few adults got into not mentioning any names

Just plain silly!!THE GROUP!!

Spring Break + San Diego = one HAPPY family!!

March 2010

Back in August we were invited to go beach camping at South Carlsbad with a group of other families, having done it once before I jumped on the phone and reserved a spot. We loved it last time and were looking forward to it again!!
Spring break crept up so quickly it seemed kind of surreal. A lot of things had changed between August and March like the fact that some jerk stole our truck!! We didn't have a way to pull the trailer. We were going to tent it, then we were looking for a vehicle to tow the trailer, then back to a tent and then finally a couple weeks before we were leaving we decided to get a hotel close to the beach. It proved to be a great plan!!
After checking into the hotel Saturday afternoon, we grabbed some dinner and then headed down to the beach to say hi to everyone. The Ames, Halls, Crumps, Dorseys, Nilda and her sister, and the Smiths all had camp sites. throughout the week we also had another Smith family, the Moores, Lemoines, and Dutrys also join in the fun. Needless to say there were friends for everyone and the kids had a blast!! After spending some time chatting with everyone we headed back to swim at the hotel and head to bed.
Sunday we took the kids down to La Jolla beach to watch the sea lions and walk around a bit. Then we went to Sea Port Village to walk along the pier and see all the ships in the harbor. The whole time the kids were whining they just wanted to go to the beach, so to the beach we headed. The rest of the afternoon we spent relaxing and socializing with all the friends. It was a good day.
Monday the plan was to spend the entire day at the beach. I really had not planned on the kids getting in the water very much on account of it being cold , boy was I wrong. They loved it!!! Skim boarding, playing frisbee and football, digging in the sand, jumping off the cliff, looking for shells....they were in heaven. We had one somewhat minor incident when Jacie got stung by a sting ray. Not so fun. But it was funny listening to everyone else give there 2 cents on how to treat it. The majority thought we needed t0 pee on it, thank goodness no one did before they figured out that only works for jelly fish stings! We soaked her foot in HOT water for quite a bit and it really seemed to help, poor girl. That night we had a huge group BBQ with lots of food. It was another great day!

Tuesday was the big outing day.Half of the group went to Disneyland for the day and the rest of us headed to Sea World. The last time we went to Sea World Braydon was 5, Kiley 3 and Mal was 1 but we didn't bring her. The Dutries and the Ames joined us. It was a WARM day but we had a blast. We caught most of the shows. All the kids sat in the prime soak section and got totally drenched and loved every second of it!! the other big hit was the Journey to Atlantis ride. They all rode it like a dozen times. Malerie was suffering from a sunburn from the day before and she was kind of miserable so her and I were hanging out for a bit and got our own private dolphin show while the trainers were working with them. It was awesome!! After the park we headed to Sea Port village for dinner, I love that place!! We were all pretty tired but we went swimming back at the hotel again!

Wednesday we were heading home but not before getting in a little beach time! After meeting up with our group at the camp sites it was decided that we were going to head to Oceanside beach for the day. It was suppose to be a little less rocky! We grabbed lunch and made ourselves comfortable. It was an absolutely perfect beach day!! It was so hard thinking about heading home. We ended up staying till evening time and then went back to the camp sites. The adults went to a fun restaurant for dinner to celebrate Carl's birthday and the kids hung at the camp and played games etc. When we got back we finally hit the road to go home. It was going to be a long night of driving but totally worth staying the extra few hours!! It was a fabulous trip in every way and hopefully something we will repeat again soon!!! We are so thankful to have so many good friends to do fun things with.

Just for fun we brought along this guy on our trip! Sure made for some funny entertainment!!
Seaworld-Tuesday
BEACH FUN!!!!

the kids dug at this hill for hours and then spent a couple more hours jumping into it and sliding down it with their skim boards. Cheap entertainment.
poor Jacie being treated for her sting ray sting and no we didn't pee on it!!!
Abby, Taylor, Braydon, Kamrie, Kiley, and Jacie
Taylor, Kamrie and Braydon
Dad getting in on the skim board action!!