It has taken me a while to gather up the motivation to get caught up on all the December happenings. I have been going through one of those "im so done with blogging" phases, and I just kind of stayed away for a bit-and im not gonna lie-it was quite nice. It was nice not worrying about what everyone was up to (besides the ones I REALLY care about). I actually did other things besides surf blogs-it was great!! But, now im soooo far behind that I feel overwhelmed and this has been such a task-but, im done and it feels great. Im ready for a new year. Im not one to make New Years resolutions, but this is the year I lose the baby weight. Im officially done, no more babies in this household-thus no more excuses to not get in shape. This is the year!!!
So anyway, enough of that. Here is what we have been up to this past month.

Caleb had a special visitor in his speech class. Santa couldnt make it as promised because he was so busy, but he didnt want us to be forgotten, so he sent his lovely wife. Suprisingly, it was a hit!!


Caleb has the funny nervous habit where he either sticks his hands down his pants or he lifts his shirt up. Im glad he chose the later.

The kids had a Christmas concert at school. They were nice enough to let the parents know when each grade would sing so they could come at the desired time and not have to sit through all the grades.

It went something like this. P, K, 3, 4, 5, 1, 6, 2.

We have a K, 4, and 2. We had to sit through the whole thing. When we walked out, there was a massive blizzard in the works. We drove half way home and realized that we should probably go back and pick up the kids so they dont get stuck at the school (a similar thing happend last year and the kids were stuck at school all night)We drove back and ended up with our 3 plus4 more from the neighborhood. It was crazy and it took us about 30 minutes to get home. Im glad we picked them up because busses and cars were stuck all over the place. Gotta love Utah!

All the second graders got the wear their PJ's to school for the last day. Lani was so excited and tried to talk me into getting her some new pjs for the occasion-but to no avail.

I really did comb Noahs hair that morning, but having to wear beanies to school kindof defeats the purpose.

Noahs class sang a cute song with lots of choreography. I was pretty proud of him for actually singing because he usually doesnt.

Tysons class wore white shirts and jeans with santa hats and scarfs. Not one note was sent home informing me of this, so I consider myself pretty lucky that he wore a white undershirt under his sweater, and that he wore jeans, and that Bill just bought him a santa hat from the dollar store the day before, and that he wore a scarf-which he never does. It was a Christmas miracle.

And didnt he look so cute??

After much thought, we decided to go home for Christmas. We havent been home since February, and we really needed to go home. Ok, so I really needed to go home. We were supposed to leave on Monday the 22nd, but after looking at the weather, we decided we needed to leave Sundday night. We had had a Christmas party planned with our family here, so we hurridly packed up our stuff and loaded the car, all while cooking a turkey, and stuffing and making a dessert and trying to clean the house as best I could-It was pure chaos. After our fun party, we headed out-it was 8:30. We decided to stop half way and stay in a hotel. Bill being the macho man he is kept going and we rolled into my parents driveway at 6am. It only took us 9 1/2 hours. Its amazing how fast you can drive when you dont have to stop every hour for potty breaks. We were so lucky we left when we did because the next day brought snow, snow and more snow. My sister in law Andrea called just to let me know that they were snowed in and the kids were sleding down the street-thats how bad it was. I love AZ!!

A family tradition of mine has been to make candy trains for out friends. I loved making them for all my friends and taking them to their houses-they were always a hit. I have missed doing this since we have lived away-so I was so excited to hear that we were going to do it this year. So were the kids!!!

Avery especially!! I think she ate more than she made!

Tysons just had to be perfect-he gets that from his Grandad!! Such concentration.

The finished product!!

Noah, the ever creative architect.

Lani was proud of herself a few days later for eating half of it in one day. Oh lani lou loves to eat!!

The next day was Calebs birthday. Since we already celebrated in Utah, we just had cake and opened a few presents. It was also Tylers birthday a few days after Christmas, so we just combined the 2. Caleb got a spider man costume which was quickly taken over by Tyson.

All the Grandkids (minus the malone boys and sweet mady) Its rare they are all looking at the camera at the same time!!

During the week we all got together and Barb and Blakes house for some yummy In-n-Out and guitar hero. Barb and Mary kicked some boo-tay!!

Noah and Lani took a turn-not so hot!!

I wanted to get some cute pictures of the Arizona kiddies that we never see so my kids will know their cousins when they see them.

Maile

Kate

Drew boy (bubba)

Sophie

Somehow we added an extra little person that looked just like Noah-crazy huh!!

Most of the Lomu(Moody, Taylor) grandkids (minus Daves 6 kids, Scotts 3 and Bens 2)

Ben and Michelle came down for a few days, so we all met up at Main St. The kids love main street-they love all the sculptors and the huge cookies at the bakery (which sadly was closed boo-hoo)

We ate lunch at this new little pizza place. It was good, but a little pricey.

We had such a fun trip with our families. We LOVED the weather and took full advantage of being outside. We had planned on staying until New Years Day, but this little monkey got super sick and we had to take her to the hospital for an IV because she wouldnt eat or drink and when she would she would either puke it up or poop it out. She was dehydrated, had a small bladder infection and brochitis. She was so sick-poor thing. We left the day before New Years Eve to get her home. We hadnt gotten passed Anthem before she threw up ALL over me and pooped all over her clothes. Fortunatly I foresaw this and put an extra set of clothes in the front-unfortunatly I didnt do the same for myself. I stunk like puke the whole way home.

She really enjoyed the rain!!

We cant wait to go home again-hopefully for good!!!