Lazy 5 Ranch

The girls have been wanting to go to this Ranch ever since Maya missed the opportunity to go with her class as a field trip.  We had 4 snowdays in one week and then the next week they had Mon. & Fri. off.  We decided that we had been in the house far too long and needed something to do.  We took the drive to the Lazy 5 ranch and they loved it.  WE loved it also.

It's like going to a Wild Animal Park where you ride in your car and the animals come up to you.  We had buckets of food to feed them and so of course they kept coming.  Poor Maya was bit twice by the Ostriches.  We found out later that you are supposed to hold up the bucket to them and not feed them from your hand.  We just made sure to keep the windows rolled up everytime they came to the car (which was OFTEN.)

It was so cold that day but the girls wanted to get out and see the rest of the animals so we suffered through it.  Poor Tim only brought a sweatshirt.

Here's a little video of McKenna feeding a llama.  I love how she keeps calling him, "Llama, Llama" in her high pitched voice.  This was such a fun place.

He's a REAL dad!

My dear sweet husband did some canning for me the other night.  Alexa and I were laughing at his outfit and had to get it on film or well not film but, what are you supposed to say these days - I guess we wanted to get it on the memory card (just doesn't quite roll of the tongue, does it?  Anyway, here he is.  Doesn't he look like a REAL dad?  Note:  he's not wearing any socks with those tennis shoes.



Alexa's videos

Alexa got a cool little digital video camera for Christmas.  It's about the size of a credit card, waterproof and it also takes photo's.  Christmas day she downloaded over 100 pics and videos.  The girl was loving it.  Here are a few videos that I thought I'd share.

The first one is of the McKenna and our cute neighbor Ty sledding in his back yard.  They have the perfect size hill for McKenna. 

Tim showing off his new pan and McKenna just being cute.

Christmas

The best part of Christmas to me is all the traditions.  I even like adding new ones.  Our friends in AR have the tradition of wrapping all the Christmas books and opening one every night in December until Christmas.  We tried it this year and the girls absolutely loved it.  For Christmas eve we always have Mexican food.  We just get all the frozen taquito's, quesadilla's, chimichanga's, etc. It's a real treat for us all and it's easy set up and clean up for Christmas.   

The night before Christmas we opened and read 'The night before Christmas'.  We then continued our tradition of reading from the Bible about Christ's birth.   

 Look at these darlings sitting listening so intently. 

 Every year the girls get jammies on Christmas eve.  They tease me every year that I wrap them the same way and so they always know what they are.  This year I through them all off.  I got them all slippers but still wrapped them like their jammies.  I had them all fooled.

 The next morning . . .

 Stocking time

 New winter hats, gloves, and scarves. 

 Santa brought the girls all sleeping bags and our family this nice big tent.  Now if we can just get the weather to warm up, we'll be ready to roll.

 Grumps and Abuela

I think this was the first time they had been to our house for Christmas morning.  It sure was fun to have them here with us.

 Tim with his new pan.  I don't know many men that would get excited over a pan but Tim sure did.  I must say it makes fabulous scrambled eggs.

 Even though it was in the low 30's the girls were so excited about the tent they took books and games outside to play in the tent.  Here Maya is ready to go.

 McKenna with her new little people.  All she talked about was that she wanted new slippers and little people for Christmas.  Her sisters came through for her with the little people.

 The tent before the snow hit.

 When we were getting ready for dinner I went to open up the table to get the leaf out and found this choc. santa.  Found out that it was Livie's and Maya hid it days ago in there.  Who would have thought of such a brilliant hiding place.

By the afternoon we had a white Christmas.  It was beautiful.  Tim's parents were really excited along with the rest of us.  Poor Tim had planned to grill a leg of lamb and a stuffed pork loin for dinner.  Here he is coming in from checking the meat in his dress shirt and shorts?  What?  Nice outfit.

Maya setting up one of our new games. 

 McKenna was dying to go out and play in the snow.  I on the other hand wasn't so much.  Her sweet sister, Alexa went out sledding down the "mountain" as Mckenna calls it.

 They also built the cutest snowman I think I've ever seen.

 This is the tree outside our front window.  I thought it looked beautiful.

 Sunday was so nice.  Church was cancelled and so we got to enjoy another day at home with the family.  Just like a second Christmas.  Lynn and Terry went for a walk to enjoy the snow a little.

I stayed inside to enjoy the heater.

 In the afternoon we had our own church meeting.  Maya and Olivia gave talks and then Alexa gave a lesson from a great book she got for Christmas.

Here are the church goers - or I should say church stayers since we stayed out home.

 Last but not least - here is the puzzle we worked on this Christmas.  Thanks to all that helped.  Especially Lynn.  She was quickly addicted just like my family usually is with puzzles.  We stayed up pretty late working on it.  It was on the dining table so it had to be completed by Christmas day so we could have dinner.

Sorry this is a long post but it sure was a fun day and lots to document.

Happy Anniversary!

If you have read a few of my past postings you can tell we can't just be satisfied with celebrating one event  Our anniversary is Dec. 29th but we celebrated a little early.  Since Tim's parents were here and we had a week before Christmas they were kind enough to stay with the girls for a night.  We went down to Charlotte, had a super nice dinner, stayed at a nice hotel, did some last minute shopping at the mall, went over to IKEA, which I love but turns out it's not nearly as much fun as when you actually have money to spend.  Had lunch and then headed home.  It's always nice to get away and nice to have grandparents that are willing to stay with the girls.

This is the only one of two pics that we took.

Our hotel had breakfast for us so we actually had camera in hand since we had already packed up.

I made Tim come and sit in these crazy tall chairs with one arm just so I could get a picture of them.  He wanted me to sit in them but I didn't want to look like some fool just sitting in a chair getting my picture taken.  He looks cute though, right?

The Perfect Day!

December 18th was Maya's Baptism.  It was the perfect day.  I could tell there was already a change in Maya.  The past week I had noticed that she had already made some good choices when it came to dealing with her sisters and her friends.  I was so proud of her.  I think she understood what was ahead and she wanted to be well prepared.  Here she is looking beautiful for her big day.  She is wearing the dress I wore for my baptism along with her 2 older sisters.  My dear friend, Heather also wore the dress - which is a whole other story that we love.

Daddy and Maya           

  Mommy, Daddy, and Maya

 The Grandparents!

 Maya and Daddy at the building.

 All the sisters.

One sad thing.  After this, I didn't take any pictures.  I didn't get any of her in her new dress for her confirmatioin or pictures of all the wonderful people that came.  It was such a sweet experience and I was so grateful for all those that came and supported our family.  It was so emotional for me to have such good friends and now that our family is loved.  I will try and list all those that came.  Sorry, if I forget anyone.  The Bosley's (my sister's family came out from the Raleigh area), The Grandinetti's, The Bower's (both are our dear neighbors that we have just come to love.  I know I've expressed before how great our neighbors are so I'll stop here.)  The rest were from our ward:  The Black's, The Whitakers, Nancy Hiatt (my VT), The Bell's, Janelle Eldredge (the Primary Pres.)  The Eckholdt's, and Elder Ingram and Elder Grow.

After the baptism everyone came back to our house for soups, bread and treats.  Again, I forgot to pull my camera out.  We were so busy feeding eveyone and then enjoying visiting with everyone that it wasn't a thought in my mind.  Thanks again to such wonderful friends and family that helped make Maya's day so special.  Even though I don't have pictures, I'm sure she will never forget.

It's the BIG 8!

After Thanksgiving it was a quick few days to December.  The first weekend we had the Ward Christmas Party that Tim was in charge of.  Unfortunately I have no pics of that.  He did a great job along with his committee.  It was a nice evening.  We had just a few weeks to get as much done as we could so we could enjoy our time with Abuela and Grumps (Tim's parents.)  They arrived Dec. 15th.  We were so excited to have them come.  I felt bad that I had gotten sick with a sinus infection and so I spent the first morning they were here (which was also Maya's birthday) down at the minute clinic.  Then I came home and slept.  They were very gracious and didn't seem to be bothered by it.  It also turned out that the kids had a snow day and were home from school.  Poor Maya didn't get a fun birthday breakfast because I was feeling so awful.  She was so sweet and just waited around patiently for her daddy to come home so we could celebrate.

Here she is - 8 years old.  I can hardly believe it.

Here she is opening her presents.  Maya is so much fun and so thoughtful.  She was so gracious while opening her presents.  She was excited about all of them.

 Some of the party goers:  Abuela and Livie

 Alexa and McKenna

(notice the green headband.  I thought I was becoming more laid back by letting her wear a headband that didn't match - turns out I was just feleing so bad that I didn't care.)

 Maya

(notice the cute scarf.  Livie made that for her.)

That night we went to dinner at Jason's Deli (Maya's choice.)  I forgot the camera so no pics of the fun dinner.  My girls love that place and I love that they get free ice cream.

Maya, we love you and are so proud of you.  You bring such joy and laughter to our family.  And you are a great example to all those you come in contact with.  You are growing up to be such a sweet young lady.  Happy Birthday!