In the middle of November my dad came for a visit. The kids adore their grandparents, so his visit was a very welcome event. He was here for a week but for some reason I only took out my camera one day. Luckily, it was the day we went on a random scenic drive to a very beautiful lake a couple hours from our home. I didn't know places like this existed in Southern Arizona. We all had a wonderful time spending time with Grandpa Savage and he was he even willing to brave driving back up to Utah with us when his trip was over, which brings us to our next set of pictures...
We spent Thanksgiving break in Utah and Idaho. My dad drove with the kids and me up to Utah the weekend before Thanksgiving and Brett flew in on Thanksgiving day where we met him in Idaho. We packed in as much family time as we could during that week and a half. The kids got to see all of their grandparents, great-grandparents and almost all of their cousins and aunts and uncles during that time. We played lots of games, stayed up too late, ate lots of good food, rode the Trax train, saw the Temple square lights and made many wonderful memories.
Since we were with so much family, we took advantage and blessed Parker while up in Idaho. Some of Brett's cousins and an aunt and uncle were even able to come, which was so nice of them. I wish we had gotten a better picture of Parker in his dapper little outfit, but he seems to be sleeping or kicking or being held in all sorts of awkward positions in most of these photos. You can barely tell from the photos, but Parker is wearing the cutest of shoes made by his own talented Aunt Camille. They were his early Christmas gift and a perfect addition for the blessing outfit. My favorite photos in this collage though are the ones of us trying to get some sort of normal family picture. As you can see, it didn't happen, but at least Brett and I are smiling so we must have been having a good time.
After Thanksgiving was busy, busy, like it is for practically everyone. We had some sad moments saying goodbye to a little friend who left us way too soon. We had lots of happy moments decorating our yard, Christmas trees and cookies. We made neighbor gifts and Adie learned to weave potholders. The kids jumped in bounce houses, acted out the nativity at preschool and at home just for the fun of it. Adie and her friend were Suzie Snowflakes, dancing ballet and tap for their winter performance. Christmas really is the most wonderful time of the year, even if it stresses me out a little.
This year we were so fortunate to have visitors at our house for Christmas. One of my cousins married a lovely lady in the Mesa temple a couple days after Christmas (congrats, Daniel and Lisa!) so his family was down here for the holidays, as were my mom, stepdad and grandparents, and though their stay was short, we packed in the fun. We ate lots of food (as always), played cards, saw the lights in our neighborhood (we have a lot of fun impressive displays here) and just spent time together. I am told it is nice to have little Christmas celebrations with just your immediate family. I am sure that is true, but in our 7.5 years of marriage we have yet to celebrate Christmas with just our immediate family and, truth be told, I am okay with that. I love having as much family around as possible. After a wonderful Christmas sacrament meeting in the morning, lots of gift-opening and a yummy brunch everyone packed up. My extended family headed to Mesa to get prepped for the upcoming wedding and Brett, the kids and I started our trek to Texas. More on that in another post...
