The Little Drummer Boy.

Last week we bought Josh Groban's Christmas CD - Noel. Since then we have listen to song #2 1,000 times because Luke LOVES it! Here he is on the kitchen counter while we made Thanksgiving Dinner singing and drumming to the song: "Little Drummer Boy!"

More Kitchen Food for Ashley!

If Ashley could she would live in a world made of "kitchen food"! She just can't get enough of the stuff! Recently she earned a new toy and chose of course another huge package of kitchen food. Tyler has made the comment that he does not go to work everyday to buy kitchen food.... but we're sure this phase will come to an end sooner or later. If I can find it I will also add the picture I took a few months ago of her in a kitchen food shirt and homemade (though you would never guess) kitchen food headband!

Thirsty Baby

I'm sure all moms can identify with finding humor in the small things our kids do all throughout the day. I decided to get my camera out to take a snapshot of Jake and ended up capturing a very entertaining moment of him taking a drink.
Happy to be getting big boy cup!

Gulp, Gulp!

Drip, Drip!

Can it really be all gone?!

Oh no.

Trouble..... Nap time you think?

Gilbert Days Parade

The week before Thanksgiving is always celebrated here with "Gilbert Days" -- a rodeo, parade and 5K races, etc. We enjoy taking the kids to see the parade and almost ran the 5K but decided to go Christmas shopping instead...

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Back by popular demand:

From our little turkeys, to yours!

Thanks Grandma!!

Today we received a package from grandma that couldn't have been more perfect. The games she sent Ashley and Luke were darling and right up their alleys (kitchen food and pirates!). The timing of the package was nice, too because I had just laid Jake down when it arrived so we had an hour or so to play picnic and build the ship in peace. Thank you so much, mom. Score for you on that one! Love you! Also, for my mom friends, the website these great toys are found on is sillygoosekids.com It is a friend of ours whose business it is, and I think the toys there are wonderful because they are unique and "learning toys" for a good price. Check it out.

Jake and his friends Nash and Paige

This week Jakey started playing with his very own friends, the Rees twins Nash and Paige. Nash and "Gake" really get along well and are becoming cute little buddies, which is fun to see. The neat thing about these babies is that they are little miracle babies that their parents tried for for years. They arrived early at only 32 or 33 weeks and weighed only 3 and 3.5 pounds. Wow how they've grown! We are happy to know them and have them as our friends!

Amazing Luke!

These pictures were taken at a PwC Fall Party last weekend. It was tons of fun for the kids- with a bounce house, obstacle course, a dunk tank, and this climbing wall- even though it was still over 85 degrees outside!

Bath Buddies

Preschool Party for Ash

I thought this picture was cute of Ashley at her preschool Halloween party. She is not the Ariel with red hair (as much as she would have liked that) but the little, tiny pink ballerina...

Introducing Paul Potts

For those of you who missed this week's Oprah Show on 'YouTube,' here is the most amazing, triumphant rags to riches story Tyler and I have ever seen. He was the last guest and went from a Cell Phone Salesman to this.... Enjoy!

Simon signed a contract with him just following the show's conclusion... he won Britain's Got Talent contest and has sold over 1 million records to date. We think its a great Christmas Gift idea.

Need some music?

A Book about Dad

Been working on a book about dad this week. I am using my friends fancy computer to make this really cool book that I order and it comes to me all hard-bound and everything. It is been neat going through pictures and other momentos about my dad's life. A little sad too, when I get to the end stuff like his funeral program and such. He was a really good man.

I was wanting to add a picture for those of you who still care to check my blog, but I have been busy with other projects around the house. Cleaning out, sorting and reorganizing toys (prep for Christmas), the preparedness thing, my dad's book, re-doing Jakey's room a bit(no more changing table/baby stuff). He stood up on his changing table the other morning while I stood near his closet getting his clothes and I turned just in time to watch him step off the edge, flip back, hit his back on a table and roll onto the floor. Was not good. So we will change him on the carpet from now on.

Ty is supposed to be in India for work this week, but his Visa did not come in time, so that worked out for the kids and me. We prefer to have him on the American Continent best. He does have to go in early December still though. Unbelievable.

We got new callings this week at church. I don't work with the Young Women anymore (sad... I actually cried!) but Tyler and I are the Activities Committee Chairmen now. So that means we get to plan parties for about 400 people - 1/4 of which are 4 or younger! That actually is up our alley. So we are beginning to think about what to do for the ward for Christmas. We are leaning towards a Talent Show. Any good ideas for any other holiday parties? It's been fun chatting (to myself if no one reads this). - Anne

If ye are prepared, ye shall not fear

This year I have been working on my "personal progress" in our young women's program at church. To complete the requirements, I needed to choose a 10 hour project that I could do in the next few weeks. Because of all the recent California fires I was reminded of the way I felt during Katrina about my need to prepare my family for any number of possible disasters. I visited a few websites which were helpful and determined that I would try to really prepare my family the way I should.

So I have spent considerable time and money on this endeavor recently and feel pretty good about what I have accomplished. I ordered a kit from a site quakecare.com that is basically a survival kit for four people - with food and water to live off of for three days. It came with tons of the basics and it is all contained in a big bucket like a home depot bucket. So it would be a worse-case-senario, grab and go type thing.

I also printed a list off the site safetycentral.com and am in the process of doing everything it tells me to do. I went to the dollar store this week and found a lot of the items I need and am gathering all the stuff in a big storage box. I also filled three 50 gallon drums of water today and bought a couple battery operated fans. Heaven knows we would need those here in AZ (and I can't forget how miserably hot those poor people in New Orleans looked!).

Anyway, today something cool happened. Tyler and I were cleaning out the garage and I was looking in some of our boxes for Thanksgiving decorations when I came across a box of stuff I had never seen before. It said Ali's name on it so I figured it was left when she or my mom moved, but when I opened it I couldn't believe my eyes. It was like a gift from my dad. It was the first time in nearly three years since he passed away that I felt the feeling of him physically helping me with something. The box was full of old camping and survival gear that my dad had used when we lived in Seattle! Everything had his name written on it... the matches were from an old store we used to shop at called Bartell Drugs... It was just neat! I found pocket knives, two water purifiers, ponchos, solar blankets, a lantern, flashlights, you name it. I was thrilled!

Tonight I am feeling grateful for this experience and have really learned something in doing this. Chances are that I will never need to use any of the items I have collected or use the plans that our family has set forth, BUT in being obedient to the wise leaders of our church and government and in doing my best to make my family self-sufficent I feel very blessed in many ways already.

Drew's Mission Call...

I am happy to announce that my brother Drew got his mission call today! He is opening it for all of us to hear in an hour (6:45pm) and I am very excited for him. This is something he has chosen to do on his own and has worked very hard to earn the opportunity for. I will post later tonight where he will be spending the next TWO YEARS!! Wow...

Well, it is now 7:14 and the news is: BALTIMORE, MARYLAND - Spanish Speaking! He reports to the MTC on February 4th, 2008. He is thrilled and says it will be a perfect fit! We are all so happy!