Part 1: Christmas Eve

We spend Christmas Eve at my parent's house with my grandparents, Uncle Dave, Kelly and Robert. After dinner, Logan scared the grandparents with his acrobatics. The kids were so excited they openned their gifts is about 30 seconds!

Logan's acrobatics



Jackson and Uncle Dave weren't too impressed with the singing hat!

The boys all got new scooters from Uncle Robert and Aunt Kelly. They even wore their helmets even if they weren't riding!

Payton helping pass out gifts...

Logan's rockin' his shirt!

Then...the 3rd annual gingerbread house contest. You can pretty much tell which belongs to the girls and which is the boys. If you so fancy, you can vote for your favorite on the right side of this blog.

Secret Santa Day 12!

Well, Christmas Eve was our last Secret Santa present. We received chocolate covered fruits, a cupcake ornament, and a vanilla candle.



Thank you to our Secret Santa Family! Thank you for making our Christmas extra special and I hope you traveled safe and had a Merry Christmas!

Secret Santa Day 9, 10, & 11

I'm behind a few days, but here it is!

Day 9 we received cross ornament activities, Cherry Pie Taffy, and a Gingerbread nightlight.

Day 10 we got a ton of fruit smacks, stamps, and a wise man for the manger.

Day 11 we received a Veggie Tales movie, "It's a Meaningful Life", popcorn with red bowls, activitiy books, and another piece to the manger.

Only 1 day left!! Then it's Santa Day, as Jackson calls it!

Today I Prayed...

I'll start off by saying I pray more often than just today, but today's prayer was special...

Today I took my RMA (Registered Medical Assistant) exam. I don't need to be registered for my job at the hospital, but I thought it would be a good backup if for some reason I should lose my job and I thought it would look better on my resume for the sonography program. I graduated over a year ago, and I wouldn't say I was nervous, but knew it might be a challege to remember all those little details. So I prayed. I prayed that God would give me the knowledge. I prayed I would pass (it is a $95 test!). I prayed that He would show me I was headed in the right direction. That working full time, going to school, applying to sonography school...that I was where He wanted me to be. That I was doing His will, not just mine. Afterwards, I felt calm and ready to take my test.

Upon checking in, I was given a page full of rules to read. Then the lady behind the desk took my acceptance letter (that I qualified to take the exam) and my ID. I put my palm in a device which apparently maps the veins in your hand for identity. Crazy! Then she took my picture and told me to put all my things in a locker. I was guided back to another room where a man was watching a U-shaped room of cubicles. I was then given more rules to read, my ID was checked again, and double checked against my hand veins, which brought up the picture they other lady had taken of me. He assigned me a computer and a white board for scratch paper and told me if I needed anything to raise my hand.

The first couple of questions were doozies! I thought I'd be lucky to get much above passing. I started to get more questions that I didn't have to think about which raised my confidence. I needed a 70 to pass. There were over 200 questions and I could score 0-99. By the end, I felt like I had passed, but there were questions that I know I just did my best guess. I submitted my test, and waited for the results screen.

I got a 97! A 97 out of 99? That was completely God working! He had not only answered my prayer to pass but gave me a score as to say, "Yes, you are on the path I have chose for you." In the car, I called Moose and gave him the good news. After we hung up, I just cried. I knew only God could have done that. Being out of MA school for over a year and with Physics and Christmas and the kids...I had very little time to study. I have no doubt God spoke to me today through my test. He tells us, "Ask and you shall receive." Well, I am glad I asked!

Secret Santa Day 7 & 8

Day 7 we received a Veggie Tales movie "The Wonderful Wizard of Ha's", christmas silly bands, an ornament, and sheep for the manger.




Day 8 we received 3 Belly Washers drinks, more pieces to the manger, penguin finger puppets (that we had fun in the tub with!), and a box with Jesus's story in it. It also had little vials of frankincense and myrhh. The gold was a Rolo, but the frankincense and myrhh maybe real...I gotta do more research on that!

Secret Santa Day 6

We received a loaf of bread, red ceramic dish, a chocolate orange, Jesus bracelets, and a cute package of holiday napkins! The boys scarfed down the bread right before dinner. We had just come from helping Kelly and Robert move, and they were starving! As you can see Payton had it unwrapped as soon as it was taken out of the bag. I barely got a picture!

Secret Santa Day 4 & 5

Day 4 we received a snowman figurine with M&M's inside, a Rubio's gift card, candle, candy canes, tatoos, and Joseph for the manger.



Day 5 we received sidewalk chalk, cuties (they must know us!), and a Veggie Tales character dressed up like a cow and palm tree for the manger.

Secret Santa

In my last post I told you we were receiving gifts on our doorstep for the 12 days of Christmas. Each day, the gift comes with more of the Christmas Story. So, I've missed a day, but this is what has shown up!

This was Wednesday. We got a Veggie Tales manger, Christmas cups, candy canes, puzzles, and peanut brittle.


On Thursday, we got Mary for the Veggie Tales manger, Veggie Tales Christmas movie, a snowman towel and pot holder, and carmel corn.





So, to whoever you are who is leaving these gifts, thank you!

It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas

Last night, Moose started us a fire and all the boys cooked marshmellows. They had a blast and were bouncing off the walls! While waiting for the fire to really start going, we heard singing outside our door. We opened the door and found a singing Christmas Tree singing "Rocking around the Christmas Tree." It had a note attached to it that said we would be receiving a gift on our door step each night for the 12 nights before Christmas. Pretty cool! Included each night is a part of the Christmas Story of Jesus' birth. It is a neat way of telling the story to our kids. Stay tuned to see what we get tonight!

Payton looses a Tooth!

Payton lost his first tooth the other day. Bottom center. He not only lost it, but ate it! Moose had taken the kids to McDonalds for dinner and while eating, Payton said his tooth hurt and that he didn't want to eat anymore. We knew it was loose and Moose asked to see. The tooth was gone. Don't worry, the tooth fairy still came and left a piece of candy for him!

Pima air museum.

We went to the Pima Air and Space Museum in Tucson this weekend and had a great time! Santa flew in on a helicopter! They did art projects and saw some awesome planes. There is a military base nearby and we even saw a few military plane fly overhead. We got to visit Santa as you can see, but the kids were more impressed with the candy canes. Overall, it was a short but great trip. Here are the pics...

A few pics and a video...

Thank goodness for Scottsdale PD

Jackson decided to have a little adventure on Sunday night. All three of the boys were outside playing and I was inside cleaning up the desk when Payton ran in and told me Jackson had run away. I wasn't too worried. He'd only been out there for 4-5 minutes, so he couldn't have gone far. I put my shoes on and went outside. Payton told me which direction he had gone, and I started out that way. After a couple minutes, I still couldn't find him. I was starting to get nervous and went straight to the pool that was closest to us. Both pools are gated, but it's not uncommon for the gates to be propped open. Luckily, he wasn't there and all the gates were shut. But still no Jackson. So I put Payton and Logan in the car and drove around the complex. It felt like at least 15 minutes had gone by. When I came back around to our apartment, I knew I needed to call for help. The 911 operator asked me when I had seen him last and that was around 5:30pm. "So that was about 7 minutes ago?" she asked. It had only been 7 minutes?! She started asking me whether I had family who might "pick him up" and she asked where dad was. I didn't realize at the time that she was trying to pick out someone who may have taken him! She told me police were beginning to arrive and block off all the exits to the complex. They would search any vehicle leaving the complex. Then she had more officers checking the pools. By this point, I wasn't doing so hot. I had asked several neighbors who were coming home whether or not they had seen him, and no one had. Two officers who finally walked up to our apartment asked me a few questions and began to search our apartment for him. Another officer took the picture I had gotten out for them and used his phone to take a picture of it. 30 minutes had passed and I finally had a minute to call Moose. When he answered, all I could say was, "You need to come home." I no sooner got that out of my mouth when two men were walking up with Jackson in their arms. I hung up on Moose and ran to him. He was crying and I was crying. One of the guys said he had made it to the other side of the complex and a couple of girls had found him. I thanked them and went into the apartment to tell the officers who where still searching for him inside that he was found. The officers asked who found him and I told them about the two men who had brought him to me. By the time we got back outside, both men were gone. I could think the worst about why it was two men who returned him and why the officers hadn't seen him, but I choose to think they were my neighbors who were pitching in to help me find my little boy. So thank you to them and to all the Scottsdale police officers who responded so quickly.

We helped out at a Halloween Block Party event with our small group from Praxis and it was a success! There were a ton of kids and we had games, bounce houses, and hot dogs. Here are some of the highlights...


Kelly and I racing to eat a donut off a string with no hands. I won :0)


Logan in the bounce house...


Moose helping me set up.

Here is Jax taking a crack at the donut game...

Hope everyone else had a Happy Halloween!

Scottsdale Healthcare's Fall Festival

Two weekends ago we attend the Fall Festival at Scottsdale Healthcare Shea. It's the first time we've been and we had a great time! We will be inviting friends and family to go next year!

They had a fire truck, ambulance, and police car that the kids could climb into.

They also had a teddy bear clinic. Each child got a "sick" teddy bear that they took to the Pediatric Emergency Department. The bears got check ups, medicine, and bandages! So cute! Notice they even have hospital bracelets on! They decorated cookies...

and Logan's bear even needed to get an echo cardiogram (ultrasound of the heart) by our fabulous echo tech Mike, who works on our NICU preemies.

We had lots of fun!

Moose-athon

Moose did his first full triathlon last weekend...and boy did he pick a doosy! It was a 1500 meter swim in Bartlett Lake, 24.8 mile bike, and 6.2 mile run. Both the bike and run were uphill all the way up with no reprieve! These "hills" were actually being called mountains they were so steep! Bartlett Lake Triathlon is called, "the toughest most beautiful triathlon in AZ!" And Moose chose this one to be his first! Mom and Dad brought up their camper and we were able to spend the night up at Bartlett Lake. Kelly and Robert came up too to help us cheer Moose on! I even made us shirts :0) The back says "Team Moose".

He did fantastic in the swim! He was one of the last ones to start but quickly passed many of the swimmers. He finished with 20-25 swimmers still in the water. Look at that stud!

This is after the swim, headed back to transition where his bike was. And changing out of his wetsuit...

Then, off on the bike! We saw him off at the transition station and then hiked up to the spot where they do a turn around. Here are some pictures...Check out that hill!

Unfortunately, Moose's bike wouldn't switch into the lower gears needed to make it up those steep "mountains". He went as far as his bike and body (and the race director!) would let him before they drove him back to the transition area. He pushed himself so hard he didn't even realize he had pulled his left hamstring. Because of his injury he couldn't start the run.

We are all so incredibly proud of Moose! He made it through the swim and 20 miles of the grueling bike! Butch, a friend we made and a fellow competitor who does about 6-7 triathlons a year, said he would never do this race again because it was so difficult!

Moose is already scouting for his next race...and I don't doubt he will finish it. And who knows...maybe he will attempt this one again sometime in the future. And just for kicks, here is a picture of Moose just 11 months before this race. What a difference!