Phoenix Girls Trip 2013

Our bff Kimberly lives in Mesa, Arizona and Jamie and I miss her a lot. She had her second baby, a boy named Bradley on December 2 which is the same day as Jamie's twin girls. We loved going to visit after Kim's first baby Ellie was born in 2008 so we made plans to go to Arizona again on January 25 2013. We flew out together on that Friday afternoon and had a 7 hour layover in Denver. Yet that's right, 7 hours. We got our tickets for only $135 round trip and the small airport in Mesa only has 1 flight in a day. It went by fast though since there was plenty to see, good food and good company. That was a vacation itself since there were no little kids or husbands asking us to do anything. While at Kim's we mostly just relaxed and helped Kim with the kids. Jamie went home on Monday and I stayed until Tuesday. 

 

On the plane getting ready for take off

Teenage cheerleaders in the OKC airport doing strange things

 

Jamie with baby Bradley- he was about 7 weeks old

We just had to go to Ikea while we were there to shop. We ate lunch in the cafeteria and shared a piece of chocolate cake

Jeff's Aunt Joyce lives not too far away from Kim so she picked Jamie and I up for breakfast. It was nice visiting with her

Jeff and I love In-N-Out Burger so Kimmy took me there to eat twice while I was in town since we don't have it here

Kim and her babies

Kim's hubby Bezan with Bradley

Me with baby Bradley

Cheddar Kitty

It's been a year since Jay Jay disappeared and two years since Squeak died and Jeff finally talked me into getting a new cat. He really wanted an orange kitten and originally we found one at the shelter but they gave us the run around for several weeks so we ended up getting one from someone my mom knows. We brought him home on Jan 17th and he was about 6 or 7 weeks old. It took us several days to agree on a name and we decided on Cheddar. He had some litter box issues at first and I felt like I had a newborn up crying all night but I think he will be a good addition to our family.

 

The night we brought him home. It wasn't that long ago but he has gotten so much bigger already

 

Aunt Carrie and Mimi came over to meet Cheddar and he fell asleep on Carrie upside down

Keeping me company while I work on the computer

My 3 boys...of course we didn't find a female kitten so I'm really outnumbered in this house

cuddling with Jensen

December 2012

After 10yrs of owning a house we finally put up Christmas lights this year. It wasn't a lot but it was pretty

Jorden had a Christmas program at school and it was really cute. He was a little ham

Downtown OKC had some pretty decorations and we braved the cold to see the lights

Crystal Bridge at night

I think I was more excited to go sledding than the boys. We got a decent snow so we went to a park with hills and had a blast

Mommy and Jorden sledding

Jorden did not like getting snow in his glove, it was too cold

Jensen went ice skating with Cub Scouts and did really well for his first time

We had a fun "Noon Years Eve" party with some friends since the kids are in bed for the real thing

Christmas 2012

We had a busy and wonderful Christmas again this year. Christmas Eve was spent at Jeff's parent's house opening a ton of great gifts. Everyone takes turns opening one gift at a time which is hard for the kids sometimes but it was fun. We got a new 9 foot Christmas tree this year sand it looked pretty

This would have been a great pic if it hadn't turned out blurry

. 

Before the mess happened at Grandma's house

One of the most awesome gifts! For the 2nd year my inlaws got me a huge box of chewing gum. They also always get me a new Guiness World Record book

Christmas Morning Jensen opening a package of mac and cheese, his favorite.
 Jensen got an Angry Bird game from Santa

Jorden opening some circus peanuts candy. He got a batman play set from Santa

I got Jeff a really big car part but have no idea what it is

After opening gift at home Christmas morning we went to my mom's house for a big yummy meal and more gifts. My dad came over too so it was wonderful to have my whole family together.

Me, Daddy and Carrie

Grandpa Mayhle got the boys some Steelers sweatshirts

My Momma opening her gifts

What piles! Some boys sure are spoiled by Mimi, Carrie and Grandpa!

Care Bear opening some gifts. She was excited to get a Kindle Fire

 

Peek A Boo Jensen

It was actually a white Christmas which is super rare for us. Mimi got Jeff a metal detector and the boys some shovels their size so they can go looking for treasure. It worked on snow too

After Mimi's, we went home to rest then out to Yukon to Aunt Janet's house.
 Lucky kids get to swim in the indoor pool and open more gifts

Jorden and Great Grandma Cassie

Elf on the Shelf

There is a fairly new tradition of having an Elf on the Shelf. He comes with a book to read that says he sits in your house during the day and flies to the north pole at night to report good and bad behavior to Santa. The next morning he is in a new spot and you get to find him.You must never touch him or he will lose his magic. We got our elf "Snuffy" (Jensen named him) about 3 years ago and Jensen has always enjoyed finding him each morning. Some elves are very mischievous but ours has always just moved around. This year though Jorden was old enough to enjoy and Snuffy did a few funny things

Snuffy heard Twinkies weren't being made anymore so he was holding on to this one

Silly Snuffy drew on the boys' photos on the wall with marker. Lucky it wiped right off

Since Jensen loves to write the word POOP, Snuffy wrote it for him on the chalkboard

Naughty elf  TPed the tree

On Christmas eve, Snuffy goes back to the north pole until next year and the last night he was
 here he used blue crepe paper to block Jensen in his room. See you next year Snuffy!

November 2012

I love my new chairs and table for the living room!

We took Jorden to the movie theater for the first time to see Wreck It Ralph and we loved it

For my sister's birthday in Sept, I got her passes for  me, her and Momma to go to
Wine and Palette. Its a 3 hour painting class just for fun

Our masterpieces

Mimi baked Jensen a cake and  he open presents. He loved his black Angry Bird balloon.
It blew away though shortly after and he was devastated so I got him a new one

Jensen's annual turkey boy picture. He is getting WAY too big!

Trying out his new roller blades

This was just precious! Jorden's teacher asked all the kids what they are thankful for