Thanksgiving in Mesa, AZ

for Thanksgiving we rented a condo in Mesa, AZ with my parents and my younger brother and sisters. We had a great time. We were really looking forward to swimming, an dit was 85 degrees, but the pool was not heated and it was like ice water. The first day James just jumped in, and then jumped right out and said "I'm all wet!" Spencer and Natalie braved the cold water, but no one else did. We got a lot of Christmas shopping done, and on the first night we took the boys to see Santa. James was so excited he kept saying "It's Santa, I love Santa!" He told Santa "I love your hat." Spencer wants a magnetic dartboard, and James wants a "present." We couldn't take pictures with Santa, but they are behind the Santa land.

On Thanksgiving we went on a little hike in the morning.  There we lots of huge cacti, and Spencer took about 50 pictures with his camera.  I guess Devon was too busy with the boys because this is the only one he took.

There was also a playground there, so we couldn't pass that up.

The reason we stayed in Mesa was that my Dad's family had a reunion the day after Thanksgiving.  It was a lot of fun, they had an auction and lots of games and each family did a little something.  One family did a really funny rendition of "Once there was a snowman."  After the reunion my parents left because they had a lot farther to travel, but we stayed around and saw the lights at the Mesa temple, they were pretty impressive.

I found on the internet that the Bass Pro shop in Mesa (kind of like a Cabela's) had a Christmas wonderland with free games and Santa, so we went on the way home.  We chose not to wait in line for an hour for the Santa, and just do the free games instead.  They had a great merry-go-round that the kids loved.

Spencer got hurt as he came off, but this picture just made me laugh.

They had some huge remote control Jeeps to drive around, a bow shooting game and some gun games and a race car game.  They also had lots of taxi-dermi animals and some huge fishtanks, so we were really glad we went.  I think Devon was mostly glad there was a Famous Dave's right there so we could go to lunch.
We had a great Thanksgiving.  The kids loved playing with their aunts and uncles and James has asked where each of them are, by name.  It so nice to be with family.

New Monument Valley church

So we finally got to move into the new chapel that was built in Monument Valley. It was supposed to be finished in March, but they ran into lots of snags, so now it's November. It is so nice because it's right across the street from the high school, so we can just walk, and we don't have to go 30 minutes early with Devon. it is also so much bigger than our other church- still small compared to others, but it seems huge to us. The chapel was packed for the dedication, which was great to see. We really hope people will keep coming. So on our last Sunday in Mexican Hat we had to take some pictures. Her are Spencer and James by Spencer's "favorite rock." We have to say hello to it every Sunday, so it will be missed.

Here's the branch at the old building, there are some visitors too. We usually have 20-40 people at church, so really according to the numbers we don't qualify for the new building, but the First Presidency felt very strongly about putting one here, so I am really excited to see what will happen. That's the thing about the gospel- you really can't stop it from moving forward.

I will have to get a picture of the new chapel, it's really pretty, and huge.  We will miss our friends from Blanding though since we were moved to a different stake too.

Halloween

Halloween is a really fun holiday at our house, mostly because the boys are so into it. Spencer wanted to be a "monster" this year, so I said you can choose a few things for less than $5 to make your monster costume. After our Walmart trip he decided he wanted wings, so i had to get a little creative with the little green felt that I had.

James just wanted to be a bat, that was a little easier, but turned out cute too. Of course he had to have green hair too.

On the Friday before Halloween was the school carnival.  Spencer was really into the Haunted House this year, so Devon took him in the kids one, which wasn't so great.  Devon's class was in charge of the grown-up spook alley, so we went in and looked during the day.  Spencer asked about going like 100 times, he was scared of the kid one, but he likes to be scared.

Here are our pumpkins.  Also, our Halloween cat.  No it's not really ours, some nice stray that someone dropped off (and someone picked up at trick-or-treating).  It was a cute cat, but so curious, he would not leave our pumpkins alone.  Spencer loved this cat, and thought it would be funny to let it in our house right before his school party.  It was in our house for like 3 hours, thankfully no messes, but we were just lucky, i wasn't too sad to see another kids get it.

this is Spencer's face paint on Halloween.

And James had to have some too.  We had fun trick-or treating.  We live in the only real neighborhood here, but it's just enough.  One of our neighbors was dressed up like a skeleton, but he looked stuffed, so the kids would walk up and then he would move and they would get scared.  Spencer just ran off, but James was hilarious, he would step forward and then the guy would move and he would run back.  Whenever anyone brings it up he says "I was freaking out!"

Devon and I were Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf.  I think that hat was my favorite costume to make.

Scary monster Spencer

Happy Halloween!

Mesa Verde

My sister Mandy and her family came to visit us over fall break. We went to Mesa Verde.

This is on the drive there, the leaves were all changing color and it was really pretty.  One thing I do miss in all this red rock beauty is trees.  So speaking of drive, on our way home in the dark we saw something on the road and slowed down and it turned out to be a cougar.  I wish we had our camera handy, I have never seen a cougar in the wild before, but it was pretty cool, and I was glad to be safely in the car.

Here are Spencer and James showing their "brotherly love" or constant competition to be in the spotlight.  They are wearing the glow in the dark Halloween shirts that Mandy brought them.  They were perfect because we drove through and crawled through a tunnel where they glowed.
We did 3 tours, well I did 2 and everyone else did 3.  The first one was the best, it's the one we did a few years ago with the Whitakers.  There are a few pretty short ladders, and the ruin is huge.  Also, the tour guide was very kids friendly, and it was the first tour, so the boys did great.

James is always good at getting people to hold him, and he loved the extra attention Anna gave him the whole weekend.

The last tour- number 3 for everyone else was also a guided tour.  It had a 35 foot ladder that James had to climb by himself. I think Devon might still be having nightmare about this one.  It was an interesting ruin though, they think it was for religious purposes.  There was only one way in, through a tunnel, and there was a huge smoke signal thing that looks like a face.  The tour guide was less kids friendly, and it was the end of the day, but the boys did surprisingly well all things considered.

This is the first tour, the Cliff Palace, it's huge.  James kept telling Devon to "take a picture of the castle"

We also hiked to the arch by our house and mostly just played with cousins. Spencer learned to play "wall ball" from Jase and loved having a friend to play with. James loved the attention from Anna. Thanks for coming guys.