Birthday Party for Jesus & Santa Clause

For as far back as I remember, one tradition that my family always celebrated on Christmas Eve was having a birthday party for Jesus. As a child, we always gathered at our cousins house and had a birthday party with cake, and then re-enacted the Christmas Story directly from the Bible. I have some great memories as sheep and wise men and even baby Jesus! Hopefully as our family grows, we can do something like this pagent too, but until then we can do a small birthday party.

Eric was on shift Christmas Eve, so Kylie and I spent the evening with my mom and stepdad decorating and then eating Jesus' birthday brownie! I have to say it was the most delicious birthday brownie and Kylie had a wonderful time decorating it however she wanted!





And, here is Kylie's picture with Santa this year. We barely made it into line at 4pm before the 5:30pm cutoff on Christmas eve. Apparently Santa has a lot to do this night :) I'm surprised I even got this shot because once she noticed that I had left Santa's lap to take the photo, it was not a pretty picture. Hopefully next year will be more enjoyable!

Weekend vacation in Sedona

This month, we got the opportunity to skip town for a few days and spend the night at a beautiful resort in Sedona, Arizona. It was rainy all weekend long, but we had fun time as a family eating out, looking at color changing trees, exploring the Sedona library, and looking at all the beautiful lights & decorations around Los Abrigados!

Friends

I've been so bad about blogging this past month and I'm sure that our friends are wondering where we've gone! Well, the reality is that we moved the weekend after Thanksgiving and then came December, and we all know what happens from there until now! We pray that you all had a wonderful Christmas time celebrating the birth of our Savior and being with family. I'll give a recap of all our events, but we had a wonderful time celebrating all month long!

A quick time of catch up with friends Stacey & Marla and our kids. I inherited such a great group of friends when I married Eric!


Monthly Storytime at Desert View Bible Church with Kylie's buddies, Riley & AJ


Zoolights with friends
One of Kylie's best friends, and ours too, invited us to join us at the Phoenix Zoo to celebrate the season with lights! It was a lovely night and we all got to bundle up and enjoy the evening together!

Fun Times in Costumes!

Kylie had the opportunity to spend some time with friends this past week to dress in costumes and ohh & ahh over how cute our kiddos were! Here are some pics of the week!

Kylie & her friend, Kaylee


Kylie & her buddy, Seth, dressed as the football couple (I know, I know, her skirt is a bit short - I guess we'll have to implement a dress code next year!)




AJ, Anabelle, Brody, Nolan, & Kylie


Kylie at the pumpkin patch with Grandma Karen & Grandpa Randy

We Love the Beach!

We've heard that October is the best time to visit Southern California, so we finally had a chance to decide for ourselves. We found a hotel to stay at right on the PCH in Capistrano Beach, California. The beach wasn't that great, but we were in such close proximity to some other wonderful beaches that it was the perfect location! Kylie's at such a fun age now and she's becoming less fearful of the ocean everytime we get to it. One of her favorite activities was chasing the birds along the beach, building sand castles, and exploring the sealife that we found. Here are some of the highlights of our trip!

Back To Sea World








The TidePools at Dana Point Ocean Institute





San Clemente Beach - Our Favorite!






Dolphin Cruise





My Favorite Photos

My mom, My Hero!

I had the opportunity to go to williams arizona with my mom on a retreat with her church. We stayed at Lost Canyon, the Young Life camp here in Arizona, and there was always something to do to keep us busy. It was such a fun time to just hang out with my mom and enjoy a great break from the heat. One of the highlilghts was the zipline that they have going from the mountain into the lake. We both decided that it would be a great experience and were ready to conquer our fears and come back with great pictures. Well, the morning of our activity, there was a consistent rain and it was super chilly that day. So I, being the wiser and more mature of our pair (ha ha ha!) decided it would best for my body not to subject it to the intense zipline activity :) However, my mom, the adventure woman she is, had no problem with the cold & rain and decided to show up her daughter - I guess that's still her place, to put me in mine! She's the one that lands in the water first, and so gracefully I must add! Here you can see a video I took of her launch and landing. I love you mom!

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com