Back in Business

Well, I guess when the complaints about not blogging for a while start coming in from Australia, then it's time to start seriously thinking about putting together an update! ;o) We have been busy, busy, busy with friends, family, more family and fun in general. I'll try to bullet post the highlights here and then work on catching up with pics as I am able. From most recent:

• Christmas Cards are DONE!!!
• Christmas shopping is DONE!!!
• Took a ride on The Polar Express with the kids and close buddies this past weekend.
• Had 13 houseguests (Jenn's Family) for 5 days for Thanksgiving and it was a blast!
• Had 5 houseguests (Matt's Family) for 4 days just prior to that.
• "Snow" in Tucson and I was wearing flip flops, of course.
• Jackson graduated and had a birthday.
• Halloween-Two Spidermen, a girl in a bathtub, and a skeleton-type thing.
• Carving pumpkins with power tools-gotta love that husband of mine...
• Sorry excuse for a trip to the pumpkin patch
• Busy with work-mostly post placement services and adoption finalizations, which I love.

Stay tuned for pictures.

***Why is it that I can see the bullets when I'm typing up the post, but they don't show on my blog? What am I doing wrong??

All Aboard!

Just a day after the last of our houseguests left, we loaded the kids in the car for a surprise trip. It was so fun to torture them with clues and leave them wondering what we were up to. Eventually, we ended up checked into a hotel in Williams, AZ, near Flagstaff. The kids played at a park and enjoyed the holiday decorations. Then we ate dinner-more turkey!



After dinner, the kids (and adults!) changed into our pjs and headed over to the train depot to meet Mrs. Claus. We were lucky enough to have Xander's best church and preschool buddy, Evan and his mom join us on our trip. Xander felt pretty special to be the one with a friend along for an event!
How cute is this picture? They are on the lookout for the north pole.
Xander meeting the conductor.The boys' side of the train.
Once we reached the north pole, Santa boarded the train and gave each child a bell.
Needless to say, the kids slept quite well that night and the little boys played with toy trains for the duration of the 4 1/2 hr. drive home. the next morning. So glad that you could join us S and E!

Full House, Full Stomachs and Happy Hearts

We had 10 of Jenn's family members join us for Thanksgiving this year! Jenn's brother, James, his wife, Faith and their kids, Emilie and Rebecca came on the Tuesday before (just in time to babysit for us so we could go to Chinese class-are we great hosts, or what?) On Wednesday, Jenn's Mom and Grandma showed up along with sister Julie and brother, Jared. Later that night, Jenn's sister, Janine and her husband Brice finally made it. We ate lots of food and laughed hard enough to make room for dessert.

Janine had feeding a giraffe on her 'things to do before I die' list so on Thanksgiving Day, we all headed out to the zoo to make her dream a reality. Here's the proof:

Proof that the rest of us were there too:

Me and Matt

Noah and Uncle JaredLove this pic of cute little neice, Rebecca.
And here she is with the rest of her family.
Aunt Nini and Uncle Brice
The Sisters Clowning Around

Grandma Johnson loves to bowl so that's what we did on the day after Thanksgiving. Here's almost all of us. (Faith and Rebecca were MIA and Matt was behind the camera)
We had a great time with everyone. We went shopping several times and went out to dinner, played card games, etc. It was fun just to visit and spend time with one another. We are blessed to have such a wonderful family. As you can see below, Matt was a little emotional when it was time for James to leave and wanted to make sure that he gave him a proper send-off. (Actually, he was just being a great BIL and trying to crack his back.)

Matt's Family in Town

We had a great weekend with Matt's mom, Debbie, sister, Jennie and her three kids. There was lots of food and lots of shopping! Our kids were in cousin heaven! We need to get them together more often!

Xander and cousin Thorin have similar wardrobes and were coincidental twins

for most of the weekend.

Audrey loved spending time with cousin Sydney.

Our girl isn't desperate for a little sister or anything...

Cousin Sandwich: Our boys with Robert and ThorinTucson Snow

The kids gearing up for a snowball fight.

Nothing worse that showing up with the wrong shoes...

Our Graduate

If it helps, I am rolling my eyes at myself as I type this-can't believe that I am blogging about my dog. I guess I have become one of 'those people.' ;o) ...just wait till you see the family Christmas letter.

So, Jackson passed his 8 week dog obedience class. He has come a long way but whoever told us that he would calm down by the time he reached one year old was full of you-know-what. We have already signed him up for the next class and have our sights set on his second year!

Happy Halloween!

Hopefully, you can tell what this is supposed to be. To put it here would invite 'the pervs' to the blog. Anyway, it was a fun costume to put together. The only problem was that after wearing this for several parties previously, we were low on bubbles!

The three kiddos who will still participate in the event.
Taylor designated himself as candy-passer-outer.
Trick-or-Treating with neighborhood pals