10 days in the Desert

As our Christmas gift this year, my mom flew our family out to Arizona for 10 days in the desert with her and my brother. We decided to go the week before Christmas because the Browns were playing the Cardinals on the 18th which is also my mom's birthday, nothing like killing 2 birds with 1 stone!

Any way, so we got to Arizona on the 17th and got the kids situated with my mom and brother and then Chris and I stayed in Phoenix for 2 days of quiet while the kids were off to Tucson. I have to say the 2 days of quiet was very much needed and appreciated! Chris and I got to sleep in, sort of, go out to dinner, hadn't done that since the summer, and got to go to a football game without having to figure out babysitters. It was all SO wonderful, hopefully we'll be able to do it again in the not too distant future, but more than likely it'll be at least 2 years away....

The rest of the trip was like having Christmas all week long for the kids! It seemed like everyday my mom had something planned and when she didn't have something planned we found something fun to do!

A look at some of the fun we had:
(I also posted all 221 pictures from the trip on Facebook.....my mom sure does like to take pictures!)

In-N-Out Burger for the first time......Yummmmm

U of A Basketball game! Go Cats!
(coincidentally they were playing Oakland, a team from Detroit)

There was LOTS of swimming in the pool...I mean hot tub :) The weather was too cold for pool swimming!


Baking Snicker Doodles
The boys helped to measure, mix ingredients, roll balls, and dip the dough into the cinnamon sugar, and they turned out great!


Much needed haircuts


Cowboy and Cowgirl time!
Rylan LOVED the cowboy boots, you'll see them a few more times below:)


Jewelry time with Mana


A visit from Michelle (my old coach)


A few of my favorite silly pictures in front of the Christmas tree



Sugar cookies this time! And Rylan wanted to join as well :)


Brenden by his Fathead and the Christmas Tree


Christmas Morning!

Stockings are stuffed to the limit!

Opening Presents

Nintendo 3ds for the boys, they must have one awesome Mana!

Rylan's own Jewelry, complete with clip on earings :)


Fun exploring in the Desert


And of course, BASKETBALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A very good time indeed! With so much fun and excitement for 10 days its now time to wind down and relax until the New Year that will bring even more chaos and craziness with moving and the arrival of quatro - our current name for the new baby :)

We hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and has a Happy and Safe New Year!

Christmas Eve....Monkey Style

After a rocky start to the day we had a very nice Christmas Eve. The rocky start began with taking the boys to have them pick out and buy each other Christmas presents. They knew that Mana (my mom) was going to be giving them a present today and they both began whining that they wanted the presents they were buying each other instead - since they pretty much had figured out what the other had picked. We had to have a long talk on the way home about the meaning of Christmas. That Christmas is not about presents, but about appreciating what you have and the spirit of giving to others. For the most part, I think it started to sink in as they were much better behaved the rest of the day.

We spent the day making sugar cookies and decorating them, watching football - Yay Lions!, playing basketball, having a nice dinner of sloppy joes, and opening one present before bed. In the usual tradition of our family our one gift was new pajamas. And this year my mom went all out with Monkey PJs for everyone, including the grown ups.

The kids are now in bed with strict instructions to remain in their room until the alarm goes off at 7:30am or someone comes to get them, whichever comes first. We still have some wrapping to do tonight and we need to stuff the stockings. The cookies and milk are out and ready. We're just about ready for it to be Christmas. We hope that all of our family and friends are having a wonderful holiday as well. Merry Christmas to all! And to all a good night!