Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, and anything else I've missed!!!

We had my family over for Thanksgiving and Tony's family from Phoenix decided to stay in Phoenix and go to Allison's apartment to celebrate.  It was kind of odd not having them down here, but we still had a good time!  My niece Eden (in the white dress) is now down in Benson living with my brother and doing well.  After eating a large meal, we finished off the day with board games, my favorite way to end a day! 

We met up with some other families from MOPS and walked around the Reid Park Zoo to look at the Zoolight displays.  I was much more impressed this year than I have been in the past and I even learned something new!  The whole time I've lived here I've thought the zoo should get zebras, well turns out, they've had some all along and I just always missed them! 

Grandma Dorothea and I took Embry to the Nutcracker for the first time.  She loved it!  Also, the usher took us the wrong seats which were way better seats that what we paid for, score!

We took Tony's family and my brother and niece's to Winterhaven while they were over.  It was fun as always, however, the best house (lights and big water fountains set to music) wasn't lit up anymore.  It was incredibly disappointing for me.  :(

Christmas was FANTASTIC!  Even though I was sick on Christmas Eve and missed out on sledding and the nighttime church service :(  Christmas Day was virtually perfect.  All the family was here (that's close enough to come over) and we had a wonderful time.  Opened presents in the morning, at lots of delicious food midday, and celebrated my Brother's birthday too!  Of course we played board games too and had a lot of fun.  I guess I just love Christmas even more now that it reminds me of how lucky I am to be alive. 

My niece Oasis and I took the girls up to Mt Lemmon to test out our new sleds a few days after Christmas.  All was well until Embry got cold and then it was just melt-down central.  We weren't even out of the car for 15 minutes before we had to start packing up again.  Quite disappointing, but it was snowing on our way up and down the mountain which was pretty awesome to see and experience.

Embry finally got to change her earrings.  She picked out some Christmas wreaths to put in.

Tony and I went on a date at some point

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 Then we had some friends over for New Year's Eve.  Games were played, food was eaten, and fireworks were set off in the backyard.  Lots of fun and even so much so that Embry passed out in her chair around 10:30.  Oddly enough, Nola was awake and ready to party well past midnight! 

And Finally we went to a Valley of the Moon event last week.  Embry LOVES this place.  I convinced Tony to come too and he continually reminded me that it was a hippie commune (which it's not, but it is a magical fairy land).  Whatever, I'm all about spreading happiness and so is this place, plus the kids were happy and that's what makes me happy.  See, happiness all around!  Anyhow, Embry roasted her first marshmallow and made her own smore and even shared with Nola!  Miracles do happen! 

So, now I have bronchitis, but I'm on a Z-pak and I'm much better than I was over the past weekend.  Woohoo!  Unfortunately I gained about 5lbs over the past 2 weeks to put me right around 190lbs.  This is incredibly depressing and even more so coupled with the fact that I stopped my anti-anxiety meds.  I'm trying to see how I do without them since I started them while in college and was under a LOT of stress and really sick (mostly with stomach issues).  I'm trusting God can calm my nerves and help balance out my emotions.  As of right now I'm kind of an emotional basket case.  I even cry at commercials, that's just ridiculous!  Anyhow, so I had the dr recheck my thyroid and it's fine, but my vitamin D3 level was low so I'm starting some supplements for that today.  I told Tony that I'm just going to stop eating because I am pretty sure it's the only way I could ever lose any weight.  :/  Bleh.

IBM Christmas Party

 So that IBM Christmas party that I was soo looking forward to ended up being a total bust!  Not because of the party, venue, or food... all that was great...but because we took a very sick Embry along with us.  I thought she was on the upswing from an ear infection, but apparently going to Golf N Stuff was a little too much for her to handle.  We got there at 8, had some yummy bbq breakfast burritos (of which Embry ate nothing), then played some arcade games, and went outside to do some mini-golf because Embry was very excited about her first min-golf experience.  After about 3 holes she started coughing something awful so we headed back inside for more games, but as it turned out, she proceeded to cough, gag, and puke on the floor and then down the back of Tony's shirt as we rushed out the door to the car.  That was fun let me tell ya!  I felt so incredibly bad for Embry, she was so excited about going to the place with castle (what she calls it because there is a mini castle on the golf course that you can see from the road).  Good news though, I won a birthday party for 10 at Golf N Stuff from MOPS!  Guess where we're having the girl's party next year?!

Christmas Eve

Let me just say that I HATE being sick! Hate that I can catch anything and everything with just the snap of a finger. It really sucks. So it's Christmas Eve and I caught the stomach bug that embry had 2 days ago and now I'm laying in bed while everyone gets ready for the Christmas eve service at church. I've been looking forward to that fora long time and even got adorable dresses for the girls to wear. We already had to cancel our trip up mt lemmon this morning to go sledding and now no church either. 😥 Lupus, you can suck it!

Birthday at the Ranch

I thought I had posted about the girl's bday party, but it looks like I never got around to it.  It was a ton of fun!  Nola hated the pony rides, which is weird because we went there last Christmas and she loved them.  I hope she's not getting more timid as she gets older.  However she rode the mini horse cart and went into the petting zoo so not all was lost!  Embry loved all of it, of course.  She was a cowgirl for a day and had a blast.  It cost a lot more than I had planned (although I guess looking back I probably shouldn't have been surprised).  The cost was based on 15 kids and I knew I was inviting a lot more than 15, but what can I say, we're social people!  The food was delicious and we had LOTS of arby's roast beef left over so I had scrumptious sandwiches for days afterward.  Yum!  All in all we had a blast and I'd love to do it again, but it's a bit cost prohibitive. :( 

Next up on the 'FUN' agenda:  IBM Christmas 'party' at Golf n Stuff on Dec 15.  We're taking Embry along (Nola is too small) and I'm soooo looking forward to it! 

Thoughts for the night

1) When you bend over, watch where you're going because it really hurts when you slam your head into the countertop at a high speed.  Ouch.

2) Put your keys away before you try to put your purse on your lap, otherwise you might almost gouge your only working eye out.  Seriously, be careful.

and

3) Embry turns 4 tomorrow! 

Halloween

I took all 4 kiddos to the Trunk or Treat that MOPS hosted in the church parking lot.  It was a lot of fun, although, hard to keep track or 4 little ones while trying to take pictures too.  However they really seemed to enjoy themselves, so it's all worth it. 

 My friend Diana who is another discussion group leader at MOPS hosted a playdate with me for both of our groups to hang out.  We did a Halloween candy hunt, then decorated some magnetic foam halloween picture frames, then ate some yummy food.  It was a really good time and I'm looking forward to our Thanksgiving playdate later this month. 

 We had a lovely Halloween this year.  My friends Anna and Kim came over with their kids and we all went out trick-or-treating around my neighborhood together. The kids got a ton of candy, but Nola decided she was scared of EVERYTHING around house #10 so she stayed in the wagon after that point.  Tony was at our house handing out candy and we had a total of 212 trick-or-treaters stop by. 

 We carved pumpkins a few days before halloween.  I didn't have one since the grocery stores had already sold out, but Embry needed help carving hers for the first time instead of painting it.  Nola was hesitant to smear the pain on her pumpkin at first but then dove right in and ended up painting herself too.  She got a bath.  After Halloween, we noticed that half of Embry's pumpkin was missing and it had been moved down our walkway.  We found the culprit this Friday night as there was a plump javelina hanging out in our front yard.  

Nola is 2!

Nola turned 2 on Oct 26!  She's such a big girl now!  She's saying so many new things and doing some new things too, like jumping.  It's her favorite thing to do and she says, 'I jumpining!' while she does it.  She's a little stingy with her kisses, but if you act like your feelings are very hurt by her turning you down, then she'll pucker up and not leave you alone until you kiss her on the lips.  Also, she thinks that a hug is a kiss as well, so when you want a hug, you need to ask for a 'cuddle' and she'll rest her head on your shoulder.  She's oh so sweet and her new favorite thing to say is 'OKAY!'  It has become very helpful for me when she's whining and I want her to understand something like having to wait until Mama is done with x,y,z before we can do whatever Nola wants and she'll just go, 'OKAY!' and the drama will be over.  Of course it doesn't work all the time, but if it even works 1 time out of 100, I'm OKAY with that! 

On Nola's birthday, Tony got the day off work and we decided to go to the zoo!  We haven't been for a really long time (and I don't think Tony's ever come with us) and since we'd visited they opened a new, large elephant exhibit called 'Expedition Tanzania'.  It was pretty cool and had a lot of interactive things for the girl's to play with which kept them interested in everything.  The monkeys were going NUTS that morning and it was pretty fun to watch them swing around and hoot and holler for a while.  We got a video which I'll have to try to upload later.  It's really something!  Then we took the girls to Chick-fil-A where we had lunch and they played in the toddler play area.  The whole day was a lot of fun and both girls had a really wonderful time.