We Thank O God For a Prophet

It was a bittersweet moment when our family heard of President Hinckley's passing last night. The world will morn the loss of this sweet man, but I'm sure the heavens rejoiced to welcome him home. We are grateful for all the councel and wisdom and the legacy of hope that he left behind for our family. How blessed we feel to belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and enjoy the peace that comes from a knowledge of the restored gospel. We are also so grateful for our Savior Jesus Christ and his Atonment which brings the promise of eternal life and a chance to be reunited with our loved ones.

We lost the race...and things couldn't have been any better!

Saturday night was our family's first Pinewood derby. Not only was this a race it was an Elder's Quorm Extreme Derby where all bets are off. My boys built a car that weighed a ton and we set off hoping for the best. When we arrived and saw three cars with propellors we knew we didn't stand a chance. Not only did we not win first place, but were awarded the flat tire cake for coming in last after losing a wheel repeatedly. But nothing could damper Ben's spirits. In his three year old mind we had the fastest, best, coolest car and it was the highlight of his year! He left the building telling us confidently that we were the only ones that got a cake. A great night had by all.

Ben's First Talk

So it's not on Sunday and he has long since taken off the church clothes, but he still remembers his talk. We were so proud of him, he told us what he wanted to talk about and he memorized the whole thing! (and he did it ten times so mom could get the video right!)

Three Little Monkeys

We got full use of one of our last "Daddy Saturdays" before Bri goes back to school. We went with my sisters family and her in-laws to the Phoenix Zoo. I'm not much of an animal person, but all my boys loved it. Even Lukey would start laughing and "roaring" when he saw an animal. Ben loved the giraffes and Jeff, in true form, loved the wild doggies. It was so much fun to spend the day as a family. We even splurged and rode the camel. Jeff was still bobbing is head half and hour later. Aside from the smell, it was actually pretty comfortable ride!

A beautiful Arizona Day. I still can't believe we can wear t-shirts in January.

Hangin' with our cousins outside the Monkey House.

Mommy and the boys on a CAMEL! They loved it!

Ode to Baby Lukey

It feels like the last few weeks have been filled with trips to the hospital to see all my friends babies. I have started to miss having a tiny one around. Then I have a day like today when I take all three to the grocery store just before lunch, we all have melt downs and I swear we are done! So I figured I would post my favorite picture of Lukey, remember that I do have a baby (actually, technically I have three) and try to get a handle on everything that entails. So here's to my baby that can walk, tell me what a dog and lion say, go get stories when we ask him to and is still absolutely precious when fast asleep curled up like a little stinkbug in his crib. They truely do get so big so fast, it is hardly fair.

Why it is totally cool to have older brothers that can turn on a hose

What a wonderful thing to have three boys that love to entertain eachother. My days are often full of wrestling, getting "webbed" by multiple spidermans at one time and picking up the WWF ring of couch pillows on the floor when they all crash at night. This day I sent them out to play and had to stop and take pics when Ben informed me that they helped Lukey make mud by turning on the hose. It made for one dirty bathtub but the boys had such a blast it was well worth cleaning the bathroom later that night. Yet another reason bathtime comes every night in our house.

Merry, Merry Christmas

We had a fantastic christmas in Pinetop with my sister complete with as much snow as we ever could have wanted! We went sledding, made snowmen, made gingerbread trees, sang carols, ate way too much and slept way too little. My sister's family and mom and dad made everything perfect. There is something magical about brand new bikes underneath a sparkling tree, and my boys faces when they saw them. It was Brian's first white Christmas and I froze all weekend (you never know I was from Canada), but a great time was had by all. Thanks to our hosts in Northern Arizona.

We came home afterward and the boys got to jump on a giant bounce house at Grandma and Grandpa Jones'. Yet again we were all spoiled and ate way too much delicious food.