Christmas has come and gone!!

I can't believe that Christmas has come and gone already! It always goes by way too fast! We had a nice, but different than usual Christmas. This was the first year we didn't travel somewhere on Christmas Day or before. We stayed home for Christmas. We decided to let the boys enjoy and play with all of their new things. Christmas Eve we went to breakfast. Then I went and got the boys some sleds so they could sled on the mini hill at the park. I really mean mini, but they had a lot of fun! Then for dinner we cooked a ham and had a nice dinner. Christmas morning the boys slept in until 8 and so that was really nice. So of course they got up and opened presents. Jalen was happy to get a nintendo ds. Which was the only thing he wanted. Landon only asked for a buzz lightyear gun and a piano. We also decied to get him a kids digital camera so then maybe he would leave ours alone. It has been a hit! I think that he has taken about 200 pictures already. It also does little videos. He just loves it. His keyboard didn't work and so we had to exchange it. Landon was so excited about all his gifts he would squeal when he opened them. Jalen was much calmer. We asked him later on if he liked his ds because he didn't seem that excited when he opened it. He told us he didn't want to get too hyper! Kids are so funny sometimes! We had a nice Christmas morning and the snow kept coming. We have gotten a lot over the last week. Later on Christmas day after the kids played for a while we decided to go to the movies. The boys wanted to see The Tale of Despereaux. That wasn't our first choice, but anything for the kids right?? It was alright. The boys liked it. Apparently I was snoring. I woke up and Sean was laughing at me. Hopefully I didn't disturb the person next to me. OOPS! We spent the rest of the day at home. It was nice and relaxing and probably a good thing we didn't plan to travel because of all the snow! Today things have been better. The roads were clear and the snow had slowed down. We of course had to do some exchanges. I got Sean a pair of jeans that were apparently metrosexual! He tried them on and I think we both laughed and I told him to take them off quick. Now I know that Bootcut are not his style. Always go with the loose. Then to walmart for the boys to blow the gift cards they got from Grandma and Grandpa. Landon got a little einsteins rocket and Jalen got the club penquin ds game. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa! Then off to take the piano back for one that worked and on to the mall! Tonight we took down the tree. I still can't believe how many needles were on the floor, and to the door and all over the sidewalk. The tree left a thick trail of needles all the way to the car! I had to empty the vacuum three times while vacuuming. We may be finding needles for weeks to come.

Here is a video of Jalens Christmas program at school. We hardly got to see Jalen the whole program because he had his song book in front of his face the whole time!!

This really doesn't show all the needles, but you get the idea!

This is the boys playing in all the snow we had. This was before the last storm. We got even more!

Here is one of the 200 pics Landon took with his new camera. Not bad!

Here is another of Landons pictures. Dad has been doing a lot of this lately!

Merry Christmas!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Our Big, Fat Tree

We finally got our tree up over the weekend. It was really quite the process! We went on Saturday afternoon to go and get it. We looked at every place in town. We started close to our house at a couple of tree lots. We looked all around at the first one in the freezing cold. It took us forever to decide on one and then we asked how much it was. When the guy told us 60 bucks I think that my mouth dropped a little. We have a real tree every year, but we have only bought it once. Usually Seans parents and sometimes Sean go cut one down in Idaho somewhere. Anyways we had to go to the bank to get cash before we could get the tree anyways, but I used that as an excuse so I didn't have to tell the guy I was way to cheap to pay that for a tree! I could pay for a couple gifts for people for Christmas with that amount of money. So on we went to the next lot. It mostly had dead looking trees so we didn't waste much time at that one. Although if we could get it for a decent price maybe we would take a half dead one. So now that everyone is cranky and the kids thought that we would never find a tree I heard that they had real trees at lowes and so we stopped on by. Well they didn't really have any that looked that great. So we were on to the next place. So our 4th stop on the tree hunt. Who would have thought that it would take this long to find a tree. I mean it is just a tree. Don't they all pretty much look the same. By this point we were thinking maybe we could do a fake one. We kind of joked about it, but we both have always grown up with a real tree and they smell so good. So here we are at "Joshuas Trees" Let me tell you we love Joshua! We found this cute fat tree. It is a different kind than we have ever had. Sean wasn't sure he would like it because it has flat needles and looks a little different than what we are use to. But it smells so good. You can smell it through out the house. We both love it! I was happy because we only had to spend 42 bucks. So 20 bucks less than the first place. Even though it was about an hour or so later of looking I think we got a cute tree. Now we had told our kids that we would get a tree on Saturday and decorate it. By the time we finally got the tree everyone was so cranky and hungry and it was late that we had to wait until Sunday night to actually put the lights on and decorate it. The kids were a little disappointed but they survived until Sunday.

Thanksgiving and Arizona

It has been a while since my last post. This is what we have been up to the last week or so. We went to Rexburg for Thanksgiving to be with Seans family. A few days before Thanksgiving. Seans very sweet Grandma passed away. We still decided to go to Rexburg for two days for Thanksgiving. We came back earlier than planned so we could get ready to take a trip to Arizona for the funeral. Considering the circumstances Thanksgiving was as good as it could be. We had a yummy dinner! Everyone was busy finalizing plans to get to Arizona by Tuesday. On Black Friday I got up at 3:00 to go shopping with my sister, Keri. I am so glad that I finally talked her in to going with me. Thanks Keri! I got a total of 3 hours of sleep! It was so fun though. I was pretty excited about the sweet deals I got. We did all of our shopping and then of course we had to go to breakfast. The rest of the day I was quite tired! Sean and I and the boys spent the rest of the day with his sister and her family. The boys were very excited to see the cousins. We headed home late Friday night. We had to get home and pack up again to head to Arizona on Sunday. The drive to Arizona went well. It was about ten hours. We got to do some fun things while we were there. They had the lights at the Mesa Temple which were awesome. They had so many lights. It was cool to see Christmas lights in Palm trees. It was also fun because we weren't freezing while enjoying the lights. The weather was great while we were there. During the day it was 75-80. The boys were mostly excited to see all the cactuses and to go swimming! We got to visit with Seans family that we hardly ever see. We were sad to say good-bye (for now) to Grandma, but we know that she is in a very happy place and is happy to be with Grandpa again. Grandma kept journals and it is neat that we can read them and see what an amazing person she is. She had a strong testimony of the church and went to the temple several times each week all the way until the day she passed. She had great faith! We will miss her!

We decided since we were going to be in the area to stop at the Grand Canyon on our way back home. It was really neat. The kids and I had never been before and it had been a long time since Sean had been. I was really anxious thinking about it. I was so worried that one of the kids would fall in and I was so scared. Once we got to it I felt a little better, but I had death grips on them. I mean I couldn't believe it in some spots their was no railings. It was very scary, but it was really neat. We only spent a couple hours their. We had to be on our way home. I am glad we stopped because who knows if we will ever be back that way. It is something everyone must see at least once!

I am glad to be home, but now I need to get my tree up and my decorations up and start getting ready for Christmas. It is coming so fast!

The lights at the Temple in Mesa. I was having a hard time getting any good pictures because of all the lights.

Jalen and Landon at the Temple.

Here is everyone at dinner. I really need to figure out my camera. Once again the lights messed it up a little. We ate at this place called Charlestons. It was really yummy and the service was great. It guess it is a chain, but they don't have one around here. Amanda you will have to try it out I saw they have one in Indianapolis!

Gotta love being able to swim outside in December!

The boys were excited to get a picture by a cactus. This was actually in Seans uncles front yard. It is crazy how big they get!

They are so big!

Grand Canyon

This was one of the edges with no fences. Sean walked out on it a little ways, but no way was I. I had anxiety just seeing it.

Family Picture

The initial drop off the side is 300 feet! How scary! It really was pretty once I got over my initial fears. In some places you could see the colorado river. You could actually hear it if it was really quiet.

Another view

Here is Grandma Shumway when she came to visit. We will miss her.