Temple Lights

Our tradition every year before Christmas for a Family Home Evening (which happen to be on Thursdays for us because of Brian's schedule) we take the kids to the temple to see the lights. It gives us a great opportunity to show them the beautiful lights and to tell them about Jesus' birth. They all seemed to really enjoy the beauty of the temple at Christmas time.

This is the front of the Mesa Temple from Main Street.

Here is a better picture of just the temple itself.

This is the Nativity Scene that they put up every year. These figures apparently were sent here from Italy.

And last but defiantly not least, Mary & Joseph. Although I think at 5 1/2 months along I look bigger than Mary does full term! Must be another one of the great blessing of being our Savior's mother!!!

Nathan's Birthday

Kaylie really wanted to help Nathan open his presents. She didn't even care what they were, she just wanted to rip paper!

Nathan and Kaylie riding bikes. And yes, Nathan is riding Maddie's bike.

Nathan for his first ride on his new bike. And for those of you who haven't seen it, that is Brian's police car behind him.

We decided to get Nathan a new bike for his birthday since a few months ago Brian ran his old one over with the truck. It is pretty mangled and although Brian wanted to try to fix it, Nathan had pretty much out grow it and was ready for a new one.

Nathan enjoying his rainbow cake.

I didn't go over board with the cake this year. I guess being pregnant put a damper on my energy! I could have bought him one, but I like making their cakes for them. I asked Nathan today if he had a good birthday and he enthusiastically said "Yes!" Brian did have to work, but we still got to spend about 3 hours with him before he left, so it was a fun day. Can you believe he is 5 already?!

Chrystal's New Project

Well, today I decided I wanted to make a hair bow holder for the girls and I am pleased to announce that it turned out just how I wanted it to. I bought the sign board with hooks (the hooks are for pony tail holders) at Walmart for $4 and the ribbon to clip the bows on was another $3 and I bought the paint for $1. So this is what I did for a total of $8 plus the time it took to paint it and put it together. I went with the pink and brown theme to match the girls bedrooms sets. Plus, it's cute and fun. It only took me about 2 hours or less to paint it and put it all together. All in all I am very happy with the finished product. I may add some brown dots to the hearts at the bottom of the ribbons, but I haven't decided yet. All the bows that are clipped on the ribbons I made for the girls. I'm sure there will be more to come...

Kaylie's Big Girl Bed

Maddie is LOVING sleeping on the top bunk.

Well, last week we moved Kaylie over to the bunk bed. It has been pretty interesting. She doesn't like it much at naptime, but the past 2 days she has been tucking herself back in bed to sleep both at night and for naptime after she is tired and done playing with her clothes and toys. I hope this keeps up, because it isn't very easy with my growing belly to put her back in the bottom bunk when she falls asleep on the floor!

The Kittens

They almost seem to have the same interest in each other!

Kaylie just adores the kittens. Even while I am writing this she is saying "baby!" "baby!" and pointing at the kitten in the picture.

Maddie & Nathan with a kitten each. We almost had enough for everyone in our family to hold one and take a picture!

Maddie with Brian's favorite kitten.


I took these pictures today and thought they were too cute not to share. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

Quick Catch Up!

Things have been going pretty well for us lately.

Brian is loving being a Police Officer and especially for the Gila River Reservation. He never has a dull day, that's for sure! He finally has his own take home patrol car, which has been a huge blessing as far as paying for gas is concerned. His work schedule right now is swing shift (3pm - 1am) Friday through Monday. That gives us 3 days off together!

I have been enjoying my regained energy. My first trimester was pretty crummy, but things are definatly much better now. We had our ultrasound and found out we are having another boy, so our family will now be even! I have a new calling at church as the Enrichment Leader, so I have been busy planning and throwing activies for Relief Society. It is a lot of fun. I've also been taking care of 4 kittens and their mother that adopted us right before she gave birth under Brian's car! They are almost ready for their new homes and I'm excited to have my bathroom back! I have been enjoying our much easier daily tasks since we got rid of a lot of our animals. We are down to 1 dog, 2 cats (not including the mom & kittens) and a 5 gallon fish tank. Much more easy to manage!

Nathan is doing super well at school and loving every minute of it. He is quite the popular kid and all the other kids always say "Hi" and "Bye" to him. He is also very excited to have a baby brother and especially to share his bedroom. He has been asking us almost every day now if it is time to decorate for Christmas, but Brian said "not until after Thanksgiving!" He is excited to go to California for Christmas and see all his cousins and family.

Maddie seems to be picking up on a lot of what Nathan has been doing in school. Today she asked me to spell just about every word she could think of! Cute, but it got old quick!!! She has been a great helper with the cats and dog. She feeds them every chance she gets, which can be a little too often (especially if you know how big/fat our cats are!). She has been loving the kittens and takes every opportunity to play with them.

Kaylie is learning how to be a big girl. We switched her over to her "big girl" bed a few days ago. She does well at night, but has a very hard time with naps. She gets very upset about being "locked" in her room so she can rest. Today I had to lay with her and she fell asleep in about 2 minutes, because she was so exhausted from crying at the door. Poor girl! She, too, has been taking every opportunity to play with the kittens, but I have to be pretty careful with her, because she doesn't know her own strength.

Hello!

Well, we finally gave in and started our own blog like so many millions of people out there. I guess it was about time! Hopefully I will be able to keep this up to date so you all can see what our family is up to. So, keep coming back to check out how we are doing!