My sister is making me post this picture!!

Are you happy now, Tia??

Thanksgiving in Amsterdam!!

As most of you know, Joey does educational tours with a company called Explorica. He goes to Europe a lot...once he went 4 times in one year. So there was a convention coming up in Amsterdam and he didn't really want to go. Well, I did want to go...badly. So my sister, being the kind and gracious person that she is...offered to take one for the team and go with me! I know...she's amazing to make that sacrifice! So the week of Thanksgiving we headed off to freezing cold Holland! One of the first things we did is go to the Rijksmuseum and see some of the famous paintings by Rembrandt! So awesome!!!
We took a million pictures by canals because they are everywhere!!! And so pretty! And it was cold!
We missed the annual cheeseball picture that we take on Thanksgiving day but we passed this cheese shop and decided to improvise and take our own cheeseball picture!
One day, we went out of the city to the countryside and saw all sorts of beautiful scenery...windmills and animals and lots and lots of ditches and canals full of water!!!
We went to a little fishing village called Volendam. It was so fun to wander around and mingle with the locals. It's not tourist season so we got a flavor of what life is really like there. And did I mention that it was cold?!
Our tour guide, Nadia, took pity on the two Arizona girls one night. She could tell we were cold so she showed us how to fix our jackets and scarfs for maximum warmth. It was so cozy once we were bundled up right... but we could never recreate it. I guess it takes practice.

Okay, the picture below might need some explaining. We noticed these big gray things all over the place. We weren't positive what they were until we saw a man using one!! Urinals right on the street!! What? We saw some crazy things in Amsterdam!

It was so strange to be in a place where marajuana is sold on the street and in coffeeshops like it's no big deal. People walk down the street smoking joints and there are stores that sell only pot and it's paraphenalia. Weird!!

Thanksgiving at Granny's House

The day after Thanksgiving my family got to eat AGAIN at Granny and Papa Joes. I wasn't worried at all about my family starving while I was gone. I was just so bummed that I missed it. Thanksgiving is my absolute favorite holliday!
Gage and his Papa Joe!
Joey and his mom...
Playing football in the yard! Joey did a great job again of documenting all the fun so I could see what I missed. Next I will post some pictures of my trip to Amsterdam...it was soooo fun!!!

Thanksgiving Day...at Mombees!

What!? Gage is helping with the cooking???I can't believe my eyes!
Every year, we have a tradition of taking a picture with the cheese ball. A weird tradition...but thats what we do! This year for the first time, EVER, I missed Thanksgiving. Me and my sister,Tia, went to Amsterdam during that week for an Explorica convention. Mom and Min were kind enough to include us in the cheese ball picture anyways! We were there in spirit!
We called to say hello just as everyone was sitting down to eat. Joey took a picture of us talking on the phone. Then he made me feel bad by describing all the delicious food they were about to eat. We had vegetable soup and rice for dinner. Oh well...we were in Amsterdam! So there!
Joey did a great job documenting everything for me so I could include it in my scrapbook! It looks like everyone had a great day! I love Thanksgiving and it stinks that we missed it. But we had fun anyways!

Family Pictures at the Temple

So we have had family pictures taken at golf courses, parks, front yards, on the side of the road and many other places but we have NEVER had a family picture taken at the temple!!! Until now. I really wanted to get one so we finally did. I think the last time we took pictures at the temple was on our wedding day! What better background? I think they turned out good...even though Delly drew all over her face with blue marker right before we needed to get ready and Avery fell in the grass and got grass stains on her pants and Gage has one red sock and one black sock on....what can I say....this is our family!

Painting with Delly

Every time I look at this picture it makes me laugh! My sister and I were re-doing the girls room. We were making stripes on the wall...which turns out is harder than it seems. Delly claimed the ladder for herself. It was HERS and she didn't like it one bit when I would get on it. She kept trying to push me off with her little elbow. It made me laugh...and it made the job even harder! Poor thing was neglected that day...you can see she is still in her nightgown and I think this picture was taken in the afternoon! Oh well... the room turned out cute!

Captain Deano's Crew

My sister's little boy Dean was diagnosed with diabetes a little over a year ago. This year he had is own CREW to support him at the JDRF annual Walk for a Cure at Tempe Town Lake. The kids were so excited to walk the 5K with Deano. They all did great even though it was a little warm that day and it was tiring for them. About halfway through, Delly decided it was a good time to throw up all the water she had been drinking. That made her upset and we had to take turns carrying her the rest of the way...and pushing the empty stroller! Oh well.. we did it and will do it again next year and for as long as Dean has to suffer with his disease.

Halloween...

Halloween this year was great fun...as always! I think Drey gets the most excited. I had purchased Adelle a cute witch costume, complete with the matching hat, and when it came time to put it on she threw the mother of all fits. She absolutely would not wear it no matter how much pleading I did. So she put on a Dora night gown instead. Not as cute, but she was happy. Avery went as Dorothy, Gage was the Burger King and Drey was Freddy or Jason or some type of mass murderer. Lovely, huh? We went to the Queen Creek festival and had so much fun! I don't know why there's dots all over my pictures but its really annoying.

Rocky Point Vacation

We stayed at the most luxurious condos in Mexico...Las Palomas! It had a waterslide, lazy river, hot tub, kiddie pool, a few big pools and if that wasn't enough, the beach was right there,too! The kids had the time of their life... and so did the grown-ups!











We used to call the street mall the "dirt mall" because it used to be dirt streets. We were pretty surprised to get there and find paved streets! So we can't call it the dirt mall anymore.

Drey couldn't get enough of the ocean!

Adelle Taylen.....

This picture melts my heart everytime I see it. It was taken by an excellent (published) photographer...my brother. I love it!!

I'm finally a BLOGGER!

I've been wanting to start a blog for awhile now but was a little intimidated. I'm not super savvy when it comes to computers but it was surprisingly easy to make our own blog site. So I'm gonna give it a go. I had a friend tell me she uses it as a journal as well as a fun way to keep up to date with family and friends...so I thought it might be fun to try! Now if I can just figure out how to post pictures!!!