Fun with Family

After breakfast on Christmas morning, Eric headed to work and the kids and I packed up and headed to Thatcher for a few days. Cody and Em were already there and Kimberly's family joined us that evening. Cody had brought his violin and it was really nice to play it for a minute. I should get mine out every once in awhile.

Carter was in heaven having Trace come. They were like kindred spirits the second they started talking. "Cool!" and "Awesome!" were practically the first words out of their mouths as they started talking about their Christmas gifts. Isaac was in heaven with Grandma and Grandpa's new pinball machine that Grandma and Grandpa Weech gave them. It was a blast to play on. Dad sure enjoyed making fun of my hand-eye coordination. "You did see that ball coming, right?" were words I heard a few times!

We were spoiled by more gifts, but the most thoughtful of all was this beautiful lap quilt that Cindy made. She's taking a quilting class and has fallen in love with the art. She does amazing work - much more meticulous and perfect then I could ever do! They still had buckets of fabric that mom had picked out and never had the chance to use, so she made each of our families a quilt with "Debra's fabric and Cindy's stiches" and lots of love. Thank you so much!


After a few days of lots of fun (besides the few hours that I passed a kidney stone the day after Christmas. Thankfully it was a quick one...phew!) and not a lot of pictures, we headed to Mesa to spend the evening with the whole family. We started out at Peter Piper Pizza where the kids had a blast as usual. The merry-go-round ate all of Ashlyn's, Jordynn's, and Kailan's tokens. Plus she hung around it just in case any other random child decided to fork over the goods. She loved it!

Kimmie, Steven, and Emily

Cyndi, Stacie, Jordynn, Lucy

Chase and Isaac. I swear Isaac looks more like Eric than me, but you can't deny that these two are related!

Dad and Cindy. Who had more fun - them or the kids? :)

Cari and I with our prizes, which far exceeded our ticket income (the lady was generous when we were having such a hard time deciding!). We flopped twice on Deal or No Deal, so used the rest of our tokens on air hockey and a little bit of skee ball. No wasting our time sitting around a table chit chatting! I just couldn't post the full picture of either one of my shots. It would have been too cruel to one or the other of us!

After pizza, we went to the Temple to see the lights and watch the short movie "Luke 2." When the movie was over and all was silent, Ashlyn turned to Dad (in her not-so-quiet voice) and said "That was a GREAT movie, Grandpa!" Everyone laughed and the sister missionary agreed. She is pretty dang cute, but does everyone have to know all the time? The lights were beautiful as always. It's been several years since I've seen them. I don't know if my kids actually saw them or not. Too many other important things, like cousins!

We then gathered at Cari's to finish the night off with a little rock band and game playing. I'm not so hot at the guitar or drums, but man can I wail into the microphone! I need a karoake machine - and then my family will probably need some ear plugs! Stacie and I stayed at Cari's that night, and the next morning we sang a few songs for the kids. They just sat on the couch and stared at us. I don't think they knew what was happening or who these strange people, who used to be their moms, were. Good times!

Hallie and Ashlyn enjoying a little Strawberry Shortcake.

Ashlyn drumming her heart out.

Does it really surprise you that she has the most pictures? Let her enjoy it while it lasts, there's about to be a new baby!