Chrismtas Card

Merry Christmas!

In March, we sold our house in Ahwatukee. We wanted to move closer to Ty’s work, even though we were sad to leave family and friends. We moved into Rebecca’s parents’ home in Gilbert while we began house hunting. Over the summer, we moved into our new home in Peoria. We love our neighborhood and being minutes away from the new Phoenix Temple.

Audrey and Elliot turned three in August. Audrey is our ray of sunshine. She has a bubbly personality and loves to talk to everyone, including strangers. If you call her "Audrey," she will most likely correct you and tell you to call her "Baby Moose" instead. Elliot has mastered riding his bike with training wheels this year. He loves to cruise down the street. Elliot also loves food and can tell you what's cooking just by smelling it down the hallway.

Jack turned six in September. He's in first grade at a new school. His favorite subject is spelling and he loves to test us when he gets home. Jack just finished his first season of Tee Ball and loved having his Dad as the coach.

We hope you have a wonderful Christmas season,
Ty, Rebecca, Jack, Audrey, and Elliot Woods

Christmas in Page

We had a wonderful {cold} Christmas this year in Page. The kids loved playing nonstop with cousins and getting spoiled by Granna and Aunt Les. On Christmas eve, the kids wanted to swim in the hot tub, but we didn't pack swimsuits. McKenna got creative:

They look even more alike dressed like this!

I woke up first on Christmas morning around 5:30 and had to wait patiently for the kids to wake up. By 7:00 they were finally all awake.

Ty got creative and used the panoramic setting on my phone to include himself in the traditional "on the stairs" picture.

Snow Day

On our way up to Page, we decided to stop in Flagstaff and spend a couple hours playing in the snow.

The kids couldn't wait to go!

The weather was perfect for sledding.

We played until we couldn't feel our fingers and toes. Everyone was worn out and slept the rest of the drive up.

Parties

On Jack's last day of school, his class had a breakfast party for the parents to come to. His teacher served a bunch of food and all the kids gave their presents the Christmas projects they'd been working on for the last couple of weeks.

 Jack and Mrs. Conner

School was only a half day. In the afternoon, we all got to drive down to Dad's office and see Santa. We do this every year, and it's a tradition we all look forward to now. Elliot was not scared this year and ran up to Santa when his name was called.

These kids are ready for Christmas!

Welcome December

Well, it's finally freezing here in Phoenix (and by freezing, I mean a high in the 50's). We've been craving some winter weather, though, so it's actually been fun. We've used the fireplace at night a couple of times and even put the heating blanket on our bed!

I'm not sure why we decided December was a good time to start this project, but we are ripping down the wallpaper in the master bathroom.

Audrey loves picking on it.

I even talked the neighbor kid into helping one day. (I love how Elliot looks grossed out.)

Green mustaches.

Bundling up for our morning walk

Jack's class sang a song in his school assembly last week. We had great seats!

 

Kenna's soccer team from Page High School came down a played in a tournament against some Phoenix schools. They were only about 10 minutes away from our house, so we got to watch her play a couple times. Hopefully she wasn't embarrassed, but our kids kept screaming "Go Kenna Bug!" throughout the game. They were so excited to tackle her at the end.

See - it is cold. We had to wear beanies!

Family Pictures

My awesome nephew Noah took our family pictures this year. Here's a few of my favorites:

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving this year, we drove down to Thatcher to be with Dave & Becki's family. Paul, Tara, Anna, and Jason all joined us, too. It was a full house and we had so much fun staying up late and playing all day. We forgot our camera (of course!), but I got some shots with my cell phone.

The girls prepared some of the food at the high school's culinary kitchen. I've never seen such a big mixer in my life!

Hailey and Jack were inseperable!

Ty was the master of doing the dishes.

Tara and Noah

Becki goes all out when it comes to Thanksgiving pies

Boys Weekend + Girls Weekend

Granna and Papa came down for Veteran's Day weekend. The boys had planned a two-day motorcycle adventure around southern Arizona. They left with few plans, no reservations, and no worries.

Just look at these tough guys:

The O.K. Corral in Tombstone, AZ

The girls spent the weekend quilting, playing at the park, eating out, and playing with the kiddos.

Granna spoiled these guys!

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween everyone! We had an interesting night. Elliot seemed to be over whatever bug made him sick the night of the trunk-or-treat. This time, is was Jack that threw up just a couple house before we headed out for the evening. Lovely. We had a busy beginning of the week and just didn't get around to carving our pumpkin until Thursday dinner time. We decided to do it really fast before trick-or-treating. Well, the pumpkin was supposed to still be in the back of the truck, but when I looked it wasn't there. I figured it must have fallen out on the road somewhere along 67th ave. (It's a long and embarrassing story about me forgetting to put the tailgate up after throwing a bunch of groceries in the back...yes, I definitely saw my yogurt flying out when I looked in my rear view mirror.) I hadn't realized that I'd lost our pumpkin, too. By now it was too late, so we just didn't say anything to the kids and somehow they forgot about it.

So we headed out to get candy with our sick Dracula, Jake the Pirate, and Sleeping Beauty.

Twenty Eight

Last week, I turned 28. Birthdays are great days to think about your life - where you've been and where you're going. I feel so blessed and so complete. It's a wonderful feeling. Heavenly Father has given me and husband and three children and a home and there is nothing else I want or need. It was a definitely a day of counting my blessings.

I took the twins to Firehouse Subs for lunch and to get my free birthday sub!

A pan of birthday brownies did the trick for dessert that night.