Night Fishing

One thing that our kids love to do is fishing. They all have their own poles and they think they're so big when they get to fish by themselves. We found an awesome fishing hole filled with huge carp and each kid got a turn reeling one in.

Valentine's Day Camping

We decided to do something a little different this year and go camping over Valentine's day weekend. We started out the morning with some heart donuts from the bakery and then headed off for Crown King.

The weather was beautiful and we found a secluded area in the trees to set up camp. The kids made forts and spent hours off on their own exploring.

We also love making Dutch oven food and stuffed ourselves with some awesome meals.

Ribs

We had ribs for dinner for the first time ever. The kids didn't know quite what to make of them initially, but we quickly learned that the boys didn't like eating meat off a bone and that our little girl loved it! Audrey licked all her bones clean and helped finish off everyone else's.

Welcome 2015

On New Year's Eve we drove down to Ahwatukee to party with Cody and JoEllen and their family. The boys enjoyed a bike ride, we ordered pizza, and let the kids watch movies until midnight. We had so much fun catching up and talking for hours.

Elliot was really disappointed when we didn't wake up to snow on Christmas morning. I think he expected Christmas to be like it is in the books and movies. We promised him that we would take him to see some, so on New Year's Day we packed the kids in the truck and drove to Flagstaff. 

The kids were in heaven jumping into the fluffy powder. They told us that they wanted to move to Flagstaff so we could play with the snow all winter.

There were lots of tumbles and face plants.

I wish I could claim that we made these snowmen but they were already there.

Dad helped us find a good hill to sled on and we went down over and over until we were exhausted.

After awhile, the smiles turned into this and we knew it was time to go. The whole way home, the kids told us over and over that they never want to live in the snow.

Jefferies Family Reunion

A few days after Christmas, the entire Jefferies family got together here in Peoria for a family reunion. Everyone except my nephew Andrew who is serving a mission was there. Because there are so many of us, we spent most of the time at our church building.

 All the grandchildren (minus Andrew) in order from oldest to youngest.

 We did a five mile hike at Thunderbird park and had a great view of the Phoenix temple.

Abbey, Ashley, Audrey, and Audrey - At the top of Thunderbird. These girls were pretty proud of themselves for making it.

In the afternoons, Jack was in charge of running the "snack shack" and collecting tickets.

These three crazy four-year-olds loved wrestling Uncle Sam.

The twins squaring off in an intense game of pictionary.

We also had a few intense rounds of human scrabble.

The cutest Audrey combo I know!

I'm so grateful for family. I'm grateful for cousins that play together and love each other, despite differences in age. And I'm especially grateful for parents that make the the effort to keep us connected.

Christmas 2014

We were so lucky this year to have my brother Mike and his family join us for Christmas.I loved having my three cute teenage nieces around. On Christmas Eve, we acted out the nativity, made cookies for Santa, and sang Christmas carols.

We also all opened up new Christmas pj's!

The whole gang on Christmas morning - about 6:30am.

A Visit With Santa

We went to the annual children's Christmas party at Ty's office on Friday. Santa came, as usual, and the kids were so excited to see him and tell him their wish lists. They got a lot of laughs out of him, too.

Audrey asked for a baby moose, lemon, and lime.

Elliot asked for a camel and tomato.

Jack asked for a remote-controlled car.