Christmas 2009

As always this Christmas turned out to be great. We spent Christmas with Dave's family this year in Mesa. But I guess we should start at the beginning.

We were able to decorate our tree a couple of weeks before Christmas. The girls had a lot of fun putting their ornaments on the tree. It turned out pretty dang cute if you ask me.


On Christmas Eve we started our celebrations with Clint and Nicole's family to celebrate Merry's birthday. Avery and Emmabelle had a good time at the party. Once Dave got off work we headed to Mesa. That evening we went to John's house for a Christmas Eve dinner/program. Tom and Sarah did a couple of musical numbers that were just beautiful. With Tom on the piano and Sarah playing the violin. They both did an awesome job.


As Grandpa Hartman read out of Luke 2 the kids acted out the nativity. Avery was so excited to be Mary. I think it was mostly due to getting to hold the baby. McKay being the only boy played Joseph. Annie and Sadie were shepherds, and Emmabelle was the cutest little angel (I am biased though).


After the nativity the kids sang two songs. Christmas Bells are Ringing, and The Shepherds Carol. They did a pretty good job.

Grandpa Great Hartman and Uncle Kern also made it to the festivities. So of course we had to get pictures of them with him. Before we went to bed the girls sprinkled Magic Reindeer food out so that Santa would be able to find us at Uncle John's house. Christmas morning the girls were so excited to see what was in their stockings. Avery took each piece of candy out one by one. It was super cute. Emmabelle went straight for the chocolate.

Christmas present opening ceremonies took place at James and Sylvia's house. All the kids were so excited and there were a ton of presents.

Emmabelle did a good job opening her presents for the first five or so and then she just wanted to play. She didn't open anymore I ended up finishing for her. Avery on the other hand was super excited about opening the presents and didn't want to stop. She just opened one right after the other. She was very excited about the trike she got from Santa and the tea set she asked for. Emmabelle got a radio flyer scooter from Santa. I think her favorite present was the ball that Grandma Hartman got her. She does like her scooter now that she knows what it is.

Later that day we went over to Dan and Sarah's for Christmas lunch. We first went to the park to take a family picture since everyone was there. That was an experience in itself. Some of the adults were just as bad as the kids. It took patience and quite a few shots, but hopefully we got a good one out of it. The food was good as always. There was one tragedy and that was when Emmabelle fell and hit her mouth on the corner of the kids table. Blood everywhere and the poor thing ended up with a fat lip. She has recovered nicely. We got back to Safford around 9:30 that night. It was a great Christmas.

Today being the last Sunday of the year Avery graduated from nursery. She attended closing excercises as a Sunbeam and was so excited to be there. We are having her first primary activity on Saturday, a get to know your teacher breakfast. It should be lots of fun. The Bishopric is cooking for us.

Weekend in Flagstaff

This last weekend the 3-6 we were able to take a trip to Flagstaff to visit Dave's parents. We left Thursday evening after Dave got off work. Friday we were able to do a little shopping. The girls played at the Mall, Avery sat on Santa's lap, and we were able to have a nice dinner at Olive Garden with Dave's parents and sister. Saturday we lounged around most of the morning. We went and took a family picture which was quite a project. We ended up using the timer on my camera and setting it up on the tripod. Not to mention it was freezing cold and so we had to bribe the kids to take a really fast picture. The got a kick out of me running to get in the picture so we actually had one turn out pretty decent. That was my only goal. I didn't care if I had a lot to choose from I just wanted one good picture. Mission accomplished. We went back to Grandma's and Grandpa's and had hot chocolate which is now Avery's favoite. That night we went to Clay and Mary's ward party. The girls got to see Santa again (aka. Papa dressed in a Santa suit). Neither one of them had a clue that it was him. Emmabelle didn't like Santa. I ended up having to hold her next to him and take a picture with them. Later we went back and got a family picture with him. I will post those pictures once I get them. Sunday morning we just spent time with Dave's family before they went to church and then we packed up and headed out just in the nick of time. Within the next couple of days they got about 20-24 in. of snow. It was a nice relaxing weekend and we had so much fun.

Thanksgiving 2009

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year. As always there was way to much food, and it was all very delicious. We went to Animas for the occasion. We left Wednesday evening after Dave got off work. We spent Thursday morning getting everything ready for the big feast, and watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. We had a big group this year so we decided to have the dinner at the church. Those in attendance were my parents, my sister Lori, Clint Nicole and their kids, Uncle David and Aunt Rosanne, my cousin David, Trina Guy and their kids, Uncle Tom and Aunt Paula, and Dave and I with our kids, about 25 in all. Dad tried and experimental Turkey recipe which turn out pretty good. The kids all had fun playing with cousin Davey jumping off the stage. The boys were able to do some dog hunting in the morning and evening. I am not sure they ever got one which is hard to believe when they are literally out the back door every night, but they always have fun anyway. Dave had to come home Thanksgiving evening due to work, but the girls and I stayed another day. We had fun playing with Grandpa and Grandma and cousins. They flew kites. Marcy and Emmabelle were able to ride a mule. The kids had a great time helping Grandma decorate for Christmas. They really enjoyed decorating the tree. We really had an enjoyable time with our family.

Early morning food preparations. The kids just have to help.

Trying to fly kites. It was a little too windy for the tiny kites.

Roof retrieval.

Merry flying her kite.

Avery and Cousin David

Jumping off the stage.

Avery got pretty brave and would jump pretty far for a little girl.

Emmabelle and Grandma Mortensen

Too cute not to post.

Trying to shoot hoops. She would pick up the ball and back up to Aunt Lori and say Up High so Lori would pick her up.

What a face. Levi Kellogg

Decorating Grandma's Tree

The finished product.

Picture update.

I haven't posted in a while so I thought I would just post some recent pictures of the girls.

This is Avery the morning of her birthday. She was so excited with what the birthday fairy brought her.

Clint and his kids came over that evening and we had cupcakes and ice cream.

Emmabelle thought this was the easy way to eat the cupcakes.

This is a couple weeks old, but the girls just love to go and see the temple.

Trips to the duck ponds are always fun.

I don't know why we buy them toys.

Emmabelle + heath bars= huge mess. She just licked all the chocolate off.

Cutest little pirate I've ever seen.

Little Lady Bug.

Avery and Emmabelle liked the plastic decorated pumpkins better than the carved ones. Although Emmabelle really liked the candle.

We had a good halloween and are starting to look forward to the rest of the holiday seasons. It is my favorite time of year.

Weekend in Paradise

This last weekend we were able to go to Alpine to the Mortensen Family cabin and spend a nice relaxing weekend. We left early afternoon on Thursday and got there early evening. We spent Thursday night getting the cabin warmed up, yes it was cool enough to run the heater. Dave and his Dad went out and did a little fishing before it got too dark and Mary, the girls, and I stayed at the cabin and got dinner ready. Thursday night my Dad also arrived. Friday morning the boys got up early and went fishing at Nelson Resevoir. Around 7:00 my Dad and Dave drove into Springerville and picked up Dave's brothers John and Tom at the airport. John is a pilot so they decided to fly instead of drive. That was the day that Clay caught the big one, a 20in. rainbow trout. While the boys were out fishing we (the girls) enjoyed playing at the cabin. We went for a nice walk around the loop which is about a mile. The girls really enjoyed it. I made the mistake of not taking the stroller and so I carried Emmabelle most of the time, but burned that many more calories, yeah for me.

It has been a long time tradition at the cabin to feed the squirrels. Grandma always had unsalted raw peanuts just for the occasion. We had so much fun with them. This is the friendliest little squirrel you will ever meet. He gets up on the picnic table that is by the windows to the cabin and will just peak in and beg for you to come out and feed him. He just waits by the door and almost comes in.

You are seeing this right. He actually will climb up your legs and take peanuts from you and I just got it in my head to try and feed him from my mouth. It was so neat. Dave gave it a try too.

This is a miracle in itself. For those of you that know Avery you know she isn't much for the animals. She had no problems with the squirrel. She had such a fun time feeding him.

Emmabelle just couldn't wait for the squirrel to come back after he had taken a peanut. She would just repeat back, back. She is not one known for patience.Of course Emmabelle just loved the swing. Even though she couldn't ride it by herself she still had a blast swinging in my arms.
Dave, Grandpa Hartman, John, Tom, the girls and I all went down to the river to go fishing. Emmabelle had so much fun throwing rocks into the river. I don't know how much that helped the actual fishermen, but she just loved it. I am so surprised she didn't fall in. She would bend over, but wouldn't bend her knees for some reason and end up on her head. I had to catch her a couple of times.

This is Avery's first time fishing. She wanted so bad to just catch a fish. She didnt' catch a fish, but she managed to snag a crawdad. She thought it was so neat and everytime her line hit the water she said, "I caught a fish" and would automatically start reeling it in. I don't blame her thought I am not patient enough to fish myself. I like to just cast and reel.

Dave just put a bobber on the end of Emmabelle's line and she had so much fun just playing with the ball. My mom arrived on Friday night and since we had all the Grandparents together we decided to celebrate Avery's third birthday. She has been so excited for her birthday for months.

Grandpa Hartman's birthday was also this month so we decided to celebrate for him also. Avery was so cute about her cake she insisted on it being chocolate and there was no persuading her otherwise.

We bought some party blowers for her and it was so fun to watch her try to work them. It took her awhile to learn to blow on them. If you look really hard in the picture you can see her sucking in. It was hilarious we kept telling her to blow and she would just suck harder. She eventually figured it out.

She got so many great presents. Her absolute favorite was the mailbox though. She has been begging for months for a mailbox. Grandma and Grandpa Mortensen were kind enough to get it for her. I would have had they not, because that was the only thing she would tell you when you asked her what she wanted for her birthday. She also got some books, a movie, clothes, a game, and a little princess keyboard. She was very pleased with her loot.

Jared Thompkinson and his Dad Greg also joined us this night. They were also up in Alpine on a hunting trip. Jared is an old friend from EAC when I went there, but he is also a good friend of Tom's and that is why they came. It was really good to see him again. It has been about four years or so since I have seen him. It was fun to catch up.

Saturday was much of the same activites. Clay and Mary had to go home early so Clay could speak in Stake Conference. The remaining boys went fishing on Crescent Lake that morning with the intention of taking John and Tom to the airport around noon. Lucky for them it was too stormy to fly out so they got to stay the remainder of the day. They came back around lunch took naps and went back out to the Black River that evening. Uncle Jim and Aunt Marie stopped by and visited for a little bit and then when they went home Dad, Mom and Avery followed them so Dad could drop off some tin. That left Emmabelle and I alone at the cabin for a few hours. It was fun to get some one on one time with her. We took a walk, and then just played in the house.

Sunday morning John and Tom left early to fly out. The rest of us got up and got ready for church. We usually go to Luna for church, but decided to go visit Uncle Wil and his family in Eager. After church we came back to the cabin, had lunch, cleaned up and headed home. It was such a great and relaxing weekend.

It is tradition to take pictures on Sunday morning before going to church. We have just always done it. So here are the pictures we took.