Fiesta Bowl Parade

The Fiesta Bowl is played in Phoenix, and they hold a parade a few days before it. This year we were down here, having just gotten back from Utah, and decided to attend it. It started at eleven and we got there at about noon. We were at the very end of the parade route and enjoyed the warm weather and fun entries. They have a marching band competition, and so marching bands from around the nation were in the parade. It was a lot of fun. Here is Jeff with his favorite cheerleaders. If you look closely you might be able to tell that they were all 80 years old...or older! I know my eyes are closed, but this guys famous. I don't know his name, I could look it up if I really felt like it, but he is the guy from the Disney channel. He's on the show Wizards of Waverly Place.
And here we are together.
And Jeff with THE Ohio Sate University Marching Band.
And with Bevo. You could see him better in person.

Skiing!

We went Skiing on New Year's Eve Day. It was soo much fun. Jeff and I went with my Aunt Alma, Uncle Mike, Donavan, Amanda, Brandon and Caleb. Amanda and Brandon had never been before so it was interesting. Luckily we had a couple of pros, Aunt Alma and Uncle Mike, there to help us. Here we were getting ready to go.

And here we are all ready to head on out. From L to R: Donavan, Amanda, Uncle Mike, Aunt Alma, Chelan, Jeff, Caleb, and Brandon.
It was fun, except for when Brandon hurt his knee and had to be taken down on a stretcher. He was fine, although no more skiing for him. Caleb and I went down a pretty scary slope with Uncle Mike and Aunt Alma. It was icy and windy, and exactly what I don't want to be skiing in. It was funny when I fell though. I got my ski stuck in the snow about a foot deep. It was so deep that I couldn't pull it back out without a little help. Luckily we all survived. And arrived home to a great meal that my mom had ready when we walked in the door.

We followed our day of great skiing up with going to a party at Aaron and Kareth's house. Unfortunately we were there for a couple of hours before I stated feeling sick. So Jeff and I went home. And while everyone celebrated the New Year, I was throwing up with the flu. Not a fun way to end a vacation. I even missed the party that I had planned on New Year's. Jeff never got sick so we were able to make it home on Friday, the second of January, as planned.

Christmas Presents

Most of the Christmas presents we gave people were handmade be Chelan this year. Because of that not as much time lately has been spent on anything else. Even the 12 hour drive up to Utah was spent sewing. We were finally able to put my sewing machine away and get our dining room table back. The how-to books have finally been returned to the library and it was fun to give everyone their gifts.
I quilted a wall hanging for the parents. That means that I had to make two of these.

Here is a picture where you can see the back.

And a close up of the snowman.

These were a little harder than expected because I have sewn and pieced quilts but I have never done quilting. So I had to read up on how to do it properly. I also have not sewn on too many buttons, and between these two, I had to sew on 32 of them. It is lots of fun to see the finished product. Unfortunately I have not gotten the other presents to all of my sisters, so I should not post pictures of those until I get them.

Merry Christmas

This was taken before opening presents on Christmas morning. It has been fun to be with family during the holidays and to get a little bit of cold weather. We had a week of 55-60 degrees and rain right before coming up and decided if it was cold, we might as well have snow. We are also glad to have another break in school, and to finally be done making Christmas presents.

Snow!!

We are in Utah for Christmas. We made it through in between storms. Pretty lucky since even Las Vegas had 3 inches of snow and there were multiple road closures that could have made it difficult to drive up. We made it right before it started snowing and it has now snowed 15+ inches. The first day we were here we decided to go outside and play in the snow.
Here's Jeff all bundled up.
We made a huge giant snowball and then decided to turn it into a slide we could sled down. It was so much fun and so big. Here is Jeff getting ready to slide down, Caleb showing how tall it was, and Gabriel and Thomas so you can see the slide.

The slide was soo much fun. After building it, you still could not see the grass. We fought about who's turn it was, and this time I won.

We also built a giant snowman.

We had trouble keeping the arms in. Suzy kept wanting to take the sticks and play with them.

We have since gotten even more snow, making it difficult to get anywhere. Apparently no city has any money, so they are not plowing any of the streets. But at least we have gotten a very very white Christmas.

Christmas in Mesa

The Mesa Temple puts up lights every year. We went to see them the first Sunday in December and really enjoyed getting into the Christmas Spirit. They also have groups that come and perform every night at 7. It was lots of fun to hear a choir singing and to look at all the lights.

As you can tell by the way Jeff is dressed, it wasn't too cold. Although there were people who were wearing coats, hats, gloves, and scarves. A little overboard for 70 degrees.

They do lights a little differently here. They put lights on the palm trees.

And plant flower lights.

And add extra palm tree leaves to the palm trees. These look really cool in person. And water to the fountain.

All in all, the lights look really cool and make a fun night.

Christmas Party!

Two years ago, Jeff decided to grow a beard for the first time. He happened to do it right before Christmas. Our ward decided that because of the beard we would be the perfect couple to be Mary and Joseph in the Ward Christmas Party Program. I then told Jeff he was never allowed to grow a beard around Christmas again. Well this year he decided not to shave over his Thanksgiving vacation. When we got back from California, he had a beard. And we were promptly asked to be in the Ward Christmas Party Program. YEAH! Jeff was a shepherd and I was an angel. It was worse this time because we actually had to talk.Above is a picture of just us, and below is everyone who participated in the program.

And Jeff is really not allowed to grow a beard in the winter. Ever.