Christmas Eve & Christmas Day

we left disneyland wednesday night and traveled to my parents home in las vegas to get some much needed rest. christmas eve morning we met the mcnary's for some yummy breakfast. after eating we went back to there home to open presents from grandma & grandpa and aunt retta & uncle sam. so much fun. thank you~ the kids love spending time with them as we don't get to see them often.





home we go......long trip, but well worth the exhaustion.

this year my sister, tracy & i wanted to continue a christmas tradition from when we were kids. that is to do a christmas nativity play with the kids. unfortunatly i only video tapes this and i have no cute pictures of the kids all dressed in robes with towels on their heads. we had a very nice dinner...thank you babe. another tradition we decided to trademark was drawing names out of a hat and buying a gift for that person. both families really enjoyed doing this. oh' i musn't forget santa came to visit to tell the kids to be good and go to bed. only tucker wanted nothing to do with him. it was a very cute and quite the hilarious sight. after some cool down time with dad, he warmed right up to the thought of getting presents in the morning. lol






Christmas morning

this was jenna's and madee's santa gift.


this was tucker's santa gift-a tool chest. go figure!


i wish you all were here for this! no words could explain his excitement. it hurt my belly.


a few random ones




we really were very blessed to go and do all we did this Christmas Season.we are very fortunate to live in a beautiful land that reminds us daily of our blessings from our Father in Heaven. we hope you had a wonderful Christmas and New Year. for the first time in 13yrs i didn't send Christmas cards out and i appologize but i don't feel guilty! one year off in 13 is just fine.

CHRISTmas 2009

Merry Christmas

this year we decided to again go to Disneyland. so, we packed up and drove to California on the 21st. in years past, we found that the parks weren't too busy closer to Christmas, but this year.......WOW! i thought that this country was in a recession. not in California at least. there were far too many people there and we really didnt' get to enjoy the experience until late tuesday. the first day there i think we rode only 6 rides all day. brandon & i wondered if we should just go home. we decided to tough it out and were we ever glad. the crowds thinned out come wednesday and we rode 6 rides in the first hour. what a difference a weekday means in the land of Disney. we had a blast and little Tucker (who is only 3) rode every ride he could including Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, Spalsh Mountain 2x and YES the kid even road Hollywood Tower of Terror not once but 2x. he was hilarious and i think he and jenna are definetly my thrill seekers at heart.

one highlight of our trip was (at least for me because i found myself running after him screaming his name.lol) to see and take a picture of The Iceman- Chuck Liddell!! yep, i did, i ran after him screaming. nobody really saw him and there i was like a little school girl. so imbarrassing now. sorry Brandon!


Tucker & i found ourselves together alot when the big kids went on rides he couldn't. we played in all the kids lands and in all the kids play areas. this is one of the kids play areas in California Adventures. i found myself alone most of the time....he was in heaven being a wild boy.



over at California Adventures the parade was so fun. we have never waited to watch this parade but we are glad we did. so different from the main park parade. the kids loved all the "new" characters.



i can't even explain to you the pure joy Tucker had upon finding his buddy woody. i found myself almost in tears as he screamed his name from the back of the line to greet him. if you can, look into little tucker's eyes and you might get a glimse of how he felt as woody put his large arms around him. i love this sweet picture.


this was a ride that madee just wouldn't stop asking us to go on. no way. not me. i was freezing already. it didn't help that it had already been raining. so, brandon bucked up and took the girls on the water ride and guess who got soaked...yep...brandon & madee.lol



this is the new toy story ride over in California Adventures. this is a must for little ones. we loved it and as you can see so did the kids....hahaha




our fun, cute, adorable, crazy, whitty kids.



and then there was us!



one of the funny moments tucker screaming at buzz lightyear to acknowlege his presents. so funny. tucker loved to scream at the characters like they were supposed to stop and bow down to tucker. lol



this is jenna and madee on california screamin' . madee didn't like it as much as jenna who rode it 4x.


we had a wonderful time in Disneyland and can't wait to go back again soon.

Giving Thanks

we have so much to be thankful for this season, but the one i am most thankful for is my family. i am so blessed to have a husband who loves us all so much and does all he can to provide for his family. he is an amazing father and husband. to speak of my beautiful angels on earth brings me to tears. they are my joy, my happiness, my life. they bring me to my knees everynight to thank my Heavenly Father for their little spirits. they teach me patients, love, compassion, joy, tenderness, humility and kindness. they are my angels here on earth.
this year brandon worked on thanksgiving, so we were able to go eat at the station with all the other wonderul fire families. it had been a very long time since we had seen many of them and the first time for meeting a few. we had a great time. these are some pictures we took.








i have so much to be thankful for. i am thankful for my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. for his ministry and atonement. i know he lives and he loves me. i am thankful to my parents for their love, compassion and examples. i am thankful to my husband who loves me unconditionally and although it has taken me many years to realize this....i know it to be true. i love my kids. they bring me so much joy and peace. i know that we have a living prophet to lead our church in a way that the Lord sees fit. i have a testimony of music and that music can bring an amazing spirit in your life. i love my family. i know that we can be an eternal family. this is my testimony.

Halloween

don't you love halloween. i do. we love carving the pumpkins, seeing the house transform from a home to a haunted house and candy of coarse. every year, the neighbors get together and tote around on my sisters traitor. it is so much fun. we had about 40 people with us this year.

let the festivities begin!

seeing who can carve the best pumpkin

scary dead brides and trolls! oh my

the funniest, cutest, scariest skeleton around

bff's madee and anna as dead brides. madee won scariest costume in 2nd grade and anna won best over-all costume. too cute...i mean scary 

onward!

BomBerS bLasT

in march of this year, jenna was accepted onto an amazing competitive soccer team. bombers blast. she had a friend invite her out and after a few practices with the team the coach told her she would be playing in the games. they didn't really have space for her on the team, but he saw that she was determined to play. she absolutely loves it and the team went undefeated.they played for the championship spot and lost by 1 stinkin point. they were the only team with that only loss. they took second in a u11 bracket and were the only u10 team. guess that says a lot huh. they had 8yr olds playing on the team against 11yr olds. we love to watch her play and she has really improved her skills with this coach. can't wait to see what next year has to offer her and this team.                                                              GO BOMBERS!

Happy Birthday Madee #7

Happy Birthday Madee Moo!!

trying to get just Madee......haha...Here is the birthday girl. We celebrated her big day a month late. Well...we as a family celebrated it with her in Hawaii! Nice birthday huh. She had fun with her friends. We had a luau theme, being her new favorite place is HAWAII!!

Great-Grandpa McNary came to visit the kids that night.

Hawaii with the fam!!!

This year our family trip was so much fun. We decided in January to take the kids to Hawaii with us this time. We didn't know how they would be on a 5 1/2 hr airplane ride or a 4hr time difference but it was worth trying. I mean who doesn't want to go to Hawaii. We found a deal that we couldn't pass up so we booked it and away we went. The airplane was a breeze. Tucker was fantastic and the girls read a book, colored, laughed and slept. Once we landed in Maui, we were greeted with fresh flower lei's and received our rental car. AWAY WE WENT........

This is a picture of our first sunset. The girls wouldn't come out of the water. It was almost dark, i was freezing just watching them, but they were having too much fun to think about how cold it was once the sun went down.

I think this picture is so funny. My kids half naked and I have a sweatshirt on! haha

The weather was a bit wishy-washy so we decided to go to the Maui Ocean Center. An aquarium the the kids can get really close to all the fish in the sea. They loved walking through the all glass tunnel and seeing sharks so close.

When you are in Hawaii.......a Luau is a MUST. I love music...(like you didn't know that one!) and listening to the Hawaiian culture and history put to music and dance is outstanding. The dancers are so amazing. The costumes...unreal. The food......ok. haha. Jenna, Madee and Tucker were in ahhh. Tucker thought the fire dancing was the coolest. He would grunt after they did. I got it on video. SO CUTE.

We also took them on the Atlantic Submarine tour. We boarded a boat that took us out to sea a bit and then boarded a real submarine.

On our way to the submarine. Not a real clear day. It rained! :(

Brandon with the kids inside the submarine.

Some of the pods of fish we saw. We also got to see a baby shark.


Tucker and Dad looking through a port hole

On our way back. Tucker fell asleep on Dad right away. The time difference was so hard on him.


One of mine and Brandon's favorite places on Maui is Lahaina. This is a very old tree that has hundreds of roots that grow from a branch down. It is so neat. The kids took pictures all throughout the roots, but I am a horrible photographer and they all came out blurry!! duh.


Another day we decided to do a road trip. Are kids are getting pretty good at these. We decided to go see the Northern Coast. (Brandon and I didn't dare take the kids on the road to Hana. I called it the road to Hell! ) So we packed up and away we went. Along this ONE WAY road with cliffs....we found the BEST BANANA BREAD on the PLANET! That is actually the name of the little hut too. It was so good and the candied coconut. YUM. that alone makes me want to go back. This is just a random picture of a cliff. The weather again was not too good. I think it ended up raining all day this day.

On our road trip we went through Iao Valley. It is a state park that has some hiking trails, waterfalls, and beautiful scenery. We got the kids out of the car for some photo ops.

It truly is a sight to see. The natural beauty of Hawaii is breathtaking. I really could live there!!

One of the many waterfalls in Iao Valley



Our beautiful sunsets.

We took the kids whale watching which I think was Jenna's favorite. The whales were SO close to the boat. We saw so many that day. It was really fun

At the end of out trip....our kids begged us to stay longer. We made some amazing memories and realized that traveling with kids isn't all that bad. We actually really enjoyed sharing this with them. BUT........I do also love sharing some memories with just us sometimes. Every couple needs COUPLE time!. We will take them again sometime.