Christmas in AZ

Every year we get together with some of Ty's cousins and go on a horse drawn hayride around the neighborhood! Peight loved it and kept saying, "nay walk" so funny she has only seen them standing still! Fasinating to a 22month old!

This was the thing I was most excited about, going to the Mesa temple lights. There is nothing like this in California and I couldn't believe how much I missed it!

Presents, presents, present! Little miss Rylee loves her stuffed animals and went straight for her new penguin!

We had our anual Christmas dinner that my mom makes at Jason and Mallory's house this year! It was delicious! Such a fun day\photo shoot!

Thanks lex for the barbies that we will now have to take everywhere we go (all 8 of them)!!!!!

This is how Peighton decided to keep Rylee from playing with her new Barbies....great sharing P!

This face sums up the whole day...wonder and sheer happiness! Thanks for all the amazing presents Auntie lala, Nana, Papa, Grammy, Grandpa and Santa! (just to name a few!)

Rain rain go away...

So it has been RAINING since Thursday, with out even ONE minute of sunshine! NOT one minute! Ah! For an ARIZONA girl like me this is shocking...I really HATE it right now! Miss P is going a little CRAZY being trapped inside..who are we KIDDING so am I! Haha we are not cut out for this STUFF! This was HER pose of the day! STIFF as a board! HAHA... I love this little GIRL so so much! If I have TO be stuck in the HOUSE, I am glad I am stuck with HER!

I was tring to get HER to fake CRY for me but this is the BEST she could come UP with! We have a CASE of the rainy day BLUES!

Christmas cards

Thank you all for filling up my home with your adorable Christmas cards! I love them so so much! They make missing you all that much more bearable!

Deck the Halls...

Ty, Cole and I had so much fun cutting out snowflakes I decided to hang them!

The Tree

The Mantle


I made/painted this shutter...thought it would make the perfect Christmas card holder! Just need some more cards..hint hint!

Made this too! Crooked but festive!

The Table


Just a touch of Christmas


More little touches


I am showing you the little tree...but do you die for my knew lamp?!! It is my early Christmas present from my mother in law!

Hope all your homes are full of Christmas cheer!

Shamu

Since the first time we took this little girl to Sea World she has been obsessed with Shamu!!! "Mu" as she calls him is her favorite stuffed animal and she sleeps with him everynight!

We bought tickets in august when we first moved here and you got until the end of the year to come back for free...so this was our last time to see Shamu for a while and we soaked it all up!

It took her like 20 min to let us put her down because she was alittle afraid!

Shamu's show believe is her favorite!

This was so fun...in their 3d theater they were showing the movie Polar Express (just parts of it) and they had real snow fall from the sky! It was my favorite part of the day!!

I mean SERIOUSLY...? I would DIE for her! I she not the cutest FUNNIEST little girl you have EVER seen?!!

Thanksgiving in California

What a weekend! We were lucky enough to get all the Bennett clan to come down to our house for Thanksgiving! Thats right 10 of us in our charming little house...it was actually the funnest part! It was like a giant slumber party..the girls loved having their whole family right there! We ate, talked and shopped all weekend long! The girls had a blast with eachother. They would sit by eachother and watch Toy Story 3 before bed time! We love Rylee Grace so much around here...we talk about her everyday so having her here was a dream come true!

Grandpa is always a favorite to snuggle with...and if one gets to snuggle grandpa the other is not far behind to get in on the action!

On Saturday we took the whole group to the orange county swapmeet...but the best day of the week was Thusday of course! The feast...

My mother in law makes the most coveted sweet potatoe casserole in the world!..seriously all my Aunts call for the recipe to try and duplicate this amazing side dish that tastes more like a dessert!

My sis in law and her hubs made the veggies...they are big fans of the food network so they are always coming up with these amazing ways to make something new and delicious! For example mushrooms stuffed with stuffind and sprinked with cheese...ahh they were so stinking good! And her husband Chris made the best bacon and cheese brussle sprouts!

I stuck with making the basic stuffing and mashed potatoes! My biggest contribution was decorating the table. It turned out cuter than I thought it would...PS the candles spell out thankful...stole the idea from Martha Stewart!

I wanted little pumpkins to use as place settings but instead we swiped persimons (i think that is how you spell it?) from my neighbors tree! Perfect color and they were so tiny and adorable! I used my stamp set I got from an antique store to put the first letter of each of our names on it!

It was the perfect day for an outdoor dinner! And our green backyard made the perfect backdrop for our table.

Thanks to my amazing in laws for the yummiest funnest Thanksgiving weekend! And a little love for my family who we missed so much..!