She got it!

Let it be known that Molly received her drivers license today! Woot Woot! Watch out world, I now have two teenage drivers.

December activities

It's beginning to feel a little like Christmas here in Tucson!


Chase loved that his yoga teacher, Miss Nancy, had a santa cap her cactus, ornaments hanging from the trees overhead and candy canes on a tree for all to take and enjoy! He also loved the Target gift card she gave him as a Christmas gift!

I had the opportunity to volunteer at the elementary school during craft day. (It was also pajama day so Ryan got to wear his new puppy pajamas from Aunt Patty!) I got to help Ryan make a replica of Santa's workshop!

He also made a very cute snowman ornament. It was a wonderful morning to spend with him.

My thoughts this week have also been with these sweet young ladies. They are in our ward and neighborhood and well, they are just about the kindest, sweetest girls (and family!) you could ever meet. They are moving for six months while their dad is deployed. (maybe that's just an extended vacation but I will miss them all the same!)

Those sweet girls have a very sweet little brother who we also love. Ryan cried and cried when we said good-bye. I think it will be fun if Ryan sends his little friend letters in the mail.

This week we received a phone call from the kids' dentist telling us Chase had won their office drawing by guessing the correct amount of balls in a glass jar. And what did he win? A huge bucket of balls all in a U of A tub! He received a basketball, football, soccer ball, volleyball and a kickball! Thanks Great Grins!

I spent this week spray painting the St. George temple. Ha! Of course not really. We purchased these models of the St. George temples for our Young Women as part of their Christmas gift (the girls loved them!). Here are the before and after pictures. I think they turned out really nice.


On Friday we had a Young Women board Christmas party. It was so much fun (although I was blessed to open some of the super fantastic white elephant gifts - I am sad to report all were stolen from me during the game) LOL... It was pretty fun and I love the candle I came home with. We also had a great time playing pictionary with Christmas song titles and then having to hum into kazoos the song in its entirety once it was guessed. I am blessed to serve alongside the most amazing women!

Happy Birthday James!

Today is James' 49th birthday!

We had our family celebration on Sunday with dinner at home, choice of brownie and ice cream or root beer floats (or both!) and the opening of gifts!

The kids each made him a homemade card. Their written sentiments are always so cute and make me smile.



Tonight (Monday) we went to Texas Roadhouse for another birthday dinner celebration! Happy birthday James - we love you!

a busy week...

Last week was such a busy week so imagine my thrill when one of my visiting teachers showed up with these lovely roses. They have been thoroughly enjoyed and so very appreciated.

Here is just a sample of some of the things from our week:
Monday:
almost three hour long camp meeting to orientate the new East Stake YCL leaders (amazing ladies who will do a terrific job with their new callings!)
auditions for molly - pick up at 5:30 then she'll go to the Messiah sing-in
drama for reid - pick up at 6:30
Tuesday:
volunteer at the elementary school
auditions for Molly - pick up when she calls then take her to astronomy star gazing gathering
Austin to band concert
yoga for Chase (photo taken outside of yoga), love that pure smile of his after a session of yoga:
RS enrichment for me later that evening.

Wednesday:
Molly auditions
Reid choir concert at the Vail Theater of the Arts. He did an amazing job, we are so happy he's enjoying choir.

Following Reid's concert Molly and I went to Young Women for a progressive Christmas activity. The Beehives were in charge and it was a wonderful evening. We went to three houses and had a different activity at each home. The first we decorated sugar cookies for ourselves and some to send the the soldiers. The second home we each made a cute ornament and the third home we listened to the story of the birth of Jesus from the scriptures and enjoyed our refreshments. Also at each home our hosts told us some of their favorite Christmas memories.

Thursday:
Molly's high school choir concert.
She is in both concert choir and show choir so it's fun to be able to watch her throughout the evening.

Friday:
The entire family went to see Chase perform with the elementary school choir. He did a great job!

After the choir concert we went as a family to the 9 p.m. Gaslight theater Christmas show. It was a late evening for all but everyone really, REALLY enjoyed the show!


Molly has been having too much fun making strange faces for the camera!
It was a Boeing evening at the Gaslight so it was fun to see the individuals James works with on a daily basis.

Molly turns sweet 16!

Molly had her sweet 16 birthday party the night before her 16th birthday since our ward Christmas party was on her birthday. She invited about 30 of her closest friends and 27 of them were able to come help her celebrate!
She chose the colors silver, white and red to decorate for the party. We had a "birthday tree" which was special because it had snowflake ornaments on it from her Grandma Gubler:

We bought a lot of fun candlesticks and decor items while we visited Utah for Thanksgiving. Originally we planned on having a lot of the decor outside but the weather (finally!) turned cool here so the majority of the party was inside. Outside though we offered a fire in the fire bowl with all the makings for s'mores, foosball, a bowling game, trampoline and tables with votive candles on them.
Inside we had the movie Elf playing that we projected off the wall, lots of food and what we called the "altar to Molly" (lol) Lots of pictures of Molly in silver frames that showed her from a toddler to today.


We also showed a slide show of Molly's life in pictures. That was very fun to watch!


Here's the group's silly picture:

Molly received a lot of sweet tarts as gifts! You'll have to ask her to explain the story behind the sweet tarts!

A picture of Molly and mom during the celebration:

Happy Sweet 16 Molly! We love you oh so much!

Molly becomes a laurel!

Joanne (laurel advisor) and I (young women president) decorated Molly's bedroom to welcome her to the laurel class! Although her birthday was on a Saturday we decorated on Friday so that we could do it while Molly was at school.

We are so excited to have a third laurel in our class! Turning 16 is the best!

zoo lights!

We went to zoo lights last night for zoo members. I say "we" lightly as the only takers I had in going with me were Austin and Ryan. I think the others missed out on some fun, the lights were beautiful. I also enjoyed listening to two of my camp YCL's sing some Christmas songs as they entertained the crowd.

He may look bored in this picture but really he just doesn't like to smile. He was a great sport in going with me.

Ryan and I rode the lighted train around the zoo parking lot. He thought is was the coolest thing ever! We may have to go again just to ride the train.