Wonderful, CRAZY Time of Year

December has been a circus...Thomas started call at the hospital...for the full month. So we sadly don't see much of him and when he's home, he's exhausted and needs to get some sleep before he is called back into the hospital again. I had a Christmas party to put together...our car's motor went out and has been in the shop for 2 weeks, with another 2 weeks to go..Ruby got pink eye...our toilet flooded everywhere...Brielle and Hudson got the flu...Let's just say Mom is finished cleaning up bodily fluids! And it's only December 16. I'm nervous to finish out the month. Can I crawl into a safe hole for a couple weeks?

The Primary was in charge of our Ward Christmas Party this year...that meant I was... AHHH! Fortunately for me, I had an a amazing couple (the Allens) to help me put it together. Not much notice for any of us, but I think it turned out:) The kids seemed to have fun at the hot cocoa bar, photo booth and the cookie decorating stations. We had a ham dinner with salad, rolls, potatoes, corn, pies, cakes, punch... the works!

I was taking these pictures in the dark so they didn't turn out great...but the place was lit with tons of Christmas lights and candles for a nice, warm mood...

We covered the tables in burlap, fresh pine bows, pinecones, and cuties for a splash of color and the lanterns had some ornaments inside as well. 

This picture looks awful...but to the side of this was the photobooth backdrop where they could pose with some festive props.

Grandma Marian gave us the 12 Days of Christmas for this year's family gift! We are having lots of fun opening something each day until Christmas:) Thank you Marian!!!

This year, Hudson could actually write Santa a letter! Hudson did such a great job---I'm pretty proud of him:) and I think Santa will be too.

Our Ruby is getting around with an "almost crawl". It's effective, but not official yet. She gets on her hands and knees rocks and then pulls herself wtih her arms. Working on getting the legs to help her with all this...It's super entertaining. She is working up an appetite with all that movement. She LOOOOVES food---it's genetics I guess. I am OWNED by my DNA makeup and its love for food. Not my fault! Sorry that passed on Ru...

Filling the Family Cup

One of the main benefits of being here in Phoenix is that we have been able to see more of our family. The drive is somewhat long, but doable after being in Chicago. We'll take 11 hours over 24... We were also excited to get some snow time! What??? No snowup north until we were driving away? I had a pretty disappointed 4-year old. He ties snow to Christmas and currently prays for snow so Christmas will come too.

Some Turkey Bowl Happenings....

That's mah boy! Loving his Thanksgiving icecream experience ...

Some more footabll footage...

The kids eating their feast with cousins: Lincoln and Winston:) 

These two girls are so so so much fun for me. Brielle loves her baby sister and can't help but kiss her incessantly:)

Being with Grandma and Grandpa Wright for Thanksgiving was so great! It's been three years that they've been away so sharing the holdiay with them  again was wonderful.

Now, that's a good football-watching face.

Thanksgiving morning football was so fun for the Wright brothers. This tradition one they all look forward to. After taking a bunch of pictures, I realized I should have done some video footage to capture the morning a little better...oh well. Imagine competitive brothers that love to tease each other, but don't want to look like they care much about the score when actually ALL of them do:) I love the Wrights!

The kiddos all dressed up for the big night! We got a spidey, bassett hound and a beautiful ladybug this year. Thank you for making the drive down from St. George to be with us, Nana and Papa---we love you!

My beautiful parents with Ruby!

Halloween pumpkin carving was a lot of fun over here. I LOOOOVE pumpkin seeds so that was my job. They turned out amazing this year! I think I perfected the art. Dad took over the pumpkin carving and made a pretty horrifying pumkin that had a spider eating a face...and Hudson was the monitor to see that it was done according to his standards:) when given many options for pumpkin faces, Hudson decided to go with a happy face. Didn't want to scare the neigborhood kids or anything...

Here they are folks!