Dunes

Addy and Alana were always wanting to ride the quad, they are doing really well.

The weekend before Christmas we went down to the dunes with my family.

We both love to dune! Brett has been riding for about 10yrs now from the time we were engaged. I have been riding in the dunes since I was a teenager.

I like to go on the faster "guy" rides.

Look at those huge bowls this is so much fun!

The girls had fun riding the "baby" quad around camp. Allden had fun riding with the girls or one of us. We can't double ride out in the real dunes so we have to teach them to ride around camp on their own quad. They were doing pretty good riding around a little bowl track.

Family Pictures

We went to the park near our house with Brett's brothers Aaron and Kyle and their family and attempted to take family pictures for Grandma. It was very difficult to get all the kids to look at the camera and smile. Allden wanted to run away or not look. The kids love to play with their cousins. It's fun to have family close!

Gingerbread House Party

Alana's Kindergarten class had a Christmas program and gingerbread house party. They sang a few Christmas songs to parents first.
The fun part was building the grahm cracker (gingerbread house). They each got their own frosting and lots of candy. I enjoyed going and helping, the kids were all very excited!

Alana's piano recital

Alana had her first piano recital a couple weeks ago. She has been taking piano lessons since October and is doing very well. Her teacher is Tara and she comes to our house each week which makes it very nice for me. She played Jingle Bells and Up On The Housetop and did a great job!

Alydia

On December 7th we blessed our sweet little Alydia in church. We dressed her in a cream white dress with a gold bow. All our family was there, it's great to have such a close family who support one another. Alydia is now starting to smile and coo and really look at people and things. On the 28th she will be 2 months! I'm finally starting to get more sleep at night, one night she slept 8 hrs but her average is 5 to 6 hrs.

Christmas Fun

Last Saturday we had a fun filled day with the family. Intel did a little Winter social for families at the Chandler campus. We were there for just over an hour. They had craft projects-ornamant decorating, card making and cookie decorating and they had a clown tying balloons and even santa was there. Alana and Addy sat on his lap for a picture but Allden started crying. Alana told Santa that she wanted art stuff for Christmas and Addy said she wanted a dog. Everyone had a good time, then we went to In and Out Burger for lunch and then Intel also paid for movie tickets and concessions at the AZ Mills movie theatre. We saw the new movie Bolt it was rated G and a cute kid movie. It was about a dog who thought he had super powers but then found out he didn’t, the girls loved it but Allden got pretty restless the last little bit. When we got back to the car after the movies it was dead and wouldn’t start. Allden had got in the front seat and was playing around while I was getting Alydia out and he turned on the lights so they were on for a couple hours. When we tried to start the car it was dead. We were in a busy parking lot but luckily we were parked by a curb so a car could pull up on the curb and jump start us. I said a little prayer in my heart that we could find someone to help us start the car and soon after that a guy Brett knew from work came walking up and offered to help.

Brett's Porsche 928

Alright here it is boys and girls. I've been meaning to post a couple pictures of the Porsche 928 I purchased a couple months ago. Had been looking for a 2nd car, and managed to talk my wife into this one. Lisa was hoping I'd be tired of it by now, but it hasn't worn off. Every time I open the garage and see it sitting there I get all giddy. I've wanted one of these things ever since I was about 6 years old. This is a 1988, which is about as late a year as I can afford for one of these. It was the fastest production road-car in the world in 1986, having been recorded at 172 mph on the salt flats in Utah using an early 928 S4. An amazingly fun car to drive.

Go-Kart Racing

Ok - Brett's turn - I get to post some pictures from my recent Go-Kart racing event at work. I had a great day racing here at Speedway. 1st place several races, and a had a blast tearing it up.

Reid Park Zoo- Tucson

Saturday we took a road trip for the day and drove down to Tucson. We went with Brett's brother Aaron and his family. We went to the Reid Park Zoo. The kids loved it because all the animals were up close and easy for them to see. We had a great time!

These rhino had a huge horns!

My favorite was the giraffe's, there were 3 of them and they were really close so we got a good look at them.

The elephants were fun to watch too. We saw them taking water in their trunks and then spraying it into their mouth. The funniest animals were the zebra. There were 3 of them and all of the sudden the male zebra comes running from the other side of the cage and chases the female and jumps on her back, giving us a lesson on the birds and the bees right before our eyes - although they kids didn't even understand. But hey it's a zoo and that's part of nature. I had a picture of the event but I've changed it out as some might have found it offensive.

We also saw some lions and tigers and bears oh my! The kids like this better than the Phoenix Zoo because they can actually see all the animals up close. After walking around for a couple hours we headed out and drove up to the top of Mount Lemmon.

We went from 65 degrees in the desert at the bottom to the top of the moutain where there is snow and 38 degrees! There were cabins and people playing in the snow. We wanted to eat at the top but everything closed at 5 so we just grabbed a snack at the general store and headed down the mountain. It was a pretty drive! What a fun day! We want to start doing a road trip once a month as a family to get out and see things and spend time with the family. That's what I miss from when we were in Europe last year was getting out every weekend and seeing and doing things together.

Preschool Graduation

Adalynn has been attending preschool twice a week in the Apples to Zebras preschool program through the city of Chandler. She has really enjoyed going to preschool! She will start a new session again in January in the advanced class because she will be turning 4.

All the preschool classes got up on stage and sang songs for their parents....it was pretty funny to watch.

After the graduation we had treats of course!