Christmas at Grandma Adlers!

We made it up to Utah just in time for the Adler Christmas bash! It was good times - but mostly good company! We exchanged all of our gifts, and received fabulous ones, too!
All the cousins! Grandma Adler made all of the girls dresses (and purchased the boys clothes) and has high hopes every year of a fabulous Christmas picture. You can imagine how easy that is!
And no I'm not pregnant (I wish), that lovely camera angle just makes it appear so!
Chris is working on perfecting his camera techniques! Looks awesome!

Thatcher had fun opening his gifts. He then laid down in the middle of the floor, amisdt all the paper, and played with his puzzle.
Jayme and Steve acquired a new puppy which everyone loved. I think Chris is trying to talk them into letting us take it home!

Gretchen's Kindergarten Christmas Program

Gretchen did such a fabulous job at her program! She sang all the words and smiled, too! Last year, she sulked during the whole program, and kept her sleeve in her mouth.


Thanks to the Holt grandparents for coming to support her!

Thatcher was pretty good to sit through it, and dang it! Isn't he cute?

He has decided he doesn't like the flash from the camera and covers his eyes and says, "No More Eyes!"

Snow sledding!

We made it up to Utah through some treacherous driving, and lots of yelling and crying (the kids were crying and yelling some, too) but PHEW! We made it! The kids were so excited to see everyone and now it finally feels like Christmas!!

With some snow clothing donations from Susie (thank you much!) they went out to romp in the snow!
Thatcher is pretty excited about his hat and gloves!
Thanks to Daddy for helping play in the snow!
Thatcher was done sledding after this crash!

Gretchen loves sledding down with cousin Sydney!

More Temple Lights!

We made it to see the beautiful lights at the Salt Lake Temple Square!! It was much, much chiller than in Mesa! But this temple is particularly lovely to me.
The various nativities are sure cute - and a fab reminder of what my focus on Christmas should be!!
I had a fun conversation with Gretchen about this statue. It is amazing how quickly she seems to understand topics that adults can complicate so much. It is so nice to be able to figure out the simplest explanation of things to share with her.

Thatcher was entertained by all the snow, and when we tried to get him to move on, he would yell, "NO!! More NO!" (the second NO referring, of course, to snow) And at dinner he threw about 8 million things on the ground, and then when he did decide to eat a bit, he managed all of his bites with his head resting in his hand!

Santa at the mall!

So we went to the mall after Thanksgiving and ka-boom! There was Santa! Both my kids sat on his lap (which is a first for the 5 year old) as did Emma and Macy. (sorry my camera phone struggles in the dark with movement!)
So suddenly there was snow!! Snow BUBBLES that is!
Thatcher and Emma enjoying free reign of the Santa exhibit.
Gretchen giggling with the snow bubbles!
5 years and finally warmed up to Santa! Who can blame her - isn't it kinda weird thinking of some strange old man fitting down a chimney of all things, coming to your house while your sleeping, who always wants you to sit on his lap? It could easily be kinda creepy. But then I read that book I Believe in Santa Claus and everything is ok.

A Proud Mother . . .

Gretchen's teacher gave her rave reviews of her end of term "testing". Good job, Gretchen! Here are some of her recent masterpieces!


This says, "Santa I want ice skate American Girl if you can Love Gretchen Thatcher"
And this is a picture of them sleeping with Santa downstairs! I'm not sure why it says 'July'!

Temple lights and palm trees!

We visited the Mesa temple to see the lights and the nativity. It was fun, and believe it or not we felt cold! It's funny how you adjust.
This was Gretchen's favorite corner (green is her favorite color!) and she and Thatcher kept pretending to "pick" the berries off of the trees. Thatcher really gets into it, it's hilarious!
It's fun (and a little weird) to see palm trees with Christmas lights!
Of course, they have to teeter on the edge of falling into the water fountain!
Thatcher has learned how to say "star" and I'm quite certain he said Jesus at church last week!

Thatcher was standing next to Grandpa (who came to visit for a couple days) and was copying how he was standing and swaying! It was pretty cute!

What's this?

Growing vegetables in December? Wierd, I know!!



Look! Look! A little cucumber . . .









tomatoes. . .





and two peas! Do you believe it?! TWO whole peas!!

Vinegar rules!

So I had spent hours and hours scrubbing my shower. Yes, my brand new shower, trying to get those stinkin' water spots off. Well, it turns out that if you fill a bottle with white vinegar, spray it on the walls and leave it for 10-15 minutes, that it scrubs right off! I am so excited! Yes, I am excited about vinegar and my shower walls. Kinda sad, huh!

On a curious-er note, I have been pondering a very important question. If you are doing laundry and have a shirt that is half white, half dark blue, do you wash it with whites or with colors? I just can't decide. What do ya'll do?

"Guys" and "Raaar!"

So Thatcher has already started having bad dreams! I went in his room two nights ago because he was freaking out and screaming. He was yelling and saying "Guy! Guy!" So he is afraid of some guy in our house. He has referred to this before - usually when the air kicks on he'll point to the hall where the sound is coming and say, "No guy!" Then he will point outside and say, "Guy!" or "raaar!" and we continually say, "Thatcher there is no guy. There aren't any dinosaurs. No guy, just mommy and daddy." I don't know what else to do at this point. Any thoughts?

Gretchen on the other hand was screaming last night (of course at 5 a.m.) and yelling, "Mommy! Mommy!" (oh why can't it ever be "Daddy! Daddy!"). So I stumble into her room to find that she merely wanted her doll that had fallen on the floor. Honestly. Do they not want me to sleep or what?

On a funnier note, whenever Thatcher runs he either sticks one arm up in the air - like Superman on his jammies - or flaps both arms like a bird or airplane! Oh yeah, and Gretchen was singing the K-I-S-S-I-N-G song last night about her and Porter! Oh geez. I gave that girl a heart to heart, 'cause it turns out she didn't even know what the song meant! Ha ha.

Sunday Thoughts

So I was knee deep in teaching the sunbeams (for a funny sunbeam story search sunbeams in my blog) and they were all quite and listening. This is amazingly remarkable considering the kids! But I thought, "Wow! They are honestly listening! I think I am getting through to them!" and as I paused to take a breath, one of the kids said, "I have two tramps!" Hmmm. I was hoping for a question to my lesson or something! Oh well. At least he has two tramps!

Gretchen did ask me some interesting questions, however. She said, "How will the lions know when Jesus comes?" Um, what? So she repeats, "How will the lions know when Jesus comes?" Hmmm. Not wanting to make asking any questions about Jesus unpleasant, I continued to ask what she was talking about, in my sincerest and kindest mother-voice. Turns out, she was asking how the lions will know to act nice during the second coming, since everyone will be acting nice when Jesus comes again. And how will the lions know that He has come again. Wow. I guess she was listening during primary!

We met with our new bishop on Sunday for tithing settlement. He is very nice. I'm starting to have a realization of all of the work that a bishop has to put in, and that he honestly cares for me and my family. It's kind of embarassing to admit that it's taken me this many years in the church to notice! He is really great, though.

Gretchen - WHAT?!?

At breakfast this morning, Gretchen says, "I had a dream last night that me and Porter were sleeping together." Cough, cough! "What?!" I say. (Porter is one of her friends from school and church that, yes, is a boy - not one of those unisex named girls.) So as I am pondering this remark, and thinking, "Oh great. I've let her over hear too much Grey's Anatomy," or, "Kete was right. All of those teeny-bopper Disney shows have made her boy crazy!" I mean come on, I am already stressed that she wants to play with Porter instead of the girls in the neighborhood, and that she insists on being Batman and spiderman instead of princesses! And then she continues on to say, "We were on bunk beds, and Sydney was there, and she was having a sleepover on a bunkbed with Lizzy and . . . ." Phew! And phew again! Glad I took a second to listen instead of lecturing my 5 year old on fornication and how she can't play with boys anymore!

A couple days a go, she was standing in front of the mirror with her hands in her pockets, and she said, "Look at my hands according to my pockets!" Yep, she said according! I think she was telling me about how her hands looked smaller while in her pockets, but honestly most the time I'm not listening.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Welcome to Kete's Home Cookin'! We were pleasured enough to have my brother in law, Kete, prepare our Thanksgiving meal! You would not believe the preparation that he put into it. I had no idea there were so many steps! I did make the mashed potatoes, kinda my specialty, and Chris made some fabulous rolls, and then Kete made more items, some of the in laws brought other items, and we had quite the feast!
Gretchen LOVES to watch cooking shows on tv - and now she had her own personal show! Kete explained his technique fabulously! There was quite the thawing and brining and triming and basting and flavoring and resting and slicing and eating! Phew! I'm worn out just thinkin' about it!



Gotta look your thanksgiving best! Luckily Aunt Lindsay has a way with hair (unlike Gretchen's mother who just chops hair off! Uh, what's a comb?)! A side note - Kete was wearing some longish shorts (or shants as some would call them) and Gretchen walked past him and said, "hey, I have capris just like that." Gotta love kids!



Ahhhh. The finished masterpiece!
So as I was taking pictures, Thatcher kept saying "me!" and requesting that I take some of him. Well, this is his posing smile! Ha ha!







This was my first Thanksgiving away from home. It was kinda sad, and it rained on top of it! But we had some fun family togetherness, and especially some great rock band and settlers matches. I bet none of you can say you have heard your father-in-law singing to rock band! But I do miss my Utah family! I hope all of your Thanksgivings were great - we are thankful for you!

Warm weather!

We've certainly been enjoying this fall/winter weather! Gretchen's class had a Thanksgiving feast at the park next to her school, which me and Thatcher and Macy went to with her. It was fun! It actually had been raining that day, but it stopped for a bit and they were able to do it anyway!




A future rock climber? Thatcher was tearin' it up on the local climbing wall!

Go Wildcats!

So in the beginning of High School Musical (#1) it shows the front of East High where there is this engraving - which Chris actually made! So Gretchen kept asking to go see it, and finally we did! Nice work, Chris. This is Gretchen and my niece, Sydney.

GO UTES!!

GO UTES!! Yours truly had the chance to go to the BYU - Utah football game! Thanks to Susie and Jeff who happened to be in Israel! It was great fun, and also cold! I bundled, but my body has certainly adjusted to the climate in Arizona! It was great fun, especially cause we won! And the guy in front of us had the best high fives ever!


Me and my nephew, Spencer.
Me and my nephew, Clayson, who pitched a fit upon realizing that he would have to go and sit by me. Ahh, teenagers. I don't know how my camera got his eyes like that - it's creepy.