more good ones... in no particular order.

more...

maybe my favorite picture of the trip? John, JD, Josh

some of the ladies...

Papa and Ralph, two of the people that make Families Helping Families happen

cute girls and Teto the dog

John at work

trying to get my baby hugs in for the week... i missed my babies.

inside our house

JD after he dove into a bunch of rocks in the ocean. So funny, yet sad. He asked that guy to hold his hand as a joke, and he held his hand for a good five minutes.

Lucas for lunch. A "U" shaped table fit a lot of people!

Kallie and Amy on the roof

soccer...

mexico... part 1

John and I were lucky to go to Mexico after Christmas with the group Families Helping Families. What a perfect week. We are already thinking about next year.

On the drive down we stayed in Laughlin, Nevada. A little gem of a town that sits on the Colorado stream..er river. It looked like a stream to me. But we ponied up the big bucks and John sweet talked the reservation desk and we stayed in a room on a boat. Here is John and Dan putting sunglasses on Mr. Laughlin.

The boat. And us.

The hotel in all it's glory at night.

Parker, Arizona. Yippeee.

Mariachi night. Aye, Aye, Aye, Aye.

Papa.

Learning the saw.

Soccer games every night after working on the house were the huge hit. This is the last night. I believe it was Mexico 2 USA 1 for the series.

Regina's dinner... the "mocajete"

Dinner at Flavios.

Zach and Lauren.

Mariachi band.

Emily. Isn't she adorable? Those cheeks! The kids in the neighborhood that we were working in came to hang out at the house every day. I wanted to bring them all home. They were so cute. Plus, I was missing my kids so it was nice to get little people hugs all week.

The house in progress.

Building a wall with my hubby. It was soooo fun to spend so much time with him!

Juan. I loved him. He was my favorite. He worked all day long on the house. Or would take our wood scraps and build things out of them. He was a.dor.a.ble.

Me and A.

All the cute little girls. Dulce, Natalie, Emily and Fanny. Too cute.

This is the beautiful lady who we built the house for. Her name is Paulina. She was so grateful and beautiful. It was such a wonderful experience to help her. These families work so hard to qualify for these homes and it is wonderful to be able to help them.

The Parker/Buxton/Jacobsen/Murdock/Connors crew

such fun people.... :)

Oh yah, the condo too.

What a perfect week.

merry christmas

Merry Christmas!

P.S.

It would be awful not to mention in my list of things how GRATEFUL I am for John's Christmastache. It's Ugly as sin but it makes me laugh every time I see him..... So, Merry Christmas!

today....

The holidays are a funny thing for me. I think I feel every emotion in the world in these couple of weeks. Happiness, joy, excitement, frustration, stress, anxiety, ugh.. you name it.. I have felt it sometime between Thanksgiving and now. Maybe this is normal, maybe it isn't. In my quest to really simplify the holidays and truly focus on the reason we celebrate Christmas I have also felt a lot of peace. John tells me I have actually been quite bah humbug. ( ie. the absence of the 10th annual neck n' nog... I'm so sorry everyone- next year!). Bah humbug..me?? Oh well. Lucky for me the emotion I feel today is grateful.

Grateful I have a warm house that is full.

Grateful for funny, good kids.

Grateful for generous friends, neighbors and ward members that helped warm and feed some refugee families.

Grateful for full bellies.

Grateful for the presents that are hidden in my closet that I get to wrap up for my kids.

Grateful for our families.

Grateful for friends visiting.

Grateful for moments that remind you just how much you really have.

Grateful for all of you.

I helped my mom a little bit with some service projects for some refugee families from Burma. My ward rallied big time and it was amazing. I dropped all the stuff off to the branch president's house last week. I put it in a big white van with Parker's help and we drove away.

Today one of the service missionaries called my mom and invited us to the Burmese Branch Christmas Party. I took my kids and we got to watch these beautiful kids act out the nativity, sing songs and be so excited over the small gifts they received. The pleasure and the gift of being there was all ours.

It was the perfect way to spend today.

Ruby.

Ruby's birthday came and went. I still can't believe it! It was so fun to celebrate with family and friends. I am always amazed at the network of support we have, and ever so grateful for it. Happy birthday Ruby! We love you oh soooo much!!

a new post...

Ugh. I have serious bloggers block. Is that a thing? I think, hey, I should write a new blog and then nothing comes out. I am uninspired, or maybe just tired. I dunno. Anyway, I figured I should write a post just to get it out of the way. Ya know, then maybe I will feel like blogging again. Well, we will see. It is late-ish...(Depending on which side of my family you tell time with- It is late for the Parkers and maybe dinner time at the Connors?) Anyway, all the kidlets and the hubby are tucked into bed. I am awake. Seems to be that way lately, like I just can't turn my brain off. How can John fall asleep so fast, like mid-prayer? That I will never know. Okay, back to my point. It's quiet here. Super quiet. It feels nice. And that has led to my random random thoughts which follow....

I like Christmas lights. I wish they were on year round, and that it wouldn't be tacky. I just like them.

I also really like gingerbread boys. Adrianne made some today and invited us up to decorate them. The second time around they were delicious and I think I ate ten. Yum.

I am feeling super duper nostalgic about life lately. How on earth does Ruby turn one in less than a week? As crazy and insane as the days feel, I would love to just slow down time, just to soak it all in more.

As a side note to that.. the past year has been a complete blur. Okay, maybe I don't want to slow down time more. The days are long enough. I should just enjoy it more along the way.

We are finally addressing the bathroom remodel downstairs and Sophie's room just got some new spiffy bead board to replace the original bead board in that room. John is a super star and tool belts are kinda sexy.

I got together with my "teacher friends" this past week. I just CANNOT believe the luck that we had teaching together at the same time and at the same school. I love those ladies...

I am sad that Parker's imaginary friends (Marco, Frank and Ronnie Reynolds) don't get discussed much any more. I try to ask Parker about them and their pet deer, but it's like they are just not that cool anymore. It was so awesome when they were part of our everyday lives. RIP Marco, Frank and Ronnie Reynolds... I hope you come back. ( p.s. how awesome are those names?)

Off to get the tree tomorrow. We have a favorite lot. We have a favorite kind of tree. The kids are stoked (mixed with a little bit of anger because they were told by us genius parents that we would get it on Thursday and again tonight.. so if it doesn't happen tomorrow Sophie may never forgive us.)

Happy holidays. Hope they are off to the perfect start.