The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

I wish I could simply give you all the joy that was in our home this holiday season.
I wish you could see Christmas for the first time again.
I wish I could somehow explain so you would believe that the magic is real. And it was in my daughter's eyes every single day.
I wish I could but I don't think I can.
I will try anyways.

My heart is full to bursting when I think of all the fun I had while helping to bring Christmas to Ammely this year. I have never seen anyone so in love with Christmas. Maybe all parents say that. Maybe it will be this way with all my children when they begin to understand. Maybe. But for now all I know is that Ammely loves it. She. Loves. Christmas. And I love her for that.

She loved the lights.
She loved the trees.
She loved the bells and the trains.
She loved the music.
She loved Santa Claus and his reindeer.
She loved the presents and the wrapping paper.
She loved the nativity.
She loved the stockings.
She loved the treats.
She loved the activities.
She loved the movies and the books.
She loved to just say it - "Merry Christmas!"

So I tried to let her have it - the whole, joyful experience.

She was watching Christmas shows well before Christmas. Definitely before Thanksgiving. Maybe even before Halloween. She had been learning and asking and talking about it for months. So I was excited to start putting Christmas in the house after Thanksgiving.

Ammely loved every detail. I can't tell you how much fun it was to be at home every day. EVERY day she was excited to see the tree. "It's a beautiful Christmas tree Mommy!"
EVERY day she was excited to turn the lights on. EVERY day she would spend hours looking at the ornaments and playing with the nativity. EVERY day she would eagerly go to the stockings. I was excited to get up and go downstairs every morning because I knew that she would be so happy just to see the Christmas decorations. People, that is real magic.

I think just having decorations up would have been enough for her all season long but we had the good fortune to do a lot of fun Christmas things too.

We did our 24 days of Christmas - a story, song and scripture every night.

I absolutely love this new tradition of ours. It brings the real meaning and spirit of Christmas into our home. And it does that every day. Plus, it was a really great way to find regular times to teach Ammely about the original Christmas night. 

We took advantage of our stocking advent calendar and had a little something to do or learn or open each day.

We made Christmas cookies with Rori.

We wrote a letter to Santa.

And we even got a letter back from Santa!

We made a hand print reindeer for Santa Claus.

We made Christmas treats to give away.

We made popcorn and watched Christmas movies.

Arthur Christmas - one of our very favorite Christmas shows.

We read Christmas books.

We read them like we were studying for Christmas finals. So many Christmas books. Ours and the library's. Always available under the tree.

We had a Baysinger Christmas.

Delicious food - soup, bread, salad, dessert, hot chocolate, soda - everything was amazing. Everything.

 Presents galore.

Do you SEE how very loved this little girl of mine is?

Yup. That dollhouse is for her and Lynnden. As well as a full HERD of My Little Ponies. Uncle JT and Aunt Tamzon were way too nice. But we are so grateful! And the fact that she was no good at sharing it just shows how much she loves it! She plays with this every day. Thank you thank you!

And they spoiled us too!
Daddy got some fishing/irrigation boots that he is excited to put to good use!
And what did I get you ask?
Just LOOK at what the ultra talented Tamzon put together for me!

My very own FHE board! It's a one-of-a-kind folks! She did this WHOLE thing from scratch. If I had an ounce of her talent, I'd be running through the streets and singing from the rooftops.

She even stitched in our names!

AND she used daisies! My very favoritest flower!

Enough about me and my awesome gift. Back to the festivities.
Per tradition, we all left with a delicious box of cereal. Every single one of us. Such an amazing tradition. SO darn good.

We had a Teddy Bear picnic at Aunt Tammy's house with Aunt Amber, Uncle Boyd, Kailey, Charis and Reid.

How darling is this? SO glad we were invited!

And we had a very special guest at our Teddy Bear picnic.

You just have to watch this short video of the girls when Santa Claus just happens to show up to our picnic! It's adorable. And a little blurry. Curse my hard-to-focus, on-its-last-leg camera!

I think Ammely's heart fell out of her chest from the shock. 

This was such a special night. Ammely is still talking about "Santa Claus and Kailey and Charis."

And Santa was so good with Ammely. When she was shy and unsure he got down on her level and talked with her.

He asked her if she would give him hugs - that Santa likes hugs from little boys and girls best of all. She eventually agreed to that.

Thank you again Aunt Tammy for inviting us to your very special picnic! It will be a night talked about for years to come.

We went to the airport and flew on an airplane to Colorado.

Ammely LOVED the moving sidewalks. Easily her favorite part of the airport/flying experience.

Daddy even journeyed on to Wyoming with Grandpa Breakall for a couple days of good fishing.

And good fishing it was! A complete success.

Just LOOK at all that grub! Mmmm-mmmmm.

However, Wyoming was as welcoming as it ever is. Icy, snowy and bitter cold with a biting wind.

Needless to say, they hurried home after catching their fill - stopping for a little Wyoming culture and memories along the way.

At the gas station - no gas station at home has anything so cool.

Grand Avenue Pizza - one of our favorite splurges when we were living the college life in Laramie. 

It was a wonderful (but COLD) time. Thank you Dad for making it possible!

We got a new train set just because we like trains and Grandpa likes us!

We made gingerbread houses with Aunt Kristen, Kailey and Robert, and Tasha.

Grandma Breakall left to go pick up Uncle Jared - so Aunt Kristen became "Grandma" for the duration of the event. I don't think she minded.

Aunt Kristen definitely has the "Grandma" thing down because she not only let Ammely play with candy and "ginger houses," but didn't leave without giving presents.

How cool is this toy?! I think we've chopped as many toy fruits and veggies as she has! :)

Hey Kailey, I think a baby looks good on Robert. Just sayin'. ;)

We discovered snow.

Okay, I know you may be guilty of skipping over the videos. I get it. But don't do it this time. This is seriously adorable. It was dark so it's mostly just audio. This was Ammely's first time seeing it snow. SO Precious. Watch at least a little - you won't regret it.

The next morning it was still snowing so she got to be out in it for a bit while we were out and about. Absolutely loved it.

So we of course had to build a snowman.

We literally had to drag her kicking and screaming out of the snow and into the car - so when we got home we bundled up and headed outside to properly enjoy the snow. Grandma even brought Lynnden out for a bit!

She turned into a snow princess pretty quickly though, so she went back inside with Grandma.

We played hard and long.

And it paid off...look at this beauty!

We ate ourselves sick on devilishly delicious food.

Strasburg's Pizza Shop breadsticks. My favorite on the planet.

French fries and wild dippin' sauce from this place.

 Japanese Pan Noodles at this place.

And we delighted in a whole realm of delicious things from Corona's Mexican Grill in Strasburg - my favorite Mexican food ever.

AND we had a very delicious, very generous surprise Christmas morning. A member from the ward brought us over a smoked Prime Rib for breakfast. Oh. My. Gosh. A-freaking-mazing. SO nice of him. SO tasty.

We had Reindeer pancakes that would make Pinterest proud.

We had hang out and relaxing time.

We made Lynnden's hand print ornament.

We made cookies for Santa Claus.

We had Christmas Eve jammas and books.

"Shhhh...don't tell Mommy and Daddy that I just rolled right over top of you."

We had a Breakall Christmas.

Just look at her face! She sees presents from Santa all right.

We had family pictures taken.

Tasha was wonderful enough to do this for us. She did a spectacular job. Especially since Ammely was a cranky-saurus. And it was like 30 degrees outside. And bright - we all had a time keeping our eyes open.I'm amazed at how many keepers she got out of our irritable, hurried lot of people!

We had to get on an airplane and go back home to Arizona.

It's always bittersweet to leave. We had a magical Christmas in Colorado - but home was beckoning to us.
So we said good-bye to the view from the front door of my childhood.

And onto the plane we went.

Once there, we had to sit tight for a nice little de-ice.

Gave us some time to say "Good-bye Colorado Rockies."

Good-bye snow.

We somehow managed to get ALL of our loot home to Phoenix. 

Six  checked bags, three backpacks, two car seats and a double-stroller did the trick.

A big "Thank You!" to Mom and Dad for spoiling us so thoroughly.

And another big "Thank You!" again to Mama and Daddy for playing musical cars and braving the Christmas airport madness to get us and our STUFF home!

Once we were home we were able to do our own Christmas!

And boy oh boy was it a Christmas! Surprises for both of us! 

We walked in the door to find Ammon had a brand new barbecue grill by the Christmas tree...

...and I had...Brand. New. FURNITURE. YAHOO! 

I loved my other furniture - but then at the beginning of the year I ruined it while trying to wash it. And Ammely drew on it. Several times. And it had other lovely layers of baby barf and potty training un-successes and heaven knows what else. And the cushions were wearing thin and tearing. It was time for something else. And my amazing husband  secretly saved his pennies so that he could do that for me.

Unfortunately, we were too excited to remember to take pictures of everything as it was. But it was awesome. Here's a snapshot I took on my phone the next day...after everything was made a mess and opened though.

And here we owe a big, fat, GIGANTIC thank you (and perhaps our next born child) to the Bunkers! They were INCREDIBLE enough to play Santa Claus for both of us. We both had them secretly do our dirty work while we were gone. Which is EXTRA awesome because not only do they obviously have their own lives to tend to but they just had a brand new baby. Baby Eli. One of the most precious baby boys you ever did see.

See?

Beyond the BIG surprises we also had a few more gifts to open under the tree too.

Happiest with the wrapping paper.

PLUS we got more Christmas spoils at Grandma and Grandpa Lords!

Grandma and Grandpa Lords, you should know that we bought Ammely a couple of games for her new MobiGo but this is by far her favorite one. She plays it all the time! Thank you thank you!

And we've been enjoying our spoils ever since.

Fish fry with our Wyoming fish!

Lovin' on my new couches!

We had the Spirit of Christmas brighten our days - may it do the same for you all year long.

We were given so much by so many this season. Already though the thing that lights up my soul as I remember our holidays is the magic that came into Ammely's heart. And she gave it away to share with anyone who wanted it. It's the thought of her singing Jingle Bells around the house. It's her enthusiastic "Merry Christmas Mommy!" It's the light in her eyes as she spent time with the lights and ornaments of the tree. It's her believing enthusiasm about Santa Claus and reindeer. It's her exclamations of "It's so beautiful!" as she saw snow fall for the first time.

We had a truly merry Christmas.

May you too find and experience the innocence and magic and miracles and pure joy that Christmas brings. It's brought to us by Christ and He is giving it to all who ask all year round.

Merry Christmas.

Daddy's Week 2014

You're probably familiar with the awesomeness that is "The Week of Love" in our home - the week between my birthday and Valentine's Day when Ammon does something sweet for me/us every day. However, I'm not sure if I've mentioned Ammon's week before...every day during the week leading up to Thanksgiving we do something special for him. I hope to get the girls involved a lot more as they get older and more capable - but for now it's just me coming up with ways to show him that we love him and are "thankful for Daddy." I'm not nearly so good at this as he is, but we usually make at least a couple of good memories.

This year, we started off with a "truck" night. The evening began with some "window shopping" for campers. It actually turned out to be a lot of fun. We had a great sales guy who was very informative and helpful but super low pressure. It was wonderful! Maybe one day we'll have a camper...and a truck that could actually hold a camper. We've added it to our list of dreams.

Thumbs Up!

We ended the trucky evening by hunting down a sweet food truck. Burgers Amore was serving at a fall festival night at an elementary school in Chandler...so we crashed the school's party and ate the delicious food. If you ever have an opportunity to do the same, I highly recommend it.Yum!

Following our truck night we took to a day in the car and headed north. This particular Saturday was dedicated to continuing our hunt for a small town to live in some day. We headed first to Mayer. After a quick drive through the town (It's small! Remember?) we parked so we could check out the most important place in town - the library.

And what a library it was.

Can you say friendly? Everybody was SO nice! Smiles and helpful information all around. PLUS, the library had way more than good reads. It was maybe the most enticing library for children I have ever seen. Not only was their children's area adorable...

...but it was totally stocked with animals!

We saw and met their rabbit.

 ...AND their turtles AND their fish...

 ...AND their snakes!

PLUS, they had toys and coloring pages and totally rockin' legos.

Amazing. We left the library very happy, envisioning many a reading programs and story times in our future.

From there we checked out a few local properties for sale. Check out the view from this lovely home on the hill!

We also stopped and checked out Dewey-Humboldt. Again, very friendly people. We chatted with the owner of the gift shop for a good hour and then went outside to enjoy the weather and the playground equipment.

From there we continued north to Prescott. We finally got to see the gorgeous courthouse (very Back-to-the-Futureesque). Prescott was just setting out their Christmas decorations while we were there. Our Christmas loving two-year-old was not upset about that. The whole downtown was beautiful and it was so much fun to be there.

For lunch we took the opportunity to enjoy one of Prescott's fine, local establishments: Murphy's. It was delightful. The atmosphere was great, the place had lots of history and the food was good too!

By then we'd had a very full day and were worn out so we headed to our hotel to hole up for the evening. Of course, we just had to take advantage of the heated, indoor pool. What kind of parents would we be if we didn't?

This is her "would you people hurry up and take me to the pool to go swimming?!" look. Do you remember how SLOW adults were when getting to the pool when you were a kid? 

 Ammely LOVED the swimming. Probably because Daddy is just so much fun.

The rest of the evening was spent watching hotel television, eating pizza and getting some sleep. Maybe not as much sleep as we would have liked though. I woke us all up while it was still dark outside, bundled us up in our pajamas and herded us out to the car.

Why you ask? Because Prescott is quite beautiful and home to several beautiful lakes. I wanted to take advantage of that so I made us drive to the nearest one (Watson Lake) so that we could watch the sunrise together. We got there and were very blessed to see just how beautiful it was. See?

We waited and waited for the sun to actually rise...passed the time with a few pictures.

The cold won out quickly though and we decided that we had seen what we needed to see- we were ready to head back to our warm showers and free hot breakfast. But just as we were leaving, it actually happened.

The sun rose.

It. Was. Beautiful.

So glad we were there to see it happen. Isn't it amazing how every sunrise is different but still breathtaking? And we can have a breathtaking moment every single day. I need to take the time to watch more sunrises. That's a resolution of mine.

We weren't ready to be done with it when we got back so we stepped out onto the patio to check out the view from our room. Pretty good too, but not quite the right direction.

We enjoyed our showers and breakfast (surprisingly good for a hotel breakfast), caught a local sacrament meeting and then enjoyed the ride back home to the valley. Once back in our homeland we had dinner with Grandma and Grandpa Lords (SO good! Pre-Thanksgiving dinner with some family that wouldn't be around on Thanksgiving). We made sure to leave in time to be able to watch the sun set too. We were lucky to have a beautiful sunrise AND a beautiful sunset - even in two different parts of the state!

On Monday evening, we spent our Family Home Evening at Grandma and Grandpa Hatch's house. I was silly and forgot to take pictures, but as always we were so glad to be in their home - to feel of their spirit and their love and to hear their stories. So much love and admiration we have for our grandparents!

Tuesday evening we had a night unplugged thanks to the generosity of Belle and Kent. They lent us their fire pit and so we were able to have a night in the backyard.

We girls got the "fire" ready and eagerly waited for Daddy to get home from work and join in.

He finally got home and fixed my "fire." Aren't Dads amazing? He turned my measly little sparks into a full-fledged man fire!

And then we could cook some delicious hot dogs!

And we could indulge in some marshmallow roasting/s'mores assembling.

 It was a fun night of good food and conversation and we are SO grateful that Belle and Kent made it possible with their awesome fire pit!

Wednesday we had a day hike. This activity was chosen in an effort to offset all of the delicious food we had during the week and all of the delicious food we were bound to eat the following day (Thanksgiving!). I'm not sure how many calories we burned going at a toddler's pace though.

Of course, Ammon probably burned quite a few more calories since he was carrying the baby.

...or BOTH babies...

In my own defense, I carried the water! And the camera! That's about equal, right? ;)

It was a good, full week by my judgement. It's wonderful to take the time to focus on each other and making memories and building our family. And it's so EASY when you're married to such a sweet, wonderful man. We sure are glad he is ours forever because we'd be utterly LOST without him.