It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Seeing the Mesa Temple Lights

Grammy and Grandpa all the way from Saudi Arabia

The "IT" toy of this Christmas...Nathan got Wesley a mini basketball hoop and as soon as Wesley ripped off the paper he gave it a kiss! He is the cutest little boy!




My brother Matt who I call Bubba, bought me this beautiful stroller for Christmas!

Me and my Fatty- the newest, most handsome love of my life (under 3ft tall)

My sister Marissa who Sienna calls Mimi- looking at old photos...

These series I call the "Yes I was....." pictures. When Sienna is a bratty 16 year old who screams out, "You weren't a good Mom who would do fun things with me!" I can say, "Yes I was!!!"

Making a gingerbread Christmas Tree

Of course Sienna spent most of our time together doing this....


Last but not least, Sienna's first day of Primary. I can't believe it!

Move to the Sticks

So one day Nathan starts telling me what a great idea it would be to move to Arizona because of the incredible housing market. Arizona?!?! Are you kidding me? A slow and painful death sounded more appealing. No way, not gonna happen, not in this life. Buuuuuttttttt, the thought was always in the back of our minds.

I avoided talking or thinking about it for months. Then finally we decided to pray about it. I was petrified of what the answer would be. The answer I got was, "You should move to Arizona." For the next couple of days, that answer played over, and over in my mind around the clock. There was no ignoring it and I couldn't have been more devastated.

That was it. It didn't make sense, it wasn't by any means what we wanted, it was insane, and reckless. We packed up, say good-bye to friends we loved, and left behind the most beautiful city we'd ever seen, and made our descent into Hell.

Or so it seemed. When we drove into Arizona, Nathan and I were both crying and saying, "what have we done? what have we done?" It was the ugliest, most depressing scenery. I still stand by that claim, from the months of April through October, when the mouth of Hell gapes open and spews fire for 6 months straight!!

It was August when pulled into the driveway of our new home. Home was now a small, rural community with a handful of stores and stoplights called Queen Creek. It was 113 degrees and there was not a single living thing within sight.

Long and painful story made short, moving here to the Sticks was a life-altering experience. I have never prayed so hard in my life. I never read my scriptures more than I did those first 6 months here. I've never cried so much. After the panic attacks, and nightmares subsided, I began to see why Heavenly Father wanted us to move here. Why He wanted me to be here.

Moving here, to our little town brought us closer as a family. We were forced to focus on the family, and the gospel because there is nothing worldly around us. We are removed from a normal city life. Being so isolated forced us to focus on food storage because we only have two groceries stores in our little town.

Moving here forced us to think of our ward as a real family, because most of our loved ones live out of state, so we truly have to rely on each other. I would never have had these (and many other ) experiences or growth if I had stayed in CA. It is by no means easy or enjoyable to live out here.....but at the same time I am grateful for the fact that moving here and surviving has changed me.

Although it's still a love-hate relationship, we now lovingly, and affectionately refer to our little backward town as Queentucky.

A Thing of the Past

So we used to live in California-Orange County that is. And it was beautiful, superficial, fun, full of glowing people and bright careers, competitive, and gorgeous, filled with really, really, ridiculously good-looking people, with jewel-toned oceans, brimming with sunsets, uplifted by saline, and maintained by Botox.

California is everything you'd think it would be........and WE LOVED IT!

Let's start at the very beginning, it's a very good place to start....

But first.....a dedication and a confession. I want to say that this blog is partially dedicated to my good friend Patience who has consistently and diligently harassed me to start one for the last year. Look- I did it!

My confession: I haven't been motivated to start a blog because they seem so open and narcissistic...and maybe competitive-and I've been told addictive! But as time has gone by I can really see how much I'm missing by not having one. I really want to be connected to the people we love. I LOVE seeing pictures of new babies, and Halloweens, and Birthdays, and family- the stuff of life! So I just wanted to say.....that the pictures I display will probably be the "best of", my favorite, flat out best picture of that month, and in no way an accurate reflection of my everyday, ho-hum day. I will probably not include images of tantrums, spills, fights, messes, or pictures of me going stark-raving mad. No, no, I will leave those all behind, and what's left is what makes life beautiful.

Goodbye Three...Hello Four!

.....a few Saturdays ago, Sienna bid a fond farewell to 3 and a big hello to 4!! Mom's thrilled to forget everything between 18 mos. and 3! Hurrah- we survived!

Sienna LOVES horses; seeing them, acting like them, having toys that look like them, seeing them, acting like one.....you get the idea, so of course her cake had to have some on them! in fact, this cake is per request of the birthday girl...when I asked her what she wanted on her cake she said, "pink and purple and horses on it!"

Grammy's purple "Saudi gaudi" purse was a hit! She loves it Mom! It was an ultra-girlie party....with purses, jewelry, tiaras, make-up, and of course dress-up shoes.

.....me doting on my birthday "Bear" (my nickname for Sienna)

love in the QC........

Wesley has the strangest effect on people. While watching his sister open birthday gifts, one of Sienna's cute girlfriends leaned over out of nowhere and kissed Wesley on the cheek!

so Sienna and her gal pals had lots of fun; making Valentine cards, playing with the balloons, dancing, making take home treats, playing upstairs, putting on make-up and painting their nails.....only problem was that about 30 minutes into the party we realize the camera's missing the memory card! so we can't show you- how's that for a laugh?!

juuuuussst because.....one of the kids' favorite games is "wheeeeere's Sienna?" (or Wesley) So one of them will hide under a blanket or whatever and then we ask the other child, where's so and so? .....so here's Wesley asking with his hands "where's Sienna?"

...there she is!

Sienna was sure sad when she had to say good bye to all her friends.....so she semi-pouted and smiled at the door step as they left. farewell!

















buuuuuuttttt, that wasn't quite enough for the birthday girl. She wanted to go on a walk around the neighborhood with her last remaining balloon. I think Wesley summed up how the rest of us felt.




















But WE ALL LOVE SIENNA....so we humored her with one last victory lap. Happy Birthday sweetheart!!