Carnival with the Sandovals

Our friends and neighbors, George and Griselda Sandoval, invited us to go to a Christmas carnival with them in Tempe.  It started off with Santa's entry.... by helicopter!

Then we enjoyed all sorts of carnival rides and games.

Funny mirrors....

Spinning tunnels....

 Super man rides!

 And the Ferris Wheel

Check out Maya and Jeff!  You can also see Aubree's hand's up!  

Aubree and Maya's first roller coaster.... and check out daddy! He's having the time of his life!

Picking that Christmas Tree

This year we skipped the adventure of cutting down our own tree and went with the lot option.  The girls were still excited about picking it out at the lot.  We got a pretty one this year!

Every year each one of the girls has to have their turn putting the star up.

Decorating Grandma & Grandpa's Christmas Tree

Grandma always invites all of the grand-kids over to decorate her Christmas tree.  The girls love finding all of the ornaments that I made as a child, plus the ones from when they were born, and hanging them on the tree with grandma and their cousins.

When I was in fifth grade, I made this Christmas ornament for my mom as a gift.  Every year since then, it is carefully taken out of the box and proudly placed right in the center of the tree.  My brother, Daniel, always thought it looked as if I was "claiming" the family tree as my own, so if ever I wasn't around he moved it  underneath the most obscure branch of the Christmas tree.  Of course I returned it right back.  Sadly, this has been the tradition for over 20 years now!  Daniel even recruited Rosanne to help with his dirty work.

Well last year, I decided that this would happen no more!  My mom and I concocted a plan and made 20 ornaments... identical to the original.. and placed them all over the tree just before Dan came over for dinner!  Ha! Daniel!  Take that!  Now his attempts to remove me from the tree are futile!