Snow in Arizona

There are many fabulous reasons to live in Tucson...but one benefit for Kevin and the kids is that Tucson is located at the base of Mt. Lemmon and during the winter, Mt. Lemmon receives a fair bit of snow. I would be completely fine to never see snow again in my lifetime...heaven knows I've experienced my fair share of the fluffy white stuff. But Kevin and the kids think it's great to check it out once in awhile. Where they get these crazy ideas, I'll never know!! :-)

Anywho, so we headed up to Mt. Lemmon since we could still see white at the top of the mountain from our house and Alexa has been asking and asking (and asking) to go play in the snow. And then they played in it for all of about 10 minutes! Oh well, at least they got to experience it, and we did have a fun day as a family!

A Whole New World...

Now that standing has been achieved...a whole new world has opened up to Bubba Man!

{Mortenson Family Christmas}

Today was our Mortenson Family Christmas Party. We all met at Duane & Emily's house this morning. The kids had a great time playing spies and finding all the Reindeer. We had a yummy lunch, played at the park, opened presents, played some basketball, visited, had a yummy dinner, played some games and just had a great time spending the day with family!

{Christmas 2011}

We had a much lower-key Christmas this year thanks to the stomach bug hitting our house Friday night after getting home from seeing the lights at Winterhaven. Poor Payton was hit the hardest, followed by Alexa. Kevin and I both felt a little nauseous most of the day yesterday but thankfully Barrett seems unaffected at this point!!

In light of dealing with the pukeys, we didn't do our annual visit to the Desert Museum yesterday. :-( We stayed close to home and I kept my washing machine going constantly for almost 24 hours straight just to catch up with cleaning all the puked on clothes and bedding!! I know, you can't contain your jealousy! :-)

Anyways, the girls were feeling pretty good by the afternoon on Christmas Eve...looks like it was just a 12-hour kind of bug! Phew!! Being sick didn't take away any of the excitement of Christmas...they couldn't wait to open up their Christmas pj's.

Oh. My. Cuteness.

We (Kevin and I) managed to stay up late enough to find that Santa had snuck in without us knowing!!

He even left a note for the girls....they LOVED it!!

Christmas Morning....and ready to see what Santa brought them!

Opening their stockings...

Checking out the goods that Santa brought them in their stockings.

Time for presents!

We even had Grandma and Grandpa Mortenson over for lunch today! The girls couldn't wait to show Gramma what Santa brought for them!

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Winterhaven Festival of Lights

There is a community here in Tucson called Winterhaven. With a name like that, it's only fitting that they go all out to decorate for the Christmas season, don't ya think??!! We went to check out this spectacular display of lights tonight and it did not disappoint. Despite the chilly night, it was fun to get out and walk around this neighborhood to see all the lights!

There was even a snow machine that the girls got a kick out of!

That's the kind of snow I can handle!! :-)

Awwwwww....if you can't tell, that is mistletoe that we're standing under!!

And I didn't even have to twist Kevin's arm to get this picture!!! (okay, maybe just a little!)

A Visit with the Jolly Big Guy...

I took the kids to visit Santa today at the mall. They were so excited to see him and talk to him and tell him all their wishes for Christmas this year. That is, until it was actually our turn...and then Payton didn't want to go anywhere near him, so I got to be in the picture for the 2nd year in a row!!

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Merry almost Christmas!!!

Daddy/Daughter Date

Payton got her very first official one-on-on date with daddy tonight. AND it was also her very first UofA Basketball Game. We were a little worried how she would do since the games are about 2 hours long, and she's only 2 1/2...but she lasted the entire game!! She kept her eye on Wilbur the Wildcat the whole time and enjoyed some popcorn...but best of all, she got daddy all to herself! Have I mentioned how happy it makes me to know that this is so important to Kevin...to establish these daddy/daughter relationships with his girls?!! I LOVE it! And I love how much they look forward to these dates with daddy! I hope it always is this way!

..::Barrett: 8 Months::..

8 Months!!

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The happenings for Bubba Man this past month:

*Sat up from crawling position - November 23rd

*Took forward crawling steps - November 30th

*Sat up in crib for first time - December 1st (he's now sitting up every time we go in to get him)

*CRAWLING!!!!! - December 5th

*Clicks tongue - December 10th (he finds this pretty funny when we do it back to him)

*Says "Ma-Ma" - December 10th

*Starts pulling himself up on things - December 15th

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So we're in major baby-proofing mode now that Barrett is a full-fledged crawler! He is like a little puppy....ANYthing he gets his hands on goes straight to his mouth! And now that he's pulling up on things, there's more to get into! It's so fun to see all the learning he's doing though. He is such a sweet, funny little boy!

Happy 8 Months Bubba!!!

Tubby Santas

I'm not usually one for posting pictures of the kiddos in the bathtub. HOWEVER, as they were giggling and splashing away tonight, I went in to make sure water wasn't all over the floor...and I found too little Santas playing in the tub! So I quickly handed them some washcloths for modesty and snapped a couple pictures! Pretty cute bubble beards, don't ya think??!!

Oh these girls make me laugh!!!

~Letters to Santa~

Today was our annual trek to Santa's special mailbox at the mall so the girls could send their letters to him. I think Payton actually gets it this year. Even though last year she was all about pointing out each and every Santa she saw and saying "ho, ho, ho" all the time...this year, she understands the whole concept of Santa, and being naughty or being nice, and the consequences of both.

We even started a new tradition called 'Elf on the Shelf' where an elf joins our family, we name it (ours is "Fizzy") and this elf sits on a shelf and SEES and HEARS what goes on each and every day. And each night, Fizzy reports back to Santa. The kids can't touch Fizzy or her magic goes away and she has to return to the North Pole forever. Part of the fun is finding where Fizzy comes back to each morning. The girls LOVE it and I have to say that it's helped in the behavior department....to a degree. At first, it was like a Christmas Miracle...it helped Payton stay in her bed at night for a full week straight. I think that novelty wore off already!! :-( But it's been great reminding the girls each and every day, sometimes MANY times a day, that Fizzy can hear them and do they REALLY want her to tell Santa how they're behaving?? Needless to say, it's a tradition we'll be keeping for as long as we can! We're already looking forward to Fizzy coming back next Christmas season!! Can she stay all year????? :-)

..::Barrett: Pulling Up::..

Our little Bubba man is now pulling himself up on things!! He actually started doing it yesterday but today is when we decided to document it on film!! Way to go Barrett!!!

-Gingerbread Houses-

This is totally a messy and time consuming Christmas tradition but the girls loves it...so it's worth it! It didn't help that the icing package split right next to where it dispenses from and so it made it EXTRA messy this year! Hopefully we'll continue to improve on our gingerbread making skillz as the years go by!!

Christmas Pageant - Preschool Style!

Tonight was Alexa's Christmas program at her Preschool. She has been sooooooooo excited about this. They have been practicing their songs for weeks. Her class was dressed up as the shepherds and she couldn't wait! I love that she thoroughly enjoys going to school and learning, she just soaks it all up. Poor little Payton though, couldn't understand why she didn't get to be up there with her sister. We had to pull her back down to where we were sitting probably 3 different times! Next year, Payton, next year!! :-)

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(Alexa is the cute little shepherd in purple stripes, if you're having a hard time locating her. She was especially excited about the song "Come Let Us Adore Him" and so, although you can't really see her, I had to put that video in too!)

Temple Lights

Today, we headed up to Phoenix for our nephew, Connor's, baptism. It was a great day to be able to spend time with family on Connor's special day. And since we were already up there, we figured it'd be the perfect time to go see the Christmas Lights at the Mesa Temple. The girls loved it last year and we knew we wanted to make it another family tradition at Christmas time. However, today was a very rainy day for Arizona and COLD to boot! But we knew it was going to be chilly and perhaps rainy so we came prepared with umbrellas and warm clothing. Thankfully though, the rain stopped while we were walking around so it was still pretty chilly for us not used to that kind of weather, but at least we weren't getting wet too! :-)

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(My camera was set on a weird setting so all our pictures from tonight are dark and fuzzy!)

It was a fun evening with our little family, enjoying the Spirit of Christmas right on Temple Grounds. The lights were beautiful but they only added to the beauty of the temple!