I'm Dreaming of an Arizona Christmas

The day after Christmas we headed down to the land of beautifully warm Decembers. These pictures are only a month old, still fresh enough to post. I wanted to collect pictures from our families first. As you will see I got plenty! Considering we live so far away, we are lucky to see our families as often as we do. They are amazing and we loved every minute!

We had family pictures taken with the Bevan family.

These are all 5 of the cousins


Nana and Papa with the kids

The original 5 kids

The whole group

Ruthie and her beautiful Aunt Aly

Finally a girl cousin! We got to see baby Ashley blessed while we were down. It was extra special since we were not able to go to either of the boys blessings. Mindi and David were down from Seattle too. It worked out perfectly.

Stephanie, Nana and Ashley

My dad with Ashley. He actually delivered this little girl. She is Ryan's sister's baby, not mine!

Aly had way too much fun doing Ryan's hair. Sadly, he still hasn't had a hair cut since this picture!

The beautiful nativity at the temple.

We never miss a chance to see the Mesa temple lights. Especially when it is barely sweatshirt wearing cold out!

Ruth and Orren

That's my girl!

The Tutt fam

2 of my sisters

Tate got a good nap most of our temple time.

Ryan loved testing out the Land Rover's skills.

Happily, no incidents to report from this excursion!

Christmas 2009

Christmas Eve was spent at Ryan's Aunt and Uncle's house. Ruthie was thrilled to be Mary for the nativity. Last year she was supposed to be Mary but got stage fright, had a complete melt down, and missed the whole thing. Much better this time.

Tate made a handsome wise man (aka Aladdin)

Follow that with some Christmas bingo.

Tate ate his game pieces. (M&Ms)

The 'gingerbread house' contest was so fun.

My team's log cabin.

Ryan's team made a temple (see angel Moroni on top?)

Christmas morning in the new pj's.

Blurry, but oh, so cute!

Santa came through and brought Ruthie a pink camera!

and Belle.

Tate sported his Batman/Superman cape and loves his big slide.

Snow, Snow, Snow

We had a great time staying at the cabin for a few days before Christmas. It was nice to take a break from the holiday craziness and relax! (Although it made for some extra craziness when we went home!)

Ruthie and Ryan buried each other in the snow.


This little guy just wanted to watch.
We had a great little sledding path between the cabins.

Ruthie gets to pull her own weight around here:)

What kind of trip would it be with out Ryan getting the car stuck in the snow at least once. Life is never boring!

Captain Serious

Princess Personality

Merry Christmas To All

Merry Christmas!!!! I just wrapped the last gift and put it under the tree. I was going to get ready for work (1 am to 7 am) when my phone rang and I was cancelled! Hooray!

In other news, I have finally reached my 100th post! I actually stuck with it this long. I know some of you surpassed this milestone in 6 months, I will still give myself a pat on the back. :)

Here is our Christmas card for the year. My sis-in-law Kristen took these pictures when we were in Boston and designed the card. Super talented girl I tell ya! Thanks!

I hope all of your Christmases are wonderfully full of family and friends. We are so blessed and are especially grateful for our Savior this time of year.

The Polar Express

We took a trip to the North Pole on the Polar Express with some friends at the beginning of the month. The kids could not have been more happy than having elves serve cookies and hot cocoa, a visit from Santa and Mrs. Claus, reading the Polar Express story, singing carols, and seeing the North Pole. The conductor punched their tickets and they even got bells from Santa. Tate could not wait for his turn to see Santa. As soon as he set foot in our train car, Tate chased him down. He was so excited!

Tate found a good place for his name tag!

The whole group. It sure felt like the North Pole that night. It really was hovering around five degrees! Brrr!