Ward Christmas Party, 12/5/08

We had our ward Christmas party a few weeks back. I am on the activities committee and can I just say I never realized how much went into one of these dinners. I will never feel the same about eating and running again. Not only do you have the before hand planning, you have decorating, possibly food assignments and followups, setting up, taking down and cleaning up. Well our ward did not do food assignments we bought and prepared all the food ourselves.

We arrived at the church at 4 to start preparing for the 6:30 dinner,Brent was at his ER rotation, so I had my 2 girls in tow. Susan from my ward had contacted some of the YW to come and help me cut up onions, tomatoes and lettuce and they took turns playing with Ava. We had a taco and nacho bar, the food was good, the program was good, and Santa came too. The evening was a success and we had enough food left over that we could have probably had another ward dinner the next night! Brent arrived in his scrubs at 6:30 were he took over with the girls, and ate helped a little with cleanup and then took Ava home. As for Katrena and I, we were there until 10:30 and man was I exhausted. I really enjoy cooking and entertaining, but there is absolutely know way I could do that everyday, its exhausting.

The girls were able to sit on Santa's lap, unfortunately I missed it (I was in the kitchen), but I have to remind myself I can't catch all of Ava's firsts. To top it off I forgot my camera too! So my good friend Melinda had remembered her camera and graciously stayed a little longer to take a couple of photos for me. Ava is actually awake and she didn't cry. I guess she is still to young to be scared by the old guy in a red suit! And now that I think about it I am not even sure what Trena asked Santa for. I better ask her when she gets home, as you can see I was really not in Mommy mode that night.

Here are the girls with Santa.

Jumping ahead a little...

This photo was taken from my front porch yesterday, 12/15/08. Yes, Virginia fall has finally come to Phoenix. The high yesterday was 57 with rain and today, 50 with rain. It's about stinking time. I love fall and really hate that Phoenix forgets to have it!!!

11/30/08, our last day in Utah.

We went to church at 9:00, were 5th hour was an awesome lesson on the temple. So glad we were there for it. After church both families headed to the cemetary were we visited Braxtons grave as a family. I am glad that we were able to go when it was not covered in snow.

After the cemetary we headed to my parents for lunch and one last visit. My grandparents stopped by and we were able to see them for a few minutes before we left. And Katrena's two best friends Caroline and Charlotte stopped by to play for about an hour.

Then off to pack up and have dinner with Mom and Dad North as well as Grandma Hansen and to say our goodbyes.

We then caught the 9 o'clock flight home, which was delayed. So by the time we got on the plane, flew home, took the shuttle to get our car, and drove home, it was 1 am when we walked in the door, so every one slept in, including Ava.

The girls at Braxton's grave

My mom getting some quality Ava time in

Katrena with Caroline and Charlotte

Katrena with her Great Grandma and Grandpa Watts



Katrena and Ava with their Aunts Kayleigh and Karey

Ava with her Great Grandma Hansen

Ava with Grandma Joyce

11/28/08, 11/29/08 (still in UT)

For those of you who have said you didn't even know we were in Utah. Well we barely knew we were in UT. It was a last minute decision to go and because we were only going to be there four days two of which were travel days, we didn't tell anyone other than family we were coming.

On Black Friday we hit the stores running at 4 AM. Its a tradition for my mom, myself and my youngest sister Karey to go shopping. We love seeing all the crazies, devouring the ads on Thanksgiving and strategizing. My sister Kayleigh would rather stay home and sleep, some years I can't blame her. I think Karey wishes she had stayed with her this year. We got some great deals, and I was happy to be with my mom and Karey. We always take a mid morning break to eat breakfast and then keep on going.

After our shopping we met up with the rest of my family for Cafe Rio, I so miss the sweet pork salad. The only one in phoenix is 45 minutes away, we've eaten there once.

Then back to Brent's parents were I went to the DI with his mom and sister Shelly. While the boys all went to the movies. And then we had left overs together for dinner. Some how Thanksgiving always tastes just as good on day two.

Later that evening Ava took her first sink bath, Grandma was doing the dishes in the kitchen so we used the bathroom sink. She was a little cramped, but was such a good sport.

Here is a picture of Ava with her Aunt Shelly and Uncle Chezlyn.



Ava in the sink! Couldn't you just eat her up!?

No photos from the 29th. I ran to a couple of stores with my mom. And hung out at my in-laws and then Mom and Dad North took us to lunch at Pei Wei, love that place too. Afterwards we went to Brent's cousin Jordan's house and saw him, his wife Maria and their cute little girl Hannah,as well as their new home. Katrena and Hannah had fun playing and they had some yummy Brazillian food there. I am not sure how its spelled but something like cachinos, and then guatanar to drink. We love that stuff. Brent served his mission in Brazil and that is were Maria is from. After we left Jordan's we headed to my parents were we had pizza and just visited for awhile and then home to bed.

Family Birthdays! 11/27/08

To finish off our Thanksgiving day, we headed over to my parents house at 5:00 pm to celebrate my Brother and baby Sisters Birthdays. They were also the week of Thanksgiving. And my Grandma made her yummy Sundae Pie, so I had to have some of that too!!!

Ava got to meet her Great Grandma and Grandpa Watts for the first time as well as her Aunt Traci and Cousins Tyler and Preston. She met her Uncle Wade (he was our photographer), Cousin Megan, Uncle Tyler, Aunt Joy, and future Uncle Taylor that morning at the photo shoot. There was a lot of meetin and greetin for our little miss that day.

Ava with her Great Grandpa and Grandma Watts


Our beautiful new cousin Preston, who we all got to see for the first time.

Ava with Taylor and Kayleigh

Katrena with Tyler and Joy

Funny, I didn't get a single photo of anyone opening presents. Nor do I have a photo from this day of my sister who's birthday we were celebrating. Boy am I slipping.

Family Photos 11/27/08

Knowing we had limited time and my Brother and his wife were only going to be in Utah on Thanksgiving day, we hurried to get family photo's taken about 2 hours after we arrived in Utah.

Yes, these photos were taken at a cemetary, no we are not morbid, and no we do not mean any disrespect. My mom really loves this tree, she considers it our "Family Tree". When we lost Braxton he was burried at this cemetary and we wanted him to be burried by this tree, unfortunately the only places still available were in the shrubs and Brent and I did not feel good about that being his final resting place. So he is burried just a little ways down under another tree.

Katrena with her aunts Kayleigh and Karey

My mom and brother Tyler

My Mom and Dad

Mom with her daughters: Karey, Kim and Kayleigh

My Dad with his daughters

Us kids

My brother Tyler and his wife Joy

Kayleigh and her boyfriend Taylor



The whole Fam Damily

Our little Family

Probably a little more accurate picture of our family

We wanted to get a picture of my parents with the grandkids and just our girls, but our beautiful little Ava decided she'd had enough and was screaming her head off. It was a little chilly and nap time. We were glad to get photos taken though. Now we just need to photo shop out flowers and headstones...

Thanksgiving 11/27/08

We flew to Utah early Thanksgiving morning to spend the four day holiday. We started off by going straight to Mom and Dad North's house. Where we had Thanksgiving dinner and Dad's Birthday.

I felt really bad that we did not contribute any food, kind of hard to carry on a plane, but the food sure was delicious. The best part though was the strawberry rhubarb pie, yummy!!!

Here is Ava with her cousin Kyndra



Shayla, Katrena, Ava and Kyndra

Grandpa with Ava

Mom and Dad North