Mele Kalikimaka

This year Santa came to our house in shorts.

We had a great Christmas this year. The kids woke up and were so nice to let Mike and I sleep in a bit. Mike and I woke up and the house was so quiet (the kids were playing cards in Whitneys room) that we decided to sneek down and see what Santa brought. Boy were they surprised when Mike and I started screaming "Santa came!" "Look at all this stuff!" from down stairs. They came a runnin'.

We came down to find a whole bunch of presents and they were all numbered.


They took turns opening and by the time they got to present 3 we knew something crazy was going on. They each got pieces to a puzzle. When we put them together they made a picture of a beach. Then they started opening presents like beach towels, swim suits and flip flops. Whitney started thinking we were going somewhere she was just not sure where.





Then Teegan opened a coconut, Landon opened a pinapple and Whitney got a coconut bra. Could it be Hawaii? We didn't dare guess it sounded to go to be true.




When I took this picture Whit said "great, I am sure this will make the blog" :)

Their last present was another puzzle. When we got all the pieces together there was a note that said "if you have not figured it out by now, there is a present for each of you on the tree". We ran to the tree opened up our little presents and found a note inside.


It said HAWAII Jan 13-19 2010. We were so excited!

Then we opened a big box that was full of stuff for a luau party. Dad made breakfast while we got everything set up and we had a party.



Overall Christmas was great and we have so much to be thankful for. We spent the day with family. We had brunch at Grandma and Grandpa Maxfield's and then went to Gram and Pa's for dinner and more presents. The day was full but nice.








Let's just say we did not go without this year.



Mele Kalikimaka! See ya in Hawaii!

Basketball has begun. So far they have won their first 3 games. Landon is having a great time.


Whitney has been playing indoor soccer the last few months. Her team made it to the finals on Monday but they lost 3 to 2. It was a good game. I tried to take some pictures but it was to dark inside the gym.

Christmas is 1 week away. Yikes!

Visit with Santa

The kids had a fun visit with Santa at our ward Christmas party. Teegan said it had to be the real Santa because his beard was real.



Landon with some of his friends from church.

Gingerbread houses

We usually do gingerbread houses at Gram and Pa's every Thanksgiving but since we left early this year we didn't get a chance. So last Sunday we got out all the stuff and built our own.















Whitney and I got into a little frosting fight.

Baby Jesi

After a long wait baby Jesi has joined our family.
Born Thursday November 26th (Thanksgiving day) 2009
to Uncle Jim and Aunt Amanda Maxfield.
We got to see her on our way back from Vegas. Only days old. She is so cute. The kids loved her! They were fighting over holding her. They are so excited about their new cousin.

November recap

Where did November go? It flew by in a flash. The month started out with Mike running a half marathon. What makes people think running 13.5 miles sounds fun???? Especially when you only have 2 months to train and have never done anything like that before?? He said it was tough and he does not have any desire to do it again. We will see? The race was in St. George so he took Whitney with him and made it a weekend.
Landon's football team went to the championships and after 2 overtimes, sudden death, snow coming down hard and covering the field, they won! Although the season started out rough he ended up having a great season.

Dad, Mom, Lorilee and I went to St. George for a long weekend to relax and celebrate mom's birthday. We even stopped at Cove Fort on the way home for a quick tour.
One morning I went out to go to work to find one of my tires totally flat. Hitched a ride with the neighbor but Mike came home later that day and put 4 new tires on the car (not an expense we were planning on).
Whitney is playing indoor soccer but her team was still training for the outdoor Thanksgiving tournament so she had outdoor practice going on at the same time. Lots of soccer.
The Fabrizio kids came for a week long visit.
Thanksgiving. Did we have Thanksgiving? Now that was a whirlwind to say the least. I should have know things were going to be crazy when I jumped out of bed realizing that if I didn't get my rolls rising they would never make it (we cut it real close). Our plan was to go to my parents for dinner (if you can call 1:00 dinner)then be on the road to Las Vegas by 3:00. Whitney's team was playing in the Turkey Shoot out that weekend. Early that morning we got the call we had all been waiting for Jim (Mike's brother) and Amanda were at the hospital having their baby finally. Which worked out great for us because we were going right threw St. George (yes it would be the third time that month). It just added to the excitement of the day. Needless to say the morning flew by and of course no one was packed for Vegas the car was a total mess and food was still cooking. We finally pulled it all together (sort of) and got to my parents around 1:30. We sat right down and started in on our thankfuls (each person tells 5 things that they are thankful for) who knows what I said I was still felling rather scattered with everything. On came the food. By the time we got all the kids dished up and ready to sit down they were asking for seconds. We finally sat down shoveled some food with kids now running around because they were now done when Mike announces it is 3:30 and we really need to go. Up I jump into the car we go and off to Vegas. We stop in St. George to pick up my mother in law Susan and find out that we can't go to the hospital to see new baby Jesi because they will only allow 2 people into her room. My sister in laws father was not even able to go in. On we go to Vegas getting there at who knows what time? 11:00 something I think. I stumbled in and hit the pillow. That in a nut shell is my Thanksgiving. Do you call that a Thanksgiving? The things we do for our children :).


We had a relaxing weekend in Vegas and pretty much spent the weekend in the hotel room. I wish I could say I was kidding. The rooms had a couch and a small kitchen so we spent a lot of time just watching TV (BYU vs Utah game), reading the paper, and looking through magazines. Whitney ran around with her soccer friends while Teegan ran the hotel with their little brothers. We attended 4 soccer games and ended up in a 3 way tie for first. We all couldn't go to the finals so it came down to points scored against you, we had the most so we ended up not playing in the finals. Most of her games were at night. I will post the pictures of us freezing. I was in 2 sweatshirts my big coat and gloves. It was not much warmer then it was here. We didn't step foot in a casino or even drive down the strip. It was really nice. We will be back in January and May so I figured if we needed to we could do it then. All in all we just kind of chillaxed. It was really nice.













Add in working, school, helping out in the kids classrooms and that is pretty much the month of November.