Pioneer days...

At the end of the month everyone made their way back up the mountain to come celebrate pioneer days with my parents stake. All the grand-kids dressed up for the little parade.

Then we took the opportunity to snap a few pictures seeing as it isn't very often we are able to be all together.

 I am not to sure Laine could have hacked it as a pioneer. She does look awful cute though.

One of the booths at the Pioneer Days Celebration was a dunk tank. All the bishops and Stake President took some time in the wet seat. A few of the grand-kids and 3, who shall remain unnamed, siblings took a few throws to try and dunk Grandpa. We were all unsuccessful.

The end of the party...

I feel like our life has been stuck on fast forward mode for the whole month of December and the end of November. I feel like I haven't slept since Thanksgiving! Between having Thanksgiving at my house, preschool, Christmas parties, New Years, family and a baby blessing I am exhausted.  I really loved every thing we have done the last few months. But it is kind of like Christmas decorations and Christmas music. I can't wait to get it all out and fill the house with holiday sounds, but come January 1st, get it all out of here! The last we has been especially busy. Here is what we have been up to...

My sister Jill and her kids came in the last week of December. They moved out of state a few months ago and it was so fun to have them here. The kids played and played and played!! Here they are "water skiing" along with the Wii. 

Saturday morning my mom, Jill and I went to Goodwill. Got to love a trip to Goodwill on 50% off Saturday. 

Saturday afternoon the rest of my family showed up to have the annual Merrill family White Elephant Party.
Before the actual eating and present exchanger the 2 brave men took all the kids to the park. Only one casualty  though, my little nephew Jett, who is Laine's age, decided to swim in a huge puddle.

In the evening we did a cousin gift exchange and the White Elephant exchange.

The only cousin too young to play was little Daisy.

We were trying to put a tiny clip in all that hair.

All the sisters and sister in laws.

Brittany, Me, Lee, Jill, Connie.

Everyone stayed at my house that night because the next morning Aaron and Lee blessed their sweet little Daisy at church. Arron did a great job or at least I think he did... Laine was getting madder and madder that her dad was in the blessing circle and not holding her.  

After the blessing and lunch Tim and Connie came back to my house along with Jill and all the kids. The competitive ones play Settlers. Tim won for the official record :)

The last family to leave on this past Wednesday morning was Jill and her kids. They we making their way around Arizona to visit the rest of their family. I loved everyone being here. Bode had so much fun playing and staying up late. But all thing come to an end. Preschool started up again, Christmas decorations are down and we are getting back on our routine.

Here is a shot of my whole family,

minus John, who didn't get to come back to AZ with the rest of his family.

Missed you John. If you look closely behind Parker (white sweater, purple dress) you can see Boo. I guess she wanted to be in the Merrill Family picture too.

What's that smell...

The other evening Bode and I were picking up the toys getting ready to go to bed. He turned to me and here is our conversation:

B: Mom, what's that smell?
M: I don't know. What does it smell like?
B: It is a comfy smell. I like it.
M: What do you mean? What is a comfy smell?
B: It smells comfy in here. I like it. It feels good. It smells comfy like Grama Trish's house.

I am still not 100% sure what a comfy smell is but I liked his interpretation of it. I think that since the weather has changed a bit down here (hallelujah) it smells crisp like fall. We always travel up to Pinetop during the fall. It does smell comfy up there. So cool and crisp. I also think my mom and dad's house does have a comfy feeling to it. My parents have lived in their house for 30+ years. (click on the link to see the changes that happen when you live in a home for 30 years) I never moved, except from room to room in the house. Growing up I always felt that their house was a sanctuary from the world. A place where I didn't have to worry about what I was wearing, if I had friends, you know all the drama things that high school brings on. It was just home, and I loved it. I hope that no matter how many times Jeremiah and I have to move our family we will always strive to have a "comfy" home. Thanks Mom and Dad :)

We going up to the mountains yet...

That is the question I heard over and over until we actually got in the car to go to Pinetop last weekend.

Little Boder was so excited to go up to Grandpa Dave's and Grandma Trish's house.

We were going up to go to my little sisters baby shower and to get a pumpkin out of Grandma Trish's pumpkin patch.

Bode said this was the hugest pumpkin of them all.

Actually it is a big pumpkin, congrats mom, you grow some great pumpkins this year.

I love these 2 little kids!

I also love my silly little family.

Bode has been such a good big brother these days. (well some days...)

He has become very protective of her.



Now for the real reason we made the trip up to Pinetop was for my little sister, Lee's, baby shower. Actually we called it a sprinkle because we didn't invite a ton of people. It turned out just prefect.

Lee is well on her way to welcoming this new little girl in to her and Aaron's life. I am excited for them to become parents. Although it makes me feel old.

Your little sister isn't supposed to be married and be having a baby!

Pete and Brittany came up as well. It is always fun to visit with family.

I also love when the cousins are able to play together.

I didn't get a picture of the much loved "Gogan" aka Megan.

Bode talks about her for days after we visit with the Tucson Merrill's

Thanks Mom and Dad for letting us come up and play!

Dirt...

The main reason for our trip to Pinetop was to go camping. Jer said that Disneyland was my vacation and camping was his. I may not choose camping as my first vacation choice but I do really love to go. It just takes so much work to get there. We were going to sleep on the first night and Jer asked me if I wanted to go home tomorrow (he was just teasing me) I said heck no! It took all day setting up, you have to to for at least 2 nights to make it all worth it. We were up camping from Tuesday-Friday morning. I think I really could have stayed longer... if I could have taken a shower :)

The kids took full advantage of roaming free.

We went on many quad rides. Every time someone started up a quad all the kids would come running. Bode got good enough to steer and push the gas while he and Jer went on rides.

Paisley and Laine were having a rough go at their little cousin relationship. They are in the "mine" phase of life. Everything was a fight that resulted in tears, until the trailer. They played and played on the trailer and there was never a fight. I guess they decided to be friends :)Oh how I love the White Mountains of Arizona!

It was fun to spend so much time with my sister before she moved. She will be missed!

Camping isn't the same as when I was little. I remember just playing in the dirt all day and never having a care. Now that I have the kids it is a bit stressful. Trying to keep them semi clean, cooking, cleaning all the stuff that goes along with camping isn't the same when you are the one in charge. This trip was nice and relaxing though. Bode and Laine slept great and played hard. They got super dirty and I decided not to care. That made things much more fun. But by the 4 day I think we were all very ready to take a bath.

Here are my parents. They are the ones who had the great idea to go camping. We went camping all the time growing up. The first time I went I was about 2 weeks old... crazy. I am glad they would go though. It is a fun thing to do, especially as families. Here they are with all the grand-kids that came.

Laine loved the quads. At one point I took her off to give other kids a ride and she screamed and cried running after me. She loved them so much she took a nap on one ride.

Jeremiah made a little fort for the cousins to play in. It was a hit.

Laine Jo will color on anything she can reach. That included a log.

  

After the men were done fishing they had some left over worms. The worms quickly became pets for the little kids. I over hear Abbey telling Bode they needed to name all their worm babies. 

Dirt. Need I say more?

This is Boo. She is my Mom and Dad's dog. She is a labradoodle, a mix between a lab and a poodle. I think I really should just call he my mom's dog because she loves her. Anytime my mom goes anywhere Boo just sits and waits for her. If my mom was in the trailer, there was Boo waiting at the door. She is such a good dog except she gets a wild hair and just takes off running. My brother brought his dogs too. They have Molly and Oscar. Oscar is a little Yorkie but at heart he is a cow dog. Where we were camping there were a ton of cattle. The cows feed on the land and then get rounded up in the fall. We happened to camp right in their area. There were cows constantly walking really close to our camp. But they never got to close because Oscar the cow dog herded them away.

 

We had fun! Can't wait to do it all again next year.

Pinetop...

Living in the beige desert you kind of forget about all the beautiful colors the world has to offer. I actually really do enjoy living in the valley.  Great weather (except for the summer), beautiful sunsets, shopping, family... but there is no green! I miss the green, changing seasons and snow. Even Bode was loving all the green. He wanted to take a picture of this "beautiful green leaf-es" as he calls them.

Bode made a new buddy on this trip. See the little lion? It was mine when I was little. He loves it.  He also enjoyed giving Laine rides on the bike too...

and the quad.

Bode loves Grandpa Dave's big truck. Jeremiah gets a 4x4 magazine in the mail every month. This morning Bode was flipping through the pages and came across a picture of another big blue truck. His face lit up and he got all excited. He said "Holy cow! Grandpa Dave's truck is in this magazine!! Amazing!"

The morning Jeremiah came up he brought doughnuts.

The kids loves them.

Laine loved them the most.