Double Digits!!

Kyla wanted to make her own Rainforest Cake for the birthday celebration at Grandma's house. She got spoiled by awesome family.  

On her birthday, she got a guinea pig!  She was so excited!  We ditched school in the morning and went to the zoo.  Then the kids went to school in the afternoon.  Kyla brought donuts for her class treats. 

At night we went to Organ Stop Pizza and for her cake she wanted mint Oreos.

Happy 10th Birthday Kyla!!!

January Shenanigans

January has been good to us so far.  Sewing lessons, cousins over to play, seeing the Gilbert temple, a baby shower from sweet church friends, Kyla running for her class Secretary, and Jaxon's Great to be 8 Fireside.  It was kinda funny, since I am the counselor over Scouts I had to speak about Scouts at the fireside.  The only boys there were Jaxon and one other.  His first Scouts day will be the Pinewood Derby on his birthday!!

Citizenship

Jonas is now a citizen of the Unites States.  It was a pretty cool ceremony.  I got the kids out of school for it.  There were 24 countries and about 50 people.  1/2 of them were from Mexico and Jonas was the only one from Canada.  There were a few that spoke and they talked about leaving their countries and persecution for freedom here.  Interesting because it's really not a huge change for Jonas coming from Canada.  We went out for ice cream cones afterwards.

Quick San Diego Trip

On Tuesday afternoon we drove to San Diego.  We went to dinner at Schlotsky's across from the temple.  It was so cool when we came out and we could see the temple across the highway with all the beautiful temple lights.  We loved walking around the temple, it was our first time to see the Christmas lights there.  On Wednesday we went to Sea World.  It was pretty nice for the first 2 hours.  Jonas took the kids on the Manta coaster a few times before the crowds came.  It was pretty busy that day but we were able to see the shows and animals.  It was cool to see it all decked out for Christmas and all the shows had a Christmas theme.  We stayed for the 8:30 Shamu Christmas show and everyone was wiped out and cold but it was cool!  Fun day!  On Thursday (News Year's Eve) we went to Coronado Beach, loved it!  The cold din't bother the kids one bit, they jumped in and had so much fun playing in the water and sand.  Then it was time to drive home.  Just past Yuma we lost our transmission on our van. :(  We said a prayer and a nice family pulled up and towed us to their house.  They also happened to be leaving for Mesa that evening.  So they gave us a ride.  8 kids, 4 adults, and 3 dogs crammed into a minivan.  It was interesting but we were so grateful!  My Dad came and picked us up in Mesa. We donated our van and bought a new one!  We took the older 3 kids to have a sleep over at my parents.  They had so much fun.  Jonas, Canyon, and I went to sleep at 9:30, we were wiped out.  I also got pink eye that day.  Oh adventures!!  Happy New Year!!!