Our second Sunday there the boys wanted to wear their Chinese suits. We did not argue and they looked so cute in them. Ellie looks elegant as usual.
They also wore them on Sunday number three.
If anyone is wondering, I have a blue silk dragon jacket to match theirs except I didn't bring it to Arizona.
We promised Erik that we would take him hiking in the desert one day. We drove a couple blocks outside of town, next door to the church building, and did some hiking in a nature park; there are several miles of trails in this park, but we could only handle about a mile.
The only critter we saw was this chipmunk, begging for food. We were looking for lizards and rattlesnakes. Erik did spot one in the rocks under some scrub brush. I did see some movement but it was too dark to get any kind of photo (Sorry Logan and Liam). We did see one rabbit and some pigeons. So much for the wild life.
Judy and Erik by a Saguaro Cactus. This one is a mature one, probably close to 200 years old and weighing several tons (full of water). Even though it was only in the mid 60s, it felt closer to 80.
This was a very refreshing after-the-hike treat. That hit the spot.
Ellie wanted a sewing kit and a machine for her birthday. We sent a kit loaded with all the handwork stuff she would need. Ellie wanted to learn how to sew. Judy brought both her sewing machines to accomplish that want. Ellie is working on a baby blanket for her new sister Amelia and pillow cases for her brothers.
She operated the machine herself, with Judy guiding the material. With Ellie, it was full speed or nothing; and occasionally she would be looking all around the room with the machine going full blast. Good thing Judy was there to help. She was so excited to do this. She closed up the blanket with hand stitching.
See the results. She is also going to be a marketer because she said that she could put pictures of her work on the blog and people would want to buy them.
Just can't get enough of Amelia.
Once a month Tiffany does some service with some other ladies. And in conjunction with Ellie's birthday, sock monkeys were made, but ran out of time to finish due to a baby being born. So afterwards, Judy helped get button eyes on them and rearranged a couple of tails. They were then donated to a children's charity. This is Ellie posing with the end results. Ellie received gifts for her birthday but donated them to this charity.
One cool evening Kyle, the kids and me went to the Phoenix Zoo to see the Zoo Lights. Kyle got free passes from a Thunderbird club he belongs to. The kids were all wrapped up in blankets besides hearing coats underneath.
There were 3.5 million lights and moving lights; lighted animals running and jumping or swinging through the trees. This is a giant tree at the entry gate, all lite up in blue lights.
Flamingos
Lets keep moving. It's getting cold out here.
We also got to experience a total lunar eclipse. This is about 6:00AM and we wrapped the kids in warm stuff to watch it. But an eclipse from start to finish takes hours. It became total just at sunrise. The moon is half way to total, just above Ellie's head.
This is maybe a once in a life time event to see a total lunar eclipse so Kyle decided to join us with Charlie. We all watched it until it became total, at which time it disappeared.
This particular eclipse was to produce a blood red moon. You can see the top half of the moon had a red color. If we were one time zone west, it would have been spectacular.
This is about ten minutes to totality. But the sun is also rising and bleaching the moon.
Totality and sunrise. It disappeared. This was fun to watch. and we didn't have to drive anywhere. We jut stepped out of the front door and looked up.
It was Super-Duper cookie making day. Both Ellie and Erik wanted to help. Judy and my jobs were to make the cookie dough balls and their job was to roll the rounded cookie balls in powdered sugar. This was getting messy.
My, look at all that sugar on my hands. It must taste good. They would occasionally lick their fingers and then we made them wash their hands. I would not allow them to leave this project without eating some of that delicious raw chocolate cookie dough. So they each got a couple of bites each, despite the look I got from Tiffany. I have to say, this is some of the best cookie dough in the world. Sorry Tiffany. It's kind of like the old Life commercials: "Hey, lets get Mikie".
We took the kids to a couple of movies. Their favorite one was The Muppet movie. After that. Charlie kept singing the Mana mana song and he tried to enunciate it very clearly. One of the other things they liked to watch were all the JibJab videos I created with them in it.
Ellie was so proud of her work that she needed to show it off. This was a great project.
We got the kids a Fisher Price Nativity set and gave it to them right away. They played with it every day and, yes, sometimes there there were fights over who gets to play with it. Charlie loved to push the button to make it sing and hummed along with it.
Ellie was so tired that she fell asleep holding Amelia. It was too darling to pass up. This was like 8:30 in the morning. I think that we are wearing her out. One thing we were extremely impressed with was FHE one evening. Ellie was in charge of the lesson. We asked her if she needed help and she said “no, I got it.” Her lesson was on Names and Feelings. She repeated the story about Spencer W Kimble when he had surgery and a nurse took the name of the Lord in vain. Her expressions were wonderful. “You wouldn’t want anyone to make fun of your name. On no you wouldn’t”. Then she went on to the second part of the lessons – feelings. We were very impressed with her lesson and her foresight and wish we had taped it.
We had Christmas presents for all and they got to open them before we went home. That was fun. There were several Trio sets that we got to put together.
Ellie really wanted a camera. She was so excited when she got one and was taking pictures of everyone and everything.
Can't get too much of Amelia.
Ellie's school had a Kindergarten Christmas concert. We just let Charlie run until it started to get the wiggles out.
Anna and Bob had just arrived so she joined us also.
I look pretty cool in sunglasses. Don't I? Like a movie star.
Singing her heart out. It was so cute. Ellie was the only one swaying with the music.
Can you see my tonsils? They are coming out next week. They are making me sick all the time.
Kjersten helped with Charlie. BFFs.
After the program was over.
Last day in Glendale before the long drive home. We gathered all the kids for a group photo.
