February 2014

The month of love.  I came downstairs after putting laundry in and I found Lexi and Addi cuddling and watching cartoons together.  This picture makes me happy.

I was able to take Peyton with me to Gammage to see The Wizard of OZ.  It was so good.  Peyton loved it and can't wait to see another play with me sometime.

 Peyton's school had a special party after school one Friday and the theme was Hollywood.  She had a great time dressing up with her friends and taking pictures.

 My sister-in-law Amber had a baby 2 months ago and Peyton loves to hold her.  She was happy to hold her during Jaxon's baptism.

 Grandma Ferrell gave the girls some cute little Valentine's she made and Alexis loved this noise maker.  Some of us were ready to throw it away after a few hours.

 Addison continues to want to dress up just like Alexis does.  This time she put on Lexi's favorite leotard and danced around.  Look how happy she is.  She is so proud of herself.

 We had another great Valentine's Day.  I love decorating the table and filling the girl's special heart boxes with little treats.

 The girls requested crepes with strawberries and whipped cream again this year.  Sometimes I wish they would ask for something that is a little less time intensive but I love spoiling them on this holiday.  It is worth getting up a little earlier to make them happy.

 Don't they look happy and ready to eat.

 Lexi doesn't like crepes but she sure loves strawberries with whipped cream so that is what she got.

 Addison was ready to eat her delicious breakfast.

 That night we had an early candlelight dinner.  I love this tradition.

After our early dinner Ryan and I left to go on our Valentine's date.  We don't usually go out on Valentine's Day but when Ryan saw that ASU was playing U of A in Tempe he had to get tickets.  So he bought me this great Arizona basketball shirt and tickets to the game for my gift.  It was a good game and went in to double overtime.  Unfortunately U of A lost by 3 at the end.  ASU stormed the court because U of A was ranked #2 in the nation and they were excited to beat them.  It was a great date regardless of the ending.  Such a great Valentine's Day.

This past weekend was a warm one so the girls decided it would be fun to jump on the trampoline with the sprinklers underneath.  Their cousin Jaxon came over with his cousins that were visiting from Las Vegas and they joined in on the fun.

Peyton got her braces off back in November but she has had to wear her retainer night and day because of the peg tooth she has in front.  It is a very small tooth and will never be bigger than what it is now.  So we had to consult a dentist on what would be the best plan of action for the tooth.  Our 3 options were to do nothing and she would have to continue wearing her retainer night and day to keep her teeth straight and her spacing correct, we could build up the tooth with bonding stuff but most likely it would have pieces break off because it isn't very strong, or we could get her a veneer.  Well the best option was of course the most expensive option but in the end it would be worth it.  So yesterday she got her veneer put on.  Here she is before the veneer was put on.

 Here she is after the tooth was put on.  She loves it and is so happy that she will no longer have to wear her retainer night and day.  

I'm so excited that I am finally caught up on my blog.  It can be such a daunting task when you get so far behind.  Luckily Peyton hounded me enough to get me to continue on instead of just letting it go.

January 2014

January was a slower month which was nice since December was so busy.  The most exciting thing that happened was the opening of the Gilbert Temple.  We were able to go to a special open house for families who had helped build the temple.  The construction company my dad works for did all the steel support structure and so we were able to tour the temple and take our time to look at all of the details and look around anywhere we wanted to.  This was especially neat because on the normal tour there are only certain rooms you get to look at so we were lucky to see everything.  The temple is absolutely beautiful inside and outside.  My girls loved every minute of it and were excited to tour the temple 2 more times with friends we invited to see it.  I can't wait to go back and do temple work there.

We went to Joe's Crab Shack and enjoyed wearing bibs and eating messy food.

Our waitress wrote names on each of our bibs and she called Addi "little crabby".  She looked so cute in her bib.

Addison has been growing up so much lately and she loves to do what her older sister does.  One day we had a play date with our neighbor Brielle and the girls decided to get in dress up clothes just like their older sisters.  So cute.

December 2013

December was another busy month.  At the beginning of the month we went to Disneyland for the Ferrell cousin annual trip with Grandpa.  Alexis was so excited to be with her cousin Jane who lives in Minnesota.

After we all arrived in California we went to dinner at Outback.  The kids were all so excited.

Peyton absolutely loves (is obsessed with) Disneyland.  She can talk about it non stop if you let her.  She was excited to be able to hang out with Makenna and go on rides without any adults every once in a while.  Here she is with Makenna acting crazy.

Aunt Ashley, Hailey, Makenna, and Peyton on California Screamin.  They love this ride.

I was lucky enough to be able to ride Splash mountain with Lexi, Hailey, cousin Aurora, cousin Makenna, and Petyon.  I love how we all are raising our hands.

Peyton's favorite part of the 2 days we went to Disneyland and California Adventure was getting stuck on Indiana Jones.  They got to get off the ride and have a tour from the worker who showed them all of the cool stuff.  Here he is telling them the inside scoop.

Lexi and I spent a lot of time with Jane and AnnaMarie.  These two were just so happy to go on any rides and we pretty much went wherever they wanted to go (the older kids went off with Aunt Ashley and Uncle Dave to ride all of the faster rides).  Jane had never been to Disneyland and neither had AnnaMarie so it was fun to be with first timers.  Here we are on It's a Small World.

Lexi at Mickey's house.

Lexi and I on Dumbo.

Lexi wanted to get some new Mickey ears and this is what she chose.

We also went on Splash Mountain several times in a row since there was no line during the evening hours.  We stayed and watched the fireworks the last night and it was spectacular.  The girls loved it.  Thanks Grandpa Ferrell for another fantastic time at Disneyland.

You might be asking what Ryan and Addison were doing while I was at Disneyland with the 3 older girls.  Ryan pretty much hates Disneyland so he came to California with us but chose to stay at the hotel with Addison and hang out.  They went shopping at the mall and came back with lots of Christmas presents for all of us.  He also bought Addison these new warm pajamas.  I think she likes them.

After we got back from Disneyland we continued our yearly 24 days of Christmas.  We had a delicious candlelight dinner (Costa Vida).

We went and saw the temple lights at the Mesa temple.

Peyton had a fun sleepover at Grandma Ferrell's house with her cousin Makenna.  They found some old dresses and put them on and did their makeup and posed for pictures.

We had our Ferrell Family Christmas party in the middle of December and we always have a great time being with Ryan's family.  Aunt Ashley made up a fun present game along with a poem and it was so creative.  Here the girls are listening intently so they know what they are suppose to do.

Addison had a great time playing with toys and even allowed us to dress her up for her part as the multitude of angels in the nativity.

Lexi was the star.

Hailey was Mary.

Peyton was a sheep.

Here are the performers.

Then we played the bells and sang Christmas Carols.

To end the night Grandpa Ferrell did his money grab.  Addison got to participate for the first time this year.

Here is Lexi grabbing as much as she can.

Grandpa enjoyed trying to help the kids get their pile as high as they could.

Look at Peyton's smile.  I think she likes this game.

My old high school had a girls basketball alumni game to celebrate 20 years of Highland Lady Hawk basketball.  My varsity coaches still coach there and it was so great to see them and a lot of my old teammates.  Here I am with Mindy and Dana who graduated with me (we missed you Rachelle).  The game was a lot of fun but I had not played basketball in about 6 years so I was a little out of basketball shape.  I did score 6 points so I was pretty proud of myself.

Here is my great supportive family who came to cheer me on.  It was so fun to have them there.

Andrew and Michelle and their 3 kids came a week before Christmas and Rachael and Steve came a couple of days later.  It was so great to have all of my family in town for Christmas this year. Since Rachael and Steve got married in Salt Lake and then left to go to Wisconsin right after they didn't have a reception in Arizona after they got married.  So they decided to have a celebration when they came to visit over Christmas. We took a few family pictures before the party started.  Here are Rachael and Steve with all the grandkids.

The whole Cardon family.

 Our little family.  These are the outfits we wore to her wedding in October but I never got a picture since it was raining the whole day.  I loved the colors Rachael chose.

 Ryan took Brian, Steve, and Noah shooting (my Dad came for a few minutes to watch).

We had the family over to our house to eat dinner and to make gingerbread houses.

Aunt Rachael was so nice to help Lexi with hers.

Since everyone was in town for Christmas my mom decided it would be a good idea to get a family picture taken.  We had one taken about 4 years ago but since then we have added 2 spouses and 6 grandchildren so we needed to update it.

While we waited for the picture to be taken Ryan took a picture of each of our girls.

Addison

Alexis

Hailey

Peyton

Here is our little family.

The original Cardon Family

My siblings

The originals and their spouses.

The whole family.

Grandma and Grandpa with the grandkids.

On Christmas Eve we went to my cousin Nicole's house for the Cardon Family party.

We ate dinner, talked, acted out the nativity, sang Christmas Carols, and Nicole passed out our traditional gifts for the great-grandkids.  We had a fantastic time.

Christmas Morning

The girls were so excited to see what presents were in store for them under the Christmas tree.

First they had to take a picture before they could open their stocking.

I forgot to take a picture of them in front of the tree before we opened presents so we took one after.

Addison loved the applesauce and teddy grahams she got in her stocking the most.

Lexi loved everything she got.

Hailey loved everything she got also.

It was a great Christmas.

Saying goodbye to Aunt Rachael and Uncle Steve.  I wish they lived closer.