'Tis the Season to be Jolly!

We finally made it to Utah!! 

After a 20 hour drive, we made it. It was hard, but not as bad as I thought. We had pretty good weather throughout the drive, and we were so excited when we made it to Moab! We knew we were getting close, then!

The beautiful mountains in Spanish Fork Canyon

What we weren't ready for was the cold!!! We left TX and it was 80*. It was in the low teens the whole 3 weeks we were in Utah!

Here are some highlights from the trip.

Seeing some of my favorite people in the world. Grandma and Grandpa Harmon. I am so blessed to have these two wonderful people in my life!

Cute little TJ!!!! First time to see this sweet boy!!!

The kids could not wait to be with "the cousins"!! I love this little boy!!

Making gingerbread boys with the cousins at Grandma's house!

This little girl is so sweet and precious. She talks like a little, tiny mouse. Her voice is so, so high. It's so cute. She was a little shy, at first, to come and play and be friends with me. Then when she realized I was connected to Connor, Makenna, and McKay, she was my friend! The ended up calling me and Makenna both, "McCami". It was so cute! Love this little thing!

My one and only sister!!!!

Love this cute little TJ! We got to be good friends while we were there!

The only drinking we'll ever see at our house! Martinelli's sparkling apple cider!

Happy New Year!!!  So much more fun to celebrate with cousins!!

One of McKay's Christmas presents was to have an art session with my fabulous Uncle, Kirt. He is my mom's older brother and is a wonderful, talented painter. McKay LOVES art and loves to paint, so this was like a dream come true, for him! He was so excited to spend some time with him, to paint in a real studio and to have a masterpiece!

Here they are before the session

We left them and went to run some errands. A few hours later we came back and I asked how it went. Kirt said, "It was good. We made some mistakes, but we learned from them. Right, McKay?" McKay looked a little sad and I said, "It's ok, buddy. Learning to be a painter like Uncle Kirt takes time and a lot of practice. This was a great experience for you, so don't feel bad if it doesn't look just like his!"

Kirt asked, "Well, do you want to come see what we did?" He took us downstairs to his studio and this is what we saw:

That is a picture McKay painted! Yes, McKay did that. Can you believe it?

I was shocked, to say the least!!! Kirt had his easel and canvas and showed McKay what to do. McKay mimicked him, and this was the finished product! I couldn't believe it. 

We definitely have a budding artist in our family! 

Thanks, Kirt!

Connor said he was going to miss the snow so much. Brett dared him to stick his face in it and he did!

The beautiful view from my parent's deck. You can see Saratoga if you look carefully!

Christmas at Grandma's House!

What a fun Christmas!!!

This year we got to spend Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa's house!! 

In Utah.

With SNOW!!

I remember one year when I was 10 or 11, we went to my grandparent's house in California for Christmas. It seemed like it was the best Christmas ever! I remember getting a Cabbage Patch Doll that year. That holiday is one of my favorite memories!!

Now that I'm the parent, I realize just how hard it is to pull off a "destination" Christmas. It was a lot of work, but sure worth it!

This is the classic "waiting-to-see-what-Santa-brought-us" picture!! There are several of these same style pictures that were taken of me and my siblings throughout the years. Priceless!

Pure excitement and joy on these happy sleepy-eyed faces! Love that photo bomber in the back!!!

That night, McKay left Santa a note with some cookies. Santa even signed, "Yummy!" back. Love these believing kids!

Makenna was so excited to get her Utah necklace

Connor opening something super exciting!!!

McKay was super thrilled about these "night-vision" goggles

We are probably the last family on the block to get one of these, hence the super suprised looks on the kids faces!

You can also see Kenna in her snuggy here

Something funny that happened with this present: We found a guy on Craigslist that was selling an old Wii with a bunch of really cool games and some controllers. We had already bought this new Wii, but decided to buy the old one with all the cool games. The cost of the whole package was less than the games would cost to buy by themselves. 

We met the guy and picked up our "package". I had it all set out, ready to wrap while the kids were at school. Well, I got a little distracted and did not get to wrapping the presents. And I also forgot that they were all sitting out. So, you can guess what happened: the kids saw the Wii and the games out. I was thinking inside my mind, "Stupid Rush!!!!!!" (A thing Brett's dad likes to say to himself when he's done something stupid. And that would be me at that time!!!)

Luckily, Brett is a little quicker on his feet than I am and said, "Oh, well we didn't want to show you guys this present because we thought it might make you jealous. But now that you've seen it, I guess it's ok to tell you about it. We bought this Wii and games off the internet for a family that we are doing a Sub-for-Santa for." 

The kids bought it. Phew!

They were disappointed it wouldn't be ours, but understood that since we were going to Utah, that was our main present.

Hence, the total EXCITEMENT!

Merry Christmas!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

This time of the year is my absolute favorite. There is just something magical about Christmas time. 

My visiting teachers understand that. 

One of my visiting teachers, Raelynn Garcia, is the best example of a visiting teacher I know of. She is caring, kind, loving and always doing something for me or my family.

In December, she brought over all the supplies to make homemade gingerbread houses! And when I say ALL the supplies, I mean ALL!!!

This was the real deal!

She designed a template, made the dough, cut the dough out to match the template, baked the dough, and brought the finished pieces over to our house.

She brought homemade frosting.

She brought every kind of candy you could think of to decorate the houses!

The kids were in heaven!

Kenna and her house

Mickey and his house

One of my favorite things of all time: Decorating the TREE!!

Yes, both boys are wearing shorts in December! Gotta love Texas weather!

Gigantic snowflake we copied from Pinterest

McKay wrote two letters to Santa because he lost his first one. Then he ended up finding the first one, of course! So he sent both!

I love how he says, "I've been trying to be good, but it's been a little hard."

This is a mural McKay made for Grandma Bell for Christmas. He got a frame for it and everything. He was so proud!

Happy Halloween!

I am going to begin this post with a very cute picture and end it with a very disturbing one!!! You'll see, trust me!

In Texas, you can't wear your Halloween costume to school. So, we had to do SOMETHING to celebrate this fun holiday!

Here's the cute face to go with a really fun hair-do!

Its a spider hair-do!!!! Makenna loved this and so did all her friends!

The day before Halloween, our ward had a Halloween party! (We also added a new member to our family!! But more on that later!)

We are so grateful for our ward family here in Texas. We feel so blessed to have many great people to associate with and celebrate fun holidays with! 

Here is Connor as a Mad Scientist. Sometimes he really fits the part! 

Kenna as Hermoine

McKay as, you guessed it, Harry Potter!

For the actual day of Halloween, Connor wanted to change things up a bit. He decided to go as a medieval warrior with a scruffy beard!

Kenna really rocks the Hermoine hair-do.

Connor playing the part of warrior well. That is a real sword, by the way. A present from Uncle Mike.

McKay as Harry Potter. This boy loves ALL things Harry Potter. Ask him any question, and he will know the answer!

Good Hermoine pose, no?

And here is the latest addition to our family: Ladybird. Yes, that is her full name. She is a true Texas dog named after Ladybird Johnson-- Lyndon B. Johnson's wife. She is a black lab mixed with something with big ears! It's been an adjustment, but we're happy to have her.

The kids just adore her

And here are the creepy pictures I promised. A really decked out Halloween house. The kids were petrified, but couldn't stay away! 

Here are the kids from the sidewalk. See that creepy figure in the background? That's an adult. He's dressed up as the Grim Reaper. He came over to the kids and asked them if they wanted to take a picture up close.

They were more brave than I would be!!!

Fall Means Back to School

After summer comes and school starts, my mind automatically shifts to fall. The changing colors of the leaves, the crispness in the air, school shopping, cooler nights, hoodies, football games, school supplies, holidays approaching. There is something magical about fall!

Well, here in San Antonio, we don't really have fall. It's a little bit sad. I keep waiting and waiting for the weather to cool down, but the temps continued to stay warm! I LONGED for just one cold night where I could wear a hoodie and sweat pants! It didn't happen! And most of the trees here are live oaks, which means they are green year round. It's beautiful, in it's own way, but my heart ached for many beautiful colors of fall.  

I was so thrilled to see this tree at the entrance to our neighborhood!! One of the only ones in our neighborhood to change colors!

Some of the only trees that change color in our neighborhood!

The kids were so excited for school to start this year!!! Here is Makenna in her favorite shirt! 

And here is her hair-do of choice! It sure needs practice!

 Here is McKay in his "Harry Potter" shirt. Such a cute smile!

 And here is my big boy, Connor-- ready to start 7th grade!!! Can't believe it!

He picked these clothes out from the store! He looks so handsome! 

Adieu to Summer!

Summer brought a new hobby for Brett!

ROAD BIKING!!!! Something I've been trying to get him to do for about 6 years, now!!!

He is a natural. This was after our first ride.

Our friends invited us out to Canyon Lake on their boat. We had a great time. I tried to pull a "Dan" (my dad) and hold on to the tube as long as I could no matter what. I did it for a good, long while. Mostly because the guy who was pulling me was being nice to begin with. But once he figured out what I was doing, he kicked it into high-gear and was trying to flip me. I held on, but got flipped pretty quick and landed on my back with my head first-- going with the momentum of the pull. I hurt my neck pretty good, but it was tons of fun. My neck still doesn't feel the same. Now I know why my dad gave up that practice a few years ago....

Even though my teeth look yellow and I have black, mascara eyes, this picture still makes my heart happy

Brett learning to drive the boat!

At the end of the summer, we decided it was time for another trip to the beach. We went with our good friends the Stephens and the Millers.

Look at the beautiful day we had!!!!

Something I learned about my friend, Cindi. She goes all out when she does something-- especially food! I could not believe the spread she brought to the beach! We were eating gourmet food at the beach! It was awesome. We had our measly snacks and foods we travel with, but Cindi insisted, and fed us all. We were very well taken care of!

Another thing I learned about Cindi and Chris is that they are very giving....with no thought of anything in return. Reminds me of one of my best friends, Maryam.

Makenna loved this sweet apple dip that Cindi made! She was eating it by the spoonful!! It was delicious!

Makenna and sweet Riley.

Enjoying the awesome water

It was so much fun, except for a horrible thing that happened involving this little boy.....(this was him sleeping on the way to the beach.) The thought of reliving this story has made me cringe, but I realize that someday I will be glad that I wrote it down.

Me and my wonderful, sweet friend, Cindi, were out in the water, enjoying the rolling waves and warm temperature. The kids (Makenna, McKay, and Riley) were all boogie boarding right near us, and would ride the waves in and them come back out to us. We were in water about up to our thighs, so about the kids tummies-- not too deep.  There was a strong wind that day that would blow the boogie boarders east, so we set up parameters: we told the kids they needed to stay between the big, blue umbrella and the big rainbow umbrella. If they got past that, they needed to walk back to where we were.

We were having a blast. The water was just wonderful. After about a half hour of catching waves, McKay said, "I'm getting a rash on my tummy. I'm going to go in and get my rash guard out of the car." I said, "OK." And watched him start to walk to shore.

Cindi and I and the two girls stayed out for around another hour, but during that time, McKay never came back. I just figured he got too tired or distracted by all the yummy food we had at the tent. Brett was up there with the other dads and kids. It was fine. The water was just so pleasant. After that hour, we decided to call it a day-- Cindi had a little baby up with her husband that was getting a little cranky, so we decided it was time.

As we approached our tent, I didn't see McKay. I asked Brett, "Where's McKay?" Brett said, "What do you mean? I thought he was with you?"

At this point my heart absolutely sank.

The worst feeling in the world.

I started to panic a little, but told myself to calm down. Maybe he was in the car??? He went to get his rash guard and fell asleep for a nap inside the car???? It was a long shot, but I ran up there.

No McKay.

Then I ran back and asked Brett, "When did you last see him?" Brett replied that  he hadn't seen him since we had gone out to boogie board.

Then I panicked.

In a matter of seconds, all sorts of scenarios ran through my mind: What had happened to him (either he was kidnapped or had drowned); where he was (being held hostage, washed away at sea; washed up on the beach); what he was feeling (sheer terror, panic, sadness, helplessness); how our lives would be without him (absolutely, utterly, bitterly empty).



I started to cry. I ran down the beach. I ran up the beach. I pleaded with God not to let him be dead or kidnapped. I begged him to let McKay be safe. Connor was trying to console me. Brett sprinted in every direction, trying to see if anyone had seen McKay. My friend, Cindi, waved down a guy in a golf cart. She asked him if he wouldn't mind driving us around to see if we could see or find him. Brett and Cindi's husband, Chris, took off with him. Before hopping on the golf cart, Brett sank to his knees and pleaded with God to help us find our sweet boy and to bless him with comfort. He said he felt a wave of peace wash over him and then he jumped into the golf cart.

All the while, I was not feeling peace. I was freaking out. I was paralyzed by my fear. I didn't know what to do. I had ran every direction within about a mile and no McKay anywhere. I felt helpless. I didn't know how to find my boy.

Cindi called 911. She gave the police his description. Soon, she was yelling at me, "IT'S OK!!!! THEY HAVE MCKAY! HE IS SAFE."

I ran over to her and grabbed the phone. They did have McKay. He had gotten lost walking back to our tent. They had had him in custody for about 1 hour. I was so relieved, but felt like the worst mom in the whole, wide world.

In about 10 minutes, the police brought my sweet, smiling, blonde boy back to me. I cried tears of joy and relief as I silently thanked Heavenly Father for keeping him safe. I smothered him with hugs and kisses and couldn't let go of him. I was so thankful he was there. With me. Alive. Happy.

Brett came shortly after and we all rejoiced. I was so grateful to have good friends there to help me through it and that McKay was safe. I cant imagine having to go through losing a child. It would be the absolute worst thing to have to endure. I don't know why my McKay was spared, and some are not, but it made me have more empathy for those who suffer from any loss.

It also made me want to cherish each day and moment I have with my sweet children and husband.