A Christmas Story

We have enjoyed such a wonderful Christmas season this year! So many fun parties, binging on fantastic treats, reading Christmas cards and singing carols. I'm sad that it is coming to a conclusion soon.

To further our Christmas celebrations, we were able to attend the baptism of Zac Lorenzen. The husband of my friend JJ. They were married in September. It was such an incredible day. Zac is an amazing individual who found out for himself that he wanted to become a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He didn't do it for JJ. He didn't do it for his son Alexander. He did it for himself. A true conversion and a beautiful way for us to celebrate the Christmas season. True joy and happiness comes from a life lived close to the Savior, and Zac has shown this to be true. He is such an example to all of us.

We're trying to get as much wear out of Emma's Christmas dress as possible... but I didn't intend for it to turn into a yoga outfit.

Last night we celebrated Christmas with the Adams Family. We will not be together on Christmas Day, so we partied it up last night. Such a great evening!

Cousins Taytum (Kurt's oldest) and Emma. They were "riding a train" together.

Here is Greg's Mom sharing the Nativity story with the family. She is laughing because she had just mistakenly said that Jesus was having a baby in a manger. Oops. We had to remind her it was actually Mary who was pregnant with Jesus. :) We'll have to work with her on her fact checks before she starts teaching the grandkids any more Bible stories.

We had fun playing a white elephant gift exchange and just being together.

We had Cafe Rio style dinner and it was YUMMY YUM YUM!! Tara made a gorgeous cake in the shape of a gift that was also fantastic. Wish I would have taken a picture, it was so pretty. Here is the crew (minus Greg taking the pic). We're also missing Jamie and Gina who live in Texas. Boo Hoo. We'll get to see them soon though!! YAHOO.

Greg's parents really out did themselves with some amazing gifts for this kids this year. Below are the little towns that Linda created. Emma's town includes Kiwanis Park, Greg's downtown area and most frequented court house, Tempe Arts Center (where my symphony rehearses and performs), the Mesa Temple, and LDS church, Cafe Rio and lots of others cute little city buildings. The kids can then race their cars all over them and Emma is in HEAVEN!

Greg's Dad created these awesome "corn hole" games for each of the kids, and included little bean bag animals for them to use to throw. Emma has been playing non-stop since she got it home. So much hard work went into both of these gifts and I just love homemade treasures that will be played with for years to come. I also love that they will keep Emma busy for HOURS. :)

Ray and Linda bought Emma lots of other cute toys, clothes and books. I guess she loves her little doll so much that she'd prefer for her to be in the picture. :) She would not go to bed without her new little friend last night. This brings her sleeping buddies to THREE and TWO blankets. This total does not include the occasional car or airplane that sneaks in when Emma is really laying the PLEASES on thick.

Thank you Adams Family for a wonderful Christmas filled evening!!

The Kyrene Ward Choir Christmas Miracle

I've heard rumors of "Christmas Miracles" in the past. I've read books about them, and seen touching movies regarding them. But, never in my 31 years of Christmas have I experienced one of my own.

I am the choir director of the Kyrene Ward Choir. I have had this calling for a few years and have made some silly, stress-induced mistakes through my tenure. This morning was my biggest.

The choir was to sing "Good Christian Men Rejoice" as the opening piece for our Christmas program. The men begin ACAPPELA and a measure later the piano and flute join them. I stood up, checked with the instrumentalists to make sure they were ready and had the choir stand (which I have forgotten in performances past). I generally give them men a few empty measures of conducting before they are to come in, so that they can see and feel the tempo, this I also did.

What I forgot to do was request the STARTING PITCH from the pianist so that the men would know their note. And here is the miracle of it all: the men not only started singing at the right time, but they started singing on the RIGHT PITCH. All of them.

For those of you non-musical types... an entire choir of men pulling a note out of thin air ALL TOGETHER is impossible. The Mormon Tabernacle couldn't do it. Nobody could do it. But this morning, dear friends, my ward choir had the "singing angels of perfect pitch" with them and saved our performance.

I laughed through the entire first page of our performance because I couldn't believe I had forgotten to give their note and then MORE, I couldn't believe they had actually sung the right pitch.

Thank you Christmas Miracle.

"Emma Do It!"

Emma is now 23 months old - turning 2 in less than a month - and her independent spirit is starting to shine through. The phrase we hear more than any other is "Emma do it." Generally, I'm OK letting her do things on her own, unless it involves knives, scissors, elicit drugs/alcohol (which we stash in TONS around the house) :) - or I am in a HUGE hurry.

This darling little outfit was an early Christmas gift from her Aunt Laura! Isn't that head band adorable? Thank you Laura!

Emma now insists on putting her own shoes on. Some shoes are easier than others. She gets very frustrated when they don't go on properly and will then turn desperately to me for assistance. "Mommy Help!"

Emma is still a Daddy's girl. She prefers him over me 98% of the time. I think it is really cute, until this most recent round of morning activity. The last week I have gone to get her in the morning, when she promptly looks up at me and says "Daddy, hold you." When I break the news that Daddy is already at work (like every other BLASTED morning of her life) she breaks out into fits of screaming and crying. When I ask if Mommy can hold her, she violently retorts, "NO! Daddy hold you." She then refuses to leave her crib. Honest. I try to grab her and she squirms away and pleads to stay. Yesterday she told me to "shut the door" after in exasperation I told her I was gonna go continue getting ready until she wanted to get out of her crib. She was please as punch to stay in the crib and asked me to hand her some books to read. She seriously stayed there for almost 30 minutes - until she finally got bored and asked me to change her diaper.

We finally got some new family pictures taken - so the following five are for your viewing delight.

Emma has been terrified of Santa this year. We've tried three times to get her to sit on his lap and had fits of rage every time. She is so scared she shakes. It's so strange to me, because this is the social child of the year who talks and hugs everyone. When she sees pictures of him on TV or in books she always says, "Santa so nice." but in real life she goes NUTSO.

Emma has found her second half in the form of a pink purse given to her by our best family friends growing up - the Kearls. It does not leave her arm and multiple times a day, she opens the back door (purse in tote) and informs me that she is either going to "symphony, work, church or to play her violin at church." Can you tell what our lives involve? HA!

Emma is very amazing with names. She remembers everybody. Her favorite activity in church is to stand backwards in the pew, and start making "shout outs" to her friends in the middle of the meeting. "Hi Amber! Hi Aaron! Hi Whitney!" She seriously must have yelled out a dozen last week alone.

She has also taken to calling us "Greg and Tammy". In fact, just this morning I heard her sweet little voice calling out, "Tammy... where are you?? Tammy..." I think it is adorable, but Greg continually reminds her that his name is Daddy. Such a stick in the mud that Greg. :)

My Aunt Sharron's dog is named Maggie. As a nickname I will sometimes refer to her as "Magaliscious". Emma heard me say it one day and then literally THREE hours later, awoke from her nap and starting calling out, "Magawishuss! Magawishuss!" Now almost anytime we go to Sharron's, Emma will call her Magawishuss. So funny.

She has now started to refer to herself in the first person using "I" correctly. And has started to form basic sentences, usually involving something "pretty". On the way home from church last week we asked her if she had a good time in nursery, which she promptly replied, "I sing. Pretty song". Today when we put on her new dress she ran to the mirror and said "I like pretty dress!" It is so fun to see her little vocabulary flourish.

She loves to do things as a family and if the three of us our all home together (which unfortunately is not very often) - she insists that all three of us do the same activity. If she and Daddy are playing with blocks or reading a book or dancing, within minutes she will come find me in the house and request that I join them. "Mommy play blocks. Mommy read book. Mommy dance." She especially loves family prayer time and has taken a new affection to kneeling. She now wants to kneel for every prayer and it's hard to explain to her that we don't really do that.

She still LOVES singing and is singing some kind of song most of the day. She has really loved all the holiday music and her two favorites are "Jingle Bells" (which she really loves because of the HEY! at the end) and "Caroling Caroling" (which she loves for the stanza "DING DONG DING DONG Christmas Bells are Ringing"!). She has also fallen in love with the claymation movie of "Rudolph". She asks for it every day and when we heard the Burl Ives rendition of "Rudolph" on the radio yesterday she about lept out of her car seat and begged me to play it again. How do you explain the radio to a toddler? Can't really repeat it honey cakes.

Her memory never ceases to amaze me. I left my purse at a CVS about 6 weeks ago. I noticed it was missing about 1/2 mile down the road and promptly turned around telling Emma "Mommy forgot her purse". When we returned to that same store SIX WEEKS later... Emma promptly turned to me and said, "Mommy, purse go?"

We are so excited to celebrate Christmas with her this year!! She is at such a fun age and loves opening presents for her! What a darling little angel we have in our home.

Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas!

Sure. We picked out our very own LIVE tree... and hauled it all the way from the selection area to our car. It was straight from a Hallmark Christmas TV Special.

Sure the ground was not snow covered and well, we may have pulled it across a mere 50 feet of parking lot to get to our car. But, we had TONS of Christmas Spirit while doing it. Does that count for anything?

Thanks Home Depot.

And yes, I am Mrs. Scrooge McTree. I don't like anything homemade or sentimental on my tree. I just like it to look like a Christmas catalog. I get it. I'm missing the point. But guess what? Don't care. Still like my picture perfect tree. Some day when we are rich and famous Greg has made me promise that we will have a "his and her" tree set. His will have all the homemade love a tree can handle and mine will not. I think that is an appropriate compromise. Until that time however, I win. No shocker for anyway who knows my hubby and knows that he is quite possible the nicest most accommodating guy on the planet.

Greg looks a little frazzled here because we had been trying for the last 5 minutes to get Emma to smile for the stupid camera. What is her problem anyway?

Merry Christmas everyone! What are some of your holiday time traditions leading up to Christmas? I'm ready to steal them if you don't mind.

Thanksgivingaganza!

WHEW! I'm exhausted after simply uploading all these pictures from my family's Thanksgiving-ORAMA! Hope you took your Valium today, cause you're gonna need it after reading of all our festivities.

My ENTIRE immediate family gathered in Arizona for a Thanksgiving to remember. To say we had a good time, would be a gross understatement.

From first person arrived, to last person gone we had the fam here for almost two weeks. It was fantastic to have them around for so much time and we were so grateful for their sacrifice to travel. Although, I must say that our weather proved to be a VERY nice perk for the gathering location.

One of our first trips was to the Phoenix Zoo. I have been dozens of times, but each time I find something new, and each time Emma has a thrilling time. It's as if she is seeing all the animals again for the first time. Either she is full of youthful enthusiasm, or has the memory of a brick.

Emma and Aliya both LOVE their Uncle Glen, and literally followed him around like little shadows. We heard all week from little mouths... "Nen, Nen... Are You?"

My Mom is a wonderful "project" task master and helped my Grandparents refinish their patio. Here is my 80-something-year-old Grandpa doing all of the hard work, while my younger parents supervise. WHA?

Matt & Corinda are expecting Baby Boy in May and may land in some crazy foreign land due to an upcoming work venture... so it was nice to spend some quality time with them and precious Aliya before they become natives of Zimbabwe/Mongolia/Ozarks/etc...

Aliya was always so kind to share just about everything in her possession with Emma. And ahem, well, I wish I could say the same for my daughter. Sure, she screams "SHARE" plenty of times a day, but only while she is quickly hoarding all of the toys in sight so that everyone can "SHARE" with her. I think she is missing the concept. We'll keep working. Hopefully, some of Aliya's sweet disposition rubbed off on her more selfish cousin.

The girls got plenty of quality time with Grandma and Grandpa Krebs. I decided it was REALLY nice having them here in Arizona, where they were free from all of their "normal activities" that usually consume time while we are visiting in Kentucky.

And can I say what wonderfully interactive grandparents they are? How many grandparents would get on a swing set for hours? Emma is a lucky lucky girl. Just look at her smile below and it says it all.

Thanksgiving Day was an incredible whirlwind of activities and food. We started the day at 4am with the Triathlon (see previous post)... and ended that evening at 9pm... with no break. The Thanksgiving meal was generously hosted by my Aunt Sharron, who has the PERFECT yard for hosting an outdoor Arizona Thanksgiving FEAST. We had a group of 38 people, including my Mom's family, my immediate family, missionaries, friends from the ward, and JJ, Zac and Alexander (pictured below).

What would Thanksgiving Day be without some "Turkey Wrestling"? Everyone pile on Glen!!

After the meal we sat around a shared things that we are grateful for. Many touching sentiments shared.

Grandma and Grandpa at the Thanksgiving meal. Boy are we grateful for these two love birds and their tremendous example or work ethic and testimony of our Savior.

The evening of Thanksgiving we had a wonderfully yummy dinner with Greg's family. Kurt and Tara hosted and we had a great time. Unfortunately, we had so much fun that I forgot my camera and did not capture anything on film. They have recently renovated their backyard and after we ate, we gathered around a fire pit and talked. So nice to have family around so close.

The day after Thanksgiving, we started with the traditional Krebs Family Olympics. We generally hold these on New Years Eve, but as we will not be together for Christmas, we held them early. The Olympics included an intense game of Ultimate Frisbee...

Check out the little guy on the ground. Not a one of us missed out on the action. There are just some that "jump" higher than others.

Let me tell you. The Krebs Boys play some serious frisbee. Laura and I just run from end to end screaming "we're open! we're open" - and then drop the frisbee if any team member is dumb enough to take us up on our offer. Oh well. It's fun to be a part of the fun anyway.

Tyler with Cheetos hands and face. Don't think Greg would have put him on his shoulders had he know that he was about to get smothered in orange preservatives. Oh well. Cute picture anyway.

We started the Olympic Games with our first annual Krebs Family 5K. Let me tell you, after completing a triathlon the day before, Greg and I were hurtin' for certain and a little slower than our normal time. We weren't last though - I won't say who was - but it wasn't us. :) Here is the group shot after the run. On an interesting note, my brother John took First Place, and was running BARE FOOT. Dude forgot his running shoes and decided to run anyway. And he still beat us all. JERK. And another interesting tid bit is that GIRLS RULE - because Ashlee and I both beat our husbands!! WOOT WOOT!!!!

Emma and Uncle Matt enjoying some chips and dip after the Olympic Games.

The girls competed in a swing-off. Not sure who took the Gold.

Friday evening the adults in the family did sealings in the Mesa LDS Temple. It was a wonderful experience to be in the Temple together. Jeff & Ashlee were celebrating their 5th Wedding Anniversary, so it was neat for them to be reminded of their covenants made 5 years prior. Can you believe Ashlee has put up with ESPN for 5 whole years? YOWEEE.

Saturday morning we took family pictures and then had our closing meal at Rosa's before the Kentucky gang piled in the van and hit the road. So sad to see some of them leave, but so grateful that we had the time together that we did. Luckily we still had Corinda, Aliya, Ashlee and the boys around for a few more days. So the fun ensued... we went to see the Christmas Lights at the Temple followed by some DQ treats.

Emma and Aliya continued the fun - and their favorite toy of the week? A box. Go figure. Emma really was enjoying herself here, she just generally refuses to smile for the camera. Stubborn little thing.

Emma loving on Tyler. The whole family calls him "Ty-Ty" and Emma insists on calling him TYLER. Every time. She is very proper that way. :)

We enjoyed a FANTASTIC day at the Mesa Youth Museum. Such a wonderful little place. Would highly recommend it to people with YOUNG children. We got all our tickets free using a Culture Pass from the Library. Even better. I love that Emma and Ty are both plugging their ears for some unknown reason. Alex and Ben were probably screaming too loud. :)

Emma got her first HUGE scrape on her lip over the all the festivities. Tripped and landed on concrete. Left a really large sore for days. Poor thing.

The kids enjoying the park.

WOW! If you made it to the end... congrats! We really are so blessed with so much wonderful family and are so grateful that we could enjoy Thanksgiving with them.