Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve Hike

Every year we hike Camelback Mountain around Christmas time.  Every year someone hauls up a Christmas tree up at the top.  This year I made an ornament.  Here are some pictures.  Enjoy!

Christmas Eve Eve

great food + lots of laughter + a Christmas message + family & friends = BLISS

fruit, chile rice, spinach artichoke dip with bread and chips, hummus platter, dad's amazing beans

 claire's lemonade

 elliot and ray making plantains 

 lucy

 anabelle and sammy

 whitney and lucy

 mom, lucy, and elliot

whitney and elliot's homemade churros

a gift from the heart

As a teacher I get several gifts before the Winter Break.  Things like lotions, gift cards, books, ornaments, etc.  The students really like watching me open their gifts and I try to make them feel as special as possible.  For example if they gave me a scented candle I would have the kids smell it and comment of how nice it smells.  

This year my students did something I've never had happen before.  

They secretly signed it, passed it around, 

and left it on my desk!  

I'm the luckiest teacher ever!

my FRAME tree

This has been in my files for a very long time.

Today I created this:

Enjoy!

Update

Her are some pictures of what I've been up to.  I'll post the other when I get a chance.  Today Dad and I spent the afternoon in downtown Tempe at the Tempe Art Festival.  It was so much fun!  There were tons of people.  Dad and I shared a Tornado Fry (pictured).

 Beautiful Arizona sunset!

A new Farmer's Market on Warner and McClintock.  Saturday mornings!

Here are a few pictures of Thanksgiving.  After our meal we had a Nerf gun battle in the backyard!  Highly recommended!

I had a great Thanksgiving Break!  More pictures to come!

Funny Friday

            So I may not get things right off the bat but at least they come.  I am not really sure when this started but in high school one of my teachers always cracked jokes and about 10 seconds (it was more like 5) I would always be laughing.  The jokes were really corny too. 
            Yesterday I had playground duty and many students come up to say hi.  This incident came from a couple of students I didn't know.  They were probably in second grade. They came up to me while we were all lining up after the morning bell and said

“You’re number one!”

            I was so touched and thought, "That's so sweet."
            You can imagine my amazement when another student came up to me and said the same thing.  I thought, "Wow, I am number one."
            Just as the second student walked away it dawned on me.  For the Book Fair we had our pictures taken with a mask and the students had to guess the picture with the correct teacher.  Guess which number was mine!  Yep, number one.

Patience

I didn't get a chance to share this in Relief Society today so I wanted to share it here on my blog.  I love this quote so much I wrote it in my scriptures.

An Invitation to Know the Savior

“What does it mean to seek the face of the Savior? Surely it means more than just recognizing His picture. Christ’s invitation to seek Him is an invitation to know who He is, what He has done for us, and what He has asked us to do. Coming to Christ, and eventually seeing His face, comes only as we draw close to Him through our faith and our actions. It comes through a lifetime of effort.”

Cheryl C. Lant, “That Our Children Might See the Face of the Savior,” Ensign, May 2010, 81

Artwork by Del Parson

Lunch Date with Dad

The kids, plus Stella minus Lucy (she was with Whitney), Mom, and I went onto Dad's office to visit and have lunch at Aunt Chilada's.  After lunch Mom and the kids and I headed over to Smeek's.  It was awesome!  When we got home we played around the house. The kids are now watching TMNT!  What a wonderful day! Here are some pictures I took with my BIG camera.  I used my lens 50mm.  Enjoy!

George, Ray, and Stella up in a tree.

The kids at Aunt Chilada's.

By the Dibble Engineering truck.

By the really BIG fountain.

Smeeks

Sugar Bowl Again!

I know I've blogged about the Sugar Bowl many times but it's one of our favorite places.  We went today and we had the whole back part to ourselves.  It was wonderful!  Here is a collage I made of some pictures I took:

As I was walking to the cars I glanced down and saw this:

I would say this day was a success! Don't you?

Dibble Vacation

The continuing adventures at Grandma Dibble's.  I promise we are not going to spend our whole vacation in our pj's, but today was another on of those days (and to be honest I loved it).  

George and Claire made a slide out of the sleeping bags.  

The kids also got all of my dog stuff animals and played Pet Store.  

Anabelle and Claire cleaned around the house.  

Claire helped me put pictures in the frames in my room (that's been on my to do list for a long time).  

We had McDonald's for lunch, Panda Express for dinner, followed by an evening showing of Babe (one of Grandpa's favorites).  

Tomorrow we have plans to leave the house and not just to get the mail.