Anniversary Party

 Laura, Grace and I put on a celebration of our parents' anniversaries last weekend. Ed and Judy celebrated their 45th and my parents their 40th! Sorry about the dim pictures- Christian had to take the pictures without a flash due to migraine sufferers in attendance.

 In our church's fireside room (fireside not pictured) :)

 Faith and Gary came up!

Surprise!

 Not sure what I was saying...

 The three dads, probably watching the lights fall off the ceiling. The Millers were our adopted parents when the Youngs and Vaughans were out of town- and were instrumental in my and Christian's getting together. 

  Sisters!

The three moms

 For future reference, packing tape doesn't hold lights onto ceilings very well..

 Ya serving up the bubbly

 Watching the slideshows... I can't put the Vaughans' one up since it's a huge file and I have slow internet! But you can check out the Youngs' one on Grace's blog.

  Andy somehow managed to avoid the camera very well, but he was there with his lovely wifey! And he made some great coffee, of course. :)

And I had to include Kale'a hamming it up at her daddy's birthday party. :)

That's Amore!

"When the moon hits the sky..." Christian was tinkering with the new lens (purchased in preparation for a wedding he's shooting soon)... I'm impressed, anyway. :)

Zoo!

It's been more than three years since we've been to the zoo, so Grace got a bunch of us to all go together- 16 in all, I believe? And we actually had a 1:1 ratio of adults to kids, which was REALLY nice for me considering 5 of the 8 kids were mine! Our old school buddies (Jeff, from ICA and SWC and Adele from SWC) came up with their little girl to hang out, too- so that was extra fun; besides having Marmie/Boppa and Auntie Faith- all of whom have been overseas the last few years!

 E wrestled this komodo dragon down...

 Somebody got a little carried away with their food...

 Auntie Beef and Marmie with reluctant twins

 Boppa and the older kids enjoying a break

 Cute squirrel monkeys (I wonder why it's not "monkies"?)

 Judah was such a good boy!!!

 Ahhh...this is the life!

 "You talkin' to me?"

 Auntie Faith was very brave to let Elijah use her camera!

 Yee-haw

 Tirzah was very suspicious all day, telling the animals to go away. :)

 Berea enjoyed it a little more.

 Cutie Anna

 Auntie Grace, etc. up in the crow's nest scoping out the savannah

"Are you sure that glass is really going to keep the animals away from me???"

 The bigger kids loved the carousal. The littles, not so much.

Fun day! Thanks, fam., for all your help!!!

Brrr!

Here are a few pictures from the snowfall last weekend...and which is still on the ground due to the crazy cold we've been having! Not like South Dakota cold, but pretty darn cold for Arizona! We've been seeing the negatives every night for the last 5 days and not getting above freezing during the day. Today's supposed to warm up a little though! We've lost three chickens. Literally. I went in there one day and they were just gone- no trace of animal footprints or anything. Looks like we'll get to get new chickies in the Spring! Of the rest of the chickens, at least one of them got pretty severe frostbite and the tips of her comb are blackened and shrivelling. :( Poor chickie. Yesterday Christian put up some insulation in there and we got a new heat lamp bulb, so they should be ok from now on. Their water still froze, though. Brr. Anyway, without further ado, here are the pictures...

 0-sugar popsicles! :)

Our little norse-baby :)

Oh, come January we'll be getting to know the orthodontist quite well! In the meantime, catching snowflakes is still fun.