It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Monday Nov.30th was the day I got all our Christmas stuff out of the garage and got the house ready. I saved the tree for us all to do as a family for FHE that night.

Christmas is upon us and a New Year "2010" is approaching quickly... WOW, where has the time gone?

For FHE we decorated the tree.  It was a fun silly time where Christmas tunes were playing all while some goofed off here and there... Everyone was present except for little Joshua (who was under the weather and had gone to bed early after a rough day).  When he awoke the next day I told him we had a surprise to show him - a decorated Christmas tree!  At first he had that look of WHY is there a tree in our house?!  But that soon changed once he saw all the colorful and fun things on it...  I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the story.
Just for the record it took a full day of explaining and teaching before he left the tree alone...for today.

Ty adding a little decorating humor by turning Jt's Storm Trooper into an ornament!

It took a while before the Star Wars fanatic noticed that “HEY that’s MY Storm Trooper guy - DAD!!!”

  Let's decorate!

The kids busy decorating the tree...

Jonathan playing with the Tahiti scuba Santa ornament Mom & Dad gave us a few years back.  I have to add a little island touch, can't take the "island" out of the island girl.

Turkeys!!!

Our Thanksgiving was spent locally this year and it was good. Things didn’t work out to go to UT and now with my sister living in NZ our “every other Thanksgiving hosting” didn’t happen for obvious reasons. However it’s wonderful to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints - a ward family. A sweet family in our ward happily invited us to feast with them. A new Thanksgiving idea (Thanksgiving “kernels”), good company, good food and football makes a good day - a Happy Thanksgiving day!  It’s a Hampton (extended) family tradition to see a movie after Thanksgiving. I’ve never asked why but I’m assuming it’s the guys (there are just way too many boys in the Hampton home) way of making it up to the ladies for watching FOOTBALL most of the day...
Here is a lovely picture of us after Saturday’s viewing of Disney’s “Christmas Carol” in 3D (thus the “nerdy” glasses.) BTW great movie - a classic.
Joshua doesn’t want to be a part of this not so cool moment, I don’t blame him but hey it’s funny looking! Good thing everyone wears these beauties in the DARK!!!

In the Spirit of Thanksgiving

In the Spirit of Thanksgiving
One simple question:
“What are you thankful for?”
(click above to view this short message).

Scattering Sunshine.

"And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God."
                                                                        Mosiah 2:17 (The Book of Mormon.)

We are trying to teach our children to serve others weather it be a helping hand, encouraging words or just listening.  For FHE we made a list of things we can do as a family to bless the lives of others.  From the list we chose to brighten the day of children patients and their families.  Ty went to work on contacting a hosiptal then we all worked on making cards.  As parents we enjoyed watching them get creative and have fun doing this for complete strangers.  Here Tia is losing herself in cardmaking.  

  Thank you Miss Morgan H. for being so kind to our family and helping us teach our children to serve others in small ways.  We enjoyed seeing and giving the patients and their families our homemade cards. 

Here we are leaving the beautiful and colorful murals accompanied with uplifting quotes that adorn the halls of the UMC children’s hospital. 

Serving others puts a SMILE on faces and warms hearts...
it just makes you feel good!

We learnt that such a simple thing like a homemade card truly gives these kids a boost especially to the ones that are terminal.  Just the fact that someone out there is thinking of you is nice.  This simple activity also put things into perspective for our children.  We should be grateful for our good health, our healthy bodies and for the simple things in life that sometimes we take for granted.

The Tri

I’ll let Ty fill you in on his first Triathlon experience (see his blog soon).  Saturday November 6, 2009 was the date.
Casa Grande, AZ was the place.
We (the kids and I) were not present because of soccer games.  
But we were and are proud of him. 
GO Dad you did it!

Pumpkins, Hot cocoa and fun!

Yes, I’m on a roll here with my blog posts!  I have all these October drafts that need to be posted because what are we?  Like the end of November!!!  So sorry to my far far away family members - these posts will show you that we are well ALIVE...

Grandma's if you can't see just Click on the collage to enlarge.

Halloween in da' hood...

Trick or Treat?
Well we didn’t have a choice, we got smitten by the FLU (thank goodness it wasn’t the swine flu.)  The YMCA Halloween party was a week early and everyone was fine so I’m glad the kids were able to have some fun.  Little did we know that the following week was going to be “sicko week“.  Tia was the first and the worst - she missed 4 days of school.  We missed our ward trunk or treat for obvious reasons but we were able to get the kids out for the real deal a couple of days later.

Featuring:  Indiana Jones, Charlie Brown and the Tucson Cowgirl.

...cute little Charlie B.

Hand over the candy and nobody will get hurt!  Don't mess with her she has 2 revolvers!!

Go Indy!  Hold on to that hat.

Credits: Mom’s frugal thinking.

• Charlie Brown’s costume $2.50 (yellow tee from Michaels).
• Indiana Jones outfit $3.00 (hat .99c, kitchen towel transformed into a shoulder bag .99c. Construction belt transformed to hold Indy’s stuff .99c.)
• Cowgirl outfit $8.00 (like new cowgirl boots from Goodwill $5, top $3 from Twice as Nice).

TOTAL $13.50 to dress 3 kids for Halloween.  Now that’s a TREAT!

Halloween @ the YMCA

Superman, the army man and the soccer girl.

Joshua - ooh C A N D Y...hmmmm I think I would like the Kit Kat no wait may be a Snicker...

Tia helping Superman with the bean bag toss.

Army man Jonathan checking out the fire truck.

Meet "Rocky Tank".

This is our latest addition a desert tortoise. We heard from some friends that you can adopt a desert tortoise from the museum - the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum to be precise. When the kids heard all about it they were very interested in the idea of having a new pet and we (parents) loved the idea that it was going to be a free pet and a low maintenance one too.  (Let’s be real here, you know what I’m talking about, when kids have a pet or pets who does most of the pet chores? Us).
Anyway the process of adopting a desert tortoise is fairly simple.  You call the museum, they will send you some info, they come inspect your yard (the tortoise’s future home), if you pass their requirements then they will contact you to set up a date/time for you to come pick up your “new pet.”
Now in regards to our tortoise’s interesting name, that’s simple.  Tia wanted “Rocky” and Jonathan wanted “Tank” so in order to maintain peace and harmony in the home the tortoise was named “Rocky Tank”.
Rocky Tank was adopted Oct. 23, 2009.

Leaving the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.

Joshua welcoming and petting Rocky Tank in our back yard - his new home.

Eating as much as he can...because guess what?  He has to go into hibernation.

A day at the museum...

...Here we are opening the door to further knowledge and appreciation of the diverse wildlife of the world (btw what a beautiful door design, very inviting).  For a local museum it was pretty good.  This was our first time visiting this particular museum - thanks Tia and Jonathan for the library coupons and thanks Dad for spending your day off with us.  The kids enjoyed learning a little, touching and seeing a few animals up close with out the fear of getting chased and eaten! It was amazing to see a large variety of God’s creatures all in one building.  If you are ever in our neck of the woods come check out the International Wildlife Museum, it’s a great place to be especially when it’s HOT outside.

Sshhhh...what to do when children misbehave?  Feed them to a crocodile.


Our 3 stinky ferrets!

I love how Joshua is not sure about that elk...

 

The Desert speaks:

Here a few pictures from a Sunday stroll in the desert:

Soccer:

I failed to mention that Jonathan is in soccer this year (a first).  He has waited (and Dad too) a long long long time for this day to come - time to own some soccer gear, learn and play - hooray!
Prior to starting the season Ty gave our kids especially Johnny boy a lesson on sportsmanship.  Then of course we had to play some soccer!  At first it was the classic boys against girls which then evolved into kids against parents...good thing we had that lesson on "Sportsmanship"!  We sure had a fun time in our backyard that night.  As we come to the end of this soccer season, it‘s been fun watching our Johnny boy learn and enjoy the game of soccer.

These pictures were taken the first day of soccer:



Our Saturday soccer players #2 and #8.

What Matters Most.

...spend time with, cherish, and express love to the people we hold dear.  To view this inspiring message just click on the yellow title above "What Matters Most".
E N J O Y!

We have a ONE year old in the house.

I'm behind on my blog posts but we celebrated our last birthday of the year:  Joshua turned ONE - August 14th.  We had a wonderful time as a family.  Out of our two boys, Joshua is the calmer one and the cuddliest too.  I love that in his eyes mommy makes everything better.  One day at church a friend extended her arms to hold him and he just slowly turned his head away and held tight.  My friend was ok with that and said he acted like a baby Koala.  Her description was perfect.  Below you'll see our cute little ONE year old in action.

Mommy couldn't find our 1st year banner so she had Tia and Jonathan make one just for me.

My family blew up all these balloons for me to play with.  Awesome!

Grandma "Snow" called to wish me a Happy Birthday but then I accidentally hang up on her...oops!
She called again and was able to finish singing to me, thanks Grandma "Snow". 
Thanks Grandma "Tahiti" and the rest of the islanders for the birthday wishes too.  LOVE YOU ALL.

What a HAPPY DAY!  I'm ONE!