Christmas time is here!

We woke up Christmas morning to a beautiful white Christmas! I have not seen a white Christmas in at least six years, and was SO excited to see the snow coming down when I opened up the curtains!! Caleb and I had our own small Christmas together at home before heading over to the Phipps home for a family Christmas there. Caleb and Andrew were kept busy shoveling all morning while the whole gang waited for Rachael to finally decide to show up! The morning was beautiful and the tree looked great! The whole day was filled with hanging out, eating, and opening gifts. Not a bad Christmas! We ended the Phipps extravaganza with some family pictures. Caleb was thrilled to find out he got is long awaited Sony Camcorder!! (although his excitement was not quite what I was expecting!)

Andrew and Caleb enjoying some freshly brewed hot tea, after shoveling the driveway for dad.

Caleb with his candy pimp necklace, mom's new Ipod Shuffle, and Rachael lovin' the Obama shirt from Caleb... sorry Rach, we didn't know you thought he was "scary"....??

Our family Christmas picture... it was slightly hectic!

And like I promised to a few of you... here is a picture of Caleb and I, as well as a picture of the 6 month belly picture :) So weird!!

Merry Christmas from Caleb, Elizabeth, and Menias Garcia!

Congratulations Caleb!

Caleb recently completed his fire fighter 1 and 2 class, which was his last course necessary in being able to apply for jobs with fire departments. He got to do tons of hands on work and experience during the course of this class, including a live burn and a propane tank burn. It was his first real taste at running into burning buildings, and.... he's hooked! He graduated the class with honors, and is rearing and ready to start the hiring process with the local fire departments! I am so proud of him, and excited to see where God takes us in the new and exciting journey!

This is him learning how to extinguish a propane tank on fire... yikes!

The most beautiful family around!

I recently had the privilege of taking some family picture for John, Rebekah, and Jace. Jace is about five months old in these pictures, and is freakin' adorable, to say the least! I mean, how do you not love that face!? They are some gorgeous people! Here are just a few of my favorites.

It doesn't get much cuter than this...

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

Josh and Shawna invited us to go down to Sedona to see the Christmas lights at Los Abrigados Resort. They were awesome! It was such a fun night. We got to eat a wonderful dinner at the Hideaway, while being entertained by live music via a guitar player! It was something I had never before experienced there, and loved it! He sang all the songs I grew up to listening, compliments of my dad. We then bundled up and froze our tooshes off while walking the sidewalks at Los Abrigados, admiring all the Christmas lights.

We stopped off for some hot chocolate and apple cider mid way through, before ending the night at our favorite display, the Charlie Brown Christmas. It was an all around hilarious and awesome night! I highly recommend going down to see the lights. It was well worth the trip.

This one was Josh's favorite. It was Tom and Jerry

Stopping to warm ourselves in the apple cider tent... it was freezing!!

And our favorite, although pictures don't do it justice, Charlie Brown!

Baby prep and Painting!!

Well we did it, we took a leap into the wonderful world of painting! With my trusty sidekicks by my side (Shawna and Bex) we took on the task of painting the future nursery. I decided on chocolate brown mat paint, with high gloss stripes in the same color. It was a task and a half, but we did it, and are officially stripe painting professionals, if anyone is looking for some help! I love the way it turned it, and couldn't have asked for a better painting team... well, maybe a little more motivation and enthusiasm out of Bex, but you can't win them all! :) She was a trooper!

Shawna is a painting maniac! She was fast, and had some great precision on those edges!

Thank God!

A bit of a bad picture, but the final paint product. It looks so neat in person!

We wrote messages to the little guy, so maybe someday he can read them, when he rips the waincoating off the walls!

The final paint project. And yes, we even put furniture together... We know... we are amazing.

Cutting a Christmas tree!

This year we decided to cut our own Christmas tree! It was cold and cloudy day, but Caleb, myself, Josh, Shawna, John, Bex, and Jace, all loaded up and traveled out to Babbit Ranch to find ourselves the perfect trees! It was a tough job, but I think we found them!

Josh and Shawna found the winning tree of the year! This one was perfect, and we were all jealous of them!

This little guy was our favorite. Unfortunately, we had to leave him for another year... :(

John also got into the spirit of things.... little did Josh know... such a crazy kid, that John!

It was an overall great day, and a great start to the Holiday Season. I look forward to this new yearly tradition with the best of friends by our sides.