Christmas 2009

We were very blessed to have a wonderful Christmas. Part of Jrs family was here and all my family was here. We spent Christmas morning opening presents, eating a yummy breakfast & watching a movie with Jrs family. Then we went to my Grandmas house for lunch, more presents & a game of backyard football. It was a great day full of fun, we were so happy to be able to spend the day with family.

Christmas Eve Pinata Party

It has been a Ross family tradition as far back as I can remember to have a pinata party on Christmas Eve. We get family & friends together for dinner, games & top the evening off with breaking a pinata. We used to make our pinatas at home but the last few years I find it easier to go to Walmart and pick one up. This year I was excited to find an Optumus Prime Transformer pinata. He is so cool that it was a shame to break him to pieces. We started with youngest to oldest and we all took a wack at him, he finnally broke open and all the kids went running for the candy, they filled their pockets and their months as fast as they could.

Santa

The family is in town for the holidays and no holiday is complete without a trip to see Santa. Nate was so excited to sit on Santas lap and tell him that he wants a Bumblebee Transformer for Christmas. Jonathan as you can see is just along for the ride, happy to be held and look at all the lights.

Light Parade

We attended the Casa Grande Christmas light parade on Saturday.

Finished the evening off with a Ross family tradition of SMORES!

Turkey Day at the Hansens

My 1st ever homemade apple pie. Yummy

The beautiful centerpiece

Jr and his Dad diggin in

Jr carving the 22lb. turkey. Can you say leftovers?

The animals were out

The YW hiked Pinnacle Peek this morning. It was a great day for a hike, blue sky, cool breeze. It was great fun. While eating our brunch, an animal rescue group was showing us some birds they had rescued. It was so awesome to get close up with a Great Horned Owl and a Redtail Hawk, they are beautiful animals. I love the expression on the owls face!!!!

Great Horned Owl (What do you think he is thinking?) Red Tail Hawk

Change is fun

I saw a picture in a magazine and fell in love with the cut and color of the model. So here is the results on me. Cut 3 in. off, added a few layers and dyed it cinna berry. It is so fun to change it up a bit, Jr told me it was like having a new wife!!!!

Awesome

One of my favorite things about living in Arizona are the sunsets. We were driving home last night and had to pull over because I had to have a picture of this. It looked like the sky was on fire. I love to take sunset pictures and this was one of the best I have ever seen.

Halloween 2009

This year we got together at my brother and sis in laws house. We ate soup, carved pumpkins, made sugar cookies, and handed out candy to all the cute trick or treaters.

Jonathans first pumpkin carving

Making halloween sugar cookies

Beautiful Fall Day

This is a great way to spend a fall day in Arizona.

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad

Yesterday my parents celebrated 37 yrs of marriage. I have been blessed to have the awesomest parents ever. They are the best example of a wonderful marriage. Thank you Mom and Dad, I love you both.

Baby Jonathan

My very cute nephew

New nephew

Last night my brother and his wife welcomed their son to the world. Jonathan William was born at 7:27 weighing in at 7 lbs. 11 oz. Brown hair. He was wide awake and looking around, didn't cry till he got hungry. It was so awesome to be there and share the celebration with my brother and sister in law.

Proud Daddy!

If you build it they will come.

A stadium in the middle of a cornfield. There is a farmer that owns the land next to the stadium who refused to sale his land, so the stadium has a cornfield, haystacks and cows next to the parking lot. We had a good laugh calling it the field of dreams. This is us happy before the game started, this was not how we looked at halftime. The Cardinals played really bad and we were bummed out. Last season the Cardinals went to the Superbowl, this season they are 1 win 2 loses, what a way to start.

1 down 15 to go

Last nights game did not go as we hoped it would, the Cardinals were asleep. Not how we wanted to start the season off by losing the 49ers. There was a ceremony before the game to present the NFC champions banner. It looks like the 2008 banners will hang alone for a long time.

Guess what time of year it is

It's football season!!!!!! This is our 6th season as Cardinals season ticket holders. We are a bit worried about this season, coming off of our wonderful post season run and the disappintment of losing the superbowl. Are the Cardinals going to have a superbowl hangover? Stay tuned to find out.

Wicked

After months of anticipation the day finally arrived to go see Wicked. It was so awesome, we loved it.

My most favorite holiday

As long as I can remember the 4th of July has been my favorite holiday. I love the colors, the parades, the BBQ's, the fireworks. My childhood is full of awesome memories of the 4th in small town USA(Buhl). It lasted several days with street fairs, the coolest parade ever, a fish scramble, tons of games, yummy food and top it off, laying in the grass watching the fireworks fall above your head. Sadly I haven't been back to enjoy the 4th in Buhl for 10 years, but I will one day return for the festivities. This year we were in Utah with Jr's family. We went to the Sandy parade where my niece Anna and I got really into the parade. We got something from ever float in the parade, including candy, a water bottle, chicken nuggets, a soda, tons of coupons and a cowboy hat that I almost got ran over getting, totally had so much fun. We took Kiesha to her 1st parade, she did really good we thought she would freak out, she even fell asleep for a bit.

Mt. Timpanogas

Jr and I took a morning and went to hike to Mt. Timpanogas. The scenery was beautiful, the weather was nice and it was great exercise. It took us almost an hour to get to the cave, not to shabby. I made a mistake and forgot to bring Jr a sweatshirt so it was a little cold in the caves(43degrees). Sorry Honey! The caves are amazing, all the cool rock formations. We had a great tour

guide, she had a cute sense of humor and she really knew alot

about the caves history.

Girls Weekend

I went to Utah with my Mom, Grandma and 2 sister inlaws for

a girls weekend. We went on the tour of the new Oquirrh Mountain

Utah Temple, very beautiful temple. A couple of weeks ago

the Angel Moroni was struck by lightning and his head,

arm and trumpet are charred, so needless to

say he will be getting a makeover! We visited the gardens at

Thanksgiving Point, if you haven't had a chance to go walk

around and see them, you really need to, they are amazing.

We went and got pampered with a pedicure. We attended

a baby shower for Amy, and visited with family. It was a

jam packed, and very fun weekend.