White elephant party!

every christmas we have a white elephant party with the mozo family. this year was a good one!

presents waiting to be opened, stolen and stolen again
makana got an awesome picture, like 4 ft. tall!
baby jason just couldn't choose, he ended up with a glow necklace which he held onto despite matt wanting to steal it to see what would happen!
matt got a back scratcher
nikki opening, forgot what she got
lola and her 6 in 1 tool keychain
rachel and her granny shawl!
caleb (or trucker) opening his shoe shine kit
amber got a funfetti cake mix and frosting which she just opened and they all started eating!
chris always gives all the kids gifts, he gifted caleb with this lovely vintage thrift find suit coat, thank you chris, i am sure caleb will be wearing this to church in utah!
nellie, yani, amber and kyra
chris and nikki
everyone was trying to get a picture of jason and chalei with their glow necklaces, jason doesn't know the strength of his hugs:)
little more love
and everyone trying to get their shot! paparazzi
best buds!

we had a great time. it is the best kind of christmas, you are not stressing about what to get anyone, you just find something unusual, weird, or funny and throw it in a bag. things get stolen and stolen again and we all laugh and have fun and eat, just like it should be.

congratulations kathleen and harris

kathleen jung married harris clarke on dec. 23 rd in the laie temple.

i am so happy for her. i had kathleen in young women's at church and have watched her become a beautiful young woman. she has always been a good example and done the right thing.

i am so proud of my young woman, so far of my laurels, 4 have gotten married and all in the temple. such good girls!!!

she looked amazing! her dress was beautiful
the reception was at PCC and was so nice, her mother made it beautiful!
these boys hung out for a while, oh these boys...
and a beautiful ring ceremony by her father, bishop jung.

amber mozo did her first official wedding from start to end, she did an awesome job. you can see her photo's at ambermozo.com

a beautiful day.

Home

Home is a funny thing

is it where you are

where you grew up

where you are from

or where you move to

i think it is where family is

kiley spent christmas in california, scotty was home but ki missed home

we really missed ki being home

caleb missed home in utah but when he came home, he is never home

i think he misses the comfort of home, his friends and surroundings

matt and i spent christmas alone, then i missed home

when i told matt he said, you are home, i said i mean the other home, st. louis.

i think basically home is where your heart is. where you long to be.

tonight we are celebrating christmas and my kids will be home, then my heart will be here, at home!

i DO love christmas

i will admit i have a thing with Christmas, kind of a "love/hate relationship.

let me start with this. i was reading some blogs which i have not had much time to do since we have been home from mexico. i was looking at all of the beautiful decorations everyone posts of their home and all the projects their making and what their baking and how busy they are and how stressed out etc. etc. this one woman was in a thrift store with her husband, they had a 4 ft. white christmas tree. she told her husband she wanted it and he said they didn't have any room, she didn't see why that was a problem but he didn't think they needed it. they left the store. she told him how she had seen sooo many white christmas trees in blogland and really wanted one. he said if you want it that bad go back and get it. she went back the next day and of course it had been sold. she said she went to her car and sobbed. cried like a baby. the stress of christmas had gotten to her and she lost her "dream" tree and that was all she could take!

so here in lies my, we'll say, dislike or frustration. that is not christmas. that is not celebrating the Christ child born in a manger, come to save us all. that is not helping someone in need or spending time with family. i hate how everyone gets all stressed out and it did not help when my daughter called to tell me she was almost sick with worry about what to get her new family since they are poor college students and she had no ideas. that is not what Christmas is about.

for us this year Christmas is about my sister. she wants a baby more than anything else. instead of us all giving presents my family is giving the money we would spend to Jill for her IVF. not sure if she wants me to share this on my blog but to me this is what Christmas is about. this is a reason to love Christmas.

i am also asking for your prayers for her that this will work!!!

my son is coming home tonight. i cannot wait. i am trying to keep my expectations low so i don't get dissapointed but just to have him in the house for a little while is good enough. all i need is my family around. presents are nice but i really don't need them and my kids know this!

i hope that you can take some time this season to sit with your family, to eat treats and watch the nativity movie under the lights of the tree. that is the reason i DO love Christmas.

fall day at the beach

we went to ali'i beach with some friends. of course i don't have any pictures of the friends but i have some of our baxy!

is that cute or what?
swimming with matt, he doesn't love the water so if he goes in he wants to stay with you

come to mama!

today was actually rainy most of the day. hard rain. i loved it, i put on a sweater, went to work and came home and took a nap. once in a while a rainy day is cozy but a day at the beach in (what was nov.) nov. is nice too!

Viva Mexico!

We spent thanksgiving in Cozumel, Mexico. of course we went for the ironman but it was a few days after thanksgiving.

we had a turkey dinner at the hotel, this tom turkey was in the lobby, we weren't sure if he was dinner but he was still there afterwards. the dinner was not the same as what we are used to and it was hard not being with family and since our cel's did not work there we couldn't even call. not sure about being away on holidays.
we were able to find some pretty good mexican food though. we were able to get table side made guacamole-YUM!
this is another place we ate at with the friends who went down for the ironman mark and denise. it was very pretty, right on the water.
this was in front, an ironman cyclist, we were hoping they did better!





after lunch we went to visit a myan ruin. i really should have been more impressed, i know it is quite a feat for the tools they had it just kind of all looked the same. maybe we should have gotten the tour.





our hotel was nice, lots of pools and restaurants. one day there was a storm. we were hoping it would be all over before the race but it was kind of nice just to watch it from the room.
when they sun was out, it was out! very hot and steamy!

there was a pier on our hotel's beach for snorkeling, the water was beautiful



cozumel was pretty, i do think it's hard when you are coming from hawaii. it is hard to beat the scenery here but we had a very relaxing time, even the 1 day i was sick!!

we are happy to be home for a little while (well matt heads to chicago soon), it has been so busy lately that it was nice to be away but good to come home.