Christmas 2008

Another Merry Christmas at the Bond's! We had papa Bob and Grandma Suzanne over at 3 on Christmas Eve and then Grandma Patsy and her side of the family over for dinner on Christmas Eve. Santa came and we opened presents together in the morning and then we went over to Uncle Brandon and aunt Stephanie's house for lunch and more presents. It was a great year...here are a few pictures of some of our favorite gifts. Grandma Patsy was very funny this year...she ended up with two live gold fish in the white elephant gift exchange and thought it would be funny to leave them on my bathroom counter...real funny mom and she also bought the kids a karaoke machine with ...... count them 5 teeny bopped CD's including Camp Rock and 2-High School Musical CD's. It really is a lot of fun but it sure is loud.



You go girl!

He must have put the snowboard on and off at least 100 times he was so excited and with his season pass to Sunrise he has been tearing it up!

Hayley got a new bike...and yes it is still dark out that is how early they got up.

Santa brought us a new tumbling mat...good job Sader B.

Sadie got a new phone and new shoes...so she can learn to walk.

Ryan and Shelby...trying to wake up.

Good Morning...smiley

Who knew she loved the Jonas Brothers.

Merry Christmas Hayhay.

I think this might be her favorite gift.

The Karaoke machine....American Idol here we come!

Sponge Bob operation...buZZZZ.

Cousins...playing with our new toys.

Sadie opening her very first Christmas present.

Snowboarders!

Riley and Ryan decided to go snowboarding on Saturday so they got all their gear out to make sure they had everything and it still fit (questionable for Riley...he is growing so fast)....they put it all on, ipod included and were walking around like it was 20 degrees in the living room. They thought they were pretty cool...so got a got picture of them. Since it was a no girls aloud trip this is probably the only picture I will get of their day trip to Sunrise. Paige was not very happy she didn't get to go but foresure next time...she has never snowboarded so I am sure it will be a learning experience for her.

Not the greatest picture but they sure are cute all geared up!

Crazy baby!

The dishwasher is so fun!

Sadie is almost 10-1/2 months old an into everything....over the last few days I have snapped a few pictures of her. You turn your back for one second and she is into whatever she can find. She loves to eat Shelby's dog food and dump out the water...dog food + water = BIG MESS! She does speed crawl every time you open the dishwasher and climbs up in it and then stands up. She likes to get in the cabinets and hide. She is hysterical! This is such a fun age I hate that it is going by so fast. The kids love her so much they won't leave her alone and she gets totally aggravated and screams out...that is pretty hysterical too!

The Hunt is On....

Every year our family has a tradition of looking for the perfect real Christmas tree...I know we are probably one of the last families to still get a real tree. I usually do a lot of complaining but once we get on the hunt it is so much fun. Ryan likes to take his time and has an art to picking a tree with no holes. It has to be a perfect noble fur...nothing less will do. He has a system to finding a tree. He thinks it is better to go when it is later in the evening we went around 8:30, it needs to be really cold outside...not sure how cold it was this year but thankful it was not raining sleet like last year (it was a muddy mess) and we must visit multple lots to order to find the perfect tree.

At the first lot we all piled out of the car...stroller, baby, kids, diaper bag, camera, etc. I think you get the idea...chaos. We got hot coco walked around for about 15 minutes found a good tree but in order to confirm it was the one we had to go to another place just to make sure. We traveled about 4 miles to lot number two. I accidently deleted the fun family photo of us drinking hot chocholate at the first place and the tree.

Tree #2...still looking!

At the second lot everyone got out but no stroller. This lot had some good trees but not what the professional tree picker outer was looking for...so off to place number three 11 miles away.

Tree #3...still looking.

At the thrid lot Sadie was aleep in the car and Hayley didnt want to get out because it was to cold. So now we are down to 3 out of 5 judges on what tree were are going to pick. I was convienced we had found the perfect tree but Ryan wanted to check one more place to be positive...so off to lot number four 4 miles away. We all agree that if we didn't find one here that we could go back to the first place and get the original tree.
So sweet!

At least she made it to 2 out of 4 stops.

Tree #4
The winner! Wonder what tree Paige voted for?

At the fourth lot we walked around for about 10 minutes we found the perfect tree! They cut a little off the bottom and we loaded it up.

All in all we ended up with an amazing tree, although this tradition can be a bit wearing I am greatful for my husband's persistence in getting the "PERFECT" real tree every year!

Riley and this year's perfect Christmas tree!

Christmas on Termaine

Our ward Christmas party this year was "Christmas on Termaine", it was held in a big culdesac near our house. There was hay rides, a petting zoo, a rock wall, you could sit on Santa's lap, outdoor movie, yummy soup, donuts and hot chocholate. The kids had a great time...and no one cried sitting on Santa's lap. Once we arrived I dont think we saw Riley until it was time to go home. I hate to think we have a kid that is of the "too cool" age...meaning I am not sure we are cool enough to hang out with him anymore. It was cold but we all had a great time. I love that we have so many friends in our ward and that there are so many kids. They had a balloon maker there too....I think I only stood in line half the night :-) J/J. After Paige sat on Santa's lap she wondered how he knew she went to the lake a lot...humm answer: Santa is amazing, he knows everything even what you do in the summer.

Hayley, Hannah and Paige on the Hayride.

Me and my girls

Sadie girl chillin in her stroller...she was so good.

No tears this year.

Temple Lights

What a poser...

Some of the kids that would stop long enough for a picture!

My freezing baby!

We took the kids and the other bonds to temple lights for FHE...this is becoming a tradition to walk around the Mesa Arizona Temple every holiday season when it is freezing cold out side and listen to the music, check out the christmas lights, see the nativity and check out the visitors center. This year they had nativity scene's from all around the world...very interesting to use the materials used in other countries to create their nativity scene's. We went with the other Bond's and got Krispy Kreme donuts after...yummy.

Christmas Card picture 2008

If you havn't got your Christmas card leave me a comment with your

address and I will send you one.

Anthem Holiday Classic Tri

We did it!

Riley and his metal.

Transistion area from the swim to the bike..its hard becuse you are soaking wet.

Riley running from the pool to his bike (BTW was Paige pink moutain bike)

He did aswsome on the swim.

Deanna, Me and Katie waiting to start.

All of our hard work and training finally paid off! The Anthem triathlon was yesterday...and everyone did a great job. Ryan, Riley and I all signed up for the sprint triathlon a couple of months ago, about a month ago Ryan had to bail out because he had to work the morning of the tri but he was able to meet us up there after work. The adult distances were 400 meter swim, 12 mile bike and 3 mile run. The kids distances were 200 meter swim, 4 mile bike and 1 mile run (not sure it was a full mile).

Riley did amazing! He took 8th place overall and 2nd place in his age group. He trained hard for a couple of weeks but then just here and there for the last month....this just shows what kind of drive to win this kid has....he tore up the swim. He must have passed 10 kids in the pool. His swim time was 4:56, his bike was 24:00 and his run was 6:40 for a total time of 35:36. We are so proud of you Riley, congrats! A few side notes from the race, he was so nervous getting in the water but after a lap...there was no turning back...he gave it all he had. I did the run with him and as we turned the first corner the rest of the way was all up hill....and he says we have to go all the way up there with disbelief in his voice, but he did it. Great job! As for me on the other hand....I needed that drive I guess!

What are we going to do now? Riley was so into the race on the way home he asked Ryan if he could buy a race bike with his own money. Maybe we will do another tri at the begining of next year and see if we can't get the girls in on the fun.

A bunch of people in our ward did the triathalon too and everyone did amazing. Katie, Deanna and Louise all finished within 30 seconds of each other with amazing times. It was their first time doing a triathalon and they all had a great time. Mark, Mike, Darrin, Arron and two of Arron's kids all did it as well. Maybe we can start a team from our ward...the Page Ward Triathalon Team...what do you think? I will post pictures when I get them, I forgot my camera (whatelse is new right)

Quick pics of Sadie

Water from a straw...what a great trick!

Cute hair bow!

She goes right for the dog food when you are not watching her.

Funny girl....

Check her out...so freckin cute! She has brought our family so much fun....we all love her so much. She is starting to belly laugh and I have to admit it is pretty funny. The kids do everything they possibly can to get her to do it and then everyone is hystrically laughing. She also loves to get water out of a straw.

Blog to book!

I am finally caught up with posts for my blog ..... I have been a bit behind because I have been consumed with printing my blog for this year. The four sites that previously printed blog to book no longer do! I know crappy right...apparently blogger changed some code that these four sites are unable to download blogs into the book format...they assured me via email that they are working on the issue. Anyway, I printed my book from blurb.com. Basically I copied my text from my blog and uploaded pictures from my computer to create my blog book. I really like my book but after making a few other books on Shutterfly...I think they are a better site. The print quality and clarity of the pictures is much better from shutterfly and they seem to have more layout choices. My only advise to anyone who plans to print would be to format all your postings once a month in your book...it makes the print process much quicker than trying to format an entire year in a few days is so overwhelming.

I love my books that I have made, they make great coffee table books and much quicker and cheaper than scrapbooking!

Thanksgiving 2008

This year we had a busy Thanksgiving...Ryan and Riley went to the park and played football with our ward for a couple of hours in the morning. I made green bean cassarole to take to Dads at noon and typed while they were at the park. I took the kids and went to dads at noon while he seasoned and got the turkey ready and started cooking it. When he got to dads we ate, I took Sadie home for a nap they played horse shoes and soccer for a few hours. When they got home we got our house picked up and started making food for the Bond's to come over at 5, we ate our second Thanksgiving dinner for today and played catch Fraze. It has been an amazing day...great to see so much family all in one day.

10 Things I am thankful for:
1. Wonderful husband willing to cook the turkey because I was to scared!
2. Pumpkin pie.
3. My husbands job/my typing.
4. 4 wonderful healthy children.
5. Our home.
6. Dr. Pepper and 0.75 refills at Valero
7. Ability to exercise.
8. Prayer.
9. Tomorrow, to start over and try again!
10. Friends.

Happy 6th Birthday Hayley!

She was 18 months old in this pic..Happy Birthday baby!

Who doesn't love build a bear?

Two of Hayleys good friends

Sophie, Hallie and Hayhay at PPP!

Money case for the DVD player.

The portable DVD player...awesome!

Rainbow chip is her favorite cake...yummy mine too!

Hayley has been my baby for so long I can hardly believe she is 6 already...where does the time go? She has grown up so much this year! It feels like yesterday that I gave birth to this sweet little girl. She started full day kindergarten and absolutely loves it. It is funny to see this little girl worried about getting out the door by 7:30 so she can play on the playground when last year we hung out all day together with no worries. She is going to be a great babysitter and mother one day, she loves to take care of Sadie. She is totally a people pleaser, she will always help Riley and Paige with their chores or give up something she has to make them happy! We love you hayhay!

She wanted to have a party at Peter Piper Pizza for her birthday so on Saturday we did that and then on her birthday we went out to dinner Chick-fil-A (her favorite place).