Thanksgiving!

Yes, I am so behind in my blogging. Every year around this time I fall off the blog wagon. Clay had been hounding me for weeks, I'm getting angry notes in my e-mail, and I've looked at my previous years blog books and this seems to be a pattern that is repeating itself. So, here we go, catch up time.....again. This year we had planned to have my family over for Thanksgiving. Most years we go up to Phoenix to Clay's mom's house. We didn't feel much up to traveling this year and we had decided to not fight with the traffic. We then found out everyone in my family had to work. So we decided to brave the traffic and go to Grandma's after all.
The food was great, as always. Grandma Winckle flew in so that was extra special. Colin was home this year, Tara was down, and Chalice popped in. It was well worth fighting the traffic to get to see everyone.
Grandma Winckle was the star of the show this year. We hadn't seen her for a few years so it was great catching up with her.

We decided to work off some of our huge meal with a trip to the local bowling alley. The kids had a blast, we ate pizza and drank soda, and partied the day away! Sydney of course was a high scorer compared to the rest of the family.

The girls loved seeing their cousins J.J and Victoria.

Clay was even in on the bowling action. Don't those shoes just look HOT on him.

The girls have been missing Victoria ever since she stayed a week with us in the summer. They had a great time together

Alex getting a strike!

Mama and Papa bowled too. I think Papa ended up winning for the adult side. They own their own bowling balls and shoes so we were way out of our league!

Uncle Colin popped in before we left to head home. It was fun seeing all of Clay's siblings. I'm sure they enjoyed seeing Clay too. He doesn't often make the trips up to Phoenix. It was a lot of fun seeing Grandma too, hopefully we get to visit with her again real soon. Happy turkey Day!

Sydney's 10th Birthday.

I know, I know it's been forever. Every year starting on Alex's birthday, I get very behind in my blogging. My blog books are proof of this. I figured I better do it now or else (plus it's Clay's night for the clicker so I have nothing else to do besides housework. I choose blogging over clean dishes). So I'll start playing catch up with Sydney's Birthday. For Sydney's birthday we gave her the choice of going bowling or doing something else. She wasn't too impressed with Alex's bowling birthday so she choose to do something else. I had heard about Butterfly Magic on the radio and it sounded like something Sydney would love.
A few phone calls later, to Nana and Uncle Will to see if they wanted to go with us, and couple hours later we were in Tucson at the Tucson Botanical Gardens. Nana and Uncle Will both came with us, good thing too! We needed Will's TomTom to help us find the right spot.
I can say, Butterfly Magic was truly magical. It was steamy and warm inside the greenhouse where the butterflies are kept. They had sounds playing and it made you feel like you were in a rain forest. I have never in my life seen so many butterflies in one spot. The were magnificent.

They were huge! They were active. They were beautiful.

These two were actually mating, yes someone in there felt the need to tell us this, but none the less it is a great picture. Just pretend it's a mirror image.

They landed on you,

They stayed on you,

They tasted you,

and they made us all smile. They tickled when they landed. This big fella stayed on Sydney for a long time, she loved every minute of it.

Uncle Will was a real trooper. I'm sure he'll think twice about coming to one of our birthday outings again. I don't think he realized how much Sydney liked insects when he said he would come along. He was a good sport.

We all got checked before we could leave the green house for stray butterflies. I even had to zip up my purse because a few butterflies had gotten out hitchhiking in some lady's purse.

Sydney was a good navigator. We followed the map and learned about all plants in the gardens. There was a tour marked on the map of Wicked Plants. This was really interesting and Sydney was a great tour guide.

Then it was off to Peter Piper Pizza for birthday lunch. We spent all our change, won over 300 tickets, claimed our prizes, hopped in the car and headed to the mall for Sydney's birthday movie. We didn't make the movie in time and since Mom and Alex can't see 3D we headed home. Once Sydney opened her presents she was glad we missed the movie. She got Toy Story 3 for her birthday. We did finally get to the theatre to see her birthday movie a week later. We went and saw Mega Mind, it was funny. Happy Birthday Sydney, We love you!!!

Alexandra's Baptism

Alex turned eight on October 23rd. Her baptism was on November 6Th. She was so excited to wear her new white dress. It was nice to have family come in from all over to be a part of her special day.
Here is most of the family that attended her baptism. Aunt Debbie and Jim are behind the cameras. It was an extra special day for Alex knowing so many people loved her.
Alex and her two grandma Charlotte's.

We are so proud of Alex and the wonderful little girl she is.

Uncle Colin baptized and confirmed Alex. We are so thankful for Colin and his beautiful wife Amy and their son Harrison. Thanks for all you did and do for us Dozier family!

Sydney was just as excited as Alex on her baptism day. Sydney's baptism was just last year so it's still very fresh in her memories. We couldn't have asked for better little girls. We proud of both of them!

Alex decided she wanted a little cake for her birthday, she saved the big special cake for after her baptism. I'm so glad the majority of the people who came to the baptism, came back to the house for cake or we would have had cake coming out our ears!

Alex got lots of beautiful and special gifts from everyone. She got a quilt that she uses every night, She got a couple of white towels, some scripture stickers, and a couple of journals. One of her gifts that she likes the very best are her scriptures. Grandma Wing gave her her very own scriptures. Since that day we have read scriptures together every night as a family. What a wonderful blessing it has been for our family. She is very careful and treats her scriptures with such respect. Aunt Amy made her a special scripture cover for her scriptures.

Thanks to everyone, this will be a day Alex does not soon forget.

New Windows!

Since the government has decided to give us a nice rebate for getting windows we decided it was time to do so. We got all the windows on the back of the house replaced. It's only four windows but we still get a good rebate. Our old windows are single pane and U-G-L-Y. Not to mention drafty and they would rattle with the wind. We also had a very frustrating sliding glass door that liked to jump off the track. Nothing can make a good day bad faster than having to get on your hands and knees with a crowbar and put the sliding glass door back on track!

I was never so happy to see those old windows go! The window in the kitchen had some kind of self done tint job on it. You couldn't really see out, the screen was caulked in and the window made so much noise when the wind blew. HORRIBLE.

Now it's like we have HD (High Def) windows. Our kitchen it brighter, the colors outside are amazing, and if you don't want to hear the wind you just shut the window! AMAZING. I'm in love. I don't want to put the curtains back up. I want to clean them all the time. I can't believe we waited so long. Ok, I can believe it. Windows are dang expensive!! We plan on eventually getting the whole house done but for right now I'm happy with the four new ones!