Buckle up...

...cause this is going to be a long ride. Much has gone on in our lives over the past week and a half. On Friday the 5th we drove up to North Scottsdale to close on the house. We got the keys that afternoon, and moved everything from the apartment to the house on Saturday morning. Monday started a really long and stressful week for me at work. 12 hour days and not seeing the sunlight or Makayla for 2 days was a little painful, but I still love my job. My parents came to visit on Tuesday and stayed until yesterday. Oh and we leave for Colorado in two days for Christmas. Whew. I'm tired. On to the pictures!

Jessica remembered to grab the camera and document our moving day. Thanks to everyone who came and helped out. I hope you enjoy admiring my beautiful sweat stain.

Ben and Ben - doing the heavy lifting.
Love the sunsets here. We went to dinner with my parents on Friday night and this is what greeted us from the restaurant parking lot. No editing here.

Love Makayla's hair in this one. This is what happens when we pull those cute pigtails out.

Sitting on the new house with Grandma.

In the park across the street with Grandpa. Makayla's face is awesome. Way to welcome the grandparents Makayla.

My mom, Jessica, and Makayla had Melanie and Grace over for lunch on Friday. That night we went over to the Mesa LDS Temple to see the Christmas lights. Well done. I've never been to the Salt Lake ones before either, but these were great. I love my camera - no tripod required!

Ok - so this one is out of focus...actually the lights behind my parents are in perfect focus, so chalk this one up to operator error.

Family pic - can you tell it was past Makayla's bedtime? We have a picture from last Christmas in Oregon that looks almost exactly like this.

More lights. Love the reflection here.

If you can, and you haven't been yet, you really should go see them.

Again - for all you photographers out there, I love image stabilization lenses.

More of the Temple lights.

Saturday morning I borrowed a ladder, the women-folk went out shopping and my Dad and I put up two ceiling fans. I am not a handyman, but they haven't fallen down yet and they work.
Did anyone else see how huge the moon was a few nights ago? Crazy.
We also started baking. These are Blue Ribbon Almond Roca cookies. Yum. We got the recipe from Food Network a few years ago (thanks Emeril!), and they have become our favorite holiday cookie ever since. Oh and Jess is making sugar cookies.

Makayla and Mom posing for Grandpa.
Dipped pretzels. Mmmm. Must make more. Jessica has appointed me the official "drizzler" of the dipped pretzels and aforementioned almond roca cookies.
After church on Sunday we hung a few pictures. We still have many more to hang, but we got a start.
Makayla played with bows and wrapping paper on the blow up mattress.
Thanks Mom and Dad for coming down and helping us get settled. And for putting up our blinds. We appreciate not living in a fishbowl anymore. Wow that was a long post.