Our holiday adventure

Our long ride to Utah!

We were going up and down hills in the car on the way so the kids put up their arms like they were on a rollercoaster...they were too cute.

Fun stop in Vegas!

We stopped in Vegas on the way and played with B's sister and family...it was freezing in Vegas!

Pizza Party and Santa

zoom in...the kids were so excited!

BYU was playing so the day we arrived in Utah the guys had to watch the game while Santa came to visit all the kids.

Sugar cookies!

My mom, sis's kids, and Ava making and decorating cookies!

Ava's first adventure in the snow this winter!

Ava and cousin Tyson

Reindeer at Thanksgiving point!

It was freezing!

Brec, Jaxon, Tea, Ava, and Mia.....cute cousins.

Sledding!

Did I tell you that it was freezing yet?

Christmas morning!

We stayed with B's sister Amy and here all the kids waiting to see what Santa brought them!

Ava got her Ariel doll!

Brec loved the candy cane!

The family after just finishing opening presents.

Our lovely car every second of the day...I don't think it ever stopped snowing!

Our fun drive home...

So we decided to make it back to AZ all in one day and it seriously felt like forever! Half the time we were driving on snow and ice and then finally when it cleared we came upon this! We had to wait for 45 minutes while they tried to pull this semi out.....lots of fun!

All in all we had a wonderful Christmas and are so grateful for all that we have and that we have such wonderful friends and family to share it with it! I have to say, though, that I am so happy to be back home to 70 degree weather! Next year everyone is invited to our house for Christmas!

Our little Secret Santa

So someone did the twelve days of Christmas to us this year and it was so much fun! I was worried because we were leaving out of town to Utah and didn't know if our secret santa would leave all the presents on the doorstep or just give up and realize we weren't home. Whoever did this spent a lot of time doing it and the tags and preparation were so dang cute! So, we came home from Utah Saturday night and there was nothing on the doorstep. In my mind I am thinking, dang we aren't going to get the rest of our cute little gifts and it was just so much fun! But to my surprise our little secret Santa came to our door last night and left a big present for us with all the rest of the days that we missed. The whole theme that they did was so great and so cute that I am saving everything that they did in case I want to do it for someone else in the years to come. So, if my secret Santa is a blogger, thank you so very much for all the cute thought out gifts...it made our holiday season so much brighter and exciting! If only I knew who you were........

Ava's Preschool Christmas program

Happy Holiday's

This is my Christmas card that I designed and sent out this year.....sorry to those of you who didn't receive one. I still have a bunch just sitting here that I haven't even given to a lot of neighbors and friends because I was in such a rush leaving for Utah for Christmas. Anyways, happy holidays, hope your Christmas was great!

Holiday Fun!

Temple lights!

Kind of a freaky pic because of the setting on the camera.....

Sledding!

Okay, so this is the only sledding we have here in AZ close by. It was pretty pathetic. The third pic is of Briant sitting in mud. When he stood up it was all over his shorts...and yes he is wearing shorts.....I don't know why since he knew we would be sledding, but he thought that since it was in the 70's that shorts would be appropriate. Oh, and Brec wasn't too thrilled about the snow either.

The Nutcracker!

I thought that this would be a great tradition every year to see the Nutcracker with Ava so I dragged my hubby to come along with us since he has never seen it......He didn't love it so much and pretty much made fun of the dude's in the tights where you can pretty much see every crack and dimple when they turned around....yep I felt pretty immature when I caught myself laughing. Anyways, I don't know if we will make this a yearly tradition, but I enjoyed finally going out to see a good traditional ballet!

Ward Christmas Party!

Ava and her friend Alyssa.

And of course Santa again! Santa looks a little drunk in this pic......

Trapper Keeper

Do you guys remember these? Me and my hubby were hysterically laughing at church today because my husband was complaining about how he needs something more organized, and I mentioned that he needs to get a trapper keeper to bring to church, and then we lost it and I couldn't stop thinking about trapper keepers. They were so '80's and I think everyone had one! Whatever happened to them? They were so great because you could organize your work with tabs and they had a special place for your pens, #2 pencils (which you had to have and they had to be #2, I don't think I was even allowed to use pens in school.......and what does #2 mean anyway and why was it so important?), erasers, etc. Anyways, trapper keepers were so funny and I completely forgot about them until today.....so take a trip back to memory lane and tell me how cool your trapper keeper was! (I think mine was like turquoise or something.)

Our fun Thanksgiving week!

Saturday: The big game BYU vs Utah.......fun with cousins, marshmallow roasting!




Monday: Santa at Bass Pro Shop!!!

This is Santa guessing how old Ava was. He was a cute Santa that chatted a ton with the kiddos!

I have a better pic, but this was the one I managed to take just after I sat Brec down on Santa's lap.

Checking out the fish

Wednesday: Playing at the church with all the fam........dancing, basketball, and pizza party!


Thursday: Thanksgiving Day! We enjoyed lots of yummy food and enjoyed the company of 50+ people. We then early in the evening finally saw Twilight! A little cheesy at times, but I still loved it.





Friday: Our yearly tradition with all of the sisters to go out on Black Friday. This year we slept in and got up at 4:45 to make it to Walmart by 5:00 a.m.

Here we are enjoying breakfast at Crackers after a long morning of Christmas shopping!

That evening we enjoyed a nice dinner without the kids and afterwards saw the Mesa Temple lights.