Lunch with the Girls

It was so much fun this year to get together with my girls from high school. Everyone is doing so well, and really doing what they love. Everyone looks fantastic of course and I was incredibly jealous of Aydre's hair....so cute right? I love so much that my friends made the time to see each other while Megs, Kris and I were in town. It is so busy around the holidays and I love that we can still get together and laugh like we never missed a beat....love you girls!!!!

Katie and Ayd

Kristin and Katie

The whole gaggle of girls

Megan and Bethany

Wisdom Teeth

I was "lucky" enough to get my upper wisdom teeth out while I was home for Christmas vacation. Here I am that night icing my cheeks....I know I look ridiculous, but I post the good and the bad, so I figure I should post the ugly too.

Here are my lovely teeth. My Dad did the procedure in under 20 minutes start to finish. And he had these giant suckers to deal with. I had hardly any pain or swelling so all in all my Dad is an awesome dentist! Thanks Dad.

Nevermind....

Ok, so diregard my last post, unfortunately for the Bachelor, he didn't talk to Treasure at all and she didn't make the cut. Totally his loss! (But I am sure I will still watch the rest of the series.)

Bachelor!!!!

OK, so if you have never watched the bachelor this is the season to start tuning in. Especially if you were once a Skyline Eagle like me! Treasure Morgan is one of the candidates, so we have someone to route for right from the beginning! She looks fantastic, and is pretty fabulous, so maybe there's a shot!

The joys of family.

Amanda taking Miles into 7 inches of fresh powder before even having time to change out of her pajamas!

Jen's magical videos that kept Miles sitting with her for almost ten minutes! (I don't think he has EVER sat that long before)

Trying new things like oranges.

Having Amanda feed him his green beans!
It was so fun to see my family, and everyone was so helpful with Miles, but I don't have as many picture as I would like. Thank you for giving James and I such a great little vacation, and for taking care of our highly energetic boy. I miss you all already!

Gingerbread Houses

One of the only holiday traditions that James and I have done since we met was making "gingerbread" houses. My family always did this when I was young along with candy trains, and thanks to my sister Jen I was able to continue doing it when I was in college. She even got creative for a couple years and we did scary Halloween houses. This year we had some friends suggest that we all dress in some awful Christmas garb to spice up the night. I thought it was a big hit.

Here is Miles trying on Chris' reindeer antlers....He's so cute he makes these look good.

My husband in his sweater from the women's department....and I have no idea how to describe Chris' outfit.

The boys....oh so cute!

Our houses. I had so much fun, everyone got so creative! Chris made a car, Clar made a sled, Danica had a topiary on either side of her front door. It was fabulous! Thanks to everyone for helping us celebrate the holiday.

Prepare yourself....its a long one.

Christmas this year was amazing! I am so grateful to my family for always making it so exciting to get together. This year my sister Amy had the wonderful idea of adopting a family to give gifts to instead of getting gifts for each other. So on the 23rd we all got together to wrap up all the gifts and deliver them to the family. When we arrived at the address we knocked and knocked and no one came. Thankfully an annoying neighbor (from previous conversation) told us to try the back door. When they came to the door the man told Amy that the family we were looking for had moved. We were all stunned and I think some of us were on the verge of tears as we held these pile of gifts thinking they would never get to the deserving family. Luckily the man said he knew them and where they had gone and let us use his phone to call them. As Amy was talking to the woman on the other end she found out she lived in Magna (I have no idea where that is, but it sounded far away) and then Amy asked how many kids she had.....too many. It wasn't the right woman. Amy started to list the children and their names in hopes that it would ring a bell, but it only confirmed that the mother on the phone was not the person we were looking for. While she is rattling off the names the man waiting patiently at the door exclaims "That's my family!" Apparently we were at the right house, but the father was confused as to why we were there. We were all so excited and started to carry our gifts inside. The kids were so adorable and excited. Their mother seemed overwhelmed and very grateful. Many of us were in tears as we sang a Christmas song and exited the home. It was such an incredible experience, and I am so grateful that we did it together as a family.
The trip just kept getting better as we got to spend time together as a family. We laughed to the point of crying on Christmas Eve when Bill busted out a box of waxed lips for us to try on. We all looked so ridiculous and you can check it out on my sister's blog if you like. We made sugar cookies for Santa Claus on Christmas eve and drove home as the snow began to fall. We had a very relaxing morning and began preparing food. Everyone arrived around two and my mother found a creative way of getting around the "no present" policy this year. Instead she gave each family a stack of "wishes". I wish I could remember them all and the phrasing she used. I was overcome by their generosity and the love that they have for all of us. It was so exciting, almost like a childhood Christmas. We ate dinner which was DELICIOUS and headed to the ward for some friendly family dodgeball. The snow was falling so hard that we had inches within hours and my brother's (ages 21 and 22) convinced my 13 year old nephew to go sledding at 11 PM. they came in later and recruited my youngest nephew Tate....it must have been some fantastic sledding.
Amy hosted an extended family party Friday night and all braved the snow to be there. We had so much fun pretending to be awesome musicians on Rock Band, playing cards, eating good food, and enjoying eachother's company. We ended our trip with Christopher's birthday on Sunday. I can't believe my youngest brother is 21! He is such a kind and genuine person.
I love my family so much, and feel so blessed to have each of them in my lives. I wish i got to see them more, and hope that I get to see them sooner rather than later. Thank you all for creating such incredible memories with me. oxoxo

Happy Birthday to James!

I am probably the worst wife ever since its January, and James' birthday was the 23rd of Dec, but better late than never. He is my fabulous husband sporting his hysterically funny T-shirt that his sister Christi gave him. Oh, the joys of being 28 and having everything you need....you get things like this. :) I love you honey.

A New Chair for Miles

How fabulous is this chair!!!! We were lucky enough to find it at Ross the other day and I have been wanting to get Miles a chair for a while, but they tend to be so expensive. Lucky for us, this was right in our price range.

Miles loves it and is a little possessive as you can see in the next few shots.....

...quickly, almost immediately removing his Lion from the chair....

....carelessly tossing his lion to the side....

....reclaiming what is rightfully his. :)

Addi's Cake

 
I haven't been working at the bakery at all since wedding season has been over, so you can imagine how thrilled I was when my friend Kathy asked me to make a cake for her daughter's 4th birthday. Kathy did a fancy tea party (as Addi requested) for all of the girls and so we came up with this for her cake. I am so grateful that she asked me since it was so much fun for me to do. I hope it was a success!