Our Merry Christmas in UT

Beware, this is long!!!


Preston and I were able to head to Utah for about 9 days to spend Christmas with both families! We had a great time, we had snow and cold weather which was fun but I have to admit, as much as I love winter for Christmas, I was getting ready to come back to the warmth. I sure don't miss driving in the snow! We drove down on Wednesday before Christmas, the next day we just hung around SL and went to lunch with my parents at one of my most favorite resturants.. The Jasmine! Dang good sushi! We stopped by my old work Dental Select and said hi to some good friends and just hung around at my parents. Friday (Christmas Eve) we went to my grandma's out in Erda and had lunch with her and spent a couple of hours with her and had a great time seeing her and spending time with her and my family. She's such a sweet grandma. I miss her lots. After that, we went to Oma's and Opa's for the traditional Christmas Eve dinner, singing, performing, FOOD, food and more food presents, the Christmas Story, and great time with all of my dad's brothers and families (except for Curtis and fam who live in N.J. and David and Carole who weren't there) Christmas isn't Christmas unless we're at Oma's and Opa's on Christmas Eve. The atmosphere is great. Lots of laughter (sometimes until you cry) the spirit is always strong that night as we sing Silent Night or Stile Nacht for our last carole we sing of the evening. Oma always has the most delicious food ready for us to eat and it's such a great time. That night, Preston and I drove up to spend the night at his parent's and Christmas morning we woke up with his sister Jessica and her husband Theron and Preston's grandma who also spent the night. It was so fun having Christmas morning with them. We got great gifts, a great breakfast and had so much fun. We spent part of the day up there then wen't back to my parent's for Christmas dinner.. My dad's Prime Rib!! YEAH! The Elder's were even able to join us. Sunday my nephew Stockton was blessed by his daddy Chase.. it was so great to be there for that. The rest of the time we were back and forth with both families, we got to hang out with our besties Shawn and Katie, Preston had a guys night with his buddies while I went to my sisters and played with the kiddo-s and watched a movie. We also got to go spend some extra time with Preston's grandma at her house! We got to go to breakfast Monday morning with Jess and Theron and Theron's parents and brother before Jess and Theron left back to Montana! We were supposed to leave Thursday but due to the storm coming in, we waited until Friday and it still took us longer than normal to get home due to icy, very icy roads, so icy that we had a detour in Fillmore because we thought something was wrong with our car because we could not stop swerving on I-15 and only being able to go 25 mph when the roads seemed okay. We ended up gettting 2 new tires and headed back on the road. Needless to say, we got home around 9 on New Year's eve. Ordered pizza, unpacked a little and went to bed at 11. Happy New Year for us haha. And, now... here are all the pictures!

Hanging out at my parent's. Here is my buddy Stockton!!

Playing old school Nintendo.. they both look a little stoned! hehe
Christmas Eve at Oma's and Opa's (I left my camera at the house when we went to my grandma's :( )
Singing Christmas songs
My cousin Heather
My brother reading the Christmas Story.

Preston's grandmaJess and Theron

Jess and her peeps!
Christmas dinner!

The end!

Family Photo's @ Wheeler Farm

Precious

The coolest family you ever did meet.

The most handsome man!

My fantastic brother Brady.
This is my brother Christian. Studly man!


My super pretty sister Elisa
One of the cutest families out there!
The greatest parents!
One good lookin couple.
The cutest babies!!!

We had a great time with David Terry at Wheeler Farm. He always does great work! He's done a few photo shoots with our family! We're really happy with the turn outs!

4 years!!!

As many of you know, Preston and I celebrated our 4 year anniversary on Thursday the 16th. We didn't do much that day because Preston had school and he had a test the next day so he had a lot of studying to do. We at least went to lunch together and I spent my evening with a couple girls getting our nails done and pedicures! But on Saturday, Preston and I went and got a 1 hour couples massage (fantastic!) and went to dinner. It was great! I must say, I have definitely married the best man out there. 4 years later, and we're still best friends and I love him so much! He treats me so well. Preston had a dozen roses and chocolate delivered to me while he was at school and that morning I opened the movie "White Christmas" with Bing Crosby. Such a classic! I love that movie and try to find it on tv every year at Christmas time. Now, I can just stick it in the dvd player whenever I want to watch it!

It's the most wonderful time of the year!!

Wow, we have sure been busy! I'll fill ya in with a little recap.

Preston had a 2 week break from school in November. The first week, we hung out and didn't do a whole lot, went on some hikes, and to the zoo (now that it's finally cooling down here we can do outdoor things!)
We saw a lot of indian Petroglyphs
The second week, Preston's parents came into town for Thanksgiving. It was great fun!

The mountains here are nothing like UT, but it was cool to see a lot of different cacti and get out and enjoy some nature and climb some boulders. I had to feel like I was doing an extreme hike so I found lots of boulders to climb on!

Here is the zoo pics. We went with Preston's cousin Ashley and her husband James and their cute baby Emily. We live about 20 minutes from these guys and get to see them often. They're really fun to hang out with and it's been fun to get to know them better :)
The Phoenix ZooThis monkey was sitting by the glass to take pictures with everybody. I made Preston take this picture. hehe.



While Preston's parents were here for Thanksgiving we took them up North about 100 miles to Montezumas castle. We've been there once before, but it is still so amazing that the indians built this 20 room home on the side of a mountain in the 1400's. My favorite part about going up there was that it was COLD! And, the leaves were soo pretty and the air just felt so crisp. It felt like real fall! It was fantastic. (Today, we were at 77 degrees for our high).
See what I mean about a cool fall day? It was soo pretty!



We also took them on a hike (more like walk) in the White Tank mountains. Good times!
THANKSGIVING TIME!!!

We also had Ashley, James and baby Emily join us for Thanksgiving. It was our first time hosting Thanksgiving at our place. It turned out great. The food was fantastic. We had all the traditional dishes.
Bet ya can't guess what they're watching... Did you guess Football?
Gettin cozy in the kitchen!
Baby Emily with great aunt Charlotte!
I mastered the old family recipe (my great oma's recipe) of stuffing! I ate leftovers of that stuff for a week. I LOVE that stuff, probably even more than the turkey itself!
Concentrating on carving the turkey!

All of us at Thanksgiving dinner. It was such a great day and even better that we had family to share the day with!
We played a lot of dominoes! We love that game!

We also got to go do a session at the Mesa temple while mom and dad were here. It was great! We grabbed Applebees after and went back to the temple grounds to see alllll the lights that have been put it. It was beautiful. Of course, I didn't take my camera because I didn't know we'd be seeing the lights. But it was really fun.

It was definitely great to have mom and dad here for a visit! They went home to a blizzard and cold, cold weather!

It is Christmas time in our house. Even though it may not feel like it outside, it's nice and cozy and cute in our place.
You better believe I have this up in my house here in AZ! One can hope.
Our two nativity decorations!
Table decorations
Oh Tannenbaum!

Preston went to his first NFL game with a friend from school, a guy in our ward and a friend of the guy he goes to school with! He had a fun guys night out watching what he loves most! Thanks go Kendall for inviting him! While the boys were at football, us girls had a chickflick/ice cream party! Lots of fun!

Sidenote: I also got a job!! Horray!! It's at an Attorney's office. The lady who hired me (who is the manager there) is in my ward. It worked out great. I'm really liking it so far. Great people to work with!