Christmas Village & other Christmas joy

 My parents were surprised when I told them I wanted to take Samantha up to Ogden to go to Christmas Village. But there's something to be said about doing your old childhood traditions with your own baby! We used to live up north and starting going to Christmas Village every year when we were just babies. My parents never gave up the tradition after we moved to Orem. Every year we would drive the hour each way to see the amazing park that Ogden creates every year. I was so giddy to finally be able to share it with my baby, so the family traveled up again a few weeks ago.

Her first time sitting on Santa!

No crying, just staring.

Also... we had our friends annual ugly Christmas sweater party. It was super fun... and way crazier. Last year only one couple had a baby, this year almost everyone had a baby. It certainly adds a ton of fun and craziness with a bunch of babies under 1 crawling around the games. We had so much fun though, thanks to the Mullens for putting on such a fun event!

Sammie was excited about us winning the magic 8 ball during the white elephant

She's getting so big and this needs to stop

 Also, this year my friend Jill came up with an amazing idea of our girlfriends drawing names for Christmas instead of us all getting everyone a gift. So we all got a gift for a random girl and then went to the Cheesecake factory to draw names and open the gifts. Jill... you are genius. This was so much more fun and less stressful.

 Last thing... when Ryan and I were wrapping Samantha's presents it blew our minds that we were for the first time writing "From: Mom & Dad"!!! That's just crazy, and so much fun!

Milo's always trying to remind us he's still our baby too

Thanksgiving 2014

Thanksgiving this year was with my side. We decided to keep it simple at relaxing. First thing we headed over to the grandparents to watch the parade and eat some yummy sticky-buns. The weather was shockingly beautiful so we decided before we stuffed ourselves to go play some tennis at the park. It's only thanks to Stacy that there is any documentation of this because I grabbed my camera but left my SD card at home...

 Milo didn't understand why we were hitting a ball back and forth instead of letting him bring it to us. He was the perfect ball-fetcher though so we didn't actually have to ever walk to go get the ball. Samantha is a big fun of the swings lately, which makes my mommy heart so full.

After the park we all crowded into the kitchen to cook our Thanksgiving masterpeices, then proceeded to stuff ourselves silly. Afterwards those of us who didn't crash on the couch played games and watched my favorite Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. 

Kaity & Zach's Wedding

I am SOOO happy for my bestie Kaitlin! She tied the knot back in November to an amazing guy. But first, I want to take you through the pre-wedding fun.

Our old ward through Kaity a wedding shower. Nothing is better than getting together with all our old YW leaders who helped shape us and loved us through the most awkward and embarassing time of our lives. (Bascially that makes them saints.)

 The week before the big day we went out on the town (ya know, Goodwood BBQ) for a Bachelorette Party! It was so fun having most of the old gang back together for a night. I apologize for the poor quality of these photos.

 Finally the big day!!! Ryan and I felt so lucky to be able to be there on Kaity and Zach's special day! Being in the temple and watching people make sealing covenants is seriously one of my favorite things ever.

Isn't sickening how beautiful this couple is?!

Cute Stacy on a rainy wedding day!

 Congrats Zach and Kaity! We love you both and are so happy you've made it eternal!

November Shanagans

In order to have my blog caught up for the new year I've got some serious blogging to accomplish today. I'm determined to get the year ended before I start my New Years celebrations. First on the list is our regular Craftapoolza day! Ever since Samantha came I have had a hard time finding time to craft. Craftapoolza didn't help unfortunately, I still only ended up doing a few turkeys I had left over from last Thanksgiving. But at least I got to enjoy some time with my crafty friends!

 Amanda was the nicest to entertain the babes while we tried to get our crafts done. They were loving all her songs and cool toys.

 Lately, we have been playing quite a bit of Settlers with our next-door-neighbors. The Hursts are really the best neighbors you could ever ask for! We are probably going to stay in our house much longer than we normally ever would just because we don't want to give them up. Almost every Sunday now we put our kids to bed, grab our monitors and then play Settlers through the night. It's magical.

We are so happy when the Jolleys come back and grace us with their presence

Oh, and Jayson is also a gourmet hot chocolate maker... and no really I'd like to see someone rival him. He uses only homemade whipped cream, chocolate shavings, nut crumbles, etc. It brings me so such happiness.  

 On a more random note, one morning I got into work and one of my desks had blown up. Sounds like I'm making this up, but I have proof...

We have glass desks which I love because I scribble notes on it all day without killing tons of trees. But I guess I did something to make this one mad because it left glass ALL over my office. It took me and a cleaning staff forever to get it cleaned up and I'm still finding random pieces of glass in nooks and drawers.