december is my fave

i freaking LOVE december this year, a few good reasons:

 

experiencing snow for the first time this year

 

surprise visits from my favorite New York niece!

gearing up and going skiing!

 

 going to temple square and getting some of the best pictures of the year

 

having this guy jump out and scare me at my own house! FREAKING HILARIOUS!!! smith and edwards is the best store ever!

reese and bentley

reese at weber state, that is a real reindeer behind him!

i've also been drinking hot chocolate with real whip cream, like, EVERY single day.

been shopping for gifts for all my favorite people.

had some serious wake up calls about how blessed we really are. 

grateful we have enough money this year. 

life is good in december.

thanksgiving in texas

this year we went to texas for thanksgiving to visit brad's grandparents. they live about an hour out of dallas on lake texoma. our flight was at 6 a.m. so we left our house at about 3 in the morning. by the end of the flight reese was out. 

the first day we were there we settled in and papa dean took me and sally on a little tour of the city. then we all went to the golden corral for dinner. we were having a great night. i realized that i had seen reese going poop so i decided to take him to the restroom to change him. i scooped him up and then realized too late that he had had a massive explosion! i got him to the bathroom and there was poop everywhere. on every piece of his clothing, all over my hoodie, even on his shoes. so i just had to wipe him down with baby wipes. poor kid was stuck running around the resturaunt with just a diaper on. (of course it happened the ONE time i didn't have an extra outfit with me)

 cace and bentley at the oil well

 reese, brad, me and grandma

the next day we drove out to bogata. we went and visited papa dean's land. we saw his cotton fields, and his oil wells. we also went to three different cemetaries. sounds kind of boring, but i really enjoyed it. we went and visited aunt ruth that day too. she is an exceptional woman. i just love her.

brad and aunt ruth

we drove by this lovely little place on the way home. it's always nice to add in some culture.

we then of course had thanksgiving dinner. it was so weird for me to be away from home for a major holiday. we had fun, but i was feeling a little homesick. brad's grandparents were so generous and kind to us. it was so good to get out and see where they live. we went for a walk down by lake texoma, played kickball with the kids in the back yard, ate a lot of good food and just had so much fun.