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.

a get away at home

our friends the parkers invited us to come and stay the night at their park city condo. it was nice to get away with friends for the night.

jensyn, jen, hurley and darwin on the main street trolley.

reese was super into swimming! he loves the water like a little fish. brad loves it just as much. 

this is my favorite picture from the whole trip. reese is so happy! 

reese and me on the trolley. 

we had a great time. we made awesome food, shopped at the outlets, went to the farmers market (where reese got an awesome bracelet with his name on it), swam, ate, played clue and laughed late into the night. it was awesome. i love getting to know people better and i am so grateful that we have become close to jen and darwin. happiness is new friends. 

reese at the outlets driving a car.

beautiful weekend: part 1

this last weekend i was completely spontanious. which is something that is unusual for me. i like to have things planned, packed, ready to go, all on schedule. well i threw that all out and rushed home from work to meet some of my family down in central utah. brad couldn't get off work at such short notice so reese and i took off. it took us about 4 hours and one panic attack to make it down. (i thought i had been on the wrong road for about sixty miles. luckily i was wrong!) this is just outside of levan. the sunset was gorgeous! we arrived about 10 at night and everyone was partying hard! the kids were running around like little indians and the adults were playing rummicub.

the next day we drove closser to torrey and the scenery was beautiful. sometimes i forget how amazing utah is. we were trying to make it to calf creek to go swimming and hiking, but when we got there it was closed! are you serious???? is our family cursed? is every place we ever want to go swimming in the wilderness going to be closed??? (st. george de ja vu)

my nephews are obsessed with with moulin rouge. so here is shanea and carly singing their hearts out at the top of the summit.

this is me at the top of the upper calf creek falls. it was a long beautiful hike. luckily there were lots of strong men and boys to help me with reese.

 lauren and terra 

ryan and reese

this is the view from the top of the hike. 

this is the uppper pond we swam in. i think kade jumped first and then debbie. pretty much everyone, EVEN ME followed! i am usually a scaredy cat but it was so hot and the jump wasn't that high, so me and lauren held hands and jumped. 

swimming! the water was pretty cold. reese got in for a few minutes but his teeth were chattering.

this is the lower waterfall where we went swimming for the 2nd time. 

reese picking up rocks

reese throwing rocks

reese very impressed by his distance.

logan is amazing! he is my sweetest nephew ever. he totally hiked the whole trail with reese on the way up. he held his hand the whole time, drew, dylan and lauren all helped too, but logan was next to reese the whole way up. it was a LONG hike back up and reese was such a trooper! he didn't want to be carried, he wanted to do it. right before we got to the top (and the steepest part of the trail) we took a little rest. after that he wanted to be carried and i didn't know how i was going to do it. i was already stopping and taking breaks every few minutes on my own. but drew being the sweet heart that he was came back down and carried reese the rest of the way up. it kind of reminded me of the pioneer trek. 

looking down from the top of the trail. you can see the rock face of where we went down (it was in the other picture above also)

that night we went to a camp fire and made dinner. reese discovered the moon and kicked a soccer ball while saying "go,go,go" i stayed up way too late and got up way too early for the drive home the next moring. now onto part 2.

memorial day weekend

brad dead asleep on the ball... can you believe this kid??? cracks me UP!

on memorial day weekend we met up with bryce and sal to take the kids to the spash pad.. it was warm but not too warm! they had a blast running in the water once they got used to it but after about 30 minutes they were shivering!

after the kids were done playing danny and jess invited us to go out on their boat! 

it was so fun, i didn't get in the water, but brad surfed for the first time.  i really enjoyed just getting out and doing something different and getting together with old friends.

me and reesers

 sal and her boys

brothers laughing it up

brad surfing

sweet boys enjoying the wind

ski bum!

back when i was in high school i tried snow boarding. i hated it so much and had such a horrid experience i swore i would never try it again.. besides, i hate being cold, spending money on things that don't last, and feeling like i am stuck in a situation that i can't get out of... but then, my brother in law bryce, gets me some sweet skis, some sweet bindings, boots, coat, pants... sheesh! how am i supposed to say no to these things!?!?! i mean really i can't. i got them a year ago, and weasled my way out of going. so this year brad has been dying to go, and i have been carefully avoiding it, (to save my life). i was SO scared. he finally talked me into going and it was SO MUCH FUN! i couldn't believe it. we went up to powder mountain. we just got a day pass for the little hill, and that was plenty. and the best part was that i have friends up there who are ski instructors! yay! so i tried going down one run by myself. with the help of madi and brad, but neither of them are skiers, so they were just trying to get me down the hill alive. i made it.. and i insisted on getting a coke. luckily lisa (awesome neighbor/friend) was done with he lesson. so she went on a couple of runs with me and i think i only fell like 3 or 4 times the rest of the day. i am grateful for my hub. he made me go and i was really nervous, but it was such a good time i want to go more. it was a perfect little date. i am so grateful for lisa too! she is truly one of the most down to earth people i have ever met and i am glad to have her in my life, even if it's hardly ever. loves, sav

for the 2010

some things to work on:

-becoming more self aware. i want to think my own thoughts and not be influenced easily by the input of everyone else. i want to express myself in my own ways and not worry about the thoughts of others.

-become more charitable, with my time. volunteer, talk to the elderly at my work, do service.

-put money away in savings. yeah, that's right, this year nothing went in and everything went out! i am thinking ten percent of what brad makes should be enough to start.

-not yell at reese or brad, especially when it is to tell them to "stop yelling".

-listen. before. i. speak.

-become more aware of how i present things to people. not blurt out stupidness....

-apologize when it's appropriate. not when i shouldn't have to. say thank you when i want to even if i feel awkward.

-go on a trip.

-go to church, or read scriptures, teach reese to pray, etc.

-love my husband everyday.

-love my bub everyday.

uno party!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR REESES CUP!

on october 20th reese had his first birthday. that friday we had a big party to celebrate. he loved the balloons that were all dangling from the ceiling and laughed hysterically when he got to grab them and hit them.

we sang happy birthday and he clapped and loved it. when we gave him his cake it was a different story, he didn't really know what to do and maybe took one bite.  he wanted to play "yay reese" and clap his hands. he was a little freaked out when the icing was covering his arms so we whisked him off to the bathtub and moved onto presents.

  reese had his grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, neighbors and friends come to celebrate with us. they all gave him wonderful toys and clothes and he is much more entertained these days.

by the time all the presents were over, our boy was tuckered out (as you can see)!