Christmas in Dixie!!

This year Christmas was with my family down in St. George, which made it Kevin's first Christmas with my family. Can I just say how much I love St. George and miss it with every fiber of my being??? Christmas was pretty low key and a good little vacation for us. Granted I spent most of my time sleeping, using a box and half of Kleenex's along with 3 of the travel packs and on cold meds. (Still trying to get rid of this cold two weeks later) We were lucky enough to spend some time with friends and lots of family time. Both of my brothers and their families were staying at my parents house too so it definitely was a full house with all 10 of us and one bathroom. But we all had things to do at different times of the day so we were rarely fighting for the bathroom. I'll admit there were days where I didn't shower til at least 4pm... Ya I love vacations and being lazy :) When I was sleeping off my cold we were visiting friends, having our classic "Williams Family Game Night" playing "The Game of Things." Eating dutch oven potatoes, watching football, picking up some "G Droppings" from a beloved High School Graphics teacher who was my favorite, and eating lots of Holiday Goodies. I lived up to my last post and actually have pictures to post! I also have to add that I took some from my sister in law Jessica and some from my parent's camera as well. We ended up with some great gifts and tripled our movie collection (which wasn't too hard) We're definitely looking forward to our favorite gifts: Williams Lake Powell trip in June and Larson Hawaii trip in July (If we can save up enough money for the plane tickets.) 

I had to get some pictures of good ol' Dixie on Christmas Eve with the rain clouds and everything. So gorgeous and WAY better than any white Christmas. Unless the white is sand on the beach. I want that for Christmas someday.

This was actually the best picture of the boys in their Christmas Eve PJ's...You don't want to see the others haha. 

Us girls in our PJ's...Of course we had to get a funny one too!

My lovely Mom and Dad!

Colby & Jess

Lyman & Kim

Us :)

Here we are Christmas morning! It's tradition in my family to walk in and see what Santa brought with hot chocolate in your hand... some I won't name names put Mt. Dew in their mugs, but that's okay. 

These boys got a haul!

Their awesome superhero masks that their Aunt Jessica made.

This is a picture of my mom opening up her surprise gift. For our Christmas my parent's gave us all a family trip to Lake Powell on a house boat so we wanted to do something really special for my parents too. 

She's been wanting a Nook HD for a little while so that's what we got her!

Loved the surprise and we totally made her cry!

This is towards the end of the gift opening.

 My brother and grandparents after our traditional Christmas Breakfast.

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas spent with loved ones and are able to always remember our Savior, Jesus Christ and all that he did for us. That we shouldn't only celebrate his life during Christmas time but year round and always give service to others and remember Him. 

Thanksgiving at Bear Lake

This year Thanksgiving was with the Larson's and up at Kevin's grandparents cabin in Bear Lake. (I fail and have no pictures to document) There wasn't any snow on the ground so that was lovely! Not sure if I never noticed how the stuffing has been made at my family's Thanksgiving but Kevin's grandma started making the stuffing that morning, like real bread crumbs and the whole sha-bang. So good! Besides stuffing our faces with food all weekend lots of football was watched, Kevin, his brothers and uncles played a small turkey bowl, I went on a walk with one of my sister in laws and aunt and there were lots of naps taken! All in all Bear Lake was very relaxing and it was great to be around Kevin's family. We love that we're only an hour away from them now and able to see them more and go to more family functions. I just need to be cooler and take more pictures. I will say it's way nice that we're on the same holiday schedule as Kevin's older brother and his family so we're able to spend time with them since they live in California. We just need to make sure the rest of his siblings go on that schedule as well. Thanksgiving away from my family for the first time did make me realize I miss home grown veggies from my Grandpa's garden so when we have a house with a yard I will have a garden so that everyone can take pleasure in home grown, home made bottled beets :) I'm so lucky to have the in-laws that I have, just hope they keep loving me. ;)

I Don't Know About You, But I'm Feeling 22!!

Not really, but thanks to Taylor Swift's new album and her song "22" it kind of works.

Well yesterday (November 6th) was my 22nd Birthday! (Along with Election Day of course) I normally don't blog or share my Birthday all over but I have pictures to document this time. So why not?

Celebrations started on Sunday with a wonderful Birthday dinner up in Logan with Kevin's family. Then on Monday my work surprised me with ice cream cake from ColdStone and sang Happy Birthday to me!

On my actual Birthday, I decided to take the day off work just for fun, mostly because I really wanted to sleep in. Well, I slept in until 8:30...so guess I'll take it! After that I took a solo trip to the Salt Lake Temple and did Initiatory's.

Kevin came home from school a little bit later and gave me my Birthday present...Jazz tickets!!! Along with 3 pairs of shoes and some other warm clothes that we've slowly gotten in the last month. After, I went shopping with my sister in law and nephews for a birthday outfit. Finally got the mint skinny jeans I've been eyeing all season! (I'm like everyone else and became obsessed with them after seeing them everywhere.)

Then I came home and got ready because we were going to go out for Sushi... Little did I know that it was a surprise dinner with family and friends! That alone made my Birthday a heck of a lot better! I was wanting to stay home and in sweats so good thing I decided to get ready :) Thank you VERY much Kevin, Lyman, Kim, Bentley, Preston, Shawn, Hailey, Kennedy, Parker, Koy, Courtney, Nate & Duvae for the wonderful surprise and a wonderful Birthday! You guys rock!

 

After Sushi we went over to Lyman and Kim's for cake and ice cream. 

Nothing is better than "Nothing Bundt Cake" You HAVE to try it!!

The Jazz game was tonight (Nov. 7th) against the Lakers. The only time the Lakers will be in Utah this season, and what do you know... WE WON!!!!! 

After the game we went down to the court to see who we could get a picture with and Matt Harpring was our best choice :) I didn't really want to wait forever for the players to get out of the locker room.

Thanks everyone who wished me a happy birthday! A huge thank you to my Parents, Grandparents, Rusty and Debbie for calling me. My In-Laws for the Sunday Birthday dinner and to Kevin for making it such a great day with our friends and family!! Love you all!! 

Go Jazz!!