A Warm & White Christmas

Well...I guess this post is better late than never.

Christmas is so wonderful. We get to celebrate the birth of our Savior. People are happy and giving. Christmas decorations and music fill the atmosphere. AND I get to go home.

The wonderful thing about going home for Christmas is that I get a WARM and a WHITE Christmas!

Christmas morning was spent at home in Mesa opening a few presents. It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day. Then we PACKED the car (literally) to head up to our cabin in Heber.

When we got to our cabin there was a bunch of snow. It was cute when my niece Emery saw the snow because she kept saying "Frosty! Make Frosty!" Meaning, she wanted to make a snowman. It was really fun taking the babies out in the snow. We got them all bundled up and they LOVED playing in it!

We also spent a lot of time inside playing ping pong, doing puzzles, watching movies, reading, dancing, and eating! We also played games. This year the big games to play were BANG! and The Game of Things. If you haven't played The Game of Things make it a goal in your life to. It's HILARIOUS!!! Especially when you play it with your family or really close friends that you know really well.

We also just spent a lot of time just hanging out, talking, and playing with the babies. Here we filmed Ian and Emery. They're both 2 now and it was so much fun to go home and see how great of friends they are becoming!

It was great to have the whole family together. Brooks, Shelci, Landon, and Elliot were even able to come down to Arizona from Spokane for the holidays. It was so great to see them since it had been about 5 or 6 months since the last time we were together. I can't believe how big the twins are getting. And it's cute to see how great of friends they are too!

While I was home I was even able to go to one of my all-time favorite restaurants...TIA ROSA'S! Ugh...I wish so badly they had Mexican food like that in Utah! I went with Sterling, Taryn, Brooks, Shelci, Preston, Kelley, Mark and Heidi (Shelci's sister and her husband), and Michael and Jennica (Shelci's brother and his fiance). It was a lot of fun...especially since I was the only one single...woo hoo! The waiter said he wouldn't mind finding a date for me, but he didn't. Haha!


It was also great to be home to celebrate my cousin Camette's birthday with her. She's a spaz and I love her!

So Utah doesn't have very good Mexican food. It's a shame. But I try to make up for it by getting lots of it while I'm in Mesa. I already mentioned that I went to Tia Rosa's with some of my siblings while I was home, but I also went to MATTA'S twice while I was home. Matta's is probably my second favorite Mexican food restaurant. I went once with some family and then the second time I went with my really good friend, Rachel and her son Gainer. We took Gainer to see the Temple lights and then to Matta's with us. Wow. He's 4 and he talks more than anyone that I know. And loud. And at one point in time at the Temple he just started making LOUD dinosaur sounds. Hilarious, but kind of embarrassing. Then when we made it to Matta's he ate some, but Rachel and I kept chatting and he eventually just fell asleep against Rachel. Too cute.

Probably my second favorite moment(s) from my trip home was playing the game "What Will Mason Do Next?" We didn't actually play that. But my good friend Kelly's husband works for Taser and so she has a taser gun. When they were over to hang out with me, Kelly and her husband Rob were telling Mason about their tasers and so, of course, Mason said, "I want to try it." As in, "I want to taser myself." I of course said that he could only do it if I could record it. Here's the evidence. Watch all three. He's crazy. And let's not forget that this is the brother that leaves on his mission in March.

While we were at the cabin, since we were all together, we decided to take a family picture. This was pretty important since it was the last time we would all be together for over 2 years since Mason is leaving on his mission. Here are some winners...

I love my family.

I have to say that my absolute favorite moments of being home included playing with these little angels. I seriously love being an aunt!