New Years

We spent New Years this year at a cabin with our friends. Unfortunately, I had to work that day but we ended up getting to the cabin not too late and had a great evening with our friends. We went out to dinner, went sledding, played an intense game of Gestures, and ate lots of good food!

The next day Al and I went snowboarding at Brighton. I have only been twice before and it was back in 9th grade. Lets just say it was not the best idea to go down the regular hill after going down the bunny hill once. I don't think I will be taking up snowboarding as my next hobby but we still had a good time.

Christmas 2009

We had such a great Christmas this year. It was our first Christmas being married and we quickly learned how hectic holidays can be when two families are involved...or in our case four! We were crazy busy but we absolutely loved spending time with our families. My sister, husband, and adorable baby were in town from California and Al's brother was also home for Christmas from college. I think Christmas Eve is my favorite part of Christmas. For as long as I can remember, my family has a fondue dinner with both cheese and chocolate fondue. Alan has quickly fallen in love with the tradition as well.

We spent Christmas morning with Alan's family and then went to my house on Christmas afternoon.

All the kids

And one of the best things about Christmas was spending time with my nephews.

My little buddy Lucas

I absolutely fell in love with Weston over Christmas....wish I could see him more often.

I love this picture!

Ugly Sweater Party

I am way behind on posting about Christmas so hopefully I will get around to posting about all the fun things we did. For starters, we had an Ugly Sweater Party before Christmas with our friends in Pocatello. Some of the outfits people came up with were quite hilarious! Wish I would have taken pictures more pictures but we did get quite a few "cheesy" shots.

Spencer and Cali

Brooks and Lindsey

Brett and Mickenzie

Weekend in Salt Lake

Last weekend we went to Salt Lake for BJ and Amanda's wedding reception and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Concert. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures at the reception but we are so happy for Beej and Amanda. And we are especially glad another married couple is joining Alan's group of friends...slowly but surely!! It was great catching up with everyone and seeing old friends from high school.

Saturday night we went to the MoTab Concert and looked at the lights on Temple Square. The temperature was perfect and the concert was fabulous. We can't wait to spend more time with our families over Christmas.

Gingerbread Houses

A couple weekends ago we made graham cracker gingerbread houses with Ray and Dani. I think after the experience we will for sure be using store bought gingerbread houses next year. I think it took us about an hour to get our roof to stay together and not cave in. And just a note...hot glue and graham crackers do not mesh well together. Alan had a lot more patience than I did. However, I think the finished product turned out pretty good!

Our First Christmas Tree

We were so excited to decorate our first Christmas tree together this year. Luckily, we found a tree that fits perfectly in our home. It was a bit of a pain pulling out and arranging all the branches...growing up that was always my mom's job and then I would help decorate the tree! Alan thought I was being a little obsessive after I took off the ribbon 10 times because I didn't like how it looked. It still isn't perfect but I think the first year is just a practice!

Thanksgiving 2009

This year was our first Thanksgiving being married. We headed down to St. George to catch some warmer weather with Alan's family. Alan got to golf on Thanksgiving morning while the girls cooked. My mom told me that Thanksgiving is a man's holiday filled with lots of relaxing and football and I think she is right!!!

Thanksgiving dinner was great and it wasn't too bad hanging by the pool after we ate!

We played some intense games of Sequence...it's an awesome game if you haven't played it!

We went hiking at Snow Canyon

We got some great deals on Black Friday at Tai Pan. Alan was pretty happy when I dragged him out of bed at 6:00 a.m. to look for Christmas decorations. Lucky for us we found a Christmas tree and some great decorations and a FREE purse. I only had to spend $200 to get it! What a deal!

I relived my childhood with a game of kick-ball! It was quite the competition with some awesome catches and home-runs.

And to top off the trip I got to see Skye!

We have been so blessed this year and we have so much to be grateful for. Happy Thanksgiving!