The holidays and our trip to Utah!!

Beware, long post ahead.... I took LOTS of pictures, and couldn't choose which ones to post, so I just did all of them!! (well most) Although with my recent discovery of collage-making with Picasa (thanks Syd), I might be able to condense things a little bit.

We had an awesome Christmas and we LOVED being able to be home and surrounded by family. As I already stated, we were able to start our Christmas vacation earlier than expected which I was so happy about! That gave us exactly 2 weeks at home-- the first week was spent with Brody's family (including Christmas) and the second with mine (including New Year's).

It was so good to be back in the cold with snow all around and to wear coats, boots, scarves and hats. We (including sal) were in heaven every time it snowed-- which, sadly ended up not being quite as much as we had hoped.

We started the festivities with a night out to Texas Roadhouse with Brody's fam to celebrate his birthday a few weeks previous. We had a great time, especially when Brody had to sit on that horse thing while the waiters made a lot of noise.

We had the basement in Brody's house mostly to ourselves, so we just moved right in and made quite the little mess in just a week!

The 3 dogs in Brody's family had a great time together. From left to right: Salomon, Ozzie, Rossi (what good dogs!)

On Christmas Eve, we had a yummy dinner with all of Brody's family, played 80's Scene It, opened sibling presents and watched a movie. As you can tell from the pictures, Dylan was the center of attention with his awesome dance moves and hilarious facial expressions. (That's a coaster in his mouth on the bottom picture... haha).

It was a great night and it was fun to be able to actually sleep there instead of having to go home. We were even able to still do our own thing Christmas morning since Brody again woke up too excited to sleep and no one else was up yet. (We actually ended up going back to sleep after opening our stockings while waiting for everyone else).

Christmas morning!!....

Eating the delicious traditional breakfast casserole

I love dressing him up.... I'm sure I'll have even more fun someday when we have a little child to dress up!!

We had the great pleasure of being able to babysit Dylan one day and I was able to capture some good pictures to create "The Many Faces of Dylan" as seen below:

I love this kid. He is so cute and so funny. I love having a nephew!!!

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We spent the last part of Christmas day with my family, and half of that time at my grandma's house. We played a really fun game, ate leftovers from the night before, played more games and ate more food. Tis, the season!!

On Sunday, we went with my family to Liberty to visit the Bundy's. We spent some time on the frozen lake-- sledding, playing boche ball and trying to look for fish in the ice. I've never done anything like this before and after I realized that the ice was quite thick and definitely safe, I had a great time! Others, not so much. Emma was sent down the hill by herself on the sled and ended up flipping over at the end (she was ok, so it was actually a little funny) and then Jake's sled slipped out from under him right as he hit the ice, and he landed right on his tail bone (I know how it feels, I slipped and fell on some concrete stairs and it still hurts to sit... I guess I'm not used to the ice anymore!)

After that we had dinner, played some awesome games, sat in the hot tub and just hung out. Me and Brody stayed a few hours later than my family to spend some good quality time with the Bundy's. We always have great ideas of fun things to do, but sometimes we just end up talking and that's just as fun, if not more so!!

We both got a new do while being home. Brody got quite a bit cut off and I went back to black. Stacie always does such an awesome job!

Despite the lack of snow, we were still able to go skiing. Yay!! We went with my sister and her new friend-thats-a-boy Brad. (not sure what the exact status is with them) He's a way cool guy and it was fun to be able to hang out with them. Beaver had the smallest amount of snow that I've ever seen! There were bushes and rocks sticking out everywhere!! We still had a great time and the scenery was BEAUTIFUL!! This is something I'm definitely going to miss.

My mom planned a fun new year's eve party that was 80's themed with some extended relatives. It was so fun to see what everyone came up with for an 80's outfit, (Brody found an awesome one piece ski suit that his mom had and I went crazy at the DI finding random 80's clothes. Aren't those neon blue pants sick?! I also crimped my hair which was fun and brought back some memories.)

We went all out with things like: 80's decor....

listening to an 80's mix while eating an amazing turkey dinner (my favorite!)

And playing multiple 80's related games and activities. The main activity was a picture scavenger hunt around town-- dressed in our 80's clothes! We probably looked like idiots but it was so fun! Here are just a few of the many pictures our team took. (we lost... but we sure had fun!)

We had some scrumptious appetizers around midnight (including my favorite, sparkling cider!) and continued well into the night playing games and just having fun. It was a great way to bring in the new year!!

We are looking forward to a new year and the many adventures it will bring!! We hope you all enjoyed your holidays as much as we enjoyed ours!!

Little Things and Changes

Not a lot changes in 4 months, but I think what does change the most is little kids (especially those under 1). They grow really fast in those 4 short months! And you don't realized it when you see them constantly during that time. My little nephew Dylan and my cousin Lindsey's little girl Lydia have changed so much since we saw them last! They are both SOO cute, I can't get over it.

(Brody and Dylan were both very intrigued with the movie Horton Hears a Who)

Speaking of little things and changes. Brody's sister got a new Husky puppy and he is the cutest thing. He likes to bite Sal's ear and Sal just takes it. It's funny/sad and pretty entertaining.

Surprise

When I found out that I was able take a few extra days off work before Christmas, Brody and I thought it would be fun to not tell anyone and just show up 5 days early. Well, we had to tell a few people-- Brody's mom, since we were going to be staying there for the first week, and also Lindsey to make plans about how to surprise my family. So after work on Friday we packed up and were gone by 6:00pm. We drove all through the night and arrived at 6:30 am. Conveniently, my entire family was gone at a little family overnighter and had left a key out for the paper route subs so get in, so we were able to go inside and sleep for a few hours until they got home. We also prepped the house to freak them out a little bit when they got home. We turned on all the lights, the radio, lit a candle, and put a few nutcracker dolls in the middle of the floor. Then we hid in the back room and had fun listening to them trying to figure out how the house got this way. Then we came out and yelled surprise!!! and everyone freaked out. It was great.

I was hoping to get a good picture of their faces, but my camera let me down. You still get the idea.

Christmas time= HOME

I love Christmas. Obviously. But I never thought I'd actually miss the freezing cold weather, snow and ice that this wonderful holiday brings. But I am now realizing how true it is that Christmas is just not the same without it. It doesn't feel right to wear flip-flops on December 15 and to look out the window and see bright blue sky and deep green grass and trees. It's my first time being away from home for a majority of the Christmas season and let's just say I can NOT wait till we're back in Utah in one week!!!!!

Birthday Boy

On Sunday November 29th, Brody Gunnell Hatch turned 25!! (yay for insurance discount) It had been a crazy week with my family coming and Thanksgiving and all that but I still managed to do a little something special (as much as I could do anyway considering it was a Sunday). For starters, I surprised him (sort of) with his dream present-- an xbox 360. Now let me explain. For years I've been resisting Brody's wishes to get an xbox because I just don't want him to waste his time on it, but it actually kind of fits our situation right now for the following reasons....

1. brody's last day of class is today, December 9 and next semester doesn't start till January 25. That's 47 days with nothing to do. (believe me, I know how boring that can be). We'll be in Utah for only 10 of those days. I work full time. What else is he going to do? Well, there are lots of other things to do, but with that much free time, I'm sure he'll be able to do it all.

2. when he IS in school he does get a short break here and there, but it's not usually long enough to go out and do something, so playing a quick game is just the right amount of time to take his mind off his busy school work.

3. he didn't give me ANY ideas of something that he wanted (besides things that are even more expensive than an xbox, so I figured it was the best option, considering). Plus, I still have to come up with even more ideas of something to get him for Christmas.

So, anyway, he was quite excited about that. Except I'm so dang easy to read and so BAD at lying to keep it a surprise that he figured it out before even opening it. Oh well, I guess that's better than me being good at lying.....? That night I had some friends of ours come over for a SpongeBob themed cake and ice cream party (cheesy on purpose) with those paper plates and cups that you buy at Wal-Mart for little 5 year olds. I was going to go all out with balloons and a spongebob cake, but it didn't happen. I was lucky to get what I did. Still, it was fun/funny, and the only thing I could really come up with to do on a Sunday.

I'm so grateful for Brody and all his hard work in school and his willingness to do what he needs to to be able to support our family in the future. I'm grateful for his desire to succeed and reach his goals and for never giving up. Here are just a few of the countless reasons that I am in love him:

- I love his unique style (especially because it's all so cheap!) but also because that's just who he is and I love it.

- I love that he loves to teach/speak in public settings and that he's so good at it. He spoke the other day in church and just got called as a sunday school teacher for the 12-13 years olds and I've never heard more people tell me what a good job he's doing.

- I love that he's always so willing to help me with things around the house when I have a busy week, even though he's just as busy.

- I love his taste in music and hobbies and that for the most part, they are the same as mine. I love that we have fun together no matter what we're doing.

- I love that he has a strong testimony of the gospel and is always willing to share it.

- I just love our life together and the fun times we have, which are many. Thanks for everything Brod, I love you and think you are the greatest thing that ever happened to me!

Thanksgiving

I guess it's time to do my Thanksgiving post.

We were originally planning on being on our own for Thanksgiving for the first time this year but then my family decided to take a trip down that week and I'm so glad they did. Big holiday's like this just aren't the same without family. They stayed two nights at our house (yes, 7 mostly grown people in a 700 sq ft apartment, and a dog. Thank goodness for blow up mattresses. It was tight, but fun!) and then we all spent 2 nights in Mesa to visit friends and family. We had a really busy but very fun weekend including things like....

-- Card games (of course)

-- A hike on the morning of Thanksgiving

-- Eating 2 Thanksgiving dinners! One at our apartment and one at my grandma's the next day. I don't think I could ever get sick of Thanksgiving food!

-- Multiple shopping trips including one on black friday (6:30 am)

-- Playing shuffleboard (my family, including me, has a weird obsession with this game- I think it started on our cruise where we played at least 5 games a day).

-- Eating out at the yummiest mexican restaurant- Tia Rosas.

-- Going to the movie "The Blind Side"

-- Checking out the swap meet

-- Eating Pie and Ice Cream with my cousin Jordan and her cute family

And of course just enjoying spending time together. It was so

great to have them here for a few days and I'm so glad we were able to spend Thanksgiving with family. Thanks so much for coming down! We will miss you. But not for long since we will be back in Logan for Christmas before we know it!

*** I am so grateful for so many things and just as much as the actual things themselves, I'm grateful for this time of year when we can focus on how truly blessed we are and for the many opportunities we have to serve others.***