Christmas, New Years and everything in between

I've been meaning to do this post for awhile but I haven't felt like doing it. So here it finally is for those who have been asking for pictures. It's super long. Just look at the pictures.

This year for Christmas we got to go home. It was nice to spend the holidays with our families. Me and Karlee flew to Utah a few days before Matt because he was still in finals. We did a lot of fun things as well as just relaxed. It was a much needed break for all of us. It was nice to finally have my husband home and study free.

Grandma and grandpa waited to put the tree up until we got there so Karlee could help decorate it. She thought that was so fun!

All ready to go play in the snow. Last year she didn't want anything to do with the snow. This year different story. She loved to eat it and wanted to go outside a play all the time.

Yummy!

Trying an icicle.

The snow was so deep. She wasn't too sure about laying down in it.

She said, "Mommy, please I slide down the slide." She didn't make it very far.

Helping grandma make cookies. I told her to show me her chocolate face and this is the face she gave me.

We got to spend the night at Matt's brothers house.We had such a nice visit with them. We sure miss 'em.  Karlee loved playing with her cousins. She had a blast!

Kinley, Karlee, Crew, and Tanner.

Uncle Justin treated us to a BYU basketball game. It was a blast. Karlee even enjoyed it!

Go Cougars!

Not sure why she's crying in this one. 

Christmas Eve

We had a yummy dinner for Christmas Eve. They we read about the birth of Christ and let Karlee open her jammies.

Daddy reading the Christmas story

Jammy time

Christmas morning!

Opening her stocking. She was so excited. She loved pulling everything out. Santa even brought her eye patches and she thought that was awesome.

Before opening her gifts. She wasn't even that interested in opening them. Until after she opened the first one. Then I think she realized that there were toys in them. Then she didn't want to stop opening presents.

With most of her loot. 

Christmas Night my sister Lisa and her family came to Heber. It was fun to see them. We got to see baby Eli for the first time. Karlee loved playing with Micah and Kate. Well kinda. Karlee and Kate don't always get along. I think the day before we left they decided they could be friends and actually played very well together.

Matt and Seneca doing what boys do best. Pop heads off the barbie dolls. 

We went up to the Belcher family cabin. It's almost done. It was quite the night. We had fun playing games, but Seneca and Kate were sick and Karlee kept waking up all night, so we all didn't get a whole lot of sleep. But it was fun!

Grandma reading bedtime stories

Playing Bang

The sleeping arrangements. We sure were cozy that night. Matt got to sleep right next to my mom. Lucky duck!

The only room for me was next to dad.

No not really. We slept up stairs with the Woods and Karlee in the closet.

Me, Karlee, and Eli

The next morning we went sledding and 4-wheeling, and got pulled behind the tracker on sleds.

Going for a Tracker ride

Karlee wasn't a big fan of sledding but she loved the 4-wheeler. She was sad when it was time to get off.

Karlee and Kate deciding they could be friends.

Then we went to Idaho. We left a day early to go because a huge snow storm was supposed to be coming to Heber. Good thing we did, they ended up getting 26 inches of snow the next day. We were glad that we were already in Idaho. 

Celebrating Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa Bradshaw. Karlee was thrilled to open more presents.

 She got to spend some quality time with Great Grandma Parker. She loved going down stairs to see Great Grandma. We couldn't get the kids away from her.

 Playing games with Grandpa Bradshaw and her cousins.

 We were so glad we got to spend some time with Kayla and her girls. Always a party. Karlee had a lot of fun chasing Adalyn and Mieley around the house.

 New years eve Adam graced us with his presence. Terry thought it was time to go to bed at 11:30 we all thought different so we decided to all climb in bed with him. We didn't want to ring in the new year without him.

 Terry took up about 1/3 of the bed and the 5 of us had the rest. It was pretty tight. Terry didn't think it was too funny. But we sure did!

 Happy New Year!

 The only time Tora wasn't screaming at Karlee. Right before they left to go home. She always has such good timing.

Then we were back to Utah for a few days.

 We visited the aquarium. Karlee loved seeing all the fishies. Her favorite and my favorite were the penguins.

 She ran from tank to tank yelling fishy fishy

Our last night in Utah we had some chocolate fondue. My mom thought it was a great idea to roast marshmallows to dip in the chocolate. It sounded like a good idea except we could only find scented candles, nothing like pumpkin spice flavored marshmallows. She found a non scented candle stick and decided to put it in the wax of the candle that had been burning to get it to stand up. It worked but she got wax splattered all over her face in the process.

 You can't really tell but there is a lot of wax on her face.

 There is her finished product. Matt was a little confused about what happened. He was sitting there the whole time and didn't see what happened.

All in all we had a great time in Utah and Idaho. We also got to see a few friends and most of our family. It was nice to spend the holidays with family. Karlee loved all the time that she got to spend with both sets of grandparents and all her cousins. Now we are back home and trying to get back in the swing of things. We are all a little bored after having so much going on the past few weeks and a little sad that school has started again. It sure was nice while it lasted.