home sweet home

After 5 or 6 hours in the air, we had a brief layover in LA and then headed home to Salt Lake City. The red eye flight was brutal. Tim hated it much worse than I did, but neither one of us was able to sleep much. We arrived in Salt Lake to this. Ugh...

And home to this...

But it was so worth it because of this...

My older boys wouldn't take two seconds to pose for the camera.  They were so busy throwing snowballs, building forts and sledding.  They were in heaven!

I was happy to be back in my awesome neighborhood with more great friends and the gorgeous weather that Utah has to offer.  Truly, I was feeling beyond blessed and grateful today!

Tim had to catch up on some work, but we mostly soaked up every second with our kids today.  I didn't even bother unpacking until Saturday morning.  I was so happy to be with my boys.  I definitely feel so re energized.  I'm on a Hawaiian high that I'm not sure I'll come down from anytime soon. 

I love that Cooper spent the afternoon asking how to write "Hawaiian" words.  He is too cute!

brigham city temple

Since the boys were off track during the Brigham City Temple Open House, I thought it would be a fun opportunity to take them.  Tim took the day off and we were lucky to be joined by some of his family that were able to come in the middle of the day. 

Payton and Parker having fun on the big bus shuttling us over to the Temple.

Brady, Mahina, Eme & Dax.  They left their brand new Baby Evan at home with Grandma!  I was so impressed that they were all able to look this perfect at 9:00 am in the morning with a 2-week-old baby.  Go Mahina, you're amazing!

Grandma Ann, Andi & Corbin.  It was fun that Andi was able to drive down from Wyoming and join us!

My favorite part of the picture is Ann photo bombing us in the background.  What's more hilarious is that she was not doing it on purpose.  She was just having a conversation with Andi back there!  Cooper loved his "map" of the Temple and loved looking for all the special rooms.  This is our "before" picture.

And here is "after"...everyone was hot and hungry!  We finished the day off at Maddox, which is a must when you're visiting Brigham City.  It was delicious food, fabulous company and a beautiful day! 

The temple is absolutely gorgeous!  I loved the beautiful stain glass everywhere.  I also loved learning some more history about Brigham City.  I'm so glad that we took the time to do this.  I'm excited for the dedication this Sunday.  It will be neat for Payton to experience his first Temple Dedication as well!

st. george/president's cup

new years eve

Since we pulled an all-nighter on the Eve of Christmas Eve with Crew in the hospital (see this post).  We cancelled our annual New Year's Eve party with family and had a simple family night instead.  We played Pepsi Pong.  My boys are always begging to drink Pepsi or Coke so in celebration of the New Year, I bought caffeine free Pepsi and we really partied hard.  Along with our "drinking" games, we played some video games and went to bed by 10.  Happy New Year!

merry christmas 2011

We had another successful Christmas holiday!  I love that most of these pictures are blurry from all the movement, but it's a perfect replica of how Christmas morning actually is for our family.  The boys were spoiled, we ran around like crazy, and Tim spent the entire afternoon putting things together.  Merry Christmas!

christmas eve

This Christmas Eve we started a new tradition (I hope). For the first time, in my entire life, we didn't spend every single second of our Christmas holiday at my Grandparents home. This was a hard thing for all of us to do, but we knew it was time to start forging our own traditions. We ended up having my family over to our house for simple appetizers and some fun. It was easy going and relaxing. The way holiday's should be, right?!

off track fun

This year the older boys were off track the entire month of December.  When we first got this track choice, I was terrified of having all the boys home during this busy time of year and especially during the time that I needed to get tons of things done!  However, I ended up loving it.  We got to do so many fun activities and it made me much more organized.  I felt like I was able to focus more on the spirit of the season instead of the busyness of the holiday.  We bought passes to our rec center and spent almost every morning at the gym.  The boys played basketball while I walked ran around the track upstairs.  That's what I call a win-win scenario!

temple square lights

This mild winter was the perfect setting for a visit to Temple Square. Plus, it was awesome that the kids are out of school because we were able to stay out as late as we want and not have to worry about silly things like homework! After seeing the nativity, Christus and awesome lights, we headed over to Crown Burger for dinner. 'Tis the season!