New niece!

My sister Laura had her second baby the other day, beautiful Emma Rose. Her birth story is amazing, so if you haven't read it already, feel free to read it here and look at some beautiful pictures our our new niece! Congrats to Laura and Alex, and to Graham (who is now an older brother).

Christmas in Utah

We had a great vacation to Utah over Christmas and got to spend a lot of time with family. It was a blast!

Here's Anabelle as she came out and found her present the morning we left for Utah. We celebrated our Christmas at home a few days before. She was soooo excited when she saw it and went right over to it. She still loves it.

Christmas morning at my parents' house
Logan, Ryder, Anabelle, me

She wasn't sure what to think about the snow. She only lasted a few minutes outside before she was freezing and ready to go in.

Santa!

This is Anabelle seeing Santa for the first time at our ward Christmas party last night. She was cute. He was very intriguing and Anabelle wasn't sure what to do, but I am happy to say that at least there were no tears.

Our party was a lot of fun. There was food, skits, and music. Mike pulled together a hillarious skit for the elders quorum to do and it was a hit! Go Mike!

Freezing snow? Don't really miss it.

So I looked on Utah State's website this morning, and my condolences to those who live there. -10 degrees! Aaaahh! We are still experiencing a stifling 84 degrees. We went on a walk this morning around 9:30 and it was way too hot. But I am enjoying the climate change. It's kinda fun to try a winter without snow, although very different. Mike was just saying last week that he is totally thrown off by seeing palm trees decorated with Christmas lights. Somehow it just doesn't quite seem like Christmas like snow.

I'm not just trying to brag about great weather or anything; sadly, this was the best thing I could think of to blog about. Since I've been sorely slacking lately, I thought I would just share my thoughts :) Happy Holidays!!

Happy Turkey Day!

Just wanted to tell everyone Happy Thanksgiving! I love Thanksgiving; it's at least a tie with Christmas for my favorite. We get to spend it with some good friends here. I'm just finishing up making some of the food and in a few hours we will get to feast :)

snorkel fun

We went snorkeling for our Anniversary back in August (and yes, I'm just now getting to posting these pictures). We went down to Key Largo to the coral reefs. It was amazing, unlike anything I'd ever experienced. Great job Mike for coming up with the idea and surprising me!

Getting ready to get on the boat.
Don't we look great?!

This is me trying to figure out how to use the mask and snorkel. I had a pretty hard time and swallowed a ton of saltwater. Blegh!
The coral reefs were so pretty. It was amazing to see so much life in the ocean.
We actually did get someone to take a picture of us under the water.
Some of the fish that were swimming around us
I'm not sure what the story behind this is, but there is a statue of Christ at the bottom of the ocean, so we swam over and were able to see it
Mike had a great time! :)
Here he is swimming toward me. I think it's so cool how you can see the ripples of the water, but we're taking the picture from underneath them.

Our little Anabear

Here's the little bear costume I made for Anabelle's Halloween costume. It was quite the project. I made everything except for the slippers (which were the inspiration).

Isn't she the cutest little bear ever!

She was pretty entertained by the slippers

She only wore the costume into Mike's work so we could show everyone and to our ward trunk-or-treat. It was quite the hit, especially when we can get her to growl, too.