christmas/nye 2014

so i realized as i was putting this post together that i did not take very many pictures this christmas season.....and the pictures i did take...were of grant. i guess that makes sense bein that it's his first christmas. also..i had the camcorder out a lot this year videoing his first christmas, so a lot of pictures weren't taken unfortunately. whoops. mom fail. 

we spent most of our school break in pocatello hanging out with family. we had christmas parties and christmas dinners and game playing and all sorts of fun to bring the christmas spirit. christmas eve is always my favorite, though. norman's family and my family live about a neighborhood away from each other so we get to see a lot of both families at christmas, but we always rotate spend christmas eve with one family....and christmas morning with the other. this year christmas eve was with my family. my mom shared a really great message about the meaning of christmas and really brought the spirit into our hearts as we thought about giving and the real gift which is Jesus Christ and how we can become more like Him. it's always nice to end the christmas season bringing it back to what it is truly about. 

then we headed over to the reece's to sleep and spend the follwoing morning. and let me just say....christmas was fabulous! everyone says this but it is true...christmas with kids is so much more fun. even though grant has no idea what christmas is or what presents are all about...i was so giddy christmas morning for him to experience it!

his great grandparents on normans mom's side gave him a pretty sweet trike....even if he can't ride it for another year probably. ;) and he enjoyed attempting to open presents. his schedule was pretty out of wack though staying up later than normal multiple nights in a row so he got tired pretty quick on christmas morning and started getting annoyed at us making him open up more presents. haha. he's a feisty little bugger somtimes. so we hurried and finished him up, laid him down for a nap and continued with our morning.

we went over to my parents house afterward to exchange gifts with my parents and siblings and i tell ya.....between norman's family and mine we get spoiled every. single. year. and feel so guilty about it. our family's sure know how to make christmas a big one each year and they are both so generous it's overwhelming! we appreciate the help a lot at this poor college time in our lives. :)

norman's mom got grant a little pair of carhart bibs and i about died....cutest ever. so that is what he wore on our very snowy and cold christmas day.

we did come back to rexburg in between christmas and new years to do some laundry...spend a couple nights in our own bed...and then head back to poky for some NYE fun! we went bowling with norman's family and on new years eve we played some games with mine, put grant to sleep, and then headed to a party to ring in the new year with our friends (grainy iphone pics are all you get for NYE)...

i can't believe 2014 is already over!! we were so blessed this year with two huge huge blessings. the first being the obvious....we became parents. since we brought grant into this crazy world our lives have changed so much in the best way possible. i can't say enough about how great it is to be his mom and to see my husband fill a new role as a father. it has truly been the biggest and best blessing of this year.

second...my incredible father received a kidney transplant in april and is doing so well! i am seriously so grateful for all the crazy events that led him to being on the donor list for a short 7 months!! that is unheard of!! i often think about the little girl who lost her life so i could keep my dad. and although it makes me sad for her family, i am beyond grateful that she was a donor. she saved my dads life! it also wouldn't have been possible without the incredible man who donated his private plane and pilot in a moments notice so my parents could fly to nashville to be there in time to have the surgery. it was the most incredible blessing and i get a swelling in my chest just thinking about it. there are some extremely generous and giving people in this world and it makes my heart so happy!

2014 was pretty epic for our family and i couldn't help but be a little sad as we counted down to the new year and see it slip away. but 2015 it is! and we will make it a good one!

happy new year everyone! and a very late merry christmas!

semi annual island park vaca

first of all, happy new year!!! it's 2015!! can you believe it?? i really can't. like...really.....
second of all....my blog got a face lift!! what are your opinions, my friends?? i've been wanting to do it for a while now and thought what better way to start the new year than with a new layout??? so that's what i did today. i still have a couple things to iron out and i want to add some stuff but i love it so far! 

so every summer and winter for about 2 years now my cutest friends and our husbands go up to island park and stay at my friends' cabin and par-tay. we look forward to it every winter/summer. we eat tons of yummy food, we chat, we sled, we play games til all hours of the night, we ride four-wheelers, etc. etc. all the fun things you can do at island park. which, by the way....is one of the prettiest places.....ever. 

so the weekend before christmas we made our way up through the trees and it didn't disappoint. we honestly have the best time with these friends of ours and couldn't ask for a better group of people to hang with. seriously, norman and i always talk about how spoiled we are because we have the best friends ever. and i always rave about it every time i write one of these posts but it's just so true! i love them all so much! 

so here are some pictures i took of us playing in the snow. (which by the way....it snowed so much while we were there that our poor husbands had to push two of the 4 vehicles about 1/2 mile through the snow because our cars suck in the snow....it was still worth it though, right boys?)

more to come on christmas and new years!!

summers end...

tomorrow's the day, folks. it's the day i become a loner in my apartment again as my husband is leaving me for school. i feel rather lucky, really, cause by now the whole world is back in school besides buy-idaho. they start really late. i'm not complaining. it's been such a fun 7 weeks hangin out with my husband and sweet little boy with no school interruptions. and we have been on the move, let me tell ya. ever since he got out of school back in july we have been going non-stop til just recently. it was fun, but a little exhausting and i think all three of us are ready to be back in a normal routine.

our last few shenanigans for summers end were as follows:

we made one last trip to island park with normans family over labor day. it rained most the weekend, which i secretly loved because who can resist a good rain storm. and it pooooured. so we mostly stayed inside...watched secret life of walter mitty, played russian rummy and five crowns, ate food. it was good.

on labor day evening we attended the annual eastern idaho state fair with our bestest friends and it did not disappoint. this was grant's first year, {last year he was in my tummy but it was still our little secret}. he fell asleep as we walked around...typical baby. ;) i enjoyed a delicious teriyaki bowl and my yearly fried candy bar. we also got to see lady houdini! she was a real treat. almost gave me a panic attack when she was doing her water chamber escape trick. .......i've seen the prestige....she dies.

the next day was the EAGLES CONCERT!!!! oh, guys...it was so good. norman and i are changed forever. 

we drove down to SLC, dropped my boy off at my gracious cousins house for her to babysit and we headed to the concert. it was our first real "date" without grant and it was a good one. although i was worried grant would be a pill {he refuses to take a bottle these days..as i've mentioned}, he ended up being a perfect little angel for my cousin and her husband and i was so thrilled. it allowed me to enjoy our night without worrying! 

and again...the concert was ah-may-zing. :) it was the history of the eagles tour so they had everyone there! even one that quit years ago {except the one guy wasn't there that they got into a fight with years ago}. it was so fun watching norman soak it all in. it's his favorite band and i understand why. they were so so so good. and they played all my favorite songs! {except waiting in the weeds...i was holding out for it..but it didn't happen}. 

so even though we had nose-bleeder seats...it was still so rad. :)

my niece, jenna was then baptized that saturday back in pocatello, and the next day we made the trip back to heber for my cousins baby stella's baby blessing! both were great days and it was fun to be with family.

then two of my friends had their baby's on the same day! {september 8th} i didn't get a pic of sweet little adison lyn cause we were too busy talking! but she was the sweetest! and so tiny!! a huge congrats to Savannah and Austin Wallis for bringing that little one into the world... it was quite a rough labor but i'm so glad everything turned out ok!!

i did happen to snap a pic of my friends, Jared and Jessica's, baby Kyrie James Hendricks! and he is a dream. can't wait to snuggle him some more. luckily they live in rexburg, too so i will get to see him lots!

^^^our other friend, kelsey, holding kyrie^^^

since then i've been doing lots of volleyball coachin and norman has been doing lots of baby watchin. it's been so fun to be back in the sport i love again!!

^^^this was us at my team's tournament the other day reppin red for my friends little nephew that passed away from HLHS. #henryforever #henrysheart ^^^

now it's back to the grind! it was a fabulous summer but i'm sooooo looking forward to fall and cooler weather and holidays and sweaters and pumpkin everything! :)

"i learned from john taylor how to tie a blood knot"

i'm finally getting around to blogging about our 4th of july weekend! yay!! and i'm just going to say up front...it was the shiz. this year we were supposed to be up at priest lake for the 4th, but because my dad just got a kidney transplant...the doc said no camping and such for a while to keep him away from germs. so...we didn't end up going this year. TOTAL bummer and i miss it so bad since we didn't get to go last year, either. but all is well...we still had fun.

norman's mission buddy, trevor came to visit us for about a week all the way from deleware! we picked him up on the night of the 3rd...talked til about 2:30 am and then the next morning headed to poky for some 4th of july fun with friends. we went to lava to go swimming, this was grant's first time swimming (and my first time in a swimming suit post birth...ugh) he seemed to enjoy it...he fell asleep while we were wading in the pool. it was very cute. after lava we headed to poky to shower and get ready for a BBQ at our friends house. hamburgers, brats, shishkabobs, fruit, chips, ice cream, redneck horseshoes, chatting with close friends...it was fantastic. we then went to stake out a spot for fireworks (which grant also fell asleep during). it was a great end to the evening!

the next morning we headed for island park with norman's family to stay for the rest of the weekend. and lets just say...island park is the land of no need for filters. it is all beautiful on its own. trevor (norm's mission buddy) is more of a city kid and hadn't really camped much so it was fun experiencing island park in a new light..seeing it through his perspective. it made me appreciate the beauty that we have here in idaho so close to us. it really is breathtakingly beautiful.

at island park we fished, ate, went boating, played games, took a hike, ate some more, fed some huge fish some pancakes, saw an otter AND a muskrat AND a mama moose with her calf, made s'mores, talked around the fire, and did all things that create a great trip to the cabin. 

it was a great little break and breath of fresh air....literally. then we came back home, trevor headed out, and norman went back to the grind (we hate summer school). but it's almost over!! that's the good news. hope everyone had a great 4th of july weekend and celebrated their pants off!