a Utah Christmas

We went to Utah for Christmas and DALLIN CAME TOO! A Christmas miracle. We had a pretty insane lead up to leaving. All 3 kids and I had this terrible stomach bug (Mae's was three days long + she threw up in the Larson's driveway). We were supposed to leave as soon as Dal got home from work on a Friday and I woke up at 3 in the morning to the sound of Dallin throwing up a million times. He threw up until he left for work at 5:30 am, then we left for Utah as soon as he got home and drove all the way there only stopping for gas. We got there at noon. It was't as bad as I anticipated, plus we got to take a super long nap when we got there while my parents took the kids to gardner village.

We spent Christmas with my family and it was so great. My  mom made the best raclette dinner for Christmas eve. All Mae asked for was play dough, which was a bummer since I hate nothing more but she was really excited about it. Calvin got a motorized scooter. We had a great time with my family + the kids are still obsessed with Olivia.

my white chocolate cranberry & Peppermint cakes

We spent the next week in St. George where we hiked, climbed, saw movies, and the kids played with their cousins. The weekend that everyone came Lisa rented out a rollerskating rink + all of the kids loved it. We took family pictures which seemed like a disaster at the time but they turned out. We also spent a day at Brianhead and got to go snowboarding. We took Calvin skiing and it was so cute! He loved it. It was so cold but I loved getting to see all of the snow. 

Calvin loves it

Mae's first time

We spent the next week or so in SLC (+ I went on a much needed girls trip to Vegas) and spent a lot of time with my family. Lisa drove back to Texas with me. I was dreading the drive but it was not bad at all! We left at 6 am and drove straight there, pulling into our driveway at 4 am texas time. I drove the whole time so I was impressed with myself. 

2nd annual New Years party at Max & Steph

                                   

I was excited to get back to Dal (he only came for the first week) but we miss family already.

visitors visitors visitors in TEXAS

Towards the end of November we had visitors 3 weeks in a row! It was the best!

visiting Dal when he was working in Austin for the month

                                     

Maren came to visit for Thanksgiving (which happened to be her birthday). We had some of Dal's coworkers over for dinner and it was really nice. Thomas brought over the most beautiful and delicious turkey! Some of Maren's stay was a bummer for her since she got strep throat, but the highlight for sure was spending a whole day in Austin eating, shopping & kayaking sans kids. 

my pumpkin pie cake for thanksgiving turned out kind of ugly but it was soooo good

A day in Waco

The next weekend my mom came to visit for her birthday and the kids were soooo happy about it. We spent a day at the Silos + she babysat while Dal and I went to his work Christmas party. Oh, and we made chocolate covered pretzels for our neighbor gifts which felt sentimental since it's something we did every year growing up.

Lauren + Tyler came to visit for Tyler's birthday the next week. The rain ruined our plans for some of it but it was sooo nice to have them. Dal had a day off to go to Austin with us, we spent a (cold) day in Waco at the silos, and ate lots of good food. We love those 2.

We met Chip's mom in Waco!