2011

2011 was a good year- full of changes!

January started with a mustache for Jeff and dark hair for me

In February Jeff kicked butt in his last season of volleyball

In March Jeff grew out his hair and I disappeared into Tax Season

In April Jeff had Senior Night and played his last game in the Smith Field House

He also graduated from BYU

In May I went to Washington D.C. with my fam

In June we celebrated our two year anniversary

and then we got super busy in July and spent a week in Newport with Jeff's fam, a week at Lake Tahoe with my fam, and a week with my grandparents and my mom in SF. 

In August my dad took us white water rafting! It was a total rush. Jeff also spent most of the month traveling for volleyball camps so I spent a lot of quality time with my parents at home. It was the most I've been home since I was 19 and it was awesome.

 At the very end of August/early Sept we made the move-and very long drive - to Texas. Along the way we got to meet these two adorable babies

after three days we made it

In October- Jeff won a gold medal in beach volleyball at the chiro games in Florida

In November we had Thanksgiving with the Cooks and ran a 5k

and in December we spent Christmas in Boise and partied our faces off.

Here's to 2012 being just as good as 2011

Happy New Year

24

 Yesterday I turned 24- wowzer- 24 doesn't seem that old- but turning 25 kind of does- and now that's coming up next. But one year at a time. I feel very thankful and blessed on this birthday. I have so much to be grateful for- starting with my testimony in Christ. Even with all the glitz surround the holidays, it was definitely nice to reflect on the birth of our Savior. 

Second- I'm grateful for all of our support in our new home. Moving to Texas this year has been better than I ever could have expected- so I'm so thankful for my new neighbors, my new ward, my co-workers, and of course, the Cooks. Even though we moved so far away-we had so much support from everyone in our new home and neither Jeff or I have really had a chance to feel lonely or miss our old home. 

Third- I'm grateful for my family. There have been ten of us here in my house this week and it has been a blast. I love each of my brothers- we are all so different and yet it feels so good to have everyone together. 

Fourth- My parents are rockstars and will forever be my heros for everything they have been through and everything they have accomplished. I will always be grateful that I was blessed to be their daughter.

Fifth- I'm grateful for my own little family of two. Jeff and I are such opposites that sometimes I just have to laugh with how differently we approach pretty much every situation. However, we definitely learn from each other and I have loved growing together. We balance each other out, we keep each other entertained, and we have each other's backs. 

Along with getting the "special plate," I got to make all of the decisions- from what food we ate and when we opened presents to what game we played and what shows we watched. 

And last night I blogged for an hour while listening to old school Beyonce - it was a very good day.

Christmas Eve

This year Christmas Eve was pretty relaxed for us- which is to say it still had a "program," but it was followed pretty loosely. After a yummy pasta dinner curtesy of Mom, We started out with Debbie and Cam playing the piano while we took turns picking out our favorite Christmas hymns.

I think this was Jeff's choice- mine was Silent Night- my absolute favorite. 

 and then we had to take kid pics in front of our Idaho tree

back row; Cam, Chris-who's in his 3rd year of med school, Jeff- he just finished his first semester of chiropractic school, my oldest brother Jordan- who's a genius professor-in-training at Princeton, and Matt- who's a senior at Timberline

front: Debbie- chris's gf- who we love, me holding down the center, and julie- jordan's longtime gf who we also love

*every year my parents literally hike into the mountains and chop our tree down in the snow. I used to prefer the prettier, fuller versions at the tree farm, but now I love our Idaho trees- they're all like Jeff- lean and tall. 

and the ones responsible for it all

love them

I think I have more pics of my parents kissing than any other kid I know....

but I'm not complaining! I want to be just like them when Jeff and I have been married as long as they have.

 me and my honey on Christmas Eve

 taking a cue from the rents and getting a Christmas Eve kiss in

 After festivities in the sitting room- we all gathered in the family room to watch home videos. Instead of acting out the usual plays- Night Before Christmas and Christ's Birth- we watched past Christmas Eve productions on tape- and it was hilarious! Easily my favorite part of the night was watching a five year old jordan acting out King Herod- and a three year old Cam dressed up as the angel. We also broke out some cake to watch this Christmas Peter Paul and Mary concert that my parents taped from the 80's. We watch it every Christmas Eve and it is timeless- the clothes aren't, but the music is :)

This year Christmas Eve was perfect.

Christmas

 This morning was full of presents, cinnamon rolls and relaxing- we also got all dressed up and went to church to listen to Cam play the piano in the Christmas program. I didn't take a ton of pictures today- I was too busy enjoying hanging out with everyone.

If this picture doesn't scream early morning - I don't know what does

One of our Christmas presents will be a trip up to McCall with the whole fam this week. My parents rented out a huge cabin that can actually fit all of us- I'm pretty excited. McCall is one of my favorite places- it's where Jeff and I went on our honeymoon. It's a cute little mountain town with lots of little shops and family owned restaurants. My mom's psyched to use her new snow shoes at Ponderosa, and the rest of us will spend a day or two at skiing at Brundage. 

This is what McCall looks like when driving in- I told ya, it's tiny! Main St. runs perpendicular to this and has all of the little shops

Tis The Season

No matter how old I get- I will always think of Boise as home- and I will always love coming home for Christmas. When Jeff and I walked into our house it felt so good to see all the familiar decorations- it was also so nice to see all of the additions my mom has made to make everyone feel welcome. My mom worked hard this year in making sure that everyone was getting what Christmassy-type thing they wanted most. For Jeff, it was eggnog- for Chris, it was those white chocolate rice crispy treats. Everyone was well taken care of and it was all thanks to my mom. She even made new stockings this year- what a mom. She must've wrapped a gazzillion presents- and she put thought into every single one. I don't know how she does it- but I definitely appreciate it! She's what makes coming home feel like home.

Bumpin Jams

Cam's got a sweet set up

go cam cam

we all enjoy the beats he drops- especially Jeff

all of Cam's sweet equipment = a very loud and awesome time

......our poor neighbors....

ouch

Today I'm taking it easy- going to bake some cinnamon rolls, finish wrapping my presents, and watch the BSU game with the fam. Last night I got my toe operated on- and now I can only fit my foot into my dad's flip flops. Big thanks to Dr. Lowe for fitting me in his schedule last minute!

Christmas Lights

Well isn't this pretty?

Tuesday night we all piled in the car and drove around looking at Christmas lights.

Our first stop was the state capitol

I promise it was cold- Jeff just didn't want to wear a jacket

We're all so glad that Debbie could come spend Christmas with us! Jordan and Julie will get here tonight, and then we'll all be home and the house will be packed!

My lovely parents

After driving around some more to check out all of the Christmas lights- we stopped at this house that had a ton of nativity scenes from all over the world- it was pretty cool.

We also got to see Santa- and Jeff and Cam just had to get a picture :)