"best of" christmas 2013

• Christmas shopping date at City Creek!  I love living 4 minutes away.
• We sent out Christmas cards for the first time.  
• Quinn fit in perfectly with my woodland creatures Christmas decor.
• Humongous, as in 7 feet tall, gingerbread house at the Grand America.
• We saw The Hobbit.  It was ok, not my favorite.
• Lots of Christmas classic movies including White Christmas, Elf, Christmas Vacation along with the cheesy Hallmark romantic holiday comedies that I kind of love.
• Christmas Adam celebration with just us two.  We went out to dinner then opened presents from each other.  Dustin got a new blue suit. He totally surprised me with a little blue box.
• Santa came to my grandma's on Christmas Eve!  Sadly I was *not feeling well* and missed him. ;)
• Skyping both of our sisters!!!  Shayna in Ukraine, Korinne in Idaho.
• Christmas get together with some of my best friends, and their husbands, and precious babies!
• Lots of time spent with each other and our families.  

guess who? 

(yes i was santa! i was volunteered! no one else wanted to do it! the littles never knew it was me though haha)

last year                                                                          this year

i LOVE these girls!

my trip to utah

Being away from Dustin SUCKS but is sometimes necessary.  Like now.  I had to make a trip up to Utah to go in to work for a few weeks (basically to keep my boss happy so she will want me to come back in September).  However, this trip was extended when she needed me to work a few more days, and then extended again when I decided to come a few days earlier for my cousin's wedding.  I felt like I would regret not coming for the wedding, since the whole family was going to be in town, and my grandparents were coming up, and my grandma is dying and I wanted to see her and everyone else.  And I am really glad I was there for it.

So we are both staying busy and trying not to let missing each other affect what we are supposed to be doing.  Poor Dustin had to move all of our stuff by himself yesterday when the office relocated to a different city in Texas.  I think we're halfway there - only 10 days to go till we're together again!

But I have been really busy and I've had a lot of fun in Utah with my fam and friends!  Here's what I've been up to:

relaxing at the pool with my mom : mother-daughter bonding, talking, drinking fresca, reading trashy magazines, etc

the happy couple!

married in the draper temple june 1st 

my cousin jordan and his gorgeous bride katie

me and my dad

lookin so fly in our sunnies

the whole fam-damily

all of my dad's siblings and their spouses 

and his parents

me and my mom

my adorable cousins tori & jocelyn

my grandparents: wilma & bud

cousin alexis & aunt elizabeth

some of the flowers, and they had mad-libs on the tables which i thought was a cute idea!

my cousins made all those pretty ribbon chandeliers!

cousin caitlin & i

my sis-in-law korinne left on her mission to spokane, washington!

bubba & tigger

one night i was the only one at home, and the kitties followed me all around the house!

they love me because i feed them 

(i stole these pics from christine)

my good friends from high school - matt & bree - got married!

so fun spending time with my girlfriends last weekend!

my good friend leigh was in town from canada so we threw her a baby shower!

i love all these girls!

my little cousin baby Grayson was blessed

a family favorite

i went at least three times while in utah, naturally