thanksgiving recap.

we had the most wonderful thanksgiving in montana with some of casey's family,

it was seriously so much fun!

the food was completely wonderful,

we had 4 cooks in the kitchen, which was so nice,

and we all ate til we had stomach aches, it was a love-hate relationship.

but the leftovers were so wonderful for the next 3 days.

oh yummmmmm.

catherine, got cute leaves all ready and we all wrote what we were thankful for on them, hung them on the fire place, then our wonderful reader, kyle, read them aloud to us all and we guessed who it was.

so cute and so fun!

one night we went to a little skating place and had a ball with each other!

even grandpa, nearly 80 years old, got out there on roller skates and skated around with us,

what a hoot!

helping the little kids around the rink made it that much more fun too!

it was such a fun thanksgiving with so many little ones around,

i'm so happy that that's what all our future family gatherings will be like,

lots of little ones all around!

they loved casey, of course and his phone

one of the days, lance, an uncle, organized for us all to go riding on some quads together!

we even brought all the kids to ride too!

because it was wonderful montana, we got to bring all the little ones on the quads with us.

even though, it was bitterly freezing near the end, it was absolutely splendid.

we were so happy we got to be in montana this year, and it was so worth the drive!
this definitely won't be the last thanksgiving we have with this family!

other random activites:
painting LOTS of nails,
cutting out snowflakes,
having the little ones catch bugs for my friends insect collection,
playing games,
watching football,
looking at ALL the themes christmas trees at malinda's house,
lots of laughter :)

can't wait til next year!

valley of the sun

november is RUNNING by us!

we are back in provo for a few days and will be out on our way again this weekend!

last week and this have been super wacked out schedules with trying to do homework and class assignments early,

missing school, 

changing up work schedule,

driving way too much,

flag football games.

we are always thankful for the opportunity to travel during the semester,

let alone to family!

arizona welcomed us with her best fall weather: sunshine and 70's/80's.

oh how i was in love,

we brought a little of utah with us though.

fall arrived in the form of the box, a box full of beautiful leaves!!!

ha, the girls didn't know what to do at first with all those leaves,

but soon enough they were jumping in them and throwing them everywhere.

i'm going to miss fall the most when i leave utah.

one of the days we had mini wind/dust storm roll in.

with no kites to be found in the house, we concocted our own:

we call them bag kited.

trash bags, ribbons, and string.

as white trash (literally) as it looks, we had fun and were amazed those things took flight at all!

on saturday though,

we packed up the whole gang and drove to the dunes!

my favorite.

getting back out there riding just felt so wonderful.

i'm always a little apprehensive about riding again,
pretty much it's just the fear of wondering if i can still remember, ha!

and every time, it all comes back, just like riding a bike.

as i was riding, i thought, gosh, i've been riding by myself since i was 8.
i hope i always get to do this.
casey sported his new motorcycle gear, looking as hot as he possibly could.
he also rode the motorcycle in the dunes for awhile this time around too!
note: motorcycles are my favorite, but if you're not used to it, it's pretty difficult in the dunes.
he was a rockstar.
each time he fell he got straight back up and kept going.
i loved watching him, but was amazed at how much i worried!
it gave me a glimpse into parenthood!!!
i knew that i knew how to do it but he needed to learn how to do it himself,
even if he did fall on easy and hard parts,
but each time he fell,
he understood why he fell and tried not to do that again.
oh parenthood, let's wait a while, shall we?

 
the little girls came with us too and they were so much fun to have around!
we built lots of sand castles,
hiked to the top of the smaller dune in front of the camp,
and best part:
when you'd come back from a longer ride, they'd run up to you and give you hugs and tell you they were so glad you were back!
so much love from such little people :)

 

we loved every part of it while there :)

az lovin

so the morning after we got home from our cruise,

we took a 10 hour journey down to warm(er) arizona to see my family!

ad we had an absolute blast with everyone!

my mummy made a late christmas dinner for everyone

(all my siblings {except kirky} and i were with our in-laws for christmas)

 then we all opened a few gifts gifts from my parents including new lunch boxes which we were very excited for since I we've been losing ours lately :)

they were so sweet to us all!

and it was so fun to have christmas again with them!

btw-this was my FIRST christmas away from my parents! crazy!

we took a little visit to an olive mill in queen creek, az

and it was actually really fun and interesting!

we took a tour where they taught us all about the process and their "farm" of olive trees.

apparently az is a really good climate for olive tree growing, cool huh?

they had so many different flavors of olive oil (chocolate olive oil) and other things they make with the olives!

we were going to get some but decided against it in the end.

my SIL uses some of it and says it's incredible though.

if you ever get the chance, try it out (and they have a cute little cafe inside and it hoppin!)

we also learned the WHY behind only buying extra-virgin olive oil,

all i can say is only buy extra-virgin olive oil no matter what another label says (even if it sounds healthier)

like usual, casey insisted we go to bahama bucks everyday possible.

luckily they constantly send out coupons for that place!

and we learned that annalee connects our visits to bahama bucks snow cones now (she orders hers by colors, not flavors:)...goodness.

kirky came with us one of the times too!

logan and blair invited us to go to the phoenix children's museum with them bc they had free passes that were going to expire,

so we went with and it was so fun!

they are so creative in that place and annalee had a blast!

phoebe was so cute to watch and play with in there too!

they had a GINORMOUS tree house, a noodle forest, a fort room, kitchen room, a fake car wash, and so many other cute things!

 

casey loved it too :)

last but not least,

we went to the dunes for new year's eve!

i was beyond excited bc i haven't gotten to go riding in over a year!

and casey learns more gets better/more comfortable every time we go which makes me an incredibly happy wife :)

although the dunes are more popular for quads i love riding a motorcycle out there, so fun.

my dad is also the best leader ever when it comes to riding as a group,

he always connects bowls perfectly to make for smooth, fun riding.

it was on the colder side when we went but one of kirk's friends was there with a trailer that we used for warmth :)

his friend also let us try out his rhino (like a golfcart/quad mix) which was such a blast surprisingly

my 2 little nieces did great out there and it was so fun to have them around!

oh yeah, and my bum hurt SO bad the next few days, ha!

the pic with the big fence behind us is the mexican border and your tax dollars at work.

and don't we all wear the best outfits when it's cold there? cough cough...yeah right:)

other awesome notables:

we got to see scott, megan, and new baby tristan a little bit too!

so cute!

(i kept forgetting to blog about his birth! but he's here and precious! looks exactly like scotty!)

 my mom also helped my SIL and me do a cute little craft.

she's so crafty, i love it :)

tradition continues and we went to IHOP/Dennys for new years day!

as long as i can remember, we've done this and it's always so fun :)

i think that's about all for az!

it was so fun being with family for the 2nd week off of school.

i love arizona.

we'll see you again soon az!

and thanks mom for all the fun!

and thanks blair for letting your kids get off their normal schedule so we could play with them more, aka 3 sleepovers with annalee. she a doll :)

back to reality

wow!

what a crazy, fun-filled, busy last 2 weeks it has been!

thanks for all the comments lately and well wishes on our cruise, very thoughtful of everyone!

our cruise was an absolute blast and wonderful,

except for the fact that the 2 parents and a sister had to leave the cruise 2 days into it bc of sickness :(

and all of us who were left on the cruise were sick in someway for at least 1 day :(

but we made the best of it and had fun christmas together still.

i'll be blogging all about the cruise with pics over the next few days.

we have been here in az the past few days with my famlia having lots of fun together, celebrating christmas late along with new years and a motorcycle trip to the dunes!

on another note...
i was also able to get together with some close friends from {mesa} high school one night.
we haven't had a get together since high school so this was so fun for all of us!
thanks again girls for those of you who made it!
the mix of us girls fall into the categories of either single, dating, married, mommies, or missionaries-to-be.
we even have miss janell now in nyc nannying!
to be honest, high school years were so fun and i loved those friends so so much :)

busy busy busy bodies!

well folks, we made it to cali!

we had such a fun time last week in arizona visiting my side of the family 

we played much too much with little miss annalee

and the adorable new phoebe!

here are some of our activities!

played with annalee... a lot and we loved it!!!!
i was "biber" or "K! biber"
and casey was "asey" or "C! asey"
we trued teaching her the "k" part of our names and she couldn't put the "k" and the word she already knew together, so cute!
but she's learning so much!
it's so fun to teach her knew things and hear her parrot us!
i love this age!

she's hilarious when you say smile!!!

 pretty much our day often evolved around
when can we play with annalee?
when is her nap?
when can we pick her up?
you know :)

casey taught her how to sword fight...in the store
we also taught her the "okey pokey!"
and we loved hearing "no! annalee (very mumbled) do it!" 

we learned she loved getting her nails painted!
what a girl!
we did them blue and changed to pink after a few days
whenever she wasn't in the talking mood, i just asked her about her nails and she got all super happy and then played with me :) loved it

i've never heard the ABC's so much as i did when we were with her
we also sang like a bajillion songs to entertain her in the car haha

went to bahama bucks and loved it!
casey loved it so much we went 3 times in a week, goodness

we also met this cute little girl!
miss phoebe!

you just got to love holding a newborn!

proud mommy and sister

proud aunt and uncle too!
we're so lucky to have 3 cute little nieces on my side!

climbed kamleback mountain in phoenix with my mom!

i haven't done that hike in awhile and goodness there are BOULDERS!
it's not a hike, it's like a boulder climb!
haha, but fun memories still

went to the Gila Valley Temple walk through!

it's smaller than it appears!
but it's so pretty inside!!!!!!!

we were so lucky to have blair, annalee, and phoebe come with us at the last minute!
to say the least, annalee was quite entertaining through the "reverent" temple :)

but we did all enjoy the plentiful amount of cookies at the end

everyone minus mom

had to go motorcycle riding!
i don't know why but i still say motorcycle riding even though i was the only one on one, everyone else was on quads etc!

casey had a little/big oopsie daysie and has some new battle wounds
you gotta learn somehow huh? :)

everyone minus mom again, poor mommy

i think the arizona desert is soooo pretty :)

and it was wonderful, everything was blooming!

oh yes and casey did his first balloon job with us,
this was his new hairstyle :)

funny the day my mom needed help, it was 3 jobs...that turned into nightmares!
ha!
you may like balloon drops, but we do not :)
a first in my mom's balloon career, it was triggered early!
luckily i saw it and ran up the ladder to save it before all the balloons came out! goodness!
to see how one of the proms turned out, visit here

 we had a wonderful time in arizona and were sad to leave!
we're safe in sacramento with lots of bug guts on our car to prove it,
getting into the gist of our jobs,
our apt is awesome and we love it,
someday we'll go shopping for food too :)