Maddi

It was actually during preschool that I found Maddi this way, just having some "alone time" I guess. :)

Bikes

Maddi, officially a bike-rider with her helmets and knee pads. This was her first time on a big bike!

Mia was so excited to get a new bike from Santa this year for Christmas. She was hilarious on the bike she had before because the bike was SO tiny and she was SO fast on it but it would take her at least five times the amount of pedaling to keep up with kids on bigger bikes.

Heading back home and some random pictures

Seeing Grandma one last time while passing through St. George on our way home.

Lance's brother Layne and sister-in-law Karen, and I at the reception

All of us...we're there somewhere

Trying to stay warm....it was SO cold AND windy!!! I know we've become total wimps since living in California but even the Utah people were huddling up with us!

Pancake breakfast compliments of Grandpa Nelson....the girls keep talking about Dinosaur Pancakes!

I finally found a picture that one of Lance's sister's emailed of Josh and Megan....so cute! The girls love to play "Josh and Megan"

On the way home....it was kind of fun to get a chance to wear winter clothes at least once this winter!

Jump and Bounce- New Years Eve Day

It was so fun to meet up with Lisa and Joel and their kids at a trampoline/bounce house place to play for the afternoon. I think the Dad's had just as much jumping as the kids (if not more!) and Lisa and I had fun watching and talking.

Grecia and Maddi

Ella had a blast bouncing around and even sometimes getting bounced around by other bigger kids!

Cute little cousins

I love this picture!

We sure miss living near family!!!!

There was such a long wait at Applebees so we finally told the hostess that we had quite a few small kids and could probably squish at a smaller table...so that's what we did! And I'm not sure how I ended up on the side of the table with ALL the kids. :) It was a quite a meal but fun to get to hang out one last time before we left!

Josh and Megan's Wedding

One of the fun perks about going to Utah after Christmas was that we were able to attend our nephew Josh's wedding. Sadly I have NO pictures of him and Megan. These pictures are of us at the reception and we didn't get a chance to get up close to them and at the temple it was SO cold (like 1 degree) and our kids were NOT dressed for sitting outside so there weren't thinking of anything other than being in the pictures and then getting back inside as fast as we could! :)

It was a beautiful wedding and so fun to be able to be at the sealing though. At the reception it was more adult oriented so Lance's Mom arranged for us to have a babysitter watch Ella and Maddi and Mia got to come by herself with us to the reception. It was fun to have a little date altogether.

Family in Provo

Hanging out at my Sister's house. We had so much fun getting to see Lisa and and Ayden and Grecia. And Joel and Lance were nice to watch the kids that night so that Lisa and I could go on a little Girls Night Out.

Seeing my Grandparents in Provo. My Grandpa has been really sick this last year so we were very glad he was well enough to see us on this day.

Utah's Version of Surfing!

The girls had a blast getting to ride with cousin Keatlee on the way there!

Our first night in Salt Lake Lance's sister Lorie took us to an indoor "surfing" place. It's amazing that they have things like that! It was really fun although felt quite a bit different than the real thing, almost more like wake boarding. The body boarding was really easy and don't ask me why but I folded to the peer pressure and tried the surfing (I don't even surf here!). Well I learned my lesson when I of course couldn't stay up and fell off which would have been no problem had I not run INTO the board (when the water pushed me up and over the ledge) that was stopped against the wall. I definitely had some pretty awesome bruises for at least a month afterwards, but it was an experience we won't forget! :)

1st Stop St. George

It's been so fun to get to see my Grandma whenever we go to Utah. This time we got to spend a little more time there and got to see my Aunt and Uncle as well (who were so nice to let us stay at their house!)

Grandma was so nice to read story after story to Ella!

Not the best picture but this is is the only shot we got with my Aunt and Uncle in the picture.

Visiting the St. George Temple

Christmas Morning

Christmas morning was wonderful and totally different this year as it was the first time we were traveling ON Christmas day. It was a busy week making sure we got everything done beforehand but come Christmas morning, we had the car packed and just got to enjoy the morning, opening presents, eating breakfast, and trying out some of the new toys. It also happened to be a really nice day after raining all week and Mia and Maddi got to try out some of their outdoor toys for awhile before we packed up the last few things, and headed off around noon for St. George! Our final destination was Salt Lake to be there for Lance's Family Reunion.

I love the classic "Line up in age order on the stairs picture!"

Ella and I were BOTH excited about the color wonder markers Santa put in her stocking...she can finally get her hands on real markers and I don't have to worry about where she is going to draw with them! :)

Eating a little breakfast and reading a few books

Maddi couldn't bring herself to come downstairs in JUST her pajamas and we tried to explain how it's not Christmas if you don't open presents in your jammies, so she compromised and just threw a skirt OVER the jammies.

I also love this Helmet picture because it brings back childhood memories. My youngest sister Jill just LOVED her helmet....all five of us were actually really excited the day my Dad brought home those awesome fluorescent colored things....but Jill would NEVER take hers off. We even have pictures of her sleeping in it. So I thought it was pretty cute that Maddi was so excited about HER helmet that she just carried on with all her playing still wearing it.

Dressing up!

First Baby Doll!

And...on the road

The sunglasses just get bigger and bigger. I asked Lance for "bigger" sunglasses this year and WOW these definitely fit the bill...but after trying them on...we decided bigger was not really better in my case! We exchanged them for some more appropriately sized ones. :) haha They did provide really good coverage though...I will say that!