Christmas in Utah 2013

Our Christmas was fabulous.

It was white and very cold!

 Lots of family, sleepovers, cousins, eating, 

presents, movies, games, wrapping, lights, playing, ice fishing, sledding,

ice skating, and Cafe Rio happened!

The children did great on the plane rides, everyone stayed healthy, all except

for a little mishap with our squishy baby, and we just felt SOOO much

love being at home with our Utah family.

It was just perfect.

(I have so many Instagram pictures I want to share on here, but I can't remember

the easiest way to do it! Someone please help me!)

]

Annual Utah Trip 2013

Goodness, I love my home state.

I miss it so much, and every time we go back to visit, I want to move back.

I pretty much drive Lance crazy about it.

I do love Mississippi. It's beautiful here.

But Utah will always be my home.

 

We had THE time of our lives. As usual.

All except for the 2 weeks we all passed around pink eye.

Worst.Illness.Ever!

Like EVER!

 

But we won't dwell on that.

We had plenty of Café Rio. Went to the lake as often as possible, roasted marshmallows and ever starbursts (yummy!), played with cousins and had numerous sleepovers. Papa and Grandma even slept on the trampoline with all the grandkids.

Talk about some pretty awesome grandparents.

My children will always remember such precious memories.

We went to Lagoon for a weekend with the whole family, and when we went swimming in the hotel swimming pool, we filled up that whole pool and hot tub.

It was awesome, having us all together.

 

Now the 30 hour drive there and back... that was another story.

Actually the drive there was tougher than the drive back.

Lance drove the majority of the way to Utah while I sat in the back entertaining, feeding, holding, and playing with the kids. Then on the way back, my mom and sister-in-law helped me drive back and it was much more peaceful...ONLY because we had Baby Einstein. Talk about a miracle DVD! Layla flew home with her Uncle Greg, and that was a HUGE help. Her and Marx in the back seat together just to go to Wal-Mart is treacherous.

So, in 30 hours, I'd hate to imagine what they'd do to each other.

 

Anyways... here are our memories via iPhone.

Sadly, I sold my camera...

 I'm ready to step up in the DSLR world, so I'm researching new

camera's. So for now, it's going to be pictures from my phone.

Which, btw, I'm pretty happy with.

 

Sleeping on the Trampoline

You know what's wonderful about Utah?

You can sleep on the trampoline and not get ate up by mosquitoes!

I remember doing this as a child and loved it.

Layla did as well.

The first night they decided to sleep outside I just knew Layla would be coming

back inside. But I underestimated her. She slept outside the whole night.

Brave little girl!

 

I am soooo behind!

We have had family here since the weekend of June 15th and for the most part they've stayed

in Picayune with my in-laws, so that's we we've been for the last month.

(except for one of those weeks)

We have been on the go!

And this week, Thursday to be exact, we're leaving for Utah!

I'm so excited and can hardly wait,

BUT

we are driving.

I'm going to be making the trek with my sister-in-law Misty & her 4 kids.

So it will be Misty and I with 6 kids!

Pray for us!!

So here's just a bit of what we've been up too.

Lots of pictures ahead (:

{this is the first time I've been able to get a picture of Lance w/ all his siblings

 in the 5 yrs we've been married.}

Honey Island Swamp Tour

Homemade Slip-n-Slide

Lots of sleepovers, cuddles, loves and playtime

Uncle Lance doing anything and everything to keep the kids entertained in this

hot humid heat!

Papa & "Grauma" came to town!

My parents went on a cruise that left out of New Orleans, so before they ported out

they came and stayed with us for a few days. Then, when they got back, they stayed for another 4 days! It was wonderful!! And such a treat!

Here's a just a list of things we did:

- Watched Lance play softball

- Ate Popeye's

- My mom put me through some awesome Crossfit exercises

- Spent LOTS of time outside in our somewhat spring weather

(is 80 degrees considered spring if it's not humid?)

- Met up with them in New Orleans when they got back

- Went to Cafe Du Monde and ate some delicious beignets

- Went to The Aquarium of America's

- Ate at Timeout on the riverwalk

- Went to Picayune for my mother-in-laws birthday where we ate at Jack's and then had some yummy German Chocolate cake.

- My dad fixed a stopped up pipe in our backyard. Layla help by playing in the mud.

- Did some Easter shopping

- Papa and Layla played lots of Barbies

- Papa rigged up his car to get the tubing back to our house.

(fit right in here in the south)

- Went to The Hunger Games

- Ate Chick-Fil-A

- And spent evenings watching Marx and Layla wrestle around.

They're wonderful entertainers.

Gotta love Layla and her silly comments and watching Marx walk around

with his arms straight in the air.

He thinks he quite the man now that he can walk from couch to couch.

We love you mom and dad!

Thanks for all the fun and all you did for us!

Can't wait till next month :)