Christmas #2 & New Years in Vegas

It was such a nice vacation spending time with family and friends in Vegas. It kind of still feels like home there, even though I'm so glad we don't live there anymore. It's a weird feeling. We stayed with Travis' parents which was quite the full house since Kristin is living back at home with her 2 kids as well. We got in around noon on the 26th and enjoyed spending the afternoon opening gifts. Dallen was very spoiled as were we all. It was definitely funner this year having more kids there to open gifts with. Dallen was so interested in all his toys, but we put them aside to play with once we got home. There were plenty of little David's toys for him to play with while he was there. Linda made a delicious prime rib dinner that night and it was just another wonderful peaceful day.

The next day we decided to spend together looking at the Bellagio Gardens. I don't think any of us would've gone if we knew how many people were going to be there! I've never seen it so packed. It was crazy. Anyway, the gardens were gorgeous as usual and I think the kids enjoyed it.





The next couple days Linda and David had to work and Brighton was with her dad so Travis and I ran errands and he worked on the Ranger. Friday Travis went out with his Dad, Nick and Cael to go bird hunting, but really just to ride around in the Ranger at Christmas Tree Pass. I spent the day with Mindy and enjoyed chatting away and catching up. That night our old group of friends went out to dinner and played games at the Starleys. It seriously was just like old times. It felt like none of us had ever moved away! We played Mofia for hours and just laughed and laughed. It was such a good fun night- we didn't get to bed until 2am!


The next day the whole family went out riding on the 4wheelers. David brought his Polaris and we all piled in and headed up to Lovell Canyon. We had a nice picnic and went on a couple of short rides and really enjoyed being away from it all together. Little David played in the snow for the first time (I think) and Brighton had a blast exploring and riding the 4wheelers. Linda had a good time as well and it was just so nice to get away and do something all together. Because Travis & I were up so late the night before, we rang in the New Year snoozing away. I think that was a first for me in a long time. :P Guess that's what happens when you become a mom. ha!









We headed out on Sunday and really had a nice little vacation. We miss being around such great friends and being closer to family, but love our new home in Beaver. Looking forward to the next visit!

Christmas in Beaver

Christmas Eve- Already so EXCITED!

Caught ya! No peaking...

This year we had 2 Christmas'- Christmas day was spent in Beaver and the day after in Vegas. Travis was on call the 23-25th but took a vacation for the rest of the week so we could go down to Vegas and spend the week after Christmas with his family. It was definitely different being just the 3.5 of us (Lily being the .5), but I really did enjoy it. It was very calm and peaceful and nice to have Dallen's first Christmas be with just us. Christmas was on Sunday as well so that made Christmas day a little different as well. We woke up at 6am to video chat with the Heeb family and do buddy presents and grandma Hayman gifts. It was crazy as usual. Then we got ready for church. The whole program was music and I sang a duet, Were you There On that Christmas Night'. Travis got called in at the end of church so Dallen and I went home and waited to open presents. Well it was awhile before he came home and when he did, Dallen was napping. So Travis and I opened our gifts to each other and then took a nap with Dallen and then finally around 4pm Dallen got to open his presents. Not like he knows any different, but definitely different then all other Christmas mornings we've experienced. :) It really was a nice Christmas Day and I'm looking forward to playing Santa for our little family.

He LOVED the wrapping paper. What's he doing with a Gators football...?
There goes Lily climbing on my shoe boxes to get to her treat
And she got it! :P




Lily hoarding her new toys and treats

50th Birthdays

This year was my parents' 50th birthday (Dec 20th & 28th). So us kids decided to plan a surprise party as our gift for them. You'd be surprised (no pun intended-ha!) at how much planning and coordinating it takes to pull off a surprise party when most of you live out of town! It was a lot of work, but it all came together and they loved it. Mom picked up on some accidental clues about the party, but didn't know that it was all planned by us kids. Dad was completely clueless though. :) Jessica and I weren't able to be there, but the rest of the family was and they had a great turn out with their friends. As a gift, we put together 50 reasons we love mom and 50 for dad, 5 from each kid, and put them in a jar for them to keep. :) We set out a few old albums for people to look through and of course had plenty of food. I wish we could've been there, but after all the work we did to pull it off, it almost felt like we were.

Newest Toy! & Newest News!

Now that we've lived in Beaver for almost year, we realize how much we actually could and would get out and go 4wheeling. This is only possible with a baby if you own a side-by-side ATV. So, this past year we've been lucky to get out and ride when the Starley's are in town, since they have a RZR and both babies can ride in the back seat in their car seats. Now that hunting season is over and they aren't coming up every other weekend, we decided it's time we find a side-by-side for ourselves:



It's a 2011 Polaris Ranger Crew 8000- 2 bench seats, 6 seat belts, and a dump bed. We found it in Wyoming and decided that since we were in N.Utah buying our new trailer anyway, we'd go over to Wyoming and check out the good deal. Well, it turned out to be a pretty nice one and we decided to get it! So instead of just coming home with a trailer, we found our new side-by-side too! It's really comfy and lots of room to store stuff. We added new wheels and tires and will be getting a hardtop roof in the future and half windshield. Travis is also supping up the suspension as well.

pulling out from the place we bought it

pre-wheels and tires

Of course things couldn't go that smoothly and on our way home, on the freeway, the truck broke down. We had to get towed from Sandy to Beaver and it was definitely an ordeal. Thankfully it was a safe and quick tow, but we sure had to argue with the dispatch company and figure out how to make everyone happy. We get unlimited towing through our insurance company but the dispatch company didn't want to be responsible for getting our family home nor our trailer. It was such a mess. But like I said, at least we got home safe and it didn't take very long at all. Turns out the right rear axle snapped. Crazy huh?

While we were in N. Utah we stayed with the Rowes and had a great time catching up. We also went out for sushi with the Wells for Sarah's Bday dinner. Because we were eating sushi, we found out a little sooner then expected that Sarah is expecting #2!!! She's due July 25th and is so excited. :) Should be fun to have another little one in the fam next year!

After our excellent sushi, we went and took pictures with Santa at the Shops at the Riverwoods in Orem. Jacob and Dallen were sooo cute! I'm so glad we got a 1st Christmas Santa picture taken with Dallen. Yeah!

Chopping Our Tree!

We started a new family tradition this year- chopping our own Christmas Tree! It was so much fun driving way high into the mountains, down snowy roads no one had been on yet, to find the perfect tree. The snow was pretty deep but the weather was nice. Dallen wore his little snow suit and got to sit in a pile of snow for the first time. He loved it! :) Lily had a hard time keeping up since she could only jump so high in and out of the snow. She mostly stuck to our tracks. We found a really nice, tall symmetrical tree which turned out to be almost too tall. They really don't look so big out in the forest. It isn't as smelly as I thought it would be, but still so nice to have a real tree again. Yeah!

More Dallen...4-6months

Dallen has been so much fun these last few months. So many new adventures for him and us. He makes us laugh so much and always has a smile on his face. He is a big eater now but still makes funny faces every time you put a new taste in his mouth. By that I don't mean a new food, but every meal the first bite always produces a funny face. We fed him rice cereal and breast milk for his first feeding and it was quite the adventure. :)

He had his first bath in the big tub at Grandma Linda's in his bumbo. His skin is basically the same color as the bumbo-ha! He loved it and was so much easier for me to handle him in a bigger tub. He loves to splash around and lay on his tummy and play in the water. Funny though, he still hates being on his tummy on carpet-little stinker. :)

We take him everywhere and stick him on everything. He loves it. He loves the fish tanks at Cabelas and could just sit and watch the fish for a good long time. Speaking of Cabelas, after 3 hours of shopping, our little man pooped out- I put him on a couch in the home decor section and he fell asleep in less than a minute. We usually carry him around when we shop, well his Daddy carries him around when we shop showing him around. He is becoming more and more interested in Lily and she's not too happy about that, although she does protect us from other people and dogs. Oh Lil.

He started out to be quite the thumb sucker but has since dropped that and has taken to his binky when he's tired. We try to only give it to him when it's time to sleep. Occasionally we'll find him like this, silly little guy. Speaking of sleeping, I think FINALLY he's starting to understand you're suppose to sleep through the night, not eat every 3 hours. Sheesh! Once he was settled into eating baby food and we started supplementing with a formula that he liked, the sleeping seemed to start to come in longer segments. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it lasts!

His first big mess was when we gave him a tissue paper flower to play with. He loves the crinkling sounds and of course stuck it in his mouth as well. Little did we know that this tissue paper bleeds and he soon had purple all over his face and hands. :P He makes other messes every now and then as well, especially when his daddy is feeding him. :D

He's just getting so big! He got his 'two front teeth' for Christmas- well really, the 2 bottom front teeth, but still. :) They came in about a week before. The nickname that has stuck so far is 'Bucket'. It started out as fuss bucket for whatever reason, and now it's just bucket. He also has a little chant I sing to him, but we won't go into that. ha! He's learning how to play ball- rolling it back and forth and catching it. It's sooo cute! He learned to sit up on his own in the month of December and finally got it down without falling over while visiting Grandma Linda. Seriously, what happened to our little baby? He's just turning into a little guy more and more every day. He'll be 7 months Jan 7th! We're loving every minute. :D