It's Finally Here

I am finally going to be talking about past events that I have been postponing for a few months now. No reason other than the fact that I found myself to busy or too tired to post about the events, but then that leads me to having to spend more time on here because I have to play catch-up. I will do my best to try to capture everything. I am not going to bother talking about Thanksgiving. It's way past due and I just don't wanna. December was a fun/stressful month.  In early December we went up North to go to the Polar Express!! My BIL's then girlfriend and her family invited us to go and she had her whole family with her and it was just so much fun. Kody and I drove up to Kingman Friday night I believe and stayed with my MIL, then we went to Williams the next day which was the night we went on the train. We stayed the night in the hotel there and it was a fun little getaway. Kole could not join us and I no longer remember why. He either had to work or do something... hmm oh well. Here are some pics of that event

my BIL, Seth with his little girl, Reece and my Kody. We were waiting in the gift shop for our train to arrive.

me and Erica added to the picture.  Kody was so excited to go on the train!! She kept asking about it ever 2 minutes or so

Outside wating to go on the train. I love this picture so much. I am so happy that Kody has a little cousin that loves her so much

Everyone got cookies and hot chocolate just like in the book. The train even had waiters and someone on the overhead read the story of the Polar Express.  The girls loved the treats. The little girl in the red is Erica's cousin's little girl, Madi.  She is so dang cute.

Santa Clause on his sleigh at the North Pole.  The kids loved this part! It was pretty fun and entertaining watching their eyes light up as they saw the lights and all of the buildings.

Then Santa Clause himself came on the train and gave each child (and adult if wanted) a bell from one of His reindeer just like in the book.  Kody was not afraid of him and I was quite surprised. That girl has a fear of some of the most random things/people, so this was good.

We had to leave back to Kingman early the next morning because of a blizzard that was expected to hit that day.  I was annoyed, but I do suppose it was for the better. I was just so dang tired, and I am not a nice person when I am tired... well that depends on who I'm talking to. Kody saw her first snow fall and sadly could not play in it.  Oh well, she would be playing in the snow for the first time in a month from this anyway.

CHRISTMAS

Christmas day was a very long and busy day!! It started with Kody waking up at 5:30!! She was just too excited! I have decided that from this year on out we will be having Christmas very early until all of our kids are adults! We had a very small Christmas due to financial situations. Kole's work has slowed down a ton and we need and want to save our money. It was hard, but at the same time, I am grateful for what we do have and I know there are people out there who have it worse than us.  Our opening of presents probably lasted maybe 30 minutes... maybe.  Kody was so happy.

This was at our house.  Kody had the stomach flu a few days before Christmas, the poor thing. You could tell that even though she was so excited for it, she didn't really feel too good. You'll see later on.

At the parents: We go to my parents house every year in the morning and we have a little Christmas message from my dad, a prayer and then we open presents. We usually open stockings first, and then go in chronilogical age order, but because Kody got the bulk of it this year, we just opened presents at random. My dad always makes crepes and they are ever so good!!! I don't take pictures of food usually. My mom does and it's hilarious. *story for another time if someone reminds me*

Kole got sleeve tattoos from my mom, Kody could care less... haha

My siblings. I love each one of them very much. I am so blessed to have them as my family!! For some reason I don't wear my jammies to Christmas morning, and I should have. The others were in theirs. 

You may not be able to tell, but Kole and I gave Danny a present that we were given for our wedding (5 years ago) and we didn't want it, didn't know where it came from and we thought we could get some laughs if we gave it to Danny. It was a bathroom set with the cup, soap dish, and toothbrush holder thing, and we pretended it was from my Grandma.  The look on his face was priceless!! We all were laughing so hard, which was good because it didn't blow our cover that it was really from us.

Kody is trying very hard to show her excitement for her play food (best present ever! thanks Grandma!!) but as you can tell in her face, she just couldn't show her full excitement. Poor girl

Kole received a book about Poo and Danny received one about Pee. thanks Kristin!  The animation in the books is quite hilarious!!

I love that I am close to my family! Sometimes I want to pack up and move somewhere else to get away from AZ, but I am close to my family! We are so blessed to have them so close to us and we get to visit all the time.  Family is the most important thing in this world. It is what makes everything right. I don't know how I would do without my family in my life.

Danny and Kristin surprised my mom/dad with a Wii!! that came with the wii fit and guitar hero! My mom was ever-so-excited considering she has been wanting a wii for quite some time now.

After my parents, we went back home and Kole's mom and her husband came over and we exchanged gifts then. Then after that we went to the annual lunch with Kole's grandparents and the Ellertson side of the family. We go to the same place every year. It is so funny to me to see the size difference of the families. My extended family is huge! where Kole's extended family consists of less than 20 people including grandkids. It was a nice gathering.  Then after lunch, me, my sisters, and mom and our friend Maura went to go see Sherlock Holmes! We go every year on Christmas day. Danny and his girlfriend, Mandy showed up this year too. If you have not seen that movie, you need to. It.is.amazingly good!!! I cannot wait for the second one!! Christmas was a very long day,but it was well spent with our loved ones!!

NEW YEARS

This year was the first year in Idk how long that we spent new years away from home. It wasn't intentionally planned, in a way. We went to Vail, Colorado for Kole's brother's wedding! Vail was beautiful!! The wedding was small. Just immediate family.  We left on new year's eve and when we got to Denver, we had to take a 2 hour shuttle ride to Vail. Luckily we did not have to bring Kody's car seat. The shuttle company provided one for us!! When we arrived in Vail, i believe the temperature was 7º! SEVEN!! It felt nice, but I was outside maybe a whole minute while I got out of the car, got my luggage and went inside!

That night we just spent the time playing card games with Erica and Seth, and her parents. Kole's mom graciously watched Kody and Reece. I was grateful for everything she did for us on that trip!! Kody had a great time beingwith her grandma too! Erica's parents, Debbie and Randy taught me a game about a month ago and I love it! It's called Bid 'em.  We played that for the entire time. Now Randy is the type of person that can fall asleep anywhere. He just gets comfy and is out, so with that info, we decided to have some fun!!

As you can see we placed a cup on his head, and then set the camera to timer and we all got in the picture with him. We were cracking up! He was a good sport about it. He can sleep anywhere, but he was also a light sleeper, so he woke up both times! Still hilarious.

New Years morning we ate breakfast and then played in the snow for about an hour! Our set up was awesome. We had the perfect little field right outside our window to play in that no one else was playing in. Probably because everyone else was having a blast skiing or snowboarding, but whatever! The snow wasn't the best. It was fun and fluffy, but as for making snowballs it wasn't that greatest. You really had to pack it down to make a ball that would even stick together long enough to reach the person you threw it at.  Kody did such a good job in the snow. I was worried that she wouldn't like it.  She lasted for a maybe 30 minutes. Kole got her the cutest little snow suit and we found her some snow mittens and warm socks, so I feel that if she didn't have that it would have been worse.

 

Above you can see Erica making a snow angel, Kody's new suit, our family, Seth and Kole, and Madi. The pic of the hotel is our window. The one open is Kole's grandpa andAunt taking pictures and mine and Kole's room in next door to the left in this pic! so fun!!

Kole took Kody swimming in the heated pool while it was snowing!! Can you see the snow? I was going to go, but I just showered, and I didn't want to have to do that again.  Kody didn't enjoy it one bit as you will see in the pic below

 

Everyone else who stayed in the pool. The steamyness looked appealing, but again.. didn't want to shower again.

Left is Kole's snow angel that he made before I got down there to take a picture. He didn't want to do it again. I can understand why. If you look at Seth's face, he looks like he is in pain from the stinging cold on his hot skin!

The day of the wedding, which is the same day as people went swimming, the girls and I played in the snow outside of the salon while we were waiting for our ride to come back and get us. Erica's parents rented a car and they got a good one!! It was a mountaineer from Nissan I believe. And the wedding was about 3 miles away from our hotel, so Randy would transport people back and forth and at this current time, he was taking Erica and her maid of honor, SIL Jessie to the wedding hotel, so we played while waited. I love the pic of Reece and Kody!! and the tree pic is me trying to be artsy.

This is the only wedding picture I have. I didn't take my camera with me during the ceremony and I wish I had. Kody was a flower girl with Reece  and they wer so cute!! Erica looked gorgeous in her dress!! The scenery was gorgeous!! Very nice wedding. The food was great, cake was good, and the time with family was wonderful.

We went to breakfast the next morning. The sun was shining on us when we got there, but it soon started to snow! I loved being in the snow. Some people shopped around the little shops that have the same crap in them as every other little town you go into, but with a different name on them. So we decided to have fun instead. In the pics is Michael, our nephew, Randi lynn Erica's cousin (madi's mom). She was the photographer, so she wasn't seen in a lot of the shots in the wedding, so I thought it was important to get her in on the fun too!!

We then went on a sleigh ride!! This huge open field was gorgeous with the sunlight on the snow. It reminded me of Edward... no one else on that trip could appreciate the comparison that I made. No one knew about Edward and his hotness sparkling like the snow.. sigh... So here are some pics from that:

Okay these 2 cabins have some history behind them. I guess they were built in the 1800's by the orinial settlers that came out from missouri or back east or somewhere. Idk... I wasn't really listening. Well the cabing that is in the back or facing the camera belonged to the little 6 year old girl and the cabin to the side belonged to the parents. These cabins still had the original beds, stove, sink, baby crib and other things in it! Way cool!!

Next are a bunch of pictures of us playing around for a while during our time at this ranch. In the summer they use it for roping cattle, and dude ranching type stuff. Debbie and I were playing in the snow while the others stayed inside. We found snow that went up to our knees. At one point we found the volley ball net and played air volleyball! We had blast!! Too bad everyone else missed out. Enjoy the pics:

guys and gals on this horse thingy

Kole's dad and his wife in the upper left picture.  Kole's mom and dad with kody in the upper right and Kim and Kody on the bottom picture.

The snow up to our knees!  Then we decided to lay in the snow and if you look you can see how deep it really is. We fell back into it as if falling onto a bed! It was so deep and soft it didn't hurt at all!!

We went home early the next day. I had so much fun in the snow!! The cold wasn't that bad, but at the same time, I wore appropriate clothing. Kody tolerated it well! We didnt got out at night, so I don't really know how cold it actually got, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be.  I was starting to picture what it would be like to live somewhere with snow like this, but when I saw traffic backed up for miles and miles, my thoughts soon changed. I don't know how to drive in snow, black ice scares the crap out of me, and I dont want to do that. ever!

THE FUTURE:

What I have to look forward to this year is this:

I will be starting my final semster of Nursing school!! Yes! I cannot believe it!! I am so excited to be done!!

Kole and I will celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary in March!! Time flies by so fast!!

In May I will celebrate my birthday (big 2-5) and I will graduate with my degree in nursing! I will be a RN!!

I hope this year will bring other exciting things as well, but as of right now, this is what I know for certain!!

This post took me forever! I don't want to wait this long ever again because playing catch up sucks