Christmas + New Years

We spent this year in Arizona for Christmas.

Jackson loves driving to Arizona so he was pretty excited about Christmas here.

We went to Carrabas for dinner (per tradition) and then they let Jackson open up one gift the night before per our tradition.  He thought he would be opening the Wii but Brady quickly changed the wrapping of it so when Jackson opened the juggling balls, he was a little bummed out.  Then we went right into more of the Nielsen Family traditions where the adults act out the nativity scene!  It's pretty funny to act it all out as if we were kids.  After we sang Christmas songs, had a snowball fight, put on our matching pajamas Brenda picked out for everyone and then I tucked little man to sleep so Santa could come.  He was so excited and so was I to be apart of his Christmas 2013.  

Christmas morning was so exciting.  Brenda set up stockings, Santa gifts, and fun things like that.  We opened gifts all morning which isn't usual for us, but it was fun to have everyone take their time for gifts.  Jackson got a bike, Skylanders, a air hockey set and a lot of fun things.

When we drove back home, we had New Years Eve at the Devines.  We played games and were team USA.  We actually won the whole thing!  When we got home, the Nielsens were sleeping over.  We woke up early and went to the Rose Bowl Parade.  I was pregnant here and really sick so it wasn't a pleasant day walking around with lots of people when I wanted to just throw up everywhere.  Elise is also pregnant too.  We were only 2 weeks apart.  I ended up miscarrying in May of 2014.

Merry Merry Time

It's finally December! So excited.  Bring on the cold weather and socks.

(picture we used for our Christmas card)

We talked to Jackson before he came over.  It was fun to plan what we were going to do for the weekend with him. He loves a good plan, and play by play.

After we talked, he wrote me a note that I will cherish forever and ever.

Brady is getting use to coming home to me taking apart something, and fixing it up. This was a flimsy bookcase he has had for a long time that was def not very good quality so I wanted to make it not be such an eye sore.  We figured all of the furniture we have here won't go with us to our next place so we are trying to not buy anything new. Almost everything we have is hand-me-downs so it gets me excited to change things up a bit.

It was a bigger project than I expected.

We picked up Jackson and went straight to the snow in Fraizer Park which isn't too far from us but this particular day there was a crash or something so we sat in traffic for forever.  We read books and kept busy but when we finally got to the snow, we jumped out to play in it.  Brady bought a sled and we found a hill to go down.

Jackson wearing both graduate schools Brady went/goes to.

rapping like it's his buisnas

This picture says it all. He was a happy, cold boy.

After we went to the church, 2/3 of us matching for the Christmas party.

It was so cute to see him line up to meet Santa with the younger kids.

little seven year old with Santa.  He said, "My you are heavy"

That night the Elf got ambushed by his Skylanders.

Then, sadly we had to say goodbye! It was a fun weekend!

He was so sad, had tears but had to go.

Thanksgiving + My 29th Birthday

Thanksgiving was suppose to be at my parent's house this year.  We usually have Lindsay's (Mitch's wife) family over or we go there for Thanksgiving.  So the Devines came over and then we invited the Nielsens since they weren't going to have Britt and Chris there for Thanksgiving.  They stayed in a near-by hotel and we stayed at my parent's house.  After everyone came over and we ate lots of food, we saw the movie Frozen with everyone and then the Nielsens stayed to play Nerts with us.  They were new to it, but near the end they found it to be fun like our family does.

The next day was my birthday, and Black Friday.  Since I don't care for shopping I didn't get up very early to shop like my sisters and mom, so Brady got me Stacks gf pancakes with coconut syrup (so so good) and then the girls picked me up to go to the Irvine Spectrum to shop a little.  I was over it pretty soon after we got there-- it was crowded, rainy and just too much going on.  We met back with the rest of the family (the guys) for lunch at Romanos. 

After we went for a walk around a park, almost went to a movie but then went to the Rip Curl Warehouse sale my brother was working at and Brady bought me a new wardrobe.  He felt bad that my birthday wasn't going as well as other birthdays he has done before but I was just really glad we were alone and were spending time one-on-one.  After he told me we needed to stop by Elise's house for dessert and then all of our families and a few friends were there to surprise me.  It was really sweet.  It's always hard to get friends together for my birthday because it's always after Thanksgiving and right before Christmas craziness so I'm use to not having friends on my actual birthday. It was my golden birthday so Elise went all out  with the homemade photoboth, the golden food, decor etc.  Everyone went around the room and said something sweet about me.  It was really nice of everyone.

My childhood friend Lisa made this little thing for me.

Thanksgiving Break with Jackson

My sister Elise taught me how to make her burlap wreaths so I could teach our Relief Society.  I gave them a bunch of options of wreaths I make but they picked Elise's so I made a bunch before teaching.  Elise started making her wreaths before pinterest was around so it's been fun to see others that look similar.

I was a little nervous because I had so many women in my class and I had never taught anyone how to make them but somehow everyone's turned out okay.  It was a lot of fun to see everyone's version of what they interpreted. 

My friend Heather took some pictures for me of the night.

We went out to dinner at a local BBQ place that we have wanted to go since we moved to South Pas.  It's called Gus' BBQ and it was so good! 

We also finally visited the LA temple around six months after we were married there. 

It was so good to be back there.

We got some sushi at our favorite sushi place we went to all the time while dating in Marina Del Rey, Irori.  Its fun to sit inside the ground, take off your shoes and have all japanese workers.

We put up our Christmas tree near the end of November, only because Jackson was coming and I wanted him to feel the Christmas love at our place. Oh and yes, I really already had gifts.  I love giving gifts, I'm not the best at it, but I try to put a ton of thought in them.

We started to drive to San Clemente and Jackson opened up the Thanksgiving package from his Gramma Nielsen. He loves all the holiday cards and packages she sends him.

Jackson got to play out in the great culd-e-sac with his BFF and his brothers.

Brady came out to hang out with us and drew the picture I took of them on the gravel. 

They thought that was pretty dang cool.

When we got back, the Elf came off the shelf.  Jackson loves to look at the Elf and seeing his cute face of wonderment and questions like ... he must get cold traveling back to Santa's workshop every night not wearing a coat.  He hoped the Elf would end up in his backpack so he could show the Elf Disneyland. Christmas is so much more fun with a kid.  

It was a mommy-Jack date around the best time at Disneyland. He was so filled with excitement for what the day was going to hold for us.

We did some things we have never tried at Disneyland, like the steamboat.

And Davey Crockett's Canoes... let me tell ya, that was a lot of rowing.  The guy in front of me was sweating up a storm and it was windy, so you can guess how this went down

Since Jackson's third word was "Vroom Vroom" he still fancies his cars.

We love the Cars Land and have to do all the rides, attractions there.

After we got pizza at his favorite place outside of Disneyland because the pieces are so big.

Believe it or not, we went back to Disneyland the next day, but this time met up with his friend Axel.  We wanted to use our passes as much as we could while Brady was working and we had Thanksgiving break together.

Axel's family all have passes and this kid knew more about Disneyland than anyone I have ever met.  

These two were in First Grade together and still remain such good friends.

The Bear Country playground area is where these two wanted to play for hours.  They loved it.  They played and played to the point where they would run to me out of breath and do it all over again. Then they wanted to go on the Big Water Rapids, and since it wasn't warm outside, there was no line.  They went on it over and over 6 times together while I sat out to watch them.

We had to say goodbye to Jackson for him to go back to his dad's for Thanksgiving.