Sunday, January 3, 2010

Goodbye Christmas Break :-(



The fun is OVER!  It is time to get back to work! But the past two weeks have been absolutely amazing!  We spent the first week of my break in Utah where we had a white Christmas and tons of fun and then we came back to good old AZ for Christmas number 2 and tons of great family time.  Here I am tonight, just finishing up report cards and letting reality set in.  But this was one of the best Christmas breaks I have had so here are all the details...!

We left for Utah on Friday night, we got the car all packed and got the baby ready for bed (gave him a little Benadryl) and hit the road.  Arlo did amazingly well, he slept the whole ride up and when we arrived at Rex and Jenn's house at 6:30 AM Arlo was ready for vacation!  And all we wanted to do was sleep.  I have to admit before we left I was frantic!  Arlo is at the age where he does not sleep well in random places and before we left he just started sleeping through the night again after a bad cold and waking up 3+ times each night.  And I knew that when we got there it was going to mess up his schedule again, and when Arlo does not sleep, mommy does not sleep and we are both cranky... that would not be very fun.  But my fears started to dissipate when I realized that we could fit Arlo's crib in the closet!  And then again when he went right down for his first nap.  Overall, the sleeping situation went ok.  Arlo's naps were great but nighttime was still hard, he woke up 2-3 times every night and then wanted to get up at 5 or 5:30 every morning.  (This is a secret of how good of a mom I am... since Arlo was waking up so early, after 3 days of this I decided I would let him play on the floor of the room while I went back to sleep and then after about an hour he would be tiered and I would put him back down and we would both sleep in until 9.  So in reality I did sleep in just about every day.)  

Christmas Eve was wonderful.  We went over to Tim's sisters house where all the children played out the Christmas Story, then we watched them open their presents.  The adults had a great white elephant gift exchange where we received a present wrapped in duct tape and labeled "a redneck Christmas" in which we received wife beaters, a muumuu, pickled pigs feet, assorted popcorn in a miller light tin with poker chips on top, pork rinds and hunting gear.  Let me tell you, that is all I wanted for Christmas.  For our real Christmas present we received a beautiful framed picture of the Mesa Temple, which is where we were married.  It was a perfect night.

 This is the hat and vest from our red neck present.   


Then, Christmas morning was a morning that I 'slept in' till nine and much to my surprise so had everyone else.  We spent the morning opening presents, eating, eating, taking naps, eating, eating, talking, eating, eating, putting a puzzle together and did I mention eating?  It was the most relaxing Christmas I have ever had!  It was perfect!





This is actually a funny story, Tim and I are really bad with keeping secrets and one of the few presents that we got each other that we kept a secret from each other are digital picture frames.  We are so cool!!!




I got to go snowboarding while I was up in Utah, it has been 3 years since I have been because I was pregnant last year and the year before was just a busy year.  So, I sucked!  Sorry to put it so harshly, but I was tired and cold and done by 2:00.  So I waited in the lodge and played on my i phone until everyone else finished up the day.  I still had a great time and I will hopefully go a few more times this year!

I am going to brag here... Timmy got me brand new Solomon snowboarding boots!  They are awesome and way cute too!

When it was time to come back to AZ Tim and I decided it was best not to drive with the baby again so we flew back to AZ where my mom and sister picked us up and then we spent the next few days with my family.  When Tim got back we had out second Christmas where we all were showered with more presents.




With these pictures it's just best not to ask questions, this is my family and we have so much fun together.  But the hat that Arlo is wearing is a camo hat that says "daddy's little hunting buddy" and in the last picture is Arlo eating fishing bait.  It is what Grandpa Darel got him for Christmas with everything else Alro will ever need to go fishing with Grandpa.

For the rest of my vacation I spent it cleaning my house, relaxing and most importantly spending time with my boy!  Can I tell you how much I love him!  He is honestly the sweetest little spirit.  I cannot help but smile every time I see him.  And he is growing so fast!  I look at pictures of him from being a newborn to now and I cannot even tell that he is the same boy.  Here he is at 8 months (just about the same amount of time that he was in my belly) and I think of all that he can do (crawl, stand, walk while holding onto stuff, use his thumb and finger to feed himself, blow spit bubbles and say mamamamama (not meaning me, but it still feels so good every time I hear it)) and then I have to thank my Heavenly Father for this amazing miracle that he gave to us to take care of.  Arlo has literally turned my world upside down!  And I love it... I love him!

I cannot wait to find out what this next year has in store for us.  But whatever 2010 brings us, I will keep everybody updated!  Happy New Year!



1 comment:

Rob and Alexa said...

Looks like you guys had a fabulous Christmas. I wish we would have been able to get the boys together. Caleb is starting to feel better now that he is on antibiotics for his ear infection. So, next time you have a day to hang out give me a ring. I love the last picture of Arlo looking out the window. Love the new camo hat too.