Happy Christmas, Ho Ho Ho!

That's what Ava was saying all. day. long. It was pretty cute. Christmas was fun and Flavs was WAY too spoiled. In my defense, I was trying to get her to like me the best.

My mom made all the Grandkids "Quillows" (Quilt Pillows). My grandma made them for us when we were little. Ava LOVED it.

She loved her Quillow so much that she refused to open any other presents unless she was wrapped in it.

We got Flavs a car. Obviously we were in our right minds when we bought it.

At least she loved it.

She also got to go to Build a Bear thanks to her other Grandpa and Grandma. She LOVED making her new Pinkie Pie doll!

Christmas Eve

My sister is really good at planning parties...like REALLY good. Our Christmas Eve party had games, a photobooth, food (like a ridiculous amount), and a homemade gift exchange. It was a lot of fun.  It was also nice because the kids acted out (more like dressed up and sat) the Nativity.  Even though the kids didn't do much, it was good to be able to hear more about our Savior.  This Christmas has been really busy with moving and packing.  I haven't had much time to focus on the true meaning of Christmas.  I am so grateful for our Savior and his life. I am also really grateful that I was able to be together with family.

Here are some pics of our awesomeness!

Trying to shake ping pong balls out of the tissue box...sweet moves.

Moving M&Ms from cup to cup with a straw

Dad was a pro

And of course...Christmas jammies!

Life Lessons Learned in Moving from St. George to Utah Valley

This move has been INSANE. Not only am I packing this house by myself BUT we are moving just a few days before Christmas! Throughout this experience, I have learned a few life lessons about moving/packing.

1. I have no upper body strength. No, seriously. I learned this real quick after trying to put a mattress cover on a twin bed by myself.  As I watched the mattress fall on top of me, I thought to myself "I've made a huge mistake."

2. Diet Coke everyday is a MUST.

3. Flavs is really busy. I mean REALLY busy. I found that by giving her markers and letter her color on boxes, she would be occupied for 5-10 minutes. A record.

4. Color coding boxes seemed like a really good idea at first. Pink means I can unpack it until we find a house, green means it stays boxed until we find a house, blue means it goes into storage until we find a house. Simple enough. Until I find that I have inner arguments with myself over every box on whether it is "essential" and "unpackable".  My heart says everything is essential. My knees and back say everything should stay boxed...forever.

5. Because we are moving so suddenly, we are moving into an apartment until we can find a house. It was fine until we got bumped to the third floor. #suckstobeourmovinghelpers

I have also been thinking about the pros and cons of leaving St. George.

PROS:
LESS COCKROACHES - I put this in caps because it has seriously been the worst thing about living in St. George. I swear I kill at least 6 or 7 everyday. On a side note, Flavs is really good at squishing and then flushing the bugs.

Cooler summers

More shopping/things to do

BYU everything

Less tan people that make me look super pasty

Quieter neighbors (fingers crossed)

CONS:
More snow/colder winters

Bigger hair...everywhere

More traffic

Did I mention snow?

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was AWESOME. All of my family was here and it was SO FUN to have everyone together! Pictures!

The grandkids LOVED playing with Grandpa. I'm pretty sure Grandpa loved squishing in this tiny room to play with 4 toddlers.

We "Black Friday" shopped. DUH.

We went hiking in the Red Rocks.

  And we got photobombed...like 10 times. *Don't mind the pure nastiness that is my face in this picture.

All of the grandkids were together! Yay! Loud! Crazy!

 We had an awesome White Elephant party. This sign got passed around the whole time. Classy.

 

All of the siblings were together! So fun! We LOVED LOVED LOVED having Tyler and Jackie here! Virginia is too far away!

 *Cheeser alert* The best part was that I got to hang out with this guy for FOUR WHOLE DAYS!!!! Loved it!

Oh Hey, Here's the Haps...

Yikes....is it seriously November?! Double Yikes....is it seriously THANKSGIVING next week?! What the what?! Where did the time go? I've been so bad about blogging.  Oh well. I figure Instagram is like an insta-blog...only this blog has less hashtags. #idontevenusehashtagshere...oh wait.

Anyway, here's a look at what we've been up to since August!

Flavs got even cuter....I don't even know how that's possible.

We went to Stahli farms

We went on a hay ride...Ava was tripped out at first...and then she liked it.

We held hands.

Ava picked a pumpkin...I instagrammed said picking.

This is my, "I didn't know John was taking a picture so I will try to look as dorkish as possible."

Grandma Peggy was there!

Seriously...she gets cuter!!!! HOW?!?

 Halloween - All in all Halloween was awesome. Here's the deal though...when your child has a peanut allergy, it's only natural to get excited about getting to eat all the peanut candy. It's really about saving lives. Anyway, Ava only got 1 (!!!!!!!) peanut candy!!! And it was a payday! THOSE ARE THE WORST. Ava had fun eating her candy...I did not.

Ava was Tinkerbell for Halloween. Duh...look at her hair! How could she NOT be Tinkerbell!?

We went to a Halloween partay with the cousins.

We went Trick or Treating with Megan and Brigs.

Ava LOVED trick or treating...so much so that she would let herself into people's homes to get the candy. Yikes.

7 Years and Counting!

Happy Anniversary John! Here are some of my favorites from the past year!

Getting new family pictures.

 4th of July in Idaho

 Playing Build a Burger

All of the hiking we did

 Relaxing in Vegas for our anniversary

Hanging out with you two crazies every day! (Totally corny)