Oh the Holidays!

Warning:

This is a very long post and contains many, many pictures!

Christmas break this year was a blast! We were very sad to leave. I always get sad after the good byes, like on the plane or once we get home and Matt's back to school/work and me and Luke are lonesome buddies.

After uploading these pictures I was surprised and a little sad that I didn't take more pictures, since we did soo many things! (Matt told me we already had enough...men).

Before leaving we were able to go to our ward's Christmas program. We sang in it (thanks to the Jeppson's for watching Luke!) and it was a lot of fun and a great program. Our good friends directed it and they did an awesome job. Later Sunday (21st) afternoon we ventured home to Utah.

We stayed at Matt's house the whole two weeks, besides one night we had a sleepover at my mom's. The first week we spent a little more time with the Clark's since Anne (Matt's mom) was flying out to Texas to be with Emily for the second week. Congrats to Doug and Em by the way they had their sixth child, little Logan, who is so darn cute!!!

I think we did a pretty good job at splitting up the time between families. It's nice that they live so close, but can be hectic at times going back and forth.

Monday night my family had their big Christmas party. The fam has gotten so big we have to have our parties at the church cultural hall! But it's nice to have space for the kids to run around.

The pinata that was actually made with cardboard. No wonder no one could get it open.

Good thing Grandpa J had his handy pocket knife.

Burk and Me.
Jonah and Me.
My silly nephews.

Lydia is so darn cute. She is always saying "Hi" in the sweetest girliest voice and the next thing you know she's screaming at the top of her lungs. But it's only for a second and it's really funny. She always does this head tilt thing, cute.

Some of the fam.

My boys.
We had so much fun eating good food and desserts, opening fun presents, playing games and visiting.

While we were there we got quite a bit of snow.
On Christmas Eve and Christmas day I think we got about a foot in addition to the foot they already had. So everyone had to go out and play!

Matt, Rob, Adrienne vs. Rachel, Charlie & Sarah
They had great forts.
Lucky for me I was the photographer...from inside the house.

Burrr.

One thing Matt loves to do when we're home is play racket ball with his Dad and bro/sis. They played three or four times I think.
We also went and played walleyball. It was a lot of fun!

Luke and McKay didn't have the most fun. They were a little ticked that they were stuck in the play pin.

Charlie in action.

Oh the babies!
It was a lot of fun but quite a handful to get the three babies together.
Jakson and Lydia were born on the same day, five weeks after Luke.

For the most part they "parallel played."

Christmas Eve Day was spent sledding at Peteetneet and we were the only adults there without children. And it was SO fun!
Me, Matt, Rachel, Charlie, Sarah, Adrienne & Rob (Matt's dad) went.
Thanks Anne for watching the babies!
That night we had (cheese) fondue for dinner. Before we got to the nativity and A Muppets Christmas Carol I was in bed with a pounding headache and a sick stomach. That night Matt threw up a few times and on Christmas morning....bummer.

Luke & Sarah on Christmas morning.

Pale Matt wearing his favorite surprise Christmas present.
For those of you who don't know, Matt LOVES John Denver.

Matt and the babies. And happy little McKay.

Our last Monday there all of us sisters (except for Angi) and my mama had a major girls day out. It was SOOO Great. We shopped ALL day, starting at 8 am and had a delicious lunch at Red Robbin (soo good!!!). It was so fun and I was so happy to be there. I miss shopping and hanging out with the girlies in the family. I love and miss you all!
Above: Susie, Jenny & Holly
Below: Mom, Me & Mandy
We also had the chance to go to the temple while we were in town. Provo was closed for cleaning so we headed over to Timp and we had never been to a session there before and it was huge and gorgeous! We're used to our beautiful, little mini temple in Columbus. It was also great because we went with one of my best friend Dani and her husband Tyler.I know I look pregnant in these pictures, but I can assure you that I am not.

One night me and my girls got together for some good Mexican food, as always and time to chat and visit. It is always so much fun to see them and catch up. I love them all dearly!

Dani, Me, Jamie & Liz (sadly we were missing Jess & Andrea)

Mandy, Jonah and Lyd stayed at my mom's for the two weeks. Jo got this marble thing and I think Matt liked it just as much as Jonah.

I celebrated my 21st birthday with lots of goodies!!!!
I can always count on my family for delicous desserts.

My mom made the pies.
My sister made the cake.
Other sister made the homemade Oreo's.
Gesh!
Thanks ladies!

Our cute little family.
My birthday started off perfectly, we went to the Mt. Timpanogos temple with my good friend Dani & her hubby Tyler. We had an early afternoonish party at my mom's with most of my family. That was so fun seeing everyone! Later that night we had a New Year's Eve party at Matt's house. We had some good food, played around the world ping pong, some foosball and watched Eagle Eye with some good friends. It was a great birthday.
Thanks everyone!

Other fun things that we did while we were home:
Bowling with the Clarks (our team totally won, twice)
Saw the movie Bedtime Stories (it was okay)
Played lots of fun games
Watched a lot of Monk with both families (we love that show)
Ate at P.F. Changs....oh so good, thanks Mom and Dad!
Matt went to the shooting range with the men in my fam
Visited with friends
Went to Farmington to visit Grandpa Hess and other Hess cousins
My sis-in-law Angi did my hair, I needed it badly!

We had so much fun with both of our families and all of our friends. We're sorry to those we missed! And so thankful to our parents for the hard work and sacrafices they make for us, to help and support us. Thank you to our grandparents and their generous gifts. And thank you to our siblings, friends and everyone for all the memories!
We love and miss you all!!