our christmas 2011

For Christmas we jetted back to the west coast to spend time with my family in AZ. It was so nice to be home again! 

I miss these kids sooo much. Winston is a silent trouble maker now. Here he is eating Santa's cookies. Stanton was a bit upset about that....

Christmas morning we enjoyed a beautiful Sunday morning at church before coming back to open presents.

A few of my favorite gifts;

and Bernhard Lang's Aerial Views book  I have been lusting after... ( I plan to order some of his photography large one day to hang on my wall) 

Colton quickly became the favorite person of the week!

He read the kids LOTS of books....

He played with Winston....

Helped Stanton learn how to ride his new skateboard he got from Santa....

I even found him out on the back patio painting Noelle's nails! She had the BIGGEST smile on her face the whole time. Every time her mom tries to paint her nails now, she reminds her that Uncle Colton did a much better job!

One of the highlights of the trip for me was gathering in the laundry room to talk to Alex on Skype! He is serving his mission in Denver, CO. It's always nice to hear a missionaries voice when they call home, but to see his smiling face was even better!

One of my favorite photos from the trip....matching boys... by chance!

We enjoyed a beautiful sunny AZ day picnic....

Then Colton gained more Uncle points when he shared his SUPER SUPER sour bahama bucks shaved ice with Winston... he loved it!! It was waaaaaay too mouth-puckering-sour for the rest of us, but he loved it and couldn't get enough of it!

We had dinner with my longtime besties + husbands....

After our awesome trip to AZ we quickly jetted over to Cali to enjoy a New Year weekend with Grandma on Balboa and our good friends Tori and Tyler! 

When we first arrived to Cali we headed straight to the beach in Laguna to meet up with Tori and Tyler! The weekend then followed with many awesome dinners and even a trip to the spa in Newport with the Calls!! On New Years Eve they treated us to an AMAZING couples spa trip! Nothing like getting an hour massage and relaxing in a hot tub and sauna to be ready and relaxed as we rang in the new year.

That night we re-grouped at Houston's for our New Years Eve dinner.... 

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!! 2012 is gonna be a great one!

my 28th

Lucky for me I married a wonderful man this past year, BUT also got a wonderful new family in the deal too! 

For my birthday my mother-in-law Bonny took me to the famous Hillwood Estate! For those of you who have not heard of this before (like me) it is the 25 acre grand estate of Post Cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post.

 




AND they were having a special exhibit with her wedding dresses from her three different weddings, as well as her daughters dresses. Since it was the year of my wedding Bonny thought it was a more then perfect time to go!

She was also known for being a great collector of Russian art and actually acquired many imperial treasures and paintings.

 It is an amazing estate and was a perfect way to celebrate the day turning 28! 

That night when I got home Colton had my birthday present under the tree! He got me a day at the spa... so the birthday continued into the next day as I enjoyed a facial and many other spa treatments. Can't say turning 28 was so bad... as long as I don't have to hear myself say it.

christmas is around the corner!!

Last weekend we went to a "fancy" Christmas party 

at our friends charming house on the "Hill" ( Capital Hill) in downtown DC. 

(Actually this friend is the girl, who talked Colton into the friends trip to LA, to visit Tyler....which is why we met! He almost didn't go...so we LOoOVE Katie! She is the one next to me :)

I'm so lucky Colton had such fantastic (girl)friends that I can now adopt as my own! These girls are all driven, successful, and a total blast to be around.

When Colton is around his good friends you know because he gets REALLY loud. 

He also gets SUPER HYPER and SUPER Hilarious ...but sometimes it is a bit much. SO I have learned how to calm him down, I squeeze his nose. It causes him to stop talking for a second and breath through his mouth...works every time :) Although I do love his hyper hilarious side....

Before we left, i did snag a kiss under the mistletoe! I can't wait for this Holiday weekend!! 

Merry Christmas to ALL!!

i'm an aunt...again!

Congrats to my sister Tara, her husband Adam and my other little niece Rhea... they have a new addition to their little fam as of last Thursday :)

{ Little Amelia }

..I cant wait to kiss that face!

laying wreaths

Last Saturday I tagged along with the guys. Colton's scouts were heading down to Arlington Cemetery to help place wreaths on all of the headstones, and I didn't want to miss out!

I guess I assumed a few different scout troops would show up, we would each have over 200 wreaths to lay a piece and it would take around 2 -3  hours. FALSE. Anyone could come and TONS were there!

We couldn't even get to the exit on the freeway there were so many people, scouts, buses, youth groups, all coming to help lay wreaths.

They had large trucks placed through-out the cemetery. Anyone could walk up, grab a box for their group and then pick a spot and start laying. Colton said it felt like how it would be when the world is ending. Huge crowds scavenging for whatever they can get out of the back of a truck..... and he was right! Those trucks ran out fast then you would see HUGE groups migrating to the next one. 

Before laying the wreath, we were to say the persons name, place the wreath, then have a moment of silence for that person. It was a pretty powerful and humbling experience. 

(Colton instructing his scouts.) 

I love this. I love watching him interacting with the young men. You can tell they really all look up to him. At one point he pulled out his phone and pulled up some key that told what the religious symbol on every headstone meant. The boys LOVED it, and as we walked all around they kept discovering new religions.

(We don't know Clarence, he just happens to have a good view from his plot.)

Wreath laying was nice way to get the month of focusing on Christ and serving others started off right. 

a year of firsts continues!

 I am proud to say I am finally an owner of my first real Christmas Tree! Colton spoils me. I think he was realizing how much I LOVE Christmas... so he took me to Home Depot (I am learning everything you could ever need is at Home Depot).. and told me to pick out whatever I needed for Christmas!

We bought a beautiful Noble Fur, lots of lights, a few filler ornaments, and we headed home to 

set it all up. 

** Please ignore the makeshift tree skirt made of crumpled sheets. That will be on the "to buy or to make" list next year :) **

My Mom had given me all of my ornaments, which nicely filled up half of the tree. 

We have been soooo fotunate to have so many people visit this year. Makes family and friends feel not so far away. 

This month it was my Dad! The weekend after Thanksgiving he flew into DC before heading to NYC on that following Monday for work. 

It was so awesome to have that much one-on-one time with him, can't remember the last time that happened. 

We did a lot of eating, monuments, saturday morning markets, fresh apple cider donuts, museums, checked out National Geographic Museum that is currently showcasing the Anglo-Saxon Hoard... Unbelievable!!! Read about how it was discovered HERE.

   

Saturday Night we had dinner at a phenomenal restaurant in Georgetown. It is called Restaurant 1789 .

It is set in this very old property with tiny halls and stairs leading to different dining rooms. The dress was fancy and no one was in jeans. My dream restaurant! Oh, and the food was sooooooooooo good. 

Afterwards we went down to the White House to check out the National Christmas Tree ( it looks kinda sad, I know. It is actually wire net forming a Christmas Tree shape around a smaller tree.) I liked the mini train track and mini town at the base of the tree. 

(view of the White House from the Christmas tree)

Sunday we had a great day at church, although Dad kept freaking everyone out. They thought he was Elder Ukdorf. The Bishop said his heart dropped when he saw him and had to take a good look before approaching us to say hi, haha. Then another girl chased me down the hall when I was heading to my 3rd hour meetings and said... "Hey.. hey! is that your dad with you??? Or Elder Ukdorf??" I assured her it was just my Dad... no German accent there :) Mormons are funny. 

Sadly, Monday morning I rode the metro down to Union Station to see Dad off on his train. It was such a nice weekend and we were sad to see him go. BUT we will be in AZ in a week in a half for Christmas!!