life lately, Christmas break edition

christmas break was wonderful.  gordon and i had extended time off work to spend with each other and our families.

 

the week of christmas started off by me speaking in our ward's sacrament meeting.  i was so happy i did because i got to share a very special experience about a family fast i had participated in just days before that helped me to know without a doubt that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ know each of us personally. We took the opportunity to reach out to Jesus Christ through fasting and prayer for a family member who was lost. My testimony of fasting wasn't the strongest before this experience. I had been taught that blessings can come through fasting. I had heard others bare testimony of it. I have even been a reason people have fasted and prayed! But I have never asked my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ to help me to know that fasting is true and helps those for whom you are fasting for. This time I included that in my prayers. I never expected to have such a miracle happen. Just hours after I had ended my fast the person who was lost returned, and he was safe. The heartache and pain we had felt was eased. The peace and comfort we had prayed for was given to us. I was overwhelmed with humility and gratitude. I am still overwhelmed with humility and gratitude. The power of fasting and prayer is real. Jesus Christ knows us personally and loves us! He wants to help us and give us the strength and power we need if we but reach out to him and get to know him.

 

that experience set the tone for the entire christmas break.

we got to spend so much time with our loved ones.  little miss and tiny had me running all over!

this photo is being sent to gordon's cousin who is serving a LDS mission in Lithuania.

we wrote a little note to him to go along with it.

my uncle that lives in Texas sent my family the best hot cocoa and homemade marshmallows from an

ice cream shop that i was obsessed with when i visited them 6 years ago.  amy's ice cream.  i went there 4 times in my 4 day stay, it was that good. 

the hot cocoa paired perfectly with my mom's sticky buns, our christmas morning tradition food.

skyler is always demonstrating his many talents. 

can you believe that he's going to be 19 in just 2 months?  i can't.

there is always a little something for the granddogs under my mom's tree .

i'm pretty sure briggs knew it was christmas because he headed straight downstairs and to the tree

for his stockings as soon as we got there.  it was adorable.

at my dad's we got to relax and enjoy a delicious turkey lunch. 

it was really nice to spend time with my dad on christmas.

when we went to bed christmas eve there was absolutely NO snow on the ground.

we woke up to a winter wonderland and couldn't have been more excited.

we LOVE the SNOW!

i've mentioned this before, but little man is very interested in us finding our baby.

he has told us time and time again that if we have toys our baby would find us.

"babies like toys."

slowly we have created a nice toy collection for our future little one.

we added this toy this christmas.

it's from gordon's parents.

they didn't want our future little to be left out of the gift giving.

i love how much our little one is loved and they aren't even with us yet!

i couldn't end 2014 without a trip to my favorite place with my favorite person.

i had been so focused on finding our baby that i was getting pretty discouraged.

i am so glad we went to the temple!

i was recharged and reminded of how blessed i am right now at this point in my life.

i have the most amazing eternal companion.

he is with me each step of the way in everything.

i am so blessed.

gordon's cousin, travis, got married a couple of days after christmas. while waiting for the luncheon to start we decided to go wonder around the city creek center. gordon and his brother, matt, wondered around solo while i went into different stores. they may have been mistaken for a gay couple a few times. 



while at the wedding luncheon, gordon's mom requested a photo of us.

gordon isn't the biggest fan of photos and pulls a face in just about all of them.

he was pulling this face while his mom snapped picture after picture.

she didn't even notice!!  it was hilarious.

jodi and trevor noticed she wasn't really paying attention and decided to kiss.

i was cracking up, obviously.

i love gordon's siblings and their spouses and love the fun and close relationship we share with them.

with tiny being in town we had to make sure we got some time with her. she's beginning to recognize us and runs to give us a hug when we see her. she would grab our hands and lead us all over the house to play with her. she wore herself out and needed a little break. she made herself comfortable on uncle gordon's lap. i love how comfortable they all are (even briggs!).

we got a killer snow storm.  to quote gordon:

"Pow. Pow. Pow. Pow. Pow right before stump/rock/something hard.

accidental front flip.

i landed feet down and everything seemed fine so i just kept on going."

i love this guy of mine!

life lately

sister-sister date at bangkok garden.  our first time eating at this restaurant but definitely not our last.

it was so delicious!  and to make the evening even better, a nice gentleman paid for our entire meal.

(okay, that nice gentleman was my sister's boss, who just happened to be getting takeout and saw us)

mom and daughter(s) night out.  we went to dinner and then saw a movie (the hunger games mockingjay).  then on the way home my mom spontaneously decided we needed a pumpkin pie blizzard from dairy queen.  i don't really like pie, but this was really yummy.

it's not secret that i love our town, ogden.  sammy brue is a local musician who is talented beyond his years (he's like 13 or 14!).  he arranged a show in ogden with the artist grace and tony headlining.

it was amazing!

all performers were fantastic.

and we got to hang out with them afterwards which is always a bonus.

(they are all VERY awesome people)

little man turned 6.  we had a birthday sleepover with him and took him to see a favorite of ours,

teenage mutant ninja turtles.

it was pretty good.  not as good as the original (what is?).

he enjoyed it a lot.  he laughed at all the jokes. and got his own personal snack box.

later than night little man noticed gordon's guitar in our downstairs living room.

he asked gordon if he knew how to play.

and then we proceeded to have a dance party.

it was fantastic!

oh where to begin with this little miss.  she is so dear to my heart. 

she invited me to be her special guest at her thanksgiving feast at preschool.

she created our placemats (a thankful turkey which said she was thankful for her bed and birthday cake).  she sang a couple of songs, one of which has a part that talked about being thankful for her friends at which she paused, looked at me and whispered "you're my friend." my heart almost burst.

she is just the sweetest and i love her so much!

i love the holidays.  holidays bring out of state family together.

i hadn't seen my cousin monika for six years.  when i found out she was coming into town

for thanksgiving i was beyond excited.  i knew i wanted to spend as much time with her as possible.

and i did.  we saw each other every day she was here except for one.  we got warm beverages at my favorite cafe. we went bowling. we ate at the delicious taco carts.

we went to the temple. we went to yoga.  it was the best week ever. 

(sorry, not sorry for the blurry pic)

our california niece and her family were also here over thanksgiving. 

we made sure to get some one on one time with her in hopes that we will be her favorites, too.

i think it's working.

my sister and i have a thanksgiving day tradition to run longer than we normally do our morning runs.

the weather had been perfect for our trail run.  the snow stayed in the mountains for gordon to snowboard on thanksgiving morning and off the trails for us.

thanksgiving day was spent at my moms (the day before thanksgiving we got together with all of my mom's side of the family, which was pushing 100 of us, for a pre-thanksgiving dineer).

it was terrific.

i got to have one last chance to have my cousin's little girl warm up to me.

her little boy wasn't shy at all and loved playing with gordon.



all my hardwork paid off and her sweet little girl decided i was pretty fun to play with.

the day after thanksgiving we went to temple square with gordon's family to see the christmas lights.

christmas lights and the slc temple are two of my favorite things.

i played princess with little miss practically the whole time we were there.

it was perfect.



i love food and i love trying new places.

our town opened a new thai restaurant that is so fresh and tasty, i could just eat there everyday!

annual hardcastle pumpkin decorating contest

halloween has been turning out to be one of my favorite holidays.  so many fun family traditions like our annual pumpkin decorating contest with the hardcastles.  this year was extra fun because the littles are getting older and can participate much more.  little man and little miss even designed their own pumpkins! 

the gordon hardcastle family swept the contest! gordon's ninja turtle pumpkin won 1st place, my boo pumpkin took 2nd and justin's scary halloween scene took 3rd.  

and what's family get together without lots of giggles with uncle gordon.  him with all of those littles just melts my heart!

annual fraga family halloween party

every year my dad and step-mom brenda open there house to host the annual fraga halloween party.  them, along with my aunts and cousins, put so much time and effort into planning and prepping for our family party.  every year there is a different theme.  and every year it is awesome!

this year's theme was "welcome to the carnival."  as if clowns and carnivals are not spooky enough.

the backyard was full of carnival games.  if you won you got tickets that you could save up to pick prizes from the prize table.  seriously, it was like a real carnival (with extra creepy decor).

my brother and his daughter.  he is doing SO good.  happy and healthy!

now that's a prize table!

last minute costumes provided by my mother in law.  she literally has bins full of costumes; awesome, awesome costumes.  she's the best MIL ever.

the merriest of christmases

the mister and i didn't exchange gifts this year.  we figured we have plenty so there was really no need.  it was great!  we were able to enjoy the spirit of christmas.

i spoke in our church's sacrament meeting this month about christmas.  i chose to focus my talk on Jesus Christ, who he is and what he has done for us.  i invited my dad, step mom, mom, step dad, sister, nephew, brother and niece to attend the meeting.  my heart almost burst because every single one of them came.  even though not all of my family believe the same thing i do, they are all so willing to support me.  i can't tell you how much it means to me.  being able to speak about my Savior and share my testimony of Him was exactly what i needed this christmas season.  He is my advocate and has helped me these past few years more than i even realized.  i will always be grateful for the opportunity i was given to do that.

thanksgiving

i dare say that thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  it a holiday that we actually relax.  we're not running around to a million different places.  we stay in one location pretty much all day.  and we get to visit with our extended family for longer than 30 minutes.  it's wonderful!

this year we asked if little man could sleep over thanksgiving eve.  like always, our time with him is our favorite.  we made personal pizzas, a first for little man.  he even helped me justify that pizza is good for you because it has "natural sugar".  i like the way you think, little man.  we watch wall-e and ate "colored popcorn" aka flavored colored sugar popcorn.  and in the morning we took him to the trails for a bike ride while we ran.  when we got to our aunt sally's house for thanksgiving dinner, little man was asked if he watched the thanksgiving parade.  he said "no, i was playing in the mountains!"  oh, a boy after my own heart.