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!