christmas in utah

please accept this festive pic dump as an apology for my lack of blogging

ski day!

this christmas season felt a little bit different than most others.  in all our 6 years of marriage, i have done a pretty decent job getting john a few good presents.  (like the banjitar two years ago... that was pretty good.)  

but this year... i worked SO HARD to get john and NES classic.  i woke up 6(?)ish times bright and early and went to the stores hoping that the line wouldn't be too long and i could hopefully snag one... but to no avail.  so under the tree was a board game, (which is an awesome board game, albeit creepy, if you're in the market ;) and an envelope that said, "let's go skiing!"  FAIL. i know.  

in my defense, john's birthday is only five days before christmas, and he got band of horses tickets for his birthday.  aka. WIN.

so, despite my lack of being prepared christmas morning and having an awesome gift for john to open, we had an amazing day of skiing.  it has more or less confirmed my suspicions that EVENTS make way better presents than THINGS.  

a utah christmas

before the holidays, i felt like a nutcase.  or a circus performer.  or something.  between church, school, work, friends, and family engagements, we felt spread pretty thin.  some things i brought upon myself (ie. christmas cards... let's face it, i could have bagged that this year?) and other things were out of our control (ie. visiting and home teaching?  i mean honestly, we can't skip out on that in december!).  everything was 60mph until we arrived in utah.  it was such a relief to not "have to" do anything there (okay, still some things).  it was a true vacation.

cora is loving pop pop these days.  and we went sledding, and played hours upon hours of games!  aj and my dad went skiing with us (more on that later...) and we even got my parents to play some games with us... (backwards charades and betrayal at the house on the hill) which, let me tell you, is an enormous feat.  i was proud of them.  

 elf pj's for the win!

disneyland with daddy.

there's just something so magical about disneyland around christmastime!  after the fireworks john commented on how amazing and magical the show was.  yes, yes it was.  it was a very late though and after the show hazel said, "mommy, i want my bed, please".  

and look how beautiful that castle is!

christmas vacay recap part two.

i'm really trying to stay on top of blogging here.  BUT it has been kind of crazy lately.  with hazel's evals for preschool on top of her speech therapy, things are really busy.  and my camera decided it wanted to stay a few extra weeks in idaho... and now is happily living with r+j in NYC until we see them and it can return home to us.  so ALL MY PICTURES {okay, MOST of my pictures...} are not available to me right now.  but here's a few iphone photos from christmas day/eve.  hopefully i will get the "good" ones on here someday....

christmas in idaho part one.

here are some pics of our time in idaho before the christmas festivities began.  we celebrated john's 31st {!} birthday, played on the slide, played with mimi and grandpa and cousins {!} and {as always} ate amazing food.

as you can see, we spent A LOT of time at the slide.  

{also, i snuck in a picture of hazel napping with her new baby doll post-christmas, because i thought it was so cute!  she sang out lullaby to it and snuggled with it to fall asleep.}

merry.

we are in idaho for christmas this year, and it's pretty thrilling. hope yours is great as well.

jingle bells from Paige Brunt on Vimeo.

life lately!

well, we had an amazing christmas break. the weather from the time we landed was beautiful 40 degrees until christmas morning, when we woke up to 5 inches of fresh snow. it was pretty perfect. 

we went to the zoo lights, saw the last hobbit movie (my mom watched hazel, always a bonus), and went to a couple birthday parties. we played pandemic, munchkin, settlers of catan and about 5,000 other board games with my sibs. we watched movies, we ate homemade caramels. on christmas eve we threw the football around and i pushed hazel on the swings. honestly, i couldn't ask for a more perfect vacation. 

here we are in our christmas pjs:

1. sledding down a big hill

2. john enjoying his awesome christmas present

3. playing board games

4. aunt jenna reading hazel her favorite new book, "where the wild things are."

more sledding:

hazel dressed up as mary:

magical christmas morning:

what does santa say?

our little hazelnut, trying her darnest to say, "ho ho ho"

what does santa say? from Paige Brunt on Vimeo.

christmas recap.

we had a fabulous christmas break.  and although there were many more things i wanted to capture, i just didn't get pictures of it all.  that said, i'm sure i won't look back in ten years and wish i had taken pictures of all the delicious food we ate, or the games we played, etc.  so, here are some moments of our christmas break.

john's birthday.

christmas eve.

 the cutest shepherd you ever did see?

christmas day.

favorite christmas break memories.

-  hazel as a shepherd in the christmas eve pageant.
-  dancing in the car to the song "kids" by MGMT on our way home from idaho.  {i'll share a secret with you.... john really knows how to         boogie!}
-  making my moms caramel successfully!
-  hazel taking her first real steps by herself.
-  eating flank steak for john's birthday {uh, duh! eating has to make the list}
-  playing about ten games of 7 wonders.
-  watching star trek into darkness.  what is it about spok?
-  talking to our missionary on skype.  he's past his 6-months-left mark!
-  writing lots of thank-you notes on my mom's cards.

christmas morning!

merry christmas.  here's a little video of our hectic morning ;)

christmas morning mayhem. from Paige Brunt on Vimeo.

christmas in island park.

island park holds a special place in my heart.  first of all, it is completely gorgeous. second of all, it is a great place to do lots of fun activities: floats down the river, sledding, snowmobiling, four-wheeling, shooting, hiking, swimming, boating, wakeboarding.  third, it holds great memories of those first few months of dating john, getting engaged, and growing to love his family {which wasn't difficult - since they are amazing!}.  christmas this year made me love them even more.  they truly treat me like on of their own, and for that i am so grateful.  the weekend was so fun!

we went snowmobiling, ate french toast, played with nephew colter....

rynessa.

the tree that we cut down in the middle of the forest.  see the littles in front of it?  it was 18 feet tall!

 -20 degrees fahrenheit in the morning.

 on the drive up....

 the henries and the brunts taking family pictures in christmas pj's.

john's new beretta 92fs!

 letter from santa.

 my new rebel....

 christmas booty....

playing santa's elves....

 guitar, bear slippers, and luke and rori as angels.

 a sheep and a wise man.

 randi's birthday cake, the littles lined up christmas morning, fun toys, and a chocolate orange {my favorite!}

the boys playing in the snow....

 an island park sunset.