In between Christmas and New Year's

 Between Christmas and New Year's we spent 5 days in San Diego.  The trip wasn't without its hiccups and we didn't get to do anything we really wanted to, but we did finally relax and enjoy life a little bit.

The weather was perfect.  There wasn't a cloud in the sky or a marine layer the whole time we were at the beach.  We couldn't have asked for more beautiful days then what we were given.

 We ended up being able to get together with the Green's.  We spent the afternoon walking the beach and eating at the Baked Bear and then Tony Roma's.  It's always great to see them.

Damon and Lily both ended up getting sick so that kind of put a halt on all of our planned activities, but we enjoyed just hanging out at the beach and relaxing.

 One of my favorite pictures from the beach.

 We really do love San Diego.  It is one of the most beautiful places to be (if you are into the beach). There isn't a day that goes by that we don't miss living there, but we also don't regret the decision that we made to leave it too.

New Resolutions

I haven't blogged in forever!  I feel like most blogs have been put on the back burner, mine included.  In the new year I am going to try to post a little bit more frequently.  Wish me luck!

Christmas fun- For Christmas we had The Lund's and the Afualo's with us.  It made for a busy house, but we managed to have fun.

Our Christmas Eve dinner theme this year was French.  We had a lot of fun with that and had an amazing 8 course meal.  Our program was lovely.  We really did enjoy the holidays.  We even got to talk to Grandma and Grandpa on Skype.  We really miss them.

 The Buche de Noel!!  Yum!

 Damon helped me in the kitchen by cooking the lamb.  It was absolutely amazing!!

 Lily and Kaitlyn in there Matching jammies.  They loved that.  It's so fun to have girl cousins.

 Merry Christmas morning!  It was a very merry morning with lots of fun presents and good food!!

 And lots of baby Tora snuggles.  Love me little neice!!

New Year's Eve- We opted for a nice quiet New Year's Eve this year.  We had hamburgers, ice cream and brownie sundaes, played games and celebrated the new year at 9pm and 12am with Martinelli's.  We had a fun night.

Cousin party in the family room.  They loved sleeping down there together. 

 I love my sisters.  They make me laugh so hard and we cry when we say goodbye.  It gets harder the older we get.  We miss living closer to each other, but we live it up when we are together!

  The New Year- what do to when it's 80*F outside on January 2?  Why have a water balloon fight and set up a shooting range.  It was quite fun!!

We finished off the start of the New Year with a massive game of pit and a dog pile on the girls.  We had a great time.

mid-Nov-mid-Dec

We managed to have some fun during the months of November and December.

The most important thing was celebrate Damon's birthday.  Birthday's are amazing.  It means you have another year to celebrate life and have new adventures.  Damon just wanted a nice quiet evening at home with cookies for dessert.  He does love cookies and we love him.

For Thanksgiving we went to Arizona to visit the Melanson's and other friends.  We had such a wonderful time visiting with them and the rest of our friends and family we have there.  Arizona is such an easy place to love because that's where I spent my childhood.  It's a very comfortable feeling.  Everything is familiar.  We had a grand time there.

 We stopped by Glen Canyon Dam on the way down to Phoenix.  It was quite the drive.

 I have pictures of these kids over the years.  I love watching them grow up.

  No trip is complete to Phoenix without stopping by Mary Coyles.  It was made even better when going with the person I spent most of my childhood with. We had a nice visit with Amanda's family.

 As a family we went out to Midway and went on a sleigh ride.  It was so pretty and so much fun!!

We also went to the tree lighting ceremony at the park near our house.

We had lots of gatherings at our house during December.  Two fun ones where the snowman building activity with friends and the Gingerbread house activity with family.  Both evenings were really fun.

 We had our Ward Christmas party, Lily had her ballet recital and Noah had a band concert.

Pictures from the gingerbread house building party and dinner.