Flashback: Christmas in Arizona!

Since we stayed in Utah for Thanksgiving, we went to stay with my parents in Arizona for Christmas. It was SO NICE! Utah gets pretty cold in the winter, so we hadn't even played outside in what seemed like forever. Then we get to Arizona and it felt like paradise in comparison. Occasionally we needed light jackets while outside. Henry was in complete heaven!! He loves being outside, so to be able to roam free without layers and gloves and hats and all that nonsense was perfection.

Now, for some pictures :)

hello, cutie

someone partied too hard on Christmas...

you know, just doing some important construction work

Grandpa and Henry had a blast playing with trucks

Christmas PJs. Sometimes this is the best picture you can get...

Obviously Christmas isn't just about presents, but oh my goodness it's cute to see reactions to presents :) Henry got seriously spoiled (thanks grandparents!) and LOVED all his new trucks and toys.

"present?"

George, always the happy camper, was content to just hang out. But don't worry, he was spoiled too!

baby George playing patty cake with monkey George

As fun and amazing as Christmas celebrations can be, it can really tire a person out. And someone (I'm not naming names...) may have had a little too much fun...

too! much! CHRISTMAS!

One of the highlights for Henry on the trip was the neighbors house. They are an older couple that is obsessed with Christmas. I've never seen anything like it. The lady even said that on her Christmas list she had asked for blue Christmas lights. That's dedication. They had lights everywhere, and played Christmas music outside from speakers. Their long driveway was paved with different light-up Christmas decor, just one after the other. Henry was amazed, and to be honest I was pretty impressed too. Henry kept yelling "lights! lights!" and pointing at each new thing. While we were looking at everything outside, the couple saw us and came out to say hi. Then they invited us inside to see the rest of their Christmas collection. So...I thought outside was intense. Every inch of their entryway, dining area, and living room was COVERED in Christmas. [[I took a ton of pictures, but lost them when I broke my phone a couple months ago :'( ]]. I think they had every sort of dancing/singing Christmas characters ever made... and they played every single one for Henry (they were so sweet to him!). There was even a life size Santa that sang, as well as a life size snowman that sang and danced (Henry was kind of scared of that one haha). Anyways, that was the Christmas house, and it was awesome. And yes, we visited more than once on our trip ;)

large mouth bass!

Of course my parents had to get into all sorts of shenanigans while we were there. They said they were going to play with Henry outside, and next thing I know I get this picture sent to my phone:

riding in style

When I went out to see where they were, I found them a couple houses away looking at horses. Yup, best trip ever!

sweet brothers

We had such a great time, and it was nice to get away to the warmer weather. I might just have to go live there for a few months every winter!! The summer there kills me, but I could definitely get used to the winter weather. Thank you so much Mom and Dad for letting us stay with you! It was a fabulous time, and made for some fun memories ♥

world traveler, part 1

Well...not exactly world but the past few weeks have included a lot of traveling for me. Which is one of the reasons (besides general laziness) I haven't been blogging. A few weeks ago I went down to Arizona with Henry to visit with my family, and to help them pack their house. They are downsizing, and with my mom's recent injuries she can't really lift anything heavy at all with her hands. So I helped her pack up her whole craft studio, and some other stuff too. It was really fun to see everyone, and I was glad to be able to help them out as well.

my mom has 2 of the big 4x4 ikea bookcases that we packed up. Henry climbed right in to help out. 

I found an old dance costume of mine and put this flapper-style on Henry's head. hehehe. 

Henry loved the dogs, as usual. Here he is laying down next to Paisley and giving her love

Deep in conversation with Poncho

"Ready to go home, mommy!"

We were there for 5 or 6 days before we made the journey back to Utah. We got home and tried to recuperate. We got to sleep in our own beds for two nights, and then we set off again. This time Henry and I drove up north. We got to spend the night at Darci and Jeff's, and it was so awesome seeing them again. It's only been a couple of months, but that felt like ages!! Darci and I took the kiddo's to a secret pond (located somewhere in Pleasant Grove) and  got to play and work on our tans. The wind was so crazy that we almost blew away, but we still had a good time :)

Henry's signature face

Mona and Henry getting a ride in the stroller. Warren was chillin in his car seat

Fighting...I mean sharing...in the tub. 

Henry and Mona are really funny with each other. Now instead of just Mona stealing toys from Henry, they both can steal toys like champs. Which sometimes results in meltdowns... They really do have a love/hate relationship, because they loved playing together. Until Henry either wanted to escape from Mona (she would shut the door so he'd be stuck in her room with her haha), or Mona got upset because Henry stole a toy or did something equally terrible. We had a fabulous time playing with them though, and I'm so glad we were able to see them!!

The next day I dropped Henry off at my sister-in-law's house, where he stayed for the weekend. I knew he would have a blast with all his cousins, and of course his wonderful aunt and uncle took good care of him. After I dropped him off I drove back home, took a shower, and then Josh and I left with our friends to go to Vegas (are you tired yet thinking of all that driving??? I am!!). We stayed at Vegas for the weekend so we could go see Ke$ha in concert! And because this post is getting really long and I'm tired, I'll talk about the rest of my whirlwind trip in another blog post!! :) Stay tuned...

arizona, thanksgiving 2012!

first of all, i've been a terrible blogger... it's been really busy around here lately... oops! anyways, i want to get back on track by blogging about our thanksgiving vacation. we drove down to arizona to stay with my parents over the holiday. minus a dog bite (very traumatic, but thankfully didn't break Henry's skin), the rest of the trip was very enjoyable. we had a really lovely time, and i wish it could have lasted longer! 

my parents have lots of cacti in their yard. i love it.

my dad has this wagon, and henry loved getting rides in it!

Nana (Henry's great-grandma) has a puppy that Henry made friends with. He even shared his wagon space.

cruising

there was lots of exploring of the grandparents house

silly boy

having fun with grandpa

playing piano with grandma

having some fun piano time of his own

a mini recliner in walmart i almost bought for Henry. too bad it was $54

lots of playground fun--he loved it!

yummm...juicebox...

henry the explorer!

adorable, i know

"whatever this is, i want to play with it!!!"

my little techy baby got a new "smart phone"

these two hooligans were partners in crime. before this picture was taken, Poncho peed on the floor and then Henry sat in it. hence, the bath that was taken.

there were lots of fun trucks to play with

contrary to josh's facial expression (haha), we had a blast!!! ;)

thanks for letting us come over, mom and dad! it was a lot of fun :)

arizona

wow i'm behind on my blogging...oops! we've been keeping pretty busy lately. so, to catch up: over easter weekend we drove down to arizona to surprise my mom. if you haven't seen the video of this, you really need to watch it!!

the first night we got there we went out and ateat chili's.

henry was happy for about 10 minutes and then was super tired.

either that or he likes crying at chili's...

i had to take him outside and he ended up falling asleep.

thankfully we got these cute pictures before the cranky episode began:

they were (of course) thrilled to see Henry :)

Henry was so adorable and sweet (here's the evidence!)

h&m model, whaaat?

on saturday we went to wickenburg in the morning
for lunch we went to tastee freeze. henry had a swell time

henny and daddy :)

henny with rachel. his face is hilarious in this picture so i had to post it haha
don't worry, he also makes normal faces too:

sometimes henny wasnt quite sure of his surroundings...
but he still had fun and looked cute

he enjoyed chillin with grandma

and she even got to give him a bath to try and wash all the puke off
(in case you didnt know, henry's a barfer)

even though our trip was short, we still had a really good time. henry was an absolute champ on the road. he slept like an angel, and barely cried (just when he was hungry). it did extend the travel time to stop and feed him, but it was a lot more manageable than i thought it would be. thanks mom and dad for letting us stay with you! we had a lovely time ♥

henry surprises grandma

we left thursday night to drive to arizona and surprise my mom. it was awesome. we just got back, so i'll be posting more pictures and stuff later on. but for now, i'll leave you with this gem:

arizona vacation!

we went to arizona last week for a little vacation. we have been working non-stop since we got these jobs! we only took one day off to close on our house back in february. so we felt like it was time to take a break, and we went to visit my parents. there was a lot of relaxing, swimming in the pool, yummy food, and hanging out with my parents. unfortunately i got extremely sunburnt the first day in the pool... i applied spf 100 sunscreen twice, but apparently i didnt apply it very well or something. definitely an awful mistake, so for the remainder of the trip i applied lots of aloe and tried to drink my weight in water. i didn't take a ton of pictures, so these ones will have to do:

i got to see my puppies!!!

on saturday we went boating. i probably shouldn't have gone because i was really nauseous, but i knew my parents were really looking forward to it. we went out on the boat, and decided to go tubing. josh went first, and it was fun to watch him flying all over the place.

no hands!

then it was my moms turn:

hanging on for dear life!

she survived, thank goodness :)

my dad went too, but i was feeling so sick at that point that i was just focusing on not barfing, and not on taking pictures. my dad asked me if i wanted to go and i was like "umm dad... theres a baby growing inside of me. nottt quite sure if you comprehend that yet!" haha. i saw him driving the boat "gently" for my mom, and she was still bouncing all over the place. so even if i had felt ok i wouldn't have gone haha.

we left on sunday, but not before my parents made my favorite meal: pot roast! it was delicious. they know me so well :) overall we had a lovely time, and it was awesome to relax and hang out with family. now we're back to the real world (wuh wuh wuhhhhh). thanks again mom and dad for letting us come visit in arizona! ♥