Anniversary, Christmas, New Year's, and Things.

I always feel like my posts are so boring due to lack of pictures of our cute little guy.

But, I also just really want to write down so many thoughts and feelings before I forget them all together.

Because, as it was our first Christmas with a kiddo it must be documented!!

The Big Five

Exactly a week before Christmas always marks the anniversary of our marriage. I LOVE that our anniversary is exactly a week before Christmas. I have kind of a weird obsession with dates and a slightly creepy knack for remembering birthdays. I like certain dates for no particular reason and I'm particularly fond of 16's and 18's. And if something is exactly a week before something I love or a month before, etc I just go crazy with happiness. Anyway.
 FIVE years this year! It's a big deal. We feasted at Red Lobster and then Jayson took us to Jamba Juice as a surprise, because we went there on our first date. It was so thoughtful and sweet. That weekend we also saw Elf the Musical, which was fantastic. Jayson is seriously my rock. I would have gone crazy  long ago if it weren't for him. Whenever something tough happens I always think, "I still have Jayson by my side, so I'll be ok." Knowing that he's here for me is one of the greatest comforts to me and it gives me the strength to carry on. Also, spending time with Jayson is my favorite thing to do in the whole wide world. I find myself wishing he could just stay home with us everyday! We've been so spoiled to have him home so many days during the holidays.

So, Christmas.

One of my favorite things about Christmas is that everyone comes to town! Two of my very best friends were here and some of our cousins that we love! Christmas is really just the best.
Christmas Eve was really great. We got to see so many friends and family and eat so much food. Our little guy enjoyed running around with our nephew that's around the same age and him. He even did the hokey-pokey with Elmo for the family talent program we have every Christmas Eve with Jayson's family. He was a little shy during it though, haha! He also got to play with some of my cousins that are younger and he be-friended my aunt and uncle's cats. He followed them around all the night long. Christmas Eve ended with the biggest tantrum our little guy has ever thrown in public, so that was fun.

But, of course the tantrum was forgotten by all by the time Christmas morning rolled around. It was so magical! I've always LOVED Christmas, even when it's just been Jayson and me waking up together on Christmas morning, but Christmas morning has a kind of explainable loneliness without kids, so it was really special having this little guy with us.  Of course the little guy didn't really know what difference between Christmas and all of the other days that we had talked about and seen Christmasy things, but he would soon find out!

When he woke up Christmas morning we promptly got him from his room and took him into the basement where all of the presents awaited him! In my family we always start with the stocking, so that's just what we did. The little guy found his dinosaurs at the top of his stocking and would not put them down for anything, so he struggled to get the rest of the things out of his stocking one-handed. It was especially adorable of him. In true toddler fashion he was excited for each present and wanted to open it promptly, forgetting about the many other presents to unwrap...until of course we directed his attention to the rest, all of which were met with just as much excitement. All in all I think the favorites from Santa were the Lion King figure set and the Toothless figure from How to Train Your Dragon. He tried to carry all six Lion King figures everywhere that morning, and I'm sure you can guess how well that went. He would drop them left and right and then carefully pick them back up again, generally resulting in dropping another one. But, worry not, a perfect solution was met! He found his jack o'lantern bucket from Halloween in his room and he just put them all in there so they could be carried around all together. Simba even got to take ride on Toothless and his two very favorite things in life came together at last. He also loves his book of sea creatures and his sea creature puzzle that comes with a magnetic fishing pole to take the pieces out. That one was probably my favorite. Have I mentioned to you before how much joy it brings to my heart that he loves sea creatures?

He was then promptly spoiled by all of the many grandmas in our life. The little guy sure LOVES all of the grandmas. We had so much running around that there seemed to be no good time for napping, but he crashed in the car at about 3:00 pm and was not super excited to wake up again later. But, that was forgotten when he received even more presents and saw more grandmas. Grandmas really are just the best.

Also, right before the afternoon crash we found out that Jayson's sister is expecting and we'll be getting another niece/nephew in July! We're SO excited!

My favorite part about all these holidays been smashed together at the end of the year is the time we get to spend with family. The older I get the more and more I just like simple days spent with loved ones. I especially love spending time with my little family. Moments where we're just all at home together having a good time are my absolute favorite. In a lot of ways having a kid complicates things, but I think it simplifies things in even more ways. I have found that since I have such little time to accomplish anything that a lot of things fall by the wayside, which helps me focus on the things that are really important because there simply isn't time for other things. I usually have to have my Christmas just so, and I have to watch particular Christmas movies, and I simply must do 100 Christmas things or my Christmas is ruined. This year I started to realize that it was going to be impossible to do all of those things and do you know what? It really didn't matter. I wasn't even bothered by it. We didn't get to putting lights on the outside of our house, I never watched The Santa Claus, I didn't make home made fudge for the neighbors, and a whole bunch of things that I can't even remember now. But, we did get to enjoy time together, bake sugar cookies, decorate the house, etc. And it was one of the best Christmases ever.

All I've ever wanted is to have stockings hung over my fireplace like this.

This year the tree upstairs was moved to the kitchen table so that little hands wouldn't break the ornaments. 

Christmas is so pretty.

THE NEW YEAR

Is it really 2014?! What?!!
From the looks of Facebook it sounds like 2013 was a real jerk of a year for most people. For us it was definitely one of those "it was the best of times, it was the worst of times" kind of years. We spent New Year's Day of 2013 in Disneyland, which is really the best way to spend New Year's Day. But, after that January and February were really not my favorite. It was FREEZING and Jayson was out of town every week those months except for on the weekends. And, in true Utah winter fashion there was no sun. But, I promptly forgave 2013 at the end of February when we were randomly offered a trip to Hawai'i by Jayson's parents. It truly was paradise! We ended March with the lovely wedding of my dear friend Cameo and her husband Andrew. After that there was a potential adoption the air for months that just led me to every emotion imaginable and left me a crazy person until September. In June I did quit my job though, which turned out to be a really great decision. Not because my job was terrible or anything, but it was just the right thing for me. I do miss those crazy co-workers of mine though! And then in September and October we did a whole lot of babysitting while other people went to Europe, which was actually really fun. And really great preparation for the biggest event of the year, which was getting our little guy at the end of October. The rest of the year has been a whirlwind as we've learned how to be parents and adjusted to our new lifestyle. Now that we're here Jayson and I both agree that this lifestyle is the one for us. It just fits.

We spent New Year's Eve with Jayson's parents, brother, his kids, his wife, and her parents. We played some Mario Kart on the Wii while the kiddos ran around all crazy-like, had fondue, sparkling cider, and chatted the night away. We rang in the new year New York time so that we could get the kids to bed. Then Jayson and I snuggled on the couch and drank hot chocolate until midnight while Ruby cowered in the corner because of the fireworks. It was lovely.

Jayson, his brother, and their friend Daniel meant to go ice fishing on New Year's Day (Jayson's family tradition), but they got all the way there and realized they had forgotten the fishing poles, so they were back by about 9 am. It turned out well though, as we bought a new microwave to go over our stove so we can have more counter space AND it turned out that the iPhone 5C was free at Best Buy that day if your line was due for an upgrate, and mine was. So I'm not a proud owner of my first smart phone. It's quite lovely if, I do say so myself. I did fail at basically my only New Year's goal, which was to get the house totally clean by New Year's Day so I could start the New Year off with a clean house. But, I did get to spend the end of New Year's Day with the cutest little newborn baby named Archer and his proud parents Rob and Vienna. All in all I'd say it was most definitely a successful New Year's.

This year I just want to continue to simplify and organize my life. I want to free it of clutter, both figuratively and literally. I want to focus on what really matters, the things that bring me closest to my Heavenly Father. One of my best friends, Vienna (the one who just had a baby!) has this tradition where she picks a scripture every New Year's to be sort of her motto for the rest of the year. I really like that, so I chose a motto for myself this year. It's not a scripture, but a quote:

 "I believe that among the greatest lessons we are to learn in this short sojourn upon the earth are lessons that help us distinguish between what is important and what is not. I plead with you not to let those most important things pass you by as you plan for that illusive and nonexistent future when you will have time to do all that you want to do. Instead, find joy in the journey—now."- Thomas S Monson

That, my friends, is why I needed this little guy in my life. And this is my motto for this next year.

Also, I am going to re-read these, as they're on the same subject, if you're interested:
https://www.lds.org/ensign/2008/11/finding-joy-in-the-journey (this is the talk the quote comes from)
http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2010/10/of-things-that-matter-most?lang=eng
http://www.lds.org/ensign/2007/11/good-better-best



Here's to 2014!

I just know it.

Happily Ever 2012 and a Magical New Year

With the holidays so much has happened that I haven't yet blogged about. Naturally, there was my favorite holiday in the whole world, Christmas. Which, for some reason, I'm always really bad about documenting.

But, here is a little bit of what Christmas looked like for us:

The above picture is one of the best presents given to my mother in law. The kiddo holding the sign is my nephew and about four or five summers ago him and his family were driving to Bear Lake and he wakes up and sees the lake and says, "Bear Yake?! I Yove Bear Yake!" And we've all been saying it ever since. A little while ago my mother in law said that she wanted to get a plaque that said and thus this was born.

This year I decided to start a new tradition for our little family. I decided each year we'd get an ornament that symbolized something significant that happened for us that year. Jayson got a heart for adoption and I got a fox because I finally got Ruby (I've been wanting a dog for forever!) and everyone says she looks like a little fox.

My sisters in law are the coolest. 

And then a few days after Christmas we headed out to southern California for the first ever (well, the first one I've been to besides Bear Lake trips) big family vacation with Jayson's family.

 This is the only picture I got of the drive out there, but it's a cute one!

 This picture cracks me up.

 We had to get a picture of Joshua next to a Joshua tree at Joshua Tree National Forest.

Grilling in December.

There were also in the Joshua Tree National Forest. They're really cool cacti that are apparently supposed to  jump at you a little if you get to close and their needles have barbs on the end, so they can be hard and painful to get out. But, they're pretty cool to look at.

Pride Rock.

                                     

This was a cool old mill from a mine in the Joshua Tree.

And this is what New Year's Eve looked like for us this year. This is the first New Year's ever I can recall being out of town. Obviously it was wonderful.

Kelly gets the award for the first to fall asleep. I think he was even out before the babies.

And then there was New Year's Day. I just want to tell you that I think Disneyland is the very best way to start out a New Year. 2013 is bound to be a good year! It wasn't even super crowded (partially due to the fact that the Rose Bowl was that day, I'd imagine) and it was still all decked out in Christmas decorations. Christmas and Disneyland are two of my very favorite things, so having both of them together...well, I just about died. It's been a dream of mine for a long time to see Disneyland at Christmastime too. Seriously, as soon as I entered the park I wanted to cry. It was incredible. It honestly was one of the most magical experiences of my life. 

This was after Splash Mountain. Jayson was wearing his jacked on the ride, so it only got the part of the shirt not covered by the jacked wet! We thought it was funny, so we took a picture.

The Haunted Mansion all decked out in Nightmare Before Christmas stuff.

We didn't get to see fireworks because of the wind, which I was really bummed about, but we did get to see them light the castle and they even made it snow some fake snow. I might have almost cried when it started fake snowing because this one little kid got SO excited. He was like, "SNOW!!!" And I imagined in my head that it was a California child who had never seen snow before.

Small World is one of my favorite rides. I know it's super cheesy and it gets on a lot of people's nerves, but I've always loved it. I love that it shows all of the different cultures and then at they end everyone is in white and all together and it feels a little bit like heaven. It's magnificent all decorated for Christmas and it even has the cutest Christmas decorations inside the ride. It was honestly one of my favorite parts of the day!



We also got to spend some time in La Jolla, which is one of my favorite places in the world. It was also probably the warmest day of our trip, so we played in the ocean a little bit. I love the ocean with my whole entire heart and I miss it already. My one and only tiny regret of the trip is that I didn't get to spend more time with the ocean.

I love the photobomb by the other Karissa

Can you tell that they're related?

I taught the above kiddo how to say "ocean". Because that's what good aunts do.

This poor little guy was playing on the shore and not paying attention when a big wave washed on the sand and he go SOAKED.

And while we were in La Jolla I got to fulfill another dream of mine. I finally got to go into the San Diego temple and it was just as beautiful as I ever imagined it would be. It was even decked with Christmas lights!

After that we spend our last day on vacation in California Adventures. I got to ride the Little Mermaid ride! Which, by the way, was super cute. And you guys...Cars Land! You have to go there. It is seriously incredible. Like, really. Disney really out-did themselves. I wish I would have taken more pictures of it, but I was just to aw struck to even think about it. And the new Radiator Springs ride was INCREDIBLE. Seriously, it looked like you stepped right into the movie. Go there. Right now. Get there when the park first opens and head straight over to get a fast pass for it though, otherwise you might wait FOREVER. And just so you know the fast pass is nowhere near the ride. It's all the way over by the Tower of Terror. And the World of Color! I cried. Everyone cried. It's absolutely one of the best things you will ever see.

It was this little baby's first time in a Disney Park, so naturally it had to be documented. I love that it looks like she has a huge double chin.

This girl probably looks bored on the Sea Horse because her favorite ride is Hollywood Tower of Terror. Seriously. She rode it like four times.

This kiddo got pretty tired, but he was a trooper. His being tired also made for some good snuggle time with Uncle Jayson, which Jayson absolutely loved, during the SUPER long Toy Story ride line.

And there you have it. I will probably eventually reflect on 2012 and tell you of my goals for 2013 and all that jazz, but this blog post has gotten unreasonably long already, so we'll save that for another day. Have a magical evening!