Happy 2015!

It seems like only 2 days ago I was frantically trying to get ready for Christmas, New Years, and Jason's 30th birthday celebration. I could hardly believe it was almost here! Now it's Jan. 2, 2015 and the start of another wonderful year. We sure had lots of fun, but some advice... never move in December. It make things crazy!

As you might have already read, Jason accepted a new job in Utah. They gave him a choice of when he would like to start and us being crazy and thinking about never paying a zillion dollars for rent again, decided that he would start December 8th. Bad. Idea. I am so happy we are where we are now, but my goodness, moving right before Christmas makes you feel as if you'll never be ready for it. Plus Jason wasn't able to get the time off for us to go to my parents house, so I was sad to hear that we would be having Christmas by ourselves. We had so much fun! Talk about the excitement of creating your own little family traditions :)

Growing up we never went out to eat. 5 kids just meant a circus and a huge bill so... we had the awesome tradition of going out to eat (it was Red Lobster at first but has changed since then) on Christmas Eve. We always had a magical time and even when we lived in New Mexico, it always seemed to snow the night we went. As kids we were convinced that was the only reason it snow, because we kept our tradition. Well, we decided that all of us kids would still keep the tradition even though we're all grown, have our own families, and weren't with our parents this year. We went to Olive Garden for dinner so it didn't snow lol, but we sure got a crazy winter storm later in the week. 

After dinner we went and looked at lights around the neighborhood, and headed to my sister's house to play games, visit, and reminisce in wonderful memories. We ended up leaving their house at about 11 pm! Carter loved the fact that he got to stay out so late :)

Carter and Taylor at our Christmas Eve Dinner.

All of us at Dinner Christmas Eve. 

Christmas morning was always a magical thing too. I was always so excited to see what everyone got, and we had the biggest breakfast of our lives on Christmas day. I must say it was a fantastic idea, because we'd get our cooking out of the way, and veg and play with our toys the rest of the day. Jason and I however, decided to switch it up a little bit. He and his mom would always have a big Christmas dinner on Christmas day. I thought, how fun would it be to have our favorite cereal for breakfast (we hardly ever eat cereal but it's our favorite) and then cook a huge Christmas feast! it was a wonderful day to remember, and I hope we keep our little family Christmas tradition forever :)

We google chat-ed with the rest of our family while opening presents. Technology is amazing!

Carter loved what we got from Santa :)

Carter was so good with opening his own gifts, it was so fun!

Carter and Jason, all ready for our Christmas feast.

Christmas night we got the best present of all! We were able to google chat with Dyelan! He is serving a mission in the Philippines and is doing so well. It was so awesome to actually see him while we were talking to him!

He only has 10 months left!!!!

Another family tradition we had growing up was looking at lights Christmas eve. While we still did that on Christmas Eve, we decided we really wanted to see the Hogle Zoo lights in Salt Lake City. Although it was so cold, Carter laughed and giggled, and loved looking at all the different creature made of lights. We also saw some of the animals and had a wonderful time.

Carter was all snuggled and warm in his stroller :)

Here is us in the gazebo. My goodness was it cold!

 After all of our wonderful Christmas creations, we then started preparations for New Years Eve and even more importantly Jason's 30th birthday (both the same day). I was going to plan a surprise party when all of my plans were blown. That's when we decided a family party with homemade pizza, some yummy cake and ice cream, and a new years count down would do the trick. We had so much fun and loved that everyone (siblings in Utah and their little families) were able to make it. They stayed until 2 am and Siehara ended up spending the night. It was so much fun!

Tain and Karalee making their pizza.

Andres and adorable little Carmen!

The cutest nephew ever, Taylor!

Siehara making her pizza, and don't worry Karalee we don't blame you for sneaking a pepperoni :)

Jason's dirty thirty birthday cake!

The birthday boy!

His favorite gift that was destroyed seconds later, an air plane :)

 Well, those were the holidays for us. I am so bummed Jason had to go back to work today, but I guess you can't just sit around a be lazy all the time. Here is to another year we are going to fill with wonderful memories. Happy 2015!