January

I went snowshoeing with my parents and sister (and salomon) on New Years Day. Brad had left to go on a preseason trip (yes, he missed our anniversary on the 31st, but don't worry, we still celebrated it later ;)) and Brody went skiing in Salt Lake with some friends. We went up to Temple Fork in Logan Canyon. It was so pretty up there and we had such a great time together. 

 I went to Jett's birthday party even though Brad was still in Texas. Kelsey had it decorated so cute and everything was airplane themed. We had dinner (in to-go boxes like you get on airplanes), then made paper airplanes and had a contest with them. Then Jett opened presents and had cake and then we played the last game- we were on two teams and one person from each team had to run a suitcase to the other side of the room and pack/unpack the suitcase and then bring it back to the next person. It was a fun party and I can't believe sweet Jett is already one! 

To celebrate our anniversary, we went down to St George for the weekend. On Friday, we went to dinner at the pasta factory, went shopping and spent the night in a hotel. Then on Saturday, Brad was in a softball tournament with other Vivint guys. It lasted all day... literally! We got there at about 9 and they played 2 games to determine the seeding for the tournament. We had lunch, and then the real tournament began. It was a double elimination so as soon as they lost two games, they were out. Brad and his team ended up playing 4 or 5 games plus the two from earlier, so they were pretty worn out by the end of the day. We stayed to watch our friends play a few more games and then headed to Heather and Jordans to spend the night. I absolutely loved meeting my adorable niece, Coralyn and held her basically the entire time we were there! ;) We hung out with them all day on Sunday, had dinner and watched Frozen. We got up early on Monday to head home. 

Our bunco party this month was at Mindi's beautiful home. It was Hawaiian themed and so we had Hawaiian Haystacks. She even got the prizes from Hawaii! (They went on vacation just a few weeks before) I brought a salad and Krista made some yummy drinks. It was a fun night!

We babysat the Hess' for 5 days. On Saturday they got to go to a princess party that they were so excited about! We took them to our church on Sunday, and then Brad left to go spend the night at his cabin with his dad, brother and some family friends. 

On Sunday night, I took the kids with me to my parents and we had a little taste testing party. We had different kinds of ranch, string cheese, tomatoes, cucumbers, spaghetti, spaghetti sauce, butter/margarine, bread, milk and dark sodas. I honestly couldn't tell the difference on most of them. I thought it was interesting because the soda that we all thought was gross was diet coke- and thats the one we all thought we liked the best! The five kids had fun playing together, and they even put on a little musical show for us! 

Brad really enjoyed going snowmobiling at his cabin on Monday.

Or new nephew, Carter James, was born on January 17th. He is Ben and Katie's second little boy. I was so happy to go and see him, he is just the cutest!! Braxten seems so big now that little Carter is around but it was so fun to see how much Braxten loves him. 

December

December was such a fun month and was jam packed with lots of fun things and a LOT of parties! It was so fun having a house to be able to decorate this year. And, since we were at my parents last year, I had forgotten about lots of my Christmas stuff so it was so fun to see it all. I had my mom came to help me decorate one day while Brad was gone. It was actually before Thanksgiving, shhhh...... 

Heather had her baby girl on December 3rd! She weighed 6 lbs 13oz and they named her Coralyn Marie Williams. I am so excited for my first niece, but sad I haven't seen her yet. I have enjoyed getting all the pictures they have sent me though! 

I took the Hess kids to play at the kids land at the mall one day and Santa just so happened to be there! Charlie and Lucy were so excited, Ruby not so much. She didn't want anything to do with him. The kids also had fun playing in Claire's and trying on all the glasses. I sure love these kids!

Lindsey had a fun little party at her house one night and invited us, my family, Grandma and the Skeen's. We had dinner, played a Christmas trivia, and then everybody shared a warm fuzzy- most of which were youtube videos.  

We had the Wheelwright Christmas party a little early this year. We had it on the 14th up at Brooke and Elgin's. We had a yummy lunch, then the guys went out to shoot for a bit while the girls made caramels and watched a movie. I was in charge of games this year so I brought a Christmas trivia game and a White Elephant. Everybody had a lot of fun and loved the silly white elephants that I brought. We had a late dinner after and then everybody headed home. 

Our Vivint Christmas Party was on the 16th. Brad and I were in charge of decorations. I used my tree collection as centerpieces for the tables. We had dinner, then played some games to win some tickets to put into a raffle for the sweet prizes that Nick got. We didn't win anything too big this year, but still had a good time.

I had bunco at my parents house on the 17th. I made a fun hot chocolate bar and everybody brought some food to share for our '12 days of appetizers'. The prizes I bought were: 2 pair of leggings, a blanket, gloves, socks and a scarf. I ended up winning a pair of leggings! :) It's been so fun to get together with this fun group of girls and also to meet some new friends.

 I took these kids out to play in the snow after a big snowstorm. They lasted about 10 minutes {without snow pants} before coming inside freezing. 

We had a fun Griffin Family Party at Carols school on Friday the 20th. We had pizza, then they sent us on a fun scavenger hunt around the school. Then we played some minute-to-win-it games in the gym. It was fun to have all of my mom's siblings there except for Gary. 

We decided last year that we would make going to the jump zone on Christmas Eve a tradition. Unfortunately, I started feeling sick on Saturday, and then Brad got sick that night as well. We had to miss out on church on Sunday because we were both really sick, and stayed home all day on Monday as well. I was feeling mostly better by Tuesday so I was able to jump, but Brad was still not feeling great. He still came, but just sat and watched. We had a brunch at my parents after.

We went to Grandma and Grandpa Weyerts for some games and dinner, and then headed out to the Bundy's for some fun games. We played the thimble game until the elf came and knocked to tell the little girls to get to bed. It was fun to see them scream and run as soon as the knock came. Then we got into teams and had a survivor relay race of sorts. It was lots of fun! 

Christmas this year was good, but not too fun since we were both kind of sick. But we both got lots of great things. We had a yummy breakfast, and Grandma Mary came over to watch us open our presents. Then we went to Grandma and Grandpa Weyerts for more presents and some lunch. Then it was time for the highlight of the day for all of us- talking to Jake on skype!! It was so great to see him and he is doing very well. He is still the silly Jake that we all know. Brad and I had to leave right after so we could make it down to Willard in time to talk to Drew on skype. It was great to see and talk to him as well. We opened presents there, then met up with my family and relatives at the Skeen's where we had dinner, talked and played some games.  

The day after Christmas, we had all of Brad's friends from high school (they call themselves the Nerd Herd) over to watch the USU football game. It was fun to see Bryce and Laura who were visiting from New York. After the game, the boys played darts for TWO hours, and I'm not exaggerating! Us girls just enjoyed talking and catching up with each other.

The Bundy's and Annie came over for lunch and games the next day and we watched Emma get a tooth pulled out. 

Adam, Syd and Rafe came over on Saturday and we played a fun new game we got called Telestrations. We also had dinner and played Tenzi. 

The Bundy's came over on Sunday and we had a yummy dinner and played lots of fun games. The winner of every game we played got to choose a prize off of the prize table. We played till the prizes were mostly gone! 

It was such a fun month and an even better year!! We are so excited to see what 2014 has to bring us, and look forward to some fun new adventures. 

November

We went to dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings with our friends Krista and Clayton, and then came back to our house to hang out. 

The Hess' asked me if I would go shopping for their kids winter clothes and I was MORE than happy to say yes! They gave me a budget, so I went to every store in town (literally) that carries kid clothes to try and find the best deal so that I could get as many clothes as possible for them. The kids loved everything I got and so did the parents- in fact, they told me that I'm in charge of shopping from now on. :) 

We went to Crystal Hot Springs with Mikell, Nick, Karen and Sam. We had a good time, but we laughed after at how gross that place is! Notice Mikell's high heels- she forgot to bring other shoes and didn't want to walk barefoot in the bathroom. haha 

 Coincidentally, us girls posed the exact same as we did when we came as Freshman in college. We found the old picture on the way home and thought it was too funny! 

We went with my parents to surprise Lindsey at her work with balloons for her birthday. 

I took the Hess kids to the jump zone for the first time and they LOVED it!! They ask me every day if they can go back. There was a guy that worked there that could be 'spiderman' and climb on the ceiling. It was pretty awesome and the kids loved it! 

Kylee and Brody came home for Thanksgiving and surprised me! I was getting ready to go work out with my mom, when someone knocked on my door. I was wondering who would possibly be at my house at 9am, but when I opened the door and Kylee was standing there, I was so excited!! 

We did a lot of fun things while she was here including, working out, playing lots of games and going black Friday shopping. For Thanksgiving, it was the Wheelwright's turn to have us, so we missed out on going to Grandma's. But we had a good time with lots of good food. We had dinner at Bryce and Ann's, and then we headed over to the Rollo's for pie. 

Brody turned 29 on the 29th, which means it was his Golden birthday! Kylee threw him an awesome party with his high school friends and was so nice to invite Brad and I. She did such a great job with all the decorations and even had a photo booth. It was a fun night and it was fun to meet some of their friends, and play with their cute babies. :) 

On Saturday, we headed to Salt Lake. On the way, we stopped at the Solomon Center to play some glow in the dark mini golf. Then we walked around City Creek for a bit before going to see the lights at Temple Square. We stopped at Bella's Mexican Restaurant on the way home for some dinner.