Christmas Eve

We started our day off at church. We had a beautiful program with amazing musical numbers. 

Christmas Eve Jammie’s and breakfast for dinner. One of our most favorite traditions. We had tons of bacon, sausage and muffins. 

My mom got big jenga and we had an intense game going with the adults. I had a lucky move after 4 rounds through everyone, with maybe a little balance help. Then it came crashing down on Jake right after. Very proud of how far we got though. Dad even had a killer fast slice that didn’t knock it all down.

This year we decided to do some challenges. All using each other as balancing and holding one another up. The little kids kept pulling it off. They did a big stand up pyramid and lots of ab work. It was so much fun! 

We ended the night at our friends the Albright’s. They go all out for Christmas and serve hot cocoa. Noah’s friend Eden even came out to help with the scavenger hunt as is parents chatted. The kids loved it all and warming up with hot cocoa. Jake and I even snuck a kiss under the mistletoe. 

We had one of the best Christmas Eves. I am so grateful for our family and being able to laugh and have so much fun. Good company and good food. 

 

Benjamin is 15

 I remember being 15 and can not believe I have a son that old now! Benjamin is a great kid and absolutely loving high school and volleyball. He grows a little every day it feels like and is finally 6 feet tall. He has passed everyone except my dad. He loves it and wants to keep growing. 

We started off the day Benjamin playing games and we went to the movie with friends. We saw Aquaman and had popcorn again. It’s our fav. After we went to twisted sugar and then back to the house for more games.

For dinner Benjamin asked for homemade fettuccine Alfredo and milkshakes. So delicious! Grandma and grandpa heated the spa and all the kids even braved the cold pool.

This is the progression of grandpa stealing Benjamin’s present from taliah, a BYU shirt and then showing Benjamin they can share clothes now. Had us all laughing. 

Happy birthday Benjamin, you are so loved. Wish us both luck this year 15 is crazy!

Christmas parties

Lots of Christmas activities so I threw them all in one long post. Happy Holidays!

First off was the Bulloch Christmas party. Kids played with cousins and we had yummy food. I love all of Jake’s aunts cooking! Santa came and handed out candy canes. We got to tour Grandma and Grandpas old house that has been converted into a church. Jake’s aunt spoiled me and was able to snag the all coveted red Stanley cup for me, she is awesome and we have been talking about the red cup forever and we both finally got them! Grandpa came from Cedar and we loved giving him squeezes and chatting. 

While the boys and I were in California Jake took Navy to our ward Christmas party. They went all out! Love how beautiful it looked and Navy got to ride a train while she hung out with her friends.

Jake also got to take the girls to Kyler and Maddie’s Christmas party. They were so creative with so many fun crafts. Maddie makes the best tacos too!

Jake’s work Christmas dinner is one of our most delicious meals of the year, every year. We are so grateful for his amazing boss and coworkers. We always have a fun night together. I love listening to the Carolers as we eat too. Jana and I matched with sparkly tops and our Christmas colored pants, love it!

Next up was sugar cookies! We headed over to Jeff and Melissa’s for dinner and cookies. The kids all did great. We had some turn out so cute and then we had frosting explosion cookies. They all tasted delicious so it was a win. 

Navy had a Christmas concert she has worked so hard for. She made sure to practice where I couldn’t hear so it could be a surprise. She sang her heart out and is a blast watching with her facial expressions. Emma got to come with me to watch so we had a fun girls day. 

We had fun with my young women girls at our Christmas party. Melissa threw an ornament exchange party. Then my night ended at my friend ambers ugly sweater party! I even won with my grinch cookie in the decorating contest. Love all these ladies so much!

The kids had friends come over for crafts and hot cocoa. Love watching them laugh and play. Lots of smiles and fun. Amazing living so close to the park so we get to add that into our play dates. 

Our last Christmas party is at Jeff and Vicki’s. We had two turkeys and ham. Delicious! My favorite was the smoked turkey and Taryn’s rolls. We all stuffed ourselves with amazing food. They warmed up the hot tub for the kids so they were swimming off and on all day. They even jumped in the freezing pool! Made us cold just watching them. We love cousin time and are grateful for our family. Love you all so much! 

Polar Express

Our favorite night of the holidays! Western Elite Polar Express. Santa pulled it off and we are so grateful we were able to get tickets. This company is the best and every year we are in awe at all they put on to help bring for the holiday spirit. 

They had new decorations and shows. We got to see live singing by a family that was really talented. They changed up the shows on the way to the North Pole and the Home alone was our favorite. The part where he zip lines between houses. They did a great job yet again! The kids got cute, new Christmas toys from Santa, a little penguin. This year they even made kettle corn, so yummy as a treat right when you get off the train. 

 

We ran into lots of friends. We even saw the best train conductor there is! The kids talked about it all day waiting to see where he would be. He got them even more pumped for the night than they already were.

The kids helped decorate snow men and we saw the Grinch. The lines were perfect all night, hardly lines anywhere. We got to take our time and look at all of the details they put into the entire night. 

Everyone had an amazing night. I’m so grateful we got to go again with my family. I love seeing the cousins have so much fun and be with my sisters and parents. We missed Benjamin this year as he is at a tournament that Kylee and Jordan are at also. We drank lots of hot cocoa and the kids ended with face paint. Thank you for putting smiles on all our faces! We loved our night. 

 

Mini besties night

My besties husband came to town for the night and we got to have the girls for the night. Brittany and I are pretty obsessed with how obsessed our girls are with each other even though we only see them a few times a year! True besties for life like their mamas!

They played with make up and taught each other piano songs. Navy raided her closet to find them matching outfits and they did each others hair. Like how adorable can they be?! The girls came with us to our first cheer practice back, and of course we had them all in big cheer bows. After we went to free sno day and Bahama bucks. Our favorite snow cones! The kids played games and made my night with all their smiles. Love you and can’t wait till next time. 

Jordan’s 8 and Great!

Jordan got baptized in Idaho. It was a beautiful day and the spirit was so strong. Taliah started off about Jordan taking the first step through the gate of baptism. She shared her testimony of her mission and how important Jordan’s decision was that day. My dad baptized and confirmed Jordan. Everyone felt the love for Jordan through his words. 

The circle was powerful and strong, filled with amazing men! Jordan’s grandpa, great grandpa, Uncle Jake, Uncle Vernon, future Uncle Ben, cousins Brady, Marcus, Casdon and Uncle Jeff. Casdon gave the talk in the Holy Ghost. He talked about Jordan’s love for sports and jerseys. Wearing Michael Jordan’s name and jersey and how that day he got to put on the true GOATs jersey. With the name of Christ on it. It was the best talk for Jordan in understanding that special moment. 

Grandpa closed with a story of meeting grandma and slowly had each generation/spouses/ kids/ family friends stand up until the whole room was standing. What a powerful moment showing grandma and grandpas posterity. I can’t imagine the joy they had seeing everyone of their family there. Both kids, spouses, all 9 grand kids with 6/7 spouses, all 17 great grand kids. We had a full house, but a wonderful weekend!

 

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving day started off with a 5k turkey trot. We walked down to the canyon as it snowed the whole way. It wasn’t cold and the views were spectacular. We even had matching shirts with everyone. We couldn’t make it all the way to the falls because of how slippery it was and even had some cars get stuck. We did make it back though and got our miles in. 

Thanksgiving dinner we had all of my cousins and their kids there. All of my family was there too. We did crafts and ate yummy food. We had push up contests and Mario races. I loved all being together. 

We needed to try the egg trend with our cousins. Kylee showed them the videos and Brady and Marcus were both like done I can do that. Marcus went first and was surprised that it actually took a bit of effort. Grandma came in laughing asking what we were doing, when Marcus cracked the egg….. ALL OVER grandma, up in her hair, the walls, and the rest of the food. Everybody was laughing crying! Still makes me laugh to think of it or watch the video. 

Black Friday shopping! We hit up our favorite boutique and we’re there early for the grab bags. In the snow. We brought blankets and chairs and geared up ready for those free bash bags! Emma came with us last year and was so excited. She said she didn’t even know if she wanted anything, but just loved the experience. We love having her and she fits right in. Taliah, Charlotte, Emma, Kelsey and I started off with hot cocoa and then Jenna, Savvy, and Emilee joined us and we each got a haul of goodies. 

 

November

 

We have had a super fun and busy November. The holidays are off to a great start and we love it! We have done a few friends givings and pie nights. Filled with lots of laughs and kids crafts. Benjamin even slept on my friends couch one of the nights lol. We love our friends and I’m so grateful for all of them. 

We went to see the new trolls movie at the drive in. It was the perfect drive in night, my favorite place. Emma brought her friends and they played in the arcade. Noah got to go to the inside theater with some friends and out to dinner after. All the kids had so much fun. We like the first two trolls more, eek loved Nysnc in the movie though. 

We celebrated mom’s birthday at Grimaldi’s and had yummy pizza with everyone there. I got mom a candle that said, “ mom’s last nerve… oh look it’s on fire.” 

Next was dad’s birthday. His personalized license plate got stolen months ago so I replaced it with this Seinfeld one. The kids were shook that’s what we got grandpa. 

Also included Christmas decorating, selfies and Benjamin in seminary. 

Temple work

Jake’s grandma and her sister came over from Japan where they started their family here. Jake’s grandpa met her in Japan while serving after the war and they came back together. I love family history work and it has been a struggle being able to find information. I’ve tried since we got married with no progress. Well a month ago after spending countless hours going through paperwork I was able to find his grandmas naturalization application to the United States where it had so much information on it! I was ecstatic. It is so cool to see that document and have a little more of her story. With permission and approval we headed to the temple and Emma got to get baptized for her by Jake. It was a beautiful moment filled with the spirit. We are so blessed to be members of the church and be in the temple so much more as we have done the work for close family members; Fusae and Kazuko and others on Jake’s side. Benjamin got to be baptized for members in the Bierstedt line, including Jake’s great grandpa. I have a friend in Japan doing research for me to be able to get more family documents, I’m so excited and definitely taking after my grandma loving this family history. A lot of my families work goes back really far since so much is done. With Jake’s family we can’t wait to continue going so we can get this work done as we have opened up these lines. 

 

St. George Youth trip

 I love our ward youth. We have great leaders and were able to plan a trip to St. George. We started off at the temple and were able to walk through. It was absolutely stunning. The colors were everywhere, very different than Las Vegas with mostly whites. I love being able to see it with Emma. 

After we headed to the park for pizza and games. Then we stayed the night at a family members house. It was so big and fun, even had an indoor slide. We played games with the kids and then us leaders stayed up late and talked. I love who I serve with, so grateful for them. 

Before we headed home we went into Snow canyon and into lava tubes. I can’t believe I went so far down in there! Pitch black dark and small tunnels and drops. After we hiked to where they had a giant flag sustained between to mountains for Veterans Day. Beautiful scenery with trees and red rocks. Such a fun trip. 

Staycation

Kylee got a free hotel room, so it was party time. We surprised Jordan, Noah and Navy with a staycation. I told the kids we were going with Kylee and Jordan. Navy’s response was, “I know we are going to have a good time because Kylee makes everything fun!”

We left right after school and headed to Fremont street. I haven’t been there for years and wow oh wow lol, the kids poor eyes. We saw some really fun acts too though. 

For dinner we looked for something fun and oh boy did we find it! Heart attack grill. They have a giant scale out front because if you weigh more than 350 lbs you eat free. You enter and immediately get put in hospital gowns. The kids faces all night cracked us up. Everything was fried, grilled and so yummy. We got drinks in giant syringes the kids got to keep. They even had some in I.V. Bags. Well the catch is if you don’t finish all your food you get spanked. Navy decided she wasn’t hungry and only wanted fries. As they ate the kids would sneak food back into our trays. They even scooped the ketchup back. Well Kylee and I had food left so we laughed and got ready for our spankings. First and second were haha this is funny, third was no joke!!!!! We were crying laughing so hard because the kids faces and also that it actually hurt as we got whipped with leather belts.  Kylee had a welt and giant bruise when we checked back at the hotel!

We snuck a pic of the kids with a million dollars in cash. They said fake hahaha. We walked to the container park and let the kids play. We had to souvenir shop and get all the kids new Vegas shirts. We grabbed donuts from pink box for the morning. The next day we woke up and the kids all headed back to school. It was a long night listening to the bands play till 2. Navy would randomly ask when their party was going to be over lol. We had a great time!

 

Idaho

We love Idaho! Each of us were so ready and excited to go. We saw lots of animals on the way there this time. Grandma Schraft gave us and Noah a little show/ piano lesson. Grandpa and Benjamin getting ready in the bathroom- Benjamin loves grandpas products! lol 

Look close because dad gave me an airplane ride for the first time in 30 years. Navy watched baby Ryan all week and felt so important as our baby being able to take care of a baby. 

We celebrated Jordan’s birthday while there. We went to Skateland and it everyone. The kids and adults all raced. Kylee and Jordan brought those wins home! Benjamin loved helping all the littles skate. 

We got to see our favorites the Young family and even ran into my cousin Trisha and her boys who we haven’t seen in years! We also celebrated Oakley’s third birthday. Lots of party fun on top of the holiday break. 

SNOW! We woke up Thanksgiving morning to snow! It was the perfect snow too. Perfect for snow ball fights and to build a snowman. I played outside for almost an hour with Noah and Jordan. Mom even came out and joined the snowball fight. It snowed non stop for two days and the next morning the bottom of my snowman was even covered up.