"The Stars are Brightly Shining!"

Christmas break was quite the event! We had a LOT to do! Of course, we start of the Christmas holiday with Christopher's birthday on the 18th. This year we did a small dinner alone at Christopher's favorite places, Buffalo Wild Wings and Reed's Dairy the night before his actual birthday. Reed's is a local dairy with our very favorite ice cream. There's a dairy that sells it in Rexburg too and I swear it is the best ice cream I've ever had and ever will! Yum :D

We're ice cream people in case you can't tell ;)

On the actual day of Christopher's birthday we had some friends over for cake! We got him a tres leche cake because its his favorite but I had never made it and was too scared to for the first time because all his horticulture buddies came to share with us and our other friends. It was cool to finally meet them all! One of them even bought him a pack of classic wooden pencils that he just loved! It was awesome because it showed some serious thought (Christopher is always talking about how much he loves a good pencil). I gave him a pack of hot sauces and some money towards a Braven speaker he bought with Christmas money from my dad :D We had a pretty fun but chill night I'd say!

Isn't my birthday boy cute!

The very next day we shipped off to Southern California to attend Christopher's great uncle's funeral. We had to pick up Zach in Logan so we stopped off in Southern Utah at his aunt's house for the night then continued on the next day (Friday). There was a viewing that night where we met a bunch of Todd's cousins. Saturday was the funeral which lasted most of the day because we went back to the house for a dinner with the family. Sunday was  a relaxing day spent at church, the LA temple, and the beach! (Emma was in heaven there, it was so cute!) I really enjoyed touring the temple with my horticulture husband because he was so enthusiastic about all the plants and things he saw! It was neat!

My own personal tour guide!

Her first time at the beach!

Todd made a friend at the beach.... hahaha!

 Monday and Tuesday were our Disney days! Emma had begged and begged until her mom promised to take her to Disneyland when they went down there! So we all got to go to and it was a blast because I ADORE disneyland! We were even there for Christmas Eve so it was all decorated for Christmas!

The happiest (and merriest!) place on earth!

Waiting for the toy story ride in CA adventure - super fun ride btw!

Emma had the cutest bow hair for day 1 I loved it!

The boys sure loved the turkey legs!

Main street's giant Christmas tree to remind us what time it was even though the weather was so great!

Love these two goons!

Ho ho, ho ho the pirates life for us!

I took Emma to go walk through the castle and meet some princesses! Sadly my princess pictures of her didn't turn out :(

Christopher LOVES the new cars ride. It was pretty stinking cool...

I love space mountain and we scored with fastpasses!

Normally I wouldn't go for its a small world but its MUCH better at Christmas and helped make me realize its was Christmas Eve!

The matterhorn was FINALLY open for once!

World of color is another favorite of Christopher's (he went a few weeks before with school) and again, it was AWESOME! Perfect holiday cheer!

My adorable in laws driving through Autopia

But monsters inc is her favorite! So of course we had to check out the dorm and the ride! I actually thought it was a pretty neat ride almost like a tour of the movie set!

 

Going with Emma was so much fun because she was so enthusiastic about everything! I loved her excitement and the best part was getting to take her to whatever she wanted to do (princesses, mosnters inc, etc). It really was a blast! I LOVE LOVE LOVE Disneyland! Christmas day was spent driving home which was sort of odd but we made our own little pretend Christmas with Tyson and Maddy so it was all good. Loved watching the little kiddos get super excited over our gifts! We also read a Christmas story and ate brownie mint torte which made me feel right at home because my family usually does that! Christopher was so sweet this year, he went to my bookshelf and researched authors to get me a book! Isn't that cute! And then he also got me some of my favorite perfume and a food scale which I've been wanting! It was great! I did some homemade stuff for him and a gun cleaning rod. I really wanted to give him as much to unwrap as I could. Overall we had an awesome holiday and got some awesome gifts!

I had SOOO much fun wrapping everybody's gifts this year. I don't know why but it made me super happy!

The Dustin's tree was up and ready when we got back!

Like uncle like niece? hahaha

Love these two!!!


















After our Christmas festivities with the Dustin's Christopher and I headed to SLC for our anniversary. We don't have any pictures :(  but it was probably our best to date! We got a room at the marriot next to the airport and then went to dinner at Tucano's because Christopher had a birthday card! Then we walked around city creek to work off dinner. The next morning we really spoiled ourselves with the little america breakfast buffet which was DELISH! (We LOVE our breakfast food!) I wish we had pictures but it was a blast nonetheless!

Next we headed to Brian and Jennica's for New Years. We just hung out and spent lots of time with them and Dad and Tiff. It was great! The best parts were our appetizer New Year's party and chilling at the nickelarcade! Such a fun way to kill some time for cheap! I wish we had one!

I really had sooo much fun on all our adventures, there is way more than I could even share but I'm not going to lie, I was pretty overwhelmed and tired by the end! Haha I started a new job right when we got back so I haven't really slowed down yet and can't wait for some R&R this weekend. But at the same time I can't wait to see everybody again next time! Here's to an even better year than the last one!

:D