A Biker and a Book Nerd : January 2015

I realize that my last decent post was in October. Wow, those holiday months really get away from me. A brief recap:

Thanksgiving: Was spent with the Palmers and Olsens. It was relaxed and good and also spent in sickness... those nasty colds!

Black Friday: Was spent in Bear Lake having a last photo shoot with the Wright family before my little brother left for his mission. The pictures turned out great even though my little family was so sick we wanted to die. For reals though.

Saturday after Black Friday: Was spent in the Preston area. It's tradition to go up the canyon and cut down our Christmas trees on that day. Fortunately for my lazy out of shape side, Leland is too small to hike up a mountain so we sent Daddy while we played in the snow with Tenley. Uncle Tyler made a snow slide and Leland though that was pretty great. After we got our trees we headed to the bed races down Main St. and then had lunch at Arctic Circle. We were thankfully feeling much better today.

First of December: Was full of Usborne booths for me.

Middle of December: Was full of lights, Christmas merriment, shopping, and you know, regular December type activities.

Christmas:

Christmas Eve Eve: Went to the Olsen's for dinner, Santa, games, and gift exchange. Leland was too scared to sit on Santa's lap, so he made sure that Grandma Palmer was with him.
Christmas Eve Morning: Breakfast with the Palmers and opening lots of presents.
Christmas Eve: Drove to Bear Lake to meet the Wrights. We got our Christmas pajamas and watched Frozen while I did some assembly work for Santa
Christmas Day: Had an absolute lovely day at the cabin in Bear Lake. We played games, ate food, laughed, exchanged presents, told stories. It was a grand sort of day. Christmas spent in a cabin is MAGICAL by the way!

New Years Eve: Was spent at the Palmers eating pizza, playing games, and watching the ball drop while throwing confetti and blowing horns. Not everyone made it to midnight but Leland and Tenley sure did! They were troopers!!

New Years Day: Was lazy.

Beginning of January: All I could think about was how my little brother was leaving me for two years. It sucked. I spent five days at my parents house to soak up as much Zach time as I possibly could. The farewell went really well, he gave an amazing talk that made me bawl my eyes out. Dropping him off at the MTC was seriously SO MUCH HARDER than I thought it was going to be. My eyes ached from crying so much. Not fun! Not fun at all!!!!!!

Currently: Getting a letter from Brother was very exciting and he is doing very well! I took Leland to his first movie in the theater. We went and saw Penguins of Madagascar. He didn't make it though the whole thing but he lasted an hour, loved the big bucket of popcorn, and laughed out loud twice- I would call that a success! I had a booth in Malad today. I threw my SIL a wedding shower that I think turned out really good. I always get nervous for those kinds of things but I think it was a success. She is getting married in less than a week so I am sure this week will be full of preparations for the big day! I also have an Usborne conference in SLC this Saturday that I am really looking forward to!

Other: Leland started nursery and I am way happy about that. He has some separation anxiety but for the most part he does okay. I am suffering from the winter blues...grrrrr... I hate January. Is it over yet? We are talking about taking a REAL vacation this summer and we are having fun exploring our possibilities and deciding where to go. Thoughts? I am loving my calling as an activity leader... THE BEST CALLING EVER!!! I have also decided to join my wards book club and my first meeting is this Tuesday. I can't wait because I am in need of some SERIOUS girl time. When was the last time I did something with a friend??? Um.... (crickets chirping) ... oh that's right I can't remember cause it was so freaking long ago! Friends? Hello? Are you out there??? Girl time? Anyone? ... Anyone? (Damn those crickets!) haha... but not really. Call me.

I applaud you if you made it to the end of this. Stay Awesome!