|{ New Years In Arizona }|

After Utah we flew down to Arizona to spend New Years with my family!

The day after we got there we woke up to the smell of bacon and my Dad slamming doors downstairs to wake us up. Jon says 'Whose mad?'. I smile and say, 'No one! IT'S CHRISTMAS!!!' So we headed downstairs for our fake Christmas!

Traditional Christmas breakfast!

The envelope on the tree started our treasure hunt for our gifts! It was a blast!!

The gift we got for my Dad! This was a once in a lifetime find! We bought it back in there summer and we were so excited to give it to him!

Looking at my Mom in awe!

He loved it! Yay!

On New Years Eve we played this fun marathon game thing. We had 3 different games going and every 2 minutes we would rotate down the table and end up on a different game. It was really fun!

Sparkling cider with rock candy to color it! Fun!

We did a boil! SO spicy! We were all dying!

We went to the Mesa Temple to see the Christmas lights! Dad brought hot cocoa for everyone, it was hot apparently. I love candid shots! :)

Also it was raining, so I used our little point-and-shoot again. Apparently the Christmas lights this year did not want good photos taken of them. 

Funny sign!

And we got to see the Rainwaters!! Gosh I miss them!

My sister graciously took some photos of Jon and I! :)

For our 5 year wedding anniversary we duplicated some of our wedding photos! 

Other things we didn't take photos of: We made sushi for my Dad and everyone tried it! Mom even liked it! Woohoo!! We made Italian for everyone! We played Dr. Mario!

|{ Time For a Vacation }|

After Jon took his exam we got to go on a little trip!! We went with our friends Katy and Clayton to Nashville, TN where we just stayed for the night.  It was really cool to see Nashville again! I love it there! The next morning we stopped at the Loveless Cafe, which we had heard about on the Food Network! It was delicious!! We got a family style breakfast and we all ate way too much!! We also took a little stop in Mt. Juliet and went to the Kroger that we used to always go to when we lived there.  It was a lot of fun!

Then we made our way to our true destination! The Smoky Mountains!! We stayed in a cabin that was up the road from Townsend, which is really close to both Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg.  The cabin was awesome!! It was up a really steep road and very secluded.  It was big and open and had lots of windows and a HOT TUB!  We stayed for only 2 nights but spent the whole time grilling, and hot tubbing, and roasting marshmallows over the fire.  There was definitely a lot of creative marshmallows! Ones filled with Reese's and bananas and all sorts of other things.  Even a banana that was filled with marshmallows and too much candy! Haha! It was a lot of fun!

We also made a stop in Pigeon Forge one afternoon and were pretty surprised by how absurdly touristy the place was!!!  It was insane!! So we picked one of the many places to play mini golf and that was a blast! The last couple of holes we were being rained on, but that was fun too! Then we stopped for some cheese-steak sandwiches and frozen yogurt.  Then we took a lovely drive up the mountain! It was gorgeous!!  We even saw the Appalachian Trail!! Such a fun trip!!

A few days after that we finally went to Cedar Point!! We've been wanting to go since we moved here and we finally just decided to do it!! So we hopped in the car, drove the 2 hours down to Ohio, and got to the park as it was opening!  It was a little chilly and cloudy and early in the season so the lines were never very long! It rocked!! We had originally planned to say the whole day but about 3 hours or so before they closed we had been on all of the rides we wanted, a few more than once, and to be honest we were kind of roller-coastered out! It was an amazing day!! The rides were fantastic and I even got the biggest snow cone of my life!!! It was the perfect way to let of some steam and just have some fun! We needed it! :)

|{ Going Shooting }|

On Monday we went shooting with our friends Leah and Paul!!  I haven't been in a long time and it was fun to re-learn! Jon is such a good teacher and I felt like I did pretty decent!!!

It was SUCH a blast!!  We had a super good time and being there with Leah and Paul made it even more fun!!! It's good to have awesome friends!!

|{ Guest Post- Our Little Fam }|

Today I have my first guest post for you!!! Ashlee over at Our Little Fam is such a sweetheart and I'm excited for you to meet her!!

Hey there bloggers,

I am Ashlee, over at Our Little Fam. I am so happy to be guest posting for Shalay! She is so sweet and I adore her blog! She is super woman =)

Meet my family

Since this last family picture our sweet little boy has arrived. I am now a wife and mother to two sweet little boys.

My husband, call him J, is a busy man. He works full time and is currently in the military. (He is also a full time student, YAY school! Haha) He was deployed to Iraq during the summer of 2010 for a 12 month tour and returned in 2011. Can’t believe it’s now 2012. His time away from home seemed to last forever, and his time home with us always goes by so fast.  

He loves the outdoors, especially running. Is a computer nerd and loves bacon. =)

I am a full time mama and student. Although, this semester since our new little one arrived and I am adjusting to being a mother of two, I am going part time. Next semester is back to full time again. I am working on my pre nursing reqs. One day I will see the light at the end of the tunnel and I will be finished and happy with my career as an RN ;) Eventually my goal is to work in L&D.

I enjoy blogging, crafting, cooking (this is something new to me though haha), playing with my little boys, and time with my hubby.

This is “Little E”, our little stud and the older brother. He will be turning 3 in April. He sure keeps me on my toes. He is always teaching me something new. He is full of laughter, generosity, and of course attitude. Haha. I am so blessed to be a mama, absolutely love it!

Here is “Baby G”, he arrived on 12/30/2011. He was full term, but was born with fluid in his lungs and couldn’t seem to get the breathing part down. When he was born he was life flighted to a different hospital and spent 12 days in the NICU. He was sent home on oxygen. After his first month of life on oxygen we were able to ditch it (except for when he uses his car seat). He is our little fighter, he has already endured a lot within his first month and a half of life.

Come visit us and get to know us more over at Our Little Fam, I would love to get to know all of you and follow your blogs! I blog about life as a mom, wife, student, and whatever else I feel like writing about. Recently it has been crafts and food since I am a newbie when it comes to cooking. (P.s., if you have any fun crafts or recipes come share them with me!)

Thank you Shalay for hosting me on your blog! You are so awesome and your readers are so lucky to get to know you through your blog!!

Xoxo,

Ashlee

|{ The Holidays In Utah: PART III }|

After Christmas we did a lot of things! We played even more games, we met up with some friends, and celebrated New Years!

We ate at In-N-Out twice!

I met up with my one of my very best friends, Mercede, and we went where we always go, Happy Sumo, for lunch!

We went to hang out with Jon's two best friends, Matt and Josh, and their wives, Kim and Jaime.  The both just hand babies last fall!

Josh and Jaime's baby, Keira.  Sadly, I realize now that I did not get any photos of Matt and Kim's baby, Mitchell.

For New Years we went and saw a movie with my sisters! We saw The Darkest Hour, it was super fun! Then we went home and watched the ball fall with my family, p.s. YAY LADY GAGA!!  We rang in the New Year with a glass of sparkling cider and a kiss!

Us at the Movie Theater!

We also went and saw the 'Up' house! :)