And.. We're Back!

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year! We most certainly did! We started off our holiday vacation by making the long drive back up to AZ to spend a few days with the Smith's before heading off to Texas for Christmas. What was suppose to be a 14 hour drive from Mexico took us over 18 hours with accidents, border waiting and other stops that slowed us down. Ethan was definitly ready to get out of the car but was a good trooper through it all. We had a lot of fun in AZ with lots of eager aunts/uncles/grandparents awaiting the arrival of out little guy. Here are some things we did...

Arizona

We went to Justin's brothers volleyball tournament. Ethan loved all the cheering and would clap and loudly say "YAY!" when he would hear it. Nate is a really good setter and watching made me miss my volleyball days...

This was one of Ethan's favorite things to do with his aunts. They would wrap him all up in a blanket and drag him across the carpet. tile, pretty much all around the house.. he loved it and his hair was sticking up everywhere from the static!

Texas
A few days before Christmas, we flew out to the great state of Texas to see my family. I was there in August with Ethan but Justin hadn't been out there in a whole year. It was nice to have his company there and for people in my hometown to see that I was infact still married
!


My parents have a lot of property out there in the woods of Texas and I'm pretty sure Ethan covered every inch of it. He loved all the cats and would chase them around everywhere! it was pretty muddy and rainy while we were there so my mom bought him some rubber boots to get muddy in... he was pretty much adorable in them. My younger brother has a sweet jeep that my dad restored from scratch which is pictured above.. why didnt I have anything like that!?! !






Ethan made out like a bandit for Christmas with both sides of the family spoiling him pretty well! He got some really cool toy trucks, a lawnmower and many more toys that make lots of noise:) As for me, Justin gave me some beautiful Australian crystal earrings that he bought for me in London that match a georgeous necklace that he gave me for our anniversary- note this is my first pair of non Claires /Wal Mart jewlery so im pretty excited! But I was also the lucky recipient of a new Bosch Mixer and Blender... ridiculously excited? Yes! I didnt think i would get one of those until I was like 50, but Im excited to improve my cooking skills with it! Justin got some brand new work shoes ..I finally got rid of his Vans! Yes! Thanks to all our family for making our Christmas so special, We love you

Back to Arizona

A few days after Christmas, we flew back to Arizona. The family picked us up from the airport and we headed right on up to some condos to enjoy the Arizona snow! We had a blast and Ethan had fun enjoying his first experience with snow...! !

Ethan quickly found the vaccum (his favorite toy) and helped us clean up the condo multiple times a day. We spent the morning playing the Wii for our first time ever! It was so fun and such a good family interactive toy! I boxed Justin and beat him a good three times but paid for it dearly for the next three days- I was so sore and felt like such a wimp being sore from a stinkin video game

We met up with the Smith's neighbors up there to go sledding and ""snow knee boarding" (which is where you are kneeling on a kneeboard, holding on to a rope and being pulled behind a truck in the snow- fun??oh yes!! ) We were all bundled up pretty good! It was cold!!



Ethan and his Aunt Chanda had fun sledding and playing in the snow together. We had trouble keeping Ethan's gloves on. See, he's a little funny with his hands... he doesnt like ANYTHING to be on them! Therefore, he didnt want his gloves on but when he would fall down in the snow and get snow on his hands,, he would spend forever looking at his hands , studying them like, "what is this and how do i get it off!"We have taught him to "brush it off" on his pants but you can tell it still drives him crazy! As youcan see, Justin had fun tackling me in the snow too!






After 2 days enjoying the cold, we came back to the house in sunny Mesa and had fun goofing off and talking with everyone. Ethan had fun playing with the dog and taking him for walks and i had fun working with Chanda (my sister-in- law) in our temporary beauty salon fixing everyone's hair curly and showing them the beauty of naturally curly hair! Pictured below are Chalene and Caryn (who normally have straight hair with a little body). With a little work, we made their hair beautiful with tons of curls! !)



It was a great Christmas and New Year and we feel so blessed that we were able to spend a lot of time with family. We are now back in Mexico and hopefully I can post more updates on Ethan,Justin and I soon! Stay tuned for more!