Birthday Boy

Massive Breakfast

Happy Birthday to Hubby hubby!

Morning of this guys birthday I made him breakfast. Surprising him was tough because waking up earlier than him is not something I am very good at! After we ate breakfast, we got ready for the day!

We then went down to see my Grandparents. I felt bad because it was Bryans birthday, but it was the best time we could stop by to see them. The visit ended up being really good! We talked for 45 minutes or so and it was great. My grandpa is probably the cutest guy ever.

We hurried on up to the ice skating rink and made it just about on-time, which is a miracle when I'm involved :)

Naturally I take a selfie of myself. 

A lot of people showed up as they do every year. Emily and her kids, Rosanna, Darrell, Amy and Brett. Grandma and Grandpa Frandsen, Velyn and Monty, Karalynn and her cute kids and probably a few others! Everything was really great! We even got Erika to skate all on her own! It took some time, but we got her skating all on her own! Until that point, we all took turns holding her arm and skating with her. Little Jackie also did awesome! She was skating all on her own so quickly! She is probably the cutest little thing ever! I do remember why I don't go skating very often though.... skates hurt! Once a year is worth it for this guy though!

After skating we went back to the Frandsens house. Maribeth picked up Grandma and Grandpa Theuson, and Grandma and Grandpa Frandsen came over as well. We played games most of the rest of the afternoon. Rick made Bryans favorite, Bacon Burgers. From what I hear, most of his family can't remember a time that they didn't have Bacon Burgers on this boys birthday! I've never met someone so obsessed with Bacon. Naturally we went around the table saying our favorite things about Bryan, and ended the evening with cake, ice cream and presents! Bryan got a lot of great gifts, but I still think mine were the best of all! This year I got him a new hoodie, and a baseball display case for his baseball collection. I'm not usually very creative, so this was pretty good on my part!

Lastly, let's not forget how awesome Grandpa Frandsen looks while wearing Bryans new sweet headphones, and his fabulous shopka. This is a priceless photo... so it belongs here to be remembered and loved.

Bryans birthday was a success overall! It is crazy to think that just last year we were only engaged. And the year before that I was wishing he was home. I am grateful to have this guy!

Our First Christmas

Christmas is a beautiful season. At times Christmas was a bit rough for me growing up, but I could not wait for my first Christmas with my Husband. It took us quite some time to figure out how we wanted everything to work out between when we would be with his family, my mom, or my dad. BUT we finally got it resolved and figured out. I think what we came up with ended up working out wonderfully!

...Christmas Eve…

Dad came in town for Christmas, he brought the Henstocks along with him, and that was frustrating for my siblings and I. I really wish he would have just come out with Isaac and spent time with us. I am glad that he came out to visit even so. He reserved tickets for Savior of the World, which is a wonderful production done by the church at the Conference Center. The performance was beautiful, but long. Bryan and I looked at each other during the second half and said "Is it Easter now?" because they had moved on to the death and resurrection of Christ. It was quite beautiful and the music was very pretty.

After the show, Dad took us to lunch down at City Creek. We all picked out what we wanted to eat and found a big table for all of us to sit at. We also got chocolate shakes to share. Jordan had to leave to take Josh to work after we ate. The rest of us decided to walk around City Creek a bit more. I walked into stores with the girls. Lauren was a crack up because she was so picky about which stores we went into. She is going to be worse than me when it comes to clothing and shopping. Future shopaholic on our hands. At some point everyone left to go back to the hotel, but Bryan and I decided we would go walk around Temple Square. It was a gorgeous night, and only a little bit chilly. There still was not any snow on the ground either, so walking around the temple was quite enjoyable! I wish we had had more time so that we could watch the nativity at Temple Square, but we really needed to get back to the family.

Back at the Hotel all of the kids were swimming, so we sat down at the pool watching them for a while.
Not a normal Christmas Eve, but I was happy to spend time with them. Dad finally showed up after some time, and we got to talk and exchange Christmas gifts. The kids got tired and began to leave the pool, and Dad was going to go visit with Royd White, so we decided it was probably time for us to leave.

So my favorite part of the night was that as we were driving home, I begggged Bryan for a soda. He caved, so we stopped at McDonalds. As we got to the drive thru to order, we heard the lady say something, but we couldn't understand her. After awhile of waiting , Bryan finally said "Hello?," the lady responded with "I said, just a minute!"........ haha speechless... Finally she asked us our order. We asked for two drinks and two waters. At the window, she asked for the money, we paid, and she handed us two drinks and one water. Which, honestly is not a big deal... But, Bryan then simply asked her if there was a second water, she looked at him and said "NO!" Window. Slammed. Shut. We were honestly shocked ha. But it was hilarious. Bryan wanted to go talk to her manager, but I reminded him that it was Christmas Eve and she was probably super upset about having to work that evening instead of being with her family. I sure would be upset if I was them! Anyway, makes for a funny story.

Next entertaining part of the evening happened after we got back to the Frandsen Household. I needed to wrap a few more presents that evening, so I pulled out everything I needed and got started. Bryan came down the stairs to let me know we had forgotten Erika's christmas present.... We knew that we definitely could not tell her on Christmas morning that we forgot about her... So, to the Provo home we went. I don't want to know how many miles we drove that day!

Somehow we made it back before The Frandsens arrived home. When they got home we made cookies, and hung out. I then finished wrapping the presents that I hadn't gotten to do before we drove to Provo. When it was time for bed, we all got together in the living room to read the story of Christ's birth from the Bible. I know that is such a normal thing for many families to do, but I can't really remember mine doing this. I'm sure my mom tried at some point. Anyway, it was really nice. After that we went downstairs and opened our christmas jammies, which you can see wonderfully displayed here.

Matching Christmas Gift Shirts. Precious little twins. 

Christmas morning was early… so early. The kids woke us up around 7:30 am. Which, is not a normal time for Christmas in my personal opinion! I am happy that we got them to agree to that time, but honestly.. who doesn't want to sleep until at least 8am?

All the kids went to Erikas room, and we waited while Dad (Rick) set up the living room. When we went down, there were designated spots on on the couch for each of us. We got to open all of the gifts in our own piles without waiting for others. This pile had like gifts from "Santa" and a few from Mom and Dad. This was so new to me because my dad made us wait for each person to take their turn. After we finished our opening what was in our piles, we then past out gifts from each other, and took turns watching everyone open their gifts. It was definitely a different Christmas morning from what I am used to, but it was really good. After gifts, Janet brought down Breakfast and we ate together while waiting to Skype with Jake on his mission. Talking with Jake was really great. He looked good, and very happy. It was fun seeing how happy Janet and Rick were while they talked to him. I think we got to talk to him for about an hour, which was very nice for everyone. I wasn't sure what to say really, but I still enjoyed getting to see him again since it's been so long! Oh wait! We got and IPAD :) The In-laws must love us :) :) We also got a bunch of fun games, clothes and useful things like a care emergency repair kit.

The rest of the morning we relaxed and got ready for the day. That afternoon we drove to Grandma Frandsen's house and helped finish the preparations for Christmas dinner. Emily's family, and Uncle Darrel's family were there as well. I like how everyone make such a big deal about Thanksgiving food, but Christmas dinner is usually about the same haha. We had a good time with everyone, but we couldn't stay long since we still needed to get to Christmas with my Mom.

Mom decided to have a bunch of appetizers for dinner instead of the normal Christmas dinner. d. This was good especially since we were already so full from eating at Grandma Frandsens. I was barely able to eat any of the food that my Mom had prepared because of how full I was. The appetizers were super tasty. The only thing we all avoided were the stuffed mushrooms haha. I've never been a fan of those things.. their texture is too weirAfter we ate, we went downstairs to open gifts!

Mom had really outdone herself. Especially with the kind of year she has had. She had plenty of sweet and thoughtful gifts for everyone. I was incredibly surprised. She must have really saved everything she could to do what she did for all of the kids. She got Lauren a ton of Art supplies, which I thought was awesome! I had basically picked out all of my stuff (booties, scarves, perfume), but she surprised me with gift cards to Charming Charlies and a gift box from Body Works. It was so sweet of her. She even got Bryan a shirt and a gift card to Red Robin. I really enjoyed Christmas with my Mom. We definitely had a beautiful Christmas with mom! There was no contention at all, everyone was happy and kind to each other, and we felt like a loving family. I'm so happy that everything is beginning to work out even though our family is going through major changes.

After everything, Jordan needed to take Isaac back to my dad. My dad had planned to go bowling with his side of the family and Jordan and Josh were planning to stay for that for a bit. Jordan asked us if we wanted to go. I could tell Bryan didn't really want to go, but I felt like we should. I hadn't really gotten to see my dads side of the family during the holiday, and I wanted to see my dad one more time before he left. We ended up going, and I thought it was pretty enjoyable. I even kicked Bryans butt one round. I was still annoyed to be around Nico, but I had the rest of my family there to make it a bit better. We bowled a game and half. I got to hang out with my Grandpa and  talk to him quite a bit, and I really enjoyed that! I tried to talk my dad into visiting our apartment before he left back home, but he said no. I really wish that he would have.

Well, thats the end to Christmas Day, but it was overall a wonderful day spent with all of our families.