First Items of Business

 What were our first items of business upon returning to fair Glendale city? I'll tell you.

 Watching the BYU game at Troy's school. (Don't mind the Hanukkah sign ;)

 We can't talk about the cougars performance, it's just too sad... so we'll move on to the next items of business upon returning home...

 Meeting this guy: Baby James (son of Heather and Sam)

and meeting this guy: Baby Graham (son of Stacy & Matt)

Hooray for cute baby boys! So fun.

Thanksgiving

We had Thanksgiving dinner at my Grandma & Grandpa Mabey's house this year. She is the most amazing cook. Everything she bakes turns to gold as it melts in your mouth... mmm mmm good. She recently had surgery so she let everyone help cook a few things, something she hardly EVER does. My mom and sisters and I made a few pies and some yummy cheesy veggies.

Ashley learning the wonders of an egg separator for the first time ;)

Lindsay giving us moral support while working on homework.

Mom and I making my most favorite cheesy vegetables. They are super cheesy and creamy and not good for you at all. Delicious!

{G & G Mabey's}

My Grandpa is a lover of antiques. He bought this antique telephone booth years ago. I was with him when he bought it and I remember being fairly young. He fixed it up and it works, you can actually dial out on it. Jackson thought it was really cool.

We just had to be careful he didn't make any 911 calls. ;)

Grandma's beautiful table.

The kids' table. Lindsay, Jackson, Ashley, Jeremy and my cousin Gennessee. 

(sorry Linds, I know you're not really a kid ;)

Grandpa, Grandma, Aunt Debbie, Aunt Val, Mom, Troy, Me & Dad.

Cousin picture.

Everyone dishing up from our 15 pies. We had sooo many!

Troy hiding himself and his pie from the camera.

Linds, Bailey and Ash.

Jackson eating dessert, which of course was his favorite part.

It was such a fun Thanksgiving. After pie we played Dominoes and visited. A holiday with this much food and family is just meant for greatness. I'm so grateful for all our blessings this holiday season.
 So I guess, here we go Christmas time? Crazy how time has flown by!

Bountiful Beautifulness

{Before I begin I would like to announce that I just ran out of free data space from Google. Lame! I had to pay $5 so I could post the rest of our Utah pictures. Annoying. I guess that's what I get for posting a million photos ;) What Troy says is probably true, I'm addicted to taking photos. I tell him he'll be grateful someday. Anyway, back to Bountiful happenings...}

As I mentioned earlier, I was able to spend a week in Utah with Jackson while Troy took his finals. Troy is nice and let's me escape this way while he is super busy. ;) Unfortunately, my visit to Utah was welcomed with this: 
 

Lots and lots of snow!

Jackson was pretty fascinated by the snow. Uncle Jeremy was nice and took him out in it. ;)

After Troy joined us from Arizona, we went to Payson for a week. Upon returning to Bountiful, the "Storm of the Century" was scheduled to hit the Wasatch front. Troy and I were doing a session in the Bountiful temple. There was a large sign in front of the door when we left. "Temple closed at 11:30 a.m. and tomorrow due to the storm." Utah State closed early, which meant Lindsay's work was cancelled. Hooray! She got to come home 9 hours early :) Don't worry, the U and BYU also closed. I kept getting weather advisory texts and emails telling me to stay home unless it was absolutely necessary to leave the house. My mom and I went to the grocery store and it was crowded with people stocking up on food storage and fire wood. Driving up 5th South on the way home, we saw multiple shops closing their doors. So we went inside and bunkered down, not sure what "Blizzard 2010" might bring.

This is us watching the storm out the front window.

Don't worry, it only brought 4 inches of snow and some wind where we were. Ha ha! After all that. So funny. Troy kept asking me, "Is this how you Bountiful people treat every storm?" Ha ha. The prediction had been 12+ inches on the benches but my parents' house only got 4. The weather people were really wrong this time. It made us laugh. It was all worth it though because Linds got to come home lots earlier :)

Jackson's footprints in the snow. He LOVED touching and eating the snow.

Jer fulfilling his snow-blowing duties.

{Picking Dad up from the Airport}

 I wish I had gotten a video of Jackson's little legs running one hundred miles an hour into his Dad's arms at the airport, it was SO cute. Jackson was very VERY happy to see his Dad.

 I was pretty happy myself ;)

{Jeremy's Birthday}

 My little brother turned 15 while we were in town. I can't believe Jeremy is 15, makes me feel old, but that's another story. We went to Iggy's for lunch to celebrate.

{The Dallings}

The stars aligned again and we were in Utah at the same time the Dallings visited. Hooray! That meant I got to see this cute face:

Miss Macy Claire. She is adorable. Mine and Christy's plans to marry our children off are still in effect. ;)

Look at that smirk on Macy's face. She looks just like her mom. I love it!

Jackson and Mace liked to play on the stairs together. (The plastic was there for some construction going on at the Barneck home, it doesn't always look like that.)

Jackson giving Macy kisses. (Our plan is working! :)

All of us together. 

It was so fun catching up with you guys. We miss you oh so much. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we all end up in Utah together again someday. ;)

{Other Fun Bountiful Moments}

Helping Aunt Ashley play the piano.

 My Grandma and Grandpa Barneck came over to see Jackson. It was fun to see them.

 Eventually the snow melted and Jackson got to help Grandma in the yard with the leaves. I think he mostly just spread the piles around. :)

My parents were remodeling their bathrooms while we were in town. This meant the doors on the bathroom were removed and Jackson could run in and out of his own free will. He used his freedom to climb in and out of the bathtub in his clothes. :)

Harry Potter 7, part one. Just as amazing as I'd hoped and dreamed!!! Mom and I did a semi-Harry Potter marathon leading up to the new movie viewing. She hadn't seen all the movies and I am always up for watching Harry Potter because I'm a dork like that ;) Troy was grateful I could go see number 7 with my peeps while he covered babysitting duty. I was grateful too, thanks dear!

A couple more cute pictures of Jackson for good measure...

And a pic of the Bountiful temple for good measure too. This place brings back lots of fun memories.

While in B-town, I also got to go to lunch with my friends the Cosbys (Amy, Kara and Kerri) So fun. I forgot to take a picture. How unlike me! Next time I'll have to for sure. We also got to visit with Allison and Nick Taylor. No picture to remember them by either. We had so much fun visiting with you two. Next time we'll take a picture with the new little man at your house, who will likely be born today! How exciting!

Hooray for Bountiful. We had soooo much fun family. Thank you for having us for such a long visit. We are very glad we will see you again soon in the land of fruit and honey (aka Bountiful) ;)