Oh Christmas time, I know its over but, how I LOVE everything about it! The frost in the air, the smell of warm cinnamon, the fun of making candy, spending time with family and friends, the kindness that everyone in the world seems to share, the kids anticipation of Christmas morning and most important, truly dedicating a month of learning, reading, and teaching about our Savior's birth!!!! How sad I am that it is over! You'd think I would have posted this last month.....but January comes and so does all the sickness from sniffles and snot on mom's pants and shirts, to coughing, to sore throats that turn into strep throat, to sore bellies that turn into a full night of puking to super cuddly kids that want lots of love and milk it for all its worth and mom enjoying almost every minute of it! Happy to say that as of this minute all are now healthy, I think! So, maybe in July I'll post my new years resolutions! hahahaha!
A week or two before Christmas we took the kids and went to go visit our families in Vegas. It was sooooo great! We hadn't seen the entire family together in a year. Both of our parents came out when we had Brooke and my little sister Jody and her husband Josh came to Brooke's baby blessing in June other than that we hadn't seen anyone for a year! It was a long awaited trip and well worth it! We spent a lot of time with both families and just had a great time all together!!! And, while we were there, it snowed a ton in Henderson and Las Vegas!!!! It was great! We finally went to see Kevin's brother, Kenny's house in New Harmony, Utah that was full of the much-loved Hughes family! We went riding quads in the snow, ate lots of good food, had a mini-early-christmas eve with all the cousins, and thanks to Kevin's sisters and mom for watching our kids, Kevin and I went snowbaording with our neice and nephew, Amber and Caleb! Its been a few years since we lived in Utah and went snowboarding a lot more, but thanks to some well thought out prayers, I didn't fall once, (except for getting off the "Lift", which doesn't count because I fall off that every time - that little bugger is so hard for me to get off of, I don't know what my problem is.hahaha) I can glide down the mountain, gracefully - but that stinking lift is one day going to kill me.hahaha. This time I only made 8 people all crash together, getting off! haha Wish I had my camera then! But hey Kevin totally rocked it on the slopes!!!! That guy is an animal! Any thing that requires athletics or academics - the guy is a complete natural! It is truly amazing! He is wicked smart and rocks every sport! Way to go on that babe! That is one of mine and Kevin's favorite things to do together! So, even though it was freezing! We had a total blast! And, we love Amber and Caleb for coming with us!!! Their wicked awesome on the slopes, too!!!
We then spent the week back and forth with both families. We ended off our trip with the much-loved Mangum side doing a fun little mini-early-Christmas eve with all the cousins! Wich was really fun! Kevin and I also got to go on a really fun date with all my brothers and sisters and parents! It was sooo fun! Good times! Here are some random pictures of the week in Vegas. I don't know why but my camera didn't work very well - and I also kept forgetting to get out the camera, I was having so much fun! Sorry, not very many good pics, sorry guys! And, SORRY friends that we didn't get to see any of you, our time was pretty well taken! However we would have loved to see all of you!!!!



Grandpa Hughes' favorite time with Brooke! I think maybe her second favorite thing with her Grandpa - next to getting slurpees! Who would've known that a 7 month old likes coke slurpees?? (I'm gonna get you for that one dad! To bad they don't have any formula slurpees - you could've been her #1)
Snow in Vegas at my parents home! Isn't it beautiful? It could not have come at a more perfect time!

My dad and Kevin had fun making a snow-bear in my parent's back yard together! Isn't it sooo cute! I love their smiles! What a good memory!

The kids making smores with gigantic marshmallows my mom got in the firepit in their backyard! They loved it! My kids are made for snow!

Heidi and Ashley with Hughes cousins in Aunt Bonnie's backyard on candymaking day! What a blast! If your wondering who the crazy guy in orange camo is, it's my great brother-in-law, Scott! Hey Scott, the orange camoflouge isn't going to hide you in the snow.hahaha!

At the Hughes early-Christmas eve bash. Ashley getting on Santa's lap and realizing that it was her grandpa-undercover! She also ruined it for all the other younger kids! hahahaha! We all kept trying to get her to be quite! It was hilarious! Hopefully they didn't catch on!

Nathan showing off his belly, while waiting to go see Santa. My camera ran out of battery after Heidi and Ashley saw Santa, so I didn't get Brooke and Nathan on Santa's lap! MAJOR BUMMMER!

Heidi giggling but not saying a word about Santa being Grandpa! I think she liked it better that it was him! Way to go Dad Hughes - you make the best Santa!

One of the mornings that we were there, we went to see my little sister Shannon's new house and made a Gingerbread House! The kids had a lot of fun doing that! I love Nathan with the knife and frosting. Not a good combination with him!!hahaha!

Races and Braces

So, our sweet little Heidi got braces on, the beginning of December. I think that she is the first girl that was SUPER excited to get them on. She looks adorable and is getting good at chewing loudly! haha! One of my funniest memories of braces is when my sister Michelle had braces on, while we were in highschool. I was talking to her and my mom and while I was talking, Michelle was cleaning out some pancake out of her front braces with her tongue from earlier that morning. Right as I'm talking, Michelle flicks the pancake with her tongue out of her mouth and it lands in mine!!!!! SICK!!!!!! hahahaha! We cracked up laughing! It was soo hard to stop, I could bearly get the pancake out of my mouth! hahahaha! Thankfully, that hasn't happened with Heidi yet! She's not a big fan of pancakes:)

RACES, RACES, RACES! My big hunk is a runner along with this group of handsome guys!!! The kids and I went and cheered Kevin on as he recently ran the Charlottesville Men's 4-Miler with some of our friends! It was FREEZING cold outstide and as excited as the kids were to watch their daddy run the race, they were miserable! It was a whopping 17 degrees outside and the kids did great for the first 5 minutes after that it was tears and snot and more tears and more snot and little tiny red fingers, by the end! You may think that I am a mean mom for making them stay out there to watch ole' Kev, but he is always sooooo supportive of my races and the kids events that I wanted to show him the same support and DEEP DOWN the kids really wanted to also!!! haha. Luckily for us, he came in at an amazing, drum roll please, dodododo ......32 minutes!!! He did EXCELLENT! Way to go Kevin we love you!!!!! You're an all-star!

He made running look easy! Who smiles, when they run???? Surely, NOT ME!!!! I only do it because of the 1/2 pound of ice cream and 20 chocolate chip cookies I ate!!! What a babe! This was him running in toward the finish line!

Here we are...all smiles!!! The race is now over, the kids are now warm and asleep in the car and we are enjoying laughs with friends and some yummy propel water!!! He doesn't even look like he ran 4 miles does he? What a knockout!!! I love you babe! Way to go! I loved watching you run the race!!!! Thanks for always supporting me in my races!!!