Happy Holidays, And Now Back to the Real World...

We had such a blast during our two week holiday vacation in Utah! We are sad that we had to come home and start back to our everyday life, and the realization, after it taking half the day to get our car to start, that we are finally going to have to give in and buy a new one. We loved spending time with my family, and we got to see my brother and his family for the first time since Christmas two years ago and meet their newest boy, Luke, who's now 8 months old. We hadn't seen their little girl Claire since she was one, so I don't think she really remembered us too much. We also got to spend some time with my cousin Heather, who married Ben's old roomate, Mat, and see their baby, Ezra, who I missed being born by one day last time we were in Utah for my mom's surprise bday in September. We saw Ben's brother and his wife and their baby, who come into town today, and also had lunch with his sister and her little girl who is a week younger than Baylee, along with Ben's Grandma Hall. We got around. It was a lot of fun, and we did a lot of fun things. Here are a few (actually a lot!) of pictures from our vacation. Sadly, Ben didn't get any pictures of my brother and his family (except for feet and legs), so I'm hoping Katie will send me some from when we got to see them and when we took family pictures.....

Christmas Eve Jim and Katie and kids came over along with Mat and Heather and Ezra. Katie organized games for us, and gave the kids a little prize, too. Baylee loved opening it, and it was perfect-Baylee loves books!
Heather and little Ezra! We had a lot of fun seeing them!

Christmas Eve we exchanged sibling gifts while Jim and Katie were still there, and the grandkids got to open presents from Grandma and Grandpa and uncles/aunts. Baylee even tried to open everyone elses presents. I think that one was for her, though.
I finally found some brown boots that I shipped to my parents house, and Baylee decided to model them.
Christmas Day we got to sleep in until 9:30ish. Scott and Annie got a lot of presents!
Baylee loved opening prosents and was so excited for her Happy Feet movie! Santa didn't bring her much because we are going to take a Disneyland trip instead.
Baylee was excited for her little Disney Princess cars! And every other present she got. She wanted them opened to play with right away.Baylee helped Grandma open her present from us and Scott and Annie.We did a lot of shopping while we were there. Baylee wanted to be stylish while riding in the Target cart.Baylee loved Grandma and Grandpa's kitty cat. She already knew "meow" really well, but now if you ask her what Lilly says, she's added a little hiss into her vocab.Baylee was excited to show Grandma her Nemo ornament.We braved the freezing cold and snow and went to see the lights at Temple Square. I love the lights there! It's actually where Ben broke the news to his parents that we were getting married....

We had so much fun with everyone in Utah, and are looking forward to our next vacation to Disneyland either this month or next month! Hopefully Santa didn't really mean to give us a car instead and we can do both! After that we have Spring Training in AZ, Ben's graduation, and possibly a move all in March! Looks like 2008 is going to be a busy year! We hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and has a wonderful 2008!