One Very Long Post

So I have a lot of catching up to do since my last post! I'm not sure where to even begin because SO much has happened over the last three weeks!

We officially started celebrating the holidays with my dad

and step-mom the day before we left for Arizona. They came over saturday morning and we celebrated both Christmas and Jaxtons birthday in the same day, since we would be out of town for both.

Jaxton had a blast opening his presents, although it did take him a while to figure out that he could rip the paper off of the presents. He got lots of fun presents from Grandma and Grandpa Real this year including a big boy of blocks, a puppy he can pull around on the ground, some stacking cups and bunches of clothes!

He was so overwhelmed! He would open one thing and try to play with it only to have another fun present be opened a second later! It got to the point where he didn't know which ones to play with first

He got lots of fun books too

Brady always knows how to have a good laugh! Jaxton was so consumed with his new toys that he didn't even notice his new pants were on his head hah!

My parents opening their present from us, a custom made photobook :)

Jaxton definitely made out like a bandit this year! He got so many new toys he doesn't even know what to do and mom and had don't know where to put them all lol. He also got a brand new wardrobe basically, which was awesome because we really needed some more winter clothes. Brady and I also got some cool presents from my dad and Sally. I got some books that I've been wanting for a while, The Hunger games series, The Lost Key (the illustrated version), and the complete series of The Worst Case Scenario book. You have to check these out, they are pretty hilarious and also useful hah Brady got a gift card for some new shoes and he didn't waste time using it lol, he was able to get three brand new pairs of shoes with it too! I know he is so excited to get them in the mail!

So after we had so much fun opening all these presents, we had to leave them all at home and go to the air port. I was so not excited to fly with this little guy. Flying alone is difficult enough but with a one year old? Not so much. It's just such a hassle to check the car seat and get through security with a stroller and we didn't check any luggage so we only had carry ons which made even more stuff to deal with. It all worked out though, like always. He wasn't even that bad on the trip there... it was the trip back that was horrible. So we finally get to AZ and mom picks us up. It was like 9 at night and the baby was so tired so as soon as we got home he went to sleep and we stayed up for a while just talking and catching up with my family. It was so nice to see them, I really missed them. Since I lived with my family for a couple of months this summer while Brady was in WA, I got to be really close with my mom and grandma. It was so nice to be able to see them again! I love them so much!

For the first few days we just lounged around and hung out as a family. Then my sister came flew into town and it was fun to see hang out with her because we don't get to spend a lot of time with her these days.

Then the day came to celebrate Jaxton's very first Birthday! In the morning he got to open his present from his Great-Grandma Welch. She was just so excited for him to open it she couldn't wait lol how cute is that?

He loved it!

Then it was time for the party! We just had a small little get together with the family. It was really fun though. I think his favorite part was the cake! Brady and I made the cake and we thought it would be fun to decorate it with fondant. Jaxton certainly liked it! He had fun squishing it in his hands like playdough hah.

Then the day after Jaxtons birthday is Christmas eve and that's when my family has always celebrated Christmas so we had a big party with lots and lots of amazing food. It was a blast, it really reminded me of the holidays when I was younger with all the family being together and my grandma's amazing food! I was in heaven!

We got some really fun gifts this year! My mom has been really busy lately so she let us pick out our own gifts this year. I got a complete set of new makeup from Bare Minerals which I am totally in love with! Brady got some new clothes and some controllers for the wii and the baby got a bunch more clothes and toys hah

Jaxton had fun opening his stocking on Christmas morning! Lots of fun toys inside of it :)

So the day after Christmas we fly back home and get to spend one little night at home before we had to make the trip to Idaho to see Brady's family. I was soooo not excited to be driving for 8 plus hours. Especially because Jaxton did not have a good time on the flight back home from AZ. It was probably the most exhausting thing I have done in the past year! He wouldn't stop moving and was so grumpy because he didn't take a nap that morning and he somehow cut his lip and was bleeding all over the place. It was not fun... it was the trip from hades.... I hope to never have to do that again, poor kid. Anyways.... so we get home and notice that there might be some weather issues on our drive for the next day. We notice on the weather website that to be able to get through some of the mountain passes you are required to have chains or special tires on your vehicle. So we had to rush out and try to get some before everything closed. We ended up just buying cables since with our denali your not allowed to use chains for some reason. So we unpack all of our clothes only to repack them 10 minutes later. It was not a fun turn around if I say so myself... So we wake up at about 7 the next morning and load up the truck, we stopped by the grocery store to pick up some road trip snacks and then we are off.

This is what it looked like on our drive... not so fun

The baby wasn't so happy. It wasn't nearly as bad as the plane ride the previous day but what kid wants to sit in a carseat for 8 hours?? We finally get there around 6 in the evening, it was so nice to get out of the car and see the family!

We opened Christmas presents rightaway because everyone was just so excited hah. The baby got some fun toys, including a frisbee, some bath soaps that you can pla with like play dough, and a truck. I got some scrapbooking kits, and we got some cool church books and candy for the entire family. It was a lot of fun. Whenever we are in Twin Falls, we always go to the thrift stores, and they have the best stuff ever! We spend an entire afternoon going through the circuit of stores until we have hit them all. We got some fun stuff, like new clothes from Down East Basics with the tags still on, some books that I have been wanting for a while, and some baby clothes that were only 25 cents.

This was at one of the thrift stores and Jaxton completely fell in love with it!

I guess this is what happens when you come from a family full of girls!!

(Brady has 8 sisters hah)