Home for the Holidays...The Final Chapter

Well, we are officially back in Washington and I must say, it was hard to come back. Don't get me wrong, we love our home here and were so excited to see all our friends again, but having family around 24/7 was awesome! I know this might sound strange to some people, but I absolutely love being with my family and having them around all the time! It was especially hard on Little Miss. She loves her Grammy and Grampy so much, and it is because she gets SO much love from them! She spent a lot of time with Grammy making cookies, cleaning the house (she LOVES to clean and so does my mom, they are so much alike!), walking Luckie, shopping, taking baths, reading books and singing songs. And just one example of the love she gets...my dad works graveyard shift and gets home at 7:30am. Little Miss loves his pancakes and the minute he walked in, she asked him for pancakes and instead of going up to sleep, he made her a whole bunch of pancakes, which she ate a ton of! She also loves when Grampy chases her around the house and plays "monsters" with her, it is so fun to watch and see how hard he can get her laughing! And two of her favorite people in the world are her Uncle John and Uncle Steve. She thinks everything they do is so hilarious and she always has to give them hugs or just sit with them. She also got to spend time with "the boys", her cousins Mason, Carter and Bridger. They are so cute together and it is always so good to see Stayler and Jessica and have the whole family together. My family really are my best friends and I am so grateful to have each of them in my life. While we were there we attended my brothers Eagle Court of Honor, got to see Harry Potter 7 (thanks to Steve!), went shopping, and attended the temple. There were also a couple of really late nights playing 007 (which I was NOT a part of). We really had such a wonderful time and I am so grateful that my family is so good about us crashing with them:) We love them so much!

Also while we were there, we went to the annual McOmie New Year's Day Party and it was so much fun! I really think I have some of the coolest cousins ever! We always have so much fun and laugh a lot when we get together. We ate the traditional lasagna, garlic bread, salad and tons of goodies...we played games as a group and just enjoyed each other's company. LOVE this smile, I think she might be half pirate...

Love this one also...

Anyone else for a nice spray of water in the face from the drinking fountain??

Love these boys (and Little Miss too!)...

The holidays were wonderful and I am so grateful for all the time we got to spend with our families!

New Year's Eve 2010...

Once again it was time for our annual girls' lunch on New Year's Eve, and as usual, it was so much fun! We have done this lunch (used to be lunch, a movie and a party that night, but children have shortened the celebration a bit...) since high school and I look forward to it every year. I was so blessed to have an AMAZING group of friends through high school and I still consider them some of my closest friends. These girls are such incredible women, friends, moms and wives and I am so grateful to have their examples in my life. Not everyone has the opportunity to have a group of friends like I do and I am very lucky to know each and every one of them. It is getting harder to get us all together at the same time (we missed you Chrissy and Amanda!) but I am so glad we still keep it going! The rest of the day was pretty quiet and relaxing. Jeff, Little Miss and I just stayed home with my mom, dad and Steven, ate some yummy food and an amazing lime slush my mom made, played cards and just hung out. We are definitely getting old though because Jeff went to bed before midnight and I stayed up and read a book...super exciting, I know. But I must say there is no one I would rather bring in the New Year with than my family. It is going to be a great year and I am glad I got to start it with some of the people I love most!

Home for the Holidays...Part 2...

We did get family pictures taken while we were in Loa, so here is the whole Oyler/Ray family...just thought I'd share:) Little Miss was such a trooper...she did not feel well at all!

Grandma, Pa, Micole, Kage, Ty and Little Miss

Just the grown ups, and I use that term loosely:)
The Guys...Jeff, Pa, Houston and Brett

The Girls...Kristi, Grandma, Marie and Audrey

Home for the Holidays...

We made the trek from Pullman to Salt Lake and we are so glad to be home! We couldn't have asked for better weather on our journey here and Little Miss did so well! We were going to spend the first leg of our vacation in Loa with Jeff's family but had to make a stop in Salt Lake to see my best friend Amanda and her family. They moved to Michigan the same time we moved to Pullman and I was so excited when I found out they would be in Utah! We only got to visit with them for a couple hours, but it was so much fun and Amanda's family is like my second family so it was so good to see her parents too. We miss them lots but it is so good to know that no matter how long it is before we see them again, it will be like they never left:)

So, after a brief visit with them, we spent the night with my family and headed out the next morning for Loa. Our sister and brother in law, Kristi and Brett, were able to be here from New Jersey and we were so excited to see them again, especially because we haven't seen Brett for almost 2 years! Little Miss absolutely adored her cousins Micole, Ty and Kage and was pretty much Micole's shadow the entire trip. They were all so cute together and it was so much fun to finally get to spend time with our whole family. Grandma and Pa are always such great hosts and we love going home and spending time with them. Jeff's brother and his wife, Houston and Audrey, were able to spend a few days with us as well and we had such a great time eating, playing games, shooting, shopping and just hanging out. We went to Grandma and Grandpa Oyler's house for Christmas Eve and ate great food and we all got some wonderful gifts. Little Miss loved her "Grandma Great" and cousin Mericha and had to go over and visit them at least once everyday(which was pretty convenient since they live just next door). Christmas morning was so fun! We had a delicious breakfast and opened gifts with the whole family. We always seem to get the perfect gifts and the things we need most and are so grateful to have such wonderful parents that always seem to know exactly what they are. It can get a little crazy with four kids under the age of five running around and 8 adults with very different personalities, but at the end of the day, we wouldn't trade them for anything and are so blessed to have them each as a part of our life! In fact, the only bummer about the trip was Little Miss getting sick. She started spiking really high fevers and vomitting, so we took her to the ER and she had a pretty bad ear infection and a virus in her sinuses, she was so miserable. So after a few days of major cuddling and antibiotics, she was back to her normal self. It always surprises me how hard it is to say goodbye to everyone, but it never fails, it is just as hard everytime. It makes me realize how important family is and that you have to enjoy every step of the journey. I don't know when we will all be together again and it might be a while, but that's the great thing about family, it doesn't matter. The love you have for your family isn't about time or distance, it's about the fact that they always have your back and are always there for you, in the good and hard times and love you no matter what. So really the greatest gift we got this year was being together, simple as that.

Our little Christmas...

Christmas came early to our house this year, since we knew we would be in Utah on the 25th, and let me tell you, Little Miss gets to be more fun every year! She was so excited by all the presents and it was really fun to see the magic in her eye. As I get older, the excitement has started to disappear and you forget the feeling you had every Christmas Eve when you couldn't sleep and you could swear you heard the bells on Santa's sleigh...but now that I have a little one of my own, I get to experience it all over again through her, and I must say, it is even better. She got some clothes, snow pants, snow boots and a Lightening McQueen and Sally figurine. We read Luke Chapter 2 and sang some Christmas songs after we ate Navajo Tacos for dinner. We have so much fun being together as a family and had such a great night. Jeff and Little Miss are everything to me and I feel so blessed everyday.

Little Miss made her dad put her pants and boots on the minute she opened them and it took some serious persuasion to get her out of them and into her jammies...

She loved these cars! Next to her friends Hank and Charlie, the movie "Cars" is her favorite thing...

Oh the things I went through to keep this jacket a secret from Jeff...Let me just say, I have never lied so much in my entire life!

Little Miss and Santa checking each other out for the first time. She wasn't scared, but definitely wasn't sure what to think...

I love my girl! She just seems to make everything a whole lot better and life a whole lot more exciting. So far we have had a great holiday season and are so grateful for our Savior, Jesus Christ and for the real reason for the season.

Thanksgiving 2010...

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year with some of our great friends up in Pullman. This was the first year that I celebrated Thanksgiving without family and we really had a great time and tons of good food! We actually were lucky enough to attend two different dinners, and needless to say, we were very well fed! First, we spent the afternoon with some of our friends that go to school with Jeff and their families and we had such a great time. We ate awesome food, including prime rib(Jeff was in heaven), visited, and they even had a cute little craft for the kids to do. Later that night, we went to dinner with some friends from our ward and had so much fun. Thanks to the Woolstenhulme's, we were able to have Thanksgiving dinner at a nice home they were house sitting at and we had a great time. All the kids played so well together and after our amazing dinner, we played Ticket to Ride and visited. It was a really great weekend and it sure makes it easier to be away from home when you have such wonderful people to be with. All in all, we have a lot to be thankful for and couldn't ask for better friends and family.