Happy New Year 2009!

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1... Happy New Year!!!

New Years Eve we had some friend over to ring in the new year. The best part of the night playing "Truth or Dare" in the hot tub. It's funny how the older you get the more willing to choose dare, I guess we all have a lot more we'd rather not tell. 

New Years Day is always a hard day for me. It's stressful thinking how I'm going to accomplish all I want to accomplish in the year, when I didn't accomplish half of what I planned for the last year.  It's a good thing we have New Year's Eve, a night of fun before the stress and sorrows. 

So sad and lame, I know.  I would delete this post, but I waited a year to upload these stupid pics!

Christmas Time

I always say I would rather have 2 Christmas's and not have a birthday, and I LOVE birthdays (maybe not so much now that the big 25 is coming up). I guess I just love all the time with family and friends. It's so nice to travel home for the holidays, Utah makes for a magical Christmas.  

A few highlights:

• Christmas Eve Dinner at the Chudleigh's: 
  

I love Christmas Eve at the Chudleigh's house. We crack open our poppers, put on our crowns and celebrate with a big feast. After we all sing carols, exchange gifts and this year the kids acted out The Saviors birth story.

(thanks for the picture Jill, I forgot my camera that night)

• The Girls Party and our 1st Annual Talent Show/Dance Party

This year's party was awesome in so many ways: homemade stockings by Linzi, Aria's back, country apple body splash and much more.  This year for our gift exchange we gave everyone "our favorite things" (inspired by you Kristen, well and Oprah too). It was so much more special to give and receive a gift that shares so much about each person. I love every gift, mainly because I think of these awesome girls every time use their favorite things. 

We also had our first annual talent show. We never picked a winner, but I give it to Thien for his French song and flag dance. Afterward it sort of turned into a dance party while Candy cleaned up (jk Cands).  I just love that we all still know how to have an awesome time together.

• Christmas Morning at Mom and Dad's:

No matter how old I get Mom and Dad still make Christmas what it always has been. I still wake up to Christmas music, spilled milk and cookie crumbs on the porch, an awesome breakfast brunch and a beautiful family. The only thing that has changed I guess is my present pile, it's significantly smaller.

 I adore my sister-in-law Amy, and this is why:

You're always a blast and so fun to be around Amy! Thanks for the Christmas Cheer!

• Grandma's House:

Every year we all migrate to Grandma's (91yrs) for some sort of dinner, even though everyone is so full at that point. I can not explain how lovely her home is at Christmas time. She puts so much love into her home that it's not Christmas till you go to Grandmas. This year she made a cake and we all sang happy birthday to Jesus and the kids blew out the candles. 

So there you have it, Christmas! 

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

No this is not a Christmas posting, but no worries it's on it's way. My family seems to make a really big deal out of Thanksgiving, bigger than Christmas. EVERY year we all go down to St.George, Utah and spend the weekend in my grandmother's historic pioneer adobe house. Dan and I always start the day out with our own little turkey trot, then the boys all go golfing and we get ready for dinner. After dinner there's a game of football in the front yard followed by either a night of games, hot tubing or going to see a movie. It's simply the most wonderful time of the year. I love the fall weather and leaves. I love going to lunch in the Cadillac. It was extra special going to the temple this year. I was overwhelmed with emotion when I realized my 91 year old grandmother is on my left and my mother on my right with my sisters on her right, but the tears quickly turned into laughter when my grandma leans over and says "This is kind of boring don't you think?" Hey, she's in her 90's and still going, you have to give it up, halla.


Mark I will always be THANKFUL to you for introducing me to this hottie!

Nothing beats leftovers, honestly they're better than the actual dinner.



The talent show
and games

That turned into a dance party with Stephen playing "Great Balls of Fire" on the piano.

It was nice to be able to have dinner with the Chudleigh's this year too! I know we are so lucky, two turkey dinners. We drove all the way into Salt Lake this year because Dan was really missing his family. We all went over the Peter and Brittney's house and had the Chudleigh feast. Cooking and decoration is art to this family and they're true artists! Every dinner is straight out of a Martha Stewart magazine! I hope Dan doesn't compare me to his mother, it would be impossible to even try!

Feeling the Fall?

We had an exceptionally warm October and November this year. I do miss the crisp air and the changing colors of the leaves, but going to the beach in late November isn't much to complain about. When the Santa Ana winds blow, we grab out beach towels and go! We love Utah holidays (UEA) , because we get lots of visitors.

Thousand Steps beach, good friends, and 80 degree weather in mid- November = an awesome Saturday!


Victoria Beach and Smores.

Livin in the LB

After living in Corona Del Mar for a year we found an awesome pad in Laguna Beach, just 6 miles South. So we said our goodbyes and made the move. It's always sad closing the door of so many memories for the last time, tear. We loved our nightly walks to the beach before dinner (well when Dan was home anyway), the farmers market, running through Crystal Cove and to Balboa Island.
But you know me, time for something new!

Laguna Beach is a dream. Honestly it feels like we're living in Hawaii but not on an Island. Everyone is so down to earth here, surprisingly I know, but we just came from Newport. I love all the canyons and beautiful colors. I wish I were an artist, it's no wonder they all live here. We have graduated from a studio to a 1 bedroom and now to a 2 bedroom! At first all the extra space was a little overwhelming and I wanted to go back to our little love shack. But it's amazing how fast you can utilize another bedroom. Plus now there's a place for all of you to come and stay!

Don't you love moving!

Our Bedroom, any suggestions?

The View!

Lake Powell

DGs are Hot!

So Mark gave me a call one day while I'm at the mall saying I should really come down to Lake Powell, tomorrow. No worries, I walk into the Apple store, booked my ticket, stopped by the house and threw a swim suit in my bag and drove to the airport. It was just what I needed. Dan couldn't go, sadly he had a busy week in school.

We had a great time and I couldn't ask for better company. Clay and Ashley were so generous to have us on their amazing house boat, it was awesome! Spending time with Aimes was much needed and so good to be with Heidi, Ashley and Sara. We were in the water all day and made dinners, played games, made a fire, hot tubing and BBQ at night. The water was glass. September is the PERFECT time to Lake Powell it up!

Thanks everyone for making this such a wonderful much needed very last minute vacation!
Mark you're the best brother ever!


The drive down was a blast. We stopped at the most random places. Colorado City is a must! All I can say is after traveling the Middle East and Europe this summer, this was the most interesting. Just go to the grocery store and pick up some candy, it's far more than you'll imagine.

Sunny San Diego 2008

Tommy Kissed the Cake! Sadly my family thinks it's funny making little children cry. When it's someones birthday (Happy Birthday Sissy) we tell them to kiss the cake and then push their face into it, it really is hilarious. The only ones not laughing are usually the child with frosting all over their face and his or her mother. But they quickly get over it and join in the fun.

Ok so this vacation actually took place this summer but like you all say, I'm VERY behind on my blog. The reason: our computer's memory was completely full, so we couldn't upload or save anything. It took a while to finally get a new computer.

Every summer my family goes to San Diego for 2 weeks! It was nice to have cousin Jen and Pat with little Trevor from Kansas City this year. This is Dan's favorite vacation of the year. I'm not so sure it's the 2 weeks with the Harmsen's, as it is the surf that makes it his favorite vacation. Nevertheless, we all have such a wonderful time together going to the beach, surfing, shopping, going to get a coke, tacos, swap meet, running, reading trash mags, yogurt land, yogurt world, dolce mango, basically a lot of frozen yogurt. We were up to 3 times a day! I guess it's the art of having absolutely nothing to do that makes the vacation so great.

The girls love Dan, "he's so cute"
Let the obsession begin.

The Fam.