Greyhound

Lauren recently moved to Orange County and we love being so close to each other! She is the closest (distance) sibling so I'm loving it. She has had a hard time finding a teaching job so I encouraged her to come to AZ for a short break! They only have one car so she looked into taking the Greyhound and decided to just do it. First time Greyhound riders should be warned.....they do not care if you make it on time....they do not care about anything. Ok I take that back. They care enough to give you a water bottle for your troubles. Well let's just say Lauren left LA at 8am and was supposed to get to Phoenix at 5pm but did not arrive until 11pm. Her stop in San Bernardino was 6 hours long! Only because her first bus was in traffic and arrived late and the other bus left her! She still arrived and we had a great time. We ate at Sweet Tomato and made some St Patrick Day crafts. We also went shopping and hung out. She decided to brave the Greyhound again to return to LA but had her husband pick her up at the San Bernardino station so she wouldn't have to be worried about missing another bus. Luckily she got in line right when she got to the station in Phoenix because the bus only had room for 2 new passengers!!!

Gilbert Temple and Family

We attended the Gilbert, AZ Temple open house in February. Lisa and Daren drove out with their family and stayed with us for 2 nights. We had fun going to the park, V-day Crafting, watching movies, and just being together. The girls even went swimming and I froze watching them haha. The Temple was gorgeous inside and out and I'm so glad we were able to attend. Leah was pretty impressed as well! 

Christmas 2013

I was really excited for Christmas this year because first off, I didn't just have a baby and second, Leah was old enough to get somewhat excited about the festivities. I tried to participate in a lot of local parties, listen to as much Christmas music and I could, and watch all of our Christmas movies.

I was so excited to buy this nativity and Leah loved it!

Leah and I flew out to Pennsylvania a week before Christmas and participated in my Mom's cookie exchange. I made the chocolate dipped pretzel rods and they took forever to make! I kept burning the chocolate haha.

Leah loved the trumpet

While we were there it snowed and so we decided to take Leah sledding. She loved it. Unfortunately the snow had a top layer of ice so when we started going down the hill I knew we were going too fast. We didn't stop at the bottom and went right through the bushes in the front. I quickly covered leah's face with my hands and suffered many scratches on my face and hands. Some of the branches were an inch thick in diameter and my Dad was surprised my wounds weren't worse. That was the last time we went sledding!!!

Matt arrived on December 23rd. This is at our annual Christmas breakfast where our family hosts our friends and neighbors for breakfast. Whenever we are there Matt is in charge of the pancakes. He loves it hahaha

Yum all of the cinnamon rolls waiting to go in to the oven.

a couple of days after Christmas we decided to go to NYC to visit some friends. Crystal and Jenna came along and we explored the city for a few hours while Matt caught up with his old co-workers. I had to have NY pizza and it was so good.

Also had to get Junior's cheesecake. Red velvet cheesecake!

Matt and his former boss Manny

The next day we went into Philly to see the Temple site. You can't tell from this picture but the sign behind us is for the Temple. 

They have some of the Temple up

We decided since we were close by we would head over to the Macy's Christmas light show. Leah loved it!

Grandpa and Leah. We went to a little restaurant for Cheesesteaks and they were really good. We plan to go back!

Our flight back. We were lucky that the flight wasn't full and they let us take up an entire bench! Leah fell asleep half way into the flight and slept the whole way home.