My Adorable Niece and Nephew

Hay and I get to Facetime with my siblings and their kids pretty regularly. They are hilarious, and always full of energy. Sometimes they get good videos of them-- here are two quick examples of how cute they are!

You may have to watch them a few times-- they are short, but adorable!

As per Mitch's request

Taylor and I are avid BYU basketball fans so naturally we never miss a home game. This week we got to sit with Mitch which is a rare occurrence since he is on the floor for basically every sporting event we attend thanks to sports marketing. What he really wanted us to document though was the shirt he snagged in the stands. What a catch Mitchell, what a catch.

Home Sweet Hemet

We had a one day layover in Hemet during Christmas break. Just long enough to visit friends at church and cuddle with this cute puppy I've missed so much! Taylor may have missed her even more....

Happy New Year!

This year we had the pleasure of ringing in the New Year at the beach. After leaving cold and snowy Cincinnati for Christmas, we were greeted by warm and sunny California for the New Year. Despite all the parties and fireworks around us, we went for a low-key New Years consisting of a few rounds of banana grams, Just Dance dance-offs, and matching Pj's!

Obviously sparkling cider in fancy glasses was a necessity.

And New Years kisses. I guess Kalle was a little lonely.

Castles in the Sand

A big thanks goes out to Mom and Dad for a fabulous week spent beach front after Christmas. Little did we know at the time that our sunny and 65 degrees would be followed by sub-zero temperatures when we went back to Utah. During our week at the beach one of Taylor and my favorite activities was building sand castles before dinner when the beach was empty and no one would come destroy them.

After our creations were complete and enormous moats were built around for protection, we would go inside, eat dinner, play a few games, and then return late at night right before high tide. We would stand out in the dark and watch the waves pull closer and closer to our castle and then once the tide was high enough we would see how well our architecture could withstand the waves. Props to Chelsea for capturing the cool picture below of our castle being hit. 

Other than constructing sand castles, we filled our days with walks on the beach, throwing baseballs, playing games, eating delicious food, boogie boarding down the berm in front of the house and relaxing in the sun.

Oh, and Taylor our adventurous boy in the family decided to take a quick swim in the Pacific. A very quick swim.

Christmas Day

We had a nice, relaxing Christmas day in Cincinnati. We woke up later (we love sleeping in with no young kids around!) and went down to begin opening presents. We spent a good while doing that, and then took a break to talk to Putzer, my brother, who is serving in the Houston East mission. We had fun talking to him and we got to see him on Skype as he talked. When my siblings took turns talking to him, I had some paper that I would write messages to him so that we could talk while he was on the phone with my siblings who did not have Skype. He sounded great!

After opening presents, we had a yummy Christmas breakfast, and then lounged around and played with our new stuff. We then had a delicious Christmas dinner, and went off to see Les Mes with the Strike family. It was a fantastic Christmas day!