Casey is 32!

For Casey’s birthday this year we went out to eat and then had a little family party.  Casey is very low maintenance and continually said that he only wanted garments for his birthday and to not get him anything else because it would just cost more money. I never listen to him when he says he just wants something boring, so this year I bought him tickets to a Grizzlies game and set up a babysitter and we went out. 

Last year having Rainbow Chip cake and frosting. It’s Casey’s favorite and Better Crocker discontinued the frosting!!! I found some of that frosting at Big Lots and stocked up.

We love you Casey Garth! Thanks for being such a great daddy and husband!

Mom and Dad Come to Arkansas!

My parents came to visit the week after Christmas and we had so much fun! We explored Memphis, went to Graceland, went shopping, and ate delicious BBQ. When we’ve asked people what to do in Memphis they always say Memphis is known for Graceland, BBQ and MLK’s death place.  So we hit up all those things. My parents and I aren’t fans of Elvis whatsoever but we still wanted to experience Graceland. I am so glad we went. It was so interesting to see everything and it was actually fun. You wear a headset around and there’s a lot of cool info you learn and a lot of it is Elvis talking about stuff, and you don’t just see his house you get to see his estate. There are like 5 little homes behind his house; One was his office, one his racquetball court, and there are others I just don’t remember what they are… There’s also a museum with all of his awards in it. It is soo crazy. I also realized that he was a good guy and actually pretty handsome before he grew those sideburns out and started doing drugs.

Handsome:

Drugs and sideburns:

A few pics of the dining room and kitchen. Everything in the house is original.

His first Grammy, IN THE FLESH! (I got a little excited)

Walls and walls of all his awards

On New Years Eve we went and got some BBQ at Central BBQ. Everyone has their favorite BBQ joint here and we’ve tried all the popular ones, and Central is our favorite. It’s AMAZING.

Thank you so much Mom and Dad for coming to visit. We had so much fun!

Christmas in Texas

This was our first Christmas not going back to Utah and I had mixed feelings about it.  I was excited to spend Christmas in warm Dallas with my sister Kari , not having to spend all our vacation travelling back and forth from Provo to Centerville, and not having to spend $1600 to fly. However, there is just something about being at home on Christmas that makes Christmas special, and I missed Utah a lot this Christmas.  I missed snow and mountains and being with all the family. We did have an awesome Christmas with Kari and family though.  The weather was so nice. On Christmas it was SEVENTY degrees and sunny. We went to the park across the street from Kari’s house and played in the afternoon.

Holland woke up sick on Christmas.  My kids are always sick on Christmas. Her nose was non-stop runny, and she had a horrible cough and a fever.  I was so bummed because she wouldn’t be able to play with cousins and I was scared she would get Kari’s 4 month old baby, Asher, sick (and anyone else for that matter). She refused to take medicine so we resorted to mixing meds in with root beer (because we knew she’d down it all fast).  The morning we left she started feeling better. Poor girl. On Christmas night she woke up about every 30 minutes delusional. She kept saying “Carly quit touching me” or “Carly bugging me",  or just saying stuff we couldn’t understand.  Poor girl!

With Holland’s sickness aside, all of us healthy ones had a great time.  Carly had the time of her life playing with Ethan and Bentley. 

The night before Christmas Eve we opened all our big presents at home that we couldn’t take with us to Texas:

So excited to open presents

Walking down the steps to open presents

   Carly got a new bike!

      

Holland got a princess tent and ponies, but loved these tinkertoys.

New shoes, and clothes for Casey

I got a new blender and a lot of fun kitchen stuff

Christmas Eve in Dallas

                

              

                 

              

Facetime with my family in Utah

Christmas Morning!

      

                

              

What fatherhood will do to you:

Sweet sister and baby Asher

Thanksgiving

This year we took a road trip to visit Casey’s sister Tearsa and her family in Peoria, IL for Thanksgiving. The Sunday before Thanksgiving a tornado came through Tearsa’s city (Washington) and destroyed many homes. Her home was one of the only ones still standing, but still had a lot of damage and was unlivable. We still drove there to try and help clean up, and spend time with family and cousins.  We stayed in Tearsa’s friend’s house with Casey’s other sister Maryn and her family. It was so much much fun to hangout and let the kids all play.We ended up going to Golden Corral for Thanksgiving dinner and it was awesome. It was crazy busy but everyone could get what they wanted and we didn’t have to spend all day cooking and cleaning up! It was a lot of fun to see family and take a road trip.