January 2011, its here and its all brand new and shinny clean.  There are so many things the new year brings. Millions of people jumping on the wagon, joining that gym, eating better, making thousands of millions of promises to ourselves and others that in reality may never see completion.  But its new, and its all own to make of it what we want.  We have much to be thankful for with the coming of a new year.  A roof over our heads, Jobs to go to whether we like them or not, cars to drive us to work and to play, and family and friend to enjoy the ride with. 2010 was a rough year, and brought many painful and terrible things to many of the people in my life, and its exciting to have a fresh start.  I hoping for every ones sake, that the miserable things we endured last year have only made us stronger and much more ready to enjoy the blessings of 2011.  Happy new year to my loved ones. you mean more to me every day.

Christmas

I read the blogs of my friends and family and think to myself that there are so many amazing writers among us.  Why our blogging community is not on the New York Times best sellers list I'm not sure.  I enjoy getting lost in the lives of people around me. Makes it much easier to deal with the day to day of my own life.

My cute little nephew celebrated his 6th Birthday on 12/12/10.  We had a family party at his house with his favorite food lasagna. He opened lots of presents and we had cake and ice cream.  Dawson is very into Yo-Yo's and rocks.  All he asked for was one red light up yo-yo and millions of rocks.  Easy to please right?  Here are some pictures of the adventures.

I apologize for the blurriness. I had 2 year little brother Nixon in my lap and it was not easy to hold him still and take pictures.

 Another year passed and I didn't not make it home for Christmas.  Another holiday spent on the phone wishing loved ones Merry Christmas instead of sitting on the front room floor of my grandma's with all the cousins and aunts and uncles waiting for Santa to come and bring us pj's. Or waiting oh so impatiently for mom to take a picture of the tree and all the Santa goodies before claiming the perfect present opening spot on the sofa.   Its this time of year that reminds me like a cold slap in the face how much I miss being in Utah with my family. 

Don't get me wrong my in-laws are great and do a wonderful job of filling in the void. Brady was even here with my Dad for the week so I was able to spend time with him.   Christmas eve we had a feast at Ryan's mom and dads house with Stacey and her family.  We exchanged gifts and sang Christmas songs and read the night before Christmas.  Here are the pictures from this adventure.

Dawson and Papa getting the Chestnuts ready to roast

Dawson rocking out on his new Paper thin Guitar while dad and Kaelin watched in amazement

Daw and Papa reading the night before Christmas

Our attempt at Stacey's family picture. Nixon in the chair all alone, Dawson facing the wrong way, and everyone else just trying to smile.

On Christmas morning I woke up to a gift, a new addition to our little family.... A puppy!  I know it sounds crazy, but we brought home a little Pug/Yorkie mix that we named Kiya.  She is a whooping 2.4 lbs and will probably max out right around the 8-10lbs mark.  She is incredible sweet and loves to cuddle. She is also very brave and not afraid of her big sister Harley or the cat Stella.  It took a day or two but all three of them seem to playing nicely together and so far, Kiya has not been stepped on by the big dog. 

Kiya needed a sweatshirt so she wouldn't freeze.

I love her face

Harley 10mo and Kiya 11wks

We had a great christmas even though I didn't get to see family and there was no snow.  Hope all of you had a great holiday season!