Sunday, February 17, 2013

ARIZONA!!

 In January we got out of the Winter-time blues and went somewhere warm!  Arizona!  I have never been there before and I loved it!  Justin's baby brother Dave got married and so the fam made the trek to see the big day!  We
 We flew out of the little airport in Ogden. I'm serious when I say little... this room is the entire airport!!  It was very small but cute and quaint. 
 Walking up the ramp to get on the plane

 Justin chose our seats and picked the Emergency exit isle for one reason... leg room!!  He is usually crammed on flights, not this time! It was however FREEZING sitting by the door!  But the cute gentleman next to me switched me seats mid flight.  ;)
 SO beautiful!
 I thought our hotel room was so very cute.
 My two sissys Laurie and Kristen.  We had lots of good girl talk in the back of our sweet mini van we all rented!  Love them!!!
 The boys in the front.  Brett (right side, behind Justin) was not originally planning on coming.  He decided at midnight the night before the wedding that he really ought to be there and drove to SLC airport from Idaho, hopped a plane and made it in time for the wedding.  It was so sweet!  We are sure glad he came.  Ryan (driver) was the driver and Justin was the navigator. 
 We went out back and snuck a pic of the bride before the ceremony.  Isn't her dress SO dang cute?!  She is equally as cute!  I am SO thankful and excited to have such a fun, sweet, darling new sister-in law.  She was so concerned about us out-of-towners when she had enough on her plate with the wedding.  This was our first time meeting and we adore Mandi already!
 Kristen walked Dave down the isle since his mom wasn't there...


 Eric and Laurie
 Dave and Mandi- the cute new couple!! We are so happy for them!  So happy Dave is happy and found such a wonderful girl!
 Then it was a yummy lunch and good chit chatting.
 Justin's father Bill's identical twin brother came out  for the wedding.  He is as close to "dad" as they have now and we sure love uncle Bob!
 The whole gang that came!  Only 2 out of the 8 kids didn't make it.  We are all so happy for Mr. & Mrs. Lund  :)

 The boys...
 The sisters...
 Us with the newlyweds
 Ryan and Kristen...
 Eric and Laurie...
 We were trying to get a picture of us 3 amigos and were having a heck of a time.  We took a million!  We were laughing so hard (I will not tell you what Kristen was whispering in my ear:)) or someone didn't approve of how it turned out.  It was so funny!  Little moments like this make me so thankful I married into such wonderful sisters. These 2 have really taken me in and made me feel apart of the fam.  I love them so much!!!
 The final product!
 The 3 babies of the family.  Kristen, Dave, and Justin spent most of their childhood hanging out with each other.  They are very close.

 Me and my darling niece Kadyn in front of a cactus.  For some reason it is strange to me that these are just chillin in the garden!

 Justin and his best friend Adam. He also recently moved to AZ.  It was so fun to see him!  I miss that guy!! 
 The cute restaurant where the wedding/lunch took place.
 Afterwards we got to go over to Dave and Mandi's new house to see it. (I told you they were nice in hosting us!  The should have been starting their honeymoon!:)) Dave made the pretty rock entertainment center behind us. 
 That night we went out to dinner and to a darling outdoor mall.  We had so much fun with each other!

 The next day the honeymooners took us to their fav resaurant for lunch so we could spend a little more time with them before leaving.  

Eric and Laurie

 Lance and Kadyn
 Mandi and Dave
 Me and my cute hubby
 Ryan and Kristen

 Then we did a little shopping!  Girl time was fun!
 The gang in front of the mini van ;)
 Laurie and I really fit in with the decor at Sephora!
 Our crew at breakfast the morning we had to leave.  The trip went by way too fast!  We haven't really done a family trip on the Lund side since we have been married... so this was a much needed getaway!  We really did have SO much fun!  I grew to love Justin's family even more than I already did!  I really do feel blessed to have such wonderful in-laws and to have welcomed Mandi into the big bunch too!  We had so much fun with these couples!!  Love them all so much!
 Saying goodbye to the pretty palm trees!  We went from 80 degrees in AZ back to like 8 degrees in Utah.  BRRR!  It was fun in the sun for a few days and hopefully we can go back again sometime!

Boarding the back of the plane!  How fun is that!? 

Thanks again to everyone for making such a fun mini vacation.  We had a blast and hope to do it again soon!!  Love all you Lunds :) (and Hacketts!)

Sunday, February 10, 2013

Happy New Year!!! Ringing in 2013 in Style!

 I was SO excited for my annual New Year's Eve Party... this was the first time my ENTIRE family would be there!!  It was so much fun!  First we had yummy food and snacks...
 Then it was downstairs for the festivities to begin.  To start out I'd made (of course with my lovely husband's help!) a slide show with pictures of all the fun things we've done together as a family the past few years.  It was SO hard to cut it down to... 40 minutes!!  I have so many fun pics!  I was nervous people would get bored and think it was too long but they loved it!  We laughed and remembered and it was a great start to the night. 
 Let the games begin!!! I have a game board I always use with 25 pockets. Inside each pocket is an activity or game.  Some are long, some are fast, some are funny, some are serious.  Lots have to do with the year we are celebrating coming to an end.  There is trivia, tactical games and lots of competition. The kids are my helpers.  Kannon and El were old enough to play most of the adult games this year!  They are growing up WAY too fast!! Whoever wins each activity gets a point and the winner gets a wonderful prize donated by my awesome parents!!
 "Gangham style" was such a big thing in 2012 that of course it had to be included in the fun.  The kids were the judges and each got to choose one person who they thought was the best dancer. 
 We sure had fun!
 Derskie doodle picking another game...
 Passing out candies for the "I've never" game. 
 One of my favorites- the Jello eating contest!  No hands allowed. 


 Putting on blindfolds for the "Aura" game. 

 Of course we have our dry erase boards for all the trivia questions. 
 One of the quickies this year was "Whoever can bring me someone elses sock gets the point" These are always entertaining! 
 And the annual money game!!  RCL. We all bring 3 dollar bills each to play with and mom and dad up the anti by playing with $10 bills.  It's intense!

 Neener was so close!!
 But Paige took the pot this year!
 Celebrity mash up!

 "Do you love your neighbor?"

 This game was a first and probably a last!  It was dangerous!! It was called "Pick up"  everyone stood in a circle and linked arms.  In the middle of the circle was a dollar bill.  Whoever picked up the bill won.  Lets just say I didn't think this through very well!  The boys muscles yanked the girls down and trampled them!  Maybe if I did a boys/girls/kids group it would work!
 This was so funny!  This game was "Guess the resolutions".  Everyone wrote down some resolutions they had for 2013 and then I would read them aloud and we had to guess who had written them.  I read "I hope to be on time to things more often" and EVERY single person wrote Paige.  It was so funny!
 "News makers!"  I chose names of people who had been influential in the world in 2012.  I specifically chose a name for each party guest.  The name was then taped to their forehead and they had to walk around the circle asking yes or no questions to try and guess the name on their head.  They got points if they figured it out.  I chose "Mitt Romney" for Nicholas :).  He deserved it!! 

 Before we knew it midnight was around the corner!!  We ran upstairs, got our fireworks and noisemakers ready and then went outside to wreak some havoc. 


 We had lots of fun.  The boys terrorized each other and threw the poppers at each others bare feet and skin. 

 I always get a pic of my New Years Kiss... this one didn't turn out very well!  We were too rowdy I guess!
 Happy New Year!! I love that the kiddos have all the fun with us too!
 We weren't even half way through the games at midnight!!  Everyone was having so much fun and wanted to keep going (except mom who was sick:( ) So we got back to business!  This game was called "Red Solo Cup" and was fun, especially when the little ones cheated and then denied it!
 The winning team!!
 My little helper again.
 Then it was an intense game of spoons. 

 At 2 o'clock in the morning we decided it was time to stop even though we still weren't done!  There was a tie between Justin and Avery so we played the "Heads or tails" game to see who won the big prize.  Justin was the winner!  Paige won the money game and Justin won the money prize.... the in-laws rocked the party!  Next year we are going to challenge them again for it!

We had SO much fun at this party!!  I knew it was a success when my big city brother said "Tiff, this is the funnest New Year's party I have been to in a long time... Actually, this is the funnest New Year's I have ever had!"  Can't tell you how happy I was!  We had so much fun!!
 New Year's day we always go to Brunch and a movie. 
 This year it was Roosters and Parental Guidance. 
It was SO fun having gug here for all of the fun. 

I am sure you get sick of me saying it but I LOVE my fun family so very much!!  I am so grateful to be blessed with a close family.  We have so much fun together!!  I feel so lucky to have them, and to have them all.  I love that I married someone who fits in so well and who enjoys them as much as I do.  I am one lucky girl!!

Happy New Year everyone!  I hope 2013 treats you fabulously.  I hope it's as good as 2012 was!!