Christmas & The New Year

This year was Carli's first Christmas in the Moore household, and my first Christmas at home since 2012. Winters gets pretty chilly in Michigan, so Carli liked sitting on the radiator with a big blanket in front of the stalkings.

Christmas Tree Hunting

Everyone else coming home for Christmas weren't going to come until closer to Christmas, so it was up to Dad, Carli and I to find the perfect tree for our living room. We went to the Christmas tree farm out on Lake road and there was nobody managing it at that time so we just wandered in and found our perfect tree. We decided just to take the tree now and come back to pay them the next day. Carli was astounded that we could do that. 

Carli quickly learned what it means to be a lumberjill as she cut down her first real Christmas tree!

We had to carry the tree about a half mile back to the car. 

Threw it on top and off we went.

We passed a wild flock of Turkeys!

Carli was wondering how we were going to get it in the house! PUSH!

Once we got the tree inside, the house instantly smelled like Christmas.

We spent an evening decorating the tree, and as is tradition, Dad put the star on top.

Now all we needed to do was wait for Santa to come!

We set up Abbey's Christmas village and used a veggie steamer to make the fake snow look as real as possible.

We also set up our Nativity set on top of the Piano after reading Luke chapter 2.

Monkey Bread is a holiday tradition!

The Big Indian is one of Ironwood's landmarks. Nothing fancy like the Hoover Dam or the Las Vegas strip near Carli's house, but it's cool too!

We decided to use Dad's coupons for Air Choice One and fly from Ironwood to Minneapolis to spend some time with AnnaMarie and Michael's families. This is our plane. There was room for eight passengers and the two pilots. There was only one other passenger besides the two of us.

The flight made our journey just a 45 minute flight rather than a 5 hour drive.

We were met at the Airport by Hannah, Jack, Aiden, and AnnaMarie. Hannah is my buddy. I'm her favorite.

Ryan and Calvin kept begging me to play Pokemon with them, so this happened.

Katie's Basketball season was coming to an end and she was in Tournament play. We went to watch her team play and win to move onto the next round where they were runners up.

I don't know who was more excited to play in the Snow. Carli or Hannah. They were perfect little snow bunny friends. Here is Hannah helping Carli make a snow angel.

While they were making snow angels, I was hard at work making the best snow fort this back yard has ever seen!

Calvin, Ryan, Sophie and Hannah were definitely thrilled.

While in Minneapolis, Carli and I celebrated one whole year of marriage! I found all of these sticky notes on the mirror in the bathroom, and we went out and had a fun evening together. We ate at Olive Garden and went shopping.

Hannah liked taking selfies with me.

One day we went with AnnaMarie, Hannah, Jack and Aiden to Macy's to see Santa.

Back to Ironwood

We rode up to Ironwood and had some fun with all of the kiddos. We went sledding at Sleight Elementary School.

We also went skiing at Indianhead with Dad, Tyler, AnnaMarie, Katie, Jane, Jack and Aiden.

The kids warmed up on the bunny hill with the magic carpet.

Aiden bombing it down the bunny hill.

Carli shredding the gnar.

Carli and Katie on the chair lift.

Carli getting a tow up the hill.

Santa even joined in on the fun!

We also spent a day sledding with Maria, Cole, Brad, and Ryan out at Eagle Bluff golf course. It was freezing cold outside and we didn't last more than a couple runs before heading home for some hot chocolate.

Dad  let me borrow his awesome Russian hat to keep warm.

Christmas Day!

One of the highlights of Christmas was being able to Skype with our sisters on their missions! Christy in Spain and Lynsie in Oregon.

We weren't able to corral them all together, but here are a bunch of our crazy nieces and nephews. We're lucky!

Abbey, Spencer, and Melanie.

New Years in Las Vegas!

We were excited to get back to Las Vegas in order to meet the newest member of our family. Little Kolby Udall is our new Nephew and the first one on Carli's side.

Carli couldn't get enough of this sweet little baby!

On New Year's Eve, we went out to dinner with Mom, Dad and Grandma Udall.

Well the New Year came and it was finally time to get back to reality. We were happy to be reunited with our car, and made way for Provo where I worked for a few days before the start of the Semester. 2016 treated us very well, and was a year full of firsts for us as a married couple! Here's to 2017 being even better and memorable!