happy happy times

As I am in my living room in Orem looking outside the window at the pouring snow/rain all I can say is these pictures Im about to post on this blog make me nothing but super super happy. I was lucky enough to get four days off for christmas and head south to be with family. Its been really hard this year not being able to spend the whole month of december with family... usually I get a month break in between school, but sadly the VA doesn't care Im away from my family for the holidays. BUT I am super grateful for the four days I had...

The sibs reunited! I got home friday early afternoon and for dinner that night we hit up Texas Roadhouse. The next morning (Christmas Eve) Me, Dad, Drew and Jack went for a good run around the neighborhood. It was kind of crazy having all of us run together... I feel like I never stopped running, but in the same breath I couldn't believe I was back to running with my brothers and dad. Next stop was breakfast with the neighbors!! (We had a VERY busy Christmas Eve - as usual)

We did a pretty epic recreation of a pic from I think 7 or 8 years ago... The only person not here was colby. Insane how all the kids are massive now and we definitely fill the room a little more. Its been fun to be so close with our neighbors for so long. We've grown up together and its crazy to watch the littles become old enough to get baptized, drive, date and graduate high school... what the crap, where does the time go??

Next stop - the sugarloaf, duh. I love this tradition. Especially love that its usually beautiful weather like it was this year. 

The crew this year. 

And its not a christmas eve without going through the crack. I thought for sure this year it would be terrifyingly tighter than usual, but Im proud to say Im still good. Made it with no problem. 

Next we headed to visit huggy-ama! 

I looked through old picture books and the boys were able to try on grandpa's cowboy hats, boots and old rodeo/FFA jackets. Id say they pull it off right?! That afternoon we got to chill at home for a couple hours before our Wells side party. I took a nice nap in front of the fire (I did this multiple times over the weekend).

Terrible picture, but some good mexican for dinner, sheet cake for dessert, hanging out with cousins and grandmas powwow with her presentation of the gifts this year. She had us work for our money... blindfolded and with the money hidden amongst mousetraps. It was fun. I sure do love my family. And next on the list is Christmas Eve PJs!!! Last year we had matching red and white striped ones that the boys did not like. Well, I don't think they love matching no matter what, but Id say they were more ok with it this year considering it was nike...Enjoy our photo shoot...

Im excited to show my kids these pics one day. 

To prove they were born into the most epic family. 

No pics, but me and the brothers watched polar express on my projector in jackies room. Yes, we all slept in jack's room. Besides the boys keeping the temp at negative 12 degrees, it was fun. 

Oh cant forget this sexy pic of seth. 

Not too many pics of Christmas day, but this was jack's present to sethy. The boys like to blow these soda bottles up so jack bought him 16 2 liter bottles haha. And Dad got a really nice new guitar for Dr. Empey. Christmas also included skis for drewby, a garmin for me, apple watch for jack, weight lifting stuff for seth and other stuff I cant remember. I loved having Christmas on Sunday. After presents we had some delicious monkey bread and got ready for church. An hour of singing hymns and listening to beautiful musical numbers. 

The rest of the afternoon was spent cleaning up presents, napping and preparing for dinner. Cafe Rio with the Burgess clan. Nothing beats mom's homemade cafe rio, nikki's beans, Erika's treats and Candy bar bingo. Oh and playing with all the little kiddos and babies....

Im so very grateful for the way the holidays bring us together with our loved ones and the opportunity we have to really focus on our savior and his birth. Life is good when you are with family and close with christ. Hope everyone had the merriest of christmas's. 

And back to work I went - showing off my new scrubs of course. I have three more days of work and then Ill be back down, pretty sure knowing that was the only reason I was able to get on the plane and fly back up north. For some reason, its been tough being away recently. I don't know if its the weather or what, but being up here blows haha. Oh well, Ill make it through... but see y'all soon. Oh and happy new year! I did nothing last night besides go to bed. I do like the new year and the way I can reflect on my accomplishments of the past year and what I want to focus on and get done in the year to come. Not gonna lie, 2022 was a freaking big year. I got crap DONE ahah. Excited to graduate this upcoming year, get back into traveling and hopefully start up my little business. Exciting things to come. Love y'all.