The Christmas and Drew's wedding Mash up blog!

 I apologize for my laziness the last couple of weeks, but I blame it on my break from school and work - Ive been lazy to the max lately. I never said I wasnt loving it though... as a consequence I do have a lot of blogging to catch up on so this is about to be a long one yall. Not even sure where to begin... but I caught a ride home with Karee on saturday the 23rd. The roads were a little wild and quite a few cars were flipped over and turned around on the side of the road. Luckily we made it safely. That night we had a burgess family sing-a-long night. Jeremy did his thing on the piano as the rest of us belted out christmas songs. Christmas eve was also the sabbath. Church was filled with musical numbers and testimonies. That afternoon we kept the tradition alive by hiking the Dixie. 

The gang. Missing sethy this holiday season, but he is living his best life in cincy. 

we didnt have anyone else there to take a decent photo of us as a family so we chose an awkward family photo shoot instead... enjoy...

This picture is our latest iconic creation. While hiking around we made sure to make a funny video of us making fun of voldemort from harry potter. Lets just say we were all laughing our heads off as drew yelled avadacadarva at the top of his lungs in the crack as others were hiking around us. We are a little weird, but I think its one of our greatest qualities as a family. 

Another year making it through the crack!

 I love all our traditions this time of year. 

Last on the to do list for Christmas Eve was Lauri's house for our Wells family gathering and mexican food! Delicious tamales, grandmas cake in milk, games, and presents from B-ama. This year our game was a simon says type game with two people head to head doing certain actions and when "gift" was yelled the first person to grab the gift won. The highlight was dad, mason and kyle going at it and doing the little tea cup dance around the present. Another highlight was jack winning the candy guessing AGAIN! Rumor has it he has now won five years in a row - freaking lucky little kid. Ended the night watching some old home videos which is always fun. Grateful for times I get to spend with my family. Im grateful that even though we are all getting older and going our separate ways it seems that right now we are still pretty dang close and make an effort to come to family functions. That night me, jack and drew all slept together in Jackies room - Yep three adult children sleeping together. Drew on the floor and me and jack in bed. We watched polar express, like we always do, on the projector in jacks room. Good times. 

yes we all shared the bed while watching the movie haha I love my brothers. My brothers have always woken me up at the earliest time possible on christmas morning, but this year was different, luckily and finally! Mom came up to jacks room and woke us up at 7:45! Thats right I got to sleep in like two hours longer than usual! It was a great christmas morning. It seemed more slow of a morning this year which I liked. It didnt seem like everyone was in such a rush to open every single present. It just seemed more present I guess I dont know. Some highlights were jackies nerf gun which he started shooting at us almost immediately and hasnt stopped since. Drew and I got a lot of adult presents which I loved and very much appreciated. Toilet paper, cleaning supplies, laundry detergent some groceries and gift cards for eating out. Drew also recieved a minky blanket and a costco membership with some money. Dad got me a pretty rad gift that I definitely didnt ask for which I think makes the gift so much cooler. He got me a huge tackle box full of medical supplies. He has one just like it and Ive always said how cool it would have one of my own one day but I definitely didnt think Id have one this soon! Now I have my own legit first aid kit for up north. IV supplies, fluids, medications, stapler, tons of syringes and needles and bandages - hopefully I never have to use it, but when someone needs something Ill hopefully be able to help out now. Quickly headed over to Nikki's for christmas breakfast! Best breaky of the year! Her biscuits and gravy cant be beat. 

Sethy called while at nikki's so we all passed the phone around and said our hello's. The rest of the day was spent getting ready for dinner and wedding prep! On the menu for the night was our classic cafe rio - a hit as always. We also watched a few classic home videos featuring the burgess family, a game of roll the dice for candy bars and of course ending the night in the front room around the piano. I sure do love family. And there ya have it folks, christmas come and gone. A great weekend and even though the presents arent as exciting as they used to be - I love this time of year for the traditions, family time and the time dedicated to remember our savior. Now we gotta fast forward to wednesday... bc im pretty sure tuesday was just spent napping and lounging around (I told you Im extra lazy at the moment). 

Roadtrip to AZ for wedding time! Just like we crammed in jacks room for christmas eve, we crammed all three of us in the car for 7 hours. Family togetherness taken way too literally. 

Eating our christmas candy to pass the time. Once we made it to arizona, we stopped in at our hotel then we met up with Emma's family at BJs - our fav place. It was fun to be able to get to know the family a little better before the festivities began. That night we set up the church for the breakfast the next morning and hit the hay pretty quick after a long travel day. 

kneaders breakfast for the win! (except they were late and caused mom a couple grey hairs) 

A good start to the big day, even though some of us dont look so happy... *cough jeremy and kason cough** We got to watch a cute little video of the happy couple and listened to drew and some parents say some words. A quick breakfast because next up was the temple! An awesome ceremony of drew and emma getting sealed for eternity. A quick and to the point sealer and a room full of family and friends in a beautiful temple! Very special day. 

Look how pretty! I honestly loved AZ in december. 

So cute. And after a long session of pictures... CANES. We were all starving and our feet were aching and just ready for a nap at this point already so we stopped at raising cane's for lunch and then I indeed took a nap at the hotel. It was great. Now for the party...

Reception time! I honestly have more video than photos, but more photos to come once the photographer sends them our way. Good food was had, more family time, meeting new people, watching the newly married couple shove cake in each others face, and the best part... the dancing. 

I saw a video on instagram that I wanted to copy... so I did. Made these dope sunglasses and made a ton of the party guests pose for me as I snapped their pictures. Then ya just add some music and its a pretty cool little video. Check out the finsta to see it. 

The dance party started off with drew and mom getting the crowd going with a surprise mother/ son dance. Started out as a slow dance then a little remix into a fun dance song. Everyone loved it and people were pretty dang shocked when drew flipped mom into a backflip. Epic. Emma and her dad were next and then Drew and Emma for a final slow dance before the party really started. Much mosh pitting, some line dances, pretty rad party trick moves by emma's brothers and even got some grandmas out on the dance floor. Such a fun night of aunts and uncles, cousins, grandparents and friends all just partying the night away celebrating dremma. A night I think we'll all remember. Grateful for family and friends willing to drive at least 7 hours south to support my brother. 

me and jack mid dance party. We saw the couple out through a tunnel of fireworks and that was the big day! Now mom can breathe again. Next morning we slept in and then made the trek back home. Which brings us to today - church was pretty dang awesome today. A beautiful musical number is a pretty dang good way for the spirit to reach me and it did just that. I love how much of a family my parents ward is in St. george. Everyone is just best friends it seems like - I love it. And with today being NYE - goals for the new year and reflections of this year have been running through my mind so I write a few thoughts. This year was pretty epic, of course highs and lows, but honestly a pretty successful yet. However, I feel like I lacked in a few areas - let me explain. I feel like this year was obviously focused on work, school and fun. I graduated with my bachelors degree in nursing, and only a couple months later started my masters degree program. This was my first full year of being a full time nurse and its been awesome. Everyday I go to work I learn so much and Im so grateful for the skills and lessons I have been taught through the people I work with, the patients I serve and the situations I have gone through. Lastly, this year has been fun - lots of traveling with family and friends. New york city for ashley's bachelorette in the spring followed a week later with bahamas with kelsi and madi. Hawaii with the family, Lake powell with the wells', Japan with karee, and california with some more friends. On top of all this are some other highlights being seth leaving on a mission, an epic harvest season in pine valley, drewby getting married and a lot more. One of the biggest bummers of the year that immediately comes to mind is my best friends cancer returning. It has caused me more pain, anger and sadness than most people know. But with all trials come blessings and Im trying to always find the positives in this trial of Erin's. Overrall 2023 wasnt terrible, but like I said I definitely had plenty of areas where I lacked. One being my physical health. I feel like I have been busier than ever this year, just truly filling most every waking moment I have available with work and school, errands and friends and so forth, but man physical health is in the toilet. My back is hurting a little worse these days which makes things difficult but also Ive just been slacking on setting aside time for the gym and running. So this will be inspiring some new years goals of course. Next item I need to work on is my relationship with my father in heaven and my savior. Sadly, gospel study has been put on the back burner this year. I cant even explain why, but it has which really sucks because I know I need it the most (all the time) especially right now in my life. So just like running... goals will be made for the new year to better my spiritual health. Well thats a wrap. Lots to be grateful for. Lots to work on. and Lots to look forward to. 2024 might even be busier than this year which is quite terrifying, but also very exciting. Bring it.