Oh to be spoiled

Though our Christmas break was short, we spent every second we could at my parents house in Colorado. It was WONDERFUL. My mom knows how to spoil me...that is for sure!

One thing that we did while we were home was never take pictures. So the only pictures we have are from the actual Christmas holiday. But we did so much more that needed pictures. Blast. Oh well...for the record, here is the fun we had:


First of all, my mom made every delicious food you could imagine. (cookies, wings, jerky, bbq, white chili, etc.)
Second of all, we surprised everyone and drove into the night Thursday the 22nd. It is always fun to have a surprise arrival.
My whole family was there. I loved that.
The 23rd we went to the church and played volleyball with friends and fam, which was so fun.
The 24th we went bowling and the Willises rocked it! Jimmy is good at anything he does, and the center of gravity that pregnancy gave Charina was perf for her! And it was confirmed that you can't take LaDon in public :) Christmas eve involved delicious pizza, nativity and gifts...and puke.
The 25th was Cristmas morning and church. Krista got super sick :( Then so did Jamie and LaDon. But we still had a great family testimony meeting.
The 26th I threw the surprise baby shower for Charina that Jamie organized (since she was sick) and then the surprise anniversary party for my parents (30 years on the 30th!)
The 27th we took the Willises to the airport, but before that went to a sealing session with them at the Denver temple. It was so marvelous! I really love Jimmy and Charina, it was SO GREAT to spend time with them. When we got home we went to see Dolphin Tale at the dollar theater and Summer and I stayed up until 3am playing Settlers of Catan.
The 28th we went glo-golfing which was ridiculously fun. It was the perfect activity for our family! All the kids LOVED it!!
The 29th my mom and I (and Kris and her friends) hiked the incline and Eric and I went and saw Mission Impossible 4 in the IMAX theater!
The 30th was my parents anniversary so they took off and us Carters went to Chuck E Cheese and had a mostly great time! And Eric and I listened to BYU's awesome bowl game victory on the radio.
The 31st my dad hosted the 31+ single adult breakfast after the dance, so Eric and I cooked for that. It was great! Before that we went to see Sherlock Holmes 2 (LOVEDit). We came home to find my mom with a pre-punctual single guy. So, the 4 of us rocked in the New Year (dad was still at their dance) and watched the fireworks off Pikes Peak, and right at midnight a beautiful 6-8 point buck walked right in front of the house. It was SO cool.
Image from here

January 1st found us at church in my parents ward and then driving home to good ol' Monroe! (With about 5 hours of crying babies in the car, eh, whatcha gonna do?)

It was such a glorious break! As a mom you really never get a break--unless you have parents as wonderful as mine! It was so relaxing and fun for me!!!