Christmas

I always put off blogging because transferring pictures to my computer holds me up. So this time I thought I would post and put the pictures up later.

Fall semester finally ended and with a little bit of drama that got worked out, Chase graduated :) No break for him though, as he started grad school at BYU on Jan 4th. He's getting his masters in civil engineering and so far (4 days) he is enjoying it. The weirdest news is that he has decided to grow a "Grad-stache" over the break that is pretty full now and getting lots of attention. He said that his teachers notice him a lot more and he would shave it when he couldn't take the ridicule any longer. He said one guy told him if HE grew a mustache his wife would divorce him! I said that seemed a little extreme and Chase admitted to me that this guy was kind of weird anyway... But other then that I'm am not aware of any ridicule and he always passes it off as jealousy, so I think the 'stache might be here for awhile.

We headed to Lodi for the first week of break and had a really fun Christmas with my family. I had not celebrated Christmas with my family ON Christmas day for 3 years, so it was fun. Aubrey is at the cutest age where she was excited for Christmas to come and finally understood what was going on. I made her a tutu which ended up being a big hit and she would put on her leotard (from Mom), tutu, and ballet slippers (from Noelle) at least twice a day and leap and twirl around the house for anyone that would watch her. She also got a tiara and matching wand and I taught her how to tuck her wand into her tutu like it was holstered. Her favorite thing was to stuff her wand down the front of her leotard and ask me where it went. Obviously her leotard is skin tight so that was no mystery... Besides her tutu she was obsessed with our "pet" (we brought our pet gecko out to California with us) and would ask to hold her at least 5 times a day, and she was obsessed with my iPhone. Once I was leaving and she asked if she could play it and I said no because it was my phone and I needed it. A few minutes later my mom came running out to the car saying that Aubrey had burst into tears because I wouldn't let her play with my ipod, so I handed it over...
This is a picture Aubrey drew on my phone, which she called "Chase."This is a picture Aubrey took of Zaya. She was pretty handy with the camera!

Chase and Colin had a really fun week and had a great time playing with the RC airplanes my dad gave to all the boys. They also went shopping together at one point and after we left Chase told me it was the most fun he's had at my house. (The whole week... not just the shopping with Colin.) We also got to meet Tamie and Ryan's baby for the first time. She is adorable and it makes me glad to see Ryan so happy with his new family. Seeing my friends and family getting married isn't as surprising to me as seeing them start having kids. I was really excited to give baby Lyra the hair barrettes I made for her but then I met her and her hair is like 1/2" long! Oh well, she'll wear them down the road.

MY favorite present was a cast iron grill pan and panini press which I did not expect at all! I was excited to use it and one night we had two kinds of soup and panini sandwiches that turned out delicious! I have a few bugs to work out, but I'll get the hang of it! Noelle and I also gave my dad the Christmas present we had been working on for 5 years... a toupee made out of our own hair. We had been saving our brush hair for a long time to come up with this masterpiece! We also made an infomercial with Chase's and the Shield's help. It turned out hilarious and got just the reaction we wanted. I'll post the video on here when I get it from Noelle. Chase gave me a new fossil watch and some adorable pearl earrings which I love! I think he cheated though and spent more then $50 which is what we agreed on this Christmas... I got him a small drill and some drill bits, but I think he likes those too. I loved being in Lodi and spending time with my family. I am excited for school to be over and for Chase and I to maybe move there :)

After that first week we headed down to Bakersfield to spend time with Chase's family. We had so much fun and it was way relaxing. I had a lot of fun playing with Tori and the result was that she liked to follow me around. Her favorite activity was coming in the bathroom while I was getting ready and going through my things. She liked to do the things I did which included putting baby powder in my hair (Sorry Nicole, if she does this at home...), putting on makeup, and applying chapstick. Another day we also painted her finger and toenails and I put tiny hearts on her nails and they we so cute! Little did I know that she likes to chew on her nails and by the end of the night she only had polish left on about 3 fingernails... haha. Good thing I used the scented polish so she could chew strawberry and kiwi off her fingers! Tori is so much fun to play with but I can already tell Chase and I are a bad influence on her. Chase taught her this weird throaty noise that she makes and sounds like a dinosaur and Chase and I laughed and laughed at her, but Tori gets in trouble for making it from her mom and dad. Oops!

I got lots of good Christmas presents from everyone including a cute homemade necklace from Nicole, a headband from Ashlee, and nail polish from Alex that I wanted so bad but didn't tell anyone about! How did he know!? I also got an immersion blender from Chase's mom, a new watch from his dad, and a very nice Williams-Sonoma gift card which I feel is the best present of all :)

We also went bowling one day which was so fun except I got the lowest score out of everybody on BOTH games! I guess being good at Wii bowling means NOTHING in the real world. Chase's dad also gave him an RC airplane and they went and flew it a few times. It crashed the second to last day and Chase spent the WHOLE day gluing it back together with this special epoxy stuff... then they went to fly it the last morning and Chase's mom went to watch. I stayed home to pack the car when I got a text saying "Plane crash" and when they came home, his airplane was no more... Chase salvaged the electronics but the airplane itself was beyond repair. So once when he had 3 airplanes he now was down to 1 (after another fatal crash of his home-made one that happened in Lodi) Poor Chase!

New years day we also had a super fun Bunko party with 20 people. It was so fun we decided to make it an annual thing. I had a lucky streak and although I didn't get the prize for most wins, I got the prize for most Bunko's rolled (4!) and I was told it was the biggest prize. I got a gift certificate for a pound of See's chocolate which I am really excited to use. Chase won the prize for the 50-50 record (a Rudy Giuliani bobble-head) and Ashlee won for most wins (2 big chocolate bars). Chase's mom was worried that all her prizes were going to her own family members and that the guests would think the whole thing was rigged, but how can you rig Bunko??

We were sad to leave California but ready to get back to our normal lives. Although out of everyone I asked NO ONE was ready for school to start on the 4th, haha. But that was our fun Christmas and I'll get some pictures up here soon.