Christmas Vacation (Part 1)

For Christmas we went home to California! I so miss the weather and climate there! It was good to be with my mom for the holidays this year as our hearts were tender missing my dad.

Dress Up!
These first pictures are from dressing up Becca in dresses that were mine when I was little. These are all dresses that my mom and Grandma made for my sister and I.

This first one is a really cute Christmas dress I had, but it was awfully short on Becca. Her diaper bum showed in the back, so we didn't take this one with us.

I love this shot! It reminds me of The Sound of Music for some reason. This is our "ice cream" dress. If you see this one on her at church sometime, it's cause it was too cute to not bring with us!

So cute! Almost like a classic Danish Christmas dress. The embroidery on the skirt is so so pretty! She will be wearing this one too for sure!

Happy Birthday Mom!
The 21st is my Mom's birthday so we celebrated with Prime rib dinner, presents, and lemon-jello cake! Yum!

Mom and Grandpa Fred.

Wendy and Sean.

The best shot of all of us. Becca was being a grump. She was tired.

Present time. Christian and becca had to help!

Cake...the best part of any birthday.

Visiting the Gravesite
On Tuesday we went to the cemetary where both my grandma and my father are burried.
Becca on the bench with my grandparent's names on it. (Grandpa is still around, but hey...)

Hope Riccilli with her two grandchildren from her only granddaughters.

Becca at Papa's grave. (The headstone isn't there yet.)

Becca and Christian.

This was a very tender trip and a hard reminder that we were missing my dad so much this Christmas. But it was good for us to go all the same.

The Aquarium of the Pacific at Long Beach
On Wednseday we went to the aquarium in Long Beach with my friend Amy and one of her friends, Jeremy. It was fun to see her again and catch up. And Becca LOVED the fish!

This is one of the sharks! It was feeding time when we got there.

The Moray Eel!

Becca and daddy by the BIG tank when you walk in.

Mom and Becca with a tank FULL of Jellyfish.

Becca trying to gently touch a sea anemone...trying being the operative word!

These crabs were huge. They made me want some crab legs to be honest...

Becca with the hall of tropical fish.

They had some frogs there. Becca just loved them!

Becca with a green, black and white, poisonous dart frog.

A Shark egg that they've taken the layers off so you can see the shark growing inside. Pretty cool!

This fish was just cool. ;)

Mom and Becca at the diver show.

the diver is in there somewhere surrounded by the fish!

More fish feeding frenzy!

It was a really fun day. We also pet the rays (Becca was too small to reach far enough to touch one) and saw the seal and sea lion show (which I am surprised I don't have any pictures of...huh.) and Becca just LOVED them!

Up next...Christmas! (One of these days I will be caught up!)

Temple Square Lights

For FHE on Monday the 14th for FHE we went to temple square with our friends the Russels to see the Christmas lights. It was so much fun!

It was a game night for the Jazz so we drove around FOREVER looking for reasonable/close parking. This was after we finally found some and were walking a block or so to temple square. It's blurry, I need a new camera!

So beautiful and peaceful!

Our family. You know he's cold when Tyson pulls out the gloves! If only I could convince him to wear a hat...

Mommy and Becca by the green lighted bushes. She loved seeing all the colored lights!


Becca was all bundled up for the cold! It was a cold night, but well worth it!


This was such a beautiful shot that Linds got! Evidence that I need a better camera!

By the BIG red tree! I love this red tree!

Me and Lindsey!

Friends having a good time!

My and the love of my life!

Becca liked the snow and reached for it ancy chance she could.

So pretty! I just love Christmas!

Our Forever Family! I am so grateful to have them!

The luminarias around temple square were really cool.

We went inside the Joseph Smith Memorial building to let the kids warm up a bit. Becca had so much fun running around with Lizzie and Andrew. Here they are with the tree!

Really nice view of one of the light trees and the temple.

This is from the west side of the temple. The trees casting their shadow on the temple made me thing of a gothic castle.

The Assembly Hall.

The Star of Bethlehem.

Us by the grove of golden lights. It was so much fun!

It's the Busiest Time of the Year (Part 3)

DAZ3D Christmas Party
On Tuesday we had Tyson's work Christmas party at Thanksgiving point. It is always fun to get out just the two of us, since it happens so rarely.

This was the best picture of the two of us, I thought, but Tyson didn't get anything in the background so...

We took this one. ;)

I love seeing the Reindeer at Thanksgiving point each year. It just makes it feel like Christmas!

Tyson Turns 30!!!
I can't believe that Tyson is 30. It just sounds so weird to me! But it was a really fun weekend full of celebrating!


On the 10th(his birthday) he opened his presesnts in the morning.



Becca was the cutest present of all. ;)

We took daddy cupcakes and balloons to work. It isn't every day you change decades!

We had dinner at Bombay House in SLC and it was completely awesome -- as is Becca's crooked "cheese" smile!

So, he had to blow out some sort of candles ON his birthday so I stuck three in the cupcake for dessert. I just love this man so so much!

Tyson decided to show off his big mouth...

And succeeded! It was a fun day! I can't believe he is 30!

Party Time!
We had a party with Pizza and cake with friends the day after Tyson's birthday. It was a lot of fun!

Travis, Gavin and Sara.

Lindsey and Lizzie...such a cheesy cheese face! I love it!

The kids had a ton of fun making a mess of Becca's room!

Wow, that glow almost hurts my eyes. ;)

Make a wish!

The filling on the cake didn't turn out like I had hoped, but Becca liked it anyway. ;)

Merry Christmas to All
So then on Saturday we had a Christmas dinner and party with some of our close friends. I was very Becca-centric that night with my picture taking I guess...cause somehow I missed getting pictures of anyone else practically!

All the kids exchanged gifts it was a lot of fun! Becca has this opening presents thing down!

Me and my beautiful friends. I look completely awfull in this picture, but they looked so cute that I caouldn't not post it.

Becca riding her unicorn that she got that night. She was so funny jumping up and down with it like this before we even showed her how to use it!

Our family!

Christmas Card Photo Shoot
This is some of the pictures we took of Rebecca when trying to get shots for our Christmas card this year.

Oh yes, and there is still much more to come - like our trip to CA and Christmas! December has been a crazy month!