Christmas time was here.....

Let me start by explaining why I was dreading Christmas so much:

My family in New Mexico always has a big dinner/get-together on Christmas Eve at my grandparents house.

Gary's family doesn't.

Christmas day everyone goes to my grandparents again to finish off the left overs and just hang out for a while.

Gary's family doesn't.

I always go day-after-Christmas shopping with my mom.

She was in New Mexico.

To top it all off, I kept imagining how different my house would be if we had two little feet running around trying to take ornaments off the tree and making general toddler trouble.

But he is with his family now.

OK, so now the good part!

I was determined to make Christmas Eve a little like Grandmas, so I put Tamales on the stove to cook. We also had cookies and sparkling grape juice!

My mom, knowing how upset I was, called to assure me that I wasn't missing much, and that most of the family had gone down to Grandmas for Thanksgiving (which I got to see!) so they were spending Christmas Eve with their other families.

Instead of seeing everyone in one house, Gary and I traveled to his families houses and visited a while with everybody.

1st we went to his sisters house. We visited with her and the kids, we also dropped off their gifts (I heard they were a hit on Christmas morning! (Yay Aunt Sam!!))

We went and visited Grandpa & Uncle Lee. Gary's cousins Ashlee (and Chase) & AJ were there, as well as his Aunt & Uncle. It was really nice seeing people we don't see very often.

Then we visited his mom & dad, who we see all the time, but it was still nice.

We came home and enjoyed our quasi-New Mexico Christmas Eve!

On Christmas Morning we exchanged gifts (Santa was good to us this year!!), got ready and went to Gary's dads house.

There was yummy food (and a delicious punch I need the recipe for), Gary's Sisters & Brother and all their kiddos. While we ate everyone laughed and had fun, then came the presents! Gary and I got some cool stuff along with stockings for the dogs (they are so spoiled by their Grandpa Grant).

While everyone was opening presents I got a little sad and teared up a bit at the fact that we were a family of two sitting in our little area, while every other little family there had at least four. Seeing all the kids unwrap their presents and show their parents, I kept wondering "what if?".

But I also realized that I am very blessed in my own right, I have a wonderful husband who sat with me through those tears and tried to cheer me up, he also made sure I was busy the rest of the day to keep my mind off stuff. My niece Abbi made my day when she only wanted Aunt Sam to fix her hair and shared her Dolly with me. Later in the day at Grandpas house, Gary's Aunt Gail made me laugh, I met his cousins Cody's wife, Janelle, and she is so nice! We had a great time visiting with them.

That night we came home to our cute little house, even though it was quiet, I did have two 4 legged kiddos waiting to give us lots of love.

So this has been a really long post about Christmas and how much I was dreading it, and how great it turned out to be...sorry so long! But it just goes to show you that sometimes you just have to give things/people/days a chance and you might be surprised!

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope it was fantastic!!

P.s. My birthday was great too!!

Easter with Mom!

Mom came to visit over Easter/Spring break. I loved having her here, it made having a sick hubby so much easier (more on that in a minute). Mom flew in on Wednesday night and stayed until Monday afternoon. On Friday we went to Temple Square, I have wanted to go there since I moved to Utah!!

It was cold, but sooo nice!

We were trying to get a picture of us with the temple in the background...I should have asked someone to take it for us!

The flowers at Temple Square are absolutely beautiful! We took bunches of pictures of them and sent them to my grandma, who loves flowers.

After Temple Square we went to Whole Foods, since I never go, but I love that store! I bought bread, olives, teas, and some other stuff...yogurt? Anyway, its all gone except for the bread. We also went to dinner in SLC. We had such a great day! I love having my mom here. So I'm on a mission, either she has to move up here or us down there...

So my hubby has had a cold for the past 2-3 weeks, so on Friday morning I went with him to the Dr. and he got antibiotics and a cough syrup.

innocent enough

About 10 minutes after taking the antibiotic Gary started throwing up

crazy projectile vomit

The vomiting continued Friday night and all day Saturday, in all of this crazy puke, not once did I fathom the idea that he could be allergic to the antibiotic.

I called the on call Dr and sure enough he said it sounded like he was allergic. At 10pm I was hauling butt to Harmon's to pick an anti-nausea medication.

Finally about midnight that night, he quit puking.

He is finally better...thank goodness!

So that was our Easter weekend :0)

Oh yeah, can someone tell me where spellcheck is on here? I haven't found it since blogger changed.

It's almost Christmas!

I am so excited for Christmas! Were hopefully going to New Mexico and get to spend it with my family! Good food, Good company, and decent weather should make for a great trip!

We had Thanksgiving lunch with Garys dads family and then dinner with his mom and her family...I love my inlaws but nothing compares to a Barrera get together. There is always so much yummy food, and my family is all there...mom, brother, grandparents, cousins, aunts, and uncles are all there. There is always a great conversation happening somewhere, always someone laughing.

I might just be missing home a lot right now and thats why I am making it out to sound great, but I really do miss having a lot of family around. And I miss feeling like I belong to a family, does that sound weird? But I really dont feel like I fit in with my inlaws. I really do love them all dearly and enjoy most of them, but I always feel like an outsider.

Oh well, gotta make the best of it!

On Black Friday, I got a Cricut! Im so excited to use it, but since it's my bday present, I dont get to play with it until the end of December!

This was my random post about nothing really...I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!!

4th of July

On the 4th, Mom and I went to Ruidoso and had a blast! I lost $20 at the casino though!!! Its ok I had a great time walking through downtown and remembering all the fun I used to have with my cousins.

Mom and I watching the fireworks

My Mom made a friend in Ruidoso

My last day in NM, we went to lunch with Nana & Papo. I miss them so much!

Easter

For Easter we spent the day with Gary's Mom, Sister, & our Niece and Nephew. It was a small gathering, but we had a great time!

The video above truly touched my heart, there are so many issues that people are struggling with now a days, and this shows us that we arent alone in our struggles. Whatever they may be, I hope you dont feel alone, there is always someone with you.

"One of the great consolations of this Easter season is that because Jesus walked such a long, lonely path utterly alone, we do not have to do so"
-Jeffrey R. Holland

Fun & Family

Thanksgiving came and went! And here we are...Almost Christmas time. I wasnt able to get any pictures at Thanksgiving but it was a great time! Last night we went to Garys company Christmas party. It was kinda boring at first, but then they had us play this game called "snowballs" it was a lot of fun! I won court side Jazz tickets. Gary won luggage...lol its really nice luggage but still its luggage. After the party we went to Garys Dads house and we were able to meet Thomas' (Garys Bro) girlfriend. Her name is Amanda, she seems really nice...plus its nice to have another mexicana in the family :)

Me and Gary after the party...Im kinda tired.

My outfit for the party...this was after so all my jewelry was off and my hair was a mess!

Another one of us at Gary's dads house

Thomas (big bro) Grant (Dad) Gary (my hubby:)

Gary & Thomas

Thomas & Amanda

What to do??

Thanksgiving is approaching fast and before we know it Christmas will be here! Were spending Christmas in New Mexico with my family this year...I am SO excited!

But I am torn...do I decorate the house for Christmas?

This will be our 3rd Christmas at this house (we moved November 4th, 2006). The 1st Christmas we had a little tree up and it was cute, but there were like 50000 little ornaments and it drove me nuts. I like big ornaments. Easy ornaments. I would also like to have a tree that has lights already on it, yes Im lazy but I HATE putting lights on a tree, nothing bothers me more than going around the dang tree a million times. But that kinda tree comes with a big(ger) than I want to pay for price tag.

So I either cough up the money and buy a tree and ornaments. Or just settle with my little tree on the coffee table. Im not putting up the one we had the 1st year, it drove me crazy! It kept falling over!

If you have any ideas let me know....