Happy "Zoo" Year

It was new years eve and we were feeling a little blue. 

No party invites. No fun plans. What were we to do? 

(Ok, the rhyming here is unintentional and will stop now) 

So my sisters, mom, and I decided to throw ourselves a "zoo" years bash. 

We quickly rounded up all the animal themed costumes, 

toys, food, and plants we could find in our house. 

After dinner we watched "Zoo Keeper" for the first time.

I think that is where the zoo-themed idea came from.  

We made the cutest snake sandwich for dinner. 

The tongue was the best part. 

My mom has a billion silk plants that set the perfect scene for our zoo year party.

We had candles glowing in the bushes and plastic animal toys decorating the room.

We had a fun time in our goofy animal costumes. 

Dad was a gorilla, Mandy and I were zebras, Josh was a tiger, 

Mom was a bunny, and Emily was a huntress. 

The gorilla stole the show!

He was making funny animal jokes up all night long.

Even though it is already March,

 I hope you have a happy "zoo" year, too!

Mandy's 17th Birthday!

My awesome little sister Mandy had an super fun birthday! 

We partied all day long and had three of her favorite meals. 

We had crepes for breakfast which where so divine! 

Then I had a big surprise for her, 

a pastel drawing I had spent the previous day on for her.

 She loves hair, like so much, 

so I had a lot of fun with it using her favorite colors. 

She was so surprised and she loved it. 

For lunch we went to pasta factory (yum! my fave). 

Mandy's birthday is my new favorite holiday, 

because we all get spoiled and I love my sister(ever)!

For dinner, in honor of Mandy's love for Mexico, we had fajitas. 

Yep, it was quite the party day. 

So far Mandy has had quite the year, too. 

She got her first job at Brick Oven, 

and because of that she got her first car.

A black Acura TL. 

(She must be trying to be like her big sis or something.)

I have the best little sisters (ever) in the world! 

I love them so much!

Happy 17 Mandy!

Christmas Down South

Way down South in Southern Utah... we had a wonderful Christmas. We had our fancy and fun Christmas eve dinner, and after that we played "reindeer games." We slept over at my family's house (least comfortable night of my life... ever. Dang hide-a-bed.), and woke up early for present opening. We went to Church where I sang "Baby in a Manger" with my mom and sisters. We played some fun games in the evening with the whole family together. 

My mom always decorates the tree so beautifully with all white decorations, some of which are fruit. It is made to symbolize the tree of life. It helps us remember what Christmas is all about, Jesus Christ. 

The morning after Christmas we all got together again to go shooting. The weather was great! I wonder why I ever dreamed of a white Christmas as a child. Blue skies are way better.

On my very first shot, I nailed the clay pigeon using our new shot gun.  Josh was pretty proud of me. I think my big brother Alex was even impressed. The best part was that I didn't even get a bruise because I wore a puffy coat. 

Check out this great shot I got of Josh nailing the can of pop. Making things explode is so much fun to watch.

Thanksgiving with the Macs

We had our first married Thanksgiving with the MacDonald side. We had a lot of fun with the family. It is always a party when we go up to visit! 

We took fun Christmas card photos in our fuzzy-topped hats that Scott gave us. My hat has the Dixie State College logo on it and Josh's has Utah State, because that is where he's planning on going next fall. Scott's is half and half BYU and U of U. Oh the controversy! 

We also took grandkid pictures for the Bangerter side. It's so funny to us how much older we Macs are than the rest of the grandkids. They are so cute though, huh? We played in the leaves and had a picnic at the park. The fall colors up in Salt Lake were beautiful.

This duck at the park seriously had an afro. It was so cute/funny!