Christmas 2010 and We're Off to the Start of a New Year

Fuzz and I were stoked to be able to go home for Christmas this year and actually be able to spend some good quality time with our families-- we were home for about ten days. We knew we would be greeted by a storm when we got there, but had no idea how far out the storm really was. It was stormy the last 4 hours or so, or our drive home just rain though. The drive from Vegas to St. George was probably the scariest part. The rain was coming down so hard, it was dark, and there were a million cars on the road driving way too fast. With the rain falling, and the water being splashed up from the cars all around us it was nearly impossible to see clearly. I was so tense, and would have totally pulled over had I been the designated driver, but Fuzz is braver than I am, and I totally trusted his judgment and knew that he wouldn't drive in it unless he felt like it was something he could handle. It was a relief for both of us when we finally made it into St. George--- Long day of driving! But always worth it.
I guess it had been raining in St. George for about a week-- this NEVER happens. Living in the desert, we love the rain but hardly ever get it, and when we do, it pours and pours, and then a couple hours later is so sunny and bright, you'd hardly believe what it had just looked like a couple hours prior. We were so excited about the rain, but unfortunately there were flood warnings like the entire time, and people were being evacuated out of their homes because of the storm-- it was kinda a big deal. The surrounding mountains received snow instead of just the rain we got-- they were stunning! -- to say the least. Here are a couple pictures Fuzz took on his phone of Pine Valley Mountain near the beginning of our trip:





McKenna had an especially fun Christmas this year-- She just loves those TV shows like Trading Spaces, where the kids get a whole room makeover, and her room has hardly changed since she was born-- except she's moved up from the crib to a big girl bed;) She's had hung up a picture in her room of what she would love for her dream room to look like someday . . . so we took that and ran with it. The night of Christmas Eve, Fuzz and I, Tiff and Aust, Tara and Trav and the rest of us all met up at Grandma and Grandpa Johnson's with the rest of our trillion cousins for not only our annual Christmas Eve get-together, but an added celebration. . . their 70th anniversary! Crazy awesome! It was a blast to see everyone that night and introduce my new hubby to those of my relatives that hadn't yet met him. After that we all headed home and had an enormous sleep over at our parents house-- all of us. They kept McKenna distracted downstairs while we took turns all helping out in her room upstairs, cleaning, taking out furniture, painting, and then putting everything back together. We were up most of the night finishing up everything, but we did it! McKenna slept downstairs with everyone else and because we were having a sleepover she wasn't a bit suspicious about not going to bed in her room. Christmas morning we all woke up bright and early--we all looked like zombies because of our lack of sleep--well I normally look like that anyways when I wake up, but this time it was all of us. We all met up in my parents room all gathered around on the floor some of us on their bed. Dad began to read the Christmas story from Luke so we'd be reminded of the true meaning if Christmas. . . After that we all headed into the living room and would you believe it, Santa found us!! How did he know we'd all be there?! He knows everything. haha
We had a beautiful Christmas all together! It had been such a magical morning, and then we heard my mom yell, "McKenna, you have so many things laying out here we don't want to get ruined or broken, why don't you just go put them in your room real quick." We all knew what that meant. Ken started walking towards her room with her arms full of her new treasures. . . and we tiptoed just far enough behind her that she didn't know we were actually following her. She opened her bedroom door and then just stood in the doorway, staring. We were waiting for Some kind of reaction, but she was just in shock kinda for a second. . . then we all yelled "Surprise!" And ushered ourselves into her new dream room. She was still, in her head, trying to put everything together. . . and came to the conclusion that we must have done EVERYTHING last night. She was looking all over her room, jaw-dropped, trying to take it all in. She commented that it looked exactly like her picture of her dream room and just couldn't believe it. The funniest thing ever was watching little Mylee walk into the room. . . it was a surprise to her too since her aunt Kenna is the funnest person to play dolls with and Mylee spends most of her visits in that room playing with her. . . she was so stunned!!! hahaha we all couldn't help but giggle watching her try to figure this all out. Finally after a moment she yelled, "Grandma! I didn't know Santa had a Magic Wand!!!! (with all sincerity)" We all couldn't help but bust out laughing! Mylee couldn't figure out why, it was just so cute we couldn't stop, and then she started to make that pouty face that she makes occasionally. . . and then yelled STOP LAUGHING!!! haha which just made us laugh even harder. Then she started crying, and so we had to explain that we were just laughing because she was just so cute. She knows that we love her just hates being laughed at-- especially if it's her mom laughing. She does the funniest thing-- Whenever Tiff laughs, about anything for longer than like a second, Mylee takes it personally and says, "Mom! Stop laughing! Stop laughing I said!!!" Never Aust, just Tiff. They said they would put her to bed back at home and they would stay up and watch a movie or TV show and Tiff would sometimes laugh and hear Mylee yelling from her bed, "Mom I can hear you!!! Stop Laughing!!!" hahaha she is so freakin funny! Anyways. . . Ken's Christmas get's even better. . . well three days later was her birthday, she turned eleven. We all woke up bright and early and mom started making crepes for her. We all got our presents set out for her under her birthday sign hung over the fireplace and began singing her Happy Birthday. Then we all pulled out our camera's and began taking pictures just as we usually do as she unwrapped her presents- I had made her an adorable scripture case the night before and couldn't wait to see her unwrap it! Finally all of her presents were opened and she was grinning ear to ear, sweetest girl ever, couldn't stop thanking all of us, and then. . . there was a knock at the door. Mom said, "Oh that's probably Grandma and Grandpa for you Ken! Kenna why don't you go open the door for them!" Ken popped up and went to open the door, to her surprise she opened it and there were all of her little friends there with presents for her! There were about ten or so of them with Jamaica, who had had them all meet up at her house and then brought them over all together. Kenna was once again standing in shock in the doorway haha she was so surprised. They all ushered themselves in and began immediately to all gather in the living room where they'd seen her unwrapped presents and continued to have her open all of theirs.








Here's Jamaica and Fuzz . . . and Boots all watching Ken unwrap her presents.


This cake Sophie made was ADORABLE!!!

They played a bunch of Minute to Win it games and then all had a yummy crepe breakfast. After that they made home-made lip gloss with their favorite colors and flavors and then got to take them home with them in their little goody/party bags. Later they had cake and ice cream; I'd made her some lemon cupcakes late the night before with the intention to decorate them bright and early that morning, but mom had beat me to it and had "Martha-Stewarted" them up for me. They were so cute and so yummy~ Needless to say, the party was a blast!

Okay quick backtrack, to the day before Christmas Eve. We call this day Christmas Adam since Adam came before Eve haha kinda our family joke. . . and we have a big fundraiser every single year where we sell hot chocolate with our Sevy cousins and friends on the corner by our house, and give all the money we make to a charity, this year we gave all the proceeds to the Ronald McDonald Foundation. We chose them, because our cousin Travis and Lindsey had just had twins and they were born way too early. The Ronald McDonald foundation was such a blessing to them at this time, and helped them among other things have a place to stay while their children were in intensive care-- way neat organization! So this seemed like the best place to put all the donation funds this year. It was bright and early and freezing cold, but so much fun!









Mylee had to test it out for us . . . just to make sure it was good enough to give out to other people ;)


Tara, Asher (big brother of the twins), his uncle Sean, and Mylee.

Here's the Crew---



Little bonding second cousins ;) one from China, one from Indiana. . .both meeting up in Utah.

This was Fuzz's first year! He was getting so into it! Chasing down cars. . . haha just kidding, just doing a great job of smiling and waving and holding up his sign ;)

That afternoon we all went bowling together! Super fun!!!

Tiff and Aust-- who by the way just found out they're having a boy!!!


Mylee's ball barely made it to the other end of the lane every time, but she did so good! Her celebration dance was the best part!!!


Fuzz has done this a time or two . . . pretty much a pro~


Mylee loves her uncle Brittan, he kinda likes her too ;)


Tara, Mom and Dad


Brit and Ken



We just had to sneak in a snow day while we were home. We drove up to Cedar Mountain and the road up the mountain was closed! So we just played around in some snow we found near the base.




Fuzz made a snow Angel--


Mylee Loved the sledding no matter how freezing cold she was.




Fuzz's niece Jordan got the most adorable puppy from her Grandma DeAnn for Christmas, her name is Ellee-- she's a miniature shitzu.


Christmas at Grandma Sorenson's-- everyone opening their presents from Grandma and their cousins. Their Christmas breakfast was AMAZING by the way-- this was my first Christmas Morning at the Sorenson's.



Another highlight of our trip home was helping to shop and wrap presents for some kids on the Indian reservation that needed some help. My dad with his work had put together a donation drive to help these families out, and we got to help wrap presents and then shop for some other families too. This was such a neat thing for us to be apart of and to witness such charity and generosity from people in our community that had seen the sign in the window at my dad's work and had come with gifts for children they had never met and would probably never get to know. One of the most endearing families was one that had the oldest son, who was still a child, fighting cancer. It was because of this that they could hardly afford a Christmas for their family. My dad and brothers went with their buddy Santa to deliver the gifts to these families, truly a sweet, humbling experience for them. These kind of things are what made Christmas especially special for us this year. My mom told me once, in response to my question, "Is Santa even real?" that he most certainly is, Santa is a representation of the spirit of giving, and as long as we are doing all that we can to keep that spirit alive, Santa will always be real. I'm reminded of this as I think of the experiences we had this Christmas season, and the things that really mattered, and those that didn't so much. This was our very first Christmas together since we've been married, wow! We can't wait for next years!

The morning we left to come home we woke up with snow all around us-- and most of the ride home! The scenery was gorgeous we just had to take pictures-- especially because there seldom ever is snow in so many of the places we drove through.


Here's right behind Bloomington--

































This was right by the Hoover Dam (we couldn't really see the dam though.)






We stopped by this In-N-Out and everyone was so excited about this snow. An old man came up to me in there and said, "What's all that white stuff outside." Kingman seldom ever see's snow. In-N-Out's seldom ever see snow!












We saw like a million Joshua Cacti. We actually drove through the Joshua National Park.















We got back to El Paso and would you believe it. . . we found more snow! It snowed the next day too!


It's good to be home in El Paso-- but I'm actually going back to Utah this week for Brittan's farewell!! He's going to Richmond, VA, and couldn't be more excited. We wish him the best of luck on this 2 year adventure! I'll be home for a couple weeks because Fuzz will be doing some training for a few weeks out in the field so it will be good to at least be home with my family ;) It's funny how sometimes the timing just works out perfect!

Trans-Siberian Orchestra Concert

Fuzz was such a good sport going with me to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert-- he was pleasantly surprised when the show started to find out that this was more like a rock concert than anything. This video off of youtube was taken forever ago and totally doesn't even give the show justice-- really if you ever get the chance to see them in concert, it's totally worth going to!

Trans-Siberian Orchestra

Here's what you get when you combine lot's of creativity, free time, ambition, lights, a house, and good music (Trans-Siberian Orchestra):

Much to be Thankful for. . .

Okay time for lot's of catching up. . . let's start way back-- Thanksgiving.

Here's what the Iverson's were thankful for this year:

The most beautiful Wedding Ever!
Heathcare-- huge! A tremendous benefit the army provides for us.
Answers to so many prayers.
Never ending love we feel each day from our Savior, and Heavenly Father.
Kind friends here in El Paso.
Safety-- living here on the border of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.
Gorgeous sunsets-- every one takes our breath away.
Internet-Skype was a huge blessing while Fuzz was in Iraq though we're so thankful to speak in person now;)
Various service opportunites, run's etc. that have blessed our lives to be a part of.
IVERSON-- My new last name;)
New beginnings ;)
Golf-- I'd never learned how to play until this year. Fuzz would die without it.

The list goes on from there-- it'd be impossible for us to name all of the things that we are so grateful for. Our families especially and the relationship that we have with them. It's a blessing to live somewhat close to them, at least within driving distance. We have so much to be grateful for!

We got to go home, back to southern Utah for Thanksgiving. We left Wednesday afternoon and had to drive through snow, in the dark, for about 3 hours. We were going to take my car, but last minute we'd changed our minds and decided to take the truck-- which was the hugest blessing! There were cars sliding off the road, and we were even sliding, until Morgan put the truck in 4wd-- I don't know where we would've ended up without it. We saw snow the rest of the drive home, until about 30 min out of St. George. We pulled up to Fuzz's mom's house at about 3:30 am and she was surprisingly there out in the middle of the cold to greet us-- she had conveniently woken up on her own and went outside to get some wood for the fire, and surprise! There we were, just hopping out of Fuzz's truck, unloading all of our stuff to take inside with us. We had a good lil chat with DeAnn and then got to sleep. We slept for a few hours and then it was morning time;) We had our Thanksgiving feast at Grandma Sorenson's house-- it was amazing! And then we headed over to Hurricane to meet up with my Johnson Grandparents, and the rest of my family for dessert. That's where Tara surprised us with the big news. . . she's pregnant! She and Tiffany are both pregnant right now and due within about a month of each other, Tara-July, Tiffany-June! So FUN! We enjoyed the next couple days with our families, and then headed to Vegas Saturday night for the Transiberian Concert with my family.

Us with Shaye babe-- my lil brother, right before the show.

Mom's picture of us. . . just before it started ;)

It was amazing! Really, one of the neatest concerts I've ever been too-- even Fuzz Loved it! It was an awesome first Thanksgiving together with our families.

The next weekend we drove with our friends the Webbs to Phoenix to visit JJ and his beautiful family. Fuzz and his buddy that went with us had met JJ in Iraq.
This is a picture of another Airforce buddy, Fuzz and JJ.


JJ was in the airforce, and met up with them partway through there deployment. There weren't a lot of Mormon's there, but the three of them would meet up every Sunday and have a special worship time together, even if they just sang hymns the whole time. I was always hearing stories about JJ-- Funny kid. He was such a good friend to Fuzz and Webb, they all were so lucky to have each other there. JJ lives in IL so we've never been able to see him since they've all been back from their deployment, but conveniently for us, JJ's wife has family in Arizona that they were staying with for Thanksgiving for a couple weeks-- so we decided that we'd all go up and spend their last weekend there all together. We all went together with our spouses to the Mesa Temple- I couldn't get over how gorgeous it was. No picture that I'd ever seen had given it justice-- The inside was just as beautiful, or even more, than the outside. It was neat to be there all together- such a special experience for us all.

JJ, Tyler, and Fuzz

Me and Fuzz

That night we went to this incredible light parade that JJ's wife's family goes to each year-- they have a tradition where they set up a stand with soup and all kinds of treats for their family as they enjoy the light parade. Every float/person in the parade is covered in lights, it was amazing!
There were about 80 entries-- so much time and effort was put forth into this parade-- it was neat to be able to actually be there and see first hand their creativity.



The next week's adventure came as sort of a surprise. My friend Cassie lives here in El Paso with her husband-- Cassie and I use to be in the same ward back in Utah. And now, she was due to have her very first baby. Her family wasn't able to be there the week the baby was born-- as she was born about a week later than they'd anticipated, so we got to be there at the hospital with her to make sure that she'd be okay that night. She even let me stay in her room while she delivered her baby! I thought it would make me even more nervous about ever having one of my own-- but if anything it made me just so much more excited to someday be a mother. It was the neatest thing ever-- the baby was inside her one second, and then crying the next second on her lap with toes, fingers, ears and eyes-- It was a miracle-- I can't think of a better way to describe the experience. Little Jessica was gorgeous. I couldn't stop staring at her watching her take in her first moments of life. We've gone back several times to visit and she continues to grow even more beautiful every time we see her. Cassie is one of the most courageous people I know. I was so impressed with how she handled everything at the hospital, and with suddenly being a new mom-- truly one of my greatest hero's.




We had a Christmas get-together with some of our closest buddies the other night. Right before people started coming over we received our wedding DVD's from our friend Alan in New York. Definately one of the most brilliant people I know. He'd put together the most incredible wedding video I'd ever seen as a gift to us. It had me in tears from the first 5 seconds clear to the end. He included every detail of the day and included excerpts from what our parents had thought of that day-- they had secretly all gotten together behind our backs and recorded their thoughts of the temple ceremony as we were there, and what they thought about us, and that special day. It was one of the neatest gifts I've ever seen-- what a labor of love! It will be something we'll forever cherish.
We'd popped in the DVD while our friends were there-- they hadn't been able to come to our wedding so we thought it would be neat for them to see what it was like. Everyone loved it.
We ate tons of junk food and then Fuzz performed-- for the first time ever-- Silent Night. He had been practicing with me all the week before, and then that night played it for our friends.
This is his last run through before his show-- you can tell how serious he was taking it-- haha.

It was so funny to see him so nervous-- but he didn't let his nerves get in the way and affect his performance. It was so much fun, Webb pulled out our other guitar and asked Fuzz to teach him how to play it too.


Then we all played it together-- they did Amazing!



So this weekend started off with an early morning 8k race at Fort Bliss. We ran with our buddy Rios ;) we all have different paces so all finished at different times, but had a great time:)







That night we went to our friend Kevin's 25th birthday party-- it was an 80's party. Even though Fuzz and I were both born in the 80's we had no idea what we were going to wear-- this is what we came up with ;)

Well today is our 6 month anniversary! Woohoo! And to celebrate, we get to pack and get ready to wake up at 3:30 in the morning to drive home for Christmas! We really can't wait to spend the holiday with our families. This time we'll be able to stay home for 10 whole days!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

"Boemerang": Erik Hartman gives us all a good laugh ;)

This is Hilarious!!!

Happy Halloween!

It wouldn't be Halloween without carved pumpkins. . . Fuzz thought he'd be creative and make a castle . . . it was funny when we had some of our friends come over and compliment him on his "temple" ;)

And we just had to roast our pumpkin seeds yummm!


We were Napoleon Dynamite and Deb his girly-friend.

We went to a couple Halloween parties with our friends, and the infamous trunk-or-treat in the church parking lot. There were a TON of kids there, we were out of candy in like 5 min! And we thought we had brought plenty. On our way from one event to the other we were right behind a car collision and went to go and make sure everyone was okay. I didn't even realize we had our costumes on until we were leaving, and they complimented us on them. I'm sure it was quite the site, seeing us all in our costumes on the side of the road with the wrecked cars. Luckily everyone was okay.

So we've finally started climbing again! YAY!!! We went with our friends, the Webbs, and their dog Lila-- I'm totally allergic to her, but she's adorable and so I can ever resist playing with her. We all had so much fun!