It's the most wonderful time of the year

I'm a little late in posting our Christmas vacation happenings but her it is anyways. This year for Christmas we got to go to Idaho to spend it with my family. We got 2 whole weeks off from school and loved every minute of our break. We headed to Idaho and relaxed there for a few days before leaving for Utah. While in Utah we got to watch 2 of Noah's games, shop, hang out with family and friends, and eat some good food of course. Our friends Jan and Spencer were kind enough to let us stay with them. My parents came with us to watch Noah. They had a blast and a little quote from Nan about the games were, "man these games are so much funner live." Her and my dad have become big BYU fans since Noah went to play there and have been very diligent about watching as many games on TV as they can so it was a special treat to have front row seats for the games.

J.D., Nan, & Noah

Kendalyn & I

Noah & Greg Wrubell (Greg is my sister Trish's love!! This ones for you Trish.

Back in Idaho for Christmas....we decided to spend Christmas Eve and morning at my sister Trish's. We thought it would be a little more exciting with kids around Christmas morning. Christmas Eve we went to the movie "Aruthur's Christmas" and afterward went to Cafe Rio. Yum!! Afterward we drove around looking at Christmas lights. I love to look at Christmas lights and there are some great ones in Idaho Falls. After that we headed back to the Chatterton's and opened a Christmas Eve present (a little tradition we have). We hung out with everyone for awhile then the kids went to bed. We woke up Christmas morning at 7 am; opened stocking and presents from Santa then headed to church.

The tree with all the goods.

Checking out my stocking

Nate checking out his stocking

Sticky buns bustin' at the seams!

Lookin a little tired Christmas morning

Hayden was SHOCKED to get an Ipad

Devin; loving every minute of it!!

The best surprise of the day was Jessie's present. The doorbell rang and Trish

told Jessie to get it. When she opened it up, there her dream car sat in the

driveway with a big bow on it. She was ecstatic!!

Jessie loving her Jeep

This present was the best: A Chi straightener. It is amazing!!

The kids in my family went in on an Ipad for my dad for Christmas. He calls it a MaGiC bOx and loves it. It is so funny to watch him work it because he knows nothing about technology.

Londyn and Nate being their dorky selves. Hhmmmyellow!!

The 2 weeks that we had off for Christmas FLEW by! We had blast and Nate spoiled me once again. He is such a thoughtful gift giver and listens the whole year for things that I want. I need to be more like him in that area. I was grateful to celebrate the birth of the Savior and think of his life throughout the Christmas Holidays. The ultimate gift that he has given us is really what the season is all about. It was so much fun to be around family for 2 weeks as well. We miss them very much and love spending time with them.

Thanksgiving in Chi-Town

The Hartsock's headed to CHICAGO for Thanksgiving this year. Noah had a tournament there so everyone decided that was the place to be. Ben and Lindsy live there and they were the most amazing host's!! It was a tight squeeze with everyone there, but we loved every minute of it. We watched 2 BYU games, ate Chicago deep dish pizza, hung out down-town, had a wonderful Thanksgiving meal, went to the museum and enjoying time with family. Thanks again for letting us stay with you Ben and Linds. It was a blast and a Thanksgiving we will never forget.

Willis Tower (formerly know as Sears Tower)

Girodanos it's a good thing you are thousands of miles away or we would have a situation.

Love, love, love this pizza!

Holidays on State Street

Ice skating in Millennium Park

The Bean at Millennium Park

Ben, Linds, Carter, Avery & Emilia

Downtown at the lighting of the Christmas tree

The next few pictures are at the Museum of Science and Industry. This museum is incredible. I went there the last time I was in Chicago and was there for like 3 hours. This time we were there about the same amount of time and saw totally new and different things. I love this museum!!

Nate and Avery

This is an actual submarine from WWII. They actually built this part of the museum around the submarine. It was awesome to see this part of the museum and pretty touching.

Wow!! What an amazing tree

Thanksgiving Day.......

Linds and Leslie working hard

Working on the 80 rolls I made

Carter and Jo

This is the most amazing turkey I've ever seen. Lindsy did an

amazing job on the whole meal but the turkey was off the charts!!

The Fam after Noah's game

Carter and Nate

Melis, Emilia, Nate and Avery

Jabari Parker. Coach K says he's the next Kobe. Top high school player right now. Check him out on youtube. He is amazing. BYU is recruiting him along with every other D1 school in the nation. Guess we will wait and see where he goes....

What a suprise!!

Life since volleyball stared in August has been stressful to say the least! I have a young team and we have had to work through a lot of kinks. I think about volleyball a whole lot and I talk about it a lot as well. Nate listened for the first few weeks but as the season has gone on he listens less and less. So I had to turn to someone who cared and knew what I was talking about- my sister Trish. She has felt my pain, worry, excitement, anger, and frustrations of being a coach. She knows well what I've been going through having coached for 12 years herself. Well the other day I was sitting in the gym at a junior high volleyball game keeping score and my amazing sister shows up right in front of the scores table with 2 of her kids Jessie and Devin. SUPRISE!! SUPRISE!! I was completely shocked. They drove 9 hours to come visit us. She knew I needed some professional help with my team and she made the trip up to do it. We won both of our games while she was here and she helped me out immensely. They came on Thursday and stayed until Sunday. It was homecoming week so Friday was just a fun day at school and Jessie and Devin got to hang out with the kids at school. We visited Devils Tower on Saturday and went to the football game and then to our volleyball game. Thank you for the visit. It was so fun. I have the best sister in the world!!