The Sloats: A Christmas Flashback! (And Nauvoo)

I finally got out the camera and memory card, to my great delight there were some wonderful memories captured on that small little blue card. I often forget the camera and take most pictures with my semi-okay phone camera. So, this is going to be a little flash back to Christmas!

Kason, Anne, Harley, Reed, and Ella

Elyse, Ryan, Dallin (aka in this picture, Mr. Drool!), Carolyn, and Taylor

The whole bunch! With a few action/process pictures in there. The fact is, I didn't know Greg very long before we got married, and I knew he was amazing but it gets better and better all the time. I keep waiting for the "hard" part to come. Life throws curve balls, but it sure makes it easier when your married to a guy like Greg. He makes me so happy. I also didn't know his family very well either, in fact I met several of them for the first time right before we got married and some after. But, it turns out that I ended up with a family of my dreams. They are all so wonderful, so talented, motivated, supportive, and the list could go on and on. I am one lucky girl.

Here is us, we don't have kids. But a few days prior to this we announced that we were expecting our first child. I am about 10-11 weeks prego in this picture. So, this could be considered our first "family of three" picture!
Just for fun, here are some pictures around Christmas time also:

This was days before we announced that we were expecting. I didn't throw up much, in fact I only had one night that I did. But I felt nauseated all the time. I never really felt normal, frequent snacking did help me feel functional. Unfortunately, sometimes I just really needed to curl up when nothing helped. Thus, my parents started to get a little suspicious...

This is how we announced it at a Christmas party we held for my parents, Trevor, Trey, and Paige. We had a yummy dinner, dessert, games, and gifts for everyone. One of the gifts we gave my parents was this one. I made the bib, forgot to put on the velco though. Whoops!

Now on to Nauvoo, they are mostly of my nieces and nephews. Of course, they are all the cutest little kiddos! I've never been an aunt before so I need a lot of practice I guess you could say but I certainly miss the little cuties and I can't wait to see them when we head out to meet up with family.

Right on the edge of their seats, we went and saw a cute little show in the afternoon that was just for kids. Taylor, Elyse

Elyse, Kason

They held hands a lot of places, the best of buds and I bet they always will be! Cousins are the best.

Serious, could he be any cuter?

Kason petting the Clydesdale after our wagon ride. I think the wagon ride was one of the funnest parts of Nauvoo. It's relaxing and fun to see so much of the beautiful area.

Elyse, Kason

I love their smiles. During the course of the reunion, I took a few pictures of Elyse that turned out blurry. One day a few months later I went through my pictures and took out a few that were fuzzy/blurry. Some of them must of been of her because when I saw her more then 4 months later, there were still several pictures of her but she noticed the ones I must have deleted. She asked me specifically about several. I was amazed at her memory, it was 4 months earlier! I would think she'd see the several I had and think that was the end of it but she remembered the ones that were missing. I didn't even remember and I erased them! I wish I had half that kind of memory!

Ahh...I think I'll just look from here. Not sure I want to pet the horse....

Amanda, Kason, Ben, Elyse, and Stuart. Having a little fun on the way back to the visitors' center.

Making rope! Kason, Taylor, and Elyse

Carolyn helping Elyse with Taylor supervising! Putting those big, beautiful, blue eyes to good use.

Kason with a little help from dad, Reed.

Kason and Harley

Stick pull! And the winner is....

Elyse!

Mr. Harley with that cute smile again...

Taylor, Harley, and Elyse. Love those cheeser smiles.

This is such a great Kodak moment for me, one thing I love about Kason is he is such a happy kid. Happy go lucky little boy and he is so cute, when he gets really excited it seems as if he might burst!He waves his arms when he gets excited just like this. I hope he never looses his excitement for life.

Carthage Jail

Amanda, Ben, and Greg. I love hearing about the things Greg and Ben would do growing up, a lot of great memories!

Me, Greg, Ben, and Amanda

This is one our way home back to Colorado and Utah. We rode back with them and it was so much fun. On our way back, we realized there were all these fantastic Church history sites on the way home. We ended up stopping at Carthage Jail, Liberty Jail, and Kansas City Missouri to check out the temple. By the time we had seen the temple everybody else was sending us updates on their travel back home. They were all well on their way and almost home, well...we had only made it a few hours! We decided to make good use of our drive home, why waste a perfectly good drive?! We decided that downtown Kansas City looked cool too, so we would grab some grub. After talking to a few people about a place to get some good BBQ we got the name of "Oklahoma Joes." I believe I have written about this before...so I won't go into detail. Needless to say, we ended up staying at Ben and Amanda's friend's house because by the time we got done eating it was after 9:00! So much for making it home and driving through the night sounded unappealing. It was fun to spend time with Ben and Amanda, they are so fun to be around and easy to be around for that matter! They kind of just go with the flow!