Merry Christmas Everyone~

It’s been quite the crazy yet exciting year for us. We made the big move back to Utah, finialized Mason’s adoption, bought our first home, and started on the journey for our second adoption. We have been so very,very blessed. We hope you and your families have been too. We are SO glad to be home this holiday season however we can’t help but to miss our “Cali Family & Cali weather” ha ha. We love all of you and are wishing you Happy Holidays!

Love, Seth, Lacey Jay & Mason

{our christmas this year}

{This year we are doing something a little different. We are going to LOUISANA with Seth's whole family. It was a little hard for me beings it was our first Christmas home and our first Christmas in our new home, however it was a once in a lifetime opporunity to do this with Seth's whole family and we knew it would be an amazing memory, so we jumped onboard. Honestly we are so excited. It will be so neat to see where Seth grow up and has so many memories. It will be neat to spend that quality time with the McVea's. We all have a feeling we are going there for a reason. I'm grateful to be apart of such an amazing planned trip: Sealings in the Baton Rouge Temple, New Orleans, The Zoo, Bom-fire southern style and everything else that is on our agenda:) Now if I could just get through the dreaded plane ride with a toddler! AH!}

I can hardly believe this year is coming to a close. It's been an crazy year full of changes for us but we welcome them. Coming back to Utah, buying our first home, Mason turning one, and starting our second adoption process. Whew! I have two amazing boys in my life and get me through each step. I love my family! Also this been an amazing year for 'Lacey Jay Photography' and I have all of my family and clients to thank for that. Thank you for trusting me with such a precious opporunity to capture your family. Photography for me is very close to the heart, it is very rarely a job for me, so thank you for making it grow and flourish this year. I look forward to many more years and getting to meet and fall in love with more many clients {hopefully}.

All I want for Christmas...

I have heard all the stories, seen the pictures & witnessed kids being scared of Santa and screaming as their lovely parents place them on Santa's lap for a perfect photo opp... Love you all and truly no offense but I just always thought it's for the dang kids, if their scared half to death just listen to them and try again next year... but no, year after year I walk by the "Santa Station" at the mall and see at least one kid screaming like his parents are giving him away to some furry bearded stranger... but it's a great memory for the kids.. right?! Oh dear! Don't get me wrong I love the idea of kids seeing Santa, I think it's traditional and honestly really cute, but not at the expense of our kids. I mean it's Santa so it's for the kids not us~ Anyhow, we went to our ward Christmas party Friday and the good old St. Nick was there and we waited in line with all the other little kids. I kinda thought mase wouldn't have any trouble beings he the most friendly kid in the world, but with his outfit and beard I really didn't know what Mase would do? So I figured I would let me down when it was his turn and see what he decided to do. Santa leaned down and opened his arms, Mason chuckled and went right to him. Cute little bugger! Yes, it's cute now but we're going to have to do some seriously curving of that friendly I'll go to anybody soon, before it gets us in trouble:)

McVea Family Christmas FHE & Dinner

Last night we hosted a little dinner and FHE at our house with all the McVea's (& Sam, a close friend to the fam:) It was so much fun. I know see why the Lord lead us to this house... both of our families are growing daily and our house is filled to the tops when they come:) Dinner was DELICOUS (thank Lilley & Missy) and the company was great. I truly love my in-laws. It's weird, I hear in-law jokes and their funny but simply un-true for me. Sure we have our moments but that are family to me... no in-law about it! Once again an event at my house can assure you: no pictures taken by me~ I borrowed these from my sweet sister Sarah's blog. She's a fellow photog and was great at remembering to snap some photo's of the fam:)

{i think this might be one of my favorite pictures of Mason of all time: Just look @ his face.. he KNOWS he's not supposed to be by the tree, Sarah caught him. She said right after this he snatched a Candy Cane and ran off as fast as he could... little bugger;}

{This one is also a favorite! It's just Mason. This is how he is 80% of the time: Tumb in, Legs crossed- Thank you Sar for capturing some of my favorite moments:}

this is Madison. isn't she so cute?! I see her with her little sister abby and I can't wait to have a another boy, so mase can have a brother:)

this is abby with her two awsome aunts. Abby and Mase of the 'thumb sucker cousins' :) Me and her mom hope her and mase are the best of buddies!

Annual Family Christmas Get-Together:)

Since we've grown up and all started our own families me and my siblings still try and get together around Christmas. For a long time it was Christmas Day @ Cookies. However when Seth & I moved to Cali we couldn't always be home on Christmas so they begin to do something special for us when we were in town. They'll never know how much getting together pre-holiday meant to us. It slowly started the tradition of a early (within a week of Christmas) party at Cookies. Now that we have kids we have passed on one of our favorite traditions on to them. Decorating cookies. My mom used to make the BEST sugar cookies in the world and set them out with every color frosting and topping imaginable and we'd go to town. Even though more of it would end up in our mouths then in a finished product on a cookie. Ha ha. It was great to see Mya carrying on the tradition (it wasn't me stuffing her full of junk this time Jam, haha, Mya was in-hailing those M&Ms faster than she could breath) I about died laughing when I saw her colorless, topping-less cookie in front of her.. I don't even think she realized it was a cookie decorating thing. ha ha. Oh dear! So in addition to that activity this year Chelly brought something extra special for the kids that I just thought was the cutest thing. It little ginger bread house kits from Lowes that the kids literally got to build. I have to mention how all of us girls finished first with the kids we were helping and Seth and Jesse (the handy-men aka) totally did there's wrong and had to take it apart and re-do. Oh what funny moment:) Chel thank you for all the hard work you did. The kids (& adults) loved it. Another wonderful Christmas party with the fam:)

{i totally forgot my camera, so these are compliements of Chelly who faithfully remembered hers:}

Ferron, UT

I completely forgot to post our weekend in Ferron. Opps! Over a month ago we were able to go visit some of Mason's family (that he is so kindly sharing with us, ha ha:). As we were driving there I couldn't stop laughing. It truly is in the middle of no-where, but I LOVED IT! I mean I lived in Toquerville so that is pretty small town, however it's 5 mins from the I-15 and 20 mins from St.George. Ferron, you drive two hours on a road that is pretty much just landscape. You pass some really cool named towns that I someday want to stop and visit. But again two hours from anything major! It is the neatest little town. Old buildings and gas stations, just so quaint. We had SO fun visiting the {B} Family. We arrived Saturday afternoon, they took us to the 'grub box' for lunch- YUMMY - then we went on four wheeler rides, it's the most beautiful country there. Jacen then heated up the hot tub for us.. only he heated it up too much.. ha ha. We had the babies all ready to go in but they would have 'cooked' in there so we opted for the babies to take a fun bath instead:) We slowly inched our way into the hot tub (seth loved it cause he turned really red from the heat and he said he finally had color, ha ha) The boys shot the chickens with pellet guns (sad, I told the chickens to run) from the hot tub it was so country and so fun. Jacen joked it was the Farmer Resort and Spa. Mason loved it they have a dog, pigs and chickens. He loves animals! He was able to play with his cousin that is closest to his age, Miss Liddy! All around a great time:) Thanks for having us {B's}

ThAnKsGiViNg

This years Thanksgiving was a little different. I can't remember very many Thanksgivings that we didn't pack our bags to go down to Toquerville (even when we lived in Cali) and spend it with our extended fam. This year my mom was staying up here for an extended period so she thought we should have Thanksgiving up here this year and my house was nominated. Hosting my first Thanksgiving.. Hmmm. I almost passed out especially when they said whoever hosts it does the Turkey!!! Well we prepared the house and did our share of the food. Every one was so awsome and bought dishes, together we made a massive amazing Thanksgiving dinner. Props to my hubby & Rachel Ray for a GREAT turkey:) Everything went smooth and for some reason I was oddly calm that day, even with a million kids running around. I just thought, it can be cleaned, that can be fixed, opps thats broken oh well! It was awsome to just enjoy my family. I've waited and dreamed to have my own home filled with family on a holiday. I usually only got one visitor per year via plane:( So I greatly enjoy this holiday and decided not to ruin it with stress. Some of my mom brought Cassie's kids down a night early for a sleep over so Chel and her kids joined us. It was so fun! I love my family! This move/transition has been harder than I thought. We gave up a lot of 'perks' to move home and I just adjusting to life here again was a little hard.... However I know it my heart it was worth it: mason's birthday with cousins, family attending our sacrament talk, having help watching Mase (thank you VV), trick or treating with cousins, new moon with my sisters & cookie, not having to soak in every possible moment before flying away for six months & thanksgivng was just a reminder of why we did this: Family, Quality of Life! Hard or not, I'm so glad to be home. Being around family has meant the world to us! It overwhelms my heart!

Here are a few pictures of Thanksgiving Day and then some for our weekend in Toquerville. ~Enjoy

Jaymee's birthday is the day after Thanksgiving so we decided to celebrate it with her while everybody was there on thanksgiving....

The Volleyball Cake I made for her:)

Mase and his best buddy Mya. She is so good with him. They play so well together. She always has to know where he is in the house and that he's okay:) Mya waking mase up for his map

My big brother:)

Mase & his Grandma GG