utah holiday

the last two months have flown by in a whirlwind!
a whole month of that time was spent visiting family in utah.
it was honestly the best Christmas break i've ever had.

it was amazing!!!

the best part?
spending every single day with my family.

lots and lots of family time.
precious time with my niece and nephew.
special visits with some of my dearest friends.

oh how i love my family!

we're all older and quite a bit wiser, and the love we have for each other is more readily shown and received.

i can't believe how incredibly blessed i am to call this crazy bunch of awesomeness my family.


though i was horrible at remembering to take pictures, here are the ones i did (or stole from someone else ;) --

on our way to the mormon tabernacle choir Christmas concert

a bouquet of fresh flowers from one of my dearest friends

probably one of my very favoritest parts about Christmas is the food!!

Christmas baking, everyone together in holiday aprons

we squished 17 people into our home; the living room overflowed with presents

it was the white Christmas i'd been dreaming of - a beautiful Christmas day

a great end to Christmas day was visiting our neighbor's huge snow village and
watching "the grinch" in their home theater.

right after Christmas my family drove down to vegas for our sweet cousin's wedding. while there, my little bro and i had our fill of shenanigans. i've decided we are the absolute best travel companions. we prefer the short-and-sweet variety when it comes to sightseeing. i'm sure part of it is our complimentary personalities, but the biggest key: we both walk fast. seriously, though. we did the whole strip in a matter of hours. but i guess more than sights, the company i keep is the best part of any trip. i would go anywhere with my little bro!

the two of us walked the strip and hit every major sight to see!

being ridiculous runs in the family ;)

while walking through one of the huge malls with painted-sky ceilings, i convinced paul we needed to just glance inside the bath and body works semi-annual sale (c'mon. we're utah mormons. we love a good deal ;) )

paul: good thing i have my man card.
me: what?
paul: a man card. it takes a man who's secure in his manhood to go into a girly store with his sister and be the only one buying anything.
me: i'm glad you have such confidence!
paul: yeah, well, i can just pretend i'm being a gentleman and carrying your shopping bags for you.

we watched two bellagio water shows

visited the bellagio's botanical gardens, still dressed in holiday cheer

got our first taste of "shake shack" (even though i live closer to new york...
and we weren't super-impressed!)

best brother ever, right there

after walking the entire strip, we were dead. but happy!

i'm so grateful for my amazing little bro who accompanies me on spontaneous adventures, goes hot tubbing at midnight with me, indulges my indecisiveness, and puts up with ridiculousness.

being only 17 months older than him, we experienced a lot of similar things as we grew up and spent a lot of time with each other.
i'm so blessed to have him as my little brother.



two months prior to my trip home for the holidays i sent an email to my family members requesting that we take professional family pictures (it was way over-due). suddenly, it was the end of my trip and we were out of time; no one had made any plans. thankfully, paul and i have an amazing friend named chad who is an incredible photographer --- and he was kind enough to agree to our last-minute plea.

yes, these look like engagement pics. i don't care. i love and adore this brother of mine.

my parents make the most incredible grandparents. seriously.

my favorite people in the world.

the people who have to love me forever.
the ones i get to call my best friends.

i truly love my family.
they were the best part of my trip.
....they were the whole reason for it!

of course it was nice to see and visit with friends.
more than ever before, though, i realized that family is everything.

i miss them, now.
so much.
i'm sure glad we have eternity together!

no road too long

have you ever seen a movie called "follow that bird" with big bird?

it's a cheesy film full of singing and feel-good, family-friendly morals. we watched it a lot when i was a kid... i guess you could say it was a favorite.

i had forgotten about it until thanksgiving day when my brother mentioned it.
here's the song we most often sang from the soundtrack:

ain't no road too long

(the song doesn't actually start until the 2:00 marker)




no mountain i can't climb and no road too long ---
keep on trying until you succeed!!! that's what i get out of it.


well, here are two things that i have tried recently:

1) planning and hosting my own thanksgiving!!!

my parents went out to colorado to visit my sister and brother-in-law with their baby-to-be for the holiday. this left my brother and me without plans for the big day. we decided, since we had access to a nice place (our parents' home) that we could still put on a fun party for anyone without a home to go to for thanksgiving.

besides paul, a wonderfully talented homemaker friend who lives upstairs in my apartment building helped me plan and carry out all the details. because of these two - and everyone who came and helped - the event was a brilliant success. in all, we had 9 people there to enjoy the meal. we had tons of delicious, traditional food. and we didn't feel like we missed out!!

here are some pictures:

my first time cooking a turkey -- on my own!!

the exciting part: taking out the "innards"

is it just me, or with these "legs" flying around does this look a bit like a frog??

who else thinks this looks like a pig??

i put a lot of effort into setting the table --- i wanted it to feel  "homey" and festive!

candy cornucopias: my must-have thanksgiving tradition!!

my roommate, liza, getting impatient when the 2/2:30 eating time is now turning into 3:15/3:30...

i forgot to get a picture of all the food and the turkey.... i'll add a pic of the turkey when my friend uploads it. and we had so much food that it didn't all fit on the table!

pies! pumpkin, coconut-chocolate, pumpkin-walnut, and peanut butter! 

another pumpkin on the far left

{ thanksgiving was wonderful and i am so grateful i was able to spend it with people that i love and care about... i am so grateful for amazing people everywhere. these incredible people who share their talents, abilities, and love with others are the centerpiece to society. i am grateful for my amazing roommates, my wonderful brother, my sisters, my sweet brother-in-law, and my parents. i'm grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ. i'm grateful that i was born into a family where i was blessed to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. i'm grateful for my testimony. i'm grateful for all that God has given me - for He provides everything for me and i am nothing without Him. i am grateful i was born on thanksgiving 25 years ago and i keep with me a sense of gratitude because of that. i love thanksgiving. i love the Lord. }



2) having a roommate do a photo shoot of me
this roommate of mine is a fabulous photographer -- i am a huge fan of her work.
soooo..... let's just say .... the pictures of me... well, she worked with what she got :)

i'm including on here both pictures that i like and pictures that i do not like just so you can see why i say this was something difficult for me to do and experience. and what's more: sharing them with you is even more difficult. however, this is the real me.... in all my awkward glory.

stiff
unsure
insecure
confused
scared
scarred (for life... :)
and all the other things my facial expressions betray as they tell my thoughts:

now really.... i feel sorry for any photographer trying to get me looking decent...

other roommates in the distance telling jokes, trying to lighten the mood and get me to loosen up

ha!!! what is this face?? i sure don't know.

after about an hour (other roommates getting pictures and other backgrounds) i started to get more comfortable. i guess i shouldn't be surprised - being surrounded by leaves.... fall is my season. it's my birthright :)

haha the entire photo shoot, the girls were trying to get me to do a certain pose.
well, it proved to be too difficult for an unbalanced girl like me.
finally we gave up and got a quick shot -- right as one of the girls yelled out, "lacey, put your leg down! you look like you're a dog peeing to mark your territory!

it was definitely an adventure!
but i'm glad i was able to have it.


i'm trying new things and moving forward in my life.
i just have to keep that attitude locked in my heart:

there ain't no mountain i can't climb!
i'm hanging on tight and determined to keep moving on toward the future ---
toward bigger and better. "if i just keep going, everything will turn out fine"

there's no road too long.

halloween is a time for fun

and that's just what it was.

hopefully these pictures show you the excitement that was had!

{me=crazy female clown; charmaine=50's poodle skirt girl; crystal=cowgirl}

of course we had fun on the dance floor!

but the most exciting part of the night? definitely the blow-up bounce thing!

{this is where my wig first came off!}

haha and then at the very end, i landed at a weird angle: face-down with my left arm stuck behind me. i literally could not move! crystal had to drag me like a corpse...

oh, and at this stake-wide party we went to there was a room for pumpkin carving. where were all the pumpkins stored before the party? in our backyard, of course!!

yes, i'm aware i'm a week late - in true "lacey fashion" but i hope everyone had a fantabulous halloween!

now let us get in the spirit of thanksgiving!!!

again i say, fall is the hap- happiest time of the year!!!!!