WELCOME HOME HERMANA GATES!

I cannot tell you how happy I am to have Hermana Gates home! It seems like so many things are ending all at once for me and I think it is going to be really great. My sisters are finally coming home, which also means no more mission blogs, (YAY!), I am finishing up school, and it just feels good to have these things come to an end. Welcome home Hermana, we missed you so so much!

To see the cutest video Autumn Shipp put together of Macey coming into the airport click here.

WELCOME HOME SISTER HAFEN

We waited for this day for wayyy too long! Sister Hafen is HOME! She was an incredible missionary, but we sure missed her at home! I think I was most excited for her to meet the new Queenie of the family, (now that Heidi has been replaced! ha) Having her home has been so good, I only wish she didn't have to go back up to school! 

welcome home!

I am SOOOO happy to have two of my bests home from their missions! These two are the only cousins I have my age and I love them dearly! Welcome home guys, I missed you! xo

skyping with the sister missionaries - mother's day

This was the very best mother's day gift! It was so good to talk to you girls, we miss you and love you!

christmas & mitzi & macey

Christmas day was insane for Alex and I. We spent Christmas night at my parents house and i think we woke up around seven on christmas morning? We opened presents at my parents house first. We got a crib!! We will surely be needing one of those! Then we got ready and headed to Grandma Gates' house for breakfast casserole, cinnamon rolls, hot chocolate, and presents. After that we headed to Grandma Hafen's house for more breakfast and more presents. While we were there we got a call from my dad saying that Mitzi was calling us earlier than we thought! We basically ran out the door and over to my parents house. It's a good thing all these people live so close to one another!! We got to talk to Mitzi for close to two hours, it was soo good. The best was when she said she had to hang up and couldn't bring herself to do it for probably twenty minutes ha. Typical Mitzi. We love her. After we talked to Mitzi we decided to make some lunch at my parents. While we were in the process of getting lunch ready we got a call saying Macey was calling us earlier than she thought! What happened to sticking with the schedule people? We talked to Macey for a little over an hour. She hasn't changed one bit. I love it. Such a weirdo. When it came time to hang up, she just pressed end like it was nothing. No surprise there! Later we found out that after she hung up she cried! Tears. Macey Gates cried!! This is big people! I love my sisters and I miss them everyday. I am so proud of them and for their decision to serve but I sure miss them more than words can say. After talking to Macey we went over to Grandma and Grandpa Esplin's for lunch. We didn't stay very long, maybe twenty minutes? Next we headed to Hans and Lori's house to do Christmas at their house. We got luggage! Alex has been dying to get rolling luggage ha. After he had to pack our huge duffels around the cruise ship for a week on our honeymoon he has been wanting luggage. Now we just need somewhere to go! We had dinner at my Uncle Mike and Aunt Wendy's house. It was delicious, not that we needed any more food after the day we had... but we ate anyways! We played mad-gab for a while and had a lot of fun. After dinner we spent the rest of the evening hanging out at my parents. It was such a fun/busy day. I hardly got any pictures with family since we were literally running from place to place! Merry Christmas!