... that it was Jas' first Christmas!!!

Jas turned nine months on Christmas Day!

We had a great Christmas morning at the Rex's!

Thanks for letting us crash your family party! After presents were opened, we got cleaned up and went to my parents' ward for church, then over to their house for more Christmas presents!

It was a fun evening, with only one electric-car-related incident

No babies or hair or adorable 5 year olds were harmed in the capturing of this photo. Jas was just there to lend emotional support during this trial, and in the end, everyone survived.

The next day was the traditional Chao Family Christmas Dinner, complete with du pong, noodles, pie, more presents, and cousins galore

I think it's safe to say that this little girl loves Christmas!

Love my favorite little Christmas Elf!!!

... that we had a California Christmas!!!!!!!

I was SO excited to go home for Christmas!!! AKA, I was stressed out of my mind trying to get ready to take a week off work, get all the Christmas shopping done, pack, get the house cleaned up, and not get sick. We finally got all packed up and on the road, but not before I made Matt open one Christmas present that I did not want to haul all the way to California:

I had a friend of mine design this poster just for Matt and I couldn't wait to give it to him! It's a reference to both of our favorite fantasy series, and I'm so glad he thought it was as funny as I did! #nerds

We had planned on driving all the way to California in one night, but we left too late and I just knew that I would get sick if I didn't sleep. So at the last minute we called up the Williams and asked if we could crash at their place, and being the wonderful, accommodating, beautiful people that they are, they said of course!

Not only did they let us stay the night, they would not let us get on the road until we had been fed a breakfast feast and had a proper tour of their gorgeous new house. Love those Williams!

We finally made it to California, just in time for Jeremy's birthday dinner at Rice by Mama!

And I just had to fix Jas' shirt... can't have anything detract from the birthday boy on his birthday!

Awesome food for an awesome birthday boy! We love California and Uncle Jeremy!

... that Jas was nine months!

Growing up is very tiring! So we have lots of snuggle time to make us feel better.

We struggle with naps at the daycare sometimes, so it can be a bit of a gamble whether or not she needs an evening nap when she gets home. But either way, she is our happy, sweet, thumb sucking little angel! We brought home some clothes from CA that mom had been saving for years, and it is fun to dress her up in our childhood dresses every once in a  while

We discovered that Jas loves Christmas shopping

And while getting a picture of her happy is easy, getting an in-focus picture of her happy is not. There is a reason why Daddy calls her Spazzy Jazzy, and the happier she is, the spazzier she gets!

One morning as I was pulling into the daycare, I saw this in the parking lot:

That is two full grown, zoo-worthy peacocks just chillin in a parking lot in the middle of winter. Can peacocks even survive anywhere outside a zoo??? I snapped this pic and sent it to Matt and his response was, "Oh yeah, I had a friend in elementary school who used to have a flock of peacocks that lived in his neighborhood. They live wild here in Utah." Who knew??? So our daycare is basically a zoo. Of children and real animals. And we have the cutest monkey of them all.

Love my Jas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

... that it was almost Christmas!

Time to set off my OCD put up the Christmas tree!

Time for Matty to hang up the Christmas lights!

He even went the extra mile and indulged my request to decorate the tree on the corner of our front yard! He was set on winning the HOA contest for best decorated house (which we did NOT win), but it turns out that decorating a whole tree is really hard when both of you are short. 

Oh well. We tried. Our house looked great, and we finally had a use for all of the Christmas lights that we have kept from our wedding for the last 5 years, so who cares that we didn't win, right?
(We cared a little.)

We attended our ward Christmas party, where we both participated in musical numbers, and Matt for some reason had to dress up like a Blues Brother?

I still don't really know why that happened.

And Jas had her first pic with Santa!!!!!

Just ignore the cast and focus on that adorable baby smile. She is perfect.

We love Christmas!

... that I turned 32!!!

Happy birthday to me!!!

Matt surprised me with a new suitcase and a gift certificate for voice lessons!

Every time I read that certificate, it gets funnier. I can't wait to meet Beatrice and be her best friend.

Matt also knows that I LOVE getting beautiful flowers at work!

And I LOVE LOVE LOVE The Melting Pot!!!

Definitely my new favorite restaurant. So freaking good. And he also arranged for his parents to come over and watch Jas for us so that we could enjoy dinner that much more. It was awesome!

He asked me what kind of cake I wanted, and I told him I didn't want one. I'm not a cake person! But he insisted that I needed to blow out candles. So I told him to just pick something out.

Matty Pants done GOOOOOOOOD. This tiny chocolate cake from Gourmandise was divine and perfect for sharing with the parents when we got home!

It was a great day! But my favorite part of all was definitely getting in some birthday baby snuggles before bedtime

My heart just melts! I love her so much!!!

32 is looking like a pretty good year already!