Is it really a vacation when you never really leave?

Well I'm not gonna lie, lately my life has been more like I'm staying in Vegas and just visiting my life in Rexburg. A lot of that has to do with my mom being sick and the Holidays, Buddy coming home to visit and then him returning a few months later to get married!!! Yep that's right my crazy big brother tied the knot. He was lucky enough to make Robin think marrying him was a good idea, little does she know our family is absolutely crazy!! Really though I am so completely happy for them and their future together. Sadly enough this is going to be one of my last trips home for a while, in 8 days I will be going to
Las Vegas but that isn't a family trip. THAT'S CAPER 2012 BABBBYY!!! Can't wait(:

A little presents and a little party!

Christmas day this year was such a wonderful time it made me regret living so far away even more than before. I am convinced that I have the greatest family in the whole wide world, see I'm lucky enough to have two amazing families and lots of mixed in messes. From the outside looking in we are quite a rare breed. But really we are quite simple. Christmas was pretty traditional, wake up entirely too early, open presents. Go to grandmas house, open more presents. Go back home and open the rest of the presents with the older kids and finally have a huge feast for family dinner. It was such a calm nice feeling that everyone had really been needing.Next on the holiday list is the beloved New Years Eve party!!! Every year my moms family gets a huge group of people together and at midnight they all jump into the freezing cold pool. This year wasn't any different. We have food and music and people yelling and laughing, basically we had everything a person needs to have a good time. Plus I was lucky enough to have three of my closest friends spend the night hanging out with my crazy little family. No doubt about it 2012 is gonna be a crazy year(:

What's Christmas without a few miracles....

It's been a long time since I've posted and well I guess I can blame it all on life. Life has been a bit crazy lately, but no worries I've got a lot of stuff to talk about. I'm gonna start just about where I left off in December. As you all know December is probably the happiest month of the entire year, its a month completely focused on family and presents and chocolate. Doesn't get much better that that right? Well this year my family had just a little more on our minds.This last year my mom was diagnosed with cancer, Complex Endometrial Cancer to be exact, and seeing how she is the strongest person I have ever met; it was a life altering event for our family. At first I didn't really know how to take the news. I just know she came into my room and sat on my bed, (because I was being a brat and didn't want to hang out with the family) she said "Diana I need to talk to you". Instantly all of the terrible things I had done that year ran through my mind and I was wondering which one she had found out about. I never thought she would continue to tell me that she was sick, and it wasn't the simple cold gonna be better soon kind. She told me about her doctors appointments and how she had known for a while that something wasn't right with her. She told me about the questions she had and the answers she was given. And most of all she sat there telling me about how sick she was and in the end was more worried about if the cancer was hereditary. She was only thinking of her daughters, she wasn't letting this make her weak, she was still firstly a mother and she wanted all of the information she could get on it so her children would be well informed. Not once did she look for sympathy, not once did she feel badly for herself and question why it was her who had to get sick. She was simply my strong independent mother and to me she had never been more beautiful than she was in that moment.

It's often been said that nothing brings people together like a time of crisis, well my family sure knows that's the truth. I look back on it now and realize just how close we all became, hanging around the house any chance we got. watching late night Jimmy Fallen episodes with my mom when she couldn't sleep, family dinners and Sunday football games. Whatever the occasion we were sure to spend it with my mama. My brother and his beautiful Fiance (now his wife) came out to visit all the way from England, and I came home for just about any excuse I could find. We all just needed to be home. The funny thing is she was the one reassuring her children that everything would be alright, she was the one bringing us comfort instead of her looking for it herself.

She had surgeries and she was ordered to take it easy. Somtimes I think she hated the recovery more than she ever did being sick, I guess you can say she was going a little stir crazy. Our holidays were spent together as a family and she had her final surgery soon after. She was cancer free as far as we knew and we could not have been happier. Although we are all grown and in different places in our lives I know that this year we were more of a family than we had ever been. I can honestly say I am one lucky gal, I had an amazing December that's for sure, because this year I had myself my own little Christmas miracle.