Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

i know...a little late, but considering we only took the tree down last sunday, and we are just now de-decking the halls, it is only fitting that christmas pictures are now making their way to the blog. besides, despite retailers' all-too-successful ways of convincing us that christmas is sooo last year and easter is just a few weeks away, christmas was only 3 weeks ago. so i guess in the end...i'm not doing too bad here! For christmas, we stayed here in az and spent a great time with kevin's family. as always, whether in az or in fl, we enjoyed a nice, mild, 70*, brown/green christmas (i personally feel that is the way to go).

every year the lds and catholic church choirs get together at the mesa temple and put on a christmas program. you can't really tell, but the lights at the temple are amazing!

me (obviously), leanne (sister-in-law), and erin (cousin) at our christmas eve dinner

kevin's youngest brother, david, works at a grocery store and had to work on christmas eve. the grocery store scheduled all of the teenage boys to work--because, you know, teenage boys don't have family to be with during christmas--so dave was not with us. at about 9:30 all of kevin's family and his aunt and uncle's family went down to the store to stage a friendly protest. we first went in and found dave at his cashier post, gathered all around and dazzled the shoppers with our best and loudest version of "we wish you a merry christmas". we then found the manager and asked if dave could leave (who could deny us after our little musical gift to the store?) our complaints and pleas fell short of the manager's heart, so we went to work. we figured if we helped out, dave would get out sooner. we collected shopping carts, bagged groceries, re-stocked shelves, stood in as bouncers to not let anyone else come in the store, cleaned the counters and floors, and kev and i even got to speak on the intercom speaker (clean up on isle 9). the managers loved it! we had everyone whistling a happy tune and we got them (and dave) out sooner. it was a blast. i'm still waiting for my paycheck.

when kevin and his brothers were younger, their dad created a "ballard boy's rap". the rap resurfaced for the christmas eve party, but with new and improved lyrics (i made it into a line!) we're true playas!

a little 'nog and cider for the nightcap!

christmas morning! kevin's family wraps EVERYTHING!!!!

i think it took 2-3 hours to unwrap it all.

thanks for the super-sized bag of double-bubble santa! i now have 4 cavities and tmj.

for new years, we travelled to grandma rosell's house in california for the infamous (you know...more than famous) new year's bash. kevin has 50 cousins on his mom's side, and while not all were there, the house was still packed and jammin'. tradition dictates that we form a conga-line, dance around the house as we sing and dance to "enjoy yourself". When the chorus hits, we all run to the living room and jump around.

tradition continues...the eggnog fizzies! similar to the gallon-challenge (but with eggnog, and you don't have to consume as much), the person who chugs the most (and keeps it down)...wins. kevin and his brother, daniel, were the 2 contestants. fortunately daniel bailed out after 4 cups because he looked like he was going to blow. kevin kept going to beat the standing record of 15 cups. we decided people could tag-team if they wanted, so kev tapped out, i jumped in and topped it off with 6 cups (total of 17 cups for the ballard team...and the new record).

eggnog fizzy winners!

tradition still continuing...go carts!

we took a trip down to balboa island to get a tasty little balboa bar. delish!

a little karaoke

NATIONAL CHAMPS!!!!

IT IS GREAT TO BE A FLORIDA GATOR!!!!!

Turkey Day

for turkey day, kev and i drove up to st. george, ut, to spend the weekend with my bernhisel relatives (grandma and grandpa bernhisel, my aunt gretchen and her family, and my uncle paul and his s0n). thanksgiving at my place usually consists of chowing down on my dad's deep fried turkey and my mom's famous orange rolls, donning sweats and a sweatshirt, and kicking back by a camp fire or on a picnic bench by the beach. this year, however, for the first time ever, i actually went to a restaurant for the big meal! i know...this is blasphemous to most, but before you spit your disapprovals at me, I have to tell you, it was fantastic. we went to this country club in st. george and enjoyed a restaurant-home-cooked, finger-lickin', all-you-can-eat feast. the best part of all was when we were finished...we just walked out. no dishes, no clean up, no nothin'. after thanksgiving dinner, kev and i went with gretchen and her fam down to vegas to do some eating, shopping, eating, eating, and some more shopping. another first for me...shopping on black friday (remind me not to do it again..deals were great, crowds and parking stunk).

happy turkey day everyone!

grandma & grandpa bernhisel enjoying some shirley temples

nice form!

shootin' some hoops at a toy store in vegas. i beat him by 2.

these are my 2 cute and crazy cousins brenne and brylee (aka bry-fry). i saw these girls all the time when we lived in utah, and i definitely miss seeing them now. i'm still trying to convince them to move down to az with me.

gettin' some grub at the cheesecake factory.

gators vs. pussy cats

so i know i just visited florida a couple of months ago, and it was fantastic seeing my sisters and mom (pops was out on one of his high-adventures) and all, but there was one thing missing...the gators. i had to fly back and catch a game this year (and of course see my family while i was there:) the game kicked all kinds of trash. the gators put a huge booty-whoopin on the lsu tigers (pussy cats) as they beat them 51-21! the crowd was electrifying the entire game. ok, so i found out what tops new kids on the block (and it's really not even a competittion...ok not at all)...tim tebow (i could just stop here) running up and down the side line, pumping his arms up and down and charging up the crowd. not even kryptonite can stop him baby!

the one of a kind (or is it 2 of a kind?)mama b and pops. my dad is a champ... he volunteered to drive the "way home" leg of the trip at 2:00 in the morning, just
to get up a few hours later for a meeting! thanks for the fun time!

no, that's not a sunburn on kevin's face, although he would probaly prefer to call

it that...he was going through a pre-cancerous skin treatment ordeal which left him (temporarily) fried looking.

congrats, ms. anderson!

kevin had an interview for graduate school at the university of florida in september. while he was there for 2 days, he was able to take in the unique beauties that florida has to offer...trees (those big things with branches and leaves at the top), water-filled air (don't give me that suffocating garbage), grass (no, not spray painted rocks, but the real stuff that grows out of the ground), and the lovely company of mosquitoes, bugs and spiders. i think he's hooked! the day after he interviewed, the school called him and offered him a spot in the graduating class of 2011. wow. a week later, he received the official letter. if you were able to zoom in, it actually reads: "dear ms. anderson"...great. he's now going to have to change his name, make a few physical changes (i.e. implants, hair extensions, body waxing, etc.), and not worry too much about the whole false identity thing. nothing will stop us! we will go to uf whether it's as kevin ballard or ms. anderson.

girls rock!

all of us bernhisel girls got together for about a week at the beginning of august back at mama and papa b's place. it was so much fun hangin' with the girls and seeing my cute nieces and nephews. i mean, can you really top hanging out until 1:00 in the morning, looking up all of the new kids on the block videos on you tube, singing every word to every beloved song (and yes, my mom was part of it all as well...i think she knew more words than the rest of us!), and reminiscing about how hot jordan was? ok, yah you probably can top that, but it still rocked!

jilb and me strikin' a pose.

cute, pregnant brookie-babe!

karee and me waiting at the aquarium

jackson bradley (heidi's youngest)

cute little kiddos!

happy 4th!

for the 4th of july, kev and i went with his family up to snowflake, az where his grandparents live. it's a fun, old-time, americana town with fun parades, rodeos, and "highly entertaining" cowboy poetry contests. on the morning of the 4th, kev and i decided, at the last minute, to run in the local 10k race. we arrived at what we thought was the correct race location, only to get stuck in a forever long (and not to mention extremely lame) anvil-launching parade. 20 minutes late, we show up to the race and start. kev still got 3rd place in his age-group and i'm sure i finished somewhere near the top:) (i somehow misplaced my time) not bad!

ballard fam enjoying the rodeo

as a group, we shot 2 for some-really-big number

(and i didn't have any part in the 2)

lookin' good boys. poster children for skin cancer.

pura vida!

thanks to the advice from our super-cool aunt and uncle, kevin and i spent a week down in costa rica, where we enjoyed hiking, rapelling down waterfalls, horseback riding, ziplining through the canopies, a 2-day white water rafting trip down the world famous paquare river, and relaxing by the pool. there are just too many things to say about this trip to fit in, so let's just say....pura vida baby (the pure life)!

arenal volcano. this was our view from our hotel.

zip-lining!

hey cowboy! horseback riding to la fortuna falls.

we rapelled down a total of 5 waterfalls. i honestly don't even

know if this is even kevin or not. you get the idea.

this is a little "hut" where we ate our meals and hung

out during the white-water rafting trip. after one day of

rafting, we stopped here and spent the day "hiking" (skinning

our knees and hands trying to climb wet slippery

rocks, travel across cold, fast-flowing rivers, and avoiding

poisonous plants/wildlife) relaxing

and eating. the guides made local, traditional dishes for us

every meal.

we hiked to a natural "water slide" way back in

the jungle. it was so fun, but i ripped my bathing

suit and my rear going down it.

camping fun

last summer kevin and i went with our good friends, the woods family (joellen, cody, ethan, and gavin) on a couple of camping trips. right when the weather was getting a little warm (ok, try an unbearable, sizzling, 115* warm) we headed right out of town and retreated to the cooler mountains. our first camping trip we went to fossil springs. after chowin' down some good grub (the woods sure no how to fire up some tin-foil dinners--and kev and i threw in some mediocre peach cobbler and french toast in the morning) the next day, we went on a little hike that followed a stream down fossil springs canyon. as joellen and i were relaxing and eating lunch with her kids, and kevin and cody were off doing boy stuff in the river, lo and behold, a friendly but suspicious little (ok, a bit bigger than little, but whatever) passerby approached us wearing a 4-sizes-too-small bikini and a towel in her arms. out of nowhere she asks "do you mind if we go skinny-dipping here?" referring to her and her husband/brother/boytoy/who knows. wow. for many reasons not mentioned but mainly for the fact that i would have loved to keep down the pb&j i just consumed (nudy girl's beau was not in any better shape than her...not that if they were it would have been ok), i just said "you know, we're leaving in a few minutes, and for the boy's sake (joellen's 2 boys...and i guess for kevin's and cody's sake--although it would have been funny to shock them with 2 larger than life skinny dippers crashing their cliff diving party) we would prefer if they waited a little bit." she was cool and waited, and my stomach stopped churning. pretty fun times.

cody, ethan, and kevin

joellen and me

sorry...no picture of our friends in the buff... but here's a picture of kevin with his shirt off!