my lil' blog: December 2009

Thursday, December 31, 2009

Family Memories

LAST year for Christmas (2008) we got my mom a coupon for family pictures! It had been a few years since we'd taken any and Chase has joined the family so we needed an update. We didn't get them taken until...April I think. They are at Wheeler Farm (chase locked himself in the trunk of my car...that's a story for a different day though...) It was a lot of fun!

Megan Kunz took them. She also took our wedding photos and engagements and my bridals and she is AMAZING! Her photo blog is under my friends on my sidebar. Unfortunately I am just teasing with her blog because she isn't taking pictures right now as she is pregnant and due in May! :D YAY!

I can't seem to get these pictures downloaded from this website to my computer hard drive and I don't exactly know where the cd is (don't tell my mom) but here is a link to the pictures! They are wonderful!

http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=3100517013/a=120662160_120662160/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Christmas is fun

So, we are done with our first Christmas as a married couple! It's all so special, but for how special it was I got very few pictures of the two of us together...ANYway, we drove up there Christmas eve day and later that night we went to the Norton family Christmas eve par-tay! It was a lot of fun! There was family and food and white elephant gifts and cute babies and candy etc. Unfortunately I got pretty ill on the drive up from some rather tasty, but obviously gone-bad, gas station taquitoes so I was not able to enjoy much of the yummy food. :( Thanks to God though, I was feeling better by Christmas morning. :D

Chase and I woke up around 6:00am (an air mattress without any air is no air mattress at all!) but we didn't want to wake everyone up (well, we DID but we thought it would be kinder to let them sleep) so we watched a movie and by 8:00am everyone was up and ready to celebrate the birth of Christ by the giving and receiving of gifts! I think it was a success (sidenote: Thank you Karen and Bart and Nathan and Breana for all of your thoughtful presents to us! We are enjoying some of them as I type!) After that was done Bart made us all cheese omlettes, which I'm happy to say I was finally feeling well enough to partake of....and I did...quickly... We stayed in our pajamas all day and ate treats of all sorts and watched It's a Wonderful Life. Oh yeah, we probably played mexican train dominoes, love that game!

All in all the weekend was a success! We didn't have to leave until Sunday afternoon so we had plenty of time to catch up and relax and read and play games. It was very relaxing and a GREAT break from work!

The beautiful Christmas tree!

I love ornaments! This one was made of ramen noodles!

And Chase had a big bird one that he used to lick!! haha!

We got to decorate sugar cookies when we got to price! And they were yummmmmmmy!

This is a tiny Christmas tree. :)

Karen says it's her when-the-kids-aren't-here-for-Christmas Christmas tree.

(I think she misses us when we're gone :( We miss you too Karen)

We got to open our Christmas eve present as soon as we were all there!

Chase and Nathan got little motorized hot wheels! Breana and I got some super cute slipper socks!

Here is Olivia in her sorta big snow suit :)

Grandpa Dale and Karen

Yep, she's a thumb-sucker!

Chase and I hanging out at the Norton party.

(I was still feeling a bit sick at this point)

All the white elephant gifts!

I got a brush and play pony that I promptly gave to Chases little cousin who I'm sure would enjoy it more than I. Chase originally got a window scraper with a glove attached, which he was very excited about but traded, begrudgingly to his cousin because he had been using an old blockbuster card to scrape his car. He ended up with movie popcorn and candy and we were both happy!

The ladies

This game was HILARIOUS! I was feeling too sick to play but it was just as enjoyable to watch I'm sure!

Chases aunt Janelle read a story and it had different candy bar names in it and whenever she would say a name everyone had to grab for that candy bar! fun stuff!

Merry Christmas!!!

Nathan planted himself right by the presents.

I was glad to see I wasn't the only one that was SUPER excited.

Olivia amongst all the presents

Olivia in her Bumbo

(I think it should be a bumbA...since she's a girl)

Chester got a present too!

Nathan and Olivia are both interested in what Karen got haha!

Chase got me a wedding band!!!!!!! :D I didn't know he would because when I brought it up he said he probably couldn't afford it so I wasn't expecting it at all!!!! It was the most perfect gift! And it goes beautifully with my BEAUTIFUL engagement ring. :)

Me and Olivia on Christmas morn!

(Breana knit me that hat and scarf btw...THANKS B!)

Olivia with her new monkey friend from uncle Chase and aunt Rachel!

(She doesn't care about it now but she WILL!)

The aftermath

The boys and their matching shirts.

Breana and I got matching sweaters too but we didn't get pictures taken BUT, trust me, they're cute!

We played a bunch of mexican train dominoes! It was AWESOME!

I even won a game!

This picture was taken right after Breana won, this is why she looks so happy!

We had some delicious DELICIOUS turkey for Christmas dinner!

(And delicious turkey sandwiches for a late night snack!)

And Olivia gave us all the gift of music haha!

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Small group. Big fun.

Monday night we celebrated Christmas with our Bible study group! It was the classic white elephant and appetizers party and it was SO fun! We call these groups "small groups" and it started out fairly small but last night was NOT small. :) It was a good-sized group for sure! I think there were 13 adults and 2 babies! :)