New Year's Eve party

What to do for New Year's... We got a babysitter before Thanksgiving because you have to schedule early for big evenings. Then we called our two friends who usually have a party. Nope, neither one was going to host. So we decided to have our own party and cancel our babysitter.

Now I am not very good at hosting. We never had people over growing up unless it was family. And frankly, hosting really stresses me out. So we just invited 4 couples so the party wasn't too big and I made it a potluck to help alleviate some of the stress. We had a good time playing games until the ball dropped.

Lisa & Robb, Melinda & Jeremy, Randy & Jennifer, Julie & Matt, myself and Clay took the picture.

Recipe Book

I first heard about http://www.tastebook.com/ from Clay's cousin. It looked like a great idea, so I filed it away in my mind. I finally decided to make a book of my favorite recipes for gifts. I have been working on it since June (I'm a perfectionist). I ordered it the day after Thanksgiving and it arrived just 4 days later!! I am so happy with the way it turned out. Since I have given this out as gifts, I had to wait until after Christmas to blog about it, as to not spoil the surprise.

All I want for Christmas...

is my FOUR front teeth!

Just after we finished opening presents Emma lost her fourth tooth. We were kind of hoping that Santa AND the tooth fairy would come the same night.

Merry Christmas

Christmas morning...

Rebekah really got into it this year...

Traditions

Baking cookies for Santa in our gingerbread aprons. Santa is particularly fond of snickerdoodles.

Watching Polar Express and drinking hot chocolate.

The stockings were hung ....

by the chimney with care...

FINALLY! I just finished Rebekah's stocking a few hours ago. Now we all have cross-stitched stockings.

When Clay and I got married (1999) I decided I wanted to make cross-stitched stockings for my family. I am not sure why, since my parents only bought the cheap $1 stockings for us and we used them over and over again. I looked and looked for a kit that I liked that wasn't Santa or a Goose.

Finally, I found one and started working on it. Though I knew I couldn't finish it in time for our 1st Christmas together. So instead I crocheted stockings for our first Christmas. They only took a few hours to do, and they have been used by whoever didn't have a completed stocking ever since.

Emma came along in 2002 and I still wasn't done, so I bought a cute pink & blue stripe stocking for baby's first Christmas. I finished mine in time for Christmas 2003.

On to Clay's. I liked that mine was a Christmas hymn and wanted to do something similar for Clay. We looked around a lot to find one that was a little more "manly" for him. I found a square sampler that he liked so I adjusted it to become a stocking. Clay's was completed in 2005.

With two stockings done it became a musical theme. Now the challenge was even harder to find ones that I liked. I found one with a nativity scene and a huge angel on it, so I took out the angel and added lyrics to a hymn. Rebekah joined our family in 2006, so I was still behind two stockings. Emma's was finished in time for Christmas 2007, and is my favorite one.

So here is Rebekah's, completed in 2009. It wasn't too hard except that the kit was made for a white stocking, and I needed navy blue. Oh, and the toe pointed the wrong way so I had to adjust that too.

I am officially done with all my stockings :)

The morning after the snow

Just to give you a better idea about how much snow we got... that green thing by the tree is our utility box, and you can see our neighbor's mailbox right behind it.

Emma tried to walk through the snow... didn't get much further.


At the end of our street is a barrier. This is where all the snow from the plows end up. The boys on our street like to build forts out of it. The girls found it.

And here they are inside trying to make it bigger. :)

The big snow of 2009

Here are my beautiful snow bunnies ready to go out and play.
Here are the men on our street helping each other to dig their way out. We have awesome neighbors!!

This would be the grill on our deck...

Here I am standing in our dining room window. It is hard to tell, but the snow on our deck is level with the window.

Right before we went to bed the snow finally stopped, leaving quite a few more inches on the driveway and sidewalks that had already been shoveled.

Church was cancelled, and the last two days of school were cancelled.

3rd tooth down

At this rate, Emma's going to be singing "All I want for Christmas are my FOUR front teeth"!!

Ward Christmas Party

The party at church must go on, even with all the snow. Here are the girls with Santa.

The first snow of the season

This is our 8th December in Virginia. In 7 of those Decembers is has snowed on Dec 5th. Don't know why, but it always does. Here we are enjoying the first snow fall...

Clay and Emma made a snow woman and Rebekah and I made a snow puppy.

Short clip of the girls sledding...

Crazy clouds

I was driving home to get Emma from school and this is what what I saw... The clouds looked like ocean waves or mountains. Really cool looking. Not sure what that means for our forecast, but cool anyway.

Time with Grandma

The girls love it when Grandma come for a visit.

Rebekah helps grandma get ready...

And always puts on her best dress for grandma...

Emma read all her latest stories to Grandma...

We love you Grandma!

Trimming the Tree

Happy Birthday Rebekah!!

Today is the day! You are now 3 years old!!

While putting her to bed tonight, Rebekah said "I never be two again." Then sadly she added "I wanna be two."

Rebekah's Party

With family in town, we celebrated Rebekah's birthday a little early. All month long she wanted her birthday. I kept telling her it would be after Grandma comes and after Thanksgiving.

Here she is wearing her new pink boots from Grandma.

And here is a princess dress-up we gave her, still wearing the boots.

Rebekah, how old are you?

Rebekah told me she wanted a pink Cinderella birthday, so here is the cake I made.



As you can see, she really like it!