A VERY COOL NATIVITY

My mom gave us the coolest Nativity this Christmas. It's in a book format - it fans open and then the front and back cover are tied together and it is shaped like a star. Each page is delicately cut to tell a part of the story of Christ's birth. It's very beautiful! The pictures do not do it justice.

THE BEST NEWS OF THE SEASON!!!!!!!!

Nichole and Matt are expecting their first child in August '09!!
WoooHooo!!!

DRESSED FOR CHRISTMAS

Katrina, Ryan, and Daniel

Cute Daniel! Does the chair taste good?

Daniel, a future missionary

Nathaniel, Bradley, and Daniel wearing their new Christmas ties.

CHRISTMAS DINNER

We enjoyed our Christmas dinner a few days early this year, because Ryan, Katrina, and Daniel are going to Utah to spend Christmas with Ryan's family. Jayson treated us to a gourmet meal of cornish game hens with crab meat stuffing. MMMmmmm - it was very tasty, and deliciously fattening.

"...THE STOCKINGS WERE HUNG BY THE CHIMNEY WITH CARE..."

Well, we've got the tree decorated, and the stockings hung. We're not the only ones enjoying the decorations, Teddy and Roscoe enjoy the tree as well, especially Teddy - he's got a new place to escape from Roscoe. When Roscoe starts chasing Teddy, Teddy will head for the tree and then skid across the tree shirt to the corner behind the tree. Roscoe doesn't have a chance. I had to take a picture of the tree because rarely is the skirt nice and smooth under the tree. Merry Christmas, everyone!

MY BIRTHDAY CAKE

Here are some pictures of the most yummy cake Jayson made for my birthday - white cake with raspberry filling and cream cheese frosting. He made it from scratch too! :) We couldn't find the birthday candles so we made do with a white taper candle. I had a very nice birthday thanks to Jayson and the boys, and the friends and family who called, emailed, and facebooked with birthday wishes. Thanks everyone! I guess getting older isn't so bad when you have wonderful people to share it with.

THANKSGIVING

We had a really nice Thanksgiving this year. We had Katrina, Ryan, and Daniel over, and Sean came too. It was truly wonderful to see Sean again. The last time he was with the family was last Christmas. Time sure does fly!

RASPBERRIES!

Daniel has learned how to do raspberries.

POOR TEDDY!! :0(

Nathaniel was determined to give Teddy a bath. It didn't quite work out, though.

OUR NEW HOME IN TEXAS

Everyone has asked me to send pictures of our new home in Texas. So, I decided that posting them on the blog would be the easiest thing to do (actually, it was Meagan's idea - GREAT idea, Meagan!)

backyard - needs some work; project for next spring

view at front door

living room is to the left when you come in the front door

dining room is to the right when you come in the front door

kitchen view from family room

family room view from kitchen

view of bridge from family room

family room view from the upstairs tv room

bridge - to the right looks down into the family room and to the left looks down into the foyer

upstairs tv room

upstairs tv room

Dorothy's Dash

Katrina and I participated in a 5K a couple of weekends ago. Bradley was suppose to do the race with Katrina, but after signing him up we found out that he had a scout camping trip the same weekend. So, instead of losing my $20 registration fee, I decided to do the 5K with Katrina. Katrina did a great job - she actually ran the race in about 33 minutes. I walked the race in about 45 minutes. Here is a link to view pictures from the race. Katrina's bib # is 196 and mine is 118. www.movin-pictures.com

Well, we finally did it!

The day has arrived - we're blogging! I don't really know how this will work, since our lives are pretty typical and not that exciting, but I'm going to give it a try.