Date night

For our family Christmas exchange the Ayalas got us movie tickets & a gift card to Oreganos. Michelle also offered to watch Sam for us. So tonight we took them up on it :) We left Sam for the longest period of time away from the both of us since he was born.
We went to Oreganos for dinner & enjoyed some big ol ravioli & alfredo the dark.. YUMMY!!!! We also spent most of the dinner writing building plans for our dream house... which will have a laundry chute!!!!

Then we went & saw the new Will Smith movie 7 pounds. We were just a tad disappointed. I wont' say why for those of you who go see the movie. They never really tell you what the movie is about... cause if they did you wouldn't go!! It was pretty depressing :( We definitely wished we made a different choice... oh well

It was alot of fun to just spend time together alone. Thanx so much Ayalas!!!!! We LOVED our Christmas present & are so grateful for the babsitting as well!!!! Sam had fun :)

Disturbing

I know I sent an email out about this... but I think it's super creepy & must blog it as well!!!


Wanna know the creepiest thing ever? I'm having a little luncheon for friends from my high school days & posted an invite on facebook for some people. I was looking at the invitation today & I had put the address where it will be at- my parents house. When I was looking at it I noticed that the address is highlighted & a little note under it says "view map". I thought, I didnt' link a map to this- I wonder if anything will show up when I click on it. I guess its linked to google, so it just maps it for you anyways. The creepy thing, though, is that there was a small icon that looked like a picture, so I clicked on it. Yeah, it was an actual picture of my parents house. How is this on the internet? If I put my address on, will it do the same thing? Hold on, I'm gonna try it....yes, it does. & there are my cars sitting in the driveway as well. Does anyone else think this is creepy? Anyone in the world who wants to find me & view my house, can! & know what vehicles I'm driving. BIG BROTHER!!!!

Christmas time is here!!!

Doesn't it always seem so unreal that Christmas is actually here??!!! I always feel sad as the day starts to wind down & I realize that the general kindness that people show to strangers for no reason around this time will soon be ending.
Christmas morning I woke up at about 5:30 to feed Sam. We wanted to open presents after he was fed & changed & happy so he's be awake. So Sean turned on UPN's yule log & I came out to this scene...
Thats right my friends... a guitar :)!! I told Sean a few months ago that I'd like to learn how to play cause I think it would be great!!! I'm so excited to learn. I'm on page 30 of the first teach yourself book & have 4 strings under my belt... as much as a beginner can in a day anyways... I did play Jingle Bells & a bicycle built for two :)

Here is Sam, looking slightly confused at the excitement of it all!

Here is Sean waiting for Tiffany & Caio. Sean's sister & her husband stayed the night with us & opened presents with us! the more the merrier!!

Sean getting the stockings down. Sam got apple juice & new binkies from Santa :)

Here is Sam contemplating his first taste of apple juice-

stinkin cute :)

Opening presents...

I wrapped a bone for Red & put it under the tree. It was pretty crowded with the tree, our couches, & 5 bodies opening presents, so Sean told Red to go to his bed. When he called him over to give him his bone he just kept peeking around the couch. I thought it was pretty funny.

Caio got a mountain bike from Santa. He LOVED it!! & everyone loved seeing him happy. He didn't' get it til all the presents were open & we said we were going to eat breakfast.. sneaky :)

Sam sat in his swing on the table while we all had hot chocolate & english muffins. He just smiled & laughed for a good half an hour after the presents were open. He was so happy :)

Merry Christmas :)

After we ate breakfast we went over to watch Sean's siblings open presents....

Julia & Sam

video games!

Sean's brother gave Sean & Sam matching flashlights with their names on it.

Grandma Johnson with Sammy.

By the time the afternoon hit... we were TIRED!! We went over to the Dillards to visit with my family, but ended up having to go after about an hour cause I was sooo tired!!! I did get a good look at Katie's new Disney princess barbies though... she got a set of 7or so!

We made ribs & funeral potatoes & veggies for dinner & Sean's family came over. Dinner was DELICIOUS :) Sean always makes the best ribs! Then we watched Happy Gilmore ( a present) & the day was over!!!

It was so great!! I got a guitar, a new willow tree figurine, & a beautiful family hymn book complete with artwork & the history of the hymns. I also got a great hubba bubba story book from my dear sister Kelli ( every year when we were younger we always wanted the lifesaver Christmas story book) & lots of gum in my stocking :)

what a wonderful time of year!!! So much joy & happiness! & how lucky we were to have a brand new baby to share it with. Our first Christmas as a new little family. I have been thinking lately about how much I cannot wait for the rest of my life. I can't wait for all of my babies firsts... & I can't wait to have more babies too... not for awhile, mind you... but I couldn't be happier!!!!!

Hope everyone had an amazing Christmas...

& here comes New Years!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was nice ;) I ran all the last minute errands we needed & we decorated our ornaments. Hopefully every year we'll be able to add some ornaments to our tree. I was at Michaels & saw some small letters & thought they would be fun to paint. So I bought 2 s's & a j for our first names & we decorated them. Actually, Sean mostly decorated them. He happened to have some red & green spray paint & loves using it!! So he drilled a hole in the tops & I ran some ribbon through them & we hung them up after they dried.
My family always gets together on Christmas Eve & has food & my dad reads the Christmas story from the Bible while my nieces & nephew act it out. here we are..
Kelli & Aaron

Phil & Melissa

Nancie, Andy & JoDee

Chino, & Chelle

the Johnsons :)

Crazy Grant

Jocelyn with the elf ears all the kids were passing around all night.

Well, as many people know, my parents aren't here this year :( They are on their mission in Pennsylvania, so they weren't here for the Christmas traditions. I know that the sisters & elders in Pennsylvania were very grateful to have them there to help them have a Merry Christmas though... so they sent us a little video of my dad reading the Nativity... Here is dad sitting in his chair :)

Joseph (Grant), Mary (Jen) & baby Jesus (Sam) singing Away in a Manger

the angel of the Lord (Katie) appearing to the Shepherds (Jolie & Griffin)


the shepherds visiting Jesus

Another musical number....

The 3 wise men (Jocelyn, Janet & Aniston) bringing their Gold, Frankincense & Myrh

Group shot-

My mom sent a little message via video as well. It wasn't long.. only about 10 seconds- but seeing her be emotional in any form causes more emotion on our part. Someone commented that it only took 10 seconds to make all her children tear up . We miss you mom & dad!!!!!!!!!

Family fun

Our official Christmas festivities started this past Sunday. All of us siblings were in town this past weekend, so while we were all together we had a nice dinner & our gift exchange. Of course we had to get in a Sunday nap first!
Let the festivities begin!

Here is aunt Wendi & Sam

Nancie & Ben- with Jen popping in

Nancie & Tammie

Janet just got her braces on.. .so here are two brace beauties :)

Michelle & Chino

Sean & Ben

We ate a FANTASTIC dinner :) Honey baked ham, funeral potatoes (yummy!!!), Martinellis, green bean casserole, veggies, homemade rolls, stuffing.. & turkey!!! I made the turkey this year. It didn't turn out exactly how I wanted- it was the first time I had cooked it in an oven-but I think it still worked out pretty well :)

Then the gifts! Here are the Dillards opening their waffle iron-

The Nelsons opening their new movies

Apparently Aniston was so into the whole thing, she didn't notice the bow stuck to her face!! :)

Chino with the Ayalas new balls

the Ayalas got us movie money & orega-dough ( from oreganos!) Wahooo! two of my absolute favorite things!!!

Phily & Melissa carefully unwrapping....

Jocey & Ben

Janet & Aniston with Ben. These older grand daughters are in love with the new babies! our future babysitters :)