Christmas pictures

Gotta love Christmas jammies...especially ones like the girls have on that I got for super cheap at Carter's at the Greene after last Christmas. They have snowmen on them and Jake's is a Star Wars theme.

Since we had the privilege of having John and Amy with us at Christmas, we only opened a few of the gifts at our house before leaving to go to my parent's house. We had a nice morning with the "York" Kanost's...

and the newly married, Rickert's, before they left for Chicago!

Jake opening his Storm Troopers mask. This was one I brought from home. I thought he and Jonathon and Matthew might like to play with it. (This was another steal...I found it brand new at a thrift store. The packaging was all torn up and the actual pieces needed to be put back together, but the thing worked in the store and I only paid $5 for it! I saw them at Target for between 30 and 40 bucks)!
Turns out my three year old loved it just as much!

Annual Christmas shot with the hubby.

Always a pleasure partying with the *Tueys* later in the afternoon. Here is Sarah and her loverly daughter, Libby. It was such a nice picture, I had to include it.

*They are really called the Coutures, but for anyone who doesn't know the story...when Joel Couture became Dr. Couture, Jake was just a youngster. When he tried to say his name, it came out "Da-er Tuey." And the name Tuey just stuck (although the spelling is up for debate).

Some of the party guests just chillin' after a big, delicious meal.

Grandma Kanost in her "spot." Love that she can make it every year.

I think he loves me?

I know he loves her!

I know I love these two "Uncle-Matt posers."

No idea?? But they were having fun.

Matthew was pretty fond of his Slinky he got as a prize from one of the games.

Libs and Claire...texting already?

Christmas tree pictures

I know these are late by about a month (seems to be my blogger pace), but better late than never. Right?

My mom offered her tree to us a couple of years ago since we have a high ceiling in the living room. As you can see from the picture below, it is a 9 footer. We decided to take her up on the offer this year and planned on trading trees. For the past few years, she has not utilized all the parts of the tree and only had it be a 7 footer. So, the trade seemed perfect. Only...it wasn't. Sorry, mom. Apparently, a section of our pre-lit tree wasn't lit. I had forgotten that Dan had to string up one strand of lights on it last year to make up for the malfuntion. Well, the point of the trade for my mom was that she really liked the idea of a pre-lit one, as hers was not (again, see picture below of Dan stringing lights). The other quality of our tree that I do like, my mom did not. My mom is a lover of colored lights and our tree had white lights. I, on the other hand, even though I grew up with colored lights, prefer white lights. I just came to this conclusion this year since we decided to try colored lights. I think white lights make the tree pop out more, including the ornaments. And this may sound strange, but the colored lights make me feel sleepy??? Or maybe mezmorized is the right term??? So, the solution...we offered my mom her tree back. Only she really still liked the idea of a pre-lit tree, so she found one...that has colored lights and rotates! Here are some shots of our decorating night...which we actually got done early this year - the day after Thanksgiving! I think that is a record for us.

Claire got a little candy cane happy.

The placement of this nutcracker makes me laugh.

A new ornament...Jake and Lydia decided to hand craft some ornaments at home. This was a mighty big one that I often moved to a less prominent place throughout the season. I lost that battle. You can spot it in the center of the tree in the picture below. Mom just laughed as that scenerio brought back memories.

Love Money Saving Mom's Heart

A little over a year ago, I stumbled upon a blog from another friend's blog. Little did I know at the time what a blessing that discovery would be! I have scored deal after deal with the help of the writer of this blog. And this coolest part...I did not have to do the work of finding the deals, as she does it for you. I do not personally know this woman, but after reading her last blog, I am convinced she is also a sister in Christ! She has many readers (many as in hundreds, if not thousands). What an awesome testimony!

A broken tea cup, a humble manger, and the best deal I've ever gotten

Sidewalk Evangelism

You heard of door to door, perhaps Evangelism Explosion. Maybe you've used the Romans Road? Well, let me introduce to you a new method Jakers came up with a couple weeks ago. I call it Sidewalk Evangelism.

He starts off with telling his readers of his physical appearance.
Next, he stakes his claim on his BFF.

And then he gets to the really important stuff! Dan and I thought this was so cool and I would have loved to hear peoples' thoughts as they walked by. We know God's word does not return void. What a clever idea, son!

Wedding Pictures - Part 1

Here are some pictures taken during wedding weekend! Most of these are just fun, 'getting-ready' shots. Sarah Beth just gave me the cd of all her wedding pictures, so once we make a copy of them on Picassa, I will post the professional pictures. They are nice and I am glad to have them since I did not get very many pictures that day.

Getting the sanctuary pretty on Thursday.

Libby and I on Friday morning, taking a break from getting the gym lookin' good for the first wedding reception to be held in it.

4 of the 6 bridesmaids waiting to get their nails beautified!

Lydia was thrilled to be part of this girly-girly event!

Lid took this picture of Sarah Beth getting her pedi. I know she would want me to include one of her shots.

Friday evening, waiting for the rehearsal to begin. Jonathon looks so excited! Maybe he is planning in his head a way to get out of wear the dreaded "shiny shoes."

Claire gets to practice!

Ready for some supper!
Lydia getting her hair done Saturday morning.

Doesn't she look so grown up?

Doesn't she look, oh, so adorable?

Daddy with his girls

The Next American Idol

For your viewing pleasure:

Shower The People You Love With Love

So, I know these are very late, but here are the pictures from my sister, Sarah Beth's, wedding showers. The first shower was given to her by her lady friends from work. The hostess did an incredible job! Everything was so pretty and it was such a memorable evening with lots of laughter! Those are little "glass" slippers on the tree. What a cute idea, and you'll see later how my mom used them again for shower #2!

Fancy chair for the bride to be!

Needed a close up of those flowers...they were gorgeous!

A delicious spread!

Happy soon to be mother-in-laws!

Sisters...well, you know, Libby is just like a sister.

Matthew came by near the end of the shower and we got the infamous pose!Thumbs up, once again!

And the final picture from this shower I wanted to share...the bear picture. I was strangely drawn to this image, as were others, I found out later. I called it the dancing bear picture and it made me smile every time I looked at it. Strange, I know.

This was taken the day of shower #2. This one was held at WHBC and I got to be involved in the planning of this one. It was a fun day (and a productive one for Sarah Beth as she got many nice things for her and Matthew's new home)!

The cupcake cake my mom bought. Very clever idea.

Lydia is becoming quite the young lady. She has always had a love for girly things (we called them pretty-pretties when she was a toddler). So, she was very happy to be able to join all the women folk in honor of her aunt's special day!

She was also pretty stoked about all the yummy food!

Another fancy chair...

And there are the shoes...my mom make a "walk through Sarah Beth's life," noting all the very important milestones. It ended with the stuffed bride and groom bears and a bow full of Bliss chocolates.

Yay...lots and lots of presents!

Time for a game or two.

In this picture, I am narrating the story written by myself, my mom, and Mrs. Couture. Every time the word love, Matthew, or Sarah Beth was spoken, the gift got moved in a different direction (right, left, back, (or to the front row if it was in the last row). When the word wedding was spoken, that person got to open the gift. These were layered gift bags, so that person only unwrapped one layer and the story continued. When the story ended with one last "wedding" word, that person was the lucky winner! That was a fun memory and I'd say we wrote a pretty good story, especially considering the fact that it was near 11pm and we were all dog-tired when it was written.

"Hmm, maybe Aunt Sarah Beth will make me some yummy muffins with that pan when I spend the night at her house sometime. Yes, I think that must be the reason she needed that pan!"

The blusing bride!