Small Group Christmas Party

From left to right: Rob and Stephanie, Nathan and Kathy, Stephen and myself, Amanda and Matt, Charlie and Jessica (and baby), Craig and Kelly.

This is our small group from church. I can't even begin to explain what these people mean to us. Moving here, we knew nobody. Now, they are our family away from family.....our friends and confidants, the people that keep our kids for us when we have dr. appointments or Christmas shopping to do. We love you guys!

So, Stephen and I hosted our small group Christmas party this past Monday. We seriously laughed the night away....until our heads and cheeks hurt! We played our rendition of "The Newlywed" game. Talk about getting to know people....enough said. We also played "Dirty Santa" with white elephant gifts. The famous snuggie was brought, a Shaggy cha-cha-cha-chia head, goldfish, autographed baseball card circa 1985, handcuffs (she said they were from her lingerie shower when she first got married...hmmmmm????), lovely frog and chicken light switch covers (lucky us, that is what Stephen ended up with), and other unmentionables (it's always the quiet ones).

We had so much fun. Good times guys. Thanks for the laughs and thanks for the memories.

Shepard boy

In the spririt of Christmas, just wanted to share a picture of our little shepard boy. Yes, he does this by himself. He constantly walks around with his blankets on his head (lots of times blindly running into walls and such). It will never get old to me. If he is anything like his daddy, he will carry a piece of this blanket in his pocket with him until he is 12 (sorry Stephen, hope I didn't crush your self esteem. Okay, so I exaggerated a bit...more like 6). Oh, and see the pacy? We have 2 left....and aren't buying anymore. I panic slightly when one is missing. But, I understand he is 17 months old and he is growing into a toddler....thus, the pacy must go soon (sniff). I'll keep you posted...

My family

I feel compelled to post this family picture, a.) because I rarely get family shots of us being that I am the one behind the camera most of the time. This was taken by my mother-in-law on the cruise. I'm one lucky girl to have a professional photographer in the family. And b.) because two photos down (what was I thinking?) posted a lovely picture of myself sans make-up after running a 5K. So, here you have my lovely family whom I couldn't adore more!

Santa's lap

Last year we waited until the week before Christmas to take the kids to sit on Santa's lap; we waited close to 2 hours. I was not about to let that happen again this year. So, I was happy to wait in the 30 mintue line today. This was the first year Allie was excited to see Santa. But like the past 3 years, shyed away once she was pushed Santa's way. Lucky for her, we brought her "Dear Santa" list and she didn't have to talk much.

As for Gabe, we were next in line, when he looked up at me with teary eyes and his bottom lip puckered out. I was surprised he was nervous. He never cried, but just sat there in Santa's lap with his fingers super glued to his mouth. Same with Allie. What is it with my kids and their hands-in-mouth complex? Everytime they get nervous they can't keep their hands out of their mouths.

I'm a list person, and I like checking things off my to-do list. Santa's lap - check. Sending out Christmas cards...........let's go ahead and check that off to. If your reading this, consider this your Christmas card. I'm not sending any out this year (except for immediate family and I ordered the Santa photo cards from our Santa lap session....it's not great, so you aren't missing out on much).

Did any of you Greenvillians notice our new mall Santa this year? I liked the old one better....he will always have a special place in my heart....for Allie peed on his leg two years ago.

Powdersville 5K

Hey, look who placed 2nd in their age group!!!!! Granted, there were only 150 registered to run...and it was a misty and COLD morning. Pretty sure not everyone showed. Regardless, I finished in 26:57 and placed 2nd in the 30-34 age group. I had to post and share with everyone because this will never happen again.

Thanksgiving Cruise

We had a blast on our Thanksgiving cruise. I must admit, first mention of a family Thanksgiving cruise, I was a doubter.


My husband can electric slide with the best of them. Here are he and Allie dancin' away at the bon voyage party on the Norwegian Sky.



Allie was all about the big cruise boat. Here is Allie and Uncle Chris watching as we pulled away from port of Miami.


Here is the crew. We were THOSE people with matching shirts on our family vacation. Lovely shade of bright neon green. Pretty sure we got a good deal on this color choice.
(Back row from L to R: Susan, Jodi, Judi, Howard, JR, Alan, Doug, Chris, Jennifer, Stephen.
Front row from L to R: Amy, Logan, Gram, Emily, Patrick, Allie, myself, Gabe)



Stirrups Cay (Norwegians private island). This was one of my favorite days. It was beautiful, relaxing, and we all got to hang out on the beach together.


The guys played their annual Turkey Bowl game. This is a tradition that started when Patrick was MUCH smaller and could barely catch a football...he would beg his older cousins to play football with him. They look forward to it now.



It was so much fun watching Allie play with her cousins. Her eyes lit up when they were around.



This is Emily.



Patrick.



and Logan.

Allie asked me today if her "new friends" could fly to our house for a visit. She is really missing them.


This was Gabe's reserved seat for the trip. He loved hanging out with Gram.







We had a cake one night for Gram's 89th birthday. The grandkids in this family fight over Gram's attention. We all love her and she constantly has one of us right next to her.


Thanks again everyone for a wonderful time. And I doubted it would happen!

Thanksgiving

We normally spend our Thanksgivings braving the cold, snowy weather in western PA with all of Stephen's extended family. This year was a bit different; we all (all 20 of us) agreed upon a family cruise to the Bahamas.



We started out in Marco Island where we spent a couple of days before we sailed away. This is one of our favorite restaraunts on the island...a dolphin just so happened to surface while I was taking a picture.



It's just not right for late Nov./early Dec. is it????



When Allie was asked what she was thankful for: fruit, juicy drinks, mommy and daddy, God up in heaven, Izzy. (Poor Gabe, maybe you'll make the list next year bud.)



Snowbirds are very smart people! I WILL be one....one of these days. South Florida is gorgeous this time of year.



We especially loved spending so much time with Gram (Susan's mom). We had her all to ourself for a couple of days before we met up with the rest of the PA crew. We love you Gram....Gabe misses sitting on your lap.

To be continued (cruise pics to come)...