New Years Eve Wedding

My friend Carrie got married on New Years Eve and her wedding was so elegant and beautiful The reception included a delicious meal, wedding cake, a live band and dance floor! So much fun! We were so glad to be a part of her special day and also to be able to ring in the new year with our very good friends, Amy and Chris.

Craig making his goofy face before the wedding started.
Wedding is over and now we are having cocktails and hor dourves before dinner.
Our dinner table
The reception
The menu

Amy and Chris at dinner

The beautiful bride's cake
Cute groom's cake
Eating the flower that came with the gelato... supposed to 'cleanse the palette'. They told us to eat it so I did... I think I was the only one to eat it.
Steak and lobster for dinner
Me, Carrie (the bride) and Amy

About to ring in the new year

Here we are at the wedding luncheon the day after the wedding.

First Day of School

The kids started pre-school/MDO in early January. I found a program I really love! They only go one time a week but I plan to put them in twice a week in the Fall. The MDO director has made this transition so smooth and easy for ALL of us! I am so grateful to have found such a great school and church. The kids go to MDO at the same place that we go to MOPS and this is also the church we've been visiting (that will likely be our new church home), so this has also helped them transition so easily.

Here are their backpacks lined up and ready to go!


Craig took off work the first day of school to help me get them to school and while they were in school, we enjoyed some time to ourselves.We were late getting to school the first day because of an accident and the highway being shut down so there weren't many pictures being taken. Here we are getting out of the car, backpacks on and napmats in hand.
The drop off in their classroom.



It has been 3 weeks now since they started and things are going great. The school has a curb drop off in the mornings and I figured it would be a couple of months before we tried this because they and I wouldn't be ready for that. After only 2 weeks, I dropped them off at the curb on week 3. We can thank the cold weather and the logistics of getting 3 bundled up 2 year olds, 3 backpacks and 3 napmats across the street, for being the cause of pushing this sooner than expected. They did great walking in the school with the teachers and nobody cried!

Hannah's Cribtent

Hannah began climbing out of her crib probably a month or so ago and I hesitated to buy her a cribtent because I knew they were expensive and that she would be in her big girl bed soon and therefore, the cribtent wouldn't get much use. She has proven to not be mature enough and not trustworthy enough to have full privileges to roam in her room. I didn't do much about her behavior until she continuously climbed out of bed one day, in an angry fit. She also kept ripping her clothes off, including her pullup. Key word here is 'pullup'. She is not fully potty trained and often has both #1 and #2 accidents and I could just see what was coming. So, I bought a used cribtent from one of my MOM friends. Cribtents are a commonly purchased item when it comes to MOM's.

"Let me out!!!"

"PLEASE!!!"
"This isn't so bad."

First Snow of 2011

Our first snow of the year came the 9th of January. The kids love watching it snow and last year they enjoyed getting out in it. This year, they wanted to get out in it until we actually got out there. I think the difference is, this year we went out while the snow was still falling. Last year, we ventured out after it stopped. They just didn't care for the snow falling on their faces. My friend Emily was in town for a visit and Craig was sick in bed all day, so Emily and I bundled the kids up to go out in the snow. It lasted about 5 minutes and we went back inside.
Whitney is not happy. She didn't want to get off the porch.
Tyler was happy!

Not too bad... yet...
It was quite windy too! Doesn't she look miserable??? :)

I think we got about 6 or 7 inches this time. Not sure what's been going on the past few winters with all this snow we've been getting.

We made snow ice cream this year and the kids loved it!!! So did their Mama!

Again... the hair...

Tyler's Black Eye

Tyler fell and hit his head on the coffee table due to too many toys being in the floor. He got his first shiner! He was so proud of it!

Christmas 2010

There were so many Christmas pictures and celebrations, for the sake of time, I only posted a few from our immediate family Christmas at home.

We had a nice Christmas starting with hosting Craig's extended family Christmas at our house; the next celebration was Craig's family Christmas at my inlaw's house; next was my family Christmas again at our house and lastly was our immediate family Christmas at our house.

My mom stayed with us for a few days thru the holidays and we enjoyed having her. Craig's parents came by for a while on Christmas day and also my good friend Amy and her husband Chris came by on the 26th. It was a nice, low-key Christmas day and weekend and enjoyed visiting with our family and friends.

Taken a week or two before Christmas.

Christmas morning pictures...


LOVE the hair!
Watching a Christmas movie with grandma.
Tyler loves his new train set.


Who doesn't have bed head on Christmas morning???