Another great Easter celebrating our risen Lord with family. We thoroughly enjoyed a very worshipful church service, a delicious meal, egg hunting all over the house and homemade carrot cake.
The whole fam after church
Two very excited girls!
Sisters, walking down to check out their Easter surprises together :) My personal fave!
Annabelle checkin out the goods!
Ella...deep in thought about where to look for the next egg
Annabelle is wasting no time at all.
Uncle Kevin is playing a little Annabelle guitar :)
My Alton Brown carrot cake. Pretty delicious!
Ella finding treasures.
This girl loved the scalloped potatoes so much that she licked the spoon...
This Christmas was different for me than ever before. I hosted Christmas this year, and usually when I host, I am completely preoccupied with the details so as to make everyone's Christmas experience a relaxing and fun one, and in the process I lose perspective, and forget that Christmas is time for reflection on Christ's birth, not to mention end up using credit cards so that everything is just perfect! This year, I chose not to do that, and I just let everyone help out with the meal, and details, and it was such a joyful Christmas. Plus, I had my mom and dad and brothers here, we were definately missing my baby sister, but it is not that often that we all get together, and it was in my home. My dad's snoring and all....I wouldn't trade it for the world :-)
Ella and Uncle Ian (my younger brother)
Ella and Tata (Chris' sister)
The girls singing happy birthday to Jesus! A tradition from my childhood :)
My family at my church for Christmas Eve service
The whole family :) I love these people and feel extremely blessed!
I am really into the Christmas spirit this year, and am loving all the decor and music around me, thus had a pretty fun time sprucing up the house this year! We even put lights on the outside of our house this year...first time ever!
Well another Christmas has come and gone. Quick. Crazy. Fun. We had Andi, and my mom and younger brother, Ian from Santa Rosa, Ca. join us for Christmas this year, and it was nice and quaint. The girls got spoiled and we had great fun being with family for 5 straight days! Here were the highlights of our Christmas:
*Mom and Ian, arrived at our door from California on the eve of the 23rd *Snog...aka: freezing fog, that looks like snow on the ground...a new word, coined by ella! *Nutcracker on Christmas Eve at Keller with mom, Belle, Ella, and Andi *Annabelle reading scripture at our church's christmas eve service *A happy birthday Jesus cake with candles *A plate of sugar cookies left for Santa, eaten by chris before Santa even came! *Chris "enjoyed" an accidental cup of lactaid mixed with bourbon (meant to be eggnog)...we all enjoyed laughing at him as he tried to finish it so as to not waste the bourbon! *Two new scooters for Annabelle and Ella from uncle Ian! *matching christmas jammie pants for us ladies *making sugar cookies *Shopping the Macy's sales... *Taking Ella to her first movie at the theaters..."Cloudy with a chance of meatballs". Her favorite part was definately the guy who had a huge macaroni noodle stuck on his head. *All of us helping Ella put together her favorite christmas gift over and over....a puzzle with the different layers of the human body (bones, organs, skin, and clothes). She must have done it 100 times! *Some really yummy meals made by my catering chef brother, Ian. My fave...Chicken marsala with cheesy polenta and brussel sprouts. *A dinner out to outback Steakhouse on kids eat free Monday! *Then some actual snow just a couple hours after my mom and brother drove away! A wonderful way to end a great week!
We enjoyed ushering in 2009 with my good childhood buddy Kristi and her husband, Mike and their adorable son, August. They drove all the way down from Chico area in Cali with their 9 mo. old to be with us for new years eve and new years day. This was the first time I had seen her baby boy, and this was the first time she had seen my 2.5 yr. old, Ella (who, by the way, poked her baby in the eye, and almost stomped on him with a large boot). I am so thankful we got to celebrate the new year together. I had to throw in an old school pic of me and Kristi back in the day...I think this was 5th or 6th grade...and we had decided to get all dressed up and take a picture to send to Kirk Cameron with our fan letter. Oh yes...I am that old!
Kristi & I, Willits, Ca, 1985ish
Mike, Kristi, Chris and I, ringing in the New Year!
We had a wonderfully, cold, snowy, calm Christmas this year, mixed with a little boredom and many, many cookies and then of course family. We enjoyed a small family Christmas with our family, Andi (Chris' sister), and Chris' dad and stepmom from San Diego, who were on one of the lucky flights that made it into PDX. We enjoyed capturing some of this crazy snowstorm and our white Christmas on camera, so I put together a little slideshow for you......
The parade was a bit loud for Ella! Candy= Happiness A very beautiful and large snake! Annabelle's paint of choice Our neighborhood fireworks....not too shabby!
We had a pretty great day beginning with the Ridgefield parade with Aunt Andi and the Millers (which resulted in a bag full of candy for each child), a picnic at a Ridgefield park, a fun reptile show, face painting, bounce houses, sugar crash in the car, and then home for a nap! Then of course when it got dark, we (Chris, Annabelle and I...Ella was fast asleep!) ventured out to the small park behind our house and watched some of the nearby fireworks shows, then went back inside to watch the big Fort Vancouver foreworks show on T.V. with the lights out. Annabelle thoroughly enjoyed every moment of this day and lasted until 10:30 when she fell asleep on our laps on the couch, and our little early riser was still up and at 'em at 7 am!
