Christmas Eve, Christmas, & Boxing Day!

Merry Christmas everyone!! I trust everyone had a fabulous time and got everything they wanted from Santa! Here are the events over the weekend - so many parties!!


We started out the holiday celebration at my sister's house for Christmas Eve.... We ate lots of yummy food, sat around talking and laughing and just enjoying each other's company.




That was followed by a friendly game of Wii - my dad is sword fighting JJ in this picture. It was the first time my dad had played and I think he did a really great job!


Eventually JJ and I were the only ones left, we stayed long enough to see the kids put out their Christmas cookies and notes for Santa - so stinking cute!!




This says: "Reindeer Food --> How's Rudolph? How are the other reindeer? Merry Christmas!" It truly is one of the funnest things to experience Christmas with/through a child's eyes. All the excitement, believing and sweet things - thank you Emily for letting us spend that time with you and your family!



Christmas Morning!!! Santa came to our house!!!!

Stockings are my very favorite part so I'm glad Santa was able to find our new home and fill them with goodies and fun things!




I gave JJ a "Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock" t-shirt from thinkgeek.com - he Loved it!!


When I was a little girl Hungry Hungry Hippos was my very favorite game, I got so excited when I found out the stores were selling it again. I got even more excited when I unwrapped my very own game!




These are Bucky Balls - also from thinkgeek.com. JJ's been asking for these for months and months so I finally broke down and got them. I have a video of him opening this present but I'm pretty sure he'd get mad if I posted it, so a picture will have to do! He has played with these little magnetic balls everyday.... pretty much nonstop... I think I rocked Christmas this year!

Yes those are tears. JJ surprised me with a sparkly addition to my wedding ring. I figured I'd get this after he graduated, but boy oh boy was I Wrong!!! Tears immediately came to my eyes when I figured out what the small box was. I love you honey!!! XOXOX

After breakfast we went up to visit JJ's mom.

We didn't get to spend much time with her so we went to see Sherlock Holmes with her the day after Christmas. It is THE BEST movie!!! I absolutely loved it and could have turned around and saw it again! Highly recommended!

After Carol Anne's we moved the party up to my Grandma & Grandpa's house...

Merry Christmas!!! Thank you for hosting such a huge party - with the exception of one missionary the ENTIRE family was there... I can't believe we fit!


Amy & Family.

Emily & Family.

Joe & Family.


Me and my sweetie!

Boxing Day!

Christmas at my mom's. Because there is so much going on the day before and the day of my mom celebrates the day after. JJ, Joe and Jayson suckered Amy into playing Monopoly - that game takes forever!!

Presents! I gave this niece of mine 3 books for Christmas, she opened them & immediately started reading. I think I looked back over at her maybe 20 minutes later and she was on page 47... she's just amazing!

Merry Christmas to me! I have a bunch of movie decor and I finally got the last piece!

Spoiled!!! A Belgian Waffle maker and a griddle - breakfast is going to rock well at our house!

The weeks leading up to Christmas were spent making another quilt - this one for my mom and Art. My siblings and I schemed, planned, were in cahoots, lied, etc to keep the secret from them. It was so fun! :) They were so excited and my mom just couldn't believe it. She knew how much work went into mine, so she was truly impressed and thankful. We love you Mommy!!

Party Overload!! (3 blogs in 1)

Are you ready for lots of pictures?? Because here we go!!!


Merry Christmas from the Rockwells! We started off the weekend with Christmas with the Rockwell family, well... most of the Rockwell family - JJ has one sister who lives out of state, we miss them so very much and hope to see them soon.


JJ's little sister Caitlin and her family.


Genevieve just LOVES jewelry. She wandered all over the house with these pearls, just smiling so big. She's a princess for sure!


We gave her some books for Christmas - the green one is called "Panda in the Park," once the paper fell off and she could see the panda she scrunched her face up into a smile and kissed the book, so stinkin' cute!


My dessert! My family has had this cake recipe around for years and I finally decided to try to make it... it was very stressful... I can't thank my sister Amy enough for letting me bug her at 11:00 at night asking for directions, tips and a calming voice. I couldn't have done it without you - and look how pretty it turned out!!

Getting a little tipsy for the holidays? Don't worry - it's just Martinelli's. He gave her a little sip and put the bottle down - she threw a huge fit until he gave her more... She gets her way - a princess for sure!

Onto the next party...

My brother blessed his baby girl on Sunday - this is the cute family!

Cousin Wendy!!!! This amazing girl lives on the East coast these days, being brilliant, living life and getting more gorgeous every time I see her. She came home for the holidays so I had to snag a picture. Love you Wendy Girl!

Gorgeous. That's just what she is!!!

Me and my baby sister! We used to spend sooooooo much time together, but now we both have grown up jobs, houses to take care of and husbands to adore so we don't get goof off as much. But I'll take any time I can get! Love you bug!

And one more picture of my sweet niece - I just can't get enough of her!! I sat next to her on the floor and just took picture after picture because she kept smiling at me - that's heaven right there!

Onto Party #3!

Christmas with my Dad's family followed the blessing, here's me and my sisters getting everything ready in the kitchen.

Every year everyone is to bring a $5 gift to exchange. For the kids I printed off different holiday pictures, the kids move in a circle while we sang Jingle Bells, Rudolph, Frosty the Snowman, etc. We stopped singing, pulled out a picture from a hat and whichever kid was on that picture got to pick a present from the pile - turned out to be way fun!

Alex was so excited he got playdoh! Merry Christmas!!

Shianna, Kelsey and I are having F-U-N!!! (And so is Kacie there in the background :) silly girl!)

The big kids played "Bad Santa" this year- all the gifts go in the middle of the room, the youngest to oldest we pick a present from the center or steal from one of the gifts already opened. I picked the harmons bag because it was so cute and was very happy with the inside! I was a lucky duck that no one stole from me!

My Grandpa ended up with a barbie doll!

After my post about my quilt made by my Grandma, she called me telling me how wonderful it was to see such a tribute to her and to the quilt. So being the sneaky grandkid that I am, I put together a scrapbook of that weekend. I also added pictures of all the quilts she's made with a note from each person to her about their quilt. I started reading the note for her that was just inside the box and lost it... tears galore. We were both pretty choked up and hugged for a long time - a very special moment between Grandma and Granddaughter for sure.

Merry Christmas Grandma Lee Lee - I Love You!!!!

I had complained to my dad about struggling with my tiny crockpot, it hardly holds a 3lb roast and if I'm gunna be a good housewife I have to do better than that! So I was soooo very excited to open this from my daddy - bring on the good meals baby!


What a weekend! Time for a nap I think!

Oh Christmas Tree

Look How Pretty!!

Getting ready to decorate the tree! We got our tree from my brother, screamin' deal I tell ya, and I'm just absolutely in love with it. Pre-lit is the way to go! Add some decor and you're good to go!

This picture proves that JJ is a funny picture taker... yes I have the string of bells in my hand but could you wait until their out of the plastic so you can actually SEE them?? Silly Boy!

This is so much fun! Merry Christmas!

JJ kept making me laugh while adjusting the star so we ended up with a picture that looks totally fake and forced, but really, I am smiling and laughing.... at JJ :)

So pretty tree! I love plugging it in when I get home from work, very Christmas-y!


And onto wrapping presents! I could NOT figure out how to wrap JJ's sister's present so I just wrapped a box and put everything inside - pure genius I think!

Presents and presents galore!

These are my bestest wrapping job - presents for the nieces with flower hair clips from Del Sol as the bow. These are so cool - their white, but when you go out into the sunshine they change colors! Hope the girls like them!

The Last Box!

JJ and I officially moved into our apartment on November 21st... and finally, after hours of work, sweat, tears, swear words (not the really bad ones but when you drop a box on your foot, something is bound to be shouted), laughter & memories, I unpacked the very last box on Friday!! It was the best feeling!!! Here are a few pictures BEFORE I loaded the apartment with cra.... uh... furniture, appliances, etc.

Family Room/Living Room area. Thank you to my sister for keeping our TV at your house during our stay at the 'rents house - we're glad it didn't have to suffer the storage unit.

The kitchen. I'm pretty happy with the set up, I have a pretty big counter this time around. Plenty of room for all the baking and cooking I WILL be doing!! (Positive attitude required for goals, right?)

Of course I took a picture of the master closet - what girl wouldn't?!?! :)

THE last box. This is it! No more! No more walking into a room, sigh and think... oh yeah... I forgot about that one... I'm D.O.N.E. Woot Woot!

As stated above there were quite a few giggles while opening boxes and finding little "treasures," items I packed up years ago and have been dragging with me with every move. High school pictures, diploma, letters upon letters from missionaries, a little lockbox I kept cool things in: pennies with shapes cut out of them, old car keys, seashells from California, etc. Among all that were some clothes from my childhood that made me laugh right out loud. I LOVED these shirts!! I took pictures because I had to share! Enjoy!



"Cattelac"

This has little polar bears skiing and snow flakes - all the white stuff is puffy, how old school is that?!

And now, decorate for Christmas! Stay tuned!