Merry Christmas!

This Christmas, we decided to keep things simple and spend time as a family. On Christmas Eve, we visited Nick's grandma Nancy at her home.

John 3:16 is even written on the bottom!

 

Nick and I got 2 sets of movie tickets, candy, and popcorn!

Next, we went to have dinner with Nick's family. We had a great evening spending time with his grandparents and Nicole was able to play with 3 of her aunts and her uncle.

Christmas morning we went to church (my parents joined us) and then opened gifts and ate lunch. We spent the rest of the day playing with our new goodies (okay, we all played with Nicole's toys) and then joined family for dinner.

Nicole decided to sneak away and open one gift before church.

Look at all those gifts!

Nicole loves her new doll! She loves her so much that the doll received her first scratch.

Grandma Joan is teaching Nicole how to feed her baby.

Nicole got Nick a poster that has the word 'love' written in weapons. I will get it wrong, but I am pretty sure the weapons are as follows: L=handgun, O=grenade, V=pocketknife, E=rifle (or some other big gun). Nicole sure knows how to pick good gifts!

Nicole, the amazing gift-giver, gave another good gift! I got a new Snowbaby for my collection! I was so surprised because they have become hard to find, so I hadn't been expecting one.

Isn't it cute?!

Nicole got building blocks from Kendra, Drew, and Samuel. She loves to knock down the towers that we build.

Our annual family picture. I had been hoping for one at church in front of their well-decorated tree, but Nicole chose to nap during that time and we didn't have the heart to wake her.

Nicole's first Snowbaby!

A toy from Aunt Hannah

Before we got the toy from Hannah out of the box, Nicole gave it a kiss...ouch!

We love our date nights!!! (Not pictured: two more movie tickets and a g.c. for Chili's)

An awesome frame from Nick's parents!

Carrying on the tradition that my mom started: a new ornament for every year.

Poor Piglet! My friend Sarah gave Nicole little Winnie the Pooh toys, she loves to knock them off of our towers!

We pray that everyone had a wonderful time with family and friends as you celebrated Christ's birth!

A Fun FREE Evening

Tonight we decided to have a family evening and check out Christmas lights. On the way, we decided to have dinner at Chick-Fil-A (Nick had helped out the manager with some car problems several weeks ago and she gave him coupons for free meals- sandwich, drink, and fries). When we got there I realized that it was Family Fun night and Santa was visiting (I have been wanting a picture of Nicole with Santa, but didn't want to pay for it). After dinner, we headed out to look at the lights at Mission Inn. Here are some pictures:

 I am a little bummed that the picture turned out blurry, but I will find another free Santa (with no line to wait in)!

 I thought the candles were really cool!

 Our little star



Family Christmas

This past weekend we spent time with Nick's family celebrating Christmas. We had fun dressing Nick up like a Christmas tree (Nicole was the angel on top, of course), visiting with family, and opening presents! Enjoy these pictures!

 I love this picture! For most of the day, Patrick kept getting Nicole's rattle and she kept taking his car! I guess they both have sharing figured out.

Nicole is 9 Months Old!

So I had already written this blog, but it didn't post.......so here is take 2!!
Here are pictures of Nicole at 9 months old. It's amazing how fast time flies!

 I am loving her little teeth!

 All Nicole is getting for Christmas are her two front teeth.......

 .......but she doesn't like that plan.

 She loves all the lights on the Christmas tree!

We have been richly blessed this year! We pray that you are able to see how you have been blessed this year!

Mr. Mom

On Thursday, Nick had the day off of work so he spent the day with Nicole. They had a great day and got quite a bit of work done! Being the awesome dad that he is, he remembered to get a few pictures of their day.

One of their chores was raking the leaves in the front yard

Now Nicole can crawl around outside

Their day also included plenty of playing! Nicole has learned where her toys are kept. She is an expert at getting them out, if only she would figure out how to put them back in!

And they also played hide-and-seek.

We are so blessed that our family can enjoy life together! It is important to find joy in the little day-to-day activities and to try to have fun!

It's Beginning To Look Alot Like Christmas

So this year we had to scale way down on our Christmas decorations since Nicole gets into EVERYTHING and we don't want to spend all of our time chasing her around.

Here is why we didn't get a real tree

My all-time favorite collectables (hint, hint, wink, wink)

The tree in its new location

Nicole figured out how to climb the stairs while I was decorating

I hope she will still like helping with dishes in about 5 years!

Girl's Day Out

I am a little behind on my blog for two reasons: 1)I have a 9 month old at home and 2) Right after I uploaded pictures and deleted the card, my computer screen died. Tonight I can catch up because Nicole is in bed and Warren fixed my screen!

Last weekend, Nick went to Mexico for a Christmas party at El Faro (a children's home) so Nicole and I spent the day together.

Our big event for the day was trying out a Gymboree class. Nicole LOVED all the different places that she could crawl on and the songs and most of all.............the BUBBLES!!



Nicole getting reading to go



She loved the slide

Not quite as big of a fan of the canoe

Afterward, we went to Target and stocked up on diapers