Christmas Fun

Can you believe how fast Christmas came and left us?? I have to admit I'm a little sad that it is all over. It was such a whirlwind leading up to it with shopping, decorating, cleaning, shopping, and more shopping! I have so many pictures so I hope I don't bore you all. If I even have any readers left...I was informed by Lauren last week that I only posted twice in the month of December!! I used to post twice in one week if not more. What is wrong with me??? I need to regain my zest. I will try harder now that we are in a new year :)

We had an awesome Christmas this year, once again. I feel like as I get older every Christmas has a little more meaning to it. It's not about what I'm getting or how much, it's about who I'm spending time with. It's about realizing more and more the true meaning of Christmas. The gifts that come along are just an added bonus. :)

Aaron and I went to one of the 13+ Christmas eve services our church was having. They started on Tuesday afternoon and continued on until Thursday night. I'm not sure how my pastor and his wife did it but it was amazing nonetheless. I don't think I say this enough, but I love our church! We both feel like we have found our perfect church home and I thought it would take many months, if not years of looking. Aaron told me the other night that he feels like our church is one of the main reasons God put us out in the "burbs". I completely agree and never really thought of it that way! I snapped some pics of our service to let you all have a little peak into our church. It was such an amazing production I had to get some shots! These first shots are our from our first attempt to go to Wednesday night church. We got all dressed, headed out the door and ran into some major traffic. So instead of being 30 minutes late we turned around and decided to go on Thursday. I also changed up my outfit the next night and it was really cute so I'm bummed I didn't get any shots of the two of us! Oh well..

One of the huge Christmas trees along with some snow they had brought in. There was also a life nativity but I didn't get any pics of that.

Snow falling inside and an amazing drum show! And these were kids on the drums too. They did awesome!

We were lucky enough to have Avalon (Christian singing group) join our church so our music is pretty amazing! I love our singing group.

Our pastor was doing a hand painting of Jesus while his son came up and talked to us. It was such a great finished product!  

We went ahead and opened presents Christmas eve morning since we had decided to spend the night at my parents house. We thought it would be fun to have our own little celebration together.  I have to say, Chester was pretty excited about his present! I've never seen a dog unwrap a gift so fast! He got a rubber tire from Old Navy and Daisy got a pink rubber bone. She was not nearly as amused with the "unwrapping the present" part.

          

We then made our way to my parents house where my mom had a feast going! She made chili relleno enchilladas - oh my goodness they were good. And as our appetizer, she made a delicious thick queso (I know it's called something fancier than that but I can't think of it right now!) that you put in warm flour tortillas. Talk about mouth watering! YUM!

My dad received one of his gifts that night. My mom got him the Nikon D3000 with both lens'! He was super excited. We are both photography nerds so we took a pic of each other taking a pic. Looking good pops! :)

Christmas morning! I think I was up before my little sis! I was pretty pumped to get the presents going. It's getting more fun to watch other people open their gifts! I love the reactions.

Momma had more delicous food for us Christmas morning. A breakfast casserole and coffee cake. Now you can see why I might have put on a few lbs over the last few days!

I had to show one of my favorite gifts my mom received from my dad! Is that not beautiful? I am in love! My dad always gives the sweetest gifts. He called me a few weeks ago and left me a message about wanting to get my mom some David Yurman. I swear I was just as excited for her as I would have been if it were for me!! I love helping him pick out gifts and I think he did a great job on this one!

Aaron and I before heading to celebrate with his family. I love Christmas and feel very fortunate that both families live within 10 minutes of each other, but it also makes for a VERY hectic day of going back and forth. We had breakfast and presents with my family Christmas morning, then went to A's family around noon, had lunch at 3, opened presents with them and then headed back to my parents to have Christmas dinner at 6. It was a long day filled with a lot of food! It is nice being able to see each family on Christmas though!

And last but not least, here is our Christmas card! It's not my favorite but I wanted to find some way to incorporate the pups in our card and they were not very cooperative when we went to have Lauren take our pictures - That is another post I missed getting out!

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and had a good time welcoming in the new year! 2009 was great and I can only imagine what 2010 has in store for us!

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G's Birthday!

This past Saturday was my beautiful little sister's 9th birthday! I love this little girl so much and I had the best time celebrating with her. She spent the day bike riding with some friends on her new sweet purple bike; which I don't have a pic of, but it was pretty awesome, and swimming. Later, at her request, we went to a little Italian restaurant that just so happens to be the same restaurant Aaron and I had our rehearsal dinner at. She has loved this place since the first time she took a bite of their delicious macaroni and cheese. You can tell from the pics below that she was on cloud nine the entire night. Check out her adorable peasant top and skinny jeans! I had to get her some dark skinnies! She LOVES them. And my mom bought her some stylish black flat boots which completed the outfit! The kid raked in on outfits. Lord knows she didn't need any more toys or games so we were all instructed to go the clothing route, which I happen to love! She has such a fun/funky style right now. Reminds me a little of me when I was her age. I loved the mismatched high tops and sideways ponytails. She also has dreams of being a fashion designer and has actually sketched out some stuff and pulled out pages from magazines as her inspiration. The girl is going places!

crazy girl! mmmm....
dad will hate this pic of him but look how

happy G and my mom are! Too cute!!
cheesecake and cookie cake! what a lucky girl!
black flat boots
silk bubble DKNY dress I found for a steal! She's totally going to rock it

with her skinnies and one of her many pairs of high tops I'm sure :) Gabby and Chester Cheeto

I love you little sis and I hope you had a great and memorable birthday!

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I will make you fishers of men.....

....if you follow me :)

Anyone else remember that one from Sunday school? Well I figured I should get to posting the remainder of our vacation pics. We had such a great time while we were there and I had to show you some of the beauty that we were able to see. My dad scheduled us a private offshore fishing trip and it was a blast! I had never been before and I think every girl should try it, at least once. I have to tell you that the views on the way out to our first stop had me on a high. It was so amazing how beautiful everything was. I literally could not take my eyes off the ocean, the sky, the sights all around. I normally try to steer away from waking up early on trips, but we were out of bed by 5 and on the boat by 6. Which made for some nice sunrise shots. I never realized how obsessed I was with lighthouses, but 100 pictures later, apparently I am. But hey, I don't see this stuff everyday. On the boat was me, sister Chels, dad, cousin Jarrett, uncle Winston and Aaron - also the order of pics below.

the barracuda I caught...no big deal, just the biggest catch of the day.

my honey, doing his usual: rum/coke, listening to iPod, chillin' on the deck

(part of the family) family pic: grandpa, me, grandma, great uncle Paul, aka the coolest guy around, dad, sister and Momma - FYI those are cover-ups, not dresses, we were headed to the beach.

Oh to be back on vacation. It wasn't long enough, not that they ever are. I miss the ocean. I love the ocean. I have since I was a little girl when my parents would take my sister and I to this very beach. Our condo was actually right across the street from my grandma's house she grew up in. It's such an adorable home. We used to stay there when we would come to visit my great grandma. We've made this trip more times than I can remember. This time was so special since all of my dad's side of the family was able to join. I know these trips are numbered as we all get older and lives change, but I am glad that I was able to make this one. It was nice to wake up and my family all be in one space together again. My mom up, settling into the kitchen like she's lived in this place for years, making a wonderful breakfast and coffee, dad drinking said coffee, sitting on the balcony staking out our spots on the beach, sisters sleeping in because after all this is vacation, and me soaking it all in. It was just like old times. I miss those old times. But, I'm a grown up married person now. Which I love, believe me. It is just hard to forget the family times though, when that's all you knew for so long. But we did make many more great memories and I surely won't forget them!

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