The Rest of Christmas Break

Every year, we have a progressive dinner where we travel from house to house, eating various parts of a meal.  This year's theme was Italian.

We got to meet our little niece, Sophie, for the first time.

While we were in Utah, Luis and I got to spend a lot of time with the "adults" of the family, which doesn't happen very often.  It was so fun to see my brothers and sisters in their natural crazed state without all the kiddos stealing everyone's attention.

Cory &Jennie

Amber & Alan

David & Michelle

 Me & Luis

Dennis & Julie

Megan & Blake

Charisse & Jason

Mom (Dad had to work)

Santa

Who knew darts was so complicated?  I sure didn't.  I thought the point was just to hit the bullseye.  Not so!  After some coaching from Mr. Sports, a few of the boys tried out Dave's new dart board.

We also got to experience the tastiness of The Garden on our trip, where I found myself sitting next to (or on top of) this lovely tree.  Excuse the horridness of the picture.

Righ outside the restaurant we ran into a life-size nutcracker, which meant we HAD to stop for this precious photo op.

I think so much time around my family had a strange impact on dear Luis.

 My namesake, Emma Ashley, sporting the new headband I was commissioned to make for her.

My Utah baby shower thrown by mi madre.

Goodbye Utah!  Until next time!

We're Ready for You

Baby and I have had many conversations.  Recently, she informed me she would NOT arrive until her bedroom was ready.  That meant we had some projects to finish.

First, we've been searching for a dresser in our budget.  It was a bit discouraging UNTIL our good friends, Ben and Geisa, offered us one they weren't using.  It was beat up, but thanks to some handi-work by my man, it now looks so cute!

And here it is!

The other project at our house has been a baby blanket, which took months and months (and much more yarn than I anticipated) to complete.

And here is our baby room (aka one end of our bedroom).  Now our little girl can finally come!

Anniversary #2

You know that tradition where the top of a wedding cake is saved, frozen, and then consumed a year later?  Yeah, we forgot step three.  So, we prolonged the whole tradition by an extra year and delved into our cake for our second anniversary.  Wedding cake on night of wedding = yummy.  Wedding cake after two years = nasty.  I'm not sure who thought up this tradition, but I would like to suggest a slight adjustment.  How about eating the cake while it's yummy?  Then, when anniversary time rolls around, order a piece of the same kind of cake.  The taste is sure to beat a year's worth of freezer burn.

The above-mentioned cake sampling took place in Utah a week or two before our actual anniversary.  On our anniversary weekend, we began our celebrations by painting a baby dresser.  (Lucky Luis!)  Then, we went to see Sherlock Holmes 2.

Our dinner plans led us to The Cheesecake Factory.  It was yummy, but A LOT of food.  I was full at this point...

Luis and I tend to judge our service by how many times the waitress brings us bread.  Service was good that night!  We were even sent home with a container full of their yummy brown bread.

Of course, no anniversary is complete without a trip to the local Mexican market.

All of this celebrating took place the weekend before our anniversary date of January 9th.  What did we do on our actual anniversary?  We rented Kung Fu Panda 2 and ate left-overs.

Happy 2 year Lu!

Christmas Day

I'm a little behind.  Okay, so maybe I'm SUPER behind.  I know most of you posted about Christmas weeks ago, but due to computer problems, I've had no choice.  Better late than never!

On Christmas Day, we woke up at my oldest brother Dave's house.  His place is amazing and caused me much covetousness.  Sigh...I want a house.  I asked for one for Christmas, but mommy had to remind me that Santa doesn't always bring us everything we wish for.  I'm still not sure why.

Anyways, we woke up bright and early, got ready, avoided looking under the tree, and headed off to church.  I really enjoyed going to church on Christmas Day.  It was nice to actually spend time thinking about Christ on Christmas Day.  Sadly, most years, I'm climbing back into bed at the end of the day when I realize I haven't thought of Him all day long.

Afterwards, we quickly changed back into our comfies and finally got to see what Santa brought.

My favorite is when Luis opened this gift and exclaimed, "Oooh, sexy pants!"  Apparently he really liked these jeans. 

Probably the gift I was most excited for Lu to open, was this book I created on Shutterfly.  It was a "Parenting" book I created with the top 15 steps we've taken to prepare for parenting.  I had a riot looking though random pictures of us throughout the year and turning them into a book.  It's super random, but a good read...just in case you're wanting to borrow it sometime.

Our total loot.

The best part is knowing next Christmas we'll have a little girl to enjoy the day with!