Christmas day in pictures

First Christmas as a Family

Tonight we went to church and then my mom and dad came over to take some pics of us in front of our tree.

We also opened up our stockings. Since Carter will be spoiled by everyone we just did a few gifts. Here he is digging into them. He couldn't quite figure it out so we had to help a little.

Here is his favorite gift. A new taggie blanket made by Cara. I LOVE it and as you can see Carter was SO EXCITED about...it was so funny. It's so cute and has his name embroidered on it. She does such great work. I also have 2 diaper bags and a purse made by her.

And I love the tradition of familes all getting new PJs for Christmas so we opened ours up and put them on. Aren't Brian's pants cool? I think they are!

We then finished up the night with this dessert....yum! Bobbie Jo made it when we were over last month and it was awesome so I had to make it!

Thanks mom and dad for coming over! And we wish everyone a blessed day with friends and family tomorrow! Merry Christmas!

Sick of being stuck inside

Well what can I say...not much! I have to say I have enjoyed not wearing make up for three days but tomorrow is back to the working world. Hopefully the roads are okay. This post is very random..just some pics of the last few days.

We have enjoyed watching the deer in our backyard. They come about every morning and afternoon. As you can see they really need to dig for food! They are pretty good size doe so hopefully one is in our freezer by the end of the month. :)



Today I about had it with Carter so I threw him outside in a snow pile.

Ha,ha....just kidding! We needed some fresh air so we went out for a few minutes and took some pics. He wasn't sure what to think.

Don't worry grandmas...I was pretty creative how I put him in the snow.


I think Carter is teething b/c we have been dealing with a runny nose and rosy cheeks. So tonight we let him sit and watch his Baby Einstein movie with his blankies. It's so cute to see him sit there and watch it and suck away at his fingers.


And our lovely fridge full of Christmas cards. Can you spot yours? I LOVE getting picture cards and I love to decorate our fridge with them!


Tonight while I was making dinner I had some supervisors...quite the management team, eh?


Brian has a potluck tomorrow at work so I made these little cheesecakes. Super easy and fun to decorate. Kraftfoods.com as always!

Winter Wonderland

Hope everyone is enjoying their day inside today! Definitely a hot chocolate drinking, nap taking, movie watching kind of day! I know a lot of people hate the snow but I think its beautiful and love it! I guess it helps that Brian was home to shovel today! :)

Here is the view of the backyard.

Looking down our road.

The neighbors helping plow the rest of our driveway and our road.

Our little snow covered home.

Christmas Party #2

Last night we had the Top Christmas party (Brian's mom's side). Brian had a severe stomach ache so unfortunately we didn't stick around to long.

Here are the cousins/2nd cousins...hard to get a good pic but they did pretty good. If I could combine all the ones I took I am sure I would have a perfect one!

Daddy checking to see how Carter's sweater will look on him. I love it!

And of course Carter was way more into the bows than the gifts. :)

And can I have a pity party for myself? I never knew my back had so many muscles...it is so SORE from shoveling the driveway yesterday. OOWWWEEE! Last year I could at least use the pregnancy excuse!

S.O. get together for Liam

Last night we had a get together with our South Olive friends to celebrate Liam and his actual due date! It was crazy to think he was supposed to be born yesterday and is already 2 months.

Brent and Candace hosted us at their house...which is beautifully decorated for Christmas. Their house was featured in the Olive Center Christmas home tour.

We all decorated onesees for Liam...they were quite humorous. Here is Brent 'playing Vanna' with one of them.

All the girls and Liam.

All the guys and Liam.

And of course I have to leave you with a pic of our buddy! I couldn't resist these conductor overalls. :)

Enjoy the snow. I just attempted to shovel the driveway...oh my! It is deep!

Kate, Christmas, kisses, and Carter

Last Wednesday Kathy and I and the boys went to Rivertown to see Kate Gosselin from Jon and Kate plus 8. We didn't stand in line to see her or get a book signed but we just wanted to see her in person. As we passed by her she turned around and waved. She is so TINY!! When I left the mall the line was all the way to Sears....it was nuts!

Thursday we had ugly Christmas sweater day at work. Not everyone had something ugly to wear so some opted to wear red and green. We took a pic of everyone that participated. I actually found my sweater at JCPenney...it was the 12 days of Christmas. They had a whole rack of ugly sweaters! Hope you don't see your mom or grandma in it at Christmas! :)

Friday we went to see baby Liam. Jen had Carter hold him and he leaned in and kissed him. It was so precious! That will be a pic they will laugh at someday! Then of course Carter took his hand and thought it was a chew toy.

Here is a video of Carter laughing at our cat, Lucky. Lucky doesn't like the cold so we are usually stuck inside with her all winter. She gets bored so she loves to play with hair twisties and chase them around the house. Carter thinks its HILARIOUS and Brian and I couldn't stop laughing at Carter laughing!

And yep, Brian made it home safe. No big buck but he had a lot of fun.

Our little buck

Carter tried to convince his dad to come home so he sent him these pictures to tell him the big bucks are at home so why go to Iowa?

Yes, they are kind of girly but we had to laugh when Carter put them on. We are having crazy Christmas attire day at work on Thursday so my mom hauled these out for me. You should see the little santa ones!

Christmas Chocolates anyone?

First off I need to say that Brian and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary this week, on Wednesday. It's been a wonderful 4 years and we have been so blessed. Brian celebrated by bowling with his league and I hung with Carter. Romantic, eh? We had decided no gifts or anything big...we are headed to Florida in January so that is kind of our anniversary/Christmas gifts to each other this year. Fine by me!

Now Brian is off to Iowa with the DeWitts to hopefully shoot a big buck. Carter now knows what we mean when we say 'big buck' and he looks at daddy's deer on the wall...its so cute. Brian had a hard time leaving his little guy today so we hope they all shoot something soon so they can come home quick!

Last night and today I have been working on making Christmas chocolates. I have never done these but a girl from my work has all the molds so I thought I would try them. They are a LOT of work but kind of fun to do. Here is the final product.

I have a cookie exchange with my old co-workers on Monday night so these are what I am going to bring. Here they are all boxed up and ready to go!

No, Carter is not bleeding. I let him lick the red chocolate spoon...yep, he has his moms love for chocolate! That's not good!

Bath time routine

Almost every night I am lucky enough for mommy or daddy to give me a bath. I love to watch my tub filling up with bubbles. Then I play with my toys for a while.
Then mommy plays with my hair as she washes it.
Ah...squeaky, clean me and ready for bed!

"All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth"

Our extended weekend thus far

Happy belated Thanksgiving! We had a busy but wonderful day with both of our families. We truly have been blessed and are so thankful for all of our wonderful families and friends. And more than anything, the love of our life, Carter.I think my cousin Brad had more fun playing with Carter's toys than Carter did. Definitely the engineer in him trying to figure it all out.
Yesterday Jen, Debi and I survived Black Friday. It really wasn't that bad and there wasn't anything we desperately needed so that helped. We had a lot of fun as always. We left at 5 and were home around 3. I think most of my shopping is done and it feels SO GOOD!

This afternoon we went and picked out our Christmas tree. And believe it or not the first one that Brian picked up was the one we took home!

And TADA! Only a couple of hours later and its decorated and complete with presents!

Tonight we are off to see Santa Claus and to the Maly's for a Holiday get together with friends for some yummy ribs that the Maly's make! Can't wait!