Reflections..

As it closes in on the end of the year. I have been reflecting on the many events that have happened this year. Our family had been given many blessings and has faced many challenges in 2010. We have started a new life in Washington state. Which in itself has been the greatest of blessings and the biggest of challenges of all! We have hit some bumps along the way as we have started our new life up here. One of them being Ryan parting ways with his brother in law and finding a new job with Real Carriage Doors. He is happy at his new job and I love that he comes home in a good mood at night.

I have found some good friends not only up here but have reconnected with some dear friends of mine from high school (thanks Facebook). I am blessed to have been able to make the connections I have with the girls up here. It is nice to have friends with children and have our little playgroup. I have also been blessed to have been able to stay home for the last year and finish my degree. My husband has truly given me a gift that is unmeasurable. I am not sure if he understands how much it means to me that he has busted his butt so much to allow me to stay at home and take care of our boy and finish school.

God has blessed us in so many ways this last year and I am grateful for everything He has given us. I know that 2011 holds many new blessings and challenges and I can't wait to see what they are.

Christmas pictures :)

There are many pictures that we took from this morning but way too many to post! Here are just a few of the tree, our full stockings and Vance at his tool bench. Enjoy! If you are on Facebook I will make an album with all the pictures taken today. :)

Merry Christmas!!

From our family to yours we wish you a very Merry Christmas and many blessings in the new year! We have had an eventful morning already. We had to sort of booby trap the hallway upstairs because our son is a ninja and can sneak downstairs without anyone knowing. So last night we placed our card table on its side in the hallway just outside of his door. That way we would hear him if he tried to sneak downstairs. I awoke bright and early at 6 am and there wasn't a sound to be heard in the house. So I laid in bed and awaited sounds from Vance to fill the air. Around 6:50 this morning I heard the squeak of his door. I patted Ryan on the back and said "He's up!" Suddenly you hear Vance from the hallway say "Hey! What is this table doing here? I can't get out!! Mom, can you come move this table please?" It was great! So up we sprung from bed and put robes on and contacts in (all the while vance is still trapped, lol). I came downstairs and grabbed the video camera, put some coffee on, and grabbed the camera and awaited the boys arrival downstairs. Vance was soooo excited to see that Santa had come and brought him tools. We were truly blessed this year by our family and feel extremely loved by all the amazing gifts we received. Thank you to each and every one of you!!! You have all made this Christmas very special and memorable.

We have the house cleaned up already, vaccumed, and toys placed neatly in Vance's playroom. Little smokies are in the crock pot so we can have some munchies throughout the day. Later I will be putting our Christmas ham in the oven, peeling potatoes for mashed potatoes, and making a vegetable casserole. Our first Christmas in Washington is turning out to be a very blessed and wonderful day! Many memories have already been made and I am sure more are to come. We love and miss our families very much, but are comforted knowing they are with us in our hearts as I am sure we are with them in their hearts. We will see you all soon.

Random Christmas pictures

New Bed

So a few months ago Vance decided that his bed was too small for him. At the time he was in a toddler bed and we unfortunately didn't have the money to go out and buy a new bed right away. So to improvise we blew up our queen size air matress and he has been sleeping on that for a while now. Of course boys will be boys and he jumped on it a lot causing a slow leak somewhere. Thankfully we found a place that does lay-away and we put a bed aside for him for Christmas. It came in early so we decided to go ahead and have it delivered so he could sleep in it instead of the air mattress. Here are a few pictures of when he first saw it.

This one of him on the bed is blurry because he is jumping up and down on it LOL!! Good thing we went with a sturdy bed! We bought him Spiderman sheets and a comforter for Christmas can't wait until he gets to open those packages and we put them on the bed. Those pictures coming soon!!

O' Christmas Tree con.

Our beautiful 8 ft. Douglas fir (which we think we stole for $35) has filled the air with the wonderful aroma of pine. This is a wonderful new memory to be making after years of a fake tree a real one is a treat! It stayed undecorated for a few days but in the interim Vance decided he would decorate it with a few things take a look

Yes those would be a toy dragon from the movie "How to Train a Dragon", Optimus Prime from "Transformers", a few books and various other transformers. When he was done putting them in the tree he stepped back and said "Mom, is it boo-tafull?" God I love that little man!

Eventually the tree did get decorated and I LOVE it! It is full of many bulbs and ornaments that have special meanings and memories associated with them. We have a few bulbs that are "baby's first Christmas", one that is "Our first Christmas", Ryan's "Jeff Gordon" ornament, a special Christopher Radko (sp?) ornament, An ornament that was Ryan's Uncle David's (may he rest in peace) and various bulbs and ornaments that were on my tree as a child growing up that momma passed down to me when I moved out. Including MY baby's 1st Christmas ornament. Check out our finished product.....

O' Christmas Tree

I am a little behind in getting these posts on here but better late than never. We went and bought a Christmas tree this year (a REAL one!!). We were so excited to get it home and put it up. It is an 8 ft. tree which barely fit in our little townhome (see how the top touches the ceiling, we had to trim a little off) but we think it is perfect. Here is a picture of our tree after we got it in the house.

Christmas packages

This time of year is so exciting! Since we are not going to be home with our family we are being blessed with many packages coming to our home. Yesterday we were blessed with a great present from my Aunt Christine and Uncle Chris. A wonderful fruit box with amazing looking pears (my favorite) and manadarin oranges. Vance has already enjoyed two of the oranges. Ryan and I were going to share a pear last night before dinner but they are not quite ripe just yet. I can't wait to bite into one of them in a few days!!! Thank you Christine and Christopher for our wonderful fruit box!!! We love you guys and miss you!

Nice suprise

Today when I checked the mail there was a tiny box in it from a friend of mine I worked with at SBS. It was addressed to Ryan and I so I opened it and found inside a nice Christmas card and a bag of her homemade caramel popcorn. It was a nice surprise! Her caramel popcorn is delicious and melts in your mouth like butta!! LOL

Thanks Kelli!

Anxiously awaiting

I am waiting for my final grade in my last class. I feel like I am sitting on pins and needles awaiting the outcome of this class. It was over on the 1st and the teacher has until the 20th to get grades in. Seems unfair we have to wait til then just because this particular class finished 2 weeks earlier than the quarter ended!!! I really want to know my grade because my final GPA is depending on it!!! UGHHH the waiting is killing me :(

Making new Christmas memories

As I was decking the halls the other day, I realized that we don't have family stockings. So today we went to the store and bought new Christmas stockings. They are adorable and I LOVE them!!! I have hung them by the chimney with care and also decorated the windows in order to fill the house with Christmas spirit :) Here are a few pictures to share. Hope you enjoy!!

A box marked XMAS

A funny story accompanies me decking the halls today. I had two boxes marked Christmas or XMAS. In which I thought were decorations. They had both been full of decorations in the past so I had no reason to think other wise. I got the smaller of the two boxes out of the closet and opened it. Much to my surprise, it was full of bathroom stuff from our master bath in Vegas. For a year this box has sat in the top of a closet. Both Ryan and I have looked for things that are in this box many times and we chalked it up to the stuff being "lost in the move". Guess they werent lost after all just temporarily misplaced....

Deck the halls

I decided today was the day to "deck the halls" given it is the first of December and because it always puts me in a good mood. This is the first year that we won't be with family for Christmas. I am filled with a mix of emotions. I am excited to start our own family traditions such as cutting down a fresh tree. One of my friends told me about a tradition in their family called the Elf on the Shelf. It is a cute little elf that shows up at the house and watches over the children to ensure they are behaving and every night it returns to the North Pole to report to Santa. We are going to implement the same tradition into our house. I am excited to see how Vance does with it.

With my excitement there is also sadness. I know that I am an adult but this is the first year that I have ever been away from my mother on Christmas. Granted I have not been in the same house as her on Christmas morning for years, however, I have never not been able to get in the car and drive to see her. I know that she too feels sadness about us not being home for Christmas. I have to find strength in the fact that we will be together next year and in that I am starting traditions with my amazing husband and wonderful little boy.