December's Little Happenings

Before we move onto the new year, I wanted to do a quick post about some of the more little happenings and everyday life stuff that happened in December. Nothing terribly excited and no great photography here (so skip it if you want!), but I didn't want to forget about this stuff, so here it goes!

• My friend Kirsten who I grew with in church recently moved back to Olympia. The kids and I went to her house for the afternoon. It was so much fun to catch up with each other and it was special to see our girls playing together just like we did for HOURS and HOURS when we were that age. :)

•  My nephew Stephen stayed with us for a week earlier in December, and then a couple more days after Christmas. The kids adore their older cousin and we like him a lot too. :) Besides a lot playing video games and relaxing, ;) Stephen put in several days of work on the shed with Kevin (remember the one Kevin started building just before Jake was born? Um, yeah, it's still not done, but Kevin has renewed his motivation so perhaps it will get finished in the next few months...or at least year :).

Stephen also went out on Kevin's boat with him and fished for some crab in the bay (sport fishing, not commercial yet - that starts in two weeks and is out in the ocean). Jake is probably the biggest crab-eater in our house - he LOVES crab!

•  On Christmas Sunday after church, my friend Michelle from highschool (who now lives in Kansas) and her family came over for our annual visit. It's always so fun, but too short! This year we got to meet her newest addition, a precious baby girl named Abigail. :)

Michelle's oldest daughter Rachel playing the piano with Abby.

•  I spent many nights sleeping on the couch or on the floor (depending if Kevin's or my back was hurting the most!) because it took us so long to deal with cat pee incident that happened when we went on vacation and the cat was left in our bedroom for three days. (by the way, this device here is excellent for finding urine spots if you ever have such a problem!)

I think I know why some people braid long hair at night after seeing this picture of myself! Yikes!

• Abby and I went on a shopping date and then to Panera Bread. I fell in love with Panera Bread when we ate their several times as a volleyball team while I attended PBU in Pennsylvania. I was ecstatic when the first one came to Washington the first year I got back from PA and now we have two in our area. One moved in about five blocks from my house two years ago, but mostly because we try to not spend much money eating out, this was the first time I finally got to go! Abby loved the food and it was a very sweet time for us together. I snapped a picture with my phone so we wouldn't ever forget our special date!

•  My brother bought the kids a gingerbread house to decorate - they really enjoyed it and had fun sneaking pieces of candy in the days following. :)

•  Kevin's mom bought the big two amarillas bulb kits and they enjoyed planting them and anxiously watch them grow (weirdly, Abby's has grown WAY faster than Ben's, but thankfully he's not too upset about it :).

•  We did a couple notable items that didn't get photographed. One, we had some adults from our church over for dinner. We ended up having so much fun playing games and visiting that they didn't leave until 12:30am!! Haven't done that in years! Two, the Marks gals (my mother-in-law, my sister-in-law and niece, and Abby and me) went to the Nutcracker ballet together. We had a lovely time and I was so bummed that I forgot to bring my camera! :( Three, we traveled up to Seattle to celebrate my friend Shauna's son's first birthday. Four, the kids and I had fun spotting Christmas lights everywhere we drove and frequently went on spontaneous detours just to find more. I love how excited little kids get about stuff like that. :)
• And finally, a few random pictures:

Waving goodbye to Grandma from one of her frequent visits.

This is frequently the view behind me as I'm driving! The boys love holding hands with big sister. :)

Silly brothers!

Cuddling brothers (THIS does not happen often!!).