2012: Starting out right

January has already been a blast and a half - even with all we've done in our many years of friendship, courtship, and marriage-ship it looks like 2012 is gonna top a lot of lists.

 

The BEST part of the month (sorry to start with the wonderful-est part first) was discovering our new family member is a GIRL!  The jury is still out on names, but anticipating a daughter is oober exciting...if only I could actually get around to decorating the nursery...

We had a mini-reunion with some of the sister missionaries from my mission - including my greenie! She and her husband were visiting from BYU-Hawaii.  Looks like she is expecting their first baby in July. It was great to see her and the rest of the sisters.

We also took a weekend to drive up and see Rachel, Dorian, William, and brand-new baby Emma in Roosevelt.  Of course we planned it on top of a snowstorm, but driving actually wasn't that bad.

We had a GREAT time - special thanks to Dorian for whipping up some fantastically tasting Japanese food.  I think I finally got my fill of rice...AND kimchi (special treat for us!) We also managed to fit in homemade waffle cones with Coldstone ice cream, pancakes at the Eddington's home, AND the traditional stuffage at a Chinese buffet.  Add onto that time out shooting 6 different kinds of guns, sleeping on a thousand fingers, and pillow-fights with William...you have an awesome weekend.  And we still got back in time to teach Nursery at church the next day.

 

Driving to and from Roosevelt gave us a chance to really enjoy our new "old-fogey" habit: Dustin and I have discovered how much fun it is to read books aloud together.  We finished "Treasure Island" by R.L. Stevenson and began "The Hobbit." (We have now finished The Hobbit and are almost through with "The Hunger Games" trilogy.  Fun times.)

 

2012 is definitely going to be a great ride.

Family ties

This is my incredible and long-time friend Rachel. She helped us finally get Mom the family pictures she's wanted for so long - and I think they turned out great!  The fall colors up Provo canyon were beautiful, and it's great to have happiness captured like this:

 We sisters are so much fun!!!

And I love that Dustin and I were able to get a few of our little "family" shots - baby is only about 2 months along here, but we were already so excited about it!!

Family - it's pretty much the best thing ever to happen to me.

November

     This will be mostly a photo blog - because I still have one more last year post after this before I jump into the new 2012 and its joys.  Thanksgiving at the farm - this would have been my FIFTH year missing this tradition (Jerusalem, mission, mission, in-laws) had my husband not gotten us up there to enjoy what to me IS Thanksgiving.  Some fun perks from this year:

   I was the soccer-mom-chauffer for the early morning Turkey Trot 5K group - I'll have to run it next year when I'm not suffering from morning sickness :)

  We had an incredible dinner (no surprise) complete with THREE fired turkeys (the extra being done by Uncle Doug this year in his new fryer - way to go!)  Also had long-time friend and awesome mission companion Kathryn Wilson there to make the occasion even better.



Our after-dinner celebration was an addition this year straight from the backwoods of Washington :)  Apparently hiding behind a large cardboard turkey and getting shot at with paint balls is a lot of fun when you are stuffed to the brim with good food :)  Uncle Doug, I hope those welts have gone away!!!


 

Happy Holidays!!