Well, over a month later, I finally got the Christmas pictures up.... Here ya go! Getting ready to eat... My first attempt at Christmas dinner. I must say it turned out well! Yum! Christmas Tree with all of the presents underneath! I love Christmas! 3 Generations! Lucas and I Grammy and Papa The whole fam (Lucas, Me, Grammy, Papa, Mom, Dad and of course, Hailey) Lucas opening presents. Grammy laughing hysterically because my parents bought her pack of LeSuer peas. She has complained numerous times about the high price for peas, so she got a Sam's pack! Grammy finally composed herself after getting a second pack of peas from Lucas and I. Apparently she complained about that MANY times! Now she has enough peas to last a lifetime... well at least a couple of weeks! And the Scavenger Hunt begins... We decided to cut back on presents this year, so we just got funny small things for my parents, so in order to make it memorable, we made them take a scavenger hunt to find all of their presents! I think we all had a good time! Hailey's scavenger presents to my parents :-)

Well, we ran out of places to hide things around the house... This picture really 'cracks' me up!

Mini-Moo's! For those of you who don't know, I call my mom Moo... hence all of the cow stuff. I don't really think she's fat, and I'm not really sure why I call her that... Cow beanie baby - Moooooooo!

All of the scavenger presents together.

Intently playing our new Wii game. Lucas made me put this picture on here...

Me, Mom and Dad waiting to open our presents.

Me and Mom

The aftermath

And Hailey has had enough...

Well, I haven't been having much time at home to update the blog lately... We have been pretty busy trying to get everything together for our trip to Brasil! But, for Christmas, which was several weeks ago now, my parents and Grammy and Papa came up the weekend before Christmas to celebrate a little early! They came in on Thursday night and then we just relaxed and chatted on Friday. Saturday we did "Christmas" and had Christmas dinner! (Yum!) Then Sunday we went to church and came back and played games and chatted. Seems like we didn't do much, but it was WAY too cold to do much of anything outside! It was fun to just get to sit in front of the fire and enjoy each other's company though! I am happy to say that I was successful at my first attempt to make my own Christmas dinner, including Turkey (which turned out wonderfully! Thank you Danielle for your wonderful recipe!), dressing, mashed potatoes, green beans, cranberry sauce, rolls, pumpkin and pecan pie! We kept it pretty simple this year. I just asked everyone what one thing that they wanted for the dinner was! But I have to say that it turned out pretty good! Yay! I was sad to see them leave on Monday, but they had to get back for my cousin Kristin's wedding, which unfortunately Lucas and I didn't get to make it to! We were so hoping that we could go, but with Lucas' limited vacation and our scheduled trip to Brasil for two weeks, it just wasn't going to happen... Kristin and Aaron, know that we were thinking of you and we both wish you all the happiness in the world! Being married is a wonderful blessing! Enjoy it! Congratulations! :-) Well, I'll post some pictures from their visit and our Christmas scavenger hunt in the next post... It might not be until we get back though... But, hopefully I'll have time to get caught up some day!

Well we decided to start the new year off right! Annie convinced a group of us that we needed to go run a fun run on New Years day so we can truly be ringin' in, I mean "Runnin' in the New Year!" Annie and Rob made us shirts and everything! It was actually pretty fun, and a nice SUNNY day for once! It was a little windy and a tad chilly but not too bad, at least we got to see the sun! (It is now back to the rainy misery that has become Huntsville the last month!) Annie and I decided to run the 2 mile fun run, while the rest of the group ran the 1 mile fun run! Haha! Hey, at least we got out and did something on New Years day right? We won't even discuss how long it took me to run 2 miles! Who would ever know that I used to be able to run 2 miles in under 13 minutes.... Oh well, I'm older and wiser now right?! All in all we had a great time, and have already planned our next run! I guess I had better get training!

The girls (Ashley, Annie, Kim and me) getting ready to run...

The whole group! (Ashley, Kim, me, Lucas, Annie and Rob)

Me sprinting for the finish! Haha... ok not really sprinting...

Annie making her way to the finish!

Our attempt at a staged finish with all of us (staged since we didn't all run the same race!)

We finally just asked someone to take the picture for us, since we were not having very good luck with the timer...

Lucas ate a DOUGHNUT after he ran, to "refuel" after that strenuous 1 mile run... He's silly...

Well, it has been over a month since I have posted anything on my blog! I can't believe it! The time is just flying by! It amazes me that December is already 2 weeks in! My parents and grandparents are coming in next weekend to celebrate Christmas. Lucas and I won't be making the trek back to Texas this year, unfortunately because we are traveling to Brazil in January and don't have enough vacation... Welcome to the real world!!!! It will be great to celebrate Christmas with the family, but I am said that this is the first Christmas in my life that I am not going to get to spend with my Aunt and Uncle and cousin, Melissa. It just won't be the same without them! The fam is arriving Thursday, December 18th and will stay through the weekend. I am hoping that we will get to travel up to Nashville to go to the Gaylord Opryland and see the ice sculptures, and maybe visit with my Aunt and Uncle Kenneth and Glenda. Christmas soapbox: Christmas is my favorite time of the year. So many people see this time of the year as a time of stress, but I just can't imagine that! This is the time for family and friends, fun and food, love and joy, relaxation and fellowship. I think that the key to making Christmas the most memorable time of the year is remembering what the season is truly about. Maybe if everyone would just take the time to focus on the TRUE meaning of Christmas, rather than all the money that we "have" to spend, all of the gifts that we "have" to buy, and all of the food that we "have" to prepare, and just remember that this is a season for CELEBRATION. Just think where we would be without the love of Christ today, and just give thanks. I challenge everyone not to get caught up in the commercialism of Christmas this year, and truly make a celebration of the birth of Jesus. Maybe we can all take the tradition of one of my friends and sing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus this year. Is that not enough reason to celebrate and put the worries of the world behind us!? You are my freedom Jesus you’re the reason I’m kneeling again at Your throne Where would I be without You Here in my life? ~Love that song! :-) Merry Christmas everyone!!!!!!!!!

Grammy and Papa came to visit us in November! Almost a month ago now! Wow how time flies! It was so good to have them here! They had not been to Huntsville since we moved here, almost two years ago now! (Can you believe that we have lived here that long?!)

We had a great time with them. They came on Friday afternoon and we went to Casa Blanca (one of the best Mexican restaurants in town in my opinion... but boy do I miss Texas Mexican food...) Of course it was FREEZING when they were here, and it rained most of the time they were here, so we didn't get to go see as many things as I had hoped that we would... but the trees were still beautiful, although we had had a storm come through, so some of the leaves were beginning to fall.

We took them up to Monte Sano Mountain and enjoyed the view. We played several games while they were here also, and they came to our church with us! We have been so truly blessed with our church. I don't think that I could have made it here with out it!

Me and Grammy on top of Monte Sano

Grammy, Papa, and me looking out over Huntsville

Cute little cabin on the mountain! - Look at all of those leaves!

Cool tree up on the mountain with a beautiful view! I LOVE the fall.

On Sunday afternoon my Aunt and Uncle, from Nashville came down to have lunch with us! Lucas made his WONDERFUL white sauce (that's right ladies, I have the best husband in the world!) We visited with them for most of the afternoon, then played games in the evening with Grammy and Papa once Kenneth and Glenda left.

On Monday, we went to Rainbow Mountain to see some more pretty places, and to let Hailey run around a little. It was really nice, and I'm glad that the weather let up enough for us to enjoy nature a little.

Lucas posing :-)

Hailey crawled through a tunnel!