Look at this HANDSOME Boy

Best Christmas Present Yet Part II

As most of you know, Noel gave me a super fantastic Christmas present this year...tickets to see Brad Paisley. I love Brad Paisley!

The concert was last Thursday. We went with our friends Bart and Emily. Bart is the one who gave Noel the idea to get the tickets. Nice work! We went to dinner together and then it was off to the concert. At the concert, Noel made the observation that you can definitely tell the difference between the real cowboys and the poser cowboys. :)

Justin Moore and Miranda Lambert were the opening acts. Blake Shelton also made a surprise appearance. But of course Brad was the best! He played all of my favorite songs; it was a blast! I will definitely remember this Christmas present for years and years to come. Thanks again, Noel for the fantastic present!

I forgot my camera (oops), so thanks to Emily and Bart for giving me their pictures.

Christmas 2009

We enjoyed a very happy Christmas once again this year. Noel was grateful for a break from school. Let's be honest, I was glad that he had a break too. He's been working really hard, and it was nice to get to see him a ton. Greg was old enough to kind of get opening presents this year, especially after seeing his cousins' spectacular present-opening form!

Before visiting Noel's family, we opened our gifts from my parents and sister and the gifts to each other. While we opened presents, Greg would just tear open the end of his presents and then lift out the gift.

My spectacular gift to Noel so he won't freeze completely when riding his bike to school.

Christmas Eve: Had a delicious meal, then opened our new pjs, read Luke 2.

My beautiful sister-in-law Hayley.

Cutie-pants niece Julia

Greg with Grandma

Hayley sporting her new onesie pajamas

Hayley and Rusty

The love sacks were a big hit! The kids loved to run and jump on them. Here is LesliAnn, Julia, Greg, Noel and Luke enjoying the comfort of the love sack.

Noel's birthday is the 28th. I always feel bad for him because it is right in between Christmas and New Years, and I always neglect it a bit (not on purpose...I just do. What kind of wife am I?!?!) For his birthday, we (Noel, Maren, Jordan, Hayley, Chris, and I) went to his all-time favorite eating establishment, Empire Hots. It is this hole in the wall that he would go to all the time when he was in high school. Empire Hots is famous for their trash plate. It consists of home fries and cold-mac (aka macaroni salad) with two hamburger patties on top covered with chili sauce. Sounds disgusting and looks disgusting to be completely honest, but it is really quite tasty.

Then what's a birthday without some birthday cake, ice cream, and several rousing games of KILLER BUNNIES?!?! That game was a big hit!

One of the days of our vacation, LesliAnn and I took the kids to this place called The Sandbox. It had a bunch of fun stuff for the kids to play with: slides, a sandbox, costumes, puppets, a jump house, etc.

Luke playing with the trains and Greg in the pretty pink car.

Julia in her beautiful princess skirt.

By far, Greg's favorite thing was to ride around in these little cars. If he got out of one, he would just go get in another.

Greg had a ton of fun with Luke and Julia. He absolutely loved Julia and would follow her everywhere and mimic her every move. It was too cute.

New Year's Day: The Stockmans and the Lanes came over for dinner. It was super fun to see them. Here's a picture of the fam on New Years.

Greg with Grandpa

We had such a great time. One thing about living far from family is that I miss them like crazy. I call my mom and sisters saying that I'm homesick more times than I'd care to admit. But being away makes the time together that much more precious! I just love it!

Last picture...I promise. Greg got this little shirt for Christmas from Lynne and Gordie. He wore it the other day, and I was so excited to put on his cape that Aunt Adele made him. Of course, he didn't quite cooperate with the cape. Can you tell he cut four molars this week? He has had his hand in his mouth non-stop!

Random

Noel was so kind to put my pictures from my memory disk onto the computer. For whatever reason, I have been avoiding it. Some of the pictures on there were from before Thanksgiving, but I think they are too fun not to keep a record of them.

This is what happens when you give a baby a bowl of yogurt for breakfast and leave him alone while you check email and Facebook. Lesson learned. Too funny!

For whatever reason, Greg loves to play in the kitchen and this is how my kitchen looks almost all the time.

Love that face!!!

Helping Grandpa with one of the many projects we had him do while he was here for Thanksgiving.

Wearing Noel's fleece skull cap.

Just like his dad!

Greg's favorite place to play