...And A Happy New Year

New Year's was a lot of fun. Most of my family was out of town so last minute I decided to have a New Year's Eve party. A handful of friends came over as well as Ryan, Rachel, and the boys. We had a bunch of yummy finger foods. Allan's friend Ed made homemade wings!! YUMMY!
We played some rockband, Poker, and Clue. It was nice to be surrounded by loved ones and friends on the New Year.

The boy's kicking out some Rockband! Allan, Ed, Joe, and Ryan

Texas Hold'em. I think Rhett won this round!
Me and Rachel ringing in the New Year!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Christmas Continues...

Nate spent this Christmas with his dad. It was my first Christmas without Nate and the days leading up to that day were hard. I was really down on Christmas Eve. Allan and I were supposed to go to Tyler to spend the day with his family. I found out the day before that those plans were changed due to his niece and nephew not being there. We really wanted to see them and so we changed our plans to have Christmas with them that Saturday. It worked out better that way anyways cause Allan had to work a half day that day and we wouldn't have gotten out to Tyler till late in the afternoon. Knowing Allan had to work I spent the first half of the day being a lazy bump. I don't think I got dressed until....??? I did decide that I wanted to make the most of the evening and so I took out some pork chops and planned a nice dinner. Around 6pm that night I realized that I hadn't bought anything for Christmas morning breakfast. So Allan took me to the store and I bought a feast. When we got back to the apartment I started on dinner. Allan found "It's A Wonderful Life" on TV. I had never seen the whole thing before so we decided to watch that. We ate dinner, watched the movie and played Monopoly. Allan is so good about getting my mind off my worries. I would have never imagined that I would have enjoyed my Christmas eve so much without Nate.

Christmas day turned out to be a great day. Allan and I spoiled each other with presents. We then went to my parents for dinner. Before dinner, my parents taught Allan and I how to play cribbage. It was girls against guys and the girls kicked butt. We decided to not do the traditional Christmas dinner since we had just had it. Instead, we had a seafood dinner with tons of yummy crab legs. There was so much food that it could have fed the entire block. Ryan, Rachel, and the boys came for dinner too. After dinner we all played a game of Clue. I hadn't played it in ages. The highlight of my evening was when I got a phone call from Jon asking if I wanted Nate that night. I was so excited to get my baby back a day early.

I told Nate when we got home that he would have to go to bed right away cause I had made a special phone call to Santa to come bring him his presents late. The next morning he was so excited and we had a little family Christmas with Nate being the center of attention.

Nate getting his first look at his presents from Santa.

For 6 months Nate has been asking for a "Rocket Fishing Rod". Looks like Santa delivered!!

It's your friendly neighborhood SpiderNate. (He didn't take this costume off for two days.)

Merry Christmas Everyone!

We Wish You a Merry Christmas

We held Christmas early with the family due to some going out of town and other happenings on the actual day. The enitre family met over at my mom and dad's to spend time together. Needless to say we had an amazing time and I can't speak for everyone else but I felt so blessed to be able to spend a day with my family and enjoy each others company. This is what it looks like when you have 2 grandparents, 6 parents, and 6 grandkids!!
Santa (aka Allan) came to visit the kids.
Raiden wasn't sure what to think about it.

The rest of them loved the visit. Rhett looks like he is trying to escape!

Auntie let Makayla dig into her presents first.

Nate loves his Planet Heros he got from Auntie and Uncle Steven.

Little Miss Emma was more interested in decorating herself then opening presents.

I have been told...

that I am WAYYY overdue on a blog post. I can totally agree with that. I have so much to catch up on that in order to keep my sanity I pledge to add a few post each day until I am fully caught up. I will have to begin with christmas because it seems that is where I left off.