Jolie's Wedding

The only picture I got of the newlyweds.

Kenny's cousin Jolene got married in Delaware on the 19th of December. Lucky for us her husband, Rob is from Shelly, Idaho which is not too far from our house. They had a reception there on the 2nd of January. We were so happy to be able to go and and be able to host some for Kenny's family that day and even into the night.

Our first guest were Bruce and Nancy. They're the parents of the bride and they were our east coast family while we lived in Virginia. It was nice to have them over and to see them again. They couldn't stay long, but we enjoyed their visit.

Next Kenny's Aunt Janet, Uncle Jim, cousin Shannon and her husband Wayne came for a visit. They stayed for a few hours talking and playing with the kids. While they were here my Mother-in-law arrive and was able to visit as well. We had a nice pizza dinner before we all got ready to head to the reception.

The reception was very nice. Jolene looked beautiful and she and Rob are obviously happy. Hannah LOVED Jolie's dress and would run up to the line all throughout the evening just to touch it. It was so fun to see so many of Kenny's family. Many of them we haven't seen since the cruise in May.

Jolene and Aunt Nancy

Hannah with Jolene one of the many times she snuck up there to see Jolie's dress.

Gracie loved the cookies, can you tell!

Hannah with Great Grandma Holderness

Ben being Ben

Sarah Kate wanted a picture with Jolene, but not with that boy. For some reason she was afraid of Rob. How funny.

After the reception we came home and welcomed Kenny's mom and his Uncle Kevin and Aunt Pam for the night. Michael and Sarah also came over and stayed until everyone went to bed. It was so fun to have company over. We have wanted people to come visit us and this was a great day for that. We stayed up late talking and then woke up to a french toast and bacon dinner cooked by Kenny. Thanks to everyone who came to visit. It really made our day.

New Years Day

We had a very relaxing New Year's Day. In my opinion that is how New Year's should be, very relaxing. We woke up and had a wonderful breakfast of German Pancakes made by my sister-in-law Sarah. After that everyone just kind of hung out for awhile. The kids played, the women did a puzzle, Kenny helped his dad with their computer, and Michael watched the kids and the guys. After awhile we knew it was time to do something with the kids so we got them all bundled up to go outside.

Gracie loves sitting in the snow, eating the snow, and crawling around in the snow. It's not much, but it's about all she can do.

Climbing on Grandpa's ladder back up the hill.

Hannah being thrown in the air by Daddy. She loved this game until the one time she landed on her face and this happened . . .

She was not happy at all.

Sarah taking a rest in the snow.

Ben going sledding with Uncle Michael's sled.

It looks like fun until you realize it's a sharp, short drop that with pile of snow at the bottom.

This is what happens when you go head first into the snow at the bottom of the sledding drop.

I'm not able to do much of anything in the snow now that I'm 3 months pregnant so I was very grateful to Kenny who was willing to entertain our kids. He and Michael played with the kids letting them go sledding, play in the snow, and even building a snow fort with Kenny. Ben and Sarah stayed out a lot longer than anyone and longer I thought they would. I even had to
MAKE Sarah come in. Despite the cold, I guess they were having a lot of fun.

After sledding we came in and had a nice ham dinner prepared by Grandma. It was delicious and my kids even ate it which says a lot. After that we put Hannah and Trent done for naps (along with their dad's). Travis, Ben and Sarah helped Grandma make some rice crispy treats. It was so fun for them to dress up in Grandma's holiday aprons and do some real cooking with Grandma.

The 3 cooks.

Travis, Ben, and Sarah

Travis and Ben measured and stirred the cereal.

Sarah helped Grandma with the marshmallows.

Everyone was so happy with the final product.

It was a great New Year's holiday and we were so happy to spend it with family. We headed home around 5:00. Just in time to put the kids in bed and get ready for the next day.

New Years Eve

This year we decided to spend New Years at my in-laws. We invited ourselves and the rest of Kenny's siblings to spend a fun fill few days in Grace. Luckily my in-laws were excited about it and did mind we invited ourselves. (OK we asked first, but we did kind of invite ourselves.) It had been a Gass Christmas so we hadn't seen Kenny's family for the holidays and we were hoping his siblings could make it. We were a little dissapointed when only Michael and Sarah were in attendance. It wasn't as many people as we had hoped, but it was still a lot of fun.

Michael and Sarah

Kenny and I

Grandma and Grandpa

Our sleeping kids at midnight.

We arrived early evening on New Years Eve. The kids played nicely together and the adults were able to talk. Helen made some yummy clam chowder (I normally hate clam chowder, but this was good) and we all just spent time hanging out. After awhile we put a movie on for the kids and played hand and foot. Soon the kids were ready for bed and I was ready to put them to bed. We rang in the New Year with many games of hand and foot, some talking, and some sparkling drinks (I'd say sparkling cider, but we had 8 bottles in all with many different varieties.) It was great and we were a little tired, but I was proud of us oldies for staying up until midnight.

It looks like Michael barely made it to Midnight! Does he look a little drunk on sparkling cider?

December's Done

I'm finally done with December blogging. I can't tell you how happy it makes me. Now I can concentrate on something else. Enjoy what's there if you care and I'll try to keep up on my blog better from now on.

I Cheated

So I cheated a little. I wanted all my blogs that happened in 2008 to be recorded as posted in 2008 despite the fact that I've been lazy/busy and haven't written them. So on New Years I wrote the title to all the blogs left I had to write and left them unpublished until I could get back to them. This wouldn't be a problem, but if my blog is attached to someone elses blog my new posts would show up as being posted 5 days ago and people may not no I've updated. So, I'm writing this so Blogger registers that I have blogged today. That way people know I have new blogs. I still have Christmas to blog about, but that will probably be done in the next few days. Until then enjoy our 4 new pre-Christmas adventures and don't think I'm too weird.