The Holidays

We typically spend Christmas Eve with the Beaver side of the family, that has been a tradition for as long as I can remember. The family is growing with Jacob, Will, Paul, Cheney, Aidan and little Keegan was sick at home. We always have fun catching up with the cousins and watching the little ones play! Somehow Chris was stuck on the couch during the little cousin photo....

Dad & PJ, tried to take a little cat nap, though that didn't last very long!

Later that evening we went to church at St. Christopher's the 8pm service which was perfect for the 5 of us as we just didn't think we could stay awake until 11pm that night.

Christmas morning Chris and I exchanged our gifts and enjoyed some alone time!

We (My Parents) have been getting their Christmas tree from Gatewood's since before I was born. And the tree has always been real and it has always been flocked (the white stuff on the tree). I was just told the sad news that Gatewood's isn't going to flock trees anymore. And my Dad doesn't think that real green trees are as pretty so they are going to look for a fake one. Oh no!!!!! So I had to get a familiy portrait in front of the last flocked tree.

Chicago

We went up to Chicago December 12th and hung out with Kerri and the kids (Cooper & Kriston) for the afternoon. Cooper loves basketball so we taught him how to play horse using Cooper! Very fun! Then we went to our friends house Vicki & Dan Smith. Saturday Vicki and I went shopping downtown and it rained almost the entire time. The crowds were huge, but we had fun! The boys stayed home and truthfully I don't want to know what they did! They both are working long hours so it was some well deserved time to themselves without their wives around!

Blogging Award (Thanks Erin!)

How exciting! Erin sent me a Kreativ Blogger Award!

I will take this award with pride and follow the rules. I need to send this to 6 lucky bloggers...

List six things that make you happy. Pass the award along to six more bloggers.: Do not give the typical answers and go for the less obvious, as you all know that family, friends, God, etc would be on the list :

1. Starbuck's White Chocolate Mocha (decaf, skinny and no whip cream)
That is my favorite drink in the winter time. Decaf b/c I can't drink caffeine, it gives me a headache. I think that is thanks to my cheer coach in High School (Beth Horine Beaver) who made us stop drinking soda when I was a freshman.

2. After work, after dinner and a tired dog make me happy. That just means that I can relax on the couch and watch TV before heading off to bed.

3. A happy husband that can make me smile. And he does it without caffeine which is the kicker! Even at 5:30am before our adult fitness class he is happy and joking around!

4. Buying gifts for other people. Planning out the list of people and what we are going to get for them and thinking about the smile on their face when they open it!

5. Murad Energizing Pomegranate Lip Protector (with SPF 15) makes my lips happy every time I put it on!!

6. Exercise makes me happy, it is my time every day to myself where I listen to music, workout my frustrations and I don't have to answer the phone or check my e-mail.

So that is my list, though I think it could be longer! So my nominations go to.....
Kelly Applegate, Becky Meek, Katie Fox, Brandy McHugh, Nicole Kelker

Thanksgiving 2008

Both of our families live just outside of Indianapolis so it is very easy for us to see everyone over the Thanksgiving holiday! Chris and Blake started out with the annual Turkey Bowl football game which was held at Dillon Park this year. I went over to Mom and Dad's to help cook (oh and Randi got to come along). The big deal of Thanksgiving this year was the "Mystery Guests" that my parents talked about. Blake and I both got 3 questions to ask about these guests. 2 weeks ago I was out of questions to ask and couldn't come up with an answer of who the guests were going to be. I was at Bob Fearrin's 50th Anniversary of being in business in Carmel and he accidentally spilled the beans. Mom and I were getting ready to leave his open house at his office and he said see you on Thursday and I said ah ha, the mystery guests are Mr. & Mrs. Fearrin!!! What a fun time we had though! And the weather was nice enough that we attempted to take our annual Christmas photo.

Friday we did our usual Sunday routine, sleep in until Randi wants to get up (like 7:30am) and work out and eat at Panera. We attempted to go to a couple stores to shop and then I went downtown to have lunch with Web and Mo. It was great to catch up with them!

Friday evening was our annual Beaver, Fearrin, McHugh, Voris Christmas Party. Molly and her husband Jesse aren't usually in town over the holidays and this year they were here for Thanksgiving so we had our party early! What a treat to have all the 4 families and their kids and their kids kids!! I went a little crazy with the camera and took many photos of all the babies (5 of them this year, Carter, Lilly, Kennedy, Ansley and Ella). What a wonderful tradition! To the right you will see Carter and his Dad Kyle and below that is Ella. To the left you will see Ansley and Lilly and I didn't get any photos of Kennedy (sorry!) though I bet you can see them on the Applegate blog.....





Saturday we hopped in the car and headed to Batesville. When we arrived we were challenged to a game of Wii bowling. Chris's parents purchased a Wii and it got its fair share of playing this weekend! We had a wonderful meal on Saturday and lots of playing the Wii and I might add that I kicked butt in bowling! I am horrible at golf on the other hand. Wow, what a long post!

Chris turns 30!!

We have a lot to be thankful for in November this year! Chris turned 30 is the first thing. We had a very nice dinner at Kincaid's with the Beavers! He proceeded to open gifts and he received a juicer (which he was super excited about, why I'm not sure...) and a new cell phone (since his old one was eaten by the DD - which is short for damn dog).

We then drove to Shelbyville on Saturday and met the Powell's for a nice dinner at the Fiddler's Three with his parents, grandparents, sister and fiance!