Scraplog

Christmas Recap

We had such a wonderful Christmas this year and I thought I would give a play-by-play of the events of our day. As I mentioned before, this was our first Christmas in Tennessee and although it was different than past Christmases, it was still wonderful!

This was also our first Christmas to start the day off by not opening presents. We didn’t have any presents to open because we are saving them until Brett comes (then we will have another Christmas!). Instead, we all woke up and immediately began our workout. Since my parents have been here we have roped them into doing P90X right along with us and Christmas day was no exception! We’re hard core; no days off for us :)

After we were all showered and dressed we started getting things ready for the company who would come later in the evening. We had invited a few friends and I couldn’t wait for it to all begin. We spent our afternoon picking up the house and cooking while fitting in several conversations on Skype with different family members. Josh and Jodi called and we exchanged a few presents with them while on Skype. Here are a couple of pictures:

Here I am opening my present from Josh (we shipped our gifts to each other this year). Skyping was a fun way of exchanging gifts although it’s not quite the same as being there in person :)


Jason enjoying the conversation.

I got the table set and ready…

and then we relaxed until our friends arrived…

at least some of us did :)

We also took a few pictures in front of the tree.

Once everyone got here we had a super dinner and then we had a gift exchange in the style of white elephant (aka Yankee swap). Everyone brought an item from the dollar store. It was fun to see what we all had to offer :) Some items were things you may actually want and some were things that were silly.

Kenn and Bobbi find a calculator that looks like an ipod.

Vic opens some gel pens.

Mom finds herself with a can of spray paint and an attachment for it. It was perfect for her!

A group picture with all of us showing off our treasures!

Next we played a bunch of silly games that had us all laughing quite a bit.

Nicole playing the question game.

Clark and Maureen join in the laughter.

And lastly we played a game called Psychiatrist, in which two people (Clark and Vic) left the room while we explained the game to everyone else. Then, when they come back, they have to figure out why we are doing what we are doing. It’s a little bit hard to explain unless you are actually playing along but hopefully you get the idea. Here’s Clark and Vic trying to figure it out:

This is the expression Vic had on his face for most of the game :)

Mom trying to figure out how to phrase an answer.

And Jason, just enjoying what was going on around him.

So, there you have it, our Christmas! We are so blessed to have so many people in our life that we love. And, we are looking forward to tomorrow when Brett arrives and we have another Christmas together!

Add your comment »

Merry Christmas To All 2009!

We just wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas! We are so blessed with the family and friends God has given us and we love you all!

Last year Jason and I decided that we wanted to stay home for Christmas this year and not travel. It would be our first time spending the holidays away from Oregon. Then we got the wonderful and unexpected news that my parents would be here in Tennessee for Christmas. Imagine our surprise and delight!

Since they have arrived, we have packed as much time together as possible and are enjoying every minute. Here is a picture from last night after our church’s Christmas Eve service in front of the tree:

For those of us we are not with this season, we miss you and can’t wait until we are together again! Merry Christmas to all!

Add your comment »

I Have A Crazy Family

For those of you that know us, you know we are a bit crazy. So I thought I would take you into our world a bit and show you just how crazy we are.

Two nights ago, I scheduled a internet phone conversation to take place with my Mom and Dad. When I got online, I noticed that Josh was online also. We realized we were both trying to call our parents. So, rather than talking separately, we decided to try and talk all together. It was a perfect night for it because Brett was coming to visit Josh as well so that meant that the whole family would be “together”. Jason and I here in Tennessee, my parents in Brazil, and Josh, Jodi, their kids, and Brett in Oregon all talking to each other at the same time on this wonderful device we call a computer. Isn’t technology wonderful?! Not to mention the fact that it’s free. Even better!

We normally always use Skype to talk to my parents (if you aren’t familiar with it, it’s a free video chat) but we had never attempted a 3 way call. Once we got started we realized that when doing a three way call we couldn’t see the video. But it didn’t seem to matter, we still had fun talking. Imagine 7 adults and 4 kids trying to talk all at once (not to mention the fact that Janine was also at Josh and Jodi’s with her 3 boys for a sleep over)! No, we did not have any dull moments!

Then the pictures started coming. Josh and Brett figured out how to take pictures with their web cam and send them to us while we were talking (I never could figure out how to do it). Here is where the crazy part comes in. My brothers are funny :) Here are a few of the pictures they took:

Heeheehee! We have so much fun together. I’m so thankful for technology. It sure makes it easy to be separated by such a great distance. We will probably be spending our holidays in similar fashion. It gives me something to look forward to! :)

So, now you know that if you’re ever bored, make a Skype phone call!

Add your comment »

My Grandparents Come To Tennessee

This past weekend I was so blessed to have my maternal grandparents come and visit me! They are from Idaho and have been on a road trip for the past week or so and came all the way to Tennessee to see where Jason and I live. I’m so glad they were able to be here and spend some time with us. Tomorrow, bright and early, they will be hitting the road for their next destination. Time goes so fast when you are spending it with people you love!

We have mostly been relaxing, playing games and catching up but we did take some time to sneak in a few pictures. I’m hoping to eventually have a family pictures wall and so I’m trying to get pictures of all of our families. You have already seen the pictures I took of my brother Brett, my parents, and Jason’s family (taken by Heather). Obviously, there are still some people missing but we are getting there. So naturally, I want to add our grandparents in as well! We literally only took 10 minutes to snap these pictures but I think I have a couple good ones to choose from for our wall!

Aren’t my grandparents so cute?! I love them so much.

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for coming to visit, we will miss you when you leave!!!

Add your comment »

Fun With Bocce Ball

Last month while Brett was here, he taught us how to play Bocce Ball. We had so much fun playing it that we decided to teach my Dad and Mom while they were here. The rules (that we follow) are very simple: one person throws the white ball (anywhere they want) and then each person has a chance to throw their 2 balls as close as they can to the white ball. The two balls that are the closest each get a point.

We played on teams, boys against girls. The boys won the first game.

Then the girls won the second game to tie it up…

But then, the boys won again to make them the grand champions!

If you have never played Bocce Ball, you should, it’s super fun. Just one warning… be careful of where you throw the balls :) They are very heavy and can easily destroy something. Case in point… our little birdhouse:

For our very first throw, I thought it would be fun to throw the white ball over the birdhouse (we had done this lots of times with Brett to create a challenge and it was fun). When Mom’s turn came up, her ball sailed into the birdhouse instead of over it. We all ran around to inspect the damage. Poor Mom felt so bad but we all thought it was funny. The moral of the story is, don’t throw it close to anything you care about, like windows or cars. That probably wouldn’t have been as funny :)

Add your comment »