Christmas...times four!

Let me begin by saying, I LOVE having more than one Christmas celebration! You get to see all of your family and have loads of fun!

The weekend before Christmas, we went down to Oklahoma for our Christmas there. We drove down Friday night, had Christmas with our cousins on Saturday night, had Christmas with our family Sunday morning, ate at PF Chang's and then drove home. It was a short, but long, weekend. It is always really disappointing to have to leave so early and spending eight hours in the car over the span of 2 1/2 days is exhausting! Nevertheless it was awesome!

The Sunday night that we got home from Oklahoma, Josh, Bella, Dakota, and I had our Christmas. It was wonderful! I love having stockings for the girls and I love, love, love watching Josh open a gift that he had no idea what it was. I got him a Tony Moeoki Chiefs jersey. It is sweet, if I do say so myself. He got me a portable, remote control heater. Awe-some! I am always cold so this works out really awesome! Bella and Dakota got a pheasant and a duck to chew up as well as treats and busy bones.

Tuesday before Christmas, we had our Perkins' Christmas. I am always in awe of their Christmas tree and the beautiful wrapping underneath. My mother-in-law is a Saint for taking so much time making it all look perfect! We ate delicious pot roast and "better-than-sex" cake! We opened gifts as a family with his parents and Brad and Julie. We did good this year, both in giving and receiving. We welcomed Julie into the family by teaching her what we do when people ask for a giftcard from us. We go into the store and buy the ugliest wierdest thing that we can find...and then video tape her when she opens it. She was a good sport and we all had a big laugh! Welcome to the fam Julie! :)

On Wednesday night, we packed up the car and drove to Lindsborg for Christmas weekend. We did lots of eating and game-playing which is what I love about coming home! I also got my hair cut on Thursday and got bangs. Yep, real, honest-to-God bangs. Well... really she just cut some hairs shorter on one side and I can pretend they are bangs. Baby steps, here. Anyway, our Christmas day was packed with opening gifts at my Mom's house Saturday morning with the Ledge and then driving to Salina to meet up with our ENTIRE family. Seriously, it is chaos. Brandy and Tyler were the only families not there. We greatly missed them! We had a white elephant gift exchange (next year we are changing that to a dirty santa exchange) and played games. Someone broke out the Wii for some "Just Dance" competition. It was fantastic! I am officially adding it to my "I want" list. Sunday we finished off our jam packed weekend by watching the Chiefs play at Kendell's house and even got to Skype with Brandy!

We had an absolute blast and feel so lucky to have gotten to spend so much time with our family this past week. Next up? Ski Trip to Breckenridge! (and so you know, I skipped New Year's Eve on purpose...I mean, really, do people still go out???)

Pics coming later-promise.

Artie's Legs

I love Glee. No, really, I LOVE GLEE! In case you do too and you watched the amazing show tonight, Artie's legs were a huge shock in our house! This is what I do on a daily basis at work. It is amazing because that device is not even available to us in the United States! It is so incredibly exciting to see it on TV and I am sure we'll all be getting calls about it from Gleeks around KC. Just so you know, it really exists. It really is called the reWalk. And really is about $20,000. Yikes!

Thanksgiving Recap

Since I haven't actually posted about Thanksgiving...here you go. About 2 weeks late.

Upon arriving in Broken Arrow, OK we ate some ribs and ocra! YUM. And then went to the gun range to shoot Dad and Josh's guns. I was a little hesitant about pulling the trigger at first. Stage fright, I guess. But after a little coaxing, I did... and hit the bullseye. No really, I came really close!

For some reason, I didn't actually take any photos of the beautiful meals that were cooked that day. We started our Thanksgiving at Josh's Granny's house with all of his cousins and his parents and brother. It was a beautifully delicious and I even volunteered to bring my step-mom Millie's awesome home-made stuffing the next year. Whoops! I guess I will need to practice before then! Pressure is on!

After lunch, we headed back to my parent's house, where I again failed to get pictures...except of the homemade apple pie that I had made the night before. And of course, I had to embellish with OU letters for the upcoming game that weekend.

It had become a tradition for my dad to take my cousins to shoot off rockets and while we were there for Thanksgiving, we got to come along. There was some *minor* drama to get the rockets shot off, but we did it. And the little man? Yep, he had a blast too! We only lost one rocket. Say, Dad, did you climb the roof after we were gone?

On Saturday, we drove down to Muskogee to see my brother and Granny. We do not get to see them nearly as often as we would like, so it is a really special time when we're there. Plus, my Granny ALWAYS has a bowl of candy setting out. Just...for...me! Well, that's what I tell myself anyway. Here is my brother with the little man. His teeth were hurting so bad and we're pretty sure he was making that face because he had just made a surprise for Uncle Buddy!

He even left a little in there for Granny, but she didn't seem to notice. He is getting too big for Granny to hold him so she propped him up on the table for some help. Again, Ledger, making the embarassed-cause-I-stunk-up-the-room face.

Our Thanksgiving was awesome as usual! We always love our trip to Oklahoma and enjoy our time with family! Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving too!

I got a call today...

from FRANK MARTIN!

No, really! It said something along the lines of... "Hi, this is Frank Martin, and I am calling to PERSONALLY invite you to the game in Kansas City against UNLV on Tuesday, December 22nd at the Sprint Center...." Yep, he said "personally". I'm in. Thanks Frankie for the invite!

Fear the Beard, Rebels, Frankie has you in his sights!