Ichiban with friends!

A few Saturdays back, Xander spent the night we Jared and I. Saturday afternoon I picked up Xander and took him to visit Addi for a while. Next, we met Katie, Hannah, Jaiden, and Pam at the PG park. We played there for several hours. Then we met Daddy, Mama, Daddy, Josh, and Casey at Ichiban's. We had been promising to take Xander to a Japanese steakhouse and he was so excited. He and Hannah had so much fun laughing and watching the fire. The waiter gave Xander the royal treatment! He let Xander flip an egg in the air, catch a shrimp tail in his mouth, and made jokes about him the whole night. He asked Hannah to flip an egg, but she wouldn't. He did have Josh and Casey have an egg toss up because Josh was wearing an Auburn hat and Casey and Alabama one! We spent a good night with good friends!

Snow!

Here in Alabama, we saw our fair share of snow this winter! I love snow and I love the cold weather! Jared and I went out for a walk in our yard, made a snow angel, and Jared threw some snowballs at Ms. C.'s yard...I bet she watched and had few choice words! HE!HE!

Let me tell you 'bout my best friend..

She's a little blue-eyed blonde...with the best personality you could ever imagine!
Here are some things I love about her...
1. She yells to me from far off because she is so excited to see me!
2. She announces my arrival to any event as if everyone is as happy to see me as she is!
3. She calls me her best friend in the best southern accent!
4. She hugs me so tight I know she loves me!
5. She's bossy, like me!
6. She always tells me I am pretty, my clothes are pretty, and my jewelry, even if I'm not actually looking my best!
7. She's beautiful!
8. She makes me laugh A LOT!
9. She thinks it's cool to come to my house...and fun! (Look below for pictures.)
10. She shares with me (even if she does put her mouth on it a little before she gives me my half if it's food.)
Look at that face! You can just glance at her and know she is special!
These are pics taken when she came over to play to give her mommy a break since her mommy was not feeling very well.

ICE! A Charlie Brown Christmas!

As one of my Christmas presents, Jared surprised me with tickets to ICE! I had been wanting to go, but it just gets so busy at Christmas time. I have always been a Charlie Brown fan. I have the BEST husband in the world! We drove up Friday, January 1, to Nashville and spent the night with our good friends, Randy and Tara Nel M. We had fun playing Quelf with Randy and Tara Nel, enjoyed a good meal and good company and went to bed. We woke up Saturday morning (to snow!) and went to Opryland to see ICE! It is so cold for the frozen ice stautues that are set up as scenes from A Charlie Brown Christmas to stay solid. They said the average temp is -8 degrees or less! They give you this giant blue coat to wear over your own coat. It was so pretty! I even stood in line, where I thought my feet were being frost bitten because the steps had a thin little carpet over the ice steps, to ride the giant ice slide. Jared wanted to take my picture so he stayed at the end of the slide waiting for me. When it was his turn, he was too cold and said his khakis were too thin to slide on ice, so we moved to the next room. Next time, we will now to layer more and I will wear my fur lined boots! Thanks Jared! I love you!









* For some reason the picture of me on the slide will not publish to blogger! Oh well! You'll just have to trust me on how cool it was!
Afterwards, Jared and I walked over to the Opry Mills Mall and had lunch at the Shark Reef Cafe. It was so delicious! It was so neat to watch the sharks swim around the tank in the middle of the restaurant as you ate!

Exposure Youth Camp

Jared and I have wanted to attend EYC for years with our youth group and this year it worked out that we could! We were so excited! Sylvan Springs has some of the sweetest, fun-loving teenagers you will meet! Plus, they don't mind if us "young at hearts" hang with them every once in a while! It lasted from Dec. 27-30, 2009. We left on the church bus as soon as church was over Sunday morning. Jared roomed with all the guys that went and Pam and I roomed with the younger girls, Keri and TP! We had such fun with those girls! They are so funny! The only pictures I took were from Monday night when we went to a Huntsville Havocs hockey game! I was too busy enjoying myself! In one pic I have my Bible with me. I thought it was funny we went straight from evening worship to a hockey game so our Bibles went too! Kind of ironic that we all had Bibles and others who were not with EYC had adult beverages.
I hope we get to go again because you will definitley, grow and be encouraged as a Christian!

Christmas Caroling at the Nursing Home

On Monday, December 21, several people from church went Christmas caroling over at the nursing home. Pam and I had Bri, Marley, Nolan, & Chandler spending the night, so they all got to go, too. The people of Cherry Hill seemed to love it as well as those of us who went!



Other fun & exciting events:
Thursday, Dec. 24: Christmas Eve! My family met Chad's (Pam's boyfriend) family at the movie theatre where we watched "A Christmas Carol." Afterwards we all went to dinner at Logan's.
Friday, Dec. 25: Christmas! We all woke up very early and spent the morning at my parent's house with my family. Then before lunch, Jared & I left and drove to Brundidge to spend the rest of Christmas with his family! We played games all day at both home and had a wonderful time at the most wonderful time of year! Jared & I came back home Saturday evening to pack for Exposure Youth Camp!

Jared's 30th Surprise Bday Party

On December 12, 2009, I, with the help of our families, threw Jared a surprise birthday party! It was fun to get together, but real hard to keep a secret! I did, though! In fact, Jared had been doing so much overtime at work and had spent several nights with Joseph in Montgomery, that I almost fooled him! He figured it out on the way to the party! That's ok because we had a good time! I decorated with Alabama everything and a little 30th birthday stuff including a balloon with his name on it. Mama & Daddy made all different types of hot wings (his fav), mama made 3 bread puddings, Pam made over 200 cookies, Jared's mom made pigs-in-a-blanket and rotel and a veggie tray, and Jenny made hot ham & cheese sandwiches. I tried real hard to make cookies and brownies with this silicone Alabama A pan but that thing about beat me! Mama & Daddy got Jared 30 presents and so Jared played this game with all the kids. He had them guess what was in each package. It got rowdy! I even made Jared a video that we watched at the party. We had so many friends and family there which made it special! We really had a good time and were so thankful for everyone who came to help celebrate!






Other things that went on this week that I didn't get pictures of, but want to remember...
Sunday, Dec. 13: Aunt Enola's 90th birthday party and the Christmas Open House at the Courington's.
Saturday, Dec. 19: Jared's actual birthday (he had to work so he could be off for his party which I had to come up with an excuse as to why he couldn't work the previous Sat.)
We also had Christmas with my dad's side of the family that evening. We did something different this year. Instead of drawing names and buying gifts, we exchanged baked goodies. We made enough for every family, so then everyone got to take home a basket (made by mama)of goodies! We had cookies, hot cocoa kits, fudge, chocolate candy, soup kits, peanut brittle, and chocolate suckers. I really enjoyed that idea. We still got all the kids a gift and everyone was so nice to include Xander (he was supposed to come because he needed to stay the weekend with us, but he ended up getting sick.)
Wait! I have two pics from my phone of Marley & Chandler at Christmas!


Sunday, Dec. 20: Christmas dinner and dirty Santa exchange at our church.

PG Christmas Parade

On Saturday, December 5, 2009, two fun events happened!
One it snowed...in Alabama!

This is the scene we admired on the way to the Christmas parade!

Xander spent the night with us the night before so he could come to the parade, too!
Here's a picture of Xander at the parade. I had a really sweet one of all the kids from church who were there, but I accidentally erased it when I was erasing pics off my camera! Ugh! Oh well! Jennifer invited us over for pancakes and hot cocoa after the parade. This was a very sweet gesture considering she was very pregnant and had been having contractions (too early). She did have some awesome help and the food was great, but the fellowship was even better!

Well, we stayed too long at the McCuiston's so we it left little time for us to get our outside Christmas decorations up and get Xander home before the BIG game! Alabama won the SEC Championship, but the Sanders's Christmas decor never got all the way up! Oh well...we will try again next year!
Other exciting things we did this week, but had no pics for...
Sunday, Dec. 6: Our church held a Progressive Lunch and traveled from house to house by way of church bus to eat each tasty part of our lunch!
We started out for appetizers at Susan and David C.'s (Phyllis & Kent helped), then here at our house for salad (with Mom & Dad, and Pam helping), next stop at Billy & Mary C.'s for chicken fingers, the main course (with James & Amy C. helping), then over to Mark & Mia W.'s for soup ( with Ms. Jackson & Ms. Wylie helping), and last stop...desert at Paul & Kim K's! I really had a wonderful time and I hope all that were involved did as well! I want to make this a fall tradition!
Friday, Dec. 11: Young adult Christmas Party at the McCuiston home! We had a very good time with A LOT of loopy laughter! I am so glad they decided to host the party! We are so blessed with such a good group of friends!