Random Pictures from December '09

Taken Friday the 11th: The stroller was still set up from a walk we had taken earlier. I guess Brayden thought this was as good a seat as any from which to watch cartoons.

Taken Thursday the 17: This was a really special day because my little sister, Kira, married her best friend today. Even better, Travis Jewett is now my brother. Anyway, since my parents had no idea what the weather was going to do today, they borrowed this wildly expensive fox fur coat for Kira to wear while they took pictures. My mom asked me to hold it until Kira came outside and I couldn't pass up the chance to try it on. I think I look good.

Taken Tuesday the 22nd: My seriously messy eater!

Taken Wednesday the 30th: My cute little boy all ready to help me cook.

Shoveling with Daddy

It snowed like crazy today, so Craig went outside to shovel. I didn't want to be left inside, so Brayden and I got all bundled up and we followed him outside.

Brayden wanted to be like his Daddy, so he tried to help. It was so adorable!

Playdate with Jackson

Deana was asked to babysit Jackson today, so she invited us over to let the boys play. Once Brayden found this electric 4-wheeler, he didn't pay attention to anything else, especially Jackson.

Ozur Christmas Party

Jill invited us over to her house this year for a Christmas party. We has a great time socializing and exchanging gifts. I love having Christmas parties after Christmas. It helps the season linger a little longer.

Final Stop: The Matiyasic's

Our last stop of the day was over at the Matiyasic's. Deana said that she had something for Brayden and she wanted him to open it on Christmas Day.

The main part of the gift was the book "The Mitten". (I know, another book) It is written by one of my favorite children's authors and the pictures are amazing. There are so many cute details.

We closed out the day by playing games with the Matiyasic family. It was the perfect day. And for the last time this year, Merry Christmas!

Christmas at Nana and Papa's

Nana isn't a fan of opening presents before Christmas, so we got to take an extra trip over there today. It was great to see family on such a great day!

Nana and Papa got Brayden some adorable clothes and more books. Story time got a lot more varied today. Yay!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Morning

Christmas is definitely my season! I love everything about it, except for the shopping. It's stressful and distracting. So this year we got it done really early. This is what our tree looked like by the 9th of December.

But even though I hate shopping, I love watching my family unwrap their gifts. We waited for Brayden to wake up this year before we started.

Craig and I took turns helping Brayden open his presents. He did a lot better than last year, but we still have a way to go until he can open them by himself.

He did seem to enjoy the end result though. This year, we were kind of boring and bought him a lot of books, but I couldn't help throwing in a Disney movie or two.

Craig didn't miss out on this opportunity to spoil me. I got all kinds of neat things. He is so creative when it comes to buying presents.

I did my best to be creative, but I tend to go with the obvious. He kept breaking our plastic dart, so I bought him metal darts. Seemed logical to me.

This was one of our favorite books growing up and it is such a cute story. We were really excited to give this one to him. I can't wait to read it to him tonight.

While we were opening our presents, I had our traditional breakfast cooking in the oven. It's this delicious breakfast casserole that you make the day before, so Christmas morning is really easy. I've wondered what our other Christmas traditions will be, but this is definitely one of them.

Now that we are dressed and ready, it's off to Nana's to open more presents!

New Words

Here we are showing off Brayden's new favorite words. Enjoy!

Bathtub Gibberish

Brayden is so close to really talking, so I knew I had to record this gibberish before it is gone for good.

It's not the best example, but it's all I could get. When he knows I'm recording him he gets distracted.

Hinsen's Halloween Party

It's Halloween night! That means it's time to get dressed up and play with all of my favorite people.

Craig and I dressed up as a Hawaiian couple. My costume is pretty straight forward, but Craig's is hilarious. His shirt is quite witty and he is actually wearing a grass skirt.

Charles', Kendra's and my favorite song came on; "The Devil Went Down to Georgia". Of course we had to get up and perform! We almost knew all the words.

It was really late before we finally left, but I had to get a picture with my favorite girls before Craig took me home and put me to bed.

Finally, the coat is on and I'm ready to go. All in all, it was a really fun night. It was kind of exhausting and you can feel the tension building, but it was still fun.

Horse and Hillbilly

Halloween is tomorrow, so I wanted to see if Brayden's costume from last year would still fit him. It totally did. Craig decided to throw on his new hat for the pictures.

Hinsen's Housewarming Party

After many months of waiting and planning, Kara and Brandon were finally able to move into their brand new condo. Since we all helped them paint the place last weekend, Kara invited us all over for dinner and a party.

The first half was an open house, so those of us that showed up early, but wanted to stay for the party, were shuffled into a back room and told to entertain ourselves until we were allowed to come out again.

Once all the grownups left, we were let out of the room. To begin the party, Kara passed around drinks so we could all make a toast to her new home.

The rest of the evening pretty much consisted of us either playing games or messing around with the camera.

Congrats, Kara and Brandon, on the new place! I can't wait until Craig and I get to throw our own housewarming party.

Party at the Matiyasic's

For reasons I would discover later, Deana invited a bunch of us to her house for a party tonight. Deana had us put Brayden to bed there, so once he was asleep, we headed downstairs to play Rock Band. Kendra and I had a blast singing our little hearts out.

It got pretty warm really quickly due to the amount of people in the basement, so a few of us wandered outside to cool off...

...and goof around with the camera. Attractive!

As usual, we broke out the pool sticks as the night began to die down. It was about this point when people started wondering where Deana was, but that's a whole other story for someone else to tell.

Halloween Costume Idea

We wandered through a Halloween costume shop today and we feel in love with this hat/mullet. It's awesome! I think this is what Craig is going to wear to work on Halloween.

My Cute Boys!

This is what happens when Craig gets the camera when I'm not around...

I love my cute boys!