Happy New Year

Well, mommy is finally getting caught up and moving towards new pictures and memories of a new year. But, we have to share pics from the final day of 2009. My mommy's best friend, Cindy, was in town visiting and this was the first time they have seen each other in a long time. My Grandma and Papa hosted a wonderful game night with family and friends and it was a lot of fun (so I hear, I stayed home with my daddy so that I could go to bed at a normal time and so that mommy could have a night out by herself).

Here is my mommy and Mrs. Cindy!!!! Here are Reina, Cindy, Jasmine and Mommy - it was a lot of fun for my mom to see Cindy's whole family. They are growing up very fast!

All eyes and ears were on my Papa as he shared a scripture with everyone.

Here are some of the teens that came out to celebrate the New Year. Mom remembers when each of them were born...wow!!!!

Let the games begin - Uno, Catch Phrase, Jenga, Guess Who, Whoonu, Speed, Sequence, card tricks, Trouble etc.

This isn't a great pic, but sitting in the chair to the right with a black t-shirt is Pete. He just completed basic training for the US Army and was able to come by to see everyone. It really blessed mom being able to chat with him. He was in her youth group several years ago and now he is a grown man -amazing!

Ahhh....Olivia (Cindy's youngest) was exhausted after a long week...she curled up on the couch and fell sound asleep!!! So sweet!

Happy New Year everyone! I hope that each of you experience God's blessing in profound ways during this new year. Open your heart up to His voice and prodding and He will guid and direct your paths!!!!

Christmas at Aunt Renee and Uncle Jim's House

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like we often get to post blogs about my daddy's family. They live farther away and we don't get to see each other as often. But, at Christmas time everyone is "home" and we are able to get together to celebrate with each other. It took me awhile to warm up, but I eventually felt comfortable and had a wonderful time seeing all of my aunts, uncles, grandparents and cousins. Enjoy the pics!



Here is my Aunt Heather (daddy's sister) and her husband Uncle Todd

Next, is my Aunt Renee (daddy's oldest sister) and her husband Uncle JimHere is a pic of my Uncle Rob (daddy's brother) taking a picture of someone else =) You can also see my cousins Aubrie, Emma and Brennen in the background.Here is Aubrie (Todd and Heather's oldest daughter) opening a beautiful "fancy" dress!

Here I am building a great tower that I got from Aunt Heather's family!

A shot of Grandpa and Grandma Cripe and more of the gang.

I REALLY liked the tower blocks.

There is my oldest cousin, Ian (Jim and Renee's oldest).

Here is my Aunt Heather opening a matching pink fancy dress for her youngest daughter Lindsay...the two sisters will look soooo pretty all dressed up together - we can't wait to see pictures!

Here is daddy checking out his new "Jeep" signs!

I got a great "jungle" play set from my Grandpa and Grandma Cripe - I play with it everyday.

After we opened presents, Lindsay and I decided to take a break and watch Elmo on tv. Aren't we soooo cute????

Daddy was hanging out with the kids (Aubrie, Emma, Daddy, Me, Lindsay).

Here is a pic of Ian and Emma's dog, Jasper. He is huge and I LOVE him!

This is me hanging onto Jasper's leash - he is a very funny doggy.

I had such a great Christmas. It was a blessing to be able to celebrate with everyone and I can't wait to do it again next year!!!!

Christmas Eve with Daddy and Mommy

Yahoo! It was finally time to open up the presents that had been under the tree for two weeks. I kind of got caught up with each gift and Christmas gift time ended up taking much longer than my mommy and daddy anticipated. I loved reading through the books - and dad loved nibbling on my neck!

I really like my new games - mom and I try to spend 30 minutes each day playing a game and/or using playdough.

Wow! I can't believe it ... my mommy found a pink jellyfish! I've been asking for a pink jellyfish specifically for quite some time and now it is mine...I got a bunch of other animals too!!!

Mocha LOVES opening presents...I tried to help, but she really didn't need any help.

One of my favorite gifts was new food for my kitchen. I play with my kitchen and food every single day and some of it was kind of beaten up. This stuff is great....time to cook!

Christmas at Papa and Grandma's House

We always have such a great time Grandma and Papa's house for Christmas. Here is a pic of my Uncle Michael opening of his best gifts - a poster of Hulk Hogan that used to hang in his bedroom as a kid....we all thought it was pretty cool that Papa and Grandma saved it and then had it framed.

We took all of Papa's old 8mm films and had them converted to DVD. He thought it was pretty cool...we all enjoyed sitting down to watch the diff't video clips.

We also got Uncle Chuck a scrapbook of his dog Molly that passed away early in the year. He really liked it =)On Thanksgiving mommy snapped a great pic of Joseph and Melissa. We had it enlarged and framed - yup there were tears when their mom and dad opened it up...so sweet!Aunna really liked her personalized stepping stones for her garden!!What a smile! Daniel was sooooo excited to get a new "big kid" bike for Christmas! Check out this pose.Joshua received some wooden fruit that allows you to "cut" it up. He LOVES this gift. We loved watching him cut his veggies with such intensity in his face. =)Joshua also got a brand new wagon from his Aunna and Uncle Chuck. We can't wait to go on spring walks and enjoy many trips to the zoo in it!!!Mommy attempted to get family pics at the end of the night - but as you can see everyone else was happy except me. I was soooooo tired and ready for a Christmas night of sleep.Here is another attempt - nope - didn't work....we'll have to try again another day.And of course, the biggest news of Christmas this year - my Uncle Michael is getting married!!!! Here is a pic of Hiraida showing off her new ring. Congratulations!!!!!

Happy Birthday Jesus Cake

Christmas is all about Jesus and it is so much fun to celebrate His birthday with family each year. I get the honor of making His birthday cake - this year mom helped me make a pumpkin spice bundt cake with cream cheese frosting -mmmmm...it was soooo good!


Here I am checking to see if the cake is cool enough to put the frosting on...I also checked on the loaf of bread and.....

...snuck a bite of muddy buddy's while I waited.Here we are singing happy birthday to Jesus and blowing out the candles!It doesn't look fancy, but it sure was good...we even added the nativity scene.

Christmas with Nick

On Monday, December 21st my mommy and Aunt Rhonda threw together a last minute Christmas gift exchange. It was so nice to sit down for a minute and celebrate with an amazing family and incredible friends. Mike, Rhonda and Nick blessed me with the new Tag Junior Reading System. I LOVE it!!!! It is so much fun to be able to sit down by myself and explore all of the great things hiding in books. I also like having my mom and dad read the books with me - my favorite is the Pooh Bear book.

Daddy enjoyed flipping through one of the books we gave to Nick - it was either the Guiness Book of World Records of Ripley's believe it or not - mom thinks they are gross =) Nick and my daddy love them!