Last night Jason and I are laying in bed getting ready to go to sleep…except he keeps messing with his pillow…says he can’t get it to stop feeling lumpy (he sleeps on a thin feather pillow). After some investigating, wse find one of Anya’s pacifiers under his pillow. You know the baby has officially taken over the house when something like this happens. We got a good chuckle out of it…..

Merry Christmas!! Hope everyone had a safe holiday and are recovering from all the festivities! I know I am glad I had today to rest up a little bit before heading back to work tomorrow!

We had a nice Christmas weekend up in Ringsted with my family. We left Des Moines Thursday afternoon when I got off work and stayed with Jason, Jill & the boys Thursday night in Forest City. Friday morning we got up and headed to Ringsted to my parent’s. Saturday we had Christmas at my Grandma Martha’s with the Miller gang at noon, went to Christmas Eve Church at 5pm and then headed to Mom & Dad’s for Christmas there. It was a busy day, but was nice to be able to celebrate with everyone.

Sunday we had Christmas at my Grandma & Grandpa Oleson’s house, but unfortunately neither my mom or myself were feeling too great, so we had to miss out on the gathering. But, Dad, Jason and Anya made it over and celebrated for us. When they got back, we loaded up the Equinox (to absolutely maximum capacity) and headed back to Des Moines. We were all exhausted when we got home, so we pretty much unloaded the car into the middle of the living room, showered and crashed into bed.

So, Anya survived her first Christmas season and handled all the attention very well. She wasn’t really too sure what to do with the wrapped gifts, so she did what she does with almost everything within arms reach…tried putting them in her mouth! Between Christmas last weekend with Jason’s family and this weekend with my family, she got so many toys, dolls, games, videos, clothes etc.. we are going to have to add on to our house just to make room for everything she got! She is pretty fascinated with all her new treasures and Jason & I are pretty fascinated watching her play with them. We feel very lucky to have been able to share Christmas with both of our families and celebrate Anya’s first Christmas with them….we have truly been blessed to have loving families and such a special little girl. Couldn’t ask for a better Christmas present than family.

Well, better head to bed as it will be morning sooner than I want it to be. Here are some of our Christmas pictures from this last weekend. Enjoy!

Posted the rest of the Christmas pictures we had taken a few weeks ago. Click here to see them.

More later!

This last weekend we traveled to Winfield to celebrate Christmas with Grandma Jeryl, Grandpa Ron and Aunt Joni. We had a great time and Anya got spoiled. She wasn’t quite sure what to do with the wrapped presents, but as soon as the paper came off she was in high gear with the toys. Saturday night we had Christmas with Great-Grandma Marge and the whole McArtor family in Mt. Pleasant. We had lots of good food and it was so nice to see all the family again. Now we get a few days to rest and then we head up North to celebrate with the Miller/Oleson families! Here are a few pictures of our celebrations over the weekend.

Doesn’t sound like we are going to have a white Christmas…atleast not in Des Moines. Is in the high 40’s today and sounds like it is suppose to stay that way through the weekend. Our snow disappeared last week, so wonder when we will get more.

This will probably be our last post before next week, so want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas…enjoy the holidays and travel safe!

This last weekend I had a birthday and turned 28. Sure doesn’t feel much different than 27 and I suppose that is a good thing! We had big plans for the day…we were going to finish up Christmas shopping during the day, go out to eat at one of our favorite resturants and then go look at Christmas lights. Well, we got the shopping part done, but on the way to the resturant I started to not feel so good, so we headed home. Good thing we did too because I must have caught a stomach flu and the next few hours were NOT fun. Jason was a trooper and took care of Anya and myself–so we got through it all. Was glad I had Sunday to recooperate.

This week I only had to work Monday and Tuesday and then have the rest of the week off. Plan to finish up the last little odd jobs I have for Christmas and then we are heading to Jason’s parents this weekend for Christmas with them. We are looking forward to starting the holidays and seeing the family.

This weekend my oldest nephew, Zachary, turns 6 and I can hardly believe it. He had grown up so fast….where did those 6 years go. Seems like we were just having his 1st birthday party. Anyways, I hear that he is having a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle party with his friends on Saturday….good luck Jason & Jill. You’ll probably be exhausted when that is all said and done!

Yesterday was Anya’s 5 month birthday. I weighed and measured her today and she was 16.5 lbs and 26.5 inches long. She is growing like a weed!! She has recently discovered that she can grab onto her toes and is working and working at getting them in her mouth. She is laughing more and more lately—I often wonder if she is laughing with or at us. With her personality, I think I know that answer to that. Here are a few of her latest pictures.

Well, I guess that is all we have really been up to lately. Off to bed…

As you can see, Jason did some tweaking and changed the look of the website. I think it looks great and he did a wonderful job! Good job J!

He is busy whipping up some chili for tonight…we are having a few friends over to watch the Iowa/Iowa State basketball game. Hopefully we will play alittle better than we did the other night against UNI.

Wednesday night I had some girls over to hang out for a few hours. We actually started a group we are calling J.U.G.s (Just Us Girls) where we get together once a month to just hang out and catch up with each other. We were always saying “we need to get together more often” but then never made the plans to do so, so this was the perfect way to make it happen. We had a great time just chatting and eating pizza. Jason hung out with Anya upstairs, and by the time the girls left, she was fast asleep in her crib!

Have a good start to our Christmas shopping, but still have some left to do. Might venture out today and try to get a few more things crossed off the list. Then I need to wrap..not something I especially like to do. Too bad Jill isn’t here to do it for me!

Well, guess that is about all I know for now. Stay warm!

Today we had our first set of family pictures and they went great. Anya was in a smiley mood (thankfully) and we had a great photographer, so it worked out well. We had the pictures taken at Portrait Innovations and I would highly recommend them to anyone. I heard about them through a friend and am very glad we gave them a try. Anyways, here are just a few of the photos we had taken (3 of the 50 some pictures they took…we got to keep a CD with all the proofs on it)–and, if you can believe it or not, these pics I am posting are not even the best ones we have–the best ones are saved for a Christmas surprise!

After our pictures, we did alittle Christmas shopping. The new mall was pretty busy, but we muttled our way through and found a few things we were looking for. We had a few more stops planned, but it was very cold out and Anya was getting alittle restless, so we called it a night and came back home to watch the Iowa basketball game.

Wednesday night we had a mid-week treat and got to go out for dinner with my Dad and a colleague of his from Iowa Lakes Community College. We went to Latin King and the food was delicious. Was nice to see him even though it was just a quick visit!

Finally got all the Christmas decorations and tree up around the house and am very glad to have it done. Anya is very intrigued by the lights on the tree…she stares and stares at them.

Well, better hit the hay as I work early tomorrow. Have a great weekend.