Sunday, December 27, 2009

Season's Greetings!






Before we left for Oklahoma, Tyler & I threw a Christmas party at our house in Florida. My Uncle Mark & Aunt Mary Lynn's family came to join us with their children and grandchildren. We had such a great time with them. Here are some pictures of the house - since it's all put together now (hooray!) - so you can get an idea of how it looks.



Living room



Kitchen





I made Peasant Soup and Potato Soup with homemade rolls.



I also made coconut pound cake, cherry cheesecakes, & sugar cookies.



Family room



Family room - across from couches



Our awesome swimming pool!



The Dahle/Salisbury/Pierce family!



Lana & I


We drove to Oklahoma and spent time with Tyler's family:




Anna & PaPa



Keith found an unused phone and spent a lot of time playing with the phone. He would pick up the phone and say HELLO and then say GOODBYE and hang it up. So cute.



My nephew and his girlfriend, Shelby



My brother-in-law, Vernon, and my nephew, Isaiah



My nephew, Josiah



My nephew, Junior



Me and my newest niece, Maleiah



My fabulous mother-in-law, Melanie



My sister-in-law, Tracy, and her husband, Jim



Vernon & Kristina



Anna, Macie, & Maddie



Keith



My nephews, JD and Elijah



Travis, Melanie, Tyler



My sister-in-law, Tisha, and her son, Isaiah







Richard, my wonderful father-in-law



Tyler's grandparents: Madeline & Fred



My nephew, Spencer, and his girlfriend, Alexis


After a few days in Bartlesville, we drove down to Stillwater to see my family:



Kristina and her great grandpa



my brother-in-law, Yury



My mommy



Anna



My grandma



Keith playing with the castle that I played with when I went to Grandma's house.



My brother-in-law, Willis. He says that he is super photogenic and this is how he smiles in every picture. Ha ha. He is so funny.



Maggie came with us, of course



My sister, Jennifer, and our niece, Iliana



My sister, Heather, making homemade egg nog



Tyler reading off the instructions on how to make the egg nog - it was a 3 person job!



We actually had a WHITE CHRISTMAS!!! :o)



The holiday decor



I caught Uncle Willis reading Christmas stories to Kristina & Iliana. He was a favorite among the children.



My mom choosing another song to play. Music at Christmas is a must.



Uncle Yury having fun with Anna, Iliana, & Keith.




Santa came!









The kids went out to play in the snow. Kristina didn't have any gloves - her hands were freezing!!!





Keith has been playing hard this vacation and every day or so he will snuggle up on me and will take a nap. If I try to put him down, he will wake up and not sleep anymore, so now I just let him take his whole nap on me - he's such a sweet little boy.


Willis & Jennifer, Evan & Shelbee, Yury & Heather, Tyler & Jill. We were missing Alex & Rachel (they're in UT this year) and Coulter - on a mission in the Dominican Republic. We were able to talk with Coulter - he's doing extremely well and his Spanish is coming along quite well.

On Christmas eve I began not feeling well. By the Christmas day I knew something was wrong. The day after I went in to the ER - I have strep throat! So now I'm keeping my distance from everyone for another 2 days until I'm not contagious anymore. I hope you are all enjoying a wonderful Christmas and that you are all more healthy than I currently am!

6 comments:

Diana said...

I gotta say I'm jealous that your house is completely put together so quickly after moving. We still have boxes EVERYWHERE. Most of it is our food storage and office stuff - everything that belongs in our currently unfinished basement and will have no home until we get the basement finished. As a result of there still being boxes everywhere, I still haven't gotten rid of my horridly ugly yellow wall that I've hated from the first minute we walked in the house.

Glad you had a fun Christmas and have been able to spend so much time with family. It makes the holidays so much more fun!

Hope you're feeling better soon! We've all gone the rounds with strep here, too. It seems to really be going around this year. Don't rush getting up and about again either. It has a nasty richocet effect! Take the time to get fully better the first time 'cause the rebound is way worse than the initial strep throat.

Winnie said...

Santa must be very tall when he comes to your house. Why are the stockings hung so very high?

Like Diana I moved 6 months ago and still have boxes, no excuse other than laziness and hope we'll move back to WI soon. Call it denial.

Carina said...

Your home is beautiful! I'm glad you got to spend time with family, too. Hope you're all better by now, too!

Anonymous said...

Your house is lovely, and you got it together so quickly. You are amazing!

I have a castle just like the one in the photo. My mother had it for when Katie and my other kids came to visit, and now I have it here for her kids. Always a favorite toy.

We miss you in Ohio, and I especially miss your directorial talents. We know you are where you belong though and hope you are enjoying every minute of it.

Queen Mother said...

Your house looks awesome! I am jealous of your totally cool pool ;)

Looks like a fun Christmas..what a beautiful family! I am sorry about the ER..we had too much of that lately, too. =(

nicole said...

What a beautiful home! It looks perfect for you guys. And I love how you have decorated it. Aww... I miss you Jill. :(