Here comes the bride...

December has been a pretty crazy month with my sister's wedding, starting a new role at work, moving, getting sick, and Christmas festivities! With everything that's been going on, I haven't felt too motivated to update the blog. But since it's almost a new year...it's time for 2010 updates!

My beautiful sister got married on December 4th in Florida. For all those who voted on the dress before, the one she chose wasn't on there :) But most of you chose the right style. She wanted to be a princess!

Audrey playing with our niece before the wedding. She looked so pretty!!

Audrey and I got our step-mom some new pajamas that would be appropriate to wear in front of her son. I can't think of anything more appropriate than these!

Billy was so tired before the ceremony. I'm surprised he made it down the aisle on two feet!

My brother walking our step-mom to her seat.

The sisters of the bride and the groom's nieces.

Introducing Mr. and Mrs. Paquette!

Eric is such a good uncle!

My dad gave Derek's dad wooden shoes and told him it's a Dutch tradition for the fathers to wear wooden shoes to the wedding. Derek's dad waited until after the ceremony to put on his shoes. He was sliding everywhere.

Fun at the reception!

My cousin Larissa caught the bouquet and had to let Rob Parker put the garter on her. She was a good sport!

My brother Kevin (in the middle in the white shirt) was not so excited about getting pulled up to dance for everyone. It was my idea :)

The wedding went great and Eric and I are so glad we could be there to support Audrey and Derek. We loved spending time with the family!

THANKSgiving

This Thanksgiving Eric and I stayed home and decided to cook for the first time. We really just wanted to have lots of Thanksgiving leftovers. Luckily, all of the food turned out great and we have been reaping the benefits all weekend!! Karrie and Austin joined us and brought a couple dishes. It was an exhausting day, but well worth not having to cook for the next few days.

Eric grew up eating Sweet Potato Souffle, so there was no question about making it! He loves it and that's all that matters!

Eric also had a great time playing with the turkey. I'm not complaining because I am not a fan of touching raw meat. Thanks Eric!!

Eric carving our lovely turkey. I'd say it turned out pretty much perfect. We're a good team.

All four of us sitting down for dinner.

The food that wouldn't fit on the table. We had turkey, stuffing, potatoes and gravy, rolls, broccoli, sweet potato souffle, jello salad, and chips and dip. So tasty!! Thanks for everyone's help!

Karrie and Austin.

Me and Eric.

I hope everyone had a great Turkey Day!!

Old Man

It's official. I am married to an old man. Eric's birthday was last Tuesday, November 23rd, and he is now a quarter of a century old!!

The good news is, Eric is growing into a mature and sensible adult...

Us in the car about to have some birthday fun!

While driving, I was very impressed by this building. Its lights made a wreath!! So exciting. You'd probably be just as excited if I could actually get a good picture of it.

We hit up our 5th BBQ joint experience that night at Hayward's. For some reason, there were only old people in the restaurant with us. But Eric enjoyed his meal, so that's all that matters.
After dinner we headed to the theater and watched the new Harry Potter movie. We can't wait for the next one!!

I knew I was going to get Eric the Avatar blu-ray, but at the last minute I found a great deal online. I couldn't not have a present for him to open on his birthday, so I made my own cover and put it on one of our DVDs. Eric didn't quite get it because he tried to take the piece of paper off and look inside the DVD box. What to do? What to do? I still love him though.

Because Eric loves his toy helicopter, I thought it was only appropriate that he got a helicopter cake as well. Don't judge my artwork. I was running out of frosting.

We were so tired after the movie that Eric got an extra day of birthday fun.

And because I was waiting until his actual birthday, Eric's mom got him an ottoman to match our couch. We love it!!

Thanks everyone for your birthday wishes and gifts. Eric really appreciated them!

Independence

2 weekends ago Eric's parents came to town for a visit! They were going to help us move into our new place, but we have yet to sign the lease...so we just had fun the whole weekend instead. On Sunday we were able to visit the Independence, Missouri church site. It was the first time visiting for all of us except Eric's mom.

This is inside the visitor's center with Book of Mormons (or Books of Mormon? I don't know) in tons of different languages.

The printing press to make copies for everyone.

There was a great art exhibit at the visitor's center. It's not always there so we were pretty lucky to see it. This is Eric's favorite. From this angle, the piece focuses in on Jesus. It's awesome in person!

Back then, the houses weren't too tall.

I thought this was a cute picture moment. Eric and his parents walking on the temple site.

Eric was pointing to Mexico City on the giant map.

The crazy upside down snail shell temple (not ours). And might I add, all three of us were wearing a green shirt and blue coat. Not even planned.

It was a fun little visit to see what it was like during the early stages of the Church.

Super Saturday

Yesterday was Super Saturday. There were tons of crafts to do, but knowing that I'm a perfectionist, I knew I'd only have time for a few. Here's a couple of the finished products (Eric said the other one wasn't "blog worthy").

The FHE board is my favorite!! Unfortunately, I decided to leave the tags blank because I don't know our future kids' names yet.

This is the nativity scene. It's a nice addition to our Christmas decorations!

ZOOdles of Fun!

I started my job last Monday and I think it's pretty dang awesome. I can't wait to get into my real job, but as for now, I'm trying to absorb as much training as I can. It's been a challenge waking up at 6 a.m. every morning, so needless to say, I've been exhausted and am a little behind on the blog.

A couple Saturdays ago Eric and I went to the zoo with Karrie and Austin. Eric's school had a great deal of a $5 admission fee instead of the normal $11.50 per person. It was well worth the cost (the discounted cost)!! I can't remember loving a zoo all that much, but I am now a lover. The 4 of us were so tired after walking around for hours. We were like little kids dragging our feet out of the zoo because we couldn't handle walking any further. Can you say out of shape? Or maybe just the wrong choice of shoes.

FYI, as of last Spring-ish, Eric decided he loves giraffes. We couldn't get an awesome picture with the real thing, so this is his new friend.

He likes to ride hippos, in case you didn't notice.

The craziest thing happened. We went to see the chimps but they were too far away to really see, so we left. All of a sudden we heard the chimps making that monkey noise that they do. We ran to see what was going on, and the chimp on the right was hitting the chimp on the left. We left again thinking it was over, but then we heard all the chimps going crazy. It was so loud like they were dying or something! We booked it back and Eric opened the door just in time for us to see this guy on the right literally pounding on the other one like a punching bag, over and over again. It was an intense fight. Then a baby chimp came to console the one getting hit. So precious! Definite highlight of the day.

I feel sorry for this gorilla. He had no friends in his cage. He was just chilling with his leg crossed, watching the people watch him.

We got to the cheetahs just in time to see them eat. They're the fastest land animals. Did you know that they whip their tail in order to turn while they run? If their tail isn't working properly, then they won't survive in the wild.

Me and Eric!

We hit up the tigers just in time to see them eat too! It was a day of great timing.

Don't mind them. He's just getting his butt cleaned.

I guess Eric doesn't believe in zoom because he was reaching his arm out to take a million pictures of this guy. He almost bit Eric's hand!! It is a pretty cool pic, though.

And yes, we saw the birds just in time for their feeding too! I think this is the first time I've held a bird. It wasn't as scary as I thought it would be.

He probably thought we were going to feed him, but we didn't.

This is Kansas City's main attraction, Nikita. They must have trained her because she kept doing a back flip, swimming in a circle, and repeat.

The zoo is lots of fun! Anyone who visits us next summer just might be coming with us...