Christmas with my Family

We celebrated Christmas with my family last night!  We had such a great time as we always do...  Here are just a few pictures...

We sent my dad on a little scavenger hunt to find his present this year!  We got him a guitar because that is what he wanted, he thought that after Christmas they were going to save and buy him one, little did he know that we had all pitched in and got it for him.

We got my mom some new cookware and we sent her on a little scavenger hunt too...  she only thought we were sending my dad on a wild goose chase!

Ava had a blast opening presents this year, she was so excited and couldn't wait until it was her turn.

My mom and dad got Ava a harmonica as one of her little gifts, here she is playing it with my dad playing his.

Ava was probably most excited about her digital camera that Nanny got her and she took pictures of everyone all night!

Below are just some random pictures that I took!

These pictures aren't from last night but I wanted to share them...  First are my Christmas decorations and our tree...

We also had a private photo session with Santa since Ava's first pictures didn't turn out good.  The photographer that took them did a horrible job so we placed a call to the North Pole and Santa came back down to visit Ava for another picture.

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures...

I am at Karmen's using her internet so I thought I would upload a few pictures, in no particular order...

Just plain ol' me

Do you ever have so many thoughts running through your head you just don't have the time to sit down and write them all out... yeah that has been me lately! I have so much going on that I don't have the time to sit down and write it all out to post on here. But today I am making time to do that...

Warning: lots of random stuff here...

I read so many blogs about people who have kids, people who are trying to get pregnant, people who are funny, people who have dealt with tragedies and all kinds of other scenarios. But I don't have any of that. I am just plain ol' me. I don't have a baby, I am not pregnant nor am I trying to conceive, and I haven't dealt with any kind of tragedy... it is just me and my hubby and our day to day lives. To some it may seem boring but me? I'm thankful for what I have and where I am now. This is exactly where God wants me to be right now. I can't change what he has planned nor do I want to change that...

We have been moving stuff back to our house and I have been going through things to set aside for a yard sale... and I have been reminiscing over pictures, collectibles, our wedding invitation (which we still have oodles of), things from family members that have been passed down to me, just so many different things that bring back so many memories... I found pictures from when Zach and I started dating back in 2002 and it brought back so many memories!!! I found the handkerchief that I carried in memory of my Granddaddy Parker at my wedding. (It was a white handkerchief with a blue "P" embroidered on it so it was my something blue too.) I found nick knacks that I had in my room at my mom and dad's house, I found wedding gifts that got put in the closet that are still in the box, I found my smock from when I worked at the pharmacy... So many memories and I had a blast going through everything.

I can't wait to get my house in order so that I can go through and take pictures and show it to you all. Kelly over at Kelly's Korner is doing a Show us Where You Live Friday series that I completely missed because I have not been at my house so I may do one or two rooms each day for a week so I can get caught up... I want to share our little house with you... and when I say little I literally mean little. We live in a 2 bedrooms 2 bathrooms garden home, but it is perfect for us for now...

Ava and Gavin are both growing like weeds. Ava is so funny and she talks all the time, I sure do miss that little girl... It was so weird to go home yesterday after work and not get a hug and a kiss from her... she made my day everyday with her hugs and kisses. Now Mr. Gavin, he is absolutely precious! He is smiling now and it melts my heart for him to smile at me. It melts my heart even more to see Zach interact with him... he is going to be such a great daddy some day!

Do you remember me saying that I won the book The Love Dare? Well I started it last night. I didn't know that it was a 40 day "challenge"... so the next 40 days of reading is dedicated to The Love Dare... I will try to share my thoughts each day... Last night was about patience, and patience is something that I struggle with daily because I am an impatient person but I am working on it.

Zach is in the process of find a job. Something that uses his training from the Army. His MOS is 25U-Signal Support Systems Specialist. If you would like to Google that and give me any ideas of what he could do we would greatly appreciate it... When he processed with his unit today they gave him a website to look at so maybe between that and you guys he can find something.

I am in desperate need of new pictures of me and Zach not just your ordinary candid shots, I want professional photos to hang in our house. I guess the last professional pictures we had were our wedding pictures and that was almost three years ago... My only hold up is the cost... It is so expensive to have professional photos taken and then I end up going crazy when I actually order the prints. When we had photos taken on the beach several years ago I spent over $200 on prints! There were so many that I liked!!!

Do you remember my friends Katie and Joseph... well if you have been following her blog you already know that Joseph made it to Iraq safely. Please remember to keep them in your prayers as they go through the next 15 months apart!

These are just a few of the things running through my little ol' brain right now and that is just a glimpse at little ol' me!

Alabama's new state song...

It's raining, it's pouring... I wish I was snoring...

Wait, that's not how it goes...

Seriously though, it has been raining a lot here in Alabama in recent weeks and all of this dreary weather is making me sleepy! I think an afternoon nap time is in order...

Today it has rained so much that our drive thru here at the credit union is flooded, not cool, not cool at all!

I am in a fabulous mood today... Anyone care to take a guess as to why???

I am sure Karmen is raising her hand and she is probably saying "Because Zach is coming home in exactly two weeks and you can finally move out of my house!" Way to go Karmen you are exactly right! Well about the Zach coming home part... Moving out part, not so sure about... Just kidding! I owe Karmen, Matt, and Ava a huge thank you for allowing me to live with them since Zach left. It has been so nice to have someone to come home to every evening to keep me occupied through the first few months that Zach was gone because those my friends were some rough months! So thanks you guys!

Anyways, I have to go be productive at work now! Hope you are having a fabulous Wednesday!!!

What a week and it isn't even over yet...

I have accomplished so much this week at work... With the transition to my new position a lot of things fell behind and I finally got caught back up! My goal was to get it all caught up by Friday and I have been working like a mad woman to get it all caught up and I did it and finished ahead of my goal!!! Go me!!!

I got to love on Gavin last night. He was fussy when I got there so I just loved on him and rocked him and he went right off to sleep... I love to snuggle him. I can remember when Ava was that little and I used to snuggle her too... She isn't all about snuggling anymore, but she will give hugs and kisses... I will just have to snuggle Gavin until I have my own child or someone else in my family has a baby.

Zach has a 4 day weekend at Memorial day and guess who has a 5 day weekend at Memorial day? Um , yeah, that would be ME!!! I am off on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, AND Tuesday! I am so excited to spend some extra time with Zach. We both really need the long weekend... he is really homesick and I am really ready for him to come home!

If you haven't visited Karmen's blog yet you need to head on over there and check it out... I am so glad she is back to blogging!!!

Yes I know this post is filled with completely random stuff but there is so much going on, I had to share it!!! I need to get back to working, have a happy Wednesday!

* edit: I am thinking of doing a giveaway sometime in the near future... not sure what it will be or when but I am thinking about it, any ideas??? *

Introduction...

Hi, I am Kristen...

My Huggy Hubby is Zach...

I am the twin sister to Karmen... who is married to Matt... and their daughter (my fabulous niece) is Ava!

I am the daughter to Jerry and Marie... and the daughter-in-law to Kathy and Larry...

I am the sister-in-law to Erika who is married to Lee and they have my fabulous nephew, Gavin... I am also the sister-in-law to Patrick who is engaged to Heather.

Why all the real names you ask??? Well the reason I started using nicknames was because my sister, Karmen used nicknames for her family and I didn't want to use their real names here and people go back to her blog where she tried to keep their real names secret! Well, she is coming back from a blogging hiatus and she has decided to start using real names and I am so glad because it was so hard for me to try to come up with nicknames for everyone (I mainly just used initials) and I had to triple check my posts to make sure no real names were used!

Thank you Karmen for switching back to real names, you just made my life a whole lot easier!!!