some Christmas pictures

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Christmas season. We have been blessed with lots of time spent with family!! Greg even invited my parents down and they came!!

my dear husband is basically Italian :)
here he is singing Christmas carols in my aunt's kitchen with my uncle (left) and my dad (center).


mom and me at the Christmas Eve family gathering

making stuffed calamari at my dad's cousin's house on Christmas Eve

Greg, me, and two of our cousins at their house - kickin' back before the Christmas Eve festivities started

Merry Christmas

Glory to God in the Highest and Peace to His people on Earth!

May the love of Christ be with you and your families this Christmas!

Blessings!

let it snow let it snow let it snow

... chains are required just over 10 miles from our house !!!

BABY

feeling our baby move in my belly is the neatest thing!!! I have felt it for several weeks now, but with the baby getting much bigger now, the elbow jabs and kicks have changed into some serious movements!! I just love seeing the baby move in my belly - since now the baby is big enough so that sometimes we can see when its moving around! (just sharing the joy!)

visitors

so - my dear husband and I both work full-time outside of the home. but, we were thrilled to hear that we were going to have out-of-town friends visit this week!! Our friends from Oregon called on Monday to say they were driving through California to Arizona. We said that – of course – they should come stay at our house!! Luckily - being the prepared homemaker that I am – I had homemade spaghetti sauce, homemade bread, pasta, veggies, and ice cream on hand!! A quick run to the store on the way home - for milk (our friends have little kids) and some salad and napkins (again – little kids) and we were ready for company!! I even already had apple taffy muffins and pumpkin chocolate chip muffins ready for an easy on-the-go breakfast in the morning!! (Greg and I both had to be at work around 8ish!) I am just so glad that the house was relatively clean because I am preparing for our neighborhood Christmas cookie exchange party (also to be hosted at our house this weekend!) Seriously, when did I become a homemaker??!! I love it!!
Needless to say, it is sooo much fun to have friends over – we don’t really have friends nearby (don’t feel sad for us, we like our life!) but it is a treat to have two other couples our age come over for dinner and lively conversation. My friend and her husband have an 18-month old daughter who is just precious and they are expecting number two (due about three weeks after us!! We are already planning an arranged-marriage situation if we have kids of the opposite sex). Their brother and his wife have a nearly-two-year-old and a nine-month-old – adorable little boys. (just in case you were counting –that means we had four extra adults and three kids under two at our house last night) We normally have very quiet weekday evenings, but last night was a treat – oh I forgot to mention that I whipped up a mix-in-the-pan chocolate cake and some homemade whipped cream to go with our chocolate ice cream for dessert J I love making treats for guests!! My dear husband and I definitely got a taste of what it will be like to have a house full of little ones J we even got to bring out some of our old toys!! Anyway, this post is getting pretty long, but I just wanted to blog about our visitors – I’m so glad they came, and hopefully we’ll get to see them again on their way back through California!

Thanksgiving Pictures!

The happy couple - and baby :)

My dear husband likes to hold my belly :)

This is my nephew Jason.

December excitement

so... apparently December started and the whole world started speeding up!! Here is a brief list of exciting things that have been going on with us recently ... i will post pictures and more blog posts soon!

- we saw snow this weekend!! lots of it, about a half-hour from our house in the national park
- i decorated our house for Christmas this weekend - its my first Christmas with a husband and a house!!!
- we are in week 28 with the baby!! only 12 weeks til due date!! the baby moves around a lot and i LOVE it
- we've been blessed with opportunities to spend time with family recently and we get to spend time with friends this week
- i am definitely ready to be a full-time stay at home wife and mother!! but until the time comes it is nice that i am able to bless my dear husband with my paycheck from work!
- we are still teaching Catechism at Church - its challenging and wonderful at the same time
- its getting REALLY cold, but its still gorgeous and clear most days
- Christmas cookie baking season has begun and so far we've done pumpkin chocolate chip and molasses cookies, with a HUGE batch of sugar cookies planned for this week

ok -- more to come soon!

James 5:7 - "Be patient, therefore brethren, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient over it until it receives the early and the late rain."