Family Photos

This year, since my parents had all their children & grandchildren all in one house for Thanksgiving, we took a few nice family photos. If you are Facebook friends with my parents, and/or follow my dad's or sister's blog, you may be a little tired of seeing these photos over and over again. But they turned out so well, I thought I would also post the family pictures for viewing. Currently, there are 11 of us all together. I can only imagine what the picture will look like in 5-10 years!

The Keys Family: Scott, Caleb, Myself & Brendan

The Atkinson Family: Kevin, Bekah & Lily

(Whats left of) The Reed Family: JT (Bud), Dad, Mom & Jon

The Family Picture

Grammi & Pepa with the grandkidsBrendan was defiantly done with pictures at this point. We were using candy to get a semi-decent shot.

It is nice to have the documentation of the family all together. I will give a Thanksgiving post soon! Just need to gather all the pictures into one spot...

Pumpkin Patch 2009

This year I took Brendan to the Pumpkin Patch to try and get some cute pictures. He enjoyed the pumpkin patch more this year than last, but was not interested in sitting still for pictures. My friend Tawni went with me with her son Sammy. We tried to get pictures of the boys together. This was even less successful than individual pictures! We keep thinking as the boys get older that it will be easier to get pictures taken of them. Now I'm thinking it wont be easier until they are 12 - unless they get that teenage attitude, then we are in trouble!

This was Brendan & both boys at the pumpkin patch last year! What a difference a year makes!

I did get a couple of decent pictures, enjoy!

And then these just made me laugh!

Happy Anniversary

Yesterday, Scott and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary. I must admit, our celebration was a lot better than last year. Brendan was born on the 14th, which means we came home from the hospital on the 15th. So on the 16th, our third anniversary, and the first full day home with our baby. Scott wanted to go out to dinner just the two of us, even though Scott doesn't remember this, but even then we knew something wasn't right with Brendan. He wasn't eating well, he didn't really cry, and all he did was sleep. But we tried to go celebrate together anyway. My mom stayed home with Brendan and Scott and I just ended up going to Islands. We were back in less than 45 minutes. It was so hard for me to be away from my baby at that point, I was still too emotional! Scott still gives me a hard time about that night! :)

While I was at work yesterday, Scott brought me some lovely flowers and a nice card. It was such a nice surprise. For my anniversary present, Scott got me another very sweet card that was very heartfelt, and a beautiful bracelet from Switzerland. I didn't take a picture but it is beautiful with pearls and a silver chain. My husband has good taste in jewelry, he has picked out all of the jewelery he has bought me, including my wedding ring. What a wonderful husband.

But yesterday evening we decided to go out, my mom stayed home with Brendan again (this time completely healthy) and Scott and I went out to Victoria Gardens. We had a lovely dinner at Lucille's BBQ, If you don't know Scott and I very well, we LOVE Barbeque. For dinner we had their "Feast for Two" let me tell you, it was a FEAST, the two of us couldn't finish it and brought home most of the meat and one of the desserts! What a deal!

We walked around Victoria Gardens for a short while, but Scott was just so tired, he is still a little off from his travels to Europe, so this time it was Scott that wanted to cut the evening short, at least we were out for three hours this time.

Happy Anniversary Babe, "I love you more today than yesterday, but not as much as tomorrow!"

Irish Dinner

Last night I had my Traditional St. Patrick's Day dinner for the girls. We had 6 girls and three kids at dinner. I thought the evening was wonderful! This was my 5th year cooking this dinner for the girls. Although it is not the "Traditional" dinner my parents make, I don't have time to spend hours in the kitchen, so I have improvised my meal a bit. My Parents still makes their dinner every year.

Before leaving for work, I put my Corned-beef (frozen) into the crock pot with a few cups of water, set it to 10 hours low, and left for work. Because I live so close to where I work, I was able to come home at lunch and add the golden potatoes (I like the taste better than red potatoes) and carrots to the crock pot. After work, I came home to finish the meal, although most of the meal was already done, sitting in the crock-pot waiting for me. My sister helped me with the asparagus (instead of the mint peas (not minced) my mother makes), we boiled some cabbage in the juice from the corned beef, and I went to work making the Girl Scout Thin Mint brownies they were really good. I had purchased some Potato rolls that were in a bread basket on the table (since I didn't have time to make the Irish Soda Bread) and with the pear jello made the night before, dinner was a snap!

Sorry, no pictures of dinner, but I did get a video of the kids playing afterwards. The video is mostly of my son...but what do you expect? :) Pictures of the kids together can be found on Tawni's blog.

Pear Jell-o

Happy St. Patrick's day!

Growing up, St. Patrick's Day was always a big deal. I ALWAYS wore green to School. My mother would try to make the day fun for us, she would pack green food in our lunch with mint cookies, I remember one morning we had green malt-o-meal for breakfast and maybe even green milk! She always wanted us to enjoy the holidays. Every year we had our traditional big St. Patrick's Day dinner with everything included: Corn beef, cabbage, potatoes, minced peas (gross!), key-lime pie, Irish Soda Bread and pear jell-o.

Pear Jell-o? What is Irish about that? I have no idea! But it is a tradition in our house, and it seems to be spreading. My first year of working at my job, I suggested that we have a "party" on St. Patrick's Day and all bring goodies. (Our office is always looking for an excuse to party.) That year I brought my "traditional" pear Jell-o and they were a huge hit! From then on, Jen in my office makes me bring them every year, and every year we have a party. This will be my 4th year bringing my "Famous Pear Jell-o" to work.
They are actually very simple to make, but somehow I always wait until the last minute to make them and stay up until 11:00 at night to finish them. In the center of the pear is a cream cheese mixture with powdered sugar and walnuts covered with Lime Jell-o. Considering half of the Staff is new this year, we will have to see how well they go over.

More Memories

I have noticed that lot of the Christmas decorations in our house are mine or from my childhood, even most of the decorations on the tree are mine. So this year I really wanted to bring a focus on something of Scott's. We got his Santa ornament collection a couple years ago from him mom but we have never hung them. These ornaments are 17 Santa's from all over the world, made out of porcelain. I believe these Santa's were given to him by his late Grandma. Scott's Grandma was very special to him and he talks about her very fondly, so I know these ornaments are very special to him.

When we got the decorations, many were broken and Scott was very upset, he was ready to throw them all away. Instead, I found some super-glue and fixed what I could, most had a clean break and were not shattered so I could fix them, I then wrapped them all safely so they wouldn't get broken again and that is where they have stayed safe in a box - for two years now. This year I kept bringing up that we should hang them, being that they are so special to Scott. Scott declined this year saying that he didn't want them to get broken, so instead they stayed in the box.

Last weekend I decided to surprise Scott by hanging them on our garland above the window. I was very careful with each one and insured that they were securely on the hooks and hung securely on the garland. I think they look great, and it is nice to have something so special to Scott part of our Christmas decor!

Christmas Memories

One of the nice things about pulling out all the Christmas decorations after being in storage for 11 months is the memories that come with each decoration. Like the Gingerbread house my Grandmother got me that smells like gingerbread when the candle inside is lit. The Rocking horses that have been part of our Christmas decor since I was a little girl. The Rocking grandparents that used to rock in Scott's Grandma's house but now grace our living room. The teddy bears playing in the snow that my mother bought for me. New memories are added each year. In 2005 we were given a dated collector's plate to commemorate our first Christmas married. This year we added the Fisher Price Little People Christmas set with Santa & Mrs. Clause, I really wanted to get Brendan the Fisher Price Nativity set, but it was a little too much for us this year, perhaps next year.

Each decoration has a story for me, each one either reminds me of previous Christmas celebrations or help me to look toward developing new memories and new Christmas traditions. I enjoy this time because it is not just about me and how I want the house to look for Christmas, but it is about Family, and sharing the joy of the season together.

Deck the Halls

One of our favorite Holiday Traditions is decorating the house for Christmas. Since Scott and I are usually away for Christmas and Thanksgiving, we like to decorate early so we can experience the Christmas Cheer as long as possible. We start our Christmas decorating the weekend before Thanksgiving. It may seem a little early to some, but we love it! So this year we started decorating right away. We usually go out and purchase new decorations to add to our collection to make each year a little better than the last. This year money was a little tight so we were happy with what we had. We did buy a new stocking and stocking holder for Brendan and the "Little People" Santa & Mrs. Clause, other than that we spread what we had around the apartment.

Decorating for Christmas is hectic at first (not only because we have a 4 month old around), we start with a deep clean of the entire house before setting out the decorations, we then take room by room setting up the decor together. Not a room is missed! Every year we have "discussion" (argument) about how we want the house to be decorated, I tend to lean more towards the elegant, matching Christmas, (white lights, themed tree, hallmark, nativity scenes, candles and order), while Scott enjoys more of the "family" style Christmas, (colored lights, cheap glass balls, snow-globes, Santa's, snowmen, and the fake silver garland). This year, I think we have finally reached a compromise, sure we had a discussions about why we don't have snow-globes in the house, but overall, we have come together in our decorating style. (I must admit, he has given in to my decorating style more than I have to his, you will notice we still don't have snow globes or that silver garland that we once did.)

Below are the pictures of our decorated Christmas house, here is a tour of our little but wonderful apartment!

*****Our living room is set up differently this year than it has been in the past, we usually like our nativity set to sit in front of the window, but our set up this year didn't allow for it. The garland hangs above the window, the tree in the center of the room, you probably can't tell, but both the tree and the garland are decorated with colored lights for my husband. My favorite part is the bookshelf full of Christmas nick-knacks that have stories of their own. One of Scott's favorite are the candy dishes set about the room that he insists on keeping full!*****
*****On the other side of the Living room is our little sitting area. More garland hangs above our Kitchen area, the stockings are hung with our initials and the Santa from Scott's grandparents stands in the corner.*****

*****Our Kitchen doesn't have as many decorations, we have a set of Christmas dishes with 4 place settings, my Grandmother bought me a beautiful set of Christmas dishes with 8 settings but we haven't pulled it out yet. There is a small Christmas Tree in the corner with glass decorations that were a wedding gift from Scott's Grandma & Poppy.*****

*****The Bathroom is actually my favorite room to decorate, as funny as that sounds. You can't get the full effect of the decorations because it is so small to take a picture. But you can sort of see the red shower curtain with Christmas balls hanging and the Green & Red towels (I know the color is a little off). I decorated it like this for the first time last year and I love how it looks!*****

*****This is the first year we have put decorations in the spare room, but being that it is now Brendan's room, Scott thought he should have decorations too, we have the lights above his window which Brendan loves to stare at, and a tiny Christmas tree in the corner by his crib (not pictured)*****

*****Our bedroom is pretty much decorated by the bedspread my Grandmother gave me last year, I really think it does enough for the room, and the cradle that is no longer being used has stuffed reindeer that I have had since I was little (some how, I also have my sister's reindeer)*****

*****Finally, our Christmas Tree, it's little and fake (Scott is allergic to real Christmas Trees) but it is just perfect for our apartment. Maybe one day when we have a house we can get a nice big tree to fill the room but for now, our little 6 foot tree is perfect for our little family! *****

Thanks for joining me on the tour of our apartment as I was able to show off all our hard work and Christmas decorations!!

Traditions

I was realizing last night that this is Scott's and my 4th Christmas married. In that time we have developed Christmas Traditions that we hope to keep as we now extend our family. I was thinking about all of Christmas Traditions and thought that I would share them as we continue with them this year. Tradition has always been big in my family, growing up in a family of six, we had a variety of Traditions at Christmas time. Scott and I are now at the point where we are taking the traditions from each of our family and combine them together while also adding traditions of our own. Christmas is our favorite time of year and it is a great opportunity to really enjoy your family, that is our goal as we develop family traditions together.