Christmas 2010

long overdue, but want to document it nonetheless...we once lost a lot of pictures off of our computer (we are terrible at backing things up) and our blog saved the day as I had posted many of our favorites on here.

Christmas Eve w/ the DiCos...

DiCo cousins!

I guess every family insists on taking pics of all of the kids even though it's practically torture! :-)

Christmas Eve service (the first time we've been able to go in several years - it was so special and I don't think we'll miss one again - so great to take time out of the busy-ness and reflect on the true meaning of Christmas - it's really not just a cliche!)

Christmas morning at home...

think they're excited to get a Wii?!!!

The day after Christmas, we made the long trek (15+ hour drive) to WI!

so exciting to meet our newest nephew & niece - Ezra & Naomi - born on October 12th!

the awesome chefs of our family!

My awesome Grandma Lowery was there!

Even Grandma got into it with the help of her walker! :-)

Our (short!) time with our best friends, the Martys:

the kids were coming out of their skin w/ excitement!

DMZ!

Bethany & Q came into town for a wedding and came a little early to spend some time with us. Kyle and Kim came over to hang out with us too. It was a bummer to not have all of the kids here this time - but still so much fun to hang out together. We miss doing this on a regular basis now that B&Q have moved to Minnesota!

hair-dos by Sophia :-)

Sophia taught Bethany how to hula-hoop!

New Year's Eve - Party in Sun Prairie!!!!

While in WI, we were able to connect with our dear best friends, the Martys! It was almost 1 year to the date that we had last seen each other. They moved to Poland for 1 year, but are now back in the States - although they are halfway across the country from us (living in MN), it is still so good to have them "back". The kids had SO much fun together -they had spent 4 years living 1 hour apart and spending countless hours together, and it within 1 minute it was like they'd never been apart for the year!

sweet girlies

our football maniacs! :-)

BFFs

the men (and a sacked-out Anthony!)

We found a great suite right in Sun Prairie, a couple of minutes from Bethany's parents and rented it for New Year's Eve. We had a great time playing Guitar Hero, eating, swimming and just being together!

On a separate note, it was fun to go back to Sun Prairie (where I spent jr. high and highschool) and take the kids by my old house, church, school and drive around the town and see the changes. I hadn't been back in at least 6 years and a lot had changed. I also got to go back to my old place of employment and see some of the people I worked with 17 years ago! And it's always great to go back to Bethany's parents house and see them - they are like another set of parents to me and are always so welcoming to us!