Christmas at Home and New Years Eve!

Christmas with the four of us was not what I had planned :)!  We usually do our Christmas before we leave town, but we were so busy that we just didn't have the time.  On Monday, the day after Christmas, we headed back home right after lunch.  That way we could get home and settled and do our Christmas.  Well, we had to run a few errands and we hadn't wrapped any presents so by the time we were ready to do our Christmas it was 8:30pm (which is usually the girls bedtime).  So we opened presents, kind of quickly, and then let the girls play 10min or so and then it was off to bed, for all of us :)!  We are taking advantage of the girls being young and not caring about how many gifts they get and grandparents spoiling them, that we got them just a couple things again this year ;).

New Years is a little different now that we have kids, but it's still a lot of fun.  Since New Years Day fell on a Sunday, Davin had half the day off on Friday and then all day off on Monday!!  Friday we didn't do too much, just got a few things done around the house while the girls napped.  Then that night we rented a movie.


Saturday we decided last minute to take a trip to a local State Park.  It was such a beautiful day.  Blue skies and high in the lower 60s!!  We packed up a picnic lunch and headed down the highway to the state park.  It was so beautiful!  The lake was so blue!  It was a little windy that day, but still great weather.  We had lunch and then let the girls play on the playground for a while.  Then we walked around and drove around checking it all out.  We thought for sure that the girls would be worn out and take their nap in the car on the way back...not so much!  We had planned to just take some back roads home and enjoy the scenery and let them nap, but they did not sleep!!  They were pretty good, only got fussy a few times, but did not sleep! 

 They got so excited when they saw this tree! They thought it was a Christmas tree :)

That night Donnie and Laura and their son Del were in town visiting family and we were so happy to get to see them before they flew back home to LA.  I hadn't seen Del and Laura since last Feb when Del was 2 months old, so he had changed a lot.  We had a good visit with them.  They also shared with us that they are expecting baby number 2 in late summer!  So happy for them!

I didn't stay up to ring in the new year this year:)!  Davin was up finishing up studying for his lesson on Sunday so he was sweet enough to come kiss me at midnight.  So even though I didn't see the ball drop I still got my kiss at midnight, ha :)!


Monday was kind of a catch up and run errands kind of day.  It was pretty relaxing.  We've had a great couple of months traveling, but I am glad to be home and get back to our normal daily routine.


I don't really have many new years resolutions, I just pray that I seek Jesus first in all I do!

Christmas!

The weekend before Christmas we went to Booneville for the Hicks' side Christmas party and dirty Santa gift exchange at Aunt Lesia's house with lots of yummy food.  It's not a Hicks' party unless there is a huge spread of food and dessert :)! 

We stayed with Davin's parents that night and did our Christmas with them the next morning.  His parents got the girls lots of great things, but the main gift was a trampoline.  It's a medium size one that's really nice and the girls will LOVE it.   His mom got us each wonderful things as well, but my main one was a new sewing machine!  I was surprised she got me one, but so happy!  I still have a LOT to learn, but I'm excited about it!  After gifts and a yummy lunch with the family, we headed back home.


The next week on Wed the girls and I headed to my parents that morning. It was my mom's bday and I wanted to be there for that.  Davin worked, but was able to catch a ride with Joe since they were spending Christmas in RSVL too!  Since we were going to be there through Monday I felt like I had my whole house in my car, plus the dog :)!  That night we had a family dinner for my mom's bday. 

The next day we met up with Joe and Amberley for an early morning run!  Then we had a few more errands and things to buy for Christmas...so last minute this year!  That night we also went downtown to see the Living Nativity.  Joe and Amberley and her fam (the Bauman's) were all in it that night.  The girls loved seeing the animals and dancing to the music they had playing!
And after that we drove around some neighborhoods and looked at the Christmas lights!  Since I was a little girl my dad would take us on what we called "whole wide world rides".  We would get in our PJ's and drive up and over the hill in our town where you could see the whole town lit up and from a child's perspective it looks like the whole world lit up :) so that's what I called it and that's what it's been ever since.  We always went at Christmas time, but we also went a few other times of the year.  When we went in the summer we would get ice cream.  It is one of those childhood memories that I will always hold on to.

Friday night was our Christmas Eve get together with my mom's side of the family at my Aunt Linda's house.  The food is SO yummy and so are the desserts!  After dinner, we play games and it's a lot of fun.  Wendell comes up with the best games! 

Saturday night we went to the Christmas Eve candle light service at my parents church.  I always look forward to the Candle light service each year.  The girls loved when all the candles were lit!  We went home and watched a Christmas movie.  Perfect way to end the day.
Christmas morning we woke up and let the girls open their gifts from my parents!!  Then we had our Mortenson Christmas breakfast tradition.  My mom found this recipe years ago for these blueberry pancakes with some kind of cream cheese topping.  They aren't your normal pancakes but they are my FAV pancakes, the best ever, seriously!!  My dad cooks the bacon and sausage to go with it.  My brother and I are on the same Holiday schedule so he and his wife were there too!

My sister and her family do Christmas at their house since Zak is 8 and then they come over for lunch.  My grandparents came over this year to cook us lunch.  We had Pop's famous spaghetti and grandma's Asian salad.  Then after lunch once everyone was there, we did our gifts.  Last year we decided to just draw names with my family, but my mom still gets us "stocking" gifts which are so not stocking gifts, ha!  After gifts we played games and just enjoyed each other's company.

We had a wonderful Christmas with family and celebrating the main reason!  Thank you Lord for sending us Jesus so that we can be saved and have eternal life.  What a wonderful gift, the best gift!

Christmas Parties Galore

The second weekend in December we had lots of fun celebrating the Christmas season with friends all weekend long!


Thursday night I went to a GNO cookie exchange party. Since it was just for girls,  Davin and the babies stayed home and Amberley, Mandy, and I headed to our friend Kayla's house.  This party is fun because I get to see a few girls I went to college with and then also meet lots of new people that go to church with them.  Some of our friends, the Blanchards, moved to a town 30 min north of us to start a church a couple years ago.
We ate dinner, played games, talked, exchanged (and ate) lots of yummy desserts, and talked some more!  It was a great way to kick off the Christmas parties!


Friday night we had Davin's work Christmas party.  It was at a hotel in town and they had some really good food catered in.  These work parties can get a little crazy and after dinner I'm usually ready to head home.  I do enjoy catching up with some of the other wives who I don't see very often!  There were lots of people there from all 3 offices (Here, Tulsa, LR)  and they always do a dirty Santa exchange.  I don't play, but Davin does and he left with an "awesome" green sparkly Santa sweater, woohoo.  A little after 9 we left and went to pick our girls up from FNO and head home.


Saturday night we had our annual small group Christmas party!  Always such a fun time!!  Sweet Dia came over to watch the girls for us.  **Side note: Dia got engaged over the Holiday and we are so so happy and excited for her, but I'm also a little sad.  It's not easy finding a sitter that you trust and love and that your kids love!!  She will be moving away, so we will have to get all our date nights in for the year between now and May ;)! We will miss her very much!! Thankfully we still have another wonderful sitter Claire!**
Ok, back to the party...After Dia got here we headed to a yummy Mexican place for dinner.  Then it was off to the Rowe's house for dessert and dirty santa!

 Helga, Shannon, Jodi, Me, and Lindsey

 Brett, Cody, and Davin

Helga(and baby girl), Michelle, Lindsey, Me, Jill, Shannon (and Reagan), Katie, and Jodi

Remember that "awesome" sweater I said that Davin won at his work party?  We re-gifted it and Jason ended up with it!  Mark ended up with this lovely turtle neck.  This was the second year for it to have an appearance, so I'm sure we'll be seeing both of these items next year :)! haha!

Davin co-teaches our small group with our close friend Mark, and on Sunday night we had our Leadership party.  It was at the church and they provided dinner and Chris spoke and gave each couple a gift and then we just visited with the other teachers.  It's fun to be able to get together with the other young couples small group teachers because we normally don't see them.  I feel like we meet new ones at each get together!

The next week my friend Krystal asked me to do dinner with her and I was so happy she did!  We used to meet monthly for lunch before we had our kids.  Now it's just sporadic!  I was glad we were able to do dinner so that we could just talk for however long we wanted to without having to be back at work, or tend to the kids, etc!  We met at Olive Garden and were there for 2 hours catching up!  It was fun!

Before I met up with Krystal, Davin and I took the girls to the mall to see Santa.  Last year at 11 months they liked him.  Well, this year they did not.  So the picture of the girls with Santa is a picture of the 4 of us with Santa, haha!! 

It was a busy weekend, but so much fun!!  We are so thankful for and blessed by the friends God has allowed us to do life with.  Thank you Jesus!

Also that week, the girls had their Christmas party at KDO!  I'm not sure what all they do, but I'm sure they have fun!

Christmas Fun in Branson!

*I really wanted to be caught up before the New Year, but I haven't even done December!  So here goes...


We go to Branson with my family every year around Thanksgiving (depending on who's side of the family we are with that year) to see the lights at SDC and do some shopping.  We love it!  I knew the girls would really enjoy the lights at SDC this year because they have LOVED seeing all the Christmas lights around town!


This year was a little different though.  Normally we spend 3 or 4 nights in a condo and kind of space things out and enjoy our time with each other running around Branson, and also in the condo playing games and watching movies.  Things just change when everyone grows up and has families of their own.  It's hard to work around every body's schedule, so this year just our family of 4 met up with my parents (who brought my nephew Zak, while my sister and her hubby were in Dallas).  We just stayed one night in a hotel down by the Landing.  It was a fast trip, but still fun even though we missed the rest of the fam!


We drove up early afternoon on Friday. After checking into the hotel and a quick stop at the Outlets, we made our way to SDC.  The girls did love all the millions of lights, and Parker rode all the kiddie rides.  Davin and I took turns riding some rides with Zak.  Payton still wants nothing to do with rides (hopefully she'll grow out of this!).  We did manage to get her on the carousel and she enjoyed it!
For the last several years we have watched the Dickens Christmas Carol so of course we had to watch it this year!  It's always a good show, and the girls were great through the whole thing!  I'm sad that it is not going to be there next year.  They are replacing it with It's A wonderful Life, so that will have to become our new tradition.

 The next morning we got up and had a yummy breakfast and then hit the outlets and Landing for some shopping.  The girls were a little fussy.  I guess at almost 2 years old, they don't want to sit in a stroller all day ;)!  And it was cold and rainy!  My parents and Zak headed home and Davin and I did just a little more shopping and then found a Mexican place in downtown Hollister and it was SO good. 

Such a fun weekend and great way to kick off December!! Love making memories with our girls!