Wishing You A Merry Chirstmas

Today we finished up our Christmas celebrating with Aaron's family. Aaron's parents and sister spent Christmas in Texas, so we weren't able to celebrate until today. It was nice to not be so busy on Christmas Eve & Christmas day, not to mention it made Christmas last a little longer - which was nice. We had an untraditional Christmas lunch of steak & potatoes, which was wonderful. We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening opening gifts, watching movies, and playing games. It was a great time of fellowship with our family. We don't get to see Aaron's family that often, so days like this are nice. As our Christmas celebrating comes to an end we hope you all had a merry Christmas and are looking forward to a fantastic 2008.


Tony waiting for his gifts.

The family playing dominos.

The girls opening all their gifts.

Christy opening her gifts.

Watching everyone open their presents.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Happy Birthday!

Yesterday we celebrated Dad's 51st birthday. We ate a Jim & Nick's BBQ which was very yummy. We just want to say how grateful we are that dad is a part of our lives, and we would like to wish him 51 more birthdays to come. Here's to you Dad!

The family celebrating at Jim & Nick's BBQ

Merry Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas with friends and family. We spent much of Christmas Eve with family. We had a Tarleton family breakfast that morning, then lunch with Aaron's sister, and then back to my parents for the Bone family Christmas. Christmas day was a little less busy. We spent the morning at home exchanging gifts, and then had our family dinner that night with my parents. Aaron's family spent Christmas in Texas with his grandparents, so we get to celebrate with them this weekend. I posted some pics from some of our celebrations. If you want to see more photos, look at our albums on facebook.

We hope everyone had a blessed Christmas. This year we have really been blessed by the Lord, which makes this Christmas extra special. Remebering that the season is about Chirst helps keep our hearts in the right spirit. It is very easy to lose sight of everything among the presents and things, but daily reminding yourself of God's gift puts our minds back where they should be. I hope you all take the time to remeber His birth, and thank God for the gift of His son, Jesus Christ.

Beth, Rebecca, & Amy at Christmas breakfast.
All of us at Christmas dinner with my family.
Aaron & Dodger Christmas morning.

Courtney showing off some of her Christmas presents.

Amy & Brent singing at the Bone family Chirstmas.

Aunt Debra & Uncle Joe listening to the singing.

16 Weeks and Counting

I had a follow up doctor's visit yesterday. The baby is progressing well. The heartbeat was so strong and the doctor said he/she was even kicking around (even though I couldn't feel a thing). I hope I'll start feeling a little kick by the end of the month or so. Aaron & I have been so excited about the baby. My belly is growing. It seems like one day I just woke up and there was a belly there. Nothing huge, but you can start to tell there is something in there. I'll post some pics of the belly soon. I hope you all are having a wonderful Christmas season with family and friends.

Bullet & Pistol

So this weekend we decided to host a little last minute Christmas party at our home. We had a pretty good turn out for it to be planned a day in advance. We had so much fun playing games, darts, and of course riding the infamous make-shift bull. Hope you all are enjoying the holidays as much as we are. If you want to see more photos, check out our album on facebook.

Amy & Sarh watching the guys play darts.

Me riding the bull.

Aaron trying to get his team to guess spaghetti-O's. Turned out to be a hard one for the team.

Our team laughing at the other team acting out their clues.

Khrystle & Missy playing darts.

Samuel trying his hand out at riding the bullet.

Beth showing her hand at tackling the bull.

Missy giving it her best.

Saving the best for last.

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year. I love the Christmas songs, the decorations, and all the excitement of Christmas day. I also love the one that the holiday is all about, which is Jesus Christ. The holiday season is well underway, and we have already attended the church's winter wonderland and the Ekklesia class Christmas party. Since we have already done so much celebrating for the holidays, Aaron & I decided that it was time to get our house decorated for the holidays.

So Aaron and I went and picked out a tree last night. Growing up we always had an artifical tree, but since I've married Aaron we have gotten a real tree. I really enjoy the real tree. It is fun to pick one out, bring it home, get it set up, and decorate it. This year it only took us 5 minutes to pick out a tree. Usually we are so picky that it takes us at least 30 minutes or more to agree on a tree. This year we walked up looked at two, and picked the second one we looked at. It was nice to get in and out in such a quick time. We grabbed dinner, and headed home to set the tree up.

It was late when we got home, so we decided to get the tree ready, but do the trimming today. This afternoon we spent time decorating the tree and the house. I always enjoy decorating the tree because I often forget from year to year of special ornaments we have, so when I pull them out of the box it is fun to remember where they came from. Most of our ornaments came from our first Christmas together. Realizing we only had a handful of ornaments that some insightful family members had given us as wedding gifts, we had to go out and gather a few more so our tree was not so bare. These are my favorites, and I have only added a few new ones since we've been married.

Last Christmas I gave Aaron this nativity set. For those of you who don't know, it is the Veggie Tales nativity. Aaron is crazy about the Veggie Tales (as well as I), so I couldn't pass it up. This year we decided to set it up instead of our fancier one, in honor of our little one that is on the way. Hope you all are enjoying the holiday season as much as we are. God Bless!

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

This past Sunday evening we attended the Winter Wonderland at church. The evening started out with the chior singing a special arrangement of songs. They sang such songs as "Joy to the World" and "Silent Night." It was a nice little service. Afterwards we headed to the Family Life Center where it had been transformed into a magical winter wonderland as you can tell in the picture above (you can also see Uncle Mike in the background if you look hard enough). They had a beautiful Christmas tree, snow, a candy shop, a hayride, and lots of delicious Christmas treats. The evening was lots of fun and a nice way to kick of the Christmas holiday season.

Santa and his helper.

Matthew getting ready to see Santa.

Beth, Samuel, Jeanie, & Taylor on the hayride.

Amy - a little annoyed with her hayride companions.

Taylor covered in...snow?

Aaron & I in front of the Christmas tree.

The Most Wonderful Sound in the World

Today I had my third doctor's appointment. We had our ultrasound on the 15th, so this was my first appointment afterwards. I was able to hear the baby's heartbeat again, and was so excited when they told me that they would listen for it at every appointment from now on. I am 13 weeks, 3 days today. I can't believe how quickly the time is passing. Before I know it, May will be here and this little one will be making his or her debut.

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is the start of my favorite time of year. I love family get-togethers and this season starts a collection of family times. I also love that Thanksgiving is just a time to be thankful for the blessings God has given us. There are no expectations or presents to buy; it is just time to be with family and friends. This year, Aaron & I are especially thankful for our new bundle of joy that is on the way. We spent our Thanksgiving with family. We had lunch with Aaron's family and dinner with my mom's family. It was a great time of fun and fellowship with each other. I hope you all had a wonderful day as well. Here are some pictures from our day.

Aaron's dad after our wonderful lunch

Amy chilling after dinner

Debra & Mom

Vanessa & Beth

The girls

The guys (and a few girls that didn't want to get up)

Channeling our Inner Grandma

Amy and I went to the new Peebles store in Madison last week. While there we couldn't pass up these wonderful Grandma sweaters. As you can tell we were really working them. Ok, so we didn't purchase them. They weren't really our style. Hope you get a kick out of them anyway.

Remedy

For those of you who know us, you might not know that we are HUGE David Crowder fans. This past Friday night, Aaron, Beth, our friend Dylan, and myself attended the last night of his Remedy tour. It was AWESOME. We attended his concert last year and it was so good that we couldn't pass up seeing him again this year. He was in concert with The Myriad and Phil Wickham. We had never seen Phil Wickham before, but he was awesome. He was a one man band and totally rocked the place. David Crowder's set was great. He sang lots of songs from his new CD remedy, and then several older songs. I can't pick a favorite because every song was awesome. David Crowder even rigged a Guitar Hero guitar and played in during the concert. It was so cool.

During the show David said something that resonated with me. He said "If we lived like we sang, the world would be a different place". I thought that was so profound. As Christians, we sing about God's love, forgiveness, and faithfulness. However, we do little to show His love and our trust in Him to the world around us. If only we could live out the words we sing about, how true it is that the world could be such a different place. I challenge you all during this holiday season to find ways to let the love of Christ show to those around us.

We're Expecting!!

We're Expecting!

Just wanted everyone to know that we are expecting our first child this summer. The little one is scheduled to arrive the first week in June. We would appreciate all your prayers during this time. We are all excited. We had our first ultrasound yesterday and we got to hear the heartbeat! Everything is progressing as it should and we are feeling great.

Christmas Shoeboxes

We participated in the Shoebox Ministry again this year. This is a ministry where we collect shoeboxes and fill them with items for needy children in Mexico. The items we collected are things such as baby dolls, crayons, coloring books, flip flops, socks, toothbrushes and toothpaste, bubbles, soap, and all kinds of toys. Last night we gathered together and put the boxes together and then wrapped them like Christmas presents. They will be collected and taken to Mexico sometime after Thanksgiving. This year we were able to make 300+ boxes! I am so gald that we were able to be apart of this and share God's love with others.

Rich and Beth getting the boxes ready for wrapping

Aaron putting one of the boxes together

Moo wrapping boxes

Mrs. Linda helping get the wrapping done

Jenny make one of the shoeboxes look spectacular

Matt helping load the truck

Beth and Madison showing off one of their boxes