Christmas time!

We are back and we had a wonderful time with our family. It was our niece and Ryder's first Christmas and it was so fun to watch them take it all in. It was very relaxed, which it really hasn't been in years passed. The way that Christmas fell this year, we had church services on Friday and Sunday so traveling anywhere was pretty challenging. So we took advantage of being home on Christmas Eve morning and really enjoyed some family time. We made waffles and opened our gifts to each other and did our stockings and drank our coffee and just sat and enjoyed the quiet moments together as a family. It was such a precious time and I will always remeber the first Christmas that we had Ryder with us.

These were my favorites of our Christmas Eve:

Our little tree with our favorite ornaments...

Ryder enjoying his Aunt Mallory and Uncle Andrew's wrapping job and present:

(That hat is just waiting for a photo shoot...)

(Ps: how do you like that shiner from our little man learning to crawl... We know that will not be his last. He is fearless!)

And these were the favorites of our time with my family:

We got to spend a little bit of time with my grandma on Christmas. That was a really special time too. Ryder was just full of big smiles and giggles for her...

I hope that this was a holiday that you were able to enjoy traditions, old and new, and that you were surrounded with people that you love along the way...

We are spending the next few days at our home with Kit's parents. We are really looking forward to it...

See you in a couple of days!

Merry Christmas!

"For today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He is the Messiah who is Christ the Lord."

~Luke 2:11~

From our family to yours, may you have a Christmas filled with joy and laughter...

See you next week!

something fun...

skype...

I have a love/hate relationship with SKYPE. Sometimes the audio isn't working or the screen freezes and you can only hear their voices (when the audio finally does start to work) or there is a significant delay and the conversation is really broken up because of it...

It can be so great to connect with people far away and get some face time that you wouldn't get with just a phone call.

Well the other night we skyped with my sister and our baby girl and it was logged away as a "gina loves skype" moment...

Ryder loves his cousin so much!

So for those who have told me to give skype another chance,

thank you, thank you, thank you! It was well worth it...

family team...

Kit's staff Christmas party was monday night and we had so much fun! That night, as I was looking around at the group of people at the party, I was so overwhelmed with how thankful I am for Kit's job and the incredible people that make up the family team at our church. It's not just a staff of people, it has become our friends and our community and for that I am so grateful!

nativity...

Last week we set up our nativity scene with Ryder, while reading the Christmas story to him from the book of Luke. It was really exciting to think of making this a part of our Christmas traditions each year. It made the focus of Christmas come together for me, in a very specific way.

It also had a special nostalgic value as well because the nativity scene belonged to my Dad's parents and had been in the family for many years so to get to set it up and share it with Ryder was really special.

A family tradition...

The weekend before Christmas is always spent with my mom's side of the family. We calculated it and we realized that we have been doing it since I was about 4 years old. So needless to say, this has been a time honored tradition, since this marks about the 26th year we have gotten together...

So I wanted to share some of my favorite photos of our time together:

Our yearly family picture by the tree... now including Ryder.

Our little man is moving more and more and I just know that he will be walking before we know it.

All the girls... (Heather, we missed you so much!)

Next year, my cousin Melissa and her husband will be adding a little girl, Olivia!

The head of the table. These two just love each other so much!

Ryder opening his first Christmas present: a very fun truck that moves with the push of a button. He loves watching it go.

Ryder sporting his Christmas jammies:

The weekend was a special time to hear about my Grandma Marie's stories of being little and her favorite Christmas traditions and memories... I will always cherish those moments. I just love how our family has grown over the years. First with spouses and now with our kids. I just can't tell you how incredible this weekend is for us. We just love our family!

We look forward to many more years of this tradition together!

Family time...

This weekend is always so special. For as long as I can remember, we have gotten together with my mom's side of the family for an early Christmas celebration. I look forward to it every year! I look forward to sharing some photos with you on Monday!

I was thinking about how so much of the holidays are about being with people that I love and I don't think that I realize how many people have a tough time with this time of year because people that they love have passed away or are not close by or what ever the reason is... I just wanted to send love to those that might be having that type of holiday season, where you are just trying to survive it, just trying to get through it... You are not alone and you are loved!

Kit and I pray that as we are celebrating the birth of our precious Savior, that we might also be attuned to those that He loves and their needs as well...

Move over Bumpo...

So we have had some exciting updates on our little man.

On December 12, he got his first tooth (Oh my gosh finally)! On December 13, he did a full crawl (if it's not the traditional crawl, it's army all the way and yes, we have video...) and on December 14, we got him his highchair and he fed himself for the first time. (Including Cheerios...) I am not saying that much food went in his mouth, but he was in charge of the spoon. Needless to say, It's been a busy few days for us...

He absolutely loves his chair. I am so glad because we are even closer to having normal sit down family dinners.

Where's the spoon in these pictures? On the floor with the bowl and most of the carrots...

Favorite foods right now:

banana, avocado, sweet potato, apples, pears, carrots, butternut/winter squash.

Since he has turned 8 months I am trying new foods all the time so I am sure that we will be adding more favorites to the list.

Merry Christmas!

Our Christmas card. 2010.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

from our family to yours!

Photography and graphics

by Alex Pavone

The Family Dinner

This book was recommended to me recently and I have LOVED it! It's a book about getting your kids around the table, and when you are sharing a meal together, you very often share so much more as well. It is touching on the lost art of family dinner time and Kit and I are looking froward to incorporating much of it into our daily lives as Ryder grows up...

I hope that you have a chance to check it out.

new traditions...

This weekend we started a new tradition. (Well, it's an old tradition for Kit but a new one for our family...) We made Kit's grandpa's english toffee recipe. It was really fun and we look forward to doing it each year. Our hope is that Ryder looks back and remember's us all in the kitchen and the smells of the butter, sugar, and chocolate...

These family moments are so precious to us...

A post for the grandparents...

We had a little photo shoot with Ryder and some antlers the other night for some cards that I will be making. (If you combine the fact that we are both enjoying photography AND the fact that we are addicted to Ryder's face, it is a dangerous combination.)

Kit and I just can't stop smiling each time we see these photos and we thought that we might know some grandparents that might enjoy them too...♥

So we wanted to share them with you.

We love you guys and we are so thankful that Ryder has grandparents like you in his life!

Party time...

I wanted to share some of the photos from the party we went to last night. Our friends, the Crabbs, are incredible hosts and are so talented. From home renovations to wedding decorations and flowers... They are the absolute BEST!

(They are an amazing team, too!)

They live on a street that is lined with Christmas lights and, ceremoniously, the street is lit every year...

Their home used to house carriages and so the feel is incredibly unique, and breathtakingly beautiful with it's high ceilings, grand stone fireplace, and screened in porch with sliding barn doors...

(Did I mention that Brookie is the one who did the flowers for our wedding? She can take a sprig of garland, place it in a milk glass container and all the sudden it looks like the most beautifully planned centerpiece ever! Did I mention that she is so talented...)

Ryder getting loved on by his Mia and Papa. (They are also loving on us because we ate while they held him... it was a win-win...)

Crabbies~

We had so much fun and we just love being with all of you! You are our family! Thank you for your incredible hospitality and love...

ps: we will get better at our night photography so that you can actually see our faces in the photo next time♥.

oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree...

Yesterday we got our tree and got all the lights on it. We usually get between a 3-5 ft tree so we always place it on a table. It smells so good and it was fun to have Ryder with us to pick it out.

He loved helping with the lights...

May your days be merry and BRIGHT!

We are headed off this afternoon to our friends annual Christmas party. Isn't it funny how something about this time of year is all about get togethers and being with people we love...

That's why it's my favorite time of year!

beaded garlands...

We have date today to get our tree and so Ryder and I have been getting our decorations organized. So part of our holiday tree trimming will include our beaded garland. It's just a matter of taking acrylic beads and threading them on a thin sheer ribbon. I had made a shorter one a couple of years ago and each year I feel like I wish it was longer, so this year I just made a longer one.

I can't wait for tonight! Ryder and I even made an invitation for Kit in honor of the evening...

We are planning a family night with tree decorating, hot chocolate and seeing christmas lights in our neighborhood... I am sure there will be lots of photos to come...

llama holiday drama

My mom got this book for Ryder to add to our collection. We love the llama books! If you have a chance to check it out, I think you will really like it.

Thanks mom for thinking of us!

Anna Dewdney, you have done it again!

butternut squash soup

It has been getting colder and one our favorite things to make are all types of soups. They just taste so good and they can be so easy. I wanted to use some butternut squash up and so I found this recipe and we really liked it. In addition to what the recipe calls for, I made cheesy croutons and crispy bacon that I crumbled, and used both as toppings for the soup. Kit really liked it and I thought it was really easy and you know, those are my two indicators for a good recipe.

ps: I also added 3 cloves of garlic and used olive oil instead of butter. If you have an immersion blender, that will make the process faster and clean up so much easier...

Enjoy!

celebrating christmas with friends

This last sunday we got together with our friends from college for our annual christmas party. We used our Raclette maker and enjoyed a really tasty meal together. It is such a fun experience and it is always so fun to be together. There are always such great conversations, laughter and chaos as we try to eat and manage the 7 kiddos that are under 4years of age. Most of us have been friends since our freshman year of college, which means that we just celebrated our 12th year of friendship.

It all started with the guys being on the same dorm floor as freshman so we always love getting pictures of all the guys at each event. (We keep adding little guys to the photos which so fun to see.)

We love you all and we are so thankful to have friends like you that have become family to us. We look forward to MANY more meals and memories together.