Christmas !!

Christmas at our house this year was a little more crazy then normal. Luke was on call the whole week before Christmas. I spent a lot of time on a sewing project for my mom-in-law. Thankfully it ended Christmas Eve and we had lots of time together after that. Here we are by our Christmas Tree. This is a tradition that Luke and I started the first year we got married. We always take a picture around the tree. This is Dirk, me and Luke's mom (Bev) going on the Christmas Eve hay ride. Dirk loved this so much, he is obsessed with trailer and we got to ride on one. It was so cold!!! This is Dirk on Christmas morning opening presents from Santa. This was Dirks big gift this year. He was so excited! He talked none stop about a train he had seen at Toys r Us. He wanted Santa to to bring him a train that went around and around and it it had a controller. Thankfully Santa found it and it was here Christmas morning. Dirk has not stopped playing with it yet. He loves it so much!! This is a picture of my secret sewing project I was working on like crazy. This is part of our Christmas from Bruce and Bev (Luke's parents). They are pretty cool (I think so). They are picnic baskets. Inside they are lined with fabric and have pockets for everything. They were all stocked with everything you could imagine for a picnic. So the whole family is ready as soon as the snow melts. I didn't have a picture but I had to add that my dad made me a lamp for Christmas. It is the coolest!! It's made out of metal and he welded it all together. I will have to post a pic soon so you can see how talented he is. Thanks Dad.

Christmas is almost here!

Christmas is finally almost here YEPPY!! If you have ever met Luke you know that Christmas is his favorite time of year. He loves Christmas more then anyone I know. We start listening to Christmas music the day after Halloween. We get the tree and all the decorations out the day after Thanksgiving. I really think Luke would put it up earlier if I let him. This year has been very exciting in the new house. This is our new Christmas tree. It is huge compared to our old one. Our first tree was my aunt Juli's and she gave to us when we first got married. It held up good until last year when all the needles started to fall off. So we had to get a new one this year. We went to a million different stores looking for the perfect tree. Luke and I both fall in love a little more with the tree every time we walk in the room. If you think we are funny you should hear Dirk talk bout the new tree. He thinks his tree is better then everyone else because it touches the ceilings. We have tried to tell him that some people have taller ceilings then us but he doesn't believe us. Yesterday we went to the festival of trees with Luke's family. We had so much fun. The trees were all so beautiful and unique. I don't know what I was thinking I didn't take any pictures while we were looking. After we all went to dinner at the Mayan. Dirk and Luke loved the snake outside to I had to take a picture of them on it. They are so cute! The kids loved watching the divers. I think that was the highlight of the day for Dirk. This is a picture that my niece Maria took of me and Dirk while we waited for our food. I think she did a really good job, she must get that from her mom. We had such a fun time together. We have no new updates on the baby. I had to reschedule my appointment last week. So we still don't know if the baby is a boy or a girl. We will be going back in the middle of December hopefully we will get to find out then. This baby just really doesn't want us to know yet.

Pumpkin NIght

Last night was Pumpkin Night!! I know it's a little early but with moving and everything we are so busy so I'm fitting things in where I can.

First we started with DINNER IN A PUMPKIN. I wish I could take all the credit for this but I got the idea from my Aunt Bev (she is GREAT). I have done this for the past 3 years so it is tradition now and we love it. It take a while to cook so I have to plan it right so I will have enough time. I started getting everything ready around 3 and we ate dinner at 6:30. Dirk Loved it this year he called both the grandmas and told them he ate pumpkin guts for dinner and it was good. So here is how I did dinner in a pumpkin this year.

I started with a medium sized pumpkin.

Then I cut it and cleaned it just like if you were going to carve it. I save the seeds and cook them later for a little treat. I got that recipe from my mother-in-law Bev.

Look how clean that pumpkin is... Beautiful :)

Here is all the stuff I put in it this year. I try to make it different every year. I cooked the rice just like it says on the box. Then to the rice I added 2 cooked chicken breast, 1 can cream of chicken soup (I love that soup), 1 can corn - drained (Dirk loves corn), 1/4 cup of soy sauce with 2 T sugar in it and last 1 T veggie oil. I got this off the Internet, I didn't really like the corn in it I think it's because I'm pregnant. Luke and Dirk loved it!! We put cheese and Chinese noodles on top (we put that one top of everything).

I mix everything in a bowl and then scoop it into the pumpkin. Really looks like guts.

I always put a pan under. The pumpkin will get really soft and can brake if you move it around a lot. It smells great when it's cooking my house smelled like cinnamon and pumpkin last night.

After dinner I started cooking the seed and Luke helped Dirk carve pumpkins. They had so much fun! They giggled and giggled I think Luke turned into a little boy again. Dirk loved the pumpkins smile. He just doesn't like the slim.

Here they are with the finished pumpkins.

A few picture of our new home

Finally after a TON of hard work and long nights here are some pictures of our new house....

This is a picture of our living room before...

Here is Dirk, he's helping Luke's sister (Aunt Shan) and me paint. Thanks a Billion Shan you were a life saver helping paint and keep Dirk busy.

Here is the finished room. We're still hanging pictures but at least it's a room with no moving boxes in it. We can relax a little.

Here are some pictures of the kitchen before. The kitchen is still a work in progress and will be for while (we are taking a break until after the holidays). At first I really liked the green walls but we are really thinking about painting them. The green really makes the kitchen dark.

Here's Luke's dad and Luke installing our new counter tops and kitchen sink. Luke has said this is one project he will never do again. It wasn't as easy at all. It was worth it though!! It looks great!! The sink is awesome too, it's a 9.5" deep so I can fit everything in it. Next we are going to tile a back splash and paint. Plus we are getting new hardware for the doors.

We have been so blessed to have all the help we have had. Our families have spent a lot of time over here helping us get ready. Thanks so much everyone that helped us!! I can't tell you enough how grateful I am to have you all.

This picture is for Brooke my sister... Here are the pillow I was telling you about...

Exciting News

I have so much exciting news to share. We finally found a house!! Yeppy!! We should be closing very soon. Luke and I are so excited and can hardly wait. We have been to Lowes and Home depot a million times in the past two weeks (dreaming of all the things we want to do). I will start posting pictures soon. We also are very excited to say we are having a baby too!! Dirk is very excited to be a big brother.