Some Photos to Share

Thought I'd share a few photos...

This is Chris' brother, Mike, and his wife, Carrie, and their adorable 6-month old, Marshall.

This is Chris and, our friends', Brian and Sharon's, little guy Noah. We watched Noah overnight for them - Noah's first overnight away from Mommy and Daddy. Noah and Chris and I had a great time! We even watched It's a Wonderful Life. Mommy and Daddy were sad without Noah. Chris is a natural!

Christmas, New Year's and the ER

Christmas
Our first Christmas together was wonderful! Christmas Eve we spent visiting friends, relaxing and just hanging out together. We attended the candlelight service at our church and then Chris drove us around to look at lights in Harlan and Shelby. We ended up at our friend, Cherie's, house where we ate and visited and sang carols around the piano and drank eggnog (OK, I just held my glass - I think eggnog is foul!). It was such a nice evening. We headed home and went to bed. On Christmas morning, we got up and opened gifts from each other and ate cinnamon rolls and watched one of Chris' new movies. It was awesome just to be able to relax and spend time with just the two of us.

Later in the day we packed up and drove to Sioux City for dinner and time with my family. My two youngest sisters, Reann and Rheta, plus Reann's fiance' Jon, and Mom and Dad were all there. We had an a great dinner of ham, cheesy potatoes, green beans, and corn. Cherie had given Chris and I the game Scene-It and we had brought it with us to Mom and Dad's. So the bunch of us played Scene-It and then Sequence. It was so much fun. We spent the night and headed out in the morning. On the way home, we stopped in Council Bluffs to do a little shopping and to grab a quick bite. We celebrated our one-month anniversary (Yeah!) with lunch at HuHot Mongolian Grill - YUM!!!! I think we've found another favorite place to eat in the city! We headed home after lunch and spent the rest of the day relaxing and cleaning and just enjoying each other's company.

New Year's
After a few days of work, we took off again, this time heading for Michigan and to spend New Year's with Chris' family and some of our friends up there. We left on Thursday after work and made it all the way to Gary, Indiana before we decided enough was enough and checked into a motel. We forgot all about the time change so we got a little later start than we intended in the morning but still made it to Brighton by mid-afternoon. It was so good to see Chris' parents! We had a late lunch with them and played Scene-It (one of our new favorite games!) a few times with them (girls vs. boys - girls won :)) before heading to Ypsilanti to see Mike and Carrie and Marshall. Chris fixed their computer while Carrie and I hung out with Marshall and he entertained us. He officially turned 6 months old on January 1st and it was fun to see how much more animated he is. He loved the light up bongo drum toy that Chris and I got him - although, honestly, he liked the wrapping paper on everything most of all! :)

On Saturday, Chris and Mike and I ran errands while Grandma Peggy and Grandpa Dave watched Marshall. Carrie was stuck at hospital on call the whole day and night. We got done with errands and started making dinner for that night. Then we started on the games! Mom, Dad, Mike, Chris and I played Carcassonne, a game Mike and Carrie got Mom and Dad. Even though I had no idea what I was doing I ended up winning! Yeah! Then we took on Mike's new game that Chris and I got him - Betrayal at House on the Hill. Another fun game - you have to explore a creepy old house that you lay out room by room. Eventually someone becomes the traitor and then it's everyone against that person. By that time, our friends were starting to arrive so we shelved the games and finished making dinner. Mom and Dad, Mike and Marshall, and Chris and I were joined by our friends Chris Mueller, Brad Bachelor, Murph and Eddy (Edna) Mueller, and Bill and Amy Pemberton and Baby Liam. We had a great dinner - homemade lasagna, cheesy potatoes, green beans, bacon wrapped little smokies, homemade bread - we were all stuffed! Then it was time for some more serious game playing. This time we started with a round of Scene-It - with just Mike, Bill and I versus everyone else. They figure we were big enough movie buffs but alas, we fell to the numbers. Then it was time for Cranium Turbo Edition - we had a great time - except we really dislike the yellow cards! Watch out for them! The guys played another game of Betrayal at House on the Hill while the rest of us visited and played with Baby Liam. We all gathered together to watch the ball drop at midnight and cherish our time together. Our guests headed for home sometime after 2 am and we all headed to bed. On Sunday, we spent more time playing games - we had to get in at least one game of Settlers plus a few rounds of Beer Money (a funny card game Chris' parents got him) and another round of Scene-It. Chris and I got to spend some time playing with Marshall on our own as his parents took a nap and Mike went to meet Carrie to celebrate their anniversary. Mike and Carrie came back in the evening and we all played some more games and entertained Marshall. Mike, Carrie and Marshall stayed over at Mom and Dad's so we all got up and were able to eat breakfast together and spend time relaxing and - you guessed it - playing another game before Chris and I had to leave. We got home around 10:30 on Monday night - and then the real fun began!

...and the ER
So we got home around 10:30 and got stuff ready to go for work the next day. Around 11:00, Chris started getting sick - and proceeded to get sick every 10-15 minutes all night long. At 6:30 the next morning, we headed to the ER in hopes of anti-nausea shot for Chris and eventually sleep for both of us. Chris got his shot but they were alarmed at his white count and thought maybe he had appendicitis. So my poor, incredibly nauseous husband had to drink down a berry smoothie cocktail plus two glasses of foul, lemon flavored barium drinks in order to have a CT scan of his tummy. The CT came back negative for appendicitis but the docs were concerned enough to admit him to the hospital for observation. Who knew the "in sickness" part of our vows would come up so soon? Thankfully, we had great nurses who found a cot for me so I could stay with Chris. We spent the night and, after still finding no cause for his elevated white count, were released to head home the next morning. We've been trying to take it easy since then and are planning a relaxing weekend mostly at home.

I have to say, it was really cool and special to know so many people were praying for us with Chris being sick - we so appreciated all the phone calls and the visits. It's a huge reminder how wonderful our friends and family are. Thanks to all of you who have been there for us over this past year. We are so grateful you are in our lives!