Happy New Year

BE FOREWARNED!!!! THIS POST IS PHOTO HEAVY!!!!!

We spent New Years Eve with some friends of ours....The Hickmans.

Joe and Jim knew each other and worked together in San Diego...as a matter of fact, Nikki, Emmy and Jake went to the same preschool yet we didn't even know until just recently!!! Small world huh?!

Anyways....they moved up this way just over a year ago and we've been spending more and more time with them and this is where we spent our New Years Eve and New Years Day!!!

Here's Nikki with another friend's son, Anthony.

LOOK at how much shorter.......I mean, TALLER, Anthony is. She's SO petite.

Oh, and yes....that WOULD be a TANK top over top a hoodie.....weirdo. The girl can just make almost anything look good!!!

The kids playing Rock Band.

Emmy looks like such a pro doesn't she??

Bonnie bundled me ALL up to go snowmobiling. We had SO much FUN!!!!

I had SO many layers on I could barely walk but we had FUN!

So much fun I went out yesterday and bought a pair of snow pants that are MY SIZE, some wanna be Under Armour and a neck gaiter. I found THE NICEST pair of danners.......but they didn't have MY size!!! Grrrrrr

It's all good. I now have Joe on a mission.

Teeheehee........

Salvador

--I like this pic of him.

He had SO much fun sledding, snowmobiling and snowboarding with the kids.

My beans!!!!

Isn't she ADORABLE!?!?!

Our beauty!

Joe going for a ride.

Joe and Salvador.

The cozy fire that kept us nice and warm while we were hanging out outside AND while we were watching the fireworks and drinking our champangne!!!!

Did someone say fireworks????? Teeheehee

Yes, we had fireworks.....and GOOD fireworks.

Bonnie and Jim ROCK!!!!! :)

(Salvador) Nikki & Emmy

Kelsey, Nikki and Emmy

I LOVE this picture of the girls.

Just LOOK at the expression on Nikki's face. It just makes me smile each time I look at it.

Awwwwwwwwww.

Jim.......

What the..............

LOLOL

This guy just CRACKS ME UP!!!!!!!

He is SOOOO funny and SUCH a good guy!!!

Joe.........

what can I say.........

It's Joe! LOL

CHEERS Joe!

Looks like he needs a little more somethin' somethin' in his glass to 'cheer's' with....

......or does he? LOL

Samuel had MORE fun sledding.

This kid LOVES sledding. I think ALL night long ALL he did was go sledding!!!

I LOVE this kid!!

'JoJo and Jimbo'

What a pair these two are! LOL

Nikki chuckled at this picture....she said Jim looks like Rudolph with that ruby red nose. LOL And LOOK at that CHEESY smile on Joe's face. LOL

And Jim with that flashlight!!!!!!
LOLOLOL

The morning affffffterrrr..............

I'd hoped to 'ring in the New Year'. I didn't BUT Joe DID!!!!

He spent a great part of Thursday sleeping and resting. That's what cha get when you want to 'over do it' a little....or, errrrrr A LOT!! Can't say I felt bad......AT ALL!!!!

Bonnie (and the girls) made the MOST delicious New Years dinner..

this beautiful Prime Rib, yummy mashed potatoes, the most delicious brussel sprouts I've EVER had....I SO need to try either 1) duplicate that recipe OR 2) just ask Bonnie for it!!! AND a huge garden salad I brought. Scrumptious!!!! Mmmmmm.

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

And don't let me forget the DELICIOUS

Creme Brulee Kelsey and Nikki made.

OH MY GOSH. Heavenly!!

You girls ROCK!!

We had SUCH a nice New Years Eve AND New Years Day....ESPECIALLY those of us who WEREN'T suffering a hangover. LOL

In between Christmas and New Years...

It's been kinda..... just busy around here working days now getting home about dinner time, cleaning up, getting Sammo ready for bed, and, uh.....falling asleep myself!!! I am LOVING the weekends!!! :)

I've been TRYING to take more pictures lately....some days I do better than others......

Here's my Sammo playing..................

........SOMETHING

and

WINNING?!?!

Don't 'cha just

LOVE his outfit?!

LOLOL

I took this picture of Samuel through his bedroom window. I was checking on him and Ben (friend), they were sledding. I just LOVE that I caught this. :)

He LOVES Jaz!

(Don't mind his one pink one gray cammo glove set! LOL) Must have been ALL that was dry.)

And here's Samuel and Ben making snowballs. I thought it was so cute how they put their sleds in the snow like shields, making and stacking snowballs waiting for Salvador to come out. I guess they pelted him with snowballs and he gave them whitewashes!!

Eh. They had FUN!!!

And finally........

...let me leave you with a picture of Joes maxin' and relaxin doin' what Joe enjoys most......well, almost......a CLOSE second anyways!! {grin}

Christmas Day

GOOD MORNING SAMMO!!!

Would you believe I HAD to wake the kids Christmas morning!!!!!

We got home early in the morning Christmas Day from Sonia's so I FINALLY woke the kids about 10:30am to open gifts.

He and Salvador slept downstairs in the family room so Santa could come without waking them up.....like that was gonna be a worry. LOL

The tree Christmas morning.....

The kids decorated it pretty much by themselves this year.

They did a great job!!!

Samuel asked if Nikki could open his gift first. He was so excited for her to open what he got her. He picked out his gifts to her pretty much on his own.

Sammo opening his gift from Nikki...a Tommy 20, JUST WHAT HE WANTED!!! Just another something to make Fifi crazy!!!
UGH!!!

Look at what Nikki got from Santa!!

She didn't actually GET HIM yet...in a few weeks. He's not quite old enough yet to leave his Momma. What she DID get was a few pictures of him, a doggie bed and a few toys. She's SO anxious to get him now though.

After much discussion and debate she's finally, I think decided on a name for the little fella.....

'Roo'. Doesn't he LOOK like a Roo?!?! I bought him a cute little jacket yesterday at WalMart but I'm pretty sure it'll be too big for him still. We'll see....

Sammo opening his XBox 360.

He was SO excited. He said he never expected he'd actually get it. I was SO happy he was surprised. He's even told me a few times since Christmas how surprised he was. And you should just see his face when he tells me. I can just TELL how happy he is!! He's wanted it since LAST Christmas when we said, 'No, you're too young for an XBox.' Well, it's the PERFECT gift for our gaming son!! He's had MORE fun with that XBox and his new 'gaming chair' since Christmas. I'm so happy he's happy!!!

Samuel playing the game Grandma and Grandpa Crosby sent for him. Would you believe my mom bought this same game for US when we were kids!!! NO KIDDING. We had more fun with this game. Even my Dad enjoyed playing it!! Samuel is no exception!! :)

And here's Salvador opening one of his gifts.....the DVD The Black Night. I guess it's a good movie??? I've not watched it but he's already watched it at least 5 times already!!!

And here he is.........

THE GRINCH

in living color!!!

LOL

Doesn't he just look SO happy here. Well, I'm SURE he was probably a little hung over!

Poor guy. HA!

And last but not least.......

I just HAD to include this picture of Salvador's nephew, Ismael (sp??) and his soon to be brother-in-law and Ismael's Daddy!!

He is 6 months old and SO stinkin' CUTE!!!

Look at that SMILE!!! I love it!!!! What a sweatheart!!!

That was OUR Christmas...a quiet Christmas at home with a few friends and loved ones.

Christmas Eve

WHAT A NIGHT!!!! is ALL I can say!!! LOL

We had SO much FUN!!!

Our friends, Sonia and Juan and Sonia's family invited us over. Sonia's mom made posole--Mmmmmm! AND tamales!!

I swear, these are some of THE NICEST people I've EVER met!!!

Here is Sonia's mom pouring the tequila down my throat!! LOL

OH MY GOSH we were SO silly!! LOOK at how RED my face was!! I was laughing SO stinkin' hard!!!

Me and my dear, sweet friend Sonia. We actually met a little more than a year ago at work but started REALLY becoming FRIENDS in February or so. She's been there for me through a lot this past year and I THANK GOD for her. She MUST be the sweetest most caring person I've ever met!! I'm just sorry we don't work together anymore.

Sonia and her little, errr, I mean BIG BOY Anthony!!!

Is he not ADORABLE!!!

Remember that tequila??? Teeheehee......Yes well........ a few drinks later and I was dancin', dancin', dancin!! LOL

And here's Nikki dancing with Sonia. If she were old enough to drink it sure would have made it easier to get her up there dancing!! LOL

She can be so shy.

FINALLY we got her to dancing too!!!

She's gotta learn to dance by July!!!

Samuel and Sonia.

He just LOVES Sonia!!!! Look at that BIG smile on his face!!! :)

Nikki and Tito, one of Sonia's twin brothers.

He is SUCH a nice guy and SO sweet and kind!!!

Sammo being the CLOWN he is!!!

Sonia and Tito.

This is just one of the sweetest photo's I think....

brotherly/sisterly love

Anthony again!!

I love this pic of him.

I NEED to enlarge this one for Sonia.

Sonia

And Tito again......

He taught me how to do this thing with MY tongue!!! LOLOL

So THAT was OUR Christmas Eve.....FUN FILLED!!!!

For those of you who DON'T know, Joe's family is in Texas and mine is in Connecticut, so we don't usually celebrate with family, although my mom, dad and youngest brother have come out once or twice to spend Christmas with us. So it was REALLY nice having Sonia and her family to celebrate with this year!!

-11 degrees

THAT was the temperature reading in my car yesterday morning when I left for work at 7:20am! Brrrrrrr!!
It DID snow again the other day....

How much snow do we have??? Yeah, good question. I'm not one to keep track of all of that all I know is it's COLD and there's a LOT of snow and I'm REALLY happy I have the auto start on my car. Brrrrrrr.

I'm getting ready to order a pair of snow pants from LL Bean OR Lands End though because if it's gonna be here (the snow), I might as well 'enjoy' it as warmly as I can right?!

We went to some friends of ours house the other day. They have a VERY nice log home that they're pretty much remodeling. Look at their Christmas trees....OVER THE TOP!!!

This one is GINORMOUS! I don't know just how tall it is but it's HUGE! You can barely, kind of see Joe there to the far right. He was standing up. Now, he's not tall by any means...average height 5'9" or so?? Bonnie still had to decorate this tree--can you imagine?!

I KNOW when Bonnie is done with this tree it's going to be AMAZING!!!! I can't WAIT to see!

This tree is located in the kitchen/dining area in front of one set of doors that goes out to the side porch. Oh, this tree is SO beautiful. She did SUCH a NICE job on it.

Joe made fun of Jim's 'Charlie Brown Christmas tree.' Joe is just used to our artificial tree for the past ohhhh, 10 years.

We NEVER had an artificial tree growing up but there are definately advantages to it!!

Bonnie made the most SCRUMPDILLICIOUS clam chowder. OH MY GOSH!! I could have eatten the ENTIRE POT!!!!

I like clam chowder but I LOVE this stuff!!!!!

SO.......

The girls made cookies:

Here's Nikki and Kelsey probably trying to figure out what they're going to do........

There was baking stuff EVERYWHERE. I don't know how many DOZENS of cookies or how many different varieties of cookies we all made.

Okay....so here's Nikki have WAY too much fun 'peeling' hershey kisses--for the peanut butter blossoms. You KNOW you've GOT to have peanut butter blossoms at Christmas time!! :) Though we never called them that as kids.

And here's 'Em'....getting ready to grind up some almonds, I think. We were learning how to use Bonnie's food processor together. :) We got it though didn't we 'Em'?!?! :)

And the boys...........

Well, the BIG boys did what they BIG boys know how to do best---->

Watch the game and drink a few. :)

I must admit 'Jim-Bo', as Joe calls him, was a HUGE help. Bringing cookies out to the freezer and back and forth and back and forth......and in 'Jo-Jo's (as Jim-Bo calls him), defense he'd just worked that night and only had like an hour and a halfs worth of rest before we went up. So I guess relaxing with a brew or two and veggin' in front of the tv is warranted. :) They're good guys!!!

Here's Kelsey checking on her Gingerbead people......

I thought this was SUCH a cute picture. :)

--It IS Kelsey. She's just wearing Em's sweatshirt! LOL

Nickles making MORE cookies and Em testing the dough! LOL

Kels realizing how much she likes smoked gouda and brie!! :)

Bonnie and 'Em' checking on the, one platter of MANY, peanut butter balls before chocolate dipping. :)

Look at Emmy's feet. She MUST have the SMALLEST feet of ANYONE I know. She is 14 and wears a size 2 kids. NO KIDDING. That doesn't even translate into an adult size folks! Nikki picked up those little chick slippers, in the kids section. FOR SURE I didn't think they were going to fit her but THEY DID!!! Perfectly!!! I teased her that night. She's a twin so I told her, her brother must have hogged up ALL the room in the womb! LOL He's taller but just as thin as Em BUT he wears like a size 11!!!! hello?!

I worked the past 2 days so not much fun was had by me, as far as Christmas goes but I'm OFF today and tomorrow so it's catch up time! LOL We're going out as a family today to battle the crowds one last time before Christmas. I'm pretty much done we just need to get a few last minute things and the kids are going to pick out their gifts to each other. I figure we'll split up, shop, eat lunch, swap, shop and go home! Thank goodness we don't have MUCH to do! The little bit we DO have to do will likely take us better part of the day I imagine.

It's snowing out AGAIN so I guess we'd better get moving.

Merry Christmas to each of you

and

A HAPPY and prosperous New Year!!!