There's a 1st time for everything.

Thanksgiving 2009.

This was the first year that Nick and I hosted Thanksgiving dinner and we had such a great time. 2 days before we left out 2 loaves of bread and I made a pecan pie. The night before I cut the bread into small pieces and made 2 pumpkin pies (you can never have enough) while Nick prepared the carrot dish that his family has every year thanks to Aunt Dayna. Velveta, Ritz Crackers, butter and carrots. We were up pretty late that night getting things ready but it all paid off.

The next morning was a breeze and we got to enjoy spending time with our parents!!

I can hear our moms singing in the background now...

"Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme".

I don't know about you but I've never heard of that song before!

These are from Sue. She was nice enough to let Nick and I borrow some Thanksgiving decorations for our house. I guess she has a ton of these doll for Christmas.

The Byers Collection.




Rummy Time!! One our family favorite games is Rummy. My dad thinks he's the Rummy king. Not so much this time, huh dad?





Mike joined us a little later in the day and caught the tailend of our Rummy match.

CHUB!!!

This is someone that I am very thankful to know. We were very lucky to have Nick's grandpa Chub join us for dinner this year. Sue made his favorite - greenbeans! Not really, but I know he had a great time seeing us and enjoyed all of the good food.

Chub will sometimes call me Sweetie Face. That's what he use to call him late wife, Dot. Chub melts my heart when he calls me that and he smiles back at me.

Nick and I went back and forth about wether to put some of the stuffing in the turkey or not. We ended up (or Nick did) stuffing the bird full of homemade stuffing. We also went with the bag method on the cooking of the bird. It was quite tasty I have to say. Coming from someone who hates turkey, I gave it another shot this year since it was our first time hosting and it was very juicy!! The stuffing was one of the best that I've had. (I grew up on Stove Top - haha! Love ya, Mom!) Nick and I made ours with all fresh herbs, apples and bacon. -Mmmmm-

Sue made the canberry sauce from scratch and brought another family favorite..

Cope's Corn.

What's a Thanksgiving dinner without the gravy?

Ahhhh.. the table is set and ready for us to enjoy our meal.

Nick and I were fortunate enough to get china from our wedding last year. This is the first time we've used it. It's so beautiful AND dishwasher safe.

That's one of the memories I have as a kid. The china we used was my great grandma's and we had to hand-wash it. I loved how special it was and didn't mind hand-washing all of it.. well, most of the time.

I'm looking forward to using our china every year and the silver that was handed down to us from Nick's mom and aunt for our wedding. It's all very special to Nick and I.

Even though he has carved a turkey before, this was his first year doing it for "us".

This was Mo Mo during dinner. I guess he had a long day watching us cook and play cards.

He's in the top part of the cat tower. Passed OUT!

FAMILY.

(thank goodness we got the timer to work!)



There was a total of 5 pies between all of us. What can I say?

Shelly Crocker is the name.

Thanks mom for bringing the homemade apple pie. The apples were from her front yard~

Thanks Niki for the BEST pecan pie receipe. It ROCKS.

Thanks to Libby's -pumpkin pie in a can.. just add spices and eggs. haha. okay, a little more than that. It was funny.. Sue gave me the big can of Libby's and said to use it since it was the best. She's tried many other ways to make a pumpkin pie and always went back to Libby's.
When my mom showed up on Thanksgiving and she saw the pumpkin pies she said the same thing Sue said about Libby's. Good to know. I would have just bought a pumpkin pie at Costco for $5.99 and called it a day. Betcha Costco doesn't use Libby's.

Chester had a great Thanskgiving too. =)

This was after he enjoyed a little bit of turkey himself.

Happy Holidays to everyone.

We're looking forward to Christmas.

Nick and I are leaving for Mexico in a week. We'll be back on the 14th. I'll post some great pictures when we get back.

Love you all. =)

It's just a small collection...

Chester says hello too.

Hi there! It's been a busy few weeks for Nick and I .. it's not going to slow down for the next month with the holidays. My good friend Lesley (who was one of my 2 bridesmaids in our wedding) just got married last weekend and I was in her wedding! Other than my own, I've never been in a wedding before. It was very fun and interesting.. not being part of all the major and small planning around it but being a part of all the get togethers was very fun. Her colors were black and a dark red. Everything was very beautiful. Congrats Lesley and Tim!

Work has turned a corner for me! I have a new assistant manager that started on Tuesday and I'm very excited about it. She hasn't worked for the last 5 years, with 2 little ones at home, but was an assistant manger for WaMu for 4 years down in Las Vegas. For the time being.. my branch feels complete. I've also hired a 3rd banker and am very excited about him joining our team. He won't be in the branch for the next few months.. he has to become liecened in the seires 6 and 63 first. Even though my new assistant is new to Chase, I already know she's going to be a great add to my branch!!

Nick and I are going to Puerto Vallarta in just 2 weeks. O.M.G. That soon?!? We've pretty much had this trip planned since our wedding. It's a gift from our friends - Shannon and Ryan. We're going to be down there for a full week and staying in a timeshare of theirs. We're very happy to be leaving this nasty weather and going down there to enjoy some r & r on the beach. Well.. that and some drinking.. =)

Thanksgiving is coming up and for the very first time, Nick and I are hosting Thanksgiving dinner over at our house. We're going to start off small... We're having my parents and Nick's parents over to join us. So, 6 people... not bad, right? At least it's not 20 or something like that. Our turkey is 19.5 pounds, and we're breaking out the china that we got from our wedding and I am SO excited about it. That's one of the many memories I have from growing up and Thanksgiving. Mom would always use Grams' china. We're looking forward to a great day, good company and some wonderful food.

And, on top of all of that... Nick just turned 30!! Happy Birthday Nick. Here's to your 30's. =)

What's one more day... in banana days?

So... a few years ago it all started with a car named Lighting McQueen and a movie "CARS". Thanks to that awesome movie, Nick now has a GROWING collection of dye-cast cars. They are cute and at times I have joined Nick on the "hunt" for the newly released cars. What can I say? It can become very addictive... as you can see for yourself...

Above are the originals from the movie.

DJ, Snot Rod, Wingo and Boost.

I didn't even need Nick's help naming them. ;-)

I know what you are thinking... aren't the red cars all the same? All Lighting McQueen?

Yes. Yes they are.. BUT everyone of them is different from the others.

The dark one in the middle is called "cruisin' McQeen".

I needed Nick's help on that one.

Hasbro is the maker of these cars and I do have to say they do come out with some really cool sets. See Mater (fire truck) and Mia and Tia as Dalmations?



The collection just keeps growing and growing..





There is not a duplicate car on this table.

and they lived happily ever after...

one year later... November 1st, 2009.

Happy anniversary to Nick and I.

So for the weekend Nick and I stayed at The Inn at Langley. It's on Whidbey Island which you can drive around or take a short ferry ride. We opted for the short ferry ride.

The ferry left from Mukilteo but before we caught the ferry we enjoyed some lunch from Ivars. They sell a cup of chowder for $0.75. Not bad!

When Nick and I were dating he took me to the Inn at Langley for a weekend and it was amazing! It had been a year and a half since we had been there and it was worth the wait. The whole weekend was perfect. Start to finish. Even though I forgot the cake top at home! We had a slice on Monday night.

We didn't really have much planned for the weekend. We did have reservations at the kitchen/resturant on Saturday night at 7 and I had packed a picnic for Sunday for Deception Pass.

Thanks to the timer on the camera.. here's a prom picture!

Here's the view from our room. It was chilly outside.. but beautiful.

Breakfast was buffet style from 8am to 10am. Thanks to daylight savings.. we got an extra hour to sleep in. Like the 6 course dinner we had the night before.. breakfast was amazing.

100% cheesey right here!

We got a laught out of this. We saw this outside a doctors office in Langley when we were walking around town.

When was the last time you saw someone using a pay phone?!?!

The weather couldn't have been any better for us on Sunday. It was clear and sunny when we went to Deception Pass. We arrived there around 2 and stayed for a couple hours enjoying the 4 types of cheese, meats, fruit, nuts .. etc. that I packed in the picnic basket. I was introduced to goat cheese this weekend and really do like it. I enjoyed it with walnuts and apple slices.

Our special spot. ;-)

An amazing and perfect weekend just like our life together.

I love you Nick Jones! Here's to growing old together.

Happy Halloween and some family time!

Here's a picture of Ethan, Esmee and Willa on the day before Halloween. Renee took them down to nbbj for the annual Halloween party. The photographer took some great shots of the kids and this is one of them!

My sister Alex had her wedding on Halloween and my other sisters Niki and Ashley flew in for it. I got to meet Jordyn for the first time and spend time with Josh, Carley, my sisters and parents on Friday. I spent the night over at my parents house on Friday night and had a great time! Any extra time that I can spend with family and the kids - I'll take. Kids really do grow up fast. Carley is turning 6 on Nov. 7th.. Wow... 6 years old already?

Carley was a good witch for Halloween. I got to paint her nails black!

Ooooh... Jordyn. I didn't want to put her down. She's SO cute. If you look closely.. you can see her hearing aids. She gets fitted for new inserts every 2 weeks since she's growing so fast! Her tone was different when she had them in. It was really cool to watch Ashley put them in and Jordyn wear them with no problems!

She's soooo cute. She lookes just like her dad Russell.

She loves to cuddle.

Carley the good witch and Josh was the clown from "IT".

I'm not sure what my mom was... Geisha maybe? They were all dressed up to go to Alex's wedding. Ashely didn't go since Owen (Alex's 6 year old son) was sick with the swine flu.. poor little guy.

Congrats to Alex and Matt.

Yay for family time!

Happy Halloween.