Christmas in Oklahoma

I started this post weeks ago and I'm just now getting back around to it. Things have definitely been a little crazy lately. The week before we left for Oklahoma, I was asked to accept the calling of relief society president and I feel as if my life has been crazy busy ever since. :)

We had a great time visiting both families over the holidays. Josh and I flew separately out to Oklahoma. We both flew standby. I left a few days earlier than Josh and didn't have any problems getting on my flights. I was even able to jump flights and beat my baggage to Oklahoma City. Josh had a completely different experience. He left Friday before Christmas and sat in the Philadelphia airport for about 15 hours before he made a flight out. After flying standby all these years, if you don't make that first flight of the day, you pretty much have no chance of making your destination; yet, after many prayers, Josh was able to make it out and was able to still (barely) able to make a connecting flight into Oklahoma City. It was a STRESSFUL day. We weren't sure what we were going to do as we bought our plane tickets the rest of the way and he had to get to Oklahoma by first thing Sunday morning.

Anyways, we both made it to Oklahoma. My dad was able to pick me up from the airport. I barely even recognized him. He never goes out in public without being fairly nicely dressed, shirt tucked in, hair combed and clean shaven. But since he has been struggling Guillain–Barré syndrome, he hasn't been able to do much for himself, so he had a walker, FULL beard and was in sweatpants. It broke my heart but I'm so glad that he is doing so much better now. I wish I had taken a picture of him like that because that is probably the only time in my life that I will see him like that :) We had a nice date. After picking me up, I ran a few errands with him then we went to Braums for lunch and ice cream. YUM! Always, one of my first stops in Oklahoma.

I hung out with my Dad, Nola, Brayden and Jenna for the next day. I went to a late night movie with Christine. I wish I could do those way more often! Then on Friday, I went up to my mom's. It was quite a crazy weekend. I didn't seem to get to do much and spend much time with everyone, but I am grateful for the time I did have with them. Friday night, we had a Christmas party at my mom's. There was a ton of good fun and my family. Other than being stressed out of whether or not Josh was going to make it, we had a great time. I only took out my camera when we opened presents. So here you are:

Matthew, Stirling, Kylie, Nichole:

Karri & Darcy:

Tatyanna (my new sister-in-law) & Isla:

Leah:

Emmi (she LOVED the bow and arrows she got):

On Saturday, Logan and Tatyanna got married in the Oklahoma City Temple. It was so neat to be there with my whole family and to be there for their wedding. They are so cute together and I'm so happy for them. Tatyanna is a fun, cute girl. I don't know how Logan got so lucky!

Leah & Josh:

Nola, Jared, Brayden, Payton, Nathan, Matthew and ?:

Dad with his walker (at least I got a picture of this :) ):

Leah, Shawnee, James:

The beautiful bride and handsome groom:

They are just too cute. Congrats Logan and Tatyanna!

After the wedding, we had a nice luncheon. Then Josh and I hung out with Christine, Robby, kids, and my cousin, Niel. We were able to squeeze in a little meeting with a podiatrist that are in Christine and Robby's ward. He gave some great advice for us and are thankful he took the time to talk with us.

Then we headed back up to Stillwater and to El Vaquero. Our FAVORITE Mexican restaurant. They have changed a few things since we were last there, but the food was still fantastic and way better than what we have been able to find here in Jersey. We definitely need to keep trying to find a good Mexican place here. We have been to 4-5 places and none of them are quite as good as what they have in Oklahoma or even Cleveland. After dinner, we headed to the reception at the church.

We had a great time in Oklahoma. It was just too short. We left for Idaho on Sunday morning. I'm glad I was able to get to see my family and be there for the wedding. I just hope that next time, I will be able to stay for more than a few days.

Idaho will be the next post...when I get around to it :) We had a great time there as well and were NOT ready to come back home.

What We've Been Up To Lately...

Welcome to the new blog!  As you can tell nothing has really changed.  My other blog wouldn't let me upload any more pictures and I was too lazy to figure out how to do it.  So, now we just have a new blog.

 

Here is a little bit of what we have been up to lately. 

 

This picture was taken sometime in the late summer.  Josh is always wanting to help bring carts up to the front of the store.  This time he got lucky as there was an electric one out by where we parked.  He just had to ride it into the store.

 

We swapped with some friends one fall afternoon for family pictures.  Here are a few of our favorites:

We had an amazing Thanksgiving dinner.  This was our fifth time in a row that we didn't celebrate with our families.  In Cleveland, we spent just about every one with great friends who have become like family and that has stayed true here in New Jersey.  We were able to celebrate with our friends, the Huish and Davis families.  We had a great time with delicious food, fun games and lots of laughter.  We can't wait until next year to do it again. 

We did host it at our house, which was a first.  We did the turkey, which I was really nervous about but it turned out great along with everything else we had.  We definitely had some great food.  The camera didn't come out too much that day but here are the few that I did take:

 

The day after Thanksgiving, the tree went up and the decorations came out.  I LOVE decorating for Christmas especially when my mom sends me a new painting for me to hang :)  Thanks, Mom!  We get a ton of compliments on it.  (Well, maybe not a ton because we don't have that many people over, but everyone that has come over has said they really like it and I LOVE it!)

 

 

 

 

For FHE last week, Josh and I headed into Philadelphia and went to this little Christmas German Village they had set up for the holiday season.  I thought it was much bigger than it actually is so I was a little disappointed but we still had a great time and were able to find some really cool things.

 

There was a "homeless" man taking pictures for people in front of the LOVE sign for tips.  We only had a five and a twenty on us, so he took three pictures similar to the below (all of which are out of focus) and we gave him $5.  I told Josh that was the most expensive picture I have paid for :)



Here are just a few random pictures of downtown Philadelphia.  It was a foggy day so we thought it looked pretty cool.

 

After we left LOVE Park, we headed to IKEA.  It was one of the best FHE/Date Nights!  We had a great time.

 

Other than that, we have just been keeping busy.  Well, at least I am.  Josh has been on an easy rotation this month and only has to go in for about 3-4 hours a day, which has made my work days seem to last forever.  We have both been keeping busy with our callings and with getting ready for Christmas.  My little brother, Logan, is getting married in Oklahoma.  So we will be heading there for a few days then will head to Idaho before we come back home.  It will be an exhausting week but we can't wait to see our families especially around this time of year.  We hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a happy new year!