Partners

Yes, I realize Valentine's Day was two weeks ago, but I wanted to post this. I thought it was funny coincidence that Scott and I picked the same bag for each other's gift...we're just that in sync. Little things like that make me so happy we're together! He's such a great partner!

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! I hope you all know that I cherish our friendship and you are loved! Have an awesome day!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

If you've read Jon and Kathy's blogs, you've seen how their recollection of new years differed a little bit. Well, I was there too, here's how it really went down!

On new year's eve...

Scott and Christina headed over to...


Jon & Kathy's house for a little party.


Marissa, Ian and their puppy Leopold we there!


So were Summer and her puppy Tink!


Mike & Lauren were there, but they didn't bring a doggie.


Heather tried to teleport herself home through Jon's computer.


Then Jon and Kathy broke out the party supplies!



As Ian searched frantically for Dick Clark's Rockin' New Year's Eve...


His dog was possessed by a demon!


Jon got scared and turned to Scott for comfort...



Kathy and Christina scared it away with their cuteness!

The End!

Random Thursday

Thursday I went into work to take down the lovely shepherds tent I made our Christmas Eve service. And took some other random pictures while there.


The amazing pyramid of batteries in the tech booth.


The fun and festive lights Rob put up in the tech booth.

My little Christmas cheer on my desk. I'll be kind of sad to put this little guy away.

The neat view I had driving home from work.

We went to see Sweeney Tood (it was amazing!) with our double date friends Daniel & Alesia. They're so much fun to be around! We love them dearly!


And here's some cars and lights...

Christmas Day!

So I'm five six days late, but I finally have time to catch up on the blogging!
Christmas Eve, Scott and I exchanged presents with each other, went to Christmas Eve service (Scott wore a shepherd costume and played in a drum circle! Sorry no picture.) Then we went to my parents' house for dinner and presents. My mom's dinner was awesome! Calamari, steak, potatoes, chow mein and wonton soup! A little eclectic, but fantastic none the less! I was 98% sure my parents were getting us a Nintendo Wii, (after asking us what we wanted, then said, what about a Wii? Then calling Scott to ask him where to find one...98% sure) but I was completely wrong. My dad comes into the living room with a box, the size of a Wii. Scott and I unwrap it to reveal a lamp box. "Cool, we have this same one at home?" I'm so confused. So my dad or Scott (don't remember who) says, "Open it!" So I open it, see an old Sprite box, then a lemonade box (It hits me, this is the trash that Scott took out the other day!) Under the lemonade box, a beautiful yellow and black box that reads "Nikon D40X" I scream and bounce giddily on the couch! I've been wanted a digital SLR for so long, just haven't been able to save up for it. When Scott heard my dad wanted to get us a Wii, he called him up and asked if instead they could split the cost of the camera for me! My husband's the greatest! (And I'd say that even if I didn't get the camera, but it doesn't hurt!)

Christmas day we drove up to Running Springs for a day with Scott's family at the McIntyre's cabin. Sin-a-buns for breakfast, presents, Ellis brothers annual Christmas football game (not quite, it was too cold,) the Bourne Ultimatum and Hairspray (how great was John Travolta?) and a tasty steak dinner. A great day!


THE MOUNTAINS!

How could I not love this face?

Cuddly Brothers, Scott and Tyler

Mackenzie got his first cell phone for Christmas!

Riley brought sexy back while playing football.

Scott and his daddy

The football (the boys used the nerf ball. This one probably would have shattered if it hit the ground because of how cold it was outside.)

I love the painting on this lamp, it's so pretty!

Aren't these cute? Notice the moose has a shotgun.

Here's the terrible view we had as we headed down the mountain.

Hope everyone had a very merry Christmas and had a great time with your families

Sandy Claus

Even though India's population is mostly Hindu and Muslim, Christmas is a national holiday. They even sculpt Santa in the sand!

Blessed Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was wonderful! I love the holidays because I get to spend time with the people I love! Scott played percussion in the Thanksgiving service, then we headed to San Diego to eat with my mom's side of the family. My cousin Mark did ALL the cooking and his friend Ryan did all the decorating! It was pretty tasty and everything looked great! I really like going to my Uncle Ernie & Aunt Doris' house. I don't get to see them very often, but luckily I've seen them twice this year!

My aunts, uncles and some cousins also came down, even my beautiful cousin Roda. She's still recovering from open heart surgery but she's doing really well, she's amazing! She's so caring and loving with all the kids in our family. She doesn't have any of her own, but she's helped raise all of us. She moved to California from Chicago with her mom to help take care of me when I was just a baby! She even changed the stinkiest of my diapers! That's love! I hope I can be like that with the future generations of kids in my family! Our family's so blessed by her, I hope that we can do enough to show our love for her and take care of her too!

After dinner we headed back up to Riverside to Adam & Jess' home for dessert! The rest of the Ellises were there too! Check out Tyler's hair, it's longer than mine! Leslie made pies and they were great! They always are! One of my favorite parts of the night was when Adam and I snuck into Agatha's room and paparrazi-ed her and Mackenzie. She had him wrapped up like a mummy. It was pretty hilarious! She's got quite the imagination! I love being around their Adam and Jess' girls! They're awesome! Gwyneth with her cute faces and noises and Aggie with her outgoing personality, intelligence and imagination! They're just so fun! Here's a slideshow with more Thanksgiving Day pictures! Thanks for a great day everyone!

Scott and I are going to the Festival of Lights tonight! I'm pretty excited!

Baking day!

Today I'm baking four pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving (one to take to my uncle's, one for my daddy, one for my hubby and one for my buddy Zackary since he missed the pie on Sunday night.) I bake pumpkin pie at least three times a year (Thanksgiving, Christmas and Dad's birthday) so this usually isn't a difficult task. Althought lately I haven't done such a great job. Last time I forgot the eggs, the time before that I forgot the sugar. Not good! So today, I made sure to lay out all the ingredients and put them in the order on the recipe so I don't forget anything. As I go to open the cans of pumpkin mix my can opener fails me. So I run down to the store and get a new one. This one doesn't work either! What do I do? Use a bottle opener...you do what you gotta do when baking for the ones you love! I'll be they don't have to deal with this at Marie Callender's!

Friends Thanksgiving went so well!

Friends Thanksgiving went pretty well! My turkey tasted pretty good! I think I might even brave the turkey kitchen again next year, just with a little less herb rub, or a bigger turkey. Is there an easy way to carve a turkey because we sure didn't have a clue what we were doing. It became a bit easier though when once we realized the turkey was upside down. Ooops...

Thanks for all the great food, and even greater company everyone! I really look forward to next year's! Check out the slideshow for the pictures! I forgot to take a picture of my beautiful turkey though.
(Notice Zackary peeking through my arm as he sits on the floor with a sick tummy. Haha!)

This weekend

Yesterday I had to work. It wasn't too bad. Not very busy so I built this lovely MegaBlocks castle. It was perfectly symetrical until some kid came and put the extras on. Oh well, it's still pretty fun! (Ignore the random towers of German colors.)

Today I'm preparing turkey for my Friends Thanksgiving dinner. I've never made turkey before, so I hope it turns out alright. I'm using this herb rub/rosmary stuffing recipe I saw on Food Network. It kind of seemed like a lot for herbs to be covering a turkey. How do you know if it'd too covered in the herb rub? And what about the neck and giblets? Was I supposed to cook those too or just throw them out? Ahhh! I thought I knew what I was doing... I'll let you know how it comes out.

Please voice a suggestion or opinion!

Let me just say, Quick Before Sinking was amazing tonight and I promise to give them the love they deserve tomorrow.

I have a bit of a dilemma. My Friends Thanksgiving that I've been planning is making me frustrated. I got a text message today from someone that wasn't invited, she wasn't invite because I'm not that close to her and really, I just wanted it to be the people I am close to. Anyway, she said, "Christina, I don't know if I'm invited to your thing on Sunday, but if you need food, I can send it with [censored name]. Just let me know what you need."

Now, if I was having this party at my parents' house, it wouldn't be a big deal to invite one more person, but we're having it at our one bedroom apartment. For some reason, I thought it'd be nice to have 10 of our friends, plus two of the kids, over to our beautiful new apartment. I don't even know how we're going to fit all these people in our apartment without the fire marshall coming and shutting us down.

The other issue I'm having is...it's my party, I should be able to invite who I want to, without worrying about them telling other people that are not invited. It's not that I don't like the people not invited, I'm just not that close to them. Is that wrong?

Why does this always happen? There's always someone that butthurt that they weren't invited. And they usually find out about the event from someone that I didn't want to invite in the first place. Am I always invited when they plan fun stuff? Who knows... I'm usually the one that plans the big events.

The mean girl in me is saying, "Who cares about her, just don't reply. Or reply and tell her that we'd love to have her, but we just don't have the space because [censored name] is coming and bringing their crazy children with them."

The nice girl in me is saying, "You should welcome everyone into your home, especially at this time where you're giving thanks for the blessings in your life. And by welcoming them, you'd be giving them a better impression of Christians. Maybe it'll even help them let their guard down."

Which voice do I listen to? And also, is there a polite way to tell someone not to bring their kids or do you just accept that that's their family and they're always there? The kids that are coming tend to get into things and just need so much attention, it takes away from the fun people have. I just don't know.

Any comments or suggestions are completely welcome...

Curly or Straight

This post may seem completely silly and irrelevant, but if you really know me, you know I like to alphbetize, organize and really plan ahead for things. I tend to over analyze every detail of things I'm organizing. If you didn't know that, now you do. I like things that have my name attached to them to be as close to perfect as possible.

With that said, I'm hosting Friends Thanksgiving this coming Sunday. This is a tradition that's my friends and I have had since high school. I've hosted the shindig a few times, but never really on my own. RSVPs are all taken care of, the menu has been decided on, everyone knows what they're bringing, my itinerary for the day is set, I even have my outfit and make-up picked out. All I need now is to decide my hair...

Some of you see me at least once a week. You've seen the curly and straight hair in person. Which do you think looks better? I only ask because this is the first big event with these friends since my big haircut (I chopped off almost a foot of hair after I got married in August.) We only get the whole group together a few times a year and I'd like my hair to be at it's maximum cuteness for picture taking. So take a look at the pictures above, my bangs will not be retarded like they are today (the curly hair picture) they'll be parted from the left (like the straight hair picture) I just don't know what to do with the rest of the mop.

Please help my decide: curly or straight?!?

Trunk 'N' Treat 2007

Happy belated Halloween Bloggers! Hope everyone had a great time! Scott and I spent our first married Halloween at the Grove's Trunk 'N' Treat event. It was a lot of fun! Quick Before Sinking played minus Dave, plus Rodrigo, along with the Average White Haired Band. There was great music, food, treats, games, costumes and cute kids everywhere! Quite a few of the high school kids were running the game booths, I think it's awesome that they're involved! Scott and I went dressed as a '50's couple. I think we were pretty cute! I don't have any pictures of us together...sorry.

We also saw Keala and Ashley (no blogs?,) who looked adorable in her costume! And Holly (another non-blogger?) whose baby bump is so cute on her! And Jess and Gwyn looking beautiful as fairies! I love your black and pink glasses, by the way! Sorry, no pictures, I was slacking. I do have a picture of the guy that came as the Grove sticker!

Adam, Mark (no blog, but I met his sister last night, she has awesome hair) and Scott started their set with a couple acoustic songs and they were awesome! Mistake of My Life was fantastic! Then when Rodrigo joined up they rocked the stage with a few more, including two of my favorites, Heavy Metal Drummer and Come Together. These are my some of my favorites because I love watching Scott play on these! He has such a great time and it really shows! Their second set was even more fun! Sweet Child O' Mine (their swing version) and Hey Jude, my hands down favorite of the night! Any song with crowd participation's a winner in my book, plus it's Beatles!

Aggie chilled with me and sang the "na na na's" and the "get back JoJo" on Get Back. When the band was choosing their next song, she requested the Doors! There are people my age that don't even know the Doors, she's 4 and knows them! I'm always amazed at how smart she is! We also talked about Zeke and his family moving to "the top of America" and how much she's going to miss them. I reassured her that they'll be back to visit and they'll still be friends. We also talked about how her daddy's the greatest piano player, she said my husband's the greatest drummer and she thinks Jimi Hendrix is the grestest guitar player even though he's dead. Amazing! Then she just hung out with me while her dad and my hubby played a few more songs. (Adam and Jess, you guys have one of the greatest girls I know! Hanging out with her makes me excited to have kids of my own someday. Hope ours are as cool as yours!)

The Cross was another great one, especially when they got to the rockin' part! You could see the excitement on Scott's face when it got to "the fun part," he was fierce! Then Quick Before Sinking played together with the Average White Haired Band. It was like at the end of a charity show when all the artists get on stage together for the finale. Sweet Home Alabama and Freebird were awesome, even though I thought Scott's arms were going to fall off after the sixteenths toward the end. He nailed 'em, even without rehearsal. All in all, a great night filled with fun people and great music! Thanks guys!

And here's my pumpkins. I did fake ones this year as part of my autumn craft day. Wow...long blog! Only 22 more days til Thanksgiving!