New Year's Eve
For the first time I think ever, Ty and I had the opportunity to dress up and go out on the town for NYE this year! Sometime back in November, we were invited by Ty's friend Goose to go down to Long Beach and celebrate the dawning of a new year in style at the Mai Tai bar where Goose is the manager. So, one little black dress, a pair of new black heels and a not-so-short car ride later, we arrived in Long Beach that night, just in time to watch a world-record breaking stunt jump by Travis Pastrana. Super cool! The area around the pier was PACKED with people! It felt like our own little rendition of the excitement in Times Square! Lol! The loads of people, ba-zillion lights and helicopters flying overhead really made the night buzz with excitement as we walked the 1/2 mile or so to the bar from where we parked. After we watched the jump (we actually listened to it more than we saw it. We watched via the massive screens that were put there for the throngs of people, since the crowds prevented us from actually seeing the pier), we squeezed our way through the crowds to the bar. Goose had graciously reserved a little cabana-style booth for his little entourage (there were about 10 of us there in total) and we enjoyed the rest of the evening sipping martini's (responsibly of-course, since we had a long drive home!), yelling our conversations over the loud band, eating appetizers, and just having fun! The bar was standing room only (except for us who had that great booth!) by the time midnight rolled around and it was SO much fun to be a part of such a crowd to ring in the new year! An awesome memory, for sure!
Unfortunately, our camera is much too big to lug around to an event like that, and Ty's pictures from his phone didn't turn out very well, so we don't exactly have photographic memories of the night. Only these few shots that Ty's brother took of us at home just before we left. :)
A late Christmas & Luke's Birthday
The day after New Year's, we celebrated a late Christmas here at our house with my parents, Jenn and the girls. It was such an awesome get-together! Grandma and Grandpa graciously bought Luke and Ellie a brand new trampoline for Christmas this year, so we got it all put together in time for the kids to enjoy it that day. The kids were SO excited to help put it together and jump for the first time!
Ty's Bill Cosby look after taste-testing some Heman Chocolate chip cookies I brought out to them while they worked! :)
My big 5 year old!
Testing it out!
And they ALL spent hours on it the day we had Christmas!
Jenn's girls received a new Wii as their gift and after it was too dark to jump outside on the trampoline anymore, we all gathered in the family room to play Wii for hours together! It was truly one of the best Christmases we've had together as a family! So fun to just be together, playing games and laughing! Good times!
Luke's 5th birthday was the following day. (Phew...a busy weekend for sure!) We do birthday parties with friends and such every other year around our house, and this year was a party year! Luke chose JumpZone for his party destination and was over the moon about his big day! It was all he could talk about for the two weeks leading up to it! Even Christmas paled in comparison at times to the excitement of sitting in the 'kings chair' at JumpZone on his birthday!
Here's a run down of the day via photographs...we started with birthday hats first thing (per Luke's request), followed by his favorite chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast and then it was off to the party!
He was so excited to get his wristband!
Luke and his little buddy from school and church...
Ellie being brave & climbing the tallest slide
Pizza & cake time!
The long-awaited King's Chair!
Happy birthday, Bubba! You, who were once so tiny and delicate, have grown into this vivacious, sweet,silly, creative, dirt-loving, bike-riding, bible-reading, music-loving, energetic, well-mannered little boy who is the apple of my eye and the giggle in my heart! Thank you for the ways you humble me, make me laugh and bring so much joy to our family! We love you so much, Luke!
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