Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve day, we spent with both of our families. We were staying in Lovell at the time, so we ran to Powell to have lunch with my family at the store...the China buffet was catering to all the employees and their families...yum! After lunch, we went to my mom's house to finish wrapping some last minute gifts and to just hang out. That night, we helped in the tradition of making gnoccies with Christian's family. They are a potatoe dumpling that we roll out by hand. They take quite a while to prepare, but are so worth the time! Jan serves them with a spaghetti sauce, salad and french bread. They are oh so yummy and we look forward to them every year! After dinner with all the family (including all of Christian's grandparents), we read the Christmas story and then opened pj's. Carson was SO excited that Santa was coming again and could barely wait for the morning! Good thing he didn't have much of a nap that day so he would sleep through the night!

Megan and I dorking off in the big jacket

Jan rolling out the dough or as the kids like to refer to it...making snakes..

Rolling the dumplings off the fork so they can be boiled. I'm not sure what was so funny, but something was!

The end result...gnoccies!

Cheers to a good meal!

Digging in!

Christmas jammies.

CELEBRATE good times, come on!

Well, we have finally returned from our trip back to Wyoming and have gotten our lives somewhat back to "normal". We had a wonderful trip home over the holidays. Like my title says, we did a lot of celebrating while we were home. We celebrated Christmas (twice), 3 birthdays, a new year, and our 6th wedding anniversary! I've decided to break it all up into several posts so I don't bore you all and I can put lots of pictures up!

Before we left for Wyoming, we had our own Christmas at our house. Christmas Eve, a Sunday for us, we spent at a family friend's Christmas open house. After the party, we came home opened pj's, set out goodies for Santa, and fed the reindeer.

We had a crazy/short-lived Christmas morning. We had to hurry because Travis had a doctor's appointment, so the kids didn't really get to play around with their toys or lounge aound like we would normally do. But, it was so fun to see their reactions. Carson LOVED everything he got...especially his rocket bike that "goes super fast," as he told family! Tavis was more into my camera than this gifts he got, but he like the cash register the best of all.

Stay tuned for more posts full of pictures!!

Merry Christmas!!

We just want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Love,

The Asays

Christian, Jill, Carson and Travis

Holiday fun!

The past couple of weeks have been super busy for us with all our holiday happenings! One of the highlights was playgroup last week. We made gingerbread houses out of graham crackers. They turned out super cute and I think I had more fun making them than Carson did!

Another highlight was making Christmas candies. Carson helped in the Christmas tradition of making Christmas candies and handing them out to friends this year. We had two days last week where we got a bunch of snow which turned out to be perfect for candy making because Christian got to stay home and help controll my little monsters!

I just had to post a picture of this giant gingerbread cookie we got from some friends. Carson thought he was the coolest thing in the world...and he was quite tasty!!

We are so excited for Christmas to come! We are heading out of town next week to spend the holidays with our families and can't wait!

Christmas Kick-off!

The first weekend in December is Christmas kick-off weekend in McCook. There are so many fun things to do to start the Christmas holiday...Santa flies into the airport and then is found at Santa's workshop all day, there are lots of craft shows, a free movie matinee, and the lighted parade downtown. Christian had to work Saturday, so the boys and I decided to take advantage of all the fun things going on. We started the day with making Carson his birthday breakfast...pancakes in the shape of gingerbread men and sausage (one of his favorites). After breakfast, we got ready and headed to see Santa at Wal-Mart. After that we ran to the free movie and saw Monster's in the Attic. After the movie, we ran to the craft shows (which are nothing like the ones in Powell and Cody), then came home for naps. After naps, it was time to head down town to watch the parade. We went down a little early so that we could go see Santa at his workshop. Carson is so into Christmas this year and it has already been lots of fun! Travis, on the other hand...is deathly afraid of Santa (as you will see in the pictures). It was a fun day and a good way to celebrate Carson's actual birthday!

Waiting for the parade to start

We got our tree decorated earlier this week. The boys both helped put the ornaments on. I thought for sure that Travis was going to be the one that would bother the ornaments, but it's Carson that I have to worry about. He rearranges them daily!! Both of my boys love it. Travis kept saying "wow" and Carson kept telling, and continues to tell me daily, that it's the most beautiful! He kept hugging the tree the first night it was up...too cute!!

Birthday Boy!

Yesterday was Carson's 4th birthday! Carson is one of the most loving/caring little guys I have ever met. He loves little kids, has a great imagination, is very sensitive, has the best smile in the world, and has a great little personality...he loves to tease! We are truely blessed to have him as part of our family! As I tell him every night when I tuck him into bed, He is truely my favorite Carson in the whole world!!

It seems like every year, Carson's birthday gets spread out over a week and ends up having numerous parties. This year was no exception. We started with a party at Gramma Foulger's at Thanksgiving and opening gifts at Gramma Asay's house too. Carson had a little friend party Friday afternoon with 7 friends. The partying continued today with lunch with some family friends. Carson is smitten with a family in our branch! He really looks up to one young man in our ward, in particular,and considers him one of his friends. When we were first talking about having a party, I asked him who he would invite and three of the first people he mentioned was this young man (he's 14) and his two younger siblings that Carson's loves to play with. Since they live in another town I told him they couldn't come to his party but we would have them over for dinner instead and cake instead.

Here are some pictures from his parties the last couple of days! Happy Birthday, Carson!! We hope you had a great day!

The party site

Playing Don't Eat the Monster! (our version of don't eat Pete)

Carson posing behind the monster that we had a bean bag toss with

The kids decorating monster cupcakes

Carson and his cake

Enjoying on of his toys from the party

Yummy cupcakes!

Sunday party...blowing out the candles!

getting ready for some cake!

The mighty bow hunter!

Turkey time!

Well, we had a very successful trip back home for Thanksgiving. Here's a quick run-down...Our trip started with a night in Laramie with Matthew and Charlene, and the next day we car-pooled together home. Wednesday we spent the afternoon getting new tires put on our car and eating at El Tap...yummy! Thursday we headed to Lovell in the morning and had lunch at noon with Christian's family. Around 3 we headed back to Powell for dinner with my family. Dinner that night was followed by a little birthday party for Carson while all of my family was around. He got some fun toys that we all loved to play with! Friday, is the Asay annual preg-testing day for cows, so Christian got up early and headed over to Lovell to help out. As soon as our car was done being realigned, the boys and I headed over just in time for some yummy chilli! After lunch we went and helped decorate the church for Kasi and Daniel's reception. Saturday was Daniel and Kasi's wedding. It was a beautiful sealing with lots of family and friends in attendance. The rest of the day was spent celebrating the new couple with a luncheon and reception. Sunday we headed back to Matthew and Charlene's and then home the rest of the way Monday. It was a great trip and we loved seeing so many family members and friends! We are truely grateful for all that we have and all the blessings we've been given in our lives. Now if we can all just recover...we're all fighting colds! I guess that's what happens when you party hard, but we wouldn't change it!!

Thanksgiving with the Asay's

Thanksgiving with the Foulger's

Carson got a whack-a-mole game for his birthday and of course we had to have a tournament...my sister was the overall champion.

Christian and my sister fighting it out with Carson's new gun

Our little family

Grampa and Gramma Asay and the grandkids...look at all those thumbsuckers...too cute!

The new couple. Congrats, you guys!

The whole family.

A little brotherly love!

My sister and I at the reception.

Travis making some crazy faces on the plate.

Trying to catch some bubbles.