Girl's Night Out!

Last night we had a girl's night to celebrate Jessica and Vickie's birthdays. Jessica picked us all up and we drove out to Greenwood for dinner and a movie. We ended up going to Cheesecake Factory - everyone left it up to preggers to decide where to eat, so I narrowed it down to there and Buca Di Beppo. Since Vickie didn't know what the heck "bokety-boke" was, we decided to go to Cheesecake Factory. We had so much fun exchanging stories over yummy food. These girls are so much fun to be around...

Jessica Morgan, Vickie Edwards, TJ Pini, and Moi... this picture inspired me to get my hair highlighted and cut today, and to buy some new make-up

After dinner we went to see "New in Town" with Renee Zellwegger and Harry Connick Jr. I thought it was really cute, and being set in Minnesota with crazy midwesterners reminded me quite a bit of how I felt when we moved out here. So Vickie, give yourself a break, I enjoyed it! The most fun part, though, was just talking with everyone. We should really do this more often...

Hummel Park

Well, I promised some pictures, so here it goes... Ryan and TJ called us this morning to go sledding at Hummel Park since school was canceled for the day. We all drove out to Hummel Park, where there were some great hills for the occasion. It was a good thing we have 4-wheel drive, because even with that we almost got stuck a few times. There were tons of people there with the same idea...

Check out this picture of Evan... he was pretty stoked about going sledding. On the way to the park in the car he was practically squeeling and saying, "We're going to have so much fun!" So cute...

This is Mark posing after his one-time-only trip down the slopes. We both had too much fun just watching Ryan, Evan and TJ (especially TJ)...

Here are Ryan, TJ, and Evan posing before a run down the hill... Evan was so cute. He just loved going down and didn't want it to stop.

Don't know what he was doing here, but I thought this picture of Evan was dang cute!

Here's TJ puling Evan back up the hill after one of their runs down. Evan looks like he's having the time of his life, but it looks like TJ was getting a pretty good work out.

Yep, it was pretty cold out there, but I am just a wus... I had ear muffs, a hat, a scarf, a sweatshirt, a long sleeved t-shirt and short sleeved t-shirt, and two pairs of gloves underneath my coat.

Here's Ryan bringing Evan back up the hill. They both really got a workout treking up that hill over and over again...

And this is how TJ spent most of the day... Everytime she went on the sled or tube without Evan she ended up getting turned backwards and being chucked off the apparatus. It was quite fun to watch. We all got a pretty good laugh at her.

It was such a fun day, and we were all so glad school was canceled so we could enjoy the snow!

SNOW DAY!

I just woke up to check the weather report for the day (it's 6:25 am) and it says that IU dental school is closed today! Woohoo!!! I probably shouldn't be this excited, but I am. We'll take pics of the snow and post them later...

A Dammeron Valley Christmas

We drove up to Dammeron early Christmas afternoon. The kids had already opened all their gifts from Santa at home, so it was fun to have another go at present opening after the morning's excitement had somewhat died down. Here are Natalie and Jackson, all poised and ready to open more gifts. What cuties!


Natalie is a gum maniac. We thought it would only be appropriate to get her a life sized gum ball machine. Although we did worry that it may cause some sibling jealousy (what 6 year old wouldn't also want a gum ball machine, especially his little sister's), it all turned out well in the end, as Natalie was very willing to share her gum with the entire room.


Here's Jackson with one of his gifts from us. He is really into science lately, and this was a science kit that makes candy, soda, cupcakes, you name it. That's the best kind of science there is! He also got some fun outdoor items: sidewalk chalk and sidewalk paint, which I thought was really cool. Although we found out later that sidewalk paint doesn't come off the pavement so well. Sorry, Annie! And Carolanne...

And here's a goof ball shot of Mark opening one of his presents from his family. We got a really cute nativity from Annie and Mark's parents. We also got some cute clothes and something really awesome... little kid dentist books stuffed with twenty dollar bills! Bring it on, baby!

And here's a shot of Mark's grandparents. They were so funny - they each sat on one side of the couch, leaving a gaping hole in between them. Mark told them they had to get together for a picture, and I love that Mark's grandma was like, "Well, he can move then..." Guess that never changes no matter how old we get...

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas...

Actually, I was quite glad to get away from the chill of Indiana for a few weeks, but as luck would have it, Dammeron Valley had more snow than we have seen all year! As we drove in on Christmas morning, we were very thankful that we have a vehicle with 4 wheel drive. Our old little Civic just wouldn't have made it through.

Actually this picture doesn't even do justice to how much snow was there driving in... it was crazy!
Here's Mark's parent's house in Dammeron Valley... check out those icicles! There was so much snow there that our doggies really didn't ever want to go outside to potty. It about buried Daisy everytime she went out.

Here's Mark's dad and Jackson on the 4-wheeler/sled combo. At least that is one good thing about the snow... it sure is fun when you're a kid!

And here's a close-up of Jackson on his sled. Looks like he was having a great time!

Christmas Eve Gift Exchange

Here are some more pics from Christmas Eve, including the gift exchange...

Here are Jonah, Chandler, Stephen, and Harrison posing for the camera. I think this is the only picture I got where Jonah is actually smiling - what a stinker!

Here is Stephen opening his gift, while Benson, Harrison, Jonah and Alyssa watch intently. I didn't get pictures of all of them opening their gifts, but I think they all appear in these pictures somewhere...

Here's little Addyson getting ready to open her gift. She is so stinkin' cute!

Rachel is sporting her "R" necklace that my dad made her. She and Kaitlyn both got them, and they were totally awesome!

Jake looks pretty pleased with his new Rockband II Wii game. I would be, too. Just ask Angie...

Here's Kaitlyn with her "K"... Those necklaces were so cute on them.

And here Mark and I are, cheezing it up for the camera. Jeez, it looks like I have no make up on. I actually did, guess I'll have to work on that... hmm. Christmas Eve was fun, as always, although this year I didn't get to enjoy the wonderful food like everyone else. It was a good thing Kaitlyn made her spinach and strawberry salad, because that was about the only thing on the table that didn't make me want to hurl... LOL.

Christmas Eve Talent Show

Christmas Eve with the Gifford Clan is always so much fun - and usually quite entertaining. Something we have added to our traditions the past few years is the inclusion of a kid's talent show. Sometimes the kids really deliver (like a few years back with Chandler's solo of Silent Night - we were really disappointed this year, Chan, what happened to that Beyonce dance?), and I think we've even seen some really cool ninja moves from Stephen in the past. Here is a run down of this year's talent:


As always, we start with the youngest, but Jonah was not up to performing this year. So this time, we started out with Stephen and Harrison demonstrating some defensive moves (I think how to break someone's arm was among them). This picture is really blurry because our lovely camera has issues capturing movement, but you get the idea.


Next came Alyssa Lu's dance from High School Musical. She really went all out this year, performing to the entire song. At one point, there was a break in the music, and we all began to clap, but she assured us there was more and danced until the music stopped. Go Wildcats! Good job, Alyssa!

Rachel did an awesome job this year playing the saxophone. She really has a knack for it - she had just started playing it and made first chair over several kids that had been playing it all year. As my dad would say, that's the Gifford blood shining through. Way to go, Rach!

Now this was one of my biggest disappointments. Chandler can always be counted on to create quite a spectacle and entertain an audience. He was planning on dancing (high heels and all) to Beyonce's "Single Ladies" song (put a ring on it). I guess he chickened out, or else maybe Brent threatened him about wearing high heels. Whatever the reason, he didn't perform at all - he just sat in this chair, said "Hi", and then sat down. Such a disappointment. I expected more from you, Chan. You'll really have to make up for it next year...

After Chandler, Jake performed on his trumpet. The only thing that could have made it better is if he would have worn his band uniform while he did it! That would have been fun - maybe next year.

And here is Kaitlyn getting all set up to play her violin. She and Jake have gotten really good over the years since they started playing. I can't believe they are both in high school - scary.

And here are all the kids (post-talent show), posing as always. Good job to everyone who participated... Jonah and Chandler, we hope for more from you next year.

California Love (cue song...)

Well, it has only been two weeks since our Christmas vacation ended, but that two weeks has felt like a lifetime. It is bittersweet being back in school. Sweet in that we are now in spring semester of our third year (after this semester only one more year to go); bitter in that we are missing everyone back west (not to mention warmer weather). We had such a great break and so much fun on our never ending road trip. Once we left Las Vegas, we took I-40 home through Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Missouri, Illinois, and finally Indiana. We haven't posted since Texas, so we thought we should catch up with the few pictures we took the rest of our trip.

Our blog would not be complete without a few pictures of these cuties. We had such a great time visiting Nikki and John in California. We haven't spent much time with them since we moved out to Indy, so it was nice to be able to relax, visit, and play with the kids. The ironic thing is I was really looking forward to some decent Mexican food and a trip to in-n-out, and while we did get both in California... I quickly found that this was the last I would see of Mexican food and burgers, at least for the next several months. (I did try Fausto's later in Vegas, but that didn't work out too well. I tried three times, in fact. Well, actually, Ron did pray for me to be able to eat Fausto's before I left, and I did get to eat a few bites of meat-less nachos that time, so thanks, Ron, but I think that ends my quest for Mexican food).

It was great to finally meet baby James (Ha ha, Angie! Beat ya! You'll never get that little jibe anyway, because you never check my blog). He is such a little cutie and such a good baby. Mitchell is so cute with him - always trying to make him smile and laugh.

And this is Catherine (the little faker) pretending to cry because she had to go to bed and we were all still up chatting. She was cracking me up - she snuck into her parents room and spied on us the whole night. At one point I got up to get a drink, and she came out "crying" and saying her parents were mean because they were making her go to bed. So I told her she had to smile for a picture instead. She is so funny... look at that CHEESE!

We also got to spend some time with the Anderson's while out in Cali. They took us to Outback Steakhouse for dinner, and we got to catch up on the last few years. Kendra, Dave, and Cody got to join us, as well. It was great to see everyone and learn how everyone was doing. Here are Ken, Cody, and Dave posing for the camera.

And here are Kendra, Mark and Sue. We had such a good time with them all, and it was really nice to catch up. We were glad we decided to make the extra 16 hr round trip drive up to Cali (afterall, what's 16 hrs when it's already been 40?) since it was so nice to see everyone. Thanks, Nik, for letting us stay with you and putting up with our poochies...