Merry Happy Days!

It was super fun to get together with my mom's side of the family on Christmas Eve Day - Uncle Gary & Aunt Connie got to see Aaron for the first time and it was pretty great.







Mom wanted a picture of us by our tree. Aaron is having a bit of a rough day, but he managed to make it through the photo shoot without screaming. HA.








And we have 4 generations here while Michael takes the picture. I love our tree, decorated courtesy of Michael's family when they were out for Thanksgiving.







I had forgotten how many ornaments we got for our wedding. This year is the first one with the big tree, and we filled it up pretty easily. We've got some pretty special ornaments that have neat-o memories connected to them from childhood. Our tree is topped with a wooden cross, handmade by Dad Forbes, also a wedding gift. I still remember the first Christmas that it dawned on me that it was different to have a cross on our tree - dad told me that it was to remind us of the reason Christ came. Today it was fun to read the Christmas story to Aaron and to tell him the reason we give gifts to each other at Christmas. We did not buy him anything this year, but he did have fun playing with the paper!

What kind of unique traditions do your families have?

happy anniversary to us!

It's hard to believe that three whole years have passed since Michael & I got married. I am so thankful that God sent me such a wonderful husband! He has taught me so much, and has shown me Christ's love on a daily basis. Praise the Lord that He directed me to this godly man who is so perfect for me!

Alicia is (one of) my Hero(s)

I think the first memory I have of you, Al, is from my freshman year when Kathleen, Sarah, & Al took pity on little me and took me to a local eatery. We had a little too long of a good time, and on the way back took a wrong turn. I vividly remember seeing many trees and hills, and hearing Alicia go "AH! we can't be late!" as we flew with great haste back to campus. More memories of that year include the heisting of old NBBC uniforms and dodging the security guards (which were much less uptight than in more recent times) Yes, Alicia, once you guys graduated, the "good old days" came to a close. *sigh*

What I really want to say is THANK YOU FOR FIXING MY FORMAT!!! Those underlines were driving me nuts. You're the best.

Josh & Jason go "witnessing"

don't buy the big packs and you might as well ask

Has anyone else noticed what I have about superstores like Meijer & WalMart? Don't get me wrong, I like the fact that I can buy groceries and blank CD's all in the same store, but their little pricing games have me saying "ah-HAH!!" and triumphantly approaching the checkout lane with more packaging for less money. I have learned something astounding in my 27 years on the planet, and I am about to share it.

The big pack is not always the cheapest way to go.

Now, you might think that you would get a better deal if you were willing to buy and store 375 paper plates and 48 rolls of toilet paper - after all, there is less packaging for the company to pay for and, after all, didn't our mothers tell us that we can save money by buying in bulk? All I have to say is it might be true, but you'd better do the math. I once saved $4 on 8 bars of soap because I bought the 2 packs rather than the 8 pack. That was a good day.

Today, I had another "ah-HA" moment. I called Charter to see what the cost of upgrading our high speed from 3M to 5M, and lo and behold it turns out that I will save $3 per month by having the higher speed. Go figure.

thanks, dad...

For anyone who is interested, there are some pretty funny pictures of Aaron and I on my parents' site.

And, YAY we are now beta bloggers! Hurray!

NEW NOTE: OK, NOT yay we are beta bloggers. Anyone who can help me get those stupid underlines off the post titles let me know. I think it looks so cluttery and I can't seem to be able to isolate the HTML code that is responsible. HELP!!!

anyone remember this?

I am looking for anyone who might know if Ben Nyce ever published his arrangement of "Complete In Thee" that he taught us all at NBBC. If anyone has any information concerning the whereabouts of this song written out in sheet format, please tell me!

Updated: Here is one version. Email me if you'd like more information on this song, or a version that has the guitar chords. (click image to enlarge)

tiny munchkin

When Mom & Dad Muth were here, they commented on how the pictures on our blog make Aaron look much bigger than he actually is in person. So I guess it's the angle. (Now if only I could figure out the angle to make me look smaller in person...) So here's for all of you that say Aaron's getting "so big" - this is a picture of my little sweet baby on our futon in the office. He's sitting in between 2 pillows here. I think he's about the right size for 4 months, especially since I thought for sure we'd have one of those babies that looks, directly from the womb, like a stuffed sausage. My sore back and arm muscles rejoice that this is not the case. As an added non-related note, I'm actually quite excited about our $10 futon cover. I made it out of 2 clearanced tablecloths from Target. Hoooray for clearance!

And here's the little man in his car seat. We finally took out the newborn insert!!! Grandma Forbes got him this junior size reindeer hat and matching slippers to keep him cozy in the car. Thank you, Grandma!!! (he must have a big head from us telling him how cute he is over & over again...the hat leaves a little mark around his forehead when we take it off. OH WELL it made for a cute picture!!)

before you know it, I'll be crawling!

Happy 4 months, Aaron Carter Muth!