our first Christmas tree

Last week, Lauren and I put up our first Christmas tree! As you can see from the picture below, it isn't a big tree. This year we are not going to be that long for vacation so that is why we decided to put one up. Our cat has been nosey enough to get into the tree, drink the water, and knock down ornaments about every 10 minutes. We had fun putting up our tree though. We made hot chocolate, put on Christmas music and unwrapped all the ornaments. It was a fun night...

this is the final version of our tree with lights and ornaments up, it's small but makes it feel like Christmas 

this is a picture of Luke putting up some ornaments... 

this is Lauren putting up some ornaments on our tiny tree... 

this is our Christmas tree that we got this year! It is so small and as you can see, our cat loves getting into it! 

Pictures with Santa...

A few weekends ago, our family (now 9!) went to the mall to get our Christmas picture. My mom decided that a picture with Santa would be the best idea. All nine of us sat around the chair and crammed in there. It quite an interesting event! Afterwards, we were all there in the mall celebrating Aubrey's 21st birthday. It was a great time as it is rare these days to have all nine of us together at the same time.

here is the final version of the Christmas picture we took at the mall... 

here is another pic of the 4 women in our family now!! 

this is all the guys here after we had our picture taken with Santa... 

this is a pic of the three girls in our family now...the men are soon going to be out numbered! 

micah's engagement!!!

This past Saturday my brother Micah and his girlfriend Marilyn got engaged! It was such a cool evening. He asked at night at a park in Saratoga, CA where we grew up. Take a look at the pictures below as they are from the engagement and the engagement party. It was very exciting!

this is a picture of micah, marilyn, and micah's roomate jeff right after the engagement 

this is one side of the pathway where eric and I laid candles and roses 

this is micah and eric, one of his friends that flew out from chicago for the engagement 

this is aubrey, mom, and marilyn, lauren was on call that night and wishes that she could have been there! 

these are some of the people who crowded into my parent's living room for the party 

this is Micah and Marilyn at my parents house during the engagement party where they were sharing how it happened. 

this is micah and marilyn right after he asked her... 

these are the flowers that were on the deck when Micah proposed to Marilyn 

click on explosion!!!! below and that will take you to the link...