Christmas 2010

Christmas was kind of low-key this year for me. Brittany, Kasey and Kolbey spent christmas eve and christmas morning with their mom and kim.  I spent christmas eve at my parents house. we ate some yummy food and just spent some quality time together. we didn't do much as my mom is still recovering from her hip surgery and is doing very well.
Christmas morning I slept in, ha! :] the kids weren't going to be at my parents house until 10 or 11, so we cooked up some christmas morning breakfast and watched the parade until they arrived.

So fun to come from a small family and spoil the kids every year, even though they are teenagers now. I love them and i am glad i can get them things that they want for christmas.

i feel very blessed to have such great family and friends!

I hope you all had a great holiday spent with the ones you love.

[moms christmas tree]

[mom is doing amazing in her hip recovery. love her.]
*please don't kill me mom...haha *

[i can never get a good picture of my dad. he is either covering his face or turning away. this is the best i could do]

[wow. look at the concentration.]

[this kid right here is your future BMX champion. crazy kid, but oh how i love him.] 

[aspiring guitarist] love him.

[this picture cracks me up! kolbey got a new helmet and goggles for snowboarding and mom thought she would put it on and model it for us..haha]

** i think i am not going to be living when she sees that i posted this picture **

love u mom :]

Later that evening everyone came over to my house where we had a delicious dinner of ham, funeral potatoes and veggies. It was so yummy!  we also played mario kart for the wii because santa brought that to everyone as a family gift. thanks santa, you are the best! :]

I think we all had a little too much too eat. haha!

even jess. lol

[ahem.. don't look at the mess. thanks.]

[be berry berry quiet..kasey is hunting squirrels..]


christmas was great this year. thank you to everyone for everything. you are all the best and i love you all!
here is to a new year with new begginnings.

book review

I'm sure Jodi Picoult is a great author.

Her books are just too slow for me.

I had a really hard time getting into this book at the beginning. It got a little better towards the middle. I hated how they dragged out the storyline throughout the whole book and you had to wait until the very end to find out what happened. Kind of a depressing book as well.

meh. i wasn't a fan.  

kropf family christmas party

we headed up to Logan on Friday Dec. 17th for the kropf christmas party. bethie and I usually cannot make it because the party would be scheduled for a day during the week. this year it was on saturday the 18th, so we were able to go. yay!!

i bought a brand new camera before we left because i couldn't get it off my mind. ha! i know..i know..but it is a super cool camera. a Nikon coolpix. i will post pictures later. :)
needless to say, i didn't have much time to get the hang of my newly purchased camera. so i was just playing around with it and got a couple of shots of these two adorable girls before we took them to get their pictures taken with their cousins.

 ~Lilli~

 ~Lilli and Abbi~

aren't they adorable!?

Love them! :]

**

later that night we headed over to bethies parents house for the christmas festivities.

there was so much yummy food! sandwiches-salads- chips-dip-candy & chocolate(that may be the same thing, but oh well)-dessert, ugh! it was so delish!

it was fun to sit around and chat with everyone(even though i had a blasted headache). everyone couldn't contain their excited because we all new the "big fella" was going to pay us a visit real soon.

here are some photos of the big guy himself

[abbi]

she loved him!

[Lilli]

she just wanted the paper.

I didn't get a picture of Holly and Sharon with santa. Holly is so very scared of him that she was in the back bedroom with Sharon. I really hope that she outgrows this because it is really so sad. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Love ya Holl!

Tim and Carrie [and abbi too]

               It was so fun to get to spend time with great friends that I can honestly call my family.

[ornaments on Amandas christmas tree. love them!]

update on mom

It has been a week since moms surgery and everything went very well. Since it was her first time having surgery, she got quite sick the day after due to the pain meds which she is very sensitive too as well as the anesthesia.
On wednesday she was feeling much better, but she lost alot of blood during the surgery so they decided to give her a blood transfusion to build it back up. They ended up giving her 2 pints. She starting feeling alot better after that and was able to get up for a bit and do some walking.
She finally got to come home on Thursday. :] I know it has been hard for her not being able to do the "little things" that we all seem to take for granted.
She has only been home for a week and is doing very well. She is walking great and doing awesome with her physical therapy. She does not have the same pain that she had before the surgery, she only has the surgical pain now. I'm pretty sure that her recovery will go quite fast and she will be back to normal in no time.
Thank you so much for thinking of her and keeping her in your prayers.

I love you Mom!

MOM

As I was saying in a previous post, my mom has been having some problems with her hip and is having a very difficult time standing and is in alot of pain. She is going in for hip replacement surgey in the morning ( Dec. 6th, 2010). She is really nervous about the surgery as she has been a very healthy person until this time, so it is her first time having surgery in her life. She knows it is for the best because if she doesn't  have the surgery than she would possibly never  walk again. I love her so much and want the best for her! 
please keep her in your thoughts and prayers. Thank you!
I love you mom!

Winter

just wanted to share next set of wood blocks I have finished. I think this one is my favorite so far. 

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was a little different this year for our family. My mom has been having problems with her hip for some time now and has been having a difficult time standing, so this year we had dinner at my house with me and my brother cooking everything but the turkey and the rolls. I was a little nervous at first because I am not much of a cook, but everything turned out so good! :) It was nice to be able to cook for my mom, dad and niece and nephews for once in my own home. I love each of them and enjoy spending time with them.

[ brittany making delicious pumpkin pies ]-- the cute apron she is wearing was made by my wonderful mom. (sorry this picture is blurry)



[ i love this picture- kolbey and my mom looking at each other smiling ]

[ Mmmmm LETS EAT! ]

[ I think he would kill me if he knew this was on here ]

I hope you all had a great turkey day spent with loved ones!