A Birthday!

We celebrated Grandma Laura's 93rd birthday last night. Wow, 93!! Chris' grandmother has Alzheimer's, which is very sad, but also brings fun times every now and then. We sang happy birthday before eating cake. A few minutes later, Grandma started singing happy birthday to herself so we all joined in and sang again. Then, when she was asked if she'd like to go home she said, "But you have to sing to me!" So we happily sang for the third time. What a wonderful woman. :)

p.s. - my little sister got married on Friday!! A post is soon to come...
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Wicked Good!

I was able to cash in on my Christmas present last week. Wicked the Musical was all I've been dreaming it to be. I have loved the music in the show ever since a friend introduced it to me my senior year of high school. For 6 years I've been aching to see it, and I was certainly not disappointed.

The picture doesn't do it justice, but the theater was absolutely amazing.

Chris wanted to buy me a t-shirt, but I refused to pay $39 for a piece of cotton. At the end of the show, he stood to applaud and his wallet fell onto the floor. What does he find under his seat when he stoops to pick up the wallet? Two twenty dollar bills. So he convinced me to buy the shirt. I see it as a gift from Elphaba. :)

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A Bridal Shower

On January 2nd we threw Malley a Bridal Shower. Even though it ended up being in the middle of a snow shower, we still had a good turnout.

Here we are, the Nisula girls, old and new.

We all pitched in to make some delicious treats. To go along with the snow falling outside, I made this cute little snowman cheeseball. Geena made awesome coconut shrimp (seen in the picture) and brought a huge chocolate fountain; Lana made herself the official chocolate fountain dipper, bringing people chocolate covered somethings whether they asked for it or not.

We played some fun games, all with the objective of making Malley feel a little silly - that's what happens when you're the bride-to-be. When the shower was over and most of the guests were gone, Chris came to pick me up. All of a sudden he starts taking his sweatshirt and t-shirt off and throwing it at Malley. He was giving her a strip-tease!! Haha, my dear husband.

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Happy Day

Chris and I had a fantastic 2nd Christmas together. For Christmas Eve, we had a Nisula/Valentine bash that was full of tasty food and lots of laughs.

It was so great to have Malley home for the holidays!

Chrismas day, we had breakfast with Chris' parents and Dan and Lisa. Then, it was time to open the gifts.

It was Dexter's turn first - Santa brought him an alfalfa-stuffed log. Mmmm, delish.

It was a great morning!

Afterwards, we celebrated with the Nisula side. We had so much fun giving out presents this year. I made stockings for Dan and Lisa and Malley and Chris Black. I am so proud of them! Of course, I couldn't have done it without learning how from Alicia Thornburg last year - thanks Alicia!

Aren't they super cute?!?

All of the presents we received were so great, but the best came from my hubby - WICKED TICKETS!!!!!!!!


For New Year's Eve, we had a traditional cousins sleepover - just like old times. We ate pizza, played games, and drank sparkling cider at midnight. It was the greatest New Year's Eve since, well, the last cousin sleepover.

Earlier in the evening we took Xavier to the fire station to see my dad because he was asking where "Uncle Dave" was. So now my dad is so cool in the two year old's eyes, because who else will let him drive a fire engine?

It was a wonderful way to end 2009. And we're ready to see what 2010 will bring us.

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Merry Christmas to all...

...and to all a good night.

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Can't Stay Away

Chris and I found ourselves back in the hospital Monday night. Just to let everyone know, there was a minor complication with his surgery and the doctors found an 8x5 cm abscess sitting on top of his bladder. On Tuesday a drainage tube was put inside him and it will continue to drain for the next two weeks. We wanted to give an update, but didn't want anyone to lose their lunch so we won't post a picture.

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The Explorer Lives Again

So after we moved across the country, we put our unregistered, white SUV aside to use our registered, white SUV. Well, tonight the Explorer has been reawakened. We had our first big snowfall of the year (I know, late). And Chris, who was told by the surgeon that it takes 3 months for muscle to heal and he shouldn't be lifting anything heavy, decided that we MUST put the plow on the car. Needless to say, I did some heavy lifting. Turns out the intimidating plow isn't so back-breaking after all, and Chris finally felt like he's accomplished something since his surgery.

Here he is, in all his "i'm-wearing-pj's-because-i'm-recovering-from-surgery" glory. And no worries, he opted out of shoveling. So after two hours of mild activity, the little bugger was wiped out and spent the rest of the night on the couch.

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