Christmas in California

Christmas in California was different for me. I am used to snow and cold and it was "cold" to them out there at 40 degrees. :) It did hail on Christmas though. Anyway, we had a fun time on Christmas day. LOTS of family to see. There were close to 40 people there for Christmas lunch and the annual gift exchange. Here is a picture of some of the people on Christmas enjoying our feast. Everyone hadn't even sat down yet.

All of the Schramm/Tanner cousins minus Nate and Mary who weren't able to come until Saturday. What started out as 12 cousins is now 22 with 3 more due in 2009.

One of the youngest cousins, Garrett, laying on the most laid back dog ever

The youngest cousin Beau in his little Christmas attire :)

The Jack Schramm family

Ignore my very tired face. :)

While we were in California, Tim's parents threw us our first baby shower. It was fun but of course, we didn't get any pictures of us opening gifts or of the games or anything...this is all we got :) which is also the only picture we got of Nate and Mary. Sorry guys! :) We mostly got gift cards and cash at the shower (due to flying back home) but we did get this also which should be coming in the mail soon! Nate and Mary are the ones sitting with their legs the same way toward the center of the picture.

prettier in person, but here is a desert sunset for ya :)

We were able to go and see Tim's grandmother as well. That was a nice visit and I know she enjoyed having us over for lunch.

Like I said, it was a very very nice visit with both sides of the family, but there is just no place like home. We were so excited to get home last night to a VERY fat cat (we left WAY more food than she needed out and it was all gone!) and a house still standing. Today has been spent unpacking, trying on new-to-me maternity clothes and babysitting Noah and Benjamin. (3 and 3 months) They are both napping now so I am trying to get the more quieter things done, like updating the xanga! :) I'll try to post pictures of my nonexistent pregnant belly soon! I am 2 days away from 20 weeks (the halfway point!) and am still -10 pounds. I am kind of anxious to get that belly! People keep telling me to just be patient, but with all these maternity clothes, I need a belly to fit into them better! :)

Christmas in West Virginia

I know that this is said every year, but Christmas came WAY too quickly this year. I can't believe that its over already. Tim and I had a great time spending time with family over the past 2 weeks and now we are finally home and getting ready to start the new year. On Friday, December 19th, Tim and I headed out to West Virginia to spend time with my family for Christmas. We were there until the 24th and then we went to California until just yesterday. While in West Virginia with my family, we DID get to see Stephanie, Zach, and Daniel! They were able to come on Monday instead of Wednesday so I was so happy to get to see them again, especially Daniel! Zach tore his ACL in his knee a few weeks ago and had to have surgery on the 19th so because of that, he couldn't work and therefore they got to come up earlier. Stinks that Zach had to have surgery but it sure worked out great for everyone else! Here are pictures from "Christmas" with my family that we had on the 24th as well as a couple other random shots :)
Andrew on a box...

Andrew trying to get out of a box...

Andrew in a box... :)

Daniel sitting in a hand-me-down girly chair...notice the large amount of drool coming out of his mouth. It will be quite funny if he gets teeth before Andrew!

"I gotta cut back on this milk stuff, man!"

enjoying a book with Grandma...actually he was totally not interested at all and was being a ham for the camera at the time :)

Opening gifts..
My grandmother and her husband opening the picture frame Tim made them

Tim's new leaf blower

Jesse, Jacob, and Isaiah opening the nerf guns Tim and I got them :)

Ellie was so excited about her gift which was a dry erase/cork board and turned around to her mom and Emily (older sister who got the same gift) and was like "look what I got!!!... oh, you got the same thing" It was funny, although much funnier in person...she was so excited about the gift till she found out that Emily got it too then seemed disappointed. :)

From left to right, Jesse, age 10, Emily, age 14, Daniel, age 3 months, and Isaiah, age 12

So, overall, we had a great Christmas with my family in West Virginia...I was sad to leave on Christmas Eve but we had a great time in California too. I can't wait till next Christmas when I have a baby of my own to bring to all the family gatherings!! :)

Daniel is getting so big!

Unfortunately, Tim and I aren't going to be able to see my little nephew Daniel or my sister Stephanie and brother in law, Zach over Christmas. So, I decided to head down to Florida to see them and spend some time with Daniel who is getting SO big! I hadn't seen him since he was 3 weeks old and we celebrated his 3 month birthday while I was down there. Its amazing how much they can change in so little time. He is so stinking cute! I just want to kiss his little cheeks each time I see the pictures. I almost cried when I dropped him off at the babysitters on Friday afternoon...it was hard to leave him! :( Anyway, Stephanie and Zach don't have a xanga or a blog and so they don't post many pictures so here are pictures for the family who is eager to see how big Daniel is getting! Beware, there are a lot!

He makes such cute and funny faces. He is full of smiles but did get a little shy around the camera...I think it freaked him out! :)


So precious!

"Come on, would you stop taking pictures already!"

His eyes are so blue I just had to do this picture!

Smug!

"Get out of my face, Aunt Shannon!"

He had so much fun during his bath! I love his little rolls!

This outfit is from my mom...its his Christmas outfit and was a little big, but overall fit him pretty good.

I bored him I guess. :)


I loved every minute of my time with him...Stephanie and Zach both worked during the day so I got to spend from 6:45-4 or so with him every day. :) I miss him already! Hope you enjoyed the pictures!

Who will our baby look like?

At work, they were asking for people to give baby pictures and there was going to be some contest about who could guess the most right or something so I started looking through the few pictures that Tim and I have on our computer of us as babies...I can't wait to see what our child will look like and whether it will look like Tim or me. Although, these pictures make us look like we could be brother and sister!
Tim

Me

I must say, either would be fine...we were both cute!! :)

I don't have any of Tim has a little tiny tiny baby...he wasn't in that stage very long!

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Our decorations are FINALLY all up and we officially have our Christmas tree up and decorated. (Now that its a week into December!) We decided to get a real plantable Christmas tree this year to celebrate our first Christmas in our new house as well as our last Christmas as just the two of us...plus, we wanted to buy one anyway to add to our yard after cutting down some of our trees. Its so very pretty and not near as expensive as you would think! Its really only double what some pay for a live, cut tree. So thats cool...and it smells SOO good.
Here it is all decorated and lighted up!

And our cute little blue house all lit up with a little dusting of snow even!


Yesterday afternoon was the ladies annual "Christmas Tea" at the Thomas'. The Thomas' are a SUPER nice Indian couple that go to our church that open up their home every year for this get together, but I have never been able to go due to schedules at work and stuff. I have been to their home on many occasions for taking pictures, (see the photography website for a few examples) but have never been there at Christmas time. It was so beautifully decorated! Of course, I didn't really get that great of pictures, but here are a couple.
During the devotional

Lots of chocolate and cookies at this ladies get together! :)

I got to go on a little mini tour of her house and saw all 8 of the bedrooms, the indoor pool, sauna, and hot tub. When Tim and I make our millions, I think we will build a house similar.

Thanksgiving 2008

Tim and I, for the first time since being married, got to be at my parents house for Thanksgiving day this year. Usually, there are a good 15+ people there, but this year, there were only 4...Mom and Dad, Tim, and myself. But it was still good. It was a very relaxing day and nice to be able to spend with just my parents. Friday was family day...where we had everyone minus Stephanie, Zach, and Daniel, and my grandparents so 15 of us. It was a lot of fun and great to be able to spend some time with my cousins and of course, with Andrew who is almost 15 months old and has ZERO teeth, poor guy. Of course, we had lots of good food and I was able to not be nauseated hardly at all the entire weekend! I think I am finally getting over the sickness stage of pregnancy, which I am very excited about. Here are a few pictures of the fun we had!!

Andrew has learned how to do "touchdown!" and throw up his arms whenever it is said. My cousins were playing with Andrew's playplace thing and one of them made a basket and Andrew threw up his arms for touchdown, so we all yelled "touchdown!" It was cute. :)



Ellie turns 6 this week!!



Andrew's new onesie says "teeth are overrated!" Fits perfectly :)

This was humerus because this is how many people it took to feed Andrew his dinner apparently. 9 are visible in the picture but I was taking the picture plus Joanna was right beside me. Andrew needs more cousins to draw some of that attention away. :)


We also got to help put up Christmas decorations on Saturday. Here are Marisa and Susan (Marisa's best friend that is basically a member of the family) putting ornaments on the tree. I promise Marisa was more cheerful than this picture represents. :)

So we had a great time. I wish it wouldn't have gone by so fast...thankfully, Christmas is right around the corner!! See you all in a few weeks!!