Christmas morning with the Nichols

Every Christmas morning the Nichols arrive for breakfast on their way over to Seattle. Andy and I really enjoy this time with family and always look forward to it every year. This year was the first time I noticed how grown up Mickie and Adam are as there was not the usual "can we open presents" that we used to get. =) We had a wonderful time with them and are very thankful they take the time on their way to spend with us.

Wow it just won't stop

Well everyone knows how tall Andy is and now you can see how high the snow in the backyard is. Here he is outside with his new toy...we decided this was just way to much snow for our little snowblower so we moved up and he loves it. He is working on the backyard so that Brinkley can actually run a little and it should give her some better areas for her bathroom.

Brinkley enjoying the snow

Well we getting the beginning of what is supposed to be another 8-12 inches of snow. Tonight Andy was out clearing snow and Brinkley loves to help. Here are some fun photos of her playing in our back yard. (To give you an idea how much snow we have Andy is standing on top or our deck which is a couple of feet off the ground.)

Snow here

We are getting dumped on. Before we went on our trip we got about 2 feet of snow in 2 days and since than it has not stopped. In the back of these photos you can see Andy's black truck or what is left of the truck. We are both on vacation right now and you can see what we have been spending our time doing.

Early Christmas

This past weekend was spent in an early Christmas trip to Seattle. Andy and I drove over on Friday on roads like the ones below. Every once in awhile they cleared enough to have one clear lane. As you can see even though the roads were not the best the weather was clear and made for beautiful photos.

Our first stop was to see Andy's grandparents (Martin and June Peterson). We had a great time catching up and really appreciated the lunch and her delicious Christmas tree cinnamon roll. We also were fortunate as Andy's mom and Mickie had come over this weekend.

We than headed over to see my brother's (Lucas) home. After that we ended that day at my other brother's (Jason) home in Bremerton. We wanted to make it over on Friday so that Andy could go to work with Jason who is an officer with the Department of Fish and Wildlife. They had a fun day with all of the snow.

We were very fortunate that all of my family was able to make it over for Christmas. Here is an immediate family photo of all of us. You can see my amazing sister in law that is due in February, so next years family photo will include one more.

Here are the roads we went back on.

We sure had a wonderful time with everyone. Thank you to all our family, we love you all so very much.

I am going to get in trouble for this =)

I was so excited for Andy about this...and he thought it was okay =). So here I am posting it and he is just going to shake his head..(love you). Andy was awarded this plaque and $250.00 (shared among those he cited) for a paper he wrote through work. It was published and for that he got the money and the very nice plaque. Congrats hon.

Ready for Christmas

Did I tell you I love decorating trees? We have a total of 5 in our house right now and I also decorated one for one of our friends. The bottom tree is our main tree. It took me a full day to do it all, but I sure had a great time and my wonderful husband brought me an egg nog latte (which I love) to help me through the day. I look forward to sharing the holidays with family and friends. To all of you that we will not see we hope you have a wonderful holiday. We hope you know that we will be thinking of you all on this special day and wishing we could all be together.

Welcome Snow

On our way back from Thanksgiving in Colville we saw our first snow of the year and yesterday (the 28th) we ended up with about and inch. As you can tell by this photo it is almost all melted.

Brinkley and her ball

Well the wonderful duck she loved so much is now in the trash as she tore out the squeaker. We now got her this hard ball that squeaks and it is now her new favorite.

Baby Shower

My sister in law is due in February and we had her baby shower today which was tons of fun. We were also lucky enough to have my brother and his wife here for about a week. It was great to catch up.

Dad

Dad we hope you know how much you are missed and how often you are thought of. We hope you are proud of our choices and that you always know we love you. Thank you for the laughs, hugs, love, and the years we were able to share with you.

Always.....

Brinkley's new truck

So here is our new truck. We decided to sell the Dodge due to the crazy gas prices (which are now not so crazy ha!). This is Andy's new work truck. It is a great truck and of course we still need a truck to haul Brinkley. For those of you that visited our 1st house you might recognize the fence...yep...this truck was bought from the couple that bought our first home. Funny story as they recognized Andy's screen name on the computer. He was able to tour the old place when he went to look at the truck and he said they have not changed much and that they are really enjoying the home. Small world.

Brinkley and her duck

We found this duck at one of the pet stores and Brinkley LOVES it.

What a Beautiful Wedding

My great friend Amanda got married last Saturday and it was absolutely amazing. She and I worked together at one of the hospitals here in Spokane and she graciously asked me to be her matron of honor. I refer to her as my "sister". We had a wonderful time dancing and eating.

Long Beach, California

Every year the company I work for sends two of the Pathologist Assistant's to our yearly conference, which this year was is Long Beach. This conference takes place all over the U.S. and Canada. The conference is a week long and all of our expenses are paid which is very nice of our company to do. My mom came with me and we spent the week: at the conference, eating, touring the aquarium and Queen Mary, and shopping.
My mom usually comes with me as she is completely content waiting by the pool for me to get out of class; this would get old for Andy. I am usually in classes from 8 a.m. to around 1 p.m.
Here are some beautiful boats that were around an area we were shopping at.


This is Jeremy and Gina. Jeremy used to work for the same company I work for now, but he has since moved to a different hospital here in Spokane. We do love this though as there are now always three of us at these conferences. Gina is wonderful. I work with her and she traveled with us. We had tons of fun with the girls. Jeremy brought his beautiful wife and three boys. We sure had alot of fun eating and enjoying the pool.
The next two are photos of the aquarium. What a wonderful day it was. They had places where you could touch sharks and rays, which I took full advantage of.
It was a great trip with temperatures in the 80's. I was very glad though to get home to my amazing husband.

BABY BOY

My older brother and his wife just found out that they are adding a baby BOY to the Langbehn family, which they are thinking of naming Blair Edward Langbehn (Blair= Gina's grandpa) (Edward=Jason's grandpa). They are due the first part of February. We are all so excited for them.

Bridal Shower Fun

Yesterday I helped host a Bridal Shower for which I am the matron of honor. This is my great friend Amanda who I met while working at Holy Family Hospital. The other photos are of her, her mom, and her sister in-law. The dog is her pug Tank...which was totally worn out by all of the women.

Skyfest 2008

We went up to Fairchild Airforce Base yesterday to see the Blue Angels in Skyfest. What a great day...it was not near as hot as last time we went.