New Year's Eve

Now that I am done with my 800 Christmas blog posts and now that it is January 25th I think it is about time to blog about our New Year's Eve celebration.

In tradition fashion we celebrated New Year's Eve with our good college friends the Puckett's and Sargent's!  It was the Puckett's year to host and they did a wonderful job.  We had delicious appetizers for dinner and even more delicious brownie sundaes for dessert.

I had the privilege to hold baby Josiah several times during the evening and at one point I even got him to fall asleep in my arms-PRECIOUS!
 

Before the kids went to bed...(which Isaiah did AWESOME, he slept on the Puckett's futon) we took our traditional group picture.  We sure are expanding each year!  Isaiah was born in 2008 (although not home until 2010), Michaela was born in 2009, Lily was born in 2010, Josiah was born in 2011, and the Sargent's have already taken care of adding to the 2012 picture as they have a little boy due in 2012!

Last year we started the tradition of ME holding ALL the kids...we made sure to carry out that tradition again too!  My arms are going to be really FULL next year!

For comparison sake here are the pictures we took last year...

Travis had deemed 2011 "The Year of Kalina"  Well, 2011 didn't turn out how we had hoped, but we are thankful for God's continued provision in our lives.  We are anxious to see what God has planed for us in 2012.

Date Night at the Blazers Game

One of Trav's co-workers has season tickets to the Blazers games.  On Thursday, December 29th he wasn't able to go to the game so he let us use his tickets.  Prior to the game we had dinner at Red Robin and then we enjoyed watching the Blazers win against the Denver Nuggets!

Christmas After Christmas

When we had Christmas morning in Newberg Isaiah got tired of opening his stocking gifts so we left a few wrapped under the tree to open later.  A couple days after Christmas when we were at home one afternoon I found this...

Isaiah found one of the gifts and decided it was finally time to unwrap it.  He was SO EXCITED to discover the present was play-dough.

We have always made our own play-dough so I think it though the real deal smelled nice.

Eventually I guess he got tired of the purple play-dough...so back to tree to unwrap other presents!

Look Mom, ORANGE play-dough!

And orange SMELLS AS GOOD as purple!

On Christmas morning Travis and I were a little bummed Isaiah wasn't in to opening all his gifts.  It was worth the wait for Isaiah to unwrap all his gifts because it was so fun to see his excitement this afternoon. He LOVED opening and playing with the play-dough!

Christmas in Madras

After Christmas morning in Newberg we packed up and got in the car to head to Madras to have Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa and Josh and Kayla.  Isaiah took his afternoon nap in the car and missed the snow!

Isaiah LOVES reading Nonna's book The Jacket I wear in the Snow by Shirley Neitzel and Nancy Winslow Parker so I was a little bummed he didn't get to see the snow on the roadside or snow falling!

Once we got to Grandma and Grandpa's house we had Christmas dinner... ham, potatoes, salad, and rolls.  Then later into the evening we exchanged gifts with our family.

We got Grandpa a light for his school office.

Grandpa also got a new spatula with a cat on it!

We got Grandma a curling iron cover.

We also got Grandma some new Pyrex containers.

We got Josh and Kayla a video monitor for baby Kiara who is due in March.

Isaiah was pretty happy to get to unwrap more presents at Grandma and Grandpa's house!

He still slowly took one tiny piece of paper off at a time.

Thanks Josh and Kayla for Isaiah's new gears...he loves having more things to spin!

Josh and Kayla also got Isaiah a fun new water bottle.

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for my new Cars cars...Fillmore, Sarge, Carla, Francesco, Ramone, Raoul.

Grandma and Grandpa got Travis a couple magazine subscriptions...Fast Company and Harvard Business Review and I got a KitchenAid Shredder!

On the day after Christmas we went into Bend to meet up with my college roomate, Emily and her husband, Brad.  Brad and Emily live in Hong Kong and were here for Christmas break to visit Brad's family.  They are also expecting a baby girl in March so it was fun to do a little baby shopping with Emily.  It was a short visit but I am VERY THANKFUL I got to see my dear friend who I miss tons!  

After a long day of shopping Isaiah took his afternoon nap in the car...2nd day in a row for a car nap!

Travis took an additional day off at Christmas so that we could stay through Monday afternoon.  Monday morning we tested out the stroller tray (in the house) that Kayla got for me.  Isaiah LOVES it!  And he has enjoyed many snacks while using the stroller outside.

We had a great Christmas celebration in Madras!