Sushi Night!

Christmas Eve Dinner was disrupted by sickness so we were unable to have our traditional Sushi dinner.  So we decided to put it on the calendar of our Family Meetup Group.  It was a fun night with some new and old friends. 

Brain got all dressed up for the occasion, bow-tie, sports jacket and shocker pen! 

Darin and Nick wanted to see if you could feel the shock current if they all held hands.  Poor Kristen was in the middle.

We had a TON of food.  Everyone brought 2 things to share.  Darin and I made crab wantons (thanks Becky for the recipe), Tonkatsu and rice.

I made a trip to the dollar store (I love that place!) picked up some decorations and printed out our names in Japanese.

This is the night before our weight-loss challenge weigh in so I needed to take a picture of why I was going to be heavier the next day! :)  Oh but it was so worth it....YUM YUM!

After dinner we chatted and played a terrible game of "battle of the sexes." Honestly who makes up these dumb questions, the girls lost terribly!

Maybe it was because Darin was reading the questions?!?
Nick and Kristen

Jenae and Brian

It was a fun and successful night.  I am so happy we put it on the meet-up calendar.  It is great meeting new people, and eating yummy food!  Not to mention, Nash was sound asleep upstairs.  Sooo we were free to enjoy our company that much more.

Jacobsburg State Park

I mentioned before that Nash and I belong to a meet-up club called Club Mom. This has been a great blessing for us in meeting people as well as getting to know the area. This month one of my friends Jenae from Club Mom started a new meet-up club for families called South Mountain Family Adventures. We are always looking for fun things to do as a family, especially on the weekends so we decided to join, and invited some of our church friends to join as well. This past weekend Darin had to work so Nash and I joined the group at Jacobsburg State Park for nice little walk.

My friend Jenae took all of these pictures.

Yes, we did get rid of the Binky but Nash still has some sensory processing issues with certain movements. He is not a fan of the backpack so I needed to give him something to distract him. He did so good. He does not like hats so I solved that problem with the headband...haha...at least his ears stayed warm!
Nash was happy to see his friends riding in backpacks too. Although, I was the only mom who was packing a child. It was great exercise.

It was a bit cold but a very GORGEOUS day!

The kids found a patch of ice to ice-skate on.

We are really excited about this group. I think what I like most about it is the majority of our good friends from Club Mom and church are all in it together, so we get to hang out more with such fun friends, as well as meet new families in the area.

Bounce U

Today we joined our mom's club at a bouncing play land called Bounce U. Darin got off work from the night shift at 9am, instead of taking advantage of the quiet house where he could sleep with out Nash knocking on the door and screaming. He JOINED US! I don't know who had more fun Nash or Darin. I think the lack of sleep and gallons of Monster drinks contributed...

My friend Melissia is 8 months pregnant and couldn't take little Sophia down the slide so we all volunteered to do the FUN job!

Melissia also took all of these photos. I just got my D300 back last night from being in the shop for 3 months. Somehow the band that flips the shutter up got stuck and became bent, which scratched my sensor....ahhhhh. It was sent to Nikon because it was 2 weeks off of its warranty and they could not figure out how it did this. Especially when I wasn't cleaning it at the time. I am happy to have it back but my functions are all messed up now and my pictures didn't turn out as well as I would have liked them today. OH DARN I guess I will have to do some practicing :)! Poor Nash....there will be some fun times ahead.

Park Fun....Brrr!

These pictures were taken back on December 1st by a friend from our Mom's Club. This is when we officially knew winter was here. Nash refused to wear a hat or gloves but had a blast even though I know he was frozen!

Emory and his little sidekick Nasharoo.
Oh these are the days that I miss that California weather where flip-flops are worn year round!!! So glad we have friends out here who will brave the weather to provide some entertainment for the children, and adult interaction for the mom's.

Christmas Dinner

We have moved into a wonderful ward with many young families that are orphans like ourselves.  For Christmas dinner we joined together to celebrate and eat some yummy food. 

Thanks to this lady Heather, who hosted this LARGE gathering!

We had two kid tables.  One for the older kids and the other for the toddlers.  

Peter F. and Reed H. were good at manning the toddler table.

The big kid table.

Hey look I even made it in a picture!

I didn't think about taking a group shot until most of the people had left so we just did a fun girl shot.  (L to R) Brook Ockerman, Heather Laubert, Me, Maria Hendershot.  We are missing Kristen Dowling and Kristina Ferrin.

This gathering made our Christmas complete!  We are very grateful for friends.

Christmas Morning

Christmas morning was a lot of fun, although Nash had no clue what Christmas was.  We woke at 7:30am, I went down turned on the Christmas lights and some Christmas music.  This was always what my mom did for us growing up.  Then Darin and Nash came down to see what Christmas gifts were waiting.

The first thing Nash went for was his drink.  Then he walked around looking at everything.  His big presents this year were a train table and a tunnel tent thing.  Darin and I got a treadmill, and some weight sets. 

This is how Nash plays trains.  It is more accessible then standing next to it. :)

A few months ago Nash had HUGE issues with going through tunnels.  Now after working with his OT, look at him go!  Good job buddy!

This dog was too much fun.  He got it from Grandma and Grandpa Willardson.  It rolls around the floor laughing.  Nash loved following it around and laughing....

The Cosby tradition is to have a breakfast requests.  I had my traditional milk toast...YUM!  Darin requested chocolate cake....

Even with all the new toys Nash received this year his very favorite thing is still reading books!  It was so fun calling our families on Skype and seeing their Christmas excitement.  How grateful we are for the internet and technology!

Chritmas Eve 2009

Our Christmas season was a little different this year.  This was our first Christmas away from our families.  It was a weird feeling knowing they were not even a days drive away from us.  When we decorated our tree we decided to hang the Christmas Cards we received on it so that we could share Christmas with our loved ones.  Lame, probably but it at least made us feel good.

I woke up early Christmas Eve morning with the flu.  Darin was scheduled to work until 7pm.  Nash and I were invited to a dinner with another resident's family.  I had to cancel because I wasn't feeling well.  Nash and I spent the day watching movies and reading books.  Darin was lucky to be with a really nice attendee who let him come home at 4pm.  Sadly he found me curled up on the couch and Nash wandering around like an orphan child.  Being an awesome husband Darin went to work fixing dinner.  Only to have the can shelf fall on him while looking for the tomato soup.  Nash was a great helper, he is the best can stacker.

 For our Christmas Eve program we sang Christmas songs, Darin read the Christmas Story, and Nash provided the entertainment. 

Then it was time to open the Christmas Eve gift provided by Granny and Grandad Cosby.  We of course called them on Skype and let them watch Nash open up his present.

It was a worm quilt Granny made and 2 pairs of jammies. 

The quilt was a huge hit!  He began dancing and rolling around on it. He loved looking at all the animals and making their noises.

Thanks Granny and Grandad!

Nash's new thing right now is sitting inside of bowls....very random!

This Christmas Eve was very kicked-back, we enjoyed just hanging out together as a family.