Happy New Year!

About 15 hours after arriving home in Pasadena, my parents came to visit. Long time no see! They planned to come and see the Rose Parade, which turned out better than any of us could have anticipated. After church on Sunday morning, Noel was given 2 tickets to sit in the grand stands to watch the parade. The tickets were for front row seats right across from the Norton Simon museum, which is THE place to sit. We decided to give the tickets to my parents since they had never been to the parade before and we've been twice. Later that afternoon, the lady who gave Noel the tickets called and said she had 2 more! What a blessing! We no longer had to worry about getting up at 4 in he morning to go look for a seat. We had reserved seats, which were better than any we'd be able to get on the street. It made for a great experience for all of us.

We introduced Mom and Dad to Julienne, our favorite breakfast restaurant in San Marino. Once again, our meals were fantastic.

We headed down Colorado Blvd the day before the parade to see where our seats were and how long it would take us to walk. We were so thankful for spectacular weather.

And more Christmas fun...

We were so fortunate to be able to see all of our grandparents as well as several other relatives during our whirlwind trip. We headed over to Grandma Fannie's and Grandma and Grandpa Kraushaar's the day after Christmas.

Dad and Uncle Ned watching Noel and I open presents. We both got some great books, which we're so thankful for!

We had a great lunch at Grandma Fannie's. She mad her famous meatballs, which we all went nuts over.

Grandma Doris, me, Noel, Grandpa Don

More Christmas Fun

We spent Christmas day with the Dykema's. Our day started with church and was followed by stockings, presents, and a fantastic dinner of prime rib. Too bad I woke up with a cold and felt a little "off" all day.

Hillary and me during present time.

Josh showing off his new sweater. Jett sporting one of his new bibs that Hillary made for him. She's so great at making cute baby stuff with her new sewing machine. Check out the burp cloths on Dad's leg.

Ruby's favorite part was hiding in the boxes.

Hillary was able to find some fantastic deals shopping the day after Thanksgiving. Heather and I definitely benefited from these deals! She gave both of us so many presents; I could hardly believe it. We each got 2 tank tops in addition to lots of other fun stuff.

All the men in the family got the same shirt from American Apparel (Heather organized this). Nothing like wearing matching shirts while drinking beer together.

Christmas Fun

Jett and I had a bit of a rough first encounter. He had been passed around between lots of people before I got to hold him. When I got him, he cried...no, he screamed, and needed to be comforted by his mom. Luckily he calmed down and I was able to feed him later at the party.

We were able to spend a little alone time with Heather, Josh, and Jett. Here's Noel getting to know his nephew.

It was so nice to meet Heidi's boyfriend, Brian, for the first time. We're so glad he was able to join the Snyder family party at Emily and Jason's new home.

The Snyder fam: Jason, Dad, Mom, Noel, Emily, Heidi, Heidi

The first of 3 snow storms we had while in Michigan. This picture was taken as we celebrated Christmas at Emily and Jason's house.

Community Holiday Drop-In Party

We invited our apartment community over on Friday night for a drop-in party. We thought it'd be fun to give the students a place to relax after a tough week of finals. We made cookies for people to decorate, bought ornaments for people to color, had hot cocoa, candy canes, played Christmas music, and even had the "yule-log" playing on our TV. Although the turnout was small, we had fun with the people who came!

Danielle was definitely in a creative mood. She frosted some cookies that looked fantastic! Her ornaments were also very impressive.

I had a great time being taking care of Kyriana, Kraig and Danielle's daughter, while they frosted cookies and colored ornaments. Too bad she kept grabbing fuzz off my sweater and eating it and sticking it in her eye. Sorry Kyriana! Next time I promise not to wear such a fuzzy sweater.

Kraig, Danielle, Jill, and Henry busy making Christmas ornaments.

We feel so blessed to have such a wonderful community. It's fun living with fun people!

Done with another quarter!

Noel's officially finished his 9th quarter at Fuller! He had an incredibly busy quarter (as always) with 3 classes plus an internship at church. He only has 2 more quarters of classes and 1 quarter of full-time interning at a hospital. The end is actually in sight...something I think we're both excited for and nervous for at the same time. I don't think either of us realized how rigorous this program was going to be and we've experienced many days/weeks/quarters where we weren't sure it was possible to get all the work done that needed to be done (maybe I was more nervous than Noel :) ). I'm so proud of how hard he works at his studies. What shall we do to celebrate the end of this quarter?

Jett Michael

We are first time aunt and uncle to adorable Jett Michael Haveman! My sister, Heather, gave birth to Jett on November 1st. We can't wait to meet him in just a couple weeks!

Is he going to be a boxer?

I'm not quite sure what to do with this hand...

Resting with my mommy.
Smiling already?