my awesome family

hideous christmas sweater competition

so i never did post about our christmas eve and the first ever hideous christmas sweater competition. all i have to say is...you be the judge:

the clear winner, i mean you can't tell but mine has sequins, shiny bows and it's completed by holes. justin's is pretty heinous too.
i'm very impressed with grandma's! nice touch with the garfield, grandpa.
doesn't mom's look just like a teacher sweater!? the buttons are little snowmen. dad's says: santa's back in the saddle again!
what a cute family! and yes, abbe is wearing christmas overalls
very nice christmas cowboy/girl outfits although may i point out that the rules specified SWEATER. automatically disqualified in my book.

which one?

christmas with the dolls

we celebrated christmas with the immediate doll family on sunday afternoon after church. mom made a great brunch and then we started in on the stockings. the little boys always make these events so much more entertaining. especially dakota as he talks up a storm. after stockings we headed into the living room for the big stuff. justin and i got our juicer as expected and we love it. we juice almost every day. i'm still experimenting and they don't always turn out! adam and aaron also got justin and i diamond d t-shirt and hoodie. i love my hoodie! aaron and his girlfriend jessie got dakota some cowboy boots which he loves. they're the first thing he puts on in the morning. he likes to wear them when he's playing" worker man" and don't try to talk to him or he'll tell you, "i'm busy!"

when we were little kids we had an indoor "sandbox" in the basement of our house. it was actually pinto beans, which are really hard and easy to play with. they work just as well as sand when it's raining so you can't play outside. dad made one for dakota this year and he loves it! with that and the train, you can't get him out of the basement. all the big boys wanted to play in it too, and it brought back so many memories.

justin got to hang out with matt and michele and see new baby lili. i really wanted to see them too, but i got sick and didn't want to pass anything on. i did get to see some high school friends though-lauren, mallory and natalie. it was so much fun to catch up with these girls. i try to see lauren and mallory whenever i'm in wichita, but it doesn't always happen. natalie lives in the caribbean, so i haven't see her forever. we had fun just talking. the conversation centered alot around babies. congratulations to mallory who welcomed ava into the world christmas day!

after we came back to wichita the second time mom, grandma and i went to a tea room and had lunch. it was so nice and the chicken noodle soup was awesome. they also had a little antique shop too. we looked around a bit, but decided not to spend any christmas money! :) i knitted a scarf for grandma for christmas and then mom said she wanted one too. so do i! so we stopped at michael's to pick out yarn for both of us. mine is green (of course!) and mom's is a reddish orangish that's fuzzy. abbe just told me the other day that dakota was asking when riley can come over to play. we'll be back before you know it!

what have i done?

that's right, i signed up to run a 1/2 marathon that's 13.1 miles!! i started training yesterday. if any of you know me well, you know i don't run. i mean really. i. don't. run. i guess i do now. i was inspired by some girls i know and decided that it would be cool to say i've done it. i'm not naive enough to think i'm going to be able to run the whole entire thing, but i'm hoping to run at least most of it. it's been fun to tell people about it and realize how many other people have already signed up or want to run with me. hopefully that makes things a little easier with some encouragement. justin hasn't signed up yet because the money isn't refundable, and if he has some big gig that comes up, he doesn't want to be out that much money. anyway, we'll see if he ends up running with me or not! :) anyway, i'll let you know how the progress goes!

a manhattan christmas

christmas night we headed to manhattan to spend christmas with justin's mom, terri, and his brothers. terri made us a great dinner and then we all took our turns opening presents. everyone got great things... especially me! terri got me this awesome thick and super soft robe. we got to wish kit and joann (justin's grandparents) merry christmas over the phone. they enjoyed the warmth of arizona over christmas. we had such a relaxing time in manhattan. we got to just hang out, spend some of those gift cards, watch movies, roam the mall, and go to the park. it was really cold though! while we were there it snowed probably another 3 inches or so one night. We took riley over to cico park the next morning and let her play in the snow. it was so funny to throw sticks for her. they would fall into the snow and get covered in powder, so she had a hard time finding them and had to root around. i wish it snowed here more. today it's a balmy 68 degrees!

we also got to see our friends ben and kristin while we were there. on thursday morning we got to spend some time with them and get to know jaiya a little more. then we all went out to carlos o'kelly's for lunch. after that we met terri, josh and kylea (josh's girlfriend) at the mall for a little more shopping. friday, we (being the fabulous brother and sister-in-law that we are) took jesse's car to get the oil changed. we had to get new windshield wipers for pete after the crazy storm we drove in. then i got to spend some more time with kristin and jaiya. she is such a good and contented baby. she was so good in the car and while we ran a few errands. we also randomly ran into jim and mary in best buy one night and got to catch up. both justin and i agree that they are some of our favorite people. we headed out on saturday morning back to wichita for a few more days.
justin, jeff, josh, kylea, demon dog, me, jesse, terri

ostrander christmas festivities

well i'm posting this out of order, but i don't have all the pictures from the doll christmas yet, so be patient with me here! :)

we headed up to overbrook to spend christmas day with justin's dad, and that side of the family. linda and gary opened up their home to everyone and linda always makes an amazing christmas lunch and her famous apple pie. we spent most of the morning hanging out in grandma darlene's room talking to jerry and jean. (justin's dad, jerry, built an awesome addition to linda and gary's house for justin's grandma. darlene has severe dementia and they all take such good care of her.) we tried to introduce riley to midnight the cat, but midnight wasn't too sure about it. she finally warmed up to riley and even allowed a few licks to the face.

after lunch it's always present time!! linda and gary have this great big tree and it's always got tons of presents underneath. besides us giving noah the lego set he already had and just finished putting together that morning, i think everyone liked their gifts! :) it wouldn't be a trip out to overbrook, if we didn't go out on the 4 wheelers. there are 2 now, since noah got his own almost full sized 4x4. justin, jesse, noah and i all headed out with riley and noah's dog missy in tow. we went all over the back fields, and the dogs had so much fun chasing us and each other. then we headed over to the field next to the house. it's really long and just hilly enough that if you go all the way to one end, you can see the other end. i think we were all pretty dirty after that trip, but it's so much fun!

after 4 wheeling, we enjoyed the luxury of grandma darlene's heated floors. then we all posed for the family picture. it took some doing to get everyone smiling, the animals in the right place, and noah not making a silly face! we had fun and always like to spend time with family!from left to right, starting in the back: justin (with riley), me, gary, jean, jerry (with midnight). front row: noah, jesse, linda, grandma darlene.