Christmas in Cali!!

This year we celebrated Christmas with Joe's parents in California! Terri and Monty hosted a wonderful holiday dinner as well as an entire weekend of food and fun. Joe's grandma, Herschel (the new love of her life) Aunt Char, Uncle Jeff, Cousin Tracy and her dog Molly, Me, Joe and the Doodles all came together this year! It was so great to have family come in from all over to celebrate 2009!

This was my second year spending Christmas away from my family, and although we were not together I was with them in spirit! Joe and I are so blessed to have parents that love both of us as if we were their own, it makes spending the holidays away from family so much easier!

The weather was amazing of course, so we spent a majority of the time outside, we went shopping at the outlet mall nearby, and on Christmas Eve we all attended church as a family. It was truly a time for all of us to reflect on the things we're grateful for in 2009 and prayers for another wonderful year in 2010.

Here are some of the pictures we took...

The doodles, doing what they do best!

Joe found some hummingbirds in the backyard, so cute!

Jeff and char preparing Christmas eve dinner

Herschel got to take the Tiffany for a spin!! Whoohoo

This is what Joe got his wonderful wife for Christmas, I'm so lucky!!!

Opening more presents...

Terri was very excited about the books we made for her...they were pictures we took of her grandkids of course :)

Love this family!!!

We wore our Christmas sweater down on Christmas morning, everyone LOVED them of course :)

These two could really do without this dog in their lap...they told us SEVERAL times that it was time to have babies so we would stop taking pictures of our dogs...ha!

Tracy and Molly...

This girl will make you laugh til your stomach hurts!!

Joe and his girl

Herschel and Anne

The usual picture at grandma's house plus one!!

The house looked so beautiful!

A mom and her girls...just two of many :)

The adult table...Joe, Tracy and I had to sit at the kids table...I thought about it and I figured it was okay to be considered a kid at 31 :)

Terri's chair bows, they were so pretty!!

Char

**Lynch Family Pictures**

Here are a few adorable family pictures I wanted to share with everyone! The Lynch family contacted us to take their family pictures for them over the Christmas holiday! These boys were so much fun, full of energy and absolutely adorable, what else could a photographer ask for?! Here are just a few of the several pictures we took on a rather cool day at a park in Costa Mesa, CA! We look forward to working with them again, what a wonderful family!

Enjoy!
Jen

Ugly Christmas Sweater Party 2009

Our Ugly Christmas Sweater Party for 2009 was hosted by our friends Stephanie and Ben. Stephanie and Ben have been roomies here in Cali for like 20 years or something and they act like a little old married couple, so cute! They recently moved to a posh place in CDM (Corona Del Mar) which is beachfront and beautiful! So, leading up to Christmas we enjoyed a ugly sweater party with friends.

As I'm sure this will come as quite a shock to all of you. we found our ugly sweaters in Grand Rapids Ohio when we were back home visiting with mom and dad! We bought them for $5 and it was worth every laugh that my parents had while we tried them on. I have to say that my beautiful Christmas tree blouse was a hit at the party...making me look extra...stupid! Joe was a little nervous wearing this sweater, but I assured him that it was an UGLY party and that we would fit right in! As we arrived I quickly realized that we took the ugly to the highest level as other girls looked rather cute in their outfits...Joe is still a little biter over this. I chose to wear my vest, blouse, stone washed jean skirt, sweater tights and a side pony...and Joe was the one who felt stupid! Anyway, we had a great time, which ended with us trying to get into a rather upscale bar and we were turned away...can't imagine why...we were all SO attractive. The bouncer actually looked at our friend Stephanie and said, " um, you can't come in with all that on" as he pointed to her from head to toe. She was wearing a fro with lights on it and a light up sweater. WHATEVER...so on we went :)

Great times! Can't wait til next year :)

Me and Joe...prom 1989

Steph and Joe enjoying a little dancing!

Steph and Ben, best roomies ever! They are both from Michigan, go figure!

Yes ladies, he's mine ALL mine :)

Nerds!

HEY!!!

GP and Aimee came too!

Anna had an awesome and very bright outfit!

Me and Ben, you can't tell here, but his pants were SO high!

heeehee haahaa! Good times! Thanks Steph!