Recovered from Christmas

finally...Everything is put a way and we are recovered. We had a great Christmas. We went to Little Rock Friday after work.

Saturday we went to lunch with Matt and Lindsey Koss at Jason's Deli. It was great to see them (it had been too long). John and I managed to forget our camera for this lunch date and have no pictures.

Saturday night we went to the candle light Christmas Eve service at church. It was wonderful. Then we went home had dinner and opened gift with John's parents and grandparents. See pictures below...

Elaine made us all scarves for gifts (well all of us but Johnny).

Yes that is a Matt Jones action figure. You should see this thing and the muscles they gave him. It was hilarious looking at this thing. I need to take a better picture.

Then Sunday we had Christmas lunch...Yummy food by Ma Robus. John's Grandmother and aunt and uncle came to the rock to see us. That was a great visit.

Dinner Time

Grandparents, Parents, and us!!

Uncle Greg, Grandma Robus, Aunt Debbie, & us.

Monday was time to head home, but we had a semi quick stop in Memphis to see Jeremy and Rachel who are home from Afghanistan for the holidays. It was great to see them here and safe.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and has a Happy New Year!!!

Merry Christmas....early

So...while we were in Nashville for Nikki and Brandon's wedding, we had Christmas with my family. The items shown below are what we got, with the exception of the huge multi picture frame that John's mother gave me a little early.

Large frame from MIL for wedding pictures...I love this!!

Crosses that my grandmother gave me..they are hanging above our bed.

My mom gave me a jewelry armoire complete with jewelry...john got a cardinal's jersey and a new suit. Yea for the Christmas season. We hope everyone has a great Christmas!!!

Nikki and Brandon are married

This wedding was beautiful!!!

John & I

The lovely couple...what cute decorations.

Their cake was amazing....though I never actually ate any it was very pretty.

Nikki and Me

The 6 of us from high school....oh how we have changed.

All the frat brothers...woooo hooo!!

We had a great weekend in Nashville. Nikki and Brandon's wedding was great! And we were able to celebrate Christmas early with my family. It was a very busy weekend, but we had a blast!!!

Surprise for John

So, we had a pretty good weekend. Ma & Pa Robus were here and we did a lot of Christmas shopping. We also had a surprise party for John. It was a happy graduation party. He was totally clueless. It was great. We had a good time with friends. Above are some pictures.

No more school!!

John has officially finished his masters studies as of last night. He took his final and that is that! Well I guess we still have to make sure he passes (not really). He now has a masters in Finance from St. Louis University! Congrats on making it through!!!

Weekend agenda

1. Bowling tonight
2. John's parents are going to be here this afternoon
3. Christmas shopping
4. Christmas shopping
5. Dinner
6. More Christmas shopping

Doesn't everyone just love this time of year!!!
P.S. The snow is not going to go away anytime soon here. YEA!!!! The final was 6 inches and it is freezing outside!

2:00 weather update

Well it continued to snow until around 2. This is now the view from the front door... This is the best I had to measure by....no ruler in our house.

Me daring to go out in the snow....

my feet when i came in and jonsey trying to go out!!!

It's Snowing!!!

View from our front door

Since everyone has been talking about snow in Little Rock and Nashville, I thought that I would show you the snow here!! It is 9:15 and this isn't suppose to stop until 4:00 this afternoon. I think they are calling from anywhere from 4-8 inches today. What you see now has happened in the past 45 min - 1 hour. So, much for me being off work today and tomorrow and getting Christmas shopping done!

Weekend of Christmas Parties

We had John's Company Christmas party on Friday night at the Racket Club....very nice....great food...and good atmosphere. I meet so many freakin' people, and don't remember any of them. It was good though. Then Saturday we decided to brave the craziness of shopping at West County Mall. Wow there were a lot of people there, but we did manage to get a few gifts. That night was my Company Christmas party...it wasn't as good as John's, but we still had a good time. It was at the artist's guild, which was very nice, but freezing cold. It was a buffet of apitizers...no dinner just finger foods. Not what anyone was expecting. Then the only place to sit down and eat was a tent outside in the 20 degree weather!! Not very fun. Needless to say...we left about 9 to go to the casino to watch the fight. Which was a dissapointment...not that exciting, but Taylor is still the champ. That made John happy since they are both Arkansas boys. Oh well...still had fun. Sunday was time to clean up the apartment. I did a little bit of shopping that afternoon. And then it was back to work. Tonight we have another couple coming over to eat dinner with us. I made chili....sounds good since the high is 20 today. Hope everyone has a great day!!!

Dressed up for the Christmas parties!!

Taking pitures for our Christmas Card.

John and the cat

Jonesy has discovered a new hiding place.

We are decorated for Christmas!!!

Well not completely. We are going to put lights outside the apartment this weekend hopefully! I am so excited. Christmas is my favorite time of year. This morning it was snowing on the way to work and they have begun playing Christmas music. IT IS WONDERFUL (minus all the shopping I need to do). Let the countdown begin....24 days until Christmas!!!

Stockings....Even one for Jonesy.

It is going to be interesting to see what the cat does with the tree/ornaments and all the bows on the gifts. So far he has been good, but who knows what he will do in the next few weeks. :-)

Thanksgiving Pictures

I didn't take very many for some reason. But these are cute of my cousins...

Another One Bites the Dust

Congratulations to Mike Whaley and Rachel Reitz. Mike proposed and she said yes last night. She will now be known as Rachel Whaley-Butt. I will try and find a picture fo the 2 of them to post. The preliminary time frame is for the shinndig to take place in October. Congrats to both and Good Luck to Rachel for putting up with Mike for the rest of her life!!

Thanksgiving is over and I am sick!!!

YUCK!!!!! I hate this time of year b/c I always seem to somehow get sick. SO...Thanksgiving was good. It was great to be with the fam. I will post more along with pictures later when I am feeling better! Sorry for the short post.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I hope that everyone has a great TURKEY DAY! Be careful traveling and don't eat too much.

Pictures from the shower.

It was soooooo great to be able to see everyone from High School. Nikki's getting married and the Jenn is having a BABY (you can't tell yet though, but she is glowing)! It makes me want to be closer to home! We had a wonderful weekend, and I can't wait for the wedding and baby showers to come!

Finally Friday

So John and I are going our separate ways this weekend. Well....Actually...I am the one going. I am off to Hendersonville for an High School friend's bridal showers. Yes...There will be two this weekend, one of which I am a hostess. I am looking forward to the weekend activities, but not the long drive ahead by myself.

Oh....And I am also going to see Harry Potter with my cousins at the IMAX for the late showing Saturday night. That will be great!!











Mike Whaley is going to be in St. Louis to keep John company while I am away. Who knows what the two of them will get into.

Anyway, I hope everyone has a great weekend!!