My Favorite Time of Year...Christmas!

The best time of year!!! Christmas!!! It always seems to come and go so quickly. Our holidays were filled with family, friends, and fun!

We started off our holiday season with Eric's family hosting the Chap Family Christmas. The Chap Christmas came with plenty of food, fun games, and even a surprise visit from Santa!

The Chap sisters even got to sit on Santa's lap this year!

On Christmas Day, we celebrated with Eric's family at our house. We came up with a new idea this year for presents....we each picked a theme and then drew what theme our presents would be. The theme this year was hunting/camo. It was really fun to see the ideas that people came up with. I got some beautiful pillars for candles and a picture.

The kids had fun running around in our basement for the afternoon. They also enjoyed all of the new snow we had gotten the night before!
Here is a picture of the Chap crew taking a break after getting everything set up for the Chap Christmas.

On Christmas Eve we celebrated Christmas with the Remme's. We made the adventure to Faribault of Wednesday night. It made for an interesting drive as the snow began to fall! We woke up Thursday morning to about 8 inches of snow in my parents driveway. That 8 inches added to the foot they already had. It is the most snow I have ever seen!

Eric and I brought the dogs with us to my parents. We spent some time playing with them in the snow.

We enjoyed having plenty of time to hang out with each other, play games, and kiss Carter:)

His little smirk!

Some pictures of the Remme family!

We hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas! We certainly did!

Happy New Year's everyone! On to 2010!

Ugly Christmas Party

On Saturday night we attended our 3rd Ugly Christmas Sweater Party. The last two years Robyn and Travis have thrown a party at their house. This year they decided not to have one, but Erin and Josh decided to carry on the tradition. So we rummaged around for some great Christmas sweaters and this is what we came up with this year. Eric had a beautiful red sweater with a jingle bell wreath (In this picture, Eric had already taken the wreath off), light bulbs, and ornaments. Not to mention what a bonus the wonderful green garland did for the sweater. My sweater had a gorgeous puffy-painted Christmas tree along with some jewels to bedazzle the sweater. It also had gold beads which appeared to be garland that hung off the Christmas tree. These were some real works of art!
Erin had great holiday attire! She also had red and white striped tights to match her candy cane sweater! I don't have a picture of Josh, but he had quite the sweater. It was a woman's sweater with a lot of detailed beadwork and a big scoop neck. It was very fitted for Josh which made it all the funnier!

Here is a picture of me, Courtney, and Robyn in our outfits. Don't you love Robyn's necklace?!?!

Carter had 3 adorable outfits that he wore throughout the evening. He had the one you see in this picture along with an elf outfit which matched Erin's sweater, and a Santa Claus outfit. Lily also had a Santa outfit for this wonderful occasion!

Another successfully UGLY Christmas sweater party!

Christmas cookie extravaganza

On Sunday afternoon the Chap girls got together for our annual Chap Christmas Cookie Bake. Tina hosted the cookie bake this year. We had our traditional lunch...chili and garlic bread. Not to mention cookies to eat. As always, we made a ton of great cookies and sweets for the holiday season. Here are some of the many sweets we made.

Kyleah and I made a great team making my thumbprint cookies. She was an awesome helper!!
Nick did a great job decorating the sugar cookies. He also did a great job eating the frosting:)

Mel and Jesse had quite the job...decorating about 100 sugar cookies. Their cookies look great!

Madi was a good helper as well. She was sure to tell us how they tasted!

We have cookies to last us for a while! Feel free to stop in for some cookies and milk:)

A BUSY week

Well, it has been quite some time since I have updated my blog! We have been quite busy. I will try to get you up to speed....

Eric has been very busy farming the last couple of weeks. He has been working for a farmer who he use to work for a few years back. As you are all probably aware, farming is an all day everyday event. Therefore, Eric and I have seen very little of each other. Our time that we have had together has been wonderful! Oh yeah, since hunting season, Eric has decided to grow out a beard. Check it out...what do you think? :)

Not only has Eric been busy farming, but we have been busy with a fun-filled week!

Last Tuesday Eric and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary! It has been an amazing 2 years. I can't believe how fast time goes. It seems like only yesterday we were getting married. Eric got out of the fields early so we could spend the evening together. We went out to dinner and then did a little shopping after. It was a great night!

On Wednesday night I went to my 2nd annual "Wednesday before Thursday." Katie's boyfriend Russ hosts this event. It takes place in St. Cloud at Duck's Pub Bar and Grill. We go there for wings, beer, and a fun night! And a fun night it is!!!

On Thursday morning I made a trip down to Shakopee to visit Rachel, Brad, and their newest addition to the family: Finley Dana Hove. She was a precious little girl! I can't believe how tiny she is. She is absolutely adorable! I was glad I got to meet her! Rachel and baby are both doing great and Rachel looks wonderful!

Thursday afternoon we celebrated Thanksgiving with Eric's family. It was such a great day! We hung out, played games, watched movies, and ate lots of yummy food! Roger, Jesse, Jake, and I got in a mad game of UNO. We played for about 2 hours before I finally won! At times, I think we all had 20 cards in our hands:)

On Friday I spent the day cleaning the house and putting up the Christmas decorations! I absolutely love this time of year so I was thrilled to get up all of my decorations!

On Saturday we had my family Thanksgiving. We made the trip down to Owatonna for another delicious Thanksgiving meal. I don't get to see my mom's side of the family very often so it was great to spend time visiting with them!

Saturday evening we had Mark and Laura's wedding! It was a great night to celebrate their special day! It was a fun evening and we got the chance to see a lot of friends that we haven't seen for a while!

A picture of some of the girls with Laura!



Eric and I!

A great week! Busy, but fun!!!!

Introducing Mr. and Mrs. Thompson

This past Saturday, we celebrated with Nathan and Tina as they became Mr. and Mrs. Thompson! It was a beautiful day for wedding. Couldn't have asked for better weather in November! Not only was the weather beautiful, but so was the wedding!

Nathan looked very handsome and Tina looked incredible! She was an absolutely beautiful bride!!! Nathan and Tina's colors were red and black which was very sharp! Everyone looked very nice. And it seemed perfect for the season we are entering into.

All of the Chap sister's together to celebrate the big day!

Kyleah and Aubrie! They both looked like little princesses! So cute.

A picture of Tina and I as the night began!

One of the few pictures Eric and I got together. You know Eric...2 picture limit:) Thankfully, Erin got a few for us!

Me and my adorable little niece Madi!

Congratulations Nathan and Tina! We are so happy for you! We are so glad to get a wonderful new brother-in-law and niece. Many great years to come!!!

Trick or Treat

Eric and I always look forward to Halloween and seeing the cute little trick-or-treaters that come to our house. This year, we had some awfully cute little kids with great costumes!

We were visited by our adorable nieces and nephews: Izzy, Jack, and Nick.

Nick had to trick-or-treat without his sister this year. She was not feeling well. Poor little girl. I missed seeing her!

Kyleah had a great witch costume! Wow, she is getting tall!


Eric's cousin Tess made an appearance at the house as well. What a great costume!

On Friday night, Eric and I got together with the Remme's for a Halloween get together. We had fun getting Carter all dressed up for the occasion.
Here he is in his monkey costume...how cute!

He spent most of the evening in this cute little pumpkin get-up!

Lily even got dressed up for the occasion...a little hot dog...how clever!

I love Halloween! So fun to see the cute kids (and dogs) in their costumes!

Carter time!

I thought I would share some more pictures of Carter. They grow so fast! Carter is already smiling and gooing and gaaing! We have been fortunate to be able to see them on the weekends. They change so fast and so it has been fun to watch the little guy grow and change!

I spent the weekend with Josh, Erin, and Carter. We took a trip to the pumpkin patch. Carter got his very own pumpkin:)

Proud daddy!

Carter was not liking the fact that we were trying to take pictures of him while we had pumpkins all over him:)

A cute picture of Eric and I with Carter at the Wozniak wedding!

A pic of me and the Carter man! Isn't he a doll!!! I just love him so much.

Nothing better than spending time with my nephews and nieces! They are so much fun!

Courtney and Todd's Big Day

On Saturday, October 17th, 2009 we celebrated with Todd and Courtney as they became a married couple. After what seemed like weeks of crummy weather, Saturday was a perfect day for a wedding! The sun was shining and it was a comfortable temperature to make for a wonderful day.

A picture of the married couple as we are leaving the church and heading to the reception!

A picture of the beautiful bride!

Courtney and I at the local tavern that we stopped at along the way:)

Eric has a hard time smiling...hopefully his sister got a better shot of us!

Robyn and I eating at the head table.

The whole family made it for the special occasion!

Eric and I are so very happy for Todd and Courtney! It was a beautiful wedding and the beginning of a beautiful life! Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Wozniak!!!

Eric and I have two weddings in November and then weddings slow down until next year. Looking forward to the upcoming weddings!!

Totally 80's Bachelor/Bachelorette Party

Nathan and Tina celebrated their final days as singles this last weekend! It was quite the party! Nathan and Tina decided that it would be fun to do a bachelor/bachelorette party together. They came up with the idea of doing an 80's wedding theme. Well, 80's it was!!!

Tina and Nathan had amazing costumes! Tina had a magnificent dress that screamed 80's. Nathan had a stunning maroon and orange suit which was the perfect outfit for him.

Both the guys and the girls went all out! Girls had the perfect dresses, make-up, hair pieces, and hair-dos. The guys had tight pants, tight shirts, suit coats, glasses, and the perfect facial hair! It was so much fun getting dressed up for the event.

About 50 of us hopped onto a party bus around 8:00 and had quite the party. We visited quite a few bars where I think we were the hit of the night for each of the bars! It was really something. I could do that all over again...that is, as soon as I am recovered:)

Another picture of Tina in her beautiful gown!

The Chap family...looking good!

Eric and I in are hot outfits! You should have seen Eric's facial hair! Quite the look;)

Canning Tomatoes with Nick and Madi

On Saturday morning Carol came over to help me can tomatoes. Carol brought some great helpers with her! Nick and Madi helped us get the correct spices into the tomatoes and then they made sure the tomatoes were stirred just right.

They were very good little workers!

Madi decided she would try out the stewed tomatoes to be sure we had made them just right.


She really liked them!

She liked them so much she went back for more!

Good job Nick and Madi!