After our fun week with Luke, we had a very relaxing weekend! Friday night Jay and I made fish tacos and stayed in to catch up on our TV shows. Saturday we slept in late, did some house work, I painted my nails and then we meet Leslie on the Plaza for a movie and dinner! When Leslie got off work, we walked over to Starbucks for an afternoon coffee and then went to see Haywire. We made it to the matinee so it was a little cheaper than normal which is always nice. Especially since it wasn't a great movie... Oh well. It was mildly entertaining and overall a sub-par movie but it was fun being all together. After Haywire, we ate dinner at Blanc Burger which was delicious! Here are a few photos from dinner:
Sissies!
OK, so I asked the guy who brought us our food to take a picture for us. He was utterly confused using the camera on my iPhone saying "You can tell I don't have a touch phone!" And the picture above is what we got. Awesome. Good times. Way to smile, Les. Obviously Jay and I didn't get that memo.
Sunday we went to church and our Adult Education class, Ignite. We are studying "Not a Fan" which is an interactive series about being a follower of Jesus versus just being a fan of His. It's pretty awesome material and very challenging. After church we had another lazy afternoon until community group later that night. Always a good time of sharing and discussion at the Sterks. :) Hope everyone has a fabulous week!
This week we had the fun honor of hosting one of Jay's good friends, Mr. Luke Porter. Luke and Jay grew up together and have been good friends since junior high. He was one of Jay's groomsmen and Jay was one of Luke's groomsmen. We hadn't seen him in so long so when he called and asked if he could stay with us while on business in KC we said yes, of course! He flew in late Monday night and stayed until Friday evening. It was so fun having a such a good friend stay with us for the week. Tuesday night Luke so graciously helped me make dinner and when Jay got home we enjoyed dinner and watched American Idol. Wednesday night the Rainwaters came over and ate chili with us then Rachel stayed awhile to face time their other good friend Drew! When I got home after a my discipleship group, Luke and Jay enjoyed playing Mortal Combat on the XBOX 360. I'm sure Jay enjoyed the "man time" for a change. :) Thursday night was Luke's last night in town so he took us to dinner at Bonefish. Thanks for the treat, Luke! We had a wonderful time enjoying the delicious food and fun company. What a fun week indeed!
OK, I'm getting better I think. Here I am Sunday evening, blogging last weekend's events! At least it's not 3 weeks later. {Sigh...} Last weekend we had the opportunity to go to Arkansas to celebrate Jay's brother, Wes's, completion of residency. Both Jay and I were able to take half-days off work and we drove down to Searcy to spend some time with Wes and Catherine and the kids. We spent Friday night and Saturday in Searcy hanging out and having fun with everyone and then got ready to head to Little Rock for the party at Bosco's in the River Market. We were so glad we got to celebrate Wes's accomplishment with everyone and so thankful that both him and Catherine have been such an incredible example to follow through this medical school journey!
Catherine making a toast to her hubby.
West thanking the crowd and probably sharing a funny story.
Matt and Akina
Sweet Alice listening to the band :)
Wes with grandmothers MawMaw and BB (kinda blurry but still cute)
I don't know why it is so difficult to stay on top of blogging. I think it is because it takes a lot of energy for me to sit down and be creative, upload my pictures, write a short note to all my readers, etc. It's never a "quick post" for me. It shouldn't be that hard, but, for some reason not known to me, it is. Alas, I give you "later" as I promised in my previous post Oh Hi! I'm Back.
Several weeks ago {cue gasp here (as I roll my eyes)}, our dear friends the Rainwaters (you probably feel like you know them personally since I talk about them so much) invited us over for the Cotton Bowl in which our beloved Razorbacks were taking on the K-State Wildcats. Now, living in Kansas, we had endured trash talk galore preceeding our match up that fateful Friday. Rachel probably took the brunt of this because she works with several K-State alumns. She even took a bet with one of her fellow co-workers! Way to go, Rachel. Anywho, we had planned a fun evening together making homemade pizzas and cheering on our alma mater! We had such fun watching the game- although the commentators seemed to have a small (eh hem, hefty) bias for the purple team- and in the end, Hogs came out with the win! Thanks for the fun night David and Rachel!
We're ecstatic... just unbelievably happy. Can you tell?
Mmmm. Razorback brownies!
Sooie, Rach and Dave calling those hogs!
Ar-kan-sas Ra-zor-backs, GO!
This was my outfit for church the following Sunday. Too much? Was I rubbing it in? Nah, it's just called team pride.
This year was our fourth married Christmas and we were able to spend it in Norman with my family. I had two days off work (plus the holiday on Monday) and it was such a wonderful, long holiday weekend. I drove down to Norman early on Thursday the 22nd and was there by late morning. I was so thankful to have the time off work and to be able to spend some extended time with my family, see my husband after a loooong 11 days, eat tons of good food and celebrate Christ's birth with people I dearly love.
Thursday it was just Dad, Mom, Jay and me. Mom and Dad graciously allowed me to bring Dash, and just for the fun of it I bought him some bootie socks in case his nails were too tough for the hardwood floors. We took this video of him after we tried them on. Cute stuff:
We went shopping, Mom and I did some baking, and then after a long day we went to dinner and a movie! We saw Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows and it was really good!
Friday morning Mom and I went to a Zumba class at the YMCA and Dad went to pick up Leslie at the airport. We made more cookies, hung out and then Chris and Allison and the kids arrived around 4 o'clock. We all had dinner together and then headed out for a light show in southeast Norman!
Uncle Jay and Stewart
Parked and waiting for the light show to start!
It was at this family's home - they have a huge field where people can park and watch their light show!
Family fun - enjoying the show!
Nana and Amelia (she's obviously mesmerized)
The light show was really impressive and we all enjoyed it very much!
Saturday we hung out at the house, my grandparents came in from Lebanon, and then we all went to the Christmas Eve service at Wildwood. After the church service, we came back home for some dessert and the acting out of the nativity story! A Stewart family tradition that still goes strong! Chris and Allison also bought the kids Christmas pajamas that they got to open Christmas Eve.
Relaxing! Probably watching some football, too.
Here we are before the Christmas Eve service.
Mom's nativity scene. The actors are poised, ready to go.
Dad getting ready to read the story from the Gospel.
Everyone helping out, probably at the climax of the story.
Chris preparing the kids for opening presents...
Amelia with her cute Christmas nightgown.
Uncle Jay, Dash and Lucy in her cute PJ set!
Here is one of many attempts to get all three kids smiling in their cute pajamas. Well, that's pretty good.
Chris and Jay putting together Amelia's doll house. Nothing like Christmas Eve fun.
Speaking of fun - here's Mom and Dad preparing to go hide all the clues for our Christmas Day Scavenger Hunt!
Finally everything comes together!
Stocking stuffers galore!
Dash is hoping he can join in on the fun, too.
Christmas Day came all too soon but we were all so excited! We woke up (not too early), brewed our cups of coffee, gathered around the fire in the living room and thus began the Christmas day fun! We opened stocking stuffers first...
Grandmother and Lucy :)
A good candid shot.
After stocking stuffers we headed out for our Christmas Day Scavenger Hunt! Mom came up with this brilliant idea for a scavenger hunt around the town with prizes and all. We had such a fun time guessing the clues, finding where they were hidden, laughing all the while and making memories!
After the scavenger hunt, we were famished and Mom and Dad had made a breakfast feast for us back home. Cinnamon rolls, scrambled eggs, hash, bacon, fruit and of course, more coffee! After brunch, we opened presents. We had such a good time watching the kids get so excited and enjoying our generous blessings as well.
Lucy and Amelia wanted to play Christmas dress-up.
Stewart on his new rocket!
Jay is outfitted for more than one team!
We got Mom and Dad a hand-painted "Sooner Pride" ornament.
Dash got a present, too... A Christmas squeaker elf that he is still enjoying at home.
After everyone settled down from the present-opening craziness and were finally "ready for the day", we all pitched in to put together the most wonderfully delicious Christmas feast. It was a meal to die for, that's for sure.
Did you notice the hair color change? Yep, back to brunette after a fun bout of blonde.
Kids are ready to eat!
Pork tenderloin, corn casserole, cranberry salad, green beans, sweet potatoes, rolls and more!
Mom's table setting was beautiful.
After dinner, Dad and Mom had one last surprise for the grandkids... A shiny new Cadillac Escalade!
After the ride in the neighborhood and feeding the one lone duck, we came back in to play some Christmas carols and enjoy our last evening together. :) Once the kids were in bed, we got to participate in Mom's creative "Dirty Santa" Scavenger Hunt Christmas Gift Exchange. We were blown away with the prizes and creativity that she and Dad came up with. What fun and what blessings!
After all that eating and lounging, we thought it'd be a good thing to go to one more Zumba class. So Monday morning, we all got up, put on our work-out clothes and headed to the Y for some calorie-burning! It was fun to do that all together.
OK, so we pretty much ruined our work-out by going out to eat at Ted's Cafe Escondido, but it was worth it! After Ted's, Leslie and I packed up our car to the brim and headed back to KC. It was a long ride home but we made it safely and got some good time together in the car. :) What a wonderful holiday vacation!
