Jared's Christmas Gift to Tricia

Now, get this! For my Christmas gift, Jared gave me an I.O.U for, what he called, a "Princess Date". At first, I was kind of bugged that he felt alright about giving me an I.O.U for Christmas, but I quickly changed my mind. Jared asked me to dress up "really nice" in my wedding dress (so I curled my hair and even painted my toenails...that probably hasn't happened since...well, probably since the day I got married). He picked me up, right on time, in a tux! He slipped a corsage onto my wrist and off we went! He surprised me by pulling up to our reception hall. I was really nervous about going in, until I finally realized that the whole thing was probably planned! (I know, I'm slow). In the large room of the reception hall, there were pictures of the two of us all over the place and there was familiar music playing in the background. To make a long story short, he asked me to dance, then he sang to me, and then I cried. How did I get such a romantic guy? He, then had me change into a brown cocktail dress (and even a pair of matching shoes!) and surprised me even further by taking me to Ruth's Chris in Park City. I almost died, the food was so good. Following that, we walked into a Jacuzzi-suit hotel room and stayed for the night! I kept asking him over and over, "There's still more?" To top everything off, he let us watch "Sleepless In Seattle" and "You've Got Mail". Big deal for Jared...two chick flicks in a row?! It was so fun, relaxing, exciting, sweet, wonderful, and happy, all at the same time. Definitely, one of the best Christmas Gifts I've ever received :)

Playing In the Snow

It doesn't matter if Brodey is hurt, tired, starving, or in just a plain bad mood...no matter what, if you take him outside to play he instantly gets a huge smile on his face. He loves to be outside...even in the cold! On this day, Jared helped Brodey make a big snowhill in the back yard for our big tractor-wheel-sized inner tube. They were out there for hours having a blast together.

Rub-a-Dub Dub! Fun in the Tub!

Brodey and Mr. Potato Head

Brodey received a Mr. Potato Head from Santa Clause. Good thing it came with a pair of glasses...they really helped him to assess his new patient! He can now name most of Mr. Potato Head's parts such as his "nose", "eyes", "ears", "hands", and "toes". He's saying many other words too, like "fish", "juice", "ball", "bat", "mitt", "sky", "hoop", "light", "baby", "stop", "plane", "what's that?", "where'd it go?", "sky", "bike", "car", "boat", "bug", "eat", "mom", "dad", "bubbles", "cookie", "maama" (like "Grandma"), "bumpa" (like "Grandpa"), "giraffe", "watch a movie", "hot" and "cold"... just to name a few! Mom doesn't know how she feels about her little baby Brodey growing-up so quickly. He sure is a lot of fun!

Jared's Birthday - January, 23rd!

Happy New Year! Jared turned 25 this year! As you can see, he's thrilled about it. He spent his entire birthday opening 25 clues which helped him to finally guess the "BIG SURPRISE" Tricia had been planning since October of 2008....a trip to Maryland and Northern Virginia!