Tyler and Molly

At the end of January I ventured across the country with Suellen and one of her piano students, Kiley, to Las Vegas to support Miss Kentucky, Emily Cox (Suellen's piano student since age 5) as she competed in the Miss America Pageant! We were there from Thursday through Sunday morning, so we missed preliminary competition earlier in the week including Emily performing her talent (piano). We were so hopeful we would get to see/hear her play in the main pageant (and on live TV!), but she was not chosen to do so. She made us all very proud however, by placing 12th over all out of 52. She also won the over all "Quality of Life" award for community service. Her platform is called "Uniquely Me" and Emily helps promote the development of self-esteem in young girls throughout Kentucky.

The trip seemed pretty rushed so I didn't get many pictures. I was very ready to return home to Tyler as we had never been apart for more than one night before.

Photos were not allowed to be taken during the pageants so I don't have many of Emily to share, but you can find lots of info on her at:

http://www.misskentuckypageant.com/

Our Miss America for 2009, Katie Stam of Indian, was our next choice besides Emily!

We're all so proud of you, Emily!

Our third Christmas as a married couple is coming to a close. It's funny how some things are the same every year - the menu at Grandma and Grandpa's house, missing the comfort of our own bed, traveling back and forth between our two home towns multiple time (this year it was probably a record number of times with 5), packing the car like a game of Tetris (even more complicated when you can only put waterproof things in the trunk because it leaks and it rained SO much)... but some things change. The kids in our lives are all growing up! Tyler's brother Lucas spends most of his time on the phone with his first real girlfriend. Sophe and Chloe are starting to play better together. The Nintendo Wii was the big gift this year and all the kids are already sore from playing it so much.

This is our first full-sized Christmas tree! My brother Johnny helped us bring it home one blustery evening and he also helped to set it up. I compensated him with dinner. Our cats have thoroughly enjoyed the tree - their own personal jungle gym apparently. Maxwell poked his eye on a branch pretty badly the very first night it was up so I think he learned his lesson. But Edison. Edison has been a very naughty cat this year. He scaled the tree in about 5 seconds flat and perched on top for a while before he and his brother were shown their semi-permanent new home in the guest bedroom. I've really had to fight to keep this tree intact. After our New Year's Eve party, we'll let them destroy it.

Tyler's good friend Brandon is an avid fisherman who, in the off-season, crafts some incredible fishing lures. Tyler's grandfather has always enjoyed woodworking and handmade things so we commissioned Brandon to make one for him. Isn't it nice?

I love giving gifts! I always have one or two that I am especially proud of and this year's winner was for Tyler's mom. I put together a gift basket with some of her favorite types of items: apples, snowmen and even a nativity. I wish I could do something like this every year for everyone on my list. Coming in a close second on my favorite gift list would be some artwork I found for Tyler's sister Sophe's room.

At one of our family get-togethers, we played a fun game where each of us were to make a holiday item out of nothing but aluminum foil and Tyler's grandfather was to pick his favorite one. He chose Chloe's big candy cane and she won some chocolates. Like my cute little gift on the far right side of the pic? It was a creative, fun and inexpensive activity that each person seemed to enjoy. Next, we played Dirty Santa and I ended up with a 2-qt crockpot that I really wanted! Yay!

Lastly, Tyler's sisters and I made gingerbread Christmas trees! Although the kit was designed to make just one tree, there were two of each size cookie so we made two squatty trees instead of one big tree. Worked out well because sometimes there are sharing issues as you might imagine. I also enjoyed baking decorating sugar cookies with them.

We had a pretty great Christmas and we hope you did too!