Our 2012 Christmas Card!

After making several different cards, using picmonkey.com, I finally decided on this one. I really like the way it turned out and can't wait to get them printed and in the mail. ☺

I'm linking up here for the Paper Mama's 2012 Holiday Photo Challenge!

Celebrity Sightings

 I'm linking up with Holly and Erin today for their Celebrity Sightings Link-Up!

I have met several celebrities, some well known, some not so well known. I'll start with the most well known. Someone everyone knows and loves!

Justin Timberlake. Thats right, I met Justin Timberlake!

My best friend Carley, got her dad to get us front row tickets and back stage passes to one of his concerts in Chicago back in 2003!! To say that we were beyond excited would be an understatement! We drove up to Chicago from St. Louis and stayed in a hotel in the city for 2 nights. He performed at the United Center along with Christina Aguilera and The Black Eyed Peas. Carley and I and several other girls with backstage passes, got to tour everything backstage and then he came out and played a song for us on his piano. We then got to say hi, take pictures with him and we all got a pre-signed autographed picture of him. My friend even asked him for a kiss, (thats when the body guard stepped in and said move along, Ha!)

Here we are with Justin Timberlake.

This happened to be while JT was dating Cameron Diaz. While we were standing there in the front row of the concert, someone noticed off to the side of the stage that Cameron Diaz was standing there. She was wearing a camouflage hat, I guess so noone would notice her. We snapped a picture but it was kind of far away.

My friend Carley and I, met many celebrities together. We were in love with Jonathan Taylor Thomas, you may remember him from the 90's sitcom Home Improvement. :-) Well in May of 1995, Carley's mom (the sweetheart that she is) drove us all the way to Mooresville, AL to try and meet him. He was on the set of Tom and Huck. We had researched that he would be there filming the movie and on a whim, Carley's mom said she'd drive us down there to try and meet him. It was a long shot, but we succeeded. ☺ I still can't believe it. Everyone back home said we'd never meet him, but we did! Mooresville is a very old and small town. They were filming the graveyard scene that night and were back in the woods, all barricaded off where noone could see them. We saw signs saying thats where they were shooting and waited and waited for them to drive past us. As we were waiting, we met another set of girls who had the same idea. ☺ We thought we were the only crazy ones but apparently not. While we were waiting we saw one of the crew members riding a bike, we stopped him and asked him if he could take a note back to see if JTT would come out and meet us. I'm not sure if this worked or not but at around 2 a.m., a car drove up and Jonathan Taylor Thomas got out of the car to meet us and sign autographs for us! We were speechless. Ha!

Jonathan Taylor Thomas' co-star in that movie, Brad Renfro (who later died in 2008), also came out and signed autographs for us. It was such a fun night! We could hardly eat for a couple of days after that. Ha.

Then later that year, Zachery Ty Bryan (Jonathan Taylor Thomas' older brother on Home Improvement) came to St. Louis to sign autographs at our Fourth of July Fair.

Here he is speaking at the fair!

Then the latest celebrity sighting, and probably the least-known in the blogger world, was while Jake and I were on our honeymoon in Hawaii back in July of 2007. I'm sure if any of your husbands are sports fans, they will know who this is. Jake spotted Chris Berman, while we were at a restaurant eating dinner one night. He was there having dinner as well. He's a famous sportscaster on ESPN. As Chris Berman got up from his dinner to leave, Jake asked if he could take a quick picture with him and he said sure. ☺ He was very nice.

So those are all of my celebrity sightings! I can't wait to read about all of the rest of the celebrity sightings in this link-up.

***I just remembered that I also met Hulk Hogan's ex-wife. We were having dinner at Lotawata Creek one night and Hulk Hogan, his wife at the time, son and a couple other guys came in the restaurant to have dinner. (They must have been in St. Louis for some event I guess.)They were leaving at around the same time we were leaving and my aunt stopped his wife to say hi. She was very nice. Unfortunately we didn't get a picture or an autograph, so you'll just have to take my word for it. :-)

A Visit with Jake's Great Grandma

Jake and I were both off of work on the day after Thanksgiving, so we decided to make the 3 1/2 hour trip to Richmond, MO (a little bitty town outside of Kansas City), to visit Jake's Great Grandma Smith and his Grandpa and Grandma Smith. It had been a year ago since we had visited and Jackson was only a month or so old. We had a great time visiting with them and I know they were very happy to see us too. ☺ Here are just a few pictures from our visit. 

Jackson sitting on his Great Great-Grandma Smith's lap. She turned 89 this past July!

Great Great-Grandma Smith giving Jackson a ride on her walker. ☺

Jackson playing with some toys at Great Great-Grandma Smith's house. ☺ Some of these toys were made back in the 1960's.

Jake, Jackson and Jackson's Great-Grandpa Smith.

Thanksgiving Day 2012

We spent Thanksgiving Day at my Mom's Aunt and Uncle's house. Its where we've spent Thanksgiving Day ever since I can remember. Here are a few photos from our Thanksgiving! ☺ I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving as well.

Since I've been married, I've been in charge of making the pumpkin pies. This year I decided to make one pumpkin pie and one apple pie, since I usually have a lot of pumpkin pie leftover. Plus my great aunt Judy (whose house we were at) mentioned she liked apple pie more than pumpkin. I used some of my mini cookie cutters to cut out the little apples, leaves and acorn. ☺

It was a beautiful day here in St. Louis, (70 degrees and sunny) so we took the kids outside to play on their playground. This is my nephew Mason climbing up the ladder. He was very good at climbing up the ladder.

Mason at the top of the playground.

My nephew Landon swinging.

Landon and Jackson playing in the yard.

Jackson attempting to climb up the ladder. He's not quite got the hang of this yet. 

Jackson's second Thanksgiving! ☺

I didn't get a picture of dinner, but I did get a picture of the desserts. 

Family. ♥

Jackson and Mason playing the piano. ☺

Thanksgiving with the Smith's 2012

We celebrated Thanksgiving with the Smith side of the family, the weekend before Thanksgiving. Jake's mom has a brother that lives here in St. Louis and a sister who lives in Kansas City. We alternate years between having dinner here and having it in Kansas City. This year was Jake's Aunts turn in Kansas City. 

So after work Friday night, we loaded up all of our stuff, headed to Jake's mom's house to pick her up and made our way to Jake's aunt's house. Jake's mom stayed there to help prepare dinner for the next day and Jake, Jackson and I stayed in a hotel along with Jake's 2 brother's and their families. 

We made it to K.C. at around 9:30 and ended up finally making it to bed at around 2 a.m. Jackson slept in his pack-n-play in our hotel room pretty well. This was his second time sleeping in a hotel. After what seemed like a nap more than a good nights sleep, we got up, got ready and headed back to Jake's Aunt and Uncle's house to celebrate Thanksgiving with the whole family. Jake's Aunt Deb and her husband Paul have 2 children. Their daughter is married and lives in Germany with her husband. Their son is married and lives in Washington D.C. with his wife. Both of their children were able to make it in this year, which was very nice! Jake's uncle John and aunt Emily, live here in St. Louis, and made the drive to K.C. for Thanksgiving as well. They have a son who is married and actually lives in K.C. with his wife. They also have a daughter who still lives at home. It was so wonderful to have everyone there this year. 

Jack, Ethan and Sophia (my nephews and niece) playing outside in the backyard.

Jackson outside in the backyard while we waited for dinner to be ready.

Jackson giving his cousin Sophia some love! He's such a sweety.

Jackson sitting in a rocking chair that once belonged to his Great Great Grandpa!

The dining room table all set for dinner. 

Family gathered in the kitchen.

We were able to get a nice family picture (minus Jackson, who was taking a rather long afternoon nap).

We stayed in K.C. that night as well and most of the family went to the Kansas City Chiefs football game the next day. They tailgated and had a great time. Jake went along with his mom and one of his brothers. Here's a picture I borrowed from FB.

While they were at the game, my sister-in-law and I took our kids to the Crown Center for lunch at Fritz's and some fun and shopping at the Crayola store. We finished off the afternoon with a trip to a little playground we found. We had a great time!

Here we are at Fritz's. A train brings you your food to the table! Its such a cool place to eat.

Jackson and his cousin Ethan. (Jackson wouldn't leave his conductors hat on.) 

My niece Bella at Fritz's.

This was at the Crayola store. They have a special room where the kids can go and color. It was really cool.

Bella and Ethan coloring.

Jackson coloring his first real picture. He did really well and knew just what to do, however, I had to keep a close eye on him because he also wanted to put the crayons in his mouth! Ha.

Bella showing me her masterpiece.

Here is Jackson on the swing at Roanoke Park North Playground!

Jackson with his cousins on the slide.

Jackson and I on the slide.

Ethan and Jackson on the slide.

Bella playing on the playground.

Big cousin Jack, pushing Jackson in the swing.

Yay for swinging!

My sister-in-law Liz, pushing her boys on the swing set.

We headed home after everyone got back from the Chiefs game. We had a great time in Kansas City and we look forward to the next time we are together with the Smith/Testrake/Barnes families!