New Years 2007

This is my last blog and I am finally caught up!!

New Years was a blast this year, thanks to Dan and Abby and Sam and Beth! Dan and Abby (I think mainly Abby) planned a theme party ~ New Years Around the World. Each couple chose a country and had to dress-up like someone from that country & bring an appetizer and drink from that country. Abby had tables set up around the room with labels telling which country each couple was from. Sam and Beth were kind enough to let us use their lake house (once again) for the party. Thank you!

Lee and I chose the country of Italy. We dressed up as Gondoliers a brought an antipasto tray and served lemon cellos in carved out lemons! We even had a dance party room with strobe lights and techno music (because Italians are known for this.) The room was a hit!

The night was so much fun... complete with marriage proposal and snowball fights! Here are some pictures to fill you in:

The North Pole ~ Erin, Nick, and Megan

"White Trash" United States ~ Travis and Courtney

Hawaii, United States ~ Dan and Abby

Germany ~ Tom and Lindsay

Italy ~ Lee and I

Sam, Dan, and Lee enjoying the night.

Drinking lemon cellos in the dance party room!

Brazil ~ Christopher, Amy, John and Stephanie

Around 10pm Dan made a special announcement. He thanked Abby for planning this party and then got down on his knee and asked her to marry him! It was so sweet. Here are a cute series of pictures capturing the moment:

Good friends Zach, Andy, and Nick congratulating Dan and Abby.

Having fun at the party.

More countries... Ashlie (center) and Eric came as Russia

Kelli (right) and Shane came as Jamaica

The Nagel Girls... Missing Amy and Sara

A self-portrait shot of Jamaican Shane and I

Snowball fight outside after midnight!

Lee with a whole new look... He was cracking us up!

Dance party!

Nagel Immediate Christmas

The Friday after Christmas, the Nagel clan got together to celebrate with the immediate family. Unfortunately, Kiefer was pretty sick with a chest cold and I had to stay at home with him. I was bummed I had to miss the party. I always look forward to this special time with Lee's family. It is so much fun having all his siblings home and together.

Lee did a great job taking pictures for me. Ben and Brandi were kind enough to host the party in their new house!

A Nagel University shirt from Ben and Brandi. (You can tell Krue was fighting a cold in this picture, too!)

Lee and Ben went together and got Cody and 22 single action revolver. He thought this was pretty cool. Safety first, Cody!

Soon-to-be Aunt Abby (and Uncle Dan) put together a reading tool box for Krue. She is a first grade teacher and knows all the tricks to teach kids how to read. Her method is amazing! Krue has already read 4 books on his own.

Parker having fun opening up a gift.

Sam and Beth posing with a gift from Lee and I.

A cute picture of Ben with a moose :)

A cute picture of Brandi and the rest of the moose family.

During this Christmas celebration they also celebrated Brandi's dad's birthday.

Happy Birthday, Bob!

Our Anniversary

On December 27th Lee and I celebrated our 9 year anniversary. We had a wonderful day! Lee and I both had work to do for our classes (Me ~ Bradley, Lee ~ Wellness Certification)... so we decided to work together. We had a babysitter (thanks Nicole) come over in the morning and we went to a local coffee shop and worked for a couple of hours. This was so much fun! We got coffee and would chat every so often about things. Later that evening we went to a movie... at an actual theater. We haven't done this for a couple of years! It was a great anniversary.

Lee and I didn't plan on matching :)

The only picture we took on our anniversary was blurry... oh well.

Christmas Day with the Elkins

After our wonderful Christmas morning, we headed down to Bluffton for Christmas with my side of the family. When we got there my entire family was ready to open up some presents. We took a break about an hour into it and started making our traditional Christmas Brunch.

For those of you who don't know, our Christmas Brunch is a BIG DEAL in our family. Everyone is assigned a job and is very proud of their job. I am a member of the "cherry turnover committee", and surprised my team with t-shirts this year. (Everyone hated us as we paraded through the kitchen showing them off. )

Cousin Maralee, Sister Ali, Me, Uncle David

Mamaw got all of her granddaughters these cute matching sweater jackets.

Baba and Papa Joe gave Krue a really cool globe that talks! He loves this gift and knows where Indiana, Turkey ("a silly name"), and Chad ("sounds like Dad") are. Oh yeah, and of course the North Pole!

Music Teacher, Amy, gave Krue his first recorder to learn notes and make music.

Kiefer got these cool wiffle balls and had fun with them all day. He's got one heck of an arm. Watch out!

A cute plaque for Krue's bedroom... from Baba and Papa Joe.

Kiefer got this cute miniature couch from Baba and Papa Joe. He loved it and was so proud that it was his.

Finding every way possible to enjoy his new couch :) Kiefer also loved his Winnie the Pooh stuffed animal from Uncle David. He cuddled with it all morning long.

It was a GRAND Christmas and always such an AMAZING time! We received so many special and thoughtful things. But most of all, I love having my family in the same room together laughing, smiling, and enjoying each other... celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. That is what it is all about!

Christmas Morning

After Christmas Eve with the Nagels we came home and spent the night at our house. Of course it was important for us to be in our own home so Santa would know where to put the presents for Krue and Kiefer.

Funny story... Christmas Eve day I had turned on the oven cleaner to clean up a mess that had happened in the oven. I didn't really think about the fact that the mess had been melted plastic from a casserole lid! The entire time I had been cleaning the oven, it was sending plastic fumes throughout the house. Duh, Erin. Lee came home that day from work and couldn't believe the smell! He opened up all of the windows and turned off the heat to air out the house. We went to church for the Christmas Eve service and then on to Sam and Beth's house. By the time we got back to our house (around midnight) it was 39 degrees inside of our house! The good news was that the toxic smell was gone :) We had to crank up the heat, shut the windows, wrap the boys up in lots of blankets, start a fire in the fireplace, turn on the burners of the stove... the heat eventually returned and all was well. What a night! We thought we might be up late enough to see Santa... but no such luck. He must have came after we went to bed.

Christmas morning was so fun! It is such a special time with just the four of us. We lit the fire, played Christmas music, brewed coffee, warmed up some yummy spice bread and enjoyed our time together opening presents and looking in our stockings. Krue was very anxious to go downstairs to see what Santa brought this year. Kiefer didn't really know what was going on... but was quick to shout out, "Ho Ho Ho", every time we talking about Santa Clause.

These pictures are a little out of order, but all from Christmas morning.

Krue has been asking for a red guitar for 6 months! He was so excited to see it under the tree.

Kiefer having fun with the new instruments and toys.

A fun race track/garage for the boys.

Lee found a new wedding ring in his stocking! He lost his many months ago. Now the girls will be sure to know he is taken :)

Some special gifts I recieved. Lee had taken the boys to Walmart to pick out some gifts for me. He literally let them pick the gifts out! The beautiful zebra purse was given to me by Kiefer (Lee said he was dead set on it) ... and the Roy Orbison CD collection was given to me by Krue (Krue liked it because it was red.) The cute hat was one of the many fun gifts I found in my stocking. I also found in there lots of great CD's, cute "Hoosiers" shorts and hat, and a shuffle ipod I can use while I work out!

Our filled stockings.

Santa gifts under the tree.

Not a very good picture, but the only one I got of the boys anxiously waiting to go downstairs.

Nice Comments for Krue

I just had to share this because it makes me proud. Krue brought home two thank you cards from his teachers today for Christmas presents he gave them. They wrote some really nice things to him. In order to understand some of the things they are talking about... let me quickly fill you in:

-They call him "Kruser" at school
-Krue gave his teachers red bicycle Christmas ornaments that were titled " 'Lil Cruiser" ~ the card said the gift was given to them to always remember Krue. He helped me pick these out.
-Krue always sings a song at school called "The Ole Song" by the Bouncing Souls. All it says is, "Ole, Ole, Ole, Ole". His teachers get a kick out of it.
-In school the kids made a gift and wrapped it to take home and give to someone they thought was special. Krue decided that he wanted to give his to his assistant teacher... Mrs. Smith. She is a sweet older lady who has 8 kids of her own. She cried when he gave it to her because she said she was so touched. (It was pretty sweet... I was standing there when he did this.)

Okay, so these are what the cards read:

"Kruser", thank you so much for the beautiful Christmas decorations. I love the red bike, although I don't think I need anything to remember you, Krue. I hope you had a great Christmas and thank you for thinking of me. Hope you are ready for a fun new year.
Mrs. Bell

Dear Krue (Kruser), Ole ~ Ole~ You blessed my Christmas. Your bike ornament has joined the others. My tree looks splendid! Most of all, thank you for being such a blessing to our class.
God Bless, Mrs. Smith


I just love that kid and how he affects other people. What a sweetie!

Christmas Eve with the Nagels

We spend Christmas Eve with Lee's side of the family every year. This is always so much fun!

Before we left, the boys threw some reindeer food out in the yard.

Here are some pictures I took at the Nagel Christmas....

Lee with his cousin Jon Paul

A cute picture of Nick and Erin

Brandi made this cute sign and put it on her dessert.

Grandma Nagel with Krue

Kiefer and Jude entertaining themselves.

Lee & Kiefer visiting Parker & Bob (Brandi's Dad).

Krue opening up his first gift.

A rare picture of all the Nagel first cousins together! (Missing Heath, Jude, & Joseph)

This was Lee's idea to take this picture... I think I am rubbing off on him :)

High School Friends Christmas Party

Every year at Christmas time my high school girl friends try to get together to exchange a small gift and reminisce. I had everyone over to my house this year and it was so much fun! We had a fabulous turnout. Here is a picture we took while everyone was together.

Top Row: Stacy (Hoopengardner) Ratcliffe, Sarah Nodine (All the way from St. Louis!), Me, Stephanie (Girod) Endsley

Bottom Row: Schlaura (Sickafus) Linderwell, Myah (Barnes) St. John, Hayley (Adams) Sprague (All the way from Rehoboth Beach, Delaware!)

Krue's Preschool Christmas Program

This year Krue performed in a Christmas program at his preschool. His class had the theme of Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer. They sang a bunch of cute songs and entertained us all. Krue did an exceptional job remembering all of the motions to the songs. A funny thing happened when Krue got on stage... his Rudolph hat was adjusted by one of his teachers and it proceeded to slide down over his eyes. He thought that was the way she wanted it and he left it there. Krue sang with his hat over his eyes for most of the time! That is our considerate and kind-hearted Krue for you.

Before the hat adjustment.

After the hat adjustment :)

Here is a picture of Lauren during her class performance. She was so cute and stole the show!

Krue even left his hat over his eyes as he was walking off the stage and back to his classroom. Too funny!

Gingerbread Houses

The nursing home down the road from my parents displayed gingerbread houses created by people around town. You could walk around the nursing home viewing these houses and then vote on your favorites. My mom, Mamaw, boys and I all decided to check them out.

They ended up being really cool! The boys liked looking at them, too. (I think everyone in the nursing home enjoyed watching the boys... it was a win-win situation.) Here are some pictures from the fun visit.

Mom voting for her favorite house.

The boys giving each other a quick hug while they waited for us to vote. They do this often. How cute is that?