Celebrate!!

(Grrrr!! I have tried THREE times to post this and every time I write the whole thing then it freezes and deletes the whole thing!! So this is going to be a WAY condensed version. Ug!)

We were surprised and delighted to find out last minute that Nate had Saturday, Sunday AND Monday off for New Year's! It was a great and much needed surprise. I had it in my mind that I wanted fondue for dinner for New Year's Eve but I wanted to share it with someone else. So Kirsten and Ammon were kind enough to indulge this crazy ladies whims!! It was great to be able to get together with them again, especially since Kirsten is having her baby girl on the 24th of this month and then we will be having ours and we likely won't get to see each other super soon!! It is so fun that we have had such parallel experiences in life; when we met all those years ago in the dorms at BYU our freshman year I had no idea just how closely our lives would follow each other! I did however know she was sent from Heaven and that she and I were going to be close friends for life! And now our husband and kids are great friends too, and they are all interested in the same things, from both husband being general surgeons to our sons being oldest and loving all things Lego and Harry Potter etc and the girls loving all things girl! It is so great!

So back to New Years... We had a fantastic dinner, cheese fondue with grilled chicken, boiled red potatoes, blanched veggies and soft french bread! Yum!!! Then fruit, marshmallows, and pretzels for dessert in a creamy caramel fondue and yummy chocolate. It was great, everyone ate til they wanted to pop! Just thinking about it makes me hungry!!

Doesn't she look great?! She is such an amazing mom and wife, I am always in awe of the things she does with and for her family!!

Ammon kindly poured all 11 glasses of sparkling apple cider for the midnight toast! (Yes, we were crazy and let the kids all stay up to watch the ball drop and join in the festivities. Even with 9AM church the next morning.)

However the kids surprised us by getting up and getting dressed and ready with no tears or complaining! We had a great time at church and even captured a few pictures of the cuties all dressed up!!

The husbands thought it would be great to get both prego ladies to stand belly to belly for a shot. We felt silly but obliged.

We love the times we get to hang out together. We had so much fun playing games, making bows, talking, boys playing wii and more wii and more wii.... :), going to see Puss in Boots and doing a little window baby shopping and just hanging out and enjoying each others company! They are so great and I am so thankful to have such wonderful friends only a few short hours away!! Until next time, THANKS Rasmussen's!!