The Mertens' Clan Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! I pray that your Christmas was God inspired, and full of many blessings!
New Years Eve Dad, Rosie, Grace and I went to Dad's work for a Christmas party, Emily and Mom stayed home to do all the cooking for the next two days, though I wonder how much Emily really cooked? :-)

Christmas Eve we went to College Church for their Christmas Eve service, and then came home and had homemade hot chocolate! mmmm.




Dad and the girls in dad's office (cubical)






using the action setting on my camera, we had a lot of fun in the hallways!









mom and dad at the Christmas Eve service


beautiful Emily






I can't believe Emily bought clothes for Emma (our cat) for Christmas! poor thing.

Ski Day!

Ski Day with the church -- Rosie, Grace and I went (dad drove us but didn't go skiing). We had a blast!

car ride up

Gracie and her friend from church

Gracie was a bit excited :-)

Grace coming off the ski lift

Grace ready to go!

me, being a dork.

she did the splits in a previous fall, never knew she was that talented!

she didn't want to hold still for picture, but I managed

on the ski lift

oh and no one got hurt ... except me, I was going off a jump, and obviously didn't land it and instead landed on my left hand. My thumb looks like a balloon, i'm hoping it's just a sprain. :-)

Town Square Photo Shoot

It was a great day to take photos, so I grabbed Rosie and Gracie and headed to our town square for a little bit of fun!

Random Holiday Photos

Two of the wonderful kids that I nanny for: We decided to make chocolate covered pretzels one day!




Let's just say we got a little carried away with the chocolate


I felt like being creative, what can I say.


Starbucks run after band practice on Thursday night! she's my starbucks buddy!





Emily and Grace had a Christmas piano recital today, they did an amazin job!




After the recital, Emily, Rosie and I went to the mall with some friends to finish up our Christmas shopping! i'm all done!

O Christmas Tree

We went Christmas tree shopping this afternoon -- it was bitterly cold, muddy and raining. We managed to have fun (as always), but somehow we didn't leave with a tree? Just didn't find the right one this year -- so we're buying an artificial tree instead, sad day. Enjoy the pictures!




my sisters love making weird faces when they take pictures with me -- they could atleast warn me! :-)


the lovebirds






"hey mom look! I can balance on a tree stump!"




This picture should be on a cd cover --- maybe we could start our own BAND! ha ha.

The Gingerbread House

While we were in Ohio for Thanksgiving week(end) the cousins (Brenna, Emily, Rosie, Grace, Emma & Faith) made a gingerbread house with the wonderful help of Uncle Jeff!




















The FINAL PRODUCT! yay!