{ baby Louise }

My cousin Lisa sent more pictures of her sweet new baby girl & the adorable big sister today!

I had to share! Louise will be 1 week old tomorrow!

Check Frances out! She was dressed up for a special occasion – I’ll let Lisa explain:

The picture of Frances in the dress is from Sunday.  She and Jon were able to attend a Christmas party at the White House.  They got their picture taken with the Obamas, so we'll try and send that out, if possible, when we get it.  Apparently, she was the life of the party.  No other 'kids' were there (Jon said the next oldest was probably 7-ish), so that made her stand out from the get go.  Jon said she was a total goofball and everyone loved her.  Wish I could've been there to see her, but glad she'll have this experience to share when she's older...even if she won’t remember.

I’m no Obama fan, but that’s pretty cool!

{ Christmas Card }

It’s time for me to share my Christmas card & the letter that accompanied it. They’ve all gone out in the mail and I’ve only received one back with a bad address! Success! I’ve been enjoying the Christmas cards we’ve received here at home. I got one yesterday that I’m still chuckling over the letter… “We keep him around since he looks like everyone else. It’d be hard to give him away.”

I’m no comic writer, so my letter is pretty straightforward…Enjoy.

Holiday Greetings to you from Connell, WA!

As I addressed each envelope, I thought especially about each of you and how you have made an impact on my life. I am thankful for the special friends and family that enrich my life every day!

For me, the highlight of 2010 was the blessing of being asked to be the godmother of Kamryn Baumann Johnson. My dear friends Nick & Kate added Kamryn to their family in April. I am humbled and blessed for the opportunity to be part of Kamryn’s life in this way. I love watching her learn and explore the world around her and can’t wait for each new stage in her life.

The most life changing event of the year for me was having LASIK surgery in April. I have been thrilled with the results and would recommend it to anyone! I have steadily added to my sunglasses collection since April!

The trip of 2010 was in June when my Grandma, Mom, my sister Melissa, my cousin Lisa, and I enjoyed a few days in Las Vegas! We had a great time exploring the city and dragging Grandma around the Strip! We enjoyed seeing the Cirque de Soleil show “O” and “The Price is Right.” Lisa & I both got to go on stage at “The Price is Right” and participate in the pricing games! What an experience!

Other highlights of the year include Spring Break in Seattle, 6 weeks at Priest Lake over the summer, and coaching football cheerleading with Melissa. I continued to enjoy the art of quilting – making many quilts & table runners for gifts for weddings and babies this year. I enjoyed two crafting weekends with friends and family; getting to spend time with the ones I love and crafting – The Best!

My Mom has had good health reports in the last year – we are thankful for each positive report and for all of the doctors that contribute to her well-being. She is a true miracle. I am humbled by God’s grace each time I think back on our week in Seattle in April 2009. My Dad continues to keep busy with his job as County Commissioner. He travels to the Tri-Cities every day for meetings for the various boards his is on. He has been able to experience different parts of our beautiful state and country attending conferences and meetings. Melissa teaches 2^nd grade at Connell Elementary and realized a dream come true this fall when she opened a tap dance studio, “Just Dance.” She has about 25 students in 4 classes two days a week. Her students are darling, especially the little ones, who look up in awe to “Miss Melissa.”

I love this time of year for catching up with family and friends. Facebook really helps with making the world smaller and keeping in touch with friends and family miles away. To keep updated on my life & happenings – check out my blog at www.marciekoch.blogspot.com.

I hope this Christmas greeting finds each of your families happy and in good health.
May God’s peace continue to bless you and your families in 2011.

With Love, Marcie Koch

{ 30th Birthday Weekend }

I think this birthday – the one I dreaded the most – lasted the longest!

On Friday, my actual birthday, my Mom, Grandma, & I left right after school to take my Grandma to her hair appointment. While she was there, Mom & I went to my Longaberger friend’s Holiday Open House where I got another gift checked off my list! We picked Grandma up and went to enjoy the holiday decorations at Beaver Bark. They even had reindeers outside!

I didn’t used to like my birthday around the holidays, but the last few years, I’ve come to appreciate it. I like the things I get to do for my birthday – look at holiday lights while drinking Starbucks, for one.

We met up with Dad, Melissa, and Karlye at PF Changs and enjoyed some of our favorites: Chicken Lettuce Wraps, Shrimp with Candied Walnuts, Mongolian Beef, Crispy Honey Chicken, and Singapore Street Noodles. YUM!

Melissa gave me a Vera Bradley bag in my new favorite pattern – Baroque – to hold my new laptop!

I had never been to Leavenworth in the winter, so that was what I decided I wanted to do for my birthday. I must be 30 because that seems a little boring.

On Saturday morning, we loaded up and headed to Leavenworth to enjoy the Christmas Lighting and the winter weather. It started snowing around Quincy and didn’t let up all day long. We were covered with snow as soon as we got out of the car!! Our first stop was the sportswear shop to buy new hats!

My Dad dropped us off right along the main street – so these were our first views of Leavenworth:

It was so picturesque – like it was out of a card or something!

Karlye & I and our new hats!!

Leavenworth is so neat for it’s Bavarian looking buildings and surroundings. Even the Starbucks looks Bavarian!

We got there just in time for the kick-off parade with Santa and Mrs. Claus making their official entrance along with the Nutcrackers, the Angel, Frosty, and the Grinch!

One of the shops we wanted to browse was The Hat Shop – but there was a bouncer at the door and a line about 20 people deep! Wow! We didn’t want to go badly enough to wait in line!

We browsed in a few shops – and found a few Christmas icons to take pictures with, including Father Christmas!

We found a place to sit down (inside) and have some lunch – King Ludwig’s! We had authentic German food – sausage and sauerkraut! Yum! We even found some authentic Oktoberfest beer!

We found more icons to take our pictures with…

Melissa & the Grinch (She didn’t to take her picture with the Grinch, but I convinced her to, for the sake of her students!)

Santa!!

The angel of Christmas

It snowed and snowed and snowed the whole time we were there. I haven’t seen it snow that hard except for when we’ve been in Chelan and I’ve never been out in it! It snowed steady and strong with big flakes. It was beautiful! It actually wasn’t too cold until we went back outside after lunch with our wet coats & scarves.

Grandma used her umbrella to “keep her hair nice” but had to keep tapping the snow off of it!

Finally – the lighting! We couldn’t hear the announcer very well, but sorta got the jest of it. These stars came from 4 directions and the buildings lit up when they passed by.

 

It was just as beautiful as everyone said it would be. I’m glad we went even though it was cold at the end and we had such a long ride home. We were thankful for my Dad driving since we were in a whiteout blizzard until Quincy. We saw cars spin out right in front of us and could only travel about 35-40 mph the whole way. Thankfully we made it home safely after a great day in Leavenworth!

.happy birthday to marcie.

Today is my dear sister's [30th] birthday,

so I hijacked her blog to share the 30 most special things (to me) about Marcie...

she's a good mom to Samson.creativity.leadership.cute hair.style.faith.dedication to youth.impressive blogging abilities.super crafty.eye for fashion.always wears the perfect amount of jewelry.she let's me call her koochsie, James, and smelly.her nails always look nice.compassion for others.great gift giver.amazing cheer coach.quilter.she has good taste in TV.she is a wonderful friend to many people.her beautiful handwriting.counselor.quick reader.easy going personality.charitable.helpful.love of travel.nostalgic.patriotic.she's a classy lady.amazing online shopper.

Marcie, I hope your birthday is just as special as you are. I love you.

Love,

Melissa

…meet Louise…

Welcome to our extended Heider family

Louise Virginia Rein

December 9, 2010
6 lbs, 10 oz.
19 inches

Congratulations to my cousin Lisa, her husband Jon, and big sister Frances!

{ Youth Group Christmas Party }

Tonight was our Youth Group Christmas Party…usually we play the gift exchange game and call it good – but this year, they wanted to decorate Gingerbread Houses. I found kits at Costco for a good price and maybe a new tradition was born?!

We have 5 teams of 4 people…and they got pretty creative!

Here are the teams:

Winning 1st place: Emerith, Daniela, Rex, & Kellie

2nd place: Elaine, Paxton, Whitney, & Kylie

3rd place: Parker, Hope, Megan, & Kate

The Redneck Award (for having their tree and Santa on the roof!): Haleigh, Kaitlynn, and Riley

and in 5th place: Scott, Derek, Sydney, & Carissa (I liked their house a lot, but I wasn’t a judge…)

I think the youth groupies had a good time! Thanks to the Kleinbach’s, Hawk’s, and Karlye for being the judges!