Paw Paw

Sadly, my Grandpa Joe (Paw Paw as we called him) passed away last week.  He had been battling cancer for a while now and just couldn't hold on anymore.  My mom and I were able to fly to Ohio to be with family last week (my mom also got to spend some of his last days with him).  The funeral was difficult but it was really special to spend time with family and talk about all of the memories we had with our grandpa/dad/husband.  He always had a special place in his heart for his grandchildren and made sure we knew that.  He was a great man and left a lot of wonderful legacy's with us on earth (especially my mom).  RIP Paw Paw, I'm so happy you're in a peaceful place now.

Marvel Family

Richard's Aunt Rena had her entire family in town for Christmas this year and she asked if I could take a few pictures of them together.  They were a lot of fun and had some great pictures ideas!  They even let Richard get in on a few :)  Thanks Aunt Rena for letting Richard and I document this special time for you.

Lawrence family for Christmas!

My whole family came to visit us here in Washington last week!  They were here for 7 days and left on Christmas Eve.  It was so much fun showing them around the Vancouver/Portland area.  We got to do a lot while they were here... Richard, Joey and Jonny went snowboarding, we experienced downtown Portland, went to our church and heard Don and Richard speak, and much more.  Everyone stayed at our new house, it was a little crowded, but our three bedroom held up pretty well!

  

Here's us walking around Portland.  My parents stayed at the Heathman Hotel for two nights.  It was right in the middle of downtown surrounded by shops and the river.  It was a great place to experience what downtown is like, especially during the holidays.

 

 

The weather held up pretty well while everyone was here.  Not too much rain and not too cold :)  Even though I know Jesse would have liked it to snow.

 

 

Since they were leaving on Christmas Eve, we decided to celebrate Christmas together a few days earlier by opening our gifts to each other.  We pretended it was 6:30am (even though it was 6:30pm).

  

  

  

  

We had a couple themes this year...  Snuggies!

 

 and jeans!

Richard and I are so thankful to have wonderful families that care about and love us.  We hope everyone had a great Christmas celebrating the birth of Jesus with family and friends!

Our third Christmas tree!

This Christmas is our third Christmas as a married couple, and third Christmas living in Washington, wow time flies! This year, like last, we went to our cousin's, Tana and Brady's, property to cut down a tree. They live on Christmas tree property with hundreds of Noble Fir's and every tree is beautiful!


Richard actually used a chainsaw to cut our tree down this year, that was a first for him. He made it look easy :)

We have vaulted ceilings in our home so we thought it would be fun to get a tall tree, so it's about 9 feet tall! It was a little more difficult to decorate, but it looks beautiful :)

We don't have a fireplace now (although we did buy one of those fake, electric fireplace heaters on black Friday :) so this is the only place we could hang our stockings.

Here's our pretty house all lit up! Our street actually has a lot of houses with lights, we were excited. We counted 10 as of last night :)


Of course I have to include some pictures of my Christmas Village, a tradition in my family :)

My parents and all three of my brothers are coming to Washington in one week to celebrate Christmas with us! We are so excited :)

Jonny's senior photos

I had a lot of fun taking my brother's senior pictures last week while we were in AZ, and I think he did too :)

Here are a few of my favorites...

Thanks Jonny (and mom) for letting me photograph your senior pictures!

Arizona

This last trip to Arizona was a lot of fun for Richard and I. It ended up being a little longer than expected since we couldn't get any stand-by seats back for a couple days, but that was okay :) We got to spend time with lots of family and friends. We also enjoyed the 70-80 degree weather too! I already wrote about a few of the things we did, here are some pictures from some other things we did while there.

My brother Jesse and my mom found this cool spot with great views of Camelback mountain and the Valley of the Sun.


Here's the fam hanging out (and my dad asleep in the chair to the left). Richard, me Jesse, Jonny, Brennan, Joey and Jenna.

Richard, me, Jonny and his girlfriend Brennan.

Sophia giving Micah a horsey ride :)

Sister and brothers and husband (and Rusty) :) Aren't they all so cute??

Here we are at Jon and Lisa's wedding. The reception was at Pinnacle Peak Patio, such a great place!


It's always bittersweet to go back to Arizona. Bitter because we miss it and it's not our home anymore, but sweet because we get to spend time with those we care about. Until next time!

Football

One of the main reasons for our Arizona trip last week was to see my brother Jonny play football. He is a senior this year and although we have been lucky enough to watch some of his games online, we really wanted to see one of his last home games in person. I actually got to see two while we were there, the second one being their first playoff game.

He's #8.



The girl in the middle holding up the girls legs is Jonny's sweet girlfriend Brennan :)

He's pretty awesome... in Chaparral's game this past Friday, they won 62-7 to get a spot in the 5a2 semi-finals and Jonny had two catches, one for a 1st down and one for a touchdown!