Happy New Year!

Celebrating New Years with kids that go to bed at 8 O' Clock doesn't leave a ton of options. Needless to say, we stayed home his year. We knew there is no way our kids would make it until midnight! But who says we couldn't have fun at home? We invited the wonderful Altman Family over and our very good neighbor friends over Paul, Colette and their son Zach who is 15. I made, for the 1st time, Chicken Corn Chowder and Brandon & Owen made some delicious homemade Salsa. Our neighbors brought some veggies & Kaitlyn made her delicious fudge! Unfortunately the Altman's only stayed until 8 cause they had to get Olivia to bed, but we hung out and played games all night with our neighbors to ring in the new year. We were having way too much fun playing our new PlayStation Move, which is similar to the Wii, and accidentally stayed up way too late. 2 AM to be exact. Yea, your tellin me! Brandon and I were exhausted the next day, to say the least, since it is literally 1 time a year we are up past 11pm. Needless to say we had a really kicked back January 1st and spent our day as a family at home and stayed in our PJ's all day! Of course I forgot to take pictures of our party until Midnight so enjoy the pics I do have....

Here I am chopping veggies for my Chicken Corn Chowder while Owen is helping daddy with the Salsa. Owen has a major obsession with cooking and loves to be in the kitchen helping with whatever he can. Hopefully he will grow up to be some world famous chef so I will never have to cook again. J/K but I can dream, right? Owen insisted on wearing his new apron his Mimi got him to go with the play kitchen that Santa brought him, so funny.
Starting up the blender. Daddy had to hold him because the blender noise scares him really bad.
Autumn watching all the action in the Kitchen. Sampling his work. He actually really liked the salsa and of course loved dipping chips in it!
And here is my final product. Chicken Corn Chowder topped with Green Onions, Cilantro, Green Chili & Bacon Bits. I have to say it was AMAZING and very flavorful!!!!!!!
Daddy & Autumn watching football on the couch waiting for our guests to arrive.
Like I said I forgot to take pictures the entire night until the clock struck 12 Midnight. Here is Paul & Colette's first picture of the New Year! We love them, they are such a wonderful family!
Brandon and I toasting!

And here is Owen and I the next morning spending the first day of 2011 having a PJ family day!
Owen, Daddy & Autumn. Like how her hair is sticking strait up? Looks like she had a wild New Years Eve!Owen & Daddy having some tummy time with Autumn.
Since we spent all of January 1st doing nothing, January 2nd meant back to reality. I spent the whole day un-decorating. Ugh. It was a lot of work but I am very glad it is all done now. Owen was kind of freaking out when I was taking everything down and kept saying, "No mama, I want more Christmas." I reassured him we will have another Christmas in 11 months and since he is a kid and has no sense of time he was okay with that answer. Lol.

Here is Owen feeding his sister, well atempting to, while I was busy taking down decorations. He loves helping out with her!