What a Christmas!

Whoa! We finished up the last of our Christmas celebrations with my family today. Let's start at the beginning though..... I worked the night of the 23rd so when I got up the afternoon of the 24th, Russ and I exchanged our gifts to each other. Russ set up some nice plates of fruit and cheese and a couple of glasses of champagne to wash down the yummy treats. Then we went over to his parents house for a nice Christmas Eve dinner before going to hear Carolyn sing in the Stone Church service. We went back home to spend time with uncle Steve and his family. We visited till past midnight because we were having so much fun drinking egg nog and sharing stories. The next morning we exchanged more gifts Russ's favorite gift was the guitar world tour, picture included) and then went to Grandma Betty's house for lunch. Little cousin Karin was too cute! Russ and I talked her into calling her new babydoll Baby Eric just to give the real uncle Eric a hard time! We went back the the Pearson's and watched a movie before we headed home. We had another Pearson get together Saturday evening of food and games. Today we spent the day at the Passman's for another gift exchange. Probably our most memorable gift is the painting from my parents made by a dear family friend. Jeff was the candle lighter in our wedding and is very special to us. Him and his family are absolutely amazing and inspire you to the good that they have done.

Max and Lilo's Wedding

I've been behind on my blogging! A couple of weeks ago our friends and neighbors got married at the Dolphin Art Studio. Liliana's family came in from Mexico and it was great to meet them. It was a small and intimate service because their ceremony will be in CANCUN this June! We are very hopeful that we will get to attend another destination wedding again this summer. Not bad, Dominican Republic last year and Cancun this year. Liliana of course looked beautiful and their smiles spoke a million words of how happy they were. It could not have been sweeter! They are a wonderful couple. We wish them both a very happy marriage and are so glad that they have become our friends!

In Sickness and in Health

Friday morning Russ had his wisdom teeth removed. He was pretty nervous because just about every person offered up their worst wisdom tooth horror story when he told them he was having his taken out. I stayed with him up till the last minute and then out to the waiting room I went. I couldn't believe that it took less than half an hour! We took some pics to document this little journey. He was funny and out of it when I got back to the recovery area. He kept asking me to take a picture of him. He sounded a bit like when you shove marshmellows in your mouth and try to say "chubby bunny." When we got home he informed me that he was not tired but preceded to nap for about the next 3 hours. I fed him water and chicken soup with a handy syringe they had given us. He tried to drink water and take ibprofen right away from a cup without success because he couldn't feel his tongue or lower lip. All and all he has done great! (way better than I did). We actually ventured out of the house for awhile last night and got our Christmas shopping done today. The couple of people that have seen us this weekend said they can't believe how good he looks for just having this done on Friday. What a trooper!

Getting into the Spirit

Thought I would post a couple of pictures of the outside of our house and our tree. I think the picture makes are tree look "frosty." It doesn't look that way at all. Oh well! Hope all of you are enjoying your holiday season!

A Photo Shoot

This year we spent Thanksgiving with my parents and decided to take Winston and his neighbor girlfriends down to the lake for a little photo shoot. I am thinking this is probably a similar situation trying to take pictures with little kids. In my mind I thought, "Oh it would be so cute to sit them on the bench and they will wear reindeer ears." Boy was I wrong! Winston just looked frightened and the girls would hop of the bench as soon as you sat them on it. Oh well! We still got a couple of good shots and had fun doing it. Thanks Polly and Anna for playing! What dog doesn't love a good walk!?

Jingle Bell Run

This last Saturday Team Tilley and Team Pearson raced to the finish line at the Jingle Bell run in Lee's Summit, MO. Ok, I'm kidding about the racing part of it! I was a little nervous about this run because Matt, Rebecca, and Russ all run. Not me! I surprised myself and everyone else by running the first 2 miles without stopping. My tricky sister kept telling me "Not yet" when I asked if we had run a mile yet. The last part I told Rebecca to keep going on without me and I ran/walked the rest of it. I finished in 36 minutes. Maybe this isn't impressive to those who run on a regular basis, but I was proud of myself. Russ and I are seriously hurting today! I feel like I am 90 years old! But, it was a good time and I think we will have to run in another race sometime soon.

Halloweenies

Connecticut was awesome. Our cousins Rachel and Jeremy are way into Halloween (especially Rachel) and they had decorated the entire house with ghoulishness. For dinner we ate eye of newt soup, flesh bites, bloody victim meatloaf, and coffin cake. Yum! There were cobwebs everywhere, creepy candles, skulls, and real bones just lying about. Even a fresh graveyard in the basement... very realistic.

It was a great turn-out too, almost everyone dressed up. Some guy dressed like a barbarian won best costume, and a dude who just threw on a cape won the worst costume award.

Very fun times. We just wish they lived closer! Come back to us R+J! Kansas City is your home!

Introducing the American Gladiator Contestants......

**ELIMINATED**

Russ Pearson is a 27 year old commercial real estate broker hailing all the way from Kansas City, Mo. Russ is married to fellow contender Emily Pearson. Russ is in prime shape and ready to CRUSH the other contenders.

**WINNER**

Emily Pearson is a 28 year old nurse in Kansas City, MO. She is a former body builder just trying to make a living these days. She was more than ready to take on the competition and proved herself when she kicked booty on the eliminator!

Fall Festival '08

A couple of weeks ago Russ and I hosted a Fall Festival/Pumpkin Carving get together at our house. Ok who are we kidding here!? It really was just a good excuse to have friends over to eat food and enjoy a nice glass of wine. We had a good turn out of people and I was pleasantly surprised by the number of people that actually carved pumpkins. Ok, I was not one of those people. You could have found me conviently in front of the snacks all night long. To top the night off we played a fun game of Cranium Pop 5. The 4 Henson co-workers seemed to whoop up on all of the rest of the players! :) Thanks everyone for hanging out, it was good times!

What Have We Been Up To????

At the end of September Uncle Steve and Aunt Shelly invited us over to their house for a surprise. We were supposed to bring our swimsuits with us. Hmm, what could this be?? When we got to their house all of their blinds were closed in order to hide the BRAND NEW POOL they got! It was awesome, heated, salt water, and awesome! We had a blast hanging out with all of the family that came over to see it. The Grahams also improved their man cave (aka basement) with a projector screen and a flat screen TV. In fact, there were 3 TVs in their basement! They also had this cut out in the wall top to bottom full of electronics. Every mans dream!

Last weekend Sherry and Serena Sweeney were in town for a little visit before flying back to OR. I had to "baby proof" the house and borrow a booster seat. Serena is walking all over the place and loves to put everything in her mouth. She also enjoys rubbing her food all over her hair! We had some fun toys in our house that I didn't even know about.... door jams! Who would've known. Before they left for the airport we took Serena to Loose Park for a little fun. She thoroughly enjoyed herself and so did "Aunt Emily" and "Uncle Russ."

Saturday we went to a co-workers wedding at the Little Theatre. Of course Niki was stunning and all of us from CMH had a great time. Congrats to Wade and Niki!

Last night Russ and I went to dinner with our friends Josh and Mindy at this great new restaurant called Taste in Overland Park. The food was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! Just to name a couple of the appetizers we got..... Thai chili scented chicken wings with sesame seeds and spicy ginger dipping sauce and piquant tempura shrimp tossed in a spicy garlic chili sauce. Then for dessert we shared the warm fresh cookie tasting. OMG I needed to be rolled out of the restaurant when we left. I can't wait to go back, it was so good!

Drum Roll Please......

Little Miss Serena Sweeney turned one while I was in Oregon. I can't believe how much she has grown up in the few months since they moved away! Sherry and Sean did a fabulous job of putting on a pink, princess birthday party. Sean smoked some fabulous KC style meats. They had a big turn out of friends and family and Serena was spoiled with lots of fun news toys and clothes.

Serena did not enjoy her pink tiarra but still looked so darn cute! We would put it on her head and try desperately to get a picture before she ripped it off. Now the tiarra is a fun toy to carry around the house.

You can take the girl out of KC but you can't take KC out of the girl! Serena enjoyed chomping on her KC style rib. Yum!

She was not shy at all about diving into her pink princess cake. Pink frosting everywhere! I think she about devoured the whole thing before being whisked off to the bathtub.

I had a great week catching up with the Sweeney's. They were awesome hosts and cooked delicious meals, took me hiking at the waterfalls, a day at the beach, and lots of shopping. We stopped at a little winery on the way to the coast so I could pick up a bottle of wine for the hubby. It was a great week but now back to the daily grind!

Pics From Oregon

Family and Friends..... What could be better??

Russ and I had a great weekend! First I spent the afternoon shopping with my friend Kyla out at Town Center Plaza. Our husbands met us for happy hour at Houlihan's before we headed over to Dean and Deluca for some gelato. I kept saying, "Why do we need gelato?" Man oh man was it good stuff! We definitely will be going back there. Our new neighbors, Max and Liliana invited us out for a glass of wine at Joe D's in Brookeside later that evening. This is a cute little local place near our house with a HUGE wine selection. The weather was perfect and so was the company.

Saturday Russ's dad finally got to come home after 45 straight days of work in Iowa with FEMA. We were so glad to have him home! His dad is one of the nicest, sweetest guys ever. He really wanted to work on some house projects so we helped with some outside deck work. We ate dinner and watched a movie, soaking in some good Mark time since we don't even know if he'll get holidays off yet.

Sunday we went to a wedding for Tom and Christina at Unity Village. The setting was gorgeous and the weather was perfect! It was so much fun because there were so many Graceland grads, including Russ's cousins from CT. We were so shocked, but in a good way! Congrats to the new Mr. and Mrs. Anderson!