Sightseeing in Washington D.C.

While mom and dad were here we did some sightseeing downtown. We saw the new Capital visitor center, the Capital, the National Christmas
trees and the American History

Museum. The weather was great and it was lots of fun. In between sightseeing we worked on the Daddy do list. Dad of course did a great job and we're very thankful. Here are just a few pics because of course there are many many.

Dad's Birthday

While mom and dad were here we

helped Dad celebrate his 55th b-day. We went to the Jamaican Restaurant for pattys for lunch and for dinner we met Logan at work for California Tortilla. When Logan got home we had birthday dessert and presents. I think dad enjoyed it.

Christmas with Mom and Dad

Not only was it our first Christmas together, we got to have guests. Mom and dad flew in Christmas Day afternoon. So we got to have another Christmas and we cooked a nice Christmas dinner of pork chops with apple stuffing and green beans. Mom and dad spoiled us with new sheets and lots of other fun things.

Our First Christmas

This year we got to have our first Christmas together in our house. It was great. Christmas Eve we had to go to 11:00pm church so Logan could sing and I could play bells. Then Christmas morning we slept in and opened our gifts. We both got lots of good things. Then we baked more cookies and got the house and ourselves ready to go get mom and dad at the airport. It was a lot of fun and nice to be together.

Christmas Baking

This year my friend Jennifer and I decided to bake some Christmas cookies. We did oreo balls, sugar and peanut butter with hersery kisses in them. They all turned out well and we've all be enjoying eating them!

Mandel Family Christmas

While we were in Missouri for Erin and Jeff's wedding we got to have our family Christmas. Sunday morning Erin & Jeff were brave and gracious newlyweds and had us all at their house for a quick lunch and Christmas. It was great to have everyone together even though it was a short time. And a cool thing for me was even though this is the 4th Christmas Logan and I have "been together" this was his first with my family. I loved that he finally got to be a part of it. Here are just a few family pictures from the "day."

Erin's Wedding

It's official- all of the Mandel girls are now married. Dad finally has his boys. Erin and Jeff got married on Dec. 20th in Columbia, MO which is where they are living. It was a beautiful Christmas wedding and lots of fun to be with the family. We of course had the adventure of flying and renting a car. I wish we would have taken a picture of the car because it was so small it was like a matchbox car or as Kurt said a golf cart. I got to be in the wedding and Logan had the very important job of being Uncle Logan while Sarah and Kurt were both part of the wedding. He did a great job and loved every minute of it! Logan and I even got to visit my college friends Dawn and Erich and his family so that was an added bonus. Here are some pictures of the wedding.

Our new nieces

I know many people who read my blog also read Sarah's so this is old news but for those who don't I wanted to finally share some pictures of Sarah and Kurt's girls. They are so adorable and just as precious as can be. Rebekah has the dark hair and is the bigger/older twin. She looks just like her daddy. Abigail has just a little light hair. She looks a little more like a Mandel. We definitely enjoy being Aunt and Uncle. We've only gotten to see them twice but hopefully we'll see them again this spring or summer. Here are some pictures of them from their baptism, their Christmas, and when went to see them when they were just a week old.

Abigail & Rebekah

More Decorating

After we finished the outside we moved inside and put up our tree, stockings, and a few other random decorations. We even made our own tree skirt. I'm sure we'll have more pictures as it gets to be Christmas but here's the first few. Now all we need is some presents under the tree!

Christmas Decorating

After some more holiday weekend deal shopping we decided to spend Saturday afternoon t decorating our house for Christmas. We decided to be adventurous and decorate the outside . In case it's hard to see we did icilce lights on the house and garland and lights on the poles. It was lots of fun and for a first attempt didn't go too badly. To quote Christmas Vacation "You taught me everything I know about exterior illumination." (That's what Logan said about his dad:) ) And come to find out our town does a trolley ride around the neighborhood for people to see the lights others put up. So lot's of people will get to see our handiwork.

New Computer

O.k. no picture for this post due to the complete mess our office is in BUT I am excited to report as of BlackFriday we have a new computer and as of today high speed internet. I would just like to say after years of dial-up this is an awesome thing to have. This should make keeping up on the blog and e-mails easier or at least faster. Though I make no promises of more often! :)

Thanksgiving at the Lenhart's

Due to no time off for Logan so we couldn't go visit our families and our sucess at cooking Thanksgiving last year, we decided to give it a try again this year. Unfortunetly Oscar II didn't cooperate so well. We ended up not eating until late, a greese fire in the oven, a smelly kitchen and the rest of the food tasting kinda smokey. The one high point as far as food goes was the pumpkin pie. It was AWESOME! So here are some pictures of our not so successful Thanksgiving. I will admit it looks good. Despite the not so good food it was great to have a day to sleep in and spend together. We even did some preblack Friday shopping and ended up with some good deals.