oh blog...

i miss you. well, don't get too excited, i didn't miss you too much! i kind of have a love-hate relationship with you. i just have pitty on you right now because i've neglected you enough lately, and my time is up! i give in! i'll start posting again.

so much to catch up on.....

wow! it's been like 3 weeks!

i hope all of you had a wonderful time with your families over the holidays. i know we did!

two weeks up north! 2 weeks too long in the snow! don't get me wrong, i love the snow...but only when i'm inside or when i'm skiing or sledding in it. other than that, no thanks!

i hate it when you have to tip toe through the parking lot so as to try not to get the bottom of your jeans wet. i hate it when you walk in a house and have to take off your shoes at the front door, only to step in someone else's snow puddles and get your socks all soaked. i hate having to scrape off the ice on the windows. and i hate how my teeth chatter when i get in the car and it doesn't warm up fast enough. but i do love how my nose defrosts once i come inside from a long winter walk. i do love to sip on hot chocolate to warm up my insides. i do love to wake up in the morning and see a surprise foot of snow covering everything. i do love feeling cozy inside my home.

well - pictures usually show it all best. here's what we've been up to over the last several weeks!

but....i must say....sorry to my family. apparently i was a dummy and got literally no pictures of my family, except for a few with shantel. sheeeeesh!! sorry guys! i love you!

the holidays for us started at ben's family's house.

we went to go pick out a christmas tree with everyone. it was fun!

this is my awesome husband making me a completely homemade 6 layer coconut cake!

it was sooooo good!!!

seriously....the thing was massive!!!!

this was hilarious! i'm sorry babe....i had to put this up here.

so ben decided to get erin and i matching pj's for christmas. erin has this thing for one piece pj's.

the funny thing is....she had gotten him one piece pj's too. we were all laughing so hard when we opened these up! what a sight! seriously!!! can you just picture running around the house in these laughing til our stomach's hurt!!!

this is our awesome small group! sorry this pic is sooo off center.

it's kinda hard to get a self portrait of a group like this!

the chicks of the group.

every year aaron & shantel, josh & katy, and ben and i do an iron chef competition.

this year the secret ingredient was coconut.

it's always lots of fun! this year shantel made all of us chef's jackets. and she put a star on everyone's jacket for each time they've won.

unfortunately josh and i don't get a star this year!!! :-(

sorry josh! i was hoping we'd be able to get at least one shiny star on that jacket!

better luck next year!

we got to see some old college friends up north over the holidays.

i can't remember who's idea this was. maybe my brother.

we were a little bored one night so we decided to go to the store and get some saucers.

we the proceeded to tie the saucers up to the back of my brother's hummer and go sledding in target's parking lot. it was soooo fun! shan and i were laughing so hard!

needless to say....we had fun....but we were FREEEEEZING!!!!

we didn't have snow pants on or anything. and i hade lame-o little mittens on.

brrrrr......

the habeck (one's a collard now) girls chillin' with the babes.

uncle ben and uncle derek were watching the office here. lexi so quietly and cutely

decided that she was going to crawl up between them and watch too! it was so cute!

family girls at maggiano's.

aren't these guys soooo cute together!!!

they make super cute babies too! :-)

this is one of my new favorite traditions over the holidays.

for the past 2 years ben's mom has gotten all of us girls a day at the spa.

it's sooooooo nice and we look forward to it month's before!

2 cute monsters decorating christmas cookies!

and enjoying a little bit of frosting while the do it.

funny thing.....every time i give the camera to my husband i get a picture like this.

does anyone else's husband do this? it cracks me up! i remember when we were dating he surprised me with one of these! what is it with boys and butts???

just curious?

making homemade raviloi with our new ravioli maker.

thanks nate & kristy! it's awesome!

sledding down the hill with ben's mom. i love sledding!!!!!

happy new year!!! i hope all of you have a fabulous 2009!!!!

xoxo,

(ah)