Happy Valentines Day 2009

Happy Valentines Day to all my Friends!!

This has been a quiet Valentine Day in our home since we've both been working, at opposite times, me 10-5 and brandon 7-7. We plan to do something fun this week since we are on our spring break. Valentines Day is great, but we don't need a special day to show each other how much we care about each other. It is fun though sometimes. The picture above is the cover of the card I made for Brandon this year. I always love making him a super fun classic valentines day card! He brought me home a really thoughtful card, which is my main requirement for Valentines Day. I've been trying to re-cap all I missed not blogging regularly, but I've decided I've done the most I can, and will just look forward to what is happening currently in our lives. So I hope everyone will keep reading, there are pictures to accompany what comes next!

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Some of the things I LOVE this Valentines Day... in no particular order... other then the first picture!

 

I love my husband! He's a smart, handsome, great guy! I know he is going to be an amazing teacher- sometimes I wish he was going to teach elementary because I see him in nursery and he's just so wonderful with the little kiddies. Brandon is wonderful to live with, he is neat and tidy and I appreciate that so much. He pitches in around the house and we share in the cooking. We've recently started going to the gym at school and he is so patient with me as I'm learning the routine he's figuring out for me. He's fun to be around and makes me so happy!

I Love that I'm going to be a TEACHER! and I love being at the mount, we have a great family and have a lot of fun together. We do so many fun and silly activities that you can't help but smile when you are there. This is a picture of pretty much the entire program one friday afternoon in seminar we got to participate in Right to Play... we learned a lot of fun games that we could do with our students. Can anyone find me?? I love being in my practicum, I have a small sixth grade class of 13 students and I'm so excited to be back with them again, learning more with them and getting to know them even more!!

I Love My Family! Both the Bing and the O'Hearon side. I couldn't be more blessed to have such an amazing family. We love spending time with each other and always have so much fun. There are so many amazing people in these two pictures, they all have their own awesome qualities, talents and abilities! I am so looking forward to building even closer relationships with everyone in my family! They are the BEST ever!! If you don't know them you should, you don't know what your missing!!!

I Love My Nieces and Nephews! Sometimes people think I have children because I talk about them so much, but that's not the case. I just love them all so so much!! They make my day brighter whenever I get to talk to them! I love asking them about school now that I'm going to be a teacher. I want to encourage them all to learn lots and love reading so that they can have the best education ever. I love watching them succeed. I love hearing them learning to talk, and talking my ear off. They are just the coolest kids around and I love when they come over to visit us at our home. I also love that my sister is having another baby, I love being able to cuddle and snuggle her new babies because she just lets me hold them whenever i want to, and I don't have to worry about having to ask her! I love feeling the baby move and I love telling the baby that I'm going to be his/her favorite auntie!

I Love my Friends! I have been blessed to have some wonderful friends. I tend to be a home body and need to change my ways and go hangout with people more, these great people are able to get me out! Sonja and I have been friends since 12th grade in High School, and we turned into each others best friend, and she's been with me through so much and I appreciate her so much!! My Survivor girls are awesome too, we go way back to elementary school, and I always know that they will be an important part of my life. I am so looking forward to many of their up coming weddings, they will be great days!! I have so many other wonderful friends and I don't have the time to write abut you all, but I love love love everyone... church friends, work friends, school friends, OTH friends etc!!

I Love Babies! I love that my friends have cute babies and I love seeing them and holding them and seeing all their cute little outfits!!!  I love celebrating in the joy of my friends pregnancies and new arrivals! I can't wait until we have our own someday, we have a little time before that happens but we do talk about it often! I'm excited for the whole experience! I work around the cutest baby clothes EVER and I'm so excited to have children some day so I can dress them up really cute!! Lyla is the cutie up top, Julia brought her by the nursery to show me her outfit that I gave her, and can I say toooooo CUTE! Karington is on the bottom and she is the girliest girl and I love it... her bows and bracelets!! So much fun, when I hangout around her I want a little girl so so so much!!

Those are just a few little things that I love this Valentines Day I hope you are all appreciating the loved ones in you lives and all the things you love this Valentines Day!!

Love Karen

Boxing Day and Christmas Day 2008

So I am still updating from the holidays as you can see, but I'm trying to make the posts briefer because no one comments because I think they get bored even though I do post pictures for all to see but I guess everyone sees them on facebook and then just doesn't care anymore... who knows... but I'm going to keep posting anyway!

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So these are working backwards, but here we go! We had a boxing day celebration at my parents. We've been doing it for the past few years at my parents house and it's wonderful. All my mom's side of the family as well as a few of my dad's family all come together, we have food and visit and it's wonderful. This year we did the white elephant game, and everyone got very into it... Ask Kathy about her beautiful fan! I took a bunch of pictures but here are a few favorites! I left my parents stuffed with delicious food!!!

Sarah Grace looking as pretty as ever in her shirt from me and uncle brandon

My parents looking as festive as ever... don't you love the matching Santa aprons

This is my mom's teaching partner Kathi, and for as long as I can remember she's been making these at Christmas and I LOVE them... they are holly clusters... they're like rice krispies but a million times more delicious, and some day I will learn how to make them. She made our Christmas by making us each a plate... I ate them all myself... but shhh don't tell brandon!

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Brandon and I had a BUSY but wonderful Christmas as always... we started at our home opening presents... Brandon got me a cuttle bug and I love love love it!! After our home we headed over to my parents... I think Laura was happy to have us there since she was alone with my parents Christmas morning which wasn't the same. We had a delicious breakfast there, with Cinnabon this year...YUM! We open presents and visited with the fam for a little bit. This year for the holidays I made my parents and Bran's parents a DVD of pictures I've taken since our wedding, so we watched mom's and she loved it.. I think I might make this a tradition! They are so fun to make on my MacBook. After my parents we headed over to the Nelson home to give the kiddies their gifts and even though they had no power the kids were in great spirits and showed us all their fun gifts. It is always nice to see them on Christmas. After that we made it to our last stop, the Bing home, were we had another breakfast, opened gifts and then had another delicious Christmas Dinner there, it was wonderful!!! Brandon and I were given many wonderful things this year but I think the most unique gift is our fireplace...that's right you read correct we have a new fireplace... it's pretty dang cool. We had a wonderful holiday season surrounded by family which was wonderful, we love our family so much and feel so very blessed.

Meaghan and Jason Stewart, Christmas 2008

Brandon and I with the Nelson Girls, Jake was too busy playing... could these kids be any cuter!

Brandon and I Christmas 2008 at the Bings!

who wouldn't love this face... Jay shaved off the Christmas beard but kept the moustache

Our new fireplace

Brandon and I Christmas Morning at my parents

Dad took this wonderful ariel shot Christmas Morning... yummm Cinnabon!!

Christmas Eve 2008

So here is another December Update! Christmas Eve has come and gone. Brandon and I feel very fortunate that we are able to have family so close that we are able to spend the holiday with both of our families. Christmas Eve is a lot of fun in the Bing home, I look forward to it every year and it never disappoints! We always start the day off with a movie, then dinner, then the pageant, then back home for food and then normally we watch National Lampoons Christmas Vacation... which sadly we didn't this year... but we did play a SUPER fun game called Apples to Apples! I figured I would show pictures of the day, it's easier to talk about the day by showing you the fun!

When we arrived at the house on Christmas Eve the girls were playing monopoly, and you should watch these girls play they are quite good! The little guy is Malcolm he lives across the street and is just part of the family. He was on Brittany's team and was making some deals for her that I don't think she would have normally made! She's a good sport and went along with them!

Malcolm came back just before we were about to go to the movie to bring the family something his mother had made... it was so cool... it's a vase with some festive plants in it, but what is cool is that the vase is star shaped and made out of ICE! It was simply beautiful, we had to put it in the freezer so it wouldn't melt since it was pretty mind during the day on Christmas Eve!

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After this picture we went and saw Four Christmases... Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn... which was actually pretty funny, although there were some spots that were a bit awkward to see with your in-laws/parents sitting right there with you! It brought many laughs though and we had a fun time together as a family!

After the movie we went back home to relax before dinner... Meg and I had to get a picture together since we were twins and we hadn't even planned it... gotta love the GAP red cable knit sweater... I think we were looking Good!

I also wanted to share this picture from the Bing's, my mother-in-law always decorates the house so beautifully for the holidays, this is one of my favorite decorations, which is the nativity, and it holds candles and it just so beautiful!

After a break at home Peter and Laureen took us all out for Chinese Food for Christmas Eve dinner, we were trying to figure out what meals to get so since there were eight of us I think we got a meal for four and a meal for two...or something like that and we soooo didn't need to get more then one meal we had sooooo much Chinese food which was yummy and delicious! Peter wore his Santa hat all day, to everywhere we went which was cute!

This is a shot of the fam at the Chinese Restaurant, Peter took it for us so it's everyone but him and Jaccob since he was still at work. L-R... Laureen, Me, Brandon, Jason, Meaghan, Chelsey and Brittany.

After dinner we headed to the Nativity at the Church which I always love going to. This year Simon and Danielle were Mary and Joseph and were so cute!! I love going to the nativity because I not only get to be with family but I get to see some wonderful friends on the holidays too. I was a little bummed though that we missed seeing my family at the Nativity, since we came to the later performance! This top picture is of Julia, Kristine, Kailey and Adam and below is Kristine and Morgan... it was so wonderful to see Kristiane and we just wish she'd move back home for good!

When we got home it was time for more food and fun... in our family we do something called Jack Corner Pie, which basically is a gift exchange between all the siblings. We draw a name and have a price limit and then we exchange them on Christmas Eve... it's nice since there are so many of us! This year I had Jaccob and Jaccob had me... I gave him a new shirt which he is modeling below with his egg nog mustache, what was funny was that he was given PJ pants in the same color so he had a little blue and white outfit going on. Anyway Jay bought me two new books which I was excited about since I needed some new books. Meaghan and Brandon and bought him a magic bullet which is pretty fun and what is funny about that is that Chelsey had Meaghan and bought her a magic bullet....it was a great laugh!! We also all got new Christmas PJ's which were a lot of fun and so comfy to put on for game playing!

It was really great to have Jaccob home this year, we were a complete family again! He was away on his mission last year and we missed him... glad he's home!

Brandon and I Christmas eve 2008

Part of Brandon's Jack Corner Pie gift was that Meaghan and Jason after the movie drove out to the airport and bought crab legs for Brandon, which was shared with everyone. He had wanted them on his birthday and wasn't able to get them, so it was really sweet for them to remember. He loved them and said they were super delicious!

chelsey and brittany during the gift exchange... chels was excited about her new shuffle... it's going to be a family of shuffles... peter, chelsey and brandon for sure have them now!

Brothers together again playing apples to apples, so much fun!

Bing Family 2008

Peter wanted to take a group shot to send along to family who live all across the country so we set up the camera and their timers and took a great family shot!!

Coming Next Post Christmas 2008!

DARN IT! Posting Issues... Please Read!!

So this is my DARN-IT face!! So this is a little post so that everyone knows I updated my blog. Did you know that if you start a post on January 1st and your don't post it until January 9th, it will still say the 1st on it, so no one will know you updated... It's the truth... I posted on the 1st, but I started it on the 23rd, so I don't know if anyone got to see it. So if you are feeling brave please check out the last two posts, they're longer but they have PICTURES!! I was also posting this because I got my hair cut... it had been over a year... so they trimmed the ends, layered it up and gave me some bangs, I decided to keep the length for a little bit longer! Check out my posts!! Love you all!!!

Wii Like to Have Fun... December 2008 Update #2

So from today on I've decided to be a better comment giver... I hate when I do a big post and then it gets like two comments, but I really can't complain because just like blogging I've been a slacker there too... so it's January 9th, 2009 and from now on whenever I read a blog I am going to leave a comment...and I encourage everyone else to take up the challenge, because I know I appreciate all the comments from everyone!

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So this is December update number two... for those of you who don't know my friend Jeff, he's the best! We met through working at Roots, we were such a dream team. He moved to England this year for school and he's been doing an awesome job over there! He came home for the holidays and we were able to hangout at the Nelson home. Kathy and Jeff M. because buddies through talking on the phone at Roots. Before Jeff moved we had a wii night at Kathy's place which was a blast, we were both aching at work the next day. So while jeff was home for Christmas we headed back over, this time he brought his adorable niece Rion, to play with the kids. I think she took a little time to adjust to the crazy nieces and nephew I have, but soon enough she was part of the gang. We had a blast eating snack and playing wii. I think this will definitely turn into a regular event every time Jeff makes it back to the country!!

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Jeff is a blogger friend too, so hopefully he'll see this post soon... Hope you had a great flight back home Jeff and got all the paper done!!!

This is what happens when you give your digital camera to a four year old...Jake was being very creative that night with his photography...My sister had beautiful appliances!

Miss Georgia being as cute as always... when kathy was pregnant with Georgia the kids wanted to name her Dexter, like the monkey from night at the museum because he was "a little ball of fun"- I think the name description still fits with Georgia...she's totally a little ball of fun!

Uncle Brandon joined us on our wii night, even though he fell asleep... this is such a cute picture of Georgia... the others, so-so... ha ha ha... creepy uncle Brandon!

This is my friend Jeff... he is so cool... can you tell?? This was Jessica's photo skill!! Jeff is such a good sport to play along!

These are the wii girls... me, rion, sarah and jessica

Uncle Brandon and Jake were Twins that night...green shirt and dark pants- so adorable!

Rion and I doing the we won dance!!!

This is another one of jessica's photo talents... we loved Sarah in this picture!!

This was a group shot just before Jeff and Rion had to go, we had a great night and are so glad we were able to make a new friend, Rion is always welcome back at the Nelson home. As usual Jessica is being her silly self in this shot!!

December 2008 Recap Part One

Well everyone the new year has arrived and I didn't get one post in December, shame on me! One of my new years goals was to be better at blogging because it is a little journal of what goes on in the Bing home. 

We have been having a great but busy December, and I'm hoping to re-count the fun in the next few posts... fingers crossed! It's perfect because it is new years day and we are snowed in at my in-laws house, we just had a delicious pancake breakfast and are going to play some Mario kart in a little while.

I don't think all these events are quite in the correct order but I am going to try my best! So here we go I hope you all make it through the events of the Bing Home!!

The first thing to write about is my crafting fun! As everyone knows I love making cards, I long to be a better scrapbooker, but for now card making it is. Brandon doesn't understand the joy I find in it, but I love it. I had so many crafty friends and I love when we are able to get together and share our creativity. In the past little while I was able to make it to an amazing card making night at Lis' home, we were few in numbers (me, lis, lesley and kathy) but we had great fun. Lis has so many amazing tools and ideas that I was in crafting heaven. I was so glad I went because I was able to use Lis' amazing paper slicer to get all my Christmas Cards cut out!! It would have taken me forever to cut them all at home. So we crafted and listened to the HSM soundtracks and munched on yummy food... what a great night! I'm looking forward to the next craft night especially since I have some new crafting tools!!!!

I am aspiring to have a room like this... it is an entire room for CRAFTS... and this is Lis' stamp wall... isn't it amazing! She has so much table space and everything... I Love Love Love it!!

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Christmas came to the Bing Home a little early this year, I just HAD to put our tree up at the end of November. So I picked the tree up from my parents, it's artificial since we are in an apartment, and set it up that night. It was quite a pain in my butt, see it used to be my grandparents tree, so it's an older tree. It comes pre-lit, which back then meant that all the strings of lights were wrapped around it in a crazy fashion, then all the plug ends are stuck together and taped with electrical tape. So when a string of lights was broken, it made for a fun night. I was not happy with this tree and ended up taking many string of lights off and buying new ones to put on. The next day I noticed another string stopped working so I just covered them with new lights, I was done fighting. That Monday night we decorated the tree before my one tree hill friends came over. I love my ornaments, it was so fun to see them again and remember the memories. Brandon played along and helped me decorate it early and even put the star on the top for me. Next year I'd like to get a ribbon garland or something like that to add to my tree. Our tree just makes the apartment feel so much warmer and cozy!

Brandon and I finished our first semester at the mount, which we were thrilled about. We've gotten most of out marks back and so far there is nothing lower then a B+ and the highest is an A+, we were both very pleased and happy to see our hard work paying off. December was a busy month at school with many things due at the end of the semester. I did a project that had three lesson plans in it and I think it was just under 50 pages. I tend to put a lot of detail into things... hopefully my teacher didn't mind too much. We also had a few fun events as well, my program (elementary) had a potluck lunch one day and a surprise baby shower another day. Our friend Leanne is pregnant with her second baby, a little girl who I believe will be names Mary. So Heather planned a "Christmas Party" for everyone to come to which was actually a baby shower. Leanne was very surprised and got many cute things for baby Mary, we are all excited to meet her when she arrives in a few weeks. The best part of the entire baby shower was a song written for the occasion by Peter, it brought tears to most of the people in the room, what a thoughtful gift to give. Check it out on my facebook because it is taking forever to load on here.

This is a group shot of a few of us that were left at the end, there were many more of us there but there was another event going on that night that people had to leave early for. I'm in the back corner next to my friend Patrizia. Funny Story, Patrizia and I knew each other when we were children through my friend and neighbor Paola. We used to play together all the time, but as we got older didn't see each other as much, so the BEd program re-united us, it was nice knowing I had a friend in the program before I even started!

My last class for the semester was a BLAST! It's a seminar class where we talk about our practicum, and the teaching profession in general. For fun Heidi and Margaret took our entire class which is like 60 people to the Discovery Center, we had a little greeting and were then allowed to roam free and have fun. It was a lot of fun and we took some crazy pictures there too. Check out my facebook for more pictures. This is one of me in a Pharaoh Case Type thing all made out of LEGO! Cool I know!!

Since school ended it was time to have some holiday fun. Last year at Roots was crazy, myself, Jeff and Maria were running the show which was hectic but we did an awesome job if I do say so myself. We had a great team working with us, and we all became great friends. So we had a "wii" reunion at Ben's new place. We had food, wii and great company. We laughed so so much that night and I hated that I had to leave early. This is a picture of the entire gang, the sign is for our friend Farah who has been away for the past semester, we miss her lots and are so excited for her return this semester. We hope to have another fun night like this once she's back in town because it just wasn't the same without her! I love my Roots Family!!

The Gang... Me, Ben, Nicole, Melanie, Jeff and Maria... Ben and I were not told about the dress code for the evening, black tops and jeans... we had a good laugh about that one!

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The reason I had to leave early that night was because that survivor ended and there was no way that I could miss it! It was awesome, my guy Bob who was ADORABLE , and who we thought was on his way out somehow made it to the finals and WON!!! We were beyond excited. Then they have another prize that the public votes on for their favorite survivor and Bob won that too. The Thursday before the finally I had the girls over to the apartment to watch the show and so that I could give them their Christmas Ornaments. We had food and our favorite show and just hung out and visited, I love the girls and are so thankful for their friendship!

This is the girls with their new ornaments, I had to hold one off my tree so we'd all fit in

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This is the first installment of recap of December, be prepared for more!!