~Couch Family Christmas Party~

Our great friends, Hannah and Kelly, host a fun Christmas party each year, filled with funny outfits, yummy food, Christmas songs, goofy gifts, and great fellowship. This year, Dustin and I got in the "spirit" and wore our best goofy Christmas outfits. We ate tons of yummy snacks (to the point of stomach aches!) and had a blast laughing and hanging out with lots of friends. Plus, we scored some great movie tickets for one of our gifts! :) Thanks, again, Couch Family for being such great hosts!

Dustin and I... creative outfits this year!
A few of the guys and their Christmas attire
Singing some favorite Christmas carols
More Christmas carols
Katrina won the gift I brought...a "sauna suit" to help you lose weight faster! :) She was a great model, too!
Girls photo
Boys photo
Dustin and I
Katrina with another gift from the night - a giant Pug!
Alex asleep on the couch...poor guy! He got back from a 3 week trip to Asia just hours before and had some serious jet lag. But lesson learned - if you fall asleep at a party, funny things may happen to you!

~Baby Tyler~

Introducing...Tyler James Olafson! Congrats to new mommy and daddy, Jayme and Matt. Dustin and Matt are childhood friends from Junction City. We were able to stop by their house on Friday afternoon and see Baby Tyler, who was only 4 days old. He is such a cutie and a blessing...Matt and Jayme will make fantastic parents!

~Miss Avery: 3 Months~

Our cute little niece, Miss Avery Ann, is already 3 months old...now almost 4 months old! These pictures just melt my heart. What a joy she is to my brother and sister-in-law, my parents, sister, and I am sure anyone who meets her. So precious. I am soooo excited to spend a whole week with her (and the rest of my family!) for Christmas this year. We love you Avery Ann!!!!

I love my DUCKS!

How about those DUCKS? Headed to the Rose Bowl for the first time since the early 1990's! This video is awesome....if you have a minute, (or 3:30!) check this out. Pretty creative college kids.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UQAr0x32tA

~Tis the Season~

Let the Christmas spirit begin! Growing up, I always "poked fun" at my dad for getting so excited about decorating for Christmas and really embracing the Christmas joy....before Thanksgiving was even over! Well, I can't say "I now know why", however, I can say that I am just like my dad! Our Christmas decorations (inside the house) were up on Wednesday before we left town for Thanksgiving...and we finished the rest of Saturday afternoon. The lights are on the house, the tree is up, and the stockings hung. Plus, the smells of Christmas are amazing - the tree, the candles, the cinnamon pinecones. YUMMY! Our house feels so warm and cozy and I can't wait to spend the month of December celebrating the JOY OF CHRISTMAS.
Amongst the many trees where we went to cut down our Christmas tree this year!

A 7 ft. Grand Fir - this kind of tree smells amazing! :)

The lights are up....Dustin did a great job! We just love our new home.

On the ladder getting the lights up...didn't get them all the way up because we have a tall roof and not much space to "climb on" to help with hanging them.

Next up - lights on the tree!

Making bows for the tree.

The mantel decorations - just need the garland!

The Advent calendar - great count down till Christmas Day!

Our first Christmas together as a married couple! WAHOO. :)

~Give'n Gobble = SUCCESS!~

Thanksgiving morning we got up early to run the 10K race before heading down for some yummy food and time to relax with family. When we woke up, it was sprinkling just a tad, so we were hoping it would "blow over." Let's just say it didn't - about 20 minutes into the run, it was a down pour that held on for the rest of the day. :) Even with the bad weather, it was such a fun race, and I think we've decided it'll be an annual thing. Despite the hills in the course, we both still ran it in excellent time: Dustin in about 48 minutes and me in about 58 minutes.

Before the race - still dry and trying to stay warm!

After the race - soaking wet, sweaty, and cold!

~Give 'n Gobble~

10K - Here we come! We are running another race...this one on Thanksgiving morning. It's a chance to run off some calories before we feast on yummy food at Grandma and Grandpa Johnson's for Thanksgiving. Plus, we have figured this out about ourselves: we are much more motivated to run when we are training for a race rather than just "running to run."

~Mat Kearney concert~

Last night, Dustin and I went to see Mat Kearney at the Roseland Theatre in Portland. Two words - FANTASTIC.SHOW. If you have the chance to go see him, he is pretty darn good live in concert. With a dark venue and bright lights, it's not easy to take good pictures but here are a few.

Vedera - the opening band -pretty good songs, too!

~Happy Halloween!~

This year, our Halloween was a pretty lazy day! I was home sick the day before with the flu/cold, so I was pretty lazy....well, we both were. If you can't tell, we spent the day watching some Oregon Football. Go ducks! Dustin did a fantastic job carving the pumpkin...and the baked seeds were delicious too.

~Greg Mortenson~

Last week, Greg Mortenson visited the Concordia University campus, where I work, as a guest speaker for a public lecture and several other events. If you aren't familiar with his story, you should definitely check it out - www.gregmortenson.com. He has done some amazing work building schools over in Pakistan and Afghanistan. He is the co-author of the book, Three Cups of Tea, and was also recently nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. If you have a chance, you should read the book!


I was one of the lucky four Foundation team members who got my picture taken with him before he headed out of Portland.

~Mom and Dad make a visit~

My mom and dad came out from Colorado for a visit this weekend and we had a great time, even amongst the rainy weather! We had to alter our plans a little bit, but the four of us have a great time spending time together. Here are some photos from the long weekend:

Friday - we had planned to take them crabbing on a boat out at the coast, but the swells were predicted to be so high that they may not rent boats out. Instead, we hit up the Roloff Farms (folks from the TLC tv show, Little People Big World) to get our pumpkins this year. We were lucky enough to catch a quick glimpse of Matt and Amy Roloff, too!

After the pumpkin patch, we went to the apple orchard to get lots of fresh apples! We were hoping it was a u-pick, but even though it wasn't, we got some delicious apples. The best part - this place is literally several miles from our house, so we can go whenever we want (during the season, of course!). Don't you just love the fall colors in Oregon? We couldn't pass up the great picture opportunity!

After the apple orchard, we hit up some stores to get some more things for the house! Mom got overloaded after successful trips to Joanne's and Costco!

Saturday - It was raining pretty hard on Saturday morning, but we didn't let that stop us from hitting up one of my favorite spots - the Farmer's Market on the PSU campus. I usually go in the summer, so it was fun to see the gorgeous fall colors and smell the amazing foods! It was a great Portland experience for mom and dad.

We had hoped to hit up Forest Park for a hike after this, but we decided to pass, despite the rain! Instead, we went to another favorite spot - Stumptown Coffee in downtown. Can't beat amazing coffee on a rainy Saturday Fall day!

We headed back home for some rest and relaxation...and the boys took full advantage! Both of them are conked out on the couch, while the women slaved away in the kitchen!

Ok ok...we didn't slave away! But we did bake a home-made apple pie using the apples we bought from the orchard the day before! It was delicious...and I'm embarrassed to say that the 4 of us polished it off in 2 days. Got to get that excersize in! :)