Top Moments of 2008

• Marrying the man of my dreams on the most wonderful day of my life!
• Our glorious honeymoon in St. Thomas
• Standing beside my sister as she married the man of her dreams
• Seeing the Grand Canyon for the first time in my life
• Hiking for MILES to see the Delicate Arch at Arches National Park and then staring speechlessly in wonder..
• Seeing the Kansas City Zoo and going back to the Renaissance Fair
• Clinging to chains on a mountain side for my dear life, to hike across a tiny ledge and see Angels Landing with Kenny!
• Going to Colorado for the Fourth of July with my fabulous new mother and father-in-law
• Waking up at 3:00 in the morning to go see meteors streak across the sky
• Watching Dave Matthews in concert at the Bricktown Ballpark to celebrate our two month anniversary (the third concert of my whole life!)
• Seeing Kenny's soccer team take second place in their tournament
• Going to Missouri to spend time with Neil and Julie at their beautiful apartment and wonderful church
• Seeing three young Buffalos at dusk in the Wichita Mountains
• My birthday trip to Kansas City and seeing A Christmas Carol
• Celebrating my first Thanksgiving and Christmas with MY HUSBAND :)

Wow, so many new and wonderful things have happened this year! I am so excited to see what next year brings!

We wish everyone a safe and Happy New Year!!

OUR Christmas ;)

It is a special tradition for Kenny and I to exchange our gifts to each other at home privately. Not meant to be rude or secretive, it's just something special to us. It feels like we really get to focus on each other and soak up each gift that way ;)

So, after driving back from Kansas on December 26th we decided to have "our" Christmas the next morning. We woke up surprisingly early and while I was brushing my teeth Kenny snuck into the living room and lit a bunch of candles all over, made sure the lights on the tree were turned on, put on a CD of Christmas music he had burned for me, and he had the video camera rolling as I peeked around the corner and got the full effect. He's so sweet! I just love all the little ways that he shows that he loves me!We took turns opening gift after gift and ooohhed and ahhhed over each one! Kenny got me some sketching pads and oil pastels, a huge case of GLORIOUS Lancome makeup, two fun new board games, a beautiful silver heart Christmas tree ornament (to commemorate our first Christmas), and..... A Wii along with four games!!!!! I was SO excited when I opened it! I know I must have been going on and on for months about how they were sold out in all the stores and not exactly hinting that I wanted one, but he must have known "some how" ;) One of the games he got me was Mario Cart and it has amazing little steering wheels, it feels like you are actually driving a car!

I got Kenny some new clothes, a few DVD's and CD's that he's been wanting, and an XBox 360! I think he was pretty surprised and VERY excited!

We are quite the gamers now all of a sudden, *grins*. Needless to say we spent a lot of that day playing our new games systems and board games! It was such a spectacularly fun day!

I certainly didn't take enough photographs of our little Christmas, I think I was just so excited and caught up in the moment that I completely forgot to take any, but we got a lot of video and I know we will enjoy "reliving" it all one day.

Christmas Day!!

Kenny and I had a wonderful Christmas morning. We got up bright and early to run downstairs and open gifts with Kenny's Mom and Dad. They have a BEAUTIFUL Christmas tree. It's really tall and extends up right beside the stairs, beautiful elegant white lights and such fun ornaments. I picked out a few that Kenny had made when he was a kid-o....SO cute!

We had such a fun time taking turns opening presents. I got some awesome photo frames and a whole big basket full of fabulous kitchen stuff that I was longing for! They also got us an adorable Snowman night light that the bulbs flicker like candle light, I just love it! It is particularly special because they bought it for us while we were all in Colorado for the 4th of July!

Kenny got some great clothes he had been wanting along with a jump rope and stopwatch (he's so energetic!) They also got us the gorgeous dark wood tv trays we had on our wedding registry! I know we will put those to great use!!

After our Christmas morning events Kenny and I got ready and went into Topeka to pick up Grandma and Nana to come over for Christmas Dinner with the whole family. They are both such special ladies. I absolutely LOVE spending time with them! Jeff and Jessica and Alex and Olivia came over and we got to exchange gifts with them too! Kenny and Jeff both got an awesome gift from their Mom and Dad, and ACTUAL piece of the wood floor where the Kansas Jayhawks won the national championship basketball game this year! It is so cool!!

We all had a grand time! I got to hang out with Olivia more and we did the "stamp dance" together *grins* basically on the count of three you leap as far as you can over the couch cushions, which have been specially lined up on the ground. It was so fun, but I'm sure Alex (who was in the basement at the time) thought we were having an earthquake! ;)

Every year that I get older I realise just how special it is to spend time with family. I am SO thankful for the family that I have and for the new family that I am now a part of!

Chrismas Eve

Kenny and I woke up early on Christmas Eve to drive up to Kansas and spend Christmas with Kenny's family. My family sweetly agreed to postpone our Christmas celebration until January 1st so that Kenny & I and Neil and Julie could spend Christmas with our in-laws and still all be together on New Years for our Christmas! I'm so thankful it all worked out that way. It would be so difficult to choose where to go and have to miss out on one family or the other.

We finished up some last minute packing and hit the road! It was a pretty chilly day and Kenny's Dad called to warn us about some icy weather around Wichita. Every mile we drove North the temperature seemed to drop. I was super excited though, you know me always dreaming of a White Christmas! *grins*

Along the way we spotted our Dairy Queen (we like to stop there on the way back and forth to Kansas because you can't seem to find one in Oklahoma) and nuts that we are... even in that cold weather we got a Butterfinger Blizzard to share, and boy was it YUMMY!!

We made it to Topeka about 3:00 and went straight to Kenny's Grandma's house. She hosts Christmas for the WHOLE family on Christmas eve. It was such a grand time! I got to meet more of Kenny's family who I'd never met before. They are all so sweet. There were a bunch of little cousins running around and new babies and just a room full of cheer! Grandma got us the MOST beautiful lamp to go out by our swimming pool! It's wrought Iron with a bright copper top and we can't wait to have it glowing out there this summer while we're swimming!!

After the Christmas party we went to the Christmas Eve service at Jeff and Jessica's church. It was really beautiful! The church is in an old building with such charm, lots of wood and arches and stained glass, so pretty! They had music and Christmas Carols. Kenny and I were especially impressed with the Bell Ringer. We've seen people play the bells, but it's usually people (as in plural).....this was just ONE man and he played the most amazing Christmas songs!! WOW! It made my fingers ache to go try it out myself ;)

After church we headed for Kenny's Mom & Dad's. We all gathered up on the couch and watched "It's a wonderful life" before heading off to bed to rest up for Christmas morning!!!

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas to everyone!!

with love from Kenny & Karen

We sure hope everyone has a very happy holiday,

gets to spend lots of time with family and

thanking God for His blessings.

We are in Kansas with Kenny's Mom and Dad and having a wonderful time. We are so thrilled that this is actually the VERY first Christmas we have spent together. Last year Kenny was in Kansas and I was here in Oklahoma, so we are especially enjoying our First Christmas *grins*!

We'll be back soon and I'll share all the stories :)

1/2 year Anniversary!

Goodness! December is just flying by and I'm not being very diligent about posting! I'll try to do better!

Yay! Kenny and I celebrated our half of a year Wedding Anniversary yesterday! We had a really fun day :) We went to church in the morning and they had some of the most beautiful Christmas Carols. I just get chills to hear the whole congregation singing together and it makes the songs extra special when I really think about what the words mean...

"Glory to the new born king"...."Round yon virgin mother and child"...."Joyful all ye nations rise, join the TRIUMPH of the skies" WOW!

After church we got a little extra Christmas shopping done. Probably doesn't sound like a fun way to spend your anniversary, but we just wanted to be together, whatever we're doing. It was such a nice day outside, nearly seventy degrees, perfect time for shopping.

We knew a cold front was supposed to be blowing in any moment, but we decided to get bundled up and go downtown to see the Crystal Bridge Botanical Gardens Sunday evening. Boy were we glad we bundled up! A bitter cold wind was blowing in and the temperature dropped down to about twenty-two degrees! We parked about a block away from the gardens and rushed over to get inside.
The gardens were all lit up with Christmas lights and there was Christmas music playing. So pretty! The place was pretty packed, I think a lot of other people must have had the same idea for a Sunday night outing. So, we didn't get to dwadle much, but it was still a fun date. We walked outside and saw ALL the lights out there until our noses were about to freeze off *grins* and then we headed back to the car.

We spent the rest of the evening snuggled up on the couch watching Christmas movies! :)

My Birthday!!

Kenny planned a wonderful gift for me for my birthday. On Saturday morning we left his Mom and Dad's house and headed to Kansas City for my "gift". The snow was gently coming down all around us while we made the drive (about an hour) and we arrived at the Kansas City Theater.

Kenny had bought tickets for us to see "A Christmas Carol"! It was such an amazing show! The stage was unbelievable and there were trap doors and moving parts and flashing lights, smoke and SNOW! Really, it was amazing! The ghosts were SCARY and towards the end of the show all the cast came out singing "Oh come all ye faithful" as if they were caroling in the streets. They came down the aisles and all around the audience. I actually started crying. It was just so touching. As you can tell I LOVED the play!

After the show we drove downtown to stay at the Hyatt Crowne Plaza hotel (Wow!) it's directly attached to the Crowne Center and quite a fancy place :) We went shopping at the Crowne Center shops. We were looking for a topper for our Christmas tree. It would have been a neat reminder of our trip, and especially neat because this will be our first married Christmas. We never found just that right one, but we sure had a lot of fun looking!

Kenny took me to dinner at a sweet little restaurant and afterwards we went outside in the snow to see ALL the Christmas lights and the giant Mayor's Christmas tree. There was also a beautiful ice skating rink. So Fun!

We stayed the night in our beautiful hotel room and it really was one of the best birthdays EVER!!

Thank you Kenny, I LOVE You!!