Holiday Highlights are over!

Dear family & friends,

Holiday Highlights are over!  I hope you enjoyed getting a taste of our holidays in Kentucky, Arkansas, and New Jersey and seeing pictures of our family members...

As promised, sometime soon hopefully I will post a "2010 in Pictures" and will give you a mini picture album of what this past year was like for Curtis and I.

Upcoming now, though, I have a 3-part post called "my story" that I've promised to certain of you! ;)  I hope you all enjoy reading it!  I decided to post part one last, so it's easier to read with the first part being at the top of the page.  Enjoy, and don't forget to leave your comments & thoughts!  I'd love for you to share a little of your story as well!

With love,
Joanna

Holiday Highlights #6: LAST ONE! :D ...A New Year in New Jersey

 Punky-Gerto, as she's fondly nick-named (don't ask! haha), 

with the baby-doll she got from Curt & I for Christmas!  Adorable sweetie-pie with those little pig-tails I put in her hair! :) :) :)

Ok, so I forgot how much it can snow in New Jersey!!! So this is the mid-western born & bred girl that I am, speaking right now, but I have to say... I miss it!  (Not the shoveling & driving part, just the fun of it all and the vast beauty of God's creation of snow!!!)  This was a crazy blizzard that came just a few days before we were supposed to leave to drive back to KY!

So this is an almost completely buried car!  I pity the owner - the plows just kept pushing the snow on that side again & again, no matter how much the neighbors on that side of the street shoveled!  Poor guys!  

 Ok, so this is the totally buried car, minus that side-view mirror!  (And no help, except on the side from snow-plows)!!!  Crazy, crazy, crazy blizzard!

 Ethan could barely walk in it!!!  

But there he was, determined to help with his shovel, along with the rest of the guys!

 Curt & Peter shoveling out Mom Crick's van.

 Mandy & Adrielle - aren't they just so stinkin' cute?!!

 Awww, just look at that smile - caught this moment candid as Adrielle played with her Uncle Dan.

"Ok, you're turn!"  Adrielle let's Uncle Dan take a turn on her cell phone conversation.  :) Adrielle LOVES talking on the phone!!! She's been known to take the phone from Momma Mandy or Auntie Lyd and blabber away - she always has so much to say!!!  

 Mandy & Pete eating at Chili's with us!  Delicious!

 I liked this pic of Mandy & Pete inside the glowing chili pepper!  It's actually not a neon sign chili pepper, it's a painted red chili's napkin holder that lit up with the setting I used on the camera!!

 Uncle Curt, Auntie Jo, and Adrielle at Chili's!!

 Our gorgeous sister Mandy & lil bro Ethan!

 Bottle-time with Auntie Jo before nap-time - soooo sleepy!

AW!  I think the lil punkin just woke up here!  At least she still seems pretty happy 

to be with one of her babysitters - Auntie Jo!

Andy, Trish, Olive, and Eden Gruswitz - awesome friends of my family, and great musicians!  They even have their own music teaching business in NJ, and you can find it at http://www.olivetreemusicstudio.com/!!  

We had such a fun jam session that night, 

complete with Andy's guitar, Trish's violin, Pete's clarinet, and our voices! So much fun!  

I miss being able to hang out with these people terribly!  

But they're truly awesome friends!!

 Ethan & Olive - they had so much fun together!

 Mom Crick with Ethan & Adrielle - can you feel all the love?!

 I think we were actually playing Boggle in this picture!  (Mandy was just using the Taboo box to have something to write on).  Apparently it went something like this:

Mandy: Bwahahahahahahaha!

Curtis: Hahahaha - Gotcha sister!

Pete: I'm not sure what to think about this.

Adrielle: I'm leaving!

Ethan: What is going on here?!

 Curt & Adrielle together... this was our last night in NJ, 

and Adrielle was obviously very sad to have to say goodbye! ;)

Holiday Highlights #5: An Arkansas New Year!

This trip to Arkansas was about a week long that went over New Year's!!  We had such an amazing time, as always, with our beloved family, as well as with the GRCC church family!  

Some of the best memories were: basketball at the church across the street (with Dad, too!), New Year's eve get together at Neptune's (with lots of good food, great ping pong games, and even better people), family devotions, (especially singing with the fam), delicious lasagna dinner and Wii fun at the Keymer's, great visit (with amazing home-made caramel dip 'n apples) with the Silvy's, a night of friendly discussions & games with Rg, fellowship & services at church, shopping in Branson with the fam & Andrew, visiting Esther's (admittedly amazing) college, Micky D's with the family, and just being at the home sweet home of AR! 

Here's most of the Lipsy "kids" + Curtis (along with Andrew Jonkman visiting from Canada) at Esther's college: College of the Ozarks!  The college property ends on a cliff that overlooks a gorgeous view of the valley below.

Left to right: Elisabeth, Lydia, Esther, Joanna, Curtis, Andrew Jonkman, Nathanael.

Oh, it's the sisters (minus Martha)!!!  How I wish I could make them all live near us in Kentucky!!!  Enjoying a little sparkling apple juice Curt & I brought along as a gift!

 The handsomest hubby with Andrew.

 The Keymer family!  They had us over for a delicious dinner while we were in AR!

 The Silvy's!! We went to their house to visit as well!  I love both of these families!!!

 This was New Year's eve at the Neptune's home!!  My mom is relaxing in the chair on the left! :)

 Mom & Dad Lipsy at the Silvy's home

The family with Andrew!  

We must come back to AR soon - I miss all of you too much!!!  

But I love you all dearly!!!!!

Holiday Highlights #4: Some family love around Christmas-time at our house!

So this was the Monday after Christmas we six all got together, as a last shin-dig with Mandy & Pete before Curt, Lydia, and I headed out that very day for Arkansas!  Woohoo!  Great memories!

 Hanging out at our house with Mandy & Pete, Lydia, and Ethan!  We enjoyed some sparkling pear juice while we played the game Buzzword! Have you played it?  It's actually quite fun - as long as you've got a pretty quick mind & you're good with word-association!  Our brother-in-law Quinn is probably the all-time family champion!

 The adorable little munchkin next to my Christmas bear that I got in Mexico one year.  (He does have two eyes, you just can't see his right one the way he's tilted!)  This bear was from 12-year-old boy who might have been flirting with me (?)  I never quite figured that one out! haha!  He was very shy!

 Curt & I - so crazy in love still!!!  And here we've been 9 months married! (Ok, yes, we're still newlyweds, but we've got to admit: we haven't found anyone else as crazy in love as we are!  Mandy & Pete, you guys come in second! ;)

P.S. Don't worry, Curt - I didn't fall for that 12-yr.-old Mexican boy's flirting (if he was anyway, that is!)

 Soooo.... I realized very soon before Mandy & Pete came over that it was their anniversary that day (Monday)!  So I quickly wrote "Happy Anniversary" on the (almost) half of a chocolate cake I had made that weekend before! lol!  And by the look on Pete's face, it looks like Mandy & Pete are still good at feeding each other, even after their wedding two years earlier! :)

 The lovely anniversarians, Pete & Mandy!  Even if that isn't a word, I think it should be! ;)

Lydia and Adrielle in front of the Christmas tree!  I don't know how many times we tried to take this shot - but I think this was the best I got! haha!  Oh, but they're just so cute!  (Ok, yes, I'm a little biased.)

This picture is from another around-Christmas-time event at our house - I think it might have been to celebrate Curt's sister Kim's birthday!  You've got Dad Crick on the left, then Mom Crick feeding her grandson Cayman, and Cayman's daddy Quinn on the right. 

Holiday Highlights #3: An Even Bigger Crick Christmas - Extended Family on Christmas Eve

 Curt & I - I look a little sleepy, don't I?!

 There's a picture of my gorgeous sis Lydia - proof she was in KY!  She's sitting next to Curt's cousin Stacy.

 In this pic, along with my brother Peter & "Papaw Latham," we have 5 generations represented!  Great-grandma Fuller, "Mamaw Latham," Mom Crick, Amanda Crick, and Adrielle!!!!

  

 Some cousin love!!!

 Adrielle helps Stacy sweep the floors....

A view of our table at the get-together!  On the closer side of the table from right to left, you've got the back of Mom Crick, my brother Peter, Curt's brother Ethan, and Curtis!  In the background from left to right: Curt's cousin Josh, Uncle Tim, Aunt Betty, and Uncle Anthony!  And I think that's Uncle Anthony's wife Jessica sitting down.

A combination of fantastic food prepared by Mamaw, the aunts, & the cousins, along with good memories made being with the extended family this Christmas, this get-together was a success!

New Design!!!

Hi all!

Well, needless to say, I've gotten sucked into the blogging world a little deeply tonight, and decided to completely redo the look... I have also added a gadget or two. Let me know what you think, and what suggestions you have from your blogging! Thank you! :D

Holiday Highlights #2: Crick Christmas - part 5 (last part!)

Dear all, these are the last pics of the epic Crick family Christmas! :)

P.S. Sorry I couldn't find a pic of you, Lyd! But we know you were there, and were so happy to have you there! :)

A picture of all of us by the snowman!

"The 3 Sheriffs" or better named "The 3 Stooges!"

Ethan and Joanna fixed up the snow-sheriff in the middle of them!!

Beautiful pic of Pete & Mandy out in the snow!!!

We had such a great time in the snow as we finished up our Christmas day celebration! We made that snowman, had a rambunctious snowball fight, and generally whooped and hollered like kids on Christmas, just loving the snow!