Merry Christmas

Here are a few pictures of Ava in her Christmas dress.

Sophie & Ava hanging out in the nursery at church with their pretty Christmas dresses.

Heart wrenching video

I found this video through a friends blog - thanks Gina! You need to watch it. It will defintitely bring tears to your eyes. I felt led to share this because Christmas is in a few days, but also because we, including me, need to remember why we celebrate Christmas and be reminded that it's not all about the wrapping and unwrapping of gifts. It's about Jesus' sacrificial love for us. We need to think about how Jesus came to live on this wretched earth only to die for our sins. None of us deserve His grace, but by His grace, we can be free from our sins and live forever in His kingdom.

"and He Himslf bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed." 1 Peter 2:24

HFG Christmas Party

Last night we had our Home Fellowship Group Christmas party. For the one's that don't know what HFG is, then let me explain. Every 2nd and 4th Sunday of the month we meet at the Newell's house (no relation...that we know of) for a bible study and fellowship. Our church has about 10-15 different groups and they all meet in different homes. We usually talk a lot, eat a lot, laugh a lot, and learn a lot.

Last night we went caroling, ate A LOT of yummy food, had a white elephant gift exchange, and played mafia. Here are some pictures from the party.

Both of the Newell girls with Ava.

Action shot of Ava. I'm not sure what she was doing, but it almost looks like she is protecting her bear from being snatched up by Cate. She is getting really attached to that bear these days.

The Zobrist proudly showing off their gifts they ended up with.

Steve, Kristen, Amber & Lindsey playing mafia.

The Dillards

All the girls talking...and eating.The group!

We missed a few families that were unable to make it, but hopefully they'll be able to make it next year.

Thanks for a great night everyone. We had a blast!!

BED HEAD

Thanksgiving fun

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving this year. We had a great time with family. We drove to east TN to be with my sister and her family this year. We won't be seeing them for Christmas so we celebrated Christmas together too. I couldn't capture all the fun we had because with a house full of people it got a little nuts at times. But here is just a few pictures of what we've been up to.

First time Ava opened a present. The fun begins!!

We also went ice skating one night. I'm not an ice skater, but it was a lot of fun!

My sister and her family

After we went ice skating, we went to a light show at Bristol where the race track is. We had a very memorable time as we drove through to see the lights. The reason why it was so memorable is because we ended up waiting forever to get in to actually see the light show. I think we started around 7 and we didn't get home until 11. Keep in mind, we all piled in a van so we could enjoy it together. That makes 3 kids, and 6 adults in one van. It was a little exhausting and very uncomfortable. We all had a great time, but we were ALL ready to get out of the car! Here is a little example of how crazy we were going. (this is my sister...not me!!)

You're welcome, Annie!!

The next day we decide to stay home and bake some cookies with the girls.
Ava wanted to help too.
Now it's time to think about Christmas. Happy shopping everyone!!

Fall pictures

A few pictures of Ava and her cousins, Emma and Elsie.

Ring around the rosie...

Can you tell which one I am??

First Halloween

So in order for me to post pictures of Ava's first Halloween, I had to steal them from my friend's blog. (Thanks Catherine!)

The reason being, I left my camera at my sister's house last weekend. I'm beginning to wonder how you live without a camera when you have a 10 month old running around.

For halloween, our church had a fall festival. They had a lot games to play and candy to win. Ava was a little young for the games, but still had a great time seeing her friends all dressed up.

Erik & Sophie (the puppy), Jonathan & Ava (the ballerina), and Tim (the slightly bigger ballerina.)
Ava and her best friend Sophie

Nita & Cate (the panda), Catherine and Sophie, me and Ava

A few pics of our weekend

Ava trying her first lemon. She loved it!

Jonathan's parents came down for the weekend to see our new house. They brought Ava her own little pumpkin.

We put Jonathan's dad to work by installing a new kitchen sink. Ava was there to oversee their project and to keep them in line.

We also went to the pumpkin fest in Franklin on Saturday. Unfortunately, this was the only picture we took at the fest, but probably one of Jonathan's favorites, even though Ava was very upset.

Happy Birthday Sophie!!

One of Ava's best friends turns one today. They had her birthday party this past Saturday. We had a great time, and as you can see, so did Sophie as she ate her cupcake.

She's still thinking about it...
And now she's excited about it.
Kristen holding Ava as Ava is sooo excited for Sophie to be eating a cupcake. She was just wondering where her cupcake was.

Sophie just wanted to share her cupcake with mommy and daddy.

And then while Sophie is getting all cleaned up...Ava was enjoying playing with Sophie's new toys...especially this new princess toy.

We love you, Sophie!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

We Moved!!

That's right, the Newells have moved. We are very excited to buy our first home. God has blessed us with the perfect home for our little family. Upon request, I have posted a picture of our new house. The above picture is of us standing in our Uhaul before we packed everything up. Now we are unpacking and trying to get settled. It's a little different unpacking with a 9 month old, but we are having fun.

Have a great week!!

Catching up

A few days ago, Ava and I met my former boss, Dr. Nancy Laden, for lunch. We had a great time catching up. As you can see in the picture, Ava FINALLY warmed up to her - which means that Ava finally let Dr. Laden hold her. It was sweet and I was glad that Dr. Laden got to enjoy her for a little bit. We enjoyed our time and hope to get together again soon!

(For the rest of the ladies at work, I will get up there one of these days...I promise!)

Cheekwood

Here are a few pictures of our free day at Cheekwood this past Saturday. It was such a beautiful day!

I'm it!

I've been tagged, by my friend Shai, in a blogging game...so here it goes.


1. What time did you get up this morning? My sweet husband let me sleep in this morning and I slept until 10. I love sleeping in, but it just doesn't happen very often anymore.

2. Diamonds or pearls? Diamonds

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? The Dark Knight and boy was I scared!! (I didn't like the movie much at all - it was too dark!!)

4. What is your favorite TV show? The Office and Lost

5. What do you usually have for breakfast? Cereal or a breakfast bar

6. What is your middle name? Jill

7. What food do you dislike? Meatloaf...YUCK!

8. What is your favorite CD at moment? I honestly haven't listened to much music lately, so I couldn't even tell you.

9. What kind of car do you drive? Mitsubishi Outlander

10. Favorite Sandwich? Chick-Fil-A sandwhich...YUM YUM!!

11. What characteristic do you despise? When someone acts as though they are better than someone else.

12. Favorite item of clothing? I LOVE wearing pajama pants. I could buy those all the time!

13. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go? Northern Ireland - I lived there for a few months and would love to go back with Jonathan and Ava.

14. Favorite brand of clothing? Gap & Banana Republic (They have great sale prices!)

15. Where would you retire to? Somewhere where we would live closer to family.

16. What was your most recent memorable birthday? When I turned 25 - my parents and twin sister, and her family, were able to come and celebrate together.

17. Favorite sport to watch? I love volleyball, but I don't get to watch that very often.

18. When is your birthday? April 28, 1981

19. Are you a morning person or night? Definitely a night person!!

20. What is your shoe size? 6.5 - 7

21. Pets? No

22. Any new and exciting news you would like to share with us? YES...We just bought our first house!! We close on the house in two days.

23. What did you want to be when you were little? a teacher

24. How are you today? Great...Today we enjoyed a free day at Cheekwood and enjoyed a beautiful sunny day.

25. What is your favorite candy? Snickers candy bar

26. What is your favorite flower? Gerbia Daisy

27. What is a day on your calendar you are looking forward to? October 17th - my cousins wedding. (My parents will be there too - I haven't seen them a few months.)

28. What is your full name? Amber Jill Newell

29. What are you listening to right now? A baseball game that my husband is watching on TV.

30. What was the last thing you ate? Spaghetti (yes, Catherine, I ate spaghetti!!)

31. Do you wish on stars? Ummm...NO

32. If you were a crayon what color would you be? Blue

33. How is the weather right now? Fall weather - I LOVE IT!

34. The first person you spoke to on the phone today? My mom

35. Favorite soft drink? Dr. Pepper

36. Favorite Restaurant? Pancho's...When I worked in Franklin our boss would take us to Pancho's every week. It's so yummy!!

37. Real Hair Color? Brown

38. What was your favorite toy as a child? I can't remember a favorite toy.

39. Summer or winter? Summer

40. Hugs or kisses? Hugs

41. Chocolate or vanilla? Chocolate

42. Coffee or tea? I like them both and don't drink one more than the other.

43. When was the last time you cried? I don't remember, but I cried for the first few months after I had Ava, so that should make up for the rest of my life!

44. What is under your bed? my keyboard

45. What did you do last night?Watched a movie with my hubby

46. What are you afraid of? Sad to say, I'm afraid of animals...especially cats! They are creepy and sneaky. (sorry Minx)

47. Salty or sweet? Both

48. How many keys on your key ring? I would say about 5

49. How many years at your current job? Ava is 9 months old, so 9 months now! (I'm a stay at home mom.)

50. Favorite day of the week? Sunday - We go to church and listen to the preaching of God's word, and enjoy the time with fellow believers.

51. How many places have you lived in? 9 different places...I don't think I've missed anything (Princeton, IN; Birminham, AL; Booneville, IN; Dale, IN; Santa Claus, IN; Bradley, WV; Portage, IN; Northern Ireland; Nashville, TN)

52. Do you make friends easy? Yeah, I would say so

Now I'm suppose to tag three people...Catherine, Nita, and Darbi. Have fun!!