Christmas Morning- just a few more pics for your viewing pleasure

CHRISTMAS MORN

dad and his cooooooool panthers freezer mug that we gave him.

Christmas Morning

i made a really cool scrap book that took me allot of time and energy (thank you thank you) for jo-ben of the adventures of the last 10 years of treeplanting, since this is his last year out in the bush its kinda like a tribute for him and he really liked it, this is him looking at it for the first time.

CHRISTMAS MORNING

this is a pic for anya and josh (if they ever look at this) its babaw on the phone with josh so technically its a christmas picture of josh and babaw!!!

CHRISTMAS DAY

jo-ben stuck monty in the trash can with all of the used wrapping papper, he looks so sad. :(

A FEW DAYS AGO

here are a few pics from the other day, joben after playing soccer.. very sweaty. an impromptu pic of the two of us and one close up of my newly pierced ear ( i know i know im a big wussy girl for not getting it done untill i was 23 but I DID IT!!!) this pic is for my curious mom because it was so swollen and infected, my worst fear come true, yay.

CHRISTMAS

my grandmother with some fake gag teeth! i LOVE this picture.

CHRISTMAS NIGHT

jo-ben and i in mom and dads kitchen before christmas dinner.

CHRISTMAS EVE

this is our friends (who joben grew up with in peru) baby jayden, what a cute smile... he only smiles for his mom.

CHRISTMAS MORNING

this is a pic of joben eating this stuff called "liver pudding" it looks and smells as gross as it sounds... i have never and will never taste it but my mother in law and grandmother LOVE it, its one of those weird family traditions that will not carry on through the generations.

CHRISTMAS MORNING

here is my mother in law and babaw opening some of our gifts that we gave them, joben and i made homemade soaps for each of them (and my husband even helped and liked it!) and got them some candles and cute things like that. they loved them.
notice the tim hortons cups? we brought to go cups and tims coffee for a canadian touch to our christmas morning.

CHRISTMAS MORNING

i got jo-ben a really cool canucks freezer mug (we got his dad a North Carolina Panthers freezer mug) so they can have icey cold drinks and watch the games together! i also got joben a shaver that he wanted and i made him a really special crap book of all of this 10 years of treeplanting.

CHRISTMAS MORNING

me in my new christmas presents, my pjs, a new sweater from my mom and dad in law and their sweet little pup monty all cuddled up.

CHRISTMAS MORNING

my new slippers from my husband!

CHRISTMAS MORNING

my sweet babaw

CHRISTMAS MORNING

here is a picture of me in my new pjs from my mother in law- they are SO SOFT. i love em. sorry about the no makeup and specs- its christmas morning so thats how it goes!

CHRISTMAS MORNING

here is a picture of my babaw wearing a nurses cap that my parents in law got her off of ebay, its a real nurses cap from the second world war in which my babaw was a nurse, she was SO suprised and pleased.

CHRISTMAS MORNING

here is a picture of my mother in law and her mother (babaw) reading cards sent by my brother and sister in law (josh and anya) from bc and mom is opening a gift that they sent too!

a few random pics

here is a pic of my cute husband and myself and his grandma who we call babaw after church last sunday, the day after we got to North Carolina. also a pic of my parents in-law that day and a pic of my little sister that she sent me of her all dressed up for a christmas party and with new hair which i think its fab. just wanted to share. more pics to come after christmas. also i apologize that i look sedated in that pic of me up there, dont know quite what happened. oh well :) have a lovely christmas eve day!

fun times with family

we just got home from a fabulous two days away with my in laws. we went to ashville, NC and stayed in a great cottage and spent two days exploring the biltmore estate, its the largest home in north america and was built in the 1800's. its HUGE and BEAUTIFUL...my kinda place. i told joben that he should pay attention and take away some insperation for our future home! click on the link below and chek it out. the website does NOT do it justice. it was amazing, we went on a candel light evening tour with live harpists and a singers and other musicians and a tour of the estate winery and a wine tasting this morning and explored this afternoon. we forgot our didital camera but bought a disposable so as soon as i get the pics developed i will post em. fun times, will post more after christmas... the next few days should be very busy. merry christmas everyone!!! blessings on your holidays. oh ps: we have been having a great time here in North Carolina. i have spent allot of one on one time with my mother in law shopping and gabbing and doing all of that fun mother daughter stuff that we dont get to do regularily... we are liek best friends so its been so needed to be here with her and joben has been glofing with his dad and helping him with projects and we have just been having allot of fun seeing old friends and family and spending some quality time here. hope you are having a great time with the ones you love too!

www.biltmore.com

a christmas down south

we are in North Carolina for christmas and are very excited, only 9 days to go. we have LOTS on the agenda while we are here visiting my husbands family and i am sure there will be a TON of pics to enjoy very soon. im pretty tired and a little jet lagged so im heading to bed. goodnight bloggers!
oh ps avey i tried to get ahold of you yesterday in hopes of meeting up for lunch or somthing but i couldnt get online and couldnt find your number and appertantly there are alot of mark christiensens in calgary. ughhhhhhh... will have to hook up on our way back through after christmas and before new years.

so sick

wow, so since my last post which wasnt too long ago i have gotten very sick. i think i have a really nasty flu. i havent been this sick in a long long time, not since i can remember. i have nothing left in my body and i cant even keep water down. i feel very dehydrated, weak and i really hate my bathroom at the moment. this is the first time in the last 24 hours that i have realy been able to sit up without throwing up... not pleasent. please pray for me to get better because the light at the end of the tunnel looks pretty far at the moment. thanks friends. oh also, joben thinks that hes getting it too so pray for him that he doesnt- i wouldnt wish this upon my worst enemy! -amanda

a few more pics!

THE BARKEY'S NEW CAR!

here are some pictures we took today of us and our new car, its like our first really
big purchase as a married couple so we are really excited. we totally went out expecially to take pics of us and the car... who does that? "hey babe, lets go have a photo shoot with the car" were nuts. we even scouted out backdrops but there isnt much to choose from in our neighborhood and i was getting impatient. oh well, here is the new car and US! yay.

just life

(a pic of my new car! woot woot!!!)

so my sister came out to visit us and i didnt get a SINGLE good picture of us. this is the closest one that looks remotly normal and she is probably going to kil me for posting it.
we did so much FUN STUFF> medicine hat isnt exactly the most happenin' place to be but we packed the weekend with fun stuff. ate, drank and were merry.. did normal sister stuff liek starbucks, shopping, movies, etc. drove in my new car, introduced her to our friends, went to moxies (where i work) and ate some more yummy food. had christmas, did the whole presents, appys, dinner, and big christmas breakfast. oh yeah, and we ate. (did allot of that! :)) we had a fun time... at least i did anyways. its going to be fun to go stay with her in van in a month and a bit and SHE can make ME some yummy food and take ME out. yay!
this month is going to be CRAZY. it kicked off with rebecca comming to visit. i go back to work tomorrow (boo) but only for about 10 days (yay!) and then my husband and i head off to the dirty south to visit his family in North Carolina for christmas holidays. i am SO excited. i havent seen his parents and grandma since last christmas and i miss them SOOOOOO much. its going to be a blast and WARM! my man sure deserves it after braving working crazy long hours in this blizzard that we had for the past bit here. when we come back i only have about a week and a bit with him before he heads north to go work his tail off and bring home the real bacon for about three months. i am going to miss him more than i even know now. i already miss him and he is still here. its going to be really hard on both of us but we will get through it. two weeks after he leaves i am going to vancouver for a week for my cousins wedding and to see my family, havent seen my parents since august so im pretty pumped for that, itll be a great distraction. THEN in about a month after that i am either going to go back to vancouver or hopefully to wherever jo-ben is to see him for my birthday in the begining of march. oh! also my hsband has decided to give treeplanting one more hoorah (for the eleventh summer in a row!) and he will be foremaning a crew for the last time for the month of may... i am NOT going to plant or check or do any of that silly bush stuff this summer but i am going to go with him either for part of the month or the whole thing, dont know at this point. i will be camping and making his life easier and maybe helping out the cook or somthing in my more than ample spare time. geesh, what have i gotten myself into with this life?! just kidding, its all a big adventure right?! we are hoping after all of this that we can go on some kind of trip since my husband is going through travelling/surfing withdrawl. i want to go to figi but we will see! hawaii is an option too because we have some good friends who just moved back there (jo-bens university friend and best man and his girlfriend) so yeah, who knows where we will go but the two stipulations are that i must be able to lay out and get a great tan and jo-en must be able to surf till his hearts content. oh! and if that isnt enough stuff we are heading back to North Carolina at the end of august for jo-bens 10 year reunion with his highschool friends. he grew up in peru, SA for almost 20 years and hasnt seen lots of friends from highschool and on the missionary base since he was like 18 and there is a huge ( ha, there were 3 kinds in his grad class and about 20 i think in his bro's the year after... so that constitutes together as huge as far as people getting together from the base) amount of people comming out ... 20 or so, to NC for this combined class reunion. i am SO excited to meet people i hear all of these great jungle stories about and people i havent seen since our wedding and jo-ben is super excited too. its going to be great.
so yeah, our lives are getting turned upsidedown again (and it feels like we just got a min to breathe here!) and this weekend kicked it all off. i will have some interesting bloggs to come for sure so stay tuned.
till next time, im off to bed!