Ricky's Project

So for a while now Ricky has been working on rebuilding a V6 engine to put into my car, along with a few other things. He's gotten it to the point that he can finally do the swap. And this last week he officially began the swap.

My poor car with no engine.

It's gonna take a while since he's pretty much doing it all himself and can only work on the weekends and a little bit before work everyday. But he has set September as his deadline to have it completely done and running. So hopefully in a month or so I can have my car back (or he can have my car and I'll just take his).

Family Reunions

Back in March Ricky was able to take some leave and we were able to go back home together. It was the first time he was able to go back to the states in 2 years. It was a great trip! We were able to see almost all of both sides of the family, which was great! We were able to go to Disneyland in California with Ricky's Mom and Step-dad, all three brothers, and Grandma! That was a great trip! First time for several of us to go to Disneyland! We got to spend a lot of time at the beach, and Ricky even got to learn how to surf!
Ricky, Ken, Tony and their surfing instructor.

Family Photo at the resort we stayed at.

While we were in the states we really kind of splurged because shopping online isn't all it's cracked up to be. Ricky particularly loved going to auto hobby shops. All the tools and car parts… Let's just say we went to them more then I wanted to and way more then was necessary. 

He's sad that Germany doesn't have stores like this.

We also got together with my family and did a big family photo shoot so that we could surprise my mom with them for mothers day. Since Daryl was back from his mission we were able to get all of the kids and grandkids together for this first time in over 2 years. They turned out really great! 

Everyone!

Just the grownups.

All in all it was an amazing and very much needed trip!

Projects

I got the motivation to do a couple of projects in January. I needed a new church bag, and I had some extra fabric laying around so I figured I'd go on pinterest and find something I liked and make it. Luckily the one I liked ended up having a pattern I could follow. 

I really like how it turned out.

 The only thing I would do differently is add a pocket or two into to hold pens and small things.

The other thing I did was sign up for a frame making class on base. It was great and because I did it, I became certified to use the equipment unsupervised. So now I can go back and make my own frame for a small fee and the cost of the materials! 

Here's the frame I made in the class.

I want to find a better picture of my dad to put in it but this is what I had at the time, so it will have to do for now.

Christmas

We had a quiet Christmas. We did splurge on a couple of very nice things including a new German knife set for me, Apple TV and an iPad for Ricky, and several Christmas movies and Christmas books because I feel like those make it feel more like Christmas then anything else. I didn't take many pictures cause I got caught up in the excitement of it being Christmas but here are the 2 I did get.

Ricky opening a present.

 A new Christmas sweater!

Also we were kind of late taking family photos this year so we did Christmas ones.

Ricky is wearing a Christmas sweater that has dinosaurs on it (along with his bow tie and ridiculous glasses). 

 Why? I don't really know. I figured it was Christmas, let him do what he wants.

Christmas Traditions

I love Christmas! It is probably my favorite holiday, followed closely by Thanksgiving. I love many things about Christmas, including, but not limited to, the food, the decorations, the presents, and really just the feeling in the air. I love it all! But I've really enjoyed the traditions this year. It's been interesting meshing Ricky's and my traditions together, but fun. We've even started some of our own. One of which is to make ornaments every year. Slowly but surely we will have enough home made ornaments to cover our tree. We don't have all of the first ones we made cause they didn't make it more then a year or 2, but others have lasted and it is fun to remember where we were when we made them. 

Here's what we made this year!

They turned out pretty cute!