Car Pay-Off Party

We paid off our second car!!!

Mom and papa decided to make a sweet cake and we all had a celebration supper.  Good times!  We're working on our last student loan, and are on schedule to be done with all our debt (other than our Webster City mortgage) some time in early June!  Yippee!!!

Thanks for the celebration mama!

Our fun "road to financial freedom" cake!

Mom's the queen of poetry. :)

Cross 'em off baby!

YAY!!!!

Some Random "Funness"

WICKED!

Maria Lovin had a great idea to buy a group of tickets to Wicked for her birthday - 25 people and an awesome group of girls later, and we were off for a fun night at the Civic Center!  I had already seen Wicked in Chicago, but it was SO much fun to see it again!

Definitely my favorite musical...

Supper beforehand at Maria's house

The whole group...what fun to spend time with girls that I don't get to see very often!

SMALL GROUP!

We joined a connection group through church last semester, and have LOVED being a part of this group.  Last semester the group was made up of four couples (left to right): the Heckethorns, Allans, Lubbers, and Farleys.  We were so sad to see the Heckethorns leave to go to nursing school after last semester...but are excited to have a new couple join this semester!  Community is a real blessing!

AMY'S SENIOR RECITAL!

For those of you that don't know, my sister is TOTALLY awesome!  She had her senior recital last semester and rocked it...so talented!  Proud of you sister!

Papa waiting patiently for the show to start!

Amy is so good at acting the part!

And she looks good, huh?!

Can you tell we thought she was awesome?!

Cute!

Some teachers and friends from UNI

Some of Amy's fan club!

The whole Stellmaker crew...Matthew even flew up for the event!  What a supportive, awesome brother. :)

And what's a family picture without a lot of goofy?!

Book #2: "'Tis, a Memoir"

I FINALLY finished the second book in this series.  I read "Angela's Ashes" over Christmas break last year, and just haven't been able to get through this second book.  These three books tell the story of Frank McCourt, an Irish boy who grew up in poor Ireland and moved to the United States when he was around 20.  He has SUCH an interesting writing voice, and communicates extremely hard times with lots of comedy mixed in.  The best recommendation though - my dad has read all three of these...and he barely EVER makes it through a book!  Totally recommend these!

Book #1: "Michal: a Novel"

This was a free book that I downloaded on my kindle, and I ended up really liking it!  Michal was King David's first wife, and Smith took some creative liberty (within the confines of historical knowledge) and turned her story into a novel.  I feel like I learned a lot and got better at imagining what life was like back then.  It wasn't the best book I've ever read, but was good and entertaining!

Stellmakers in VEGAS!

Well, I've had a list of 20+ blog posts to do for the last month - and here they come!  Life is busy and so good, and while I don't always get around to documenting things as they happen, I guess it's better late than never!

A while ago we decided to do something different for the Stellmaker Christmas celebration this year, and randomly decided to head to Las Vegas!  It's not your typical holiday destination, but it was so much fun to get away with the family and see some really neat things.  Only mom and Matthew had ever been there before, so it was all new for most of us.  Here are some of the highlights!

Dad looking cute in his warm vest.

Over-looking over Lake Mead

Mom and dad - cute couple!

Thought we'd get one of Matthew like this so we could photo-shop his future girl in!

At Hoover Dam

We took a tour of the inside - it was really neat, and so impressive!

Everybody with their brochures being serious tourists!

Loved spending time with this boy!

We went to the Venetian for supper one night.  We loved seeing it, especially having been to Venice.  SO cool!

The ceiling looked so real!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Free drinks (for everyone except my pregger self!) at a bar in one of the casinos.  We were impressed with his technique!

Such cool things to see!

We LOVED the Belagio fountains!  We got to see the water "dance" to "Hallelujah Chorus" and "O Holy Night"...it was so neat!

We took Saturday to relax, prepare food, and open presents.  Not a bad spread for a hotel room!

Looking good brother!

We always make everyone try on their new clothes...don't they look pretty!

Amy's new teacher shoes!

Our Uncle Doug and Aunt Sue have a fun tradition of sending us a Life Saver's book...thanks you guys!

And then...THE GRAND CANYON!

Seriously so beautiful!

And of course, a little bit of silliness with siblings. :)

Loved being here with my honey.

We got to go to the "Bodies" exhibit.  It was so interesting, and I enjoyed it way more than I thought I would!

Egypt anyone?

We went to see a lion feeding - except they had changed the time of the feeding without changing any of the information in the tourist brochures.  SO, instead we watched lions laying.

Bring on the penny slots!

Don't do it Chris!

Super Chris goes to see "Super M"

We got to tell my family that we were expecting a BOY on this trip!  So of course, we couldn't leave the M'n'M store without some M'n'M baby cuteness!

Chris, HANDS OFF!

We didn't make it to the official Las Vegas sign, so we settled for this one. :)

And what's a trip to the M'n'M store without watching a 3D M'n'M video in ridiculous glasses?!

It was such a great trip with tons of awesome family time.  I LOVE MY FAMILY!!!!  What a great Christmas memory...