Christmas

Our Christmas was a good one. We saw some snow, got to spend time with both of our families, and ate lots of yummy food. Sadly we took exactly two pictures at Christmas - and they were of the exact same thing:

This is Alivia riding her new giraffe bicycle. I think it was a big hit with all of the girls. One funny note - if you notice the stuffed dog on the floor behind and to her left (our right), that was actually a gift for all three of them. I believe Abbey was the one to open it. When you press its foot it sings "I Feel Good" and flaps its ears and waves its arms around. It's pretty cute. When Abbs unwrapped it she was holding it, checking it out, and her daddy pressed the button. I'm not sure how many of you recall, but the beginning of that song is a yell...when it did that Abbey did a very impressive chest pass and tossed that thing across the room. I guess it's not as funny reading about it but it sure was funny that morning. They made up though and all three of the girls like the dog.

I do have one really sweet story. Audrey took the girls to the dollar store to pick out gifts for everyone. They picked out stick horses for Nathan and their daddy, a kind of blob type toy for Scott, golf balls for my dad, and "make-up" (lotion) for mom, my sister, Mema, and me. Those girls were SO excited for us to open what they got us. But the thing that keeps getting me is Ainsley. She's my "mini-me"":


She passed out the gifts and then waited while each of us opened them. The look on her face was so precious - she wanted to be sure we liked what she got us. I'm crying now just thinking about it. Great. Anyway, the girls were so sweet and so much fun - they're a good age to really enjoy Christmas. Oh, and I think Ainsley's favorite gift was her "stable" - a nativity scene that mom got her. After she opened it she immediately got it all out of the box and started to set it up. Spending time with them this weekend makes me hope that I can be half as good a parent and even a little bit as good at making sure my kids know about Jesus.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas wherever you were!

Easiest Craft Ever

Well, we made it back home from Christmas - we managed to avoid the big "blizzard" here in OKC but we did get a little snow at my mom and dad's house. I'm spending the day getting reacquainted with my toilet (anti-nausea meds don't seem to be working too well today for some reason) so I thought in my "downtime" I'd catch up a little.

DISCLAIMER: I GOT THIS IDEA FROM TV (MOST LIKELY RACHAEL RAY) - I DID NOT COME UP WITH IT BY MYSELF...I'm just not that creative. :)

I did a little craft for Christmas gifts for the girls at my office and for a couple of friends...and it's the easiest craft ever! I basically turned binder clips into picture holders...and I thought later, if I ever had a little brunch or dinner party or something, I could make place card holders out of these and they could be a little take home gift. Here's the step by step.


Start with the HUGE binder clips - I bought these at Wal-Mart, they come four to a box and MIGHT have cost $2/box.


These are the other supplies you'll need: patterned paper cut into strips (for the big binder clips like I used I cut them 2" x 4 3/8"), some sort of adhesive (I used glue dots at first, which worked fine but after finishing one I decided that it would take WAY too many of them so I switched to my Tombo adhesive strip...kinda like white-out tape but it's double-sided tape), and some sort of embellishments (ribbons, buttons, stickers, whatever - I used snowflake and classic Christmas brads).

Once I had the paper cut, I would kind of wrap it around the binder clip to make sure I had cut it right AND to get the paper "bent". Then I laid it out and applied the adhesive to both ends and to the middle. Start with one end and press the adhesive down to make sure it's good and stuck, then smooth it down towards the middle, fold the paper over the middle and press that adhesive, and then repeat for the final side. I applied the brads with glue dots. I thought about doing ribbon (just tied on to the silver part of the clip) but there are any number of things that would work.



Here's the finished product. I will probably make some more of these soon - a non-seasonal version. They were super easy and they don't take up a lot of room on a desk or counter top and it's easy to change out the picture too.


Here's a demonstration of how they work. Oh, one thing I forgot to mention...you can dip the ends of the silver part in that rubbery stuff you buy at the hardware store for tool handles. I think it keeps the picture from slipping. I intended to do this but there just wasn't time!

News!

Well, the cat is finally out of the bag...we are expecting! I will repeat here what I told my extended family. Here are some FAQs:

1. Was this planned? - Yes, we're accountants, we plan EVERYTHING.
2. When is the due date? - The first ultrasound said July 7, the dr. said June 30, we'll split the difference and say July 4. (For those who haven't done the math, that makes me 11 weeks along at this point.)
   
3. Are you going to find out what you're having? - Yes, see #1 above.
4. How have you been feeling? - Very very sick. The morning sickness started on the cruise (for those of you that I told I had a good time on the cruise, I apologize for lying to you...I did not have a nice time). It's not confined to the morning either but fortunately I have some lovely medicine that makes me feel less like I want to throw up. :)
   

It's been hard to keep it a secret this long but we just wanted to be sure everything was going OK. We had our second doctor appointment today and the heartbeat was 176 so that is good news.

I don't have any pictures to share. I took the home test at 2:30 a.m. (because that's when I was up going to the bathroom ANYWAY), saw that it was positive, hopped back in bed, told Nathan "it's positive" and promptly fell back asleep (which is not hard for me to do these days). Nathan, on the other hand, was evidently awake for some time after that. Oops. :) So, I did not take a picture of that event. There's no bump yet (at least not one that's caused by a baby) so no pictures of that either. Boring, I know.

In other really random news, I'm doing some fill-in work at the office and will be doing some outdoor inventory in a place that will require me to wear a hard hat and steel-toed boots. That's right, I now own steel-toed boots. Funny I know. I'm sure I'll look really sweet.

I think that's about all I have for now. Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!

Our Cruise

So, as promised, here are some pics and stories from our cruse. First of all, I should note that we were out in the Gulf at the tail end of Hurricane Ida so if you wonder why our "tropical" vacation doesn't have a lot of sun, that's why. So, without further ado, lets get to the pictures.

Here we are just after getting on the ship - we had to wait in a ridiculously long line because the cruise before us had come into port late (due to the rough water) and as a result we were also quite late in taking off. (How do you like the background? Nice huh?)

Water slides on the ship - these aren't just for kids. I never rode because it was too cold for me. :)

Putt putt course on the ship - it was too windy and rough most days to play but on the plus side, those things would have provided a fabulous excuse for me shooting a 60 at mini-golf. (This did not actually happen, I'm just saying if it had, I'd have had a darn good reason.)

So long Galveston.

This does not even come close to giving you a good idea of the roughness of the seas. This was taken out our cabin window the first morning. We were told later that day that the swells had "gone down" to only 9 feet. At first I thought maybe I was just a wimp but when I saw the staff having a hard time staying on their feet I didn't feel quite so bad.

Just a view of another ship across the water - I don't remember for sure but this may have been when we were coming in to port at Progreso.

Enjoying some fresh air. Shortly after this I was wishing for a blanket. :)

This was just before our "formal night" in the dining room. (You'll notice that most, if not all, of these pictures are taken by one or the other of us. That's just our SOP - they usually turn out better than the ones others take of us. Lucky for us we both have freakishly long arms!)

Here's our dinner group. We got luck - I was afraid it'd be all weirdos (because let me tell you there were PLENTY on that ship) but we got all very nice people. From L to R: Kaitlyn and McKenzie (honeymooning), Michael and Jessie (also honeymooning), Nathan and I (not honeymooning even though nearly everyone assumed we were), and Kathy and JoAnne (mother and daughter - they do this every year!). This was one of only three nights the entire time that everyone was actually able to come to dinner. The other nights at least one (and usually 2 or 3) people were sick.

Our first towel animal - a dog. It sat in the corner of our room for three days. Kind of made us feel like Kona was there, only this dog was MUCH quieter than Kona. :)

Finally on land! First stop was Progreso (which, incidentally is NOT a tourist town) so we hopped a bus to Merida and went on a tour of that city and did a little shopping. The trees above are mostly fig trees.

Little park/square area in Merida.

This is a cathedral in Merida - it was built using stones from the Mayan ruins. Very interesting.

This is the outside of the Governor's Palace. If you look closely you can see what looks like a small group of people standing right out in front of it. This will become important later.

Strange picture I know, but I thought this was really neat. This is the walkway out in front of the cathedral. This criss-cross pattern with the stones in the cement is all along the front of the cathedral.

Front of the cathedral.

Governor's palace again.

OK. Here we are in the courtyard of the Governor's palace. This building was so pretty. The pictures don't really do it justice. It's kind of like their city hall I guess - offices and meeting rooms, I didn't actually see evidence of a residence. Now, remember the group of people I mentioned a couple of pictures ago? Turns out they were protesters. Mostly women and children, not a large group (maybe 40-50 at most). We saw them as we went in but didn't pay much attention. HOWEVER, as we were standing here in the courtyard waiting for our group to get back together, we saw the police coming through with their FULL RIOT GEAR. We started paying attention then. They didn't take any action while we were there but I was not sad to leave that place.

Another old building as seen from the square.

The square in Merida. I'm sure that statue is an important person but I don't recall who it is.

Here we are taking off from Progreso - and you can see why it's not a tourist town. First of all, the dock is a good ways out of town. Second, the town is a poor fishing village and a little scary if you ask me. I probably wouldn't go walking around there w/out a local that I trusted. Neat to see though. Also notice the lovely dirt our ship is churning up there as we pull away. Notice the sun though!

Back in our room enjoying one of the movies I'm sure. I guess I should note here that I didn't feel just super the whole time. I wasn't violently ill or anything, just a nagging "I don't feel so good" feeling. So, I did actually spend a fair amount of time at sea just napping.

Here is our escort out of port - we assume it is the Mexican equivalent of the US Coast Guard.

This is a little garden area at dock in Cozumel. Somehow I don't remember this from the last time I was there. It's either new, or I was asleep last time. Very pretty though.

Look - there's the sun again! That ship to the left is not actually the one we were on, it's another Carnival ship, The Liberty (out of FL I believe). Ours is actually behind that one so you can't see it. Ours I believe was the smallest in the fleet and to be honest, that is OK with me. There was still PLENTY to do on our ship and plenty of places to get lost. :) Also, the water here is SO blue.

Back onboard saying goodbye to the sun again.

Nathan took this as we were pulling away from the pier in Cozumel. That's another cruise line's ship in the distance I believe.

Another towel animal - we think it's a frog???

The next few pics are of the sunset on our last day at sea. That day the water was PERFECT. It was like glass. So nice. We got up to the Lido deck just barely in time to catch the sunset so here are the pics (I THINK I got them in order). Oh, and please excuse my lack of makeup - scary!

Finally, our last towel animal - a bunny rabbit. The ship was kind of vibrating so his ears were wiggling which I thought was pretty amusing.

We had a good time, in spite of the weather. The staff were all SUPER friendly and went out of their way to be helpful. Our waiter in the dining room had been doing this I think since 1995 (which just seems crazy to me). So, I'd do it again, although probably a shorter cruise.

Updates

So, I haven't posted lately because there really hasn't been a whole lot happening around here. I've been working and we have been doing boring projects on the house...getting ready to put on storm windows, sealing the patio, clearing brush in the backyard, fun stuff like that.

I have been doing a few crafty projects...this first one was a gift for my mother-in-law for her birthday, the second is my fall "Welcome" sign for our house, and the third is a little chalkboard/magnet thing for my niece Abbey for her birthday.

Also, our mums bloomed. They were so pretty! They're not as pretty now - the color has kind of faded. They were pretty for a few days though!

Lastly, Nathan's birthday was Monday and we celebrated by having dinner at home with just the three of us (Kona being the third) and then he got to open his present. First, a little background. When he was growing up my sweet husband LOVED playing with Legos. He built rocket ships and all kinds of things. He also loves architecture, in particular, Frank Lloyd Wright's designs (see earlier posts). Well, the good folks at Lego partnered with someone and made some architecture sets of Legos, three or four of which are FLW buildings. So, I got Nathan the Fallingwater set for his birthday. I was a little worried that he'd think it was silly or that he'd outgrown that kind of thing but as you can see below, my fears were unfounded. As soon as we ate dinner, he had it out of the box working on it. Now the only issue is going to be finding a place to display it after he's done!

We have Abbey's birthday party this weekend and then we are going on a cruise next week so I should have plenty to post after we get home!

Kdog

A couple of quick things about Kona. I was laying on the couch on Saturday watching the OSU/Georgia game (GO POKES!) and every time I would get riled up about something I got the following look from the dog:

So sorry to disturb your nap, your highness.

We took the video below yesterday - Kona had been sitting on the couch next to Nathan but for some reason decided to come over and jump up in the middle of my stomach and all of the newspapers I had spread out. He laid down like you see and if I wasn't petting him, he was "talking" to me. You may have to turn the sound up to hear him but you'll probably also see shaking...that's because I couldn't stop laughing at him.

Labor Day Weekend

Yesterday we went on a mini-tour of Oklahoma. We picked up our friends early yesterday morning and headed for Hinton. We went to Red Rock Canyon State Park, intending to do a little hiking. Turns out, there are two trails in that park, one of them is pretty short, the other we have no idea how long it is because after we followed a barbed wire fence for a while we decided that one might not be our favorite thing to do. The pics below are actually in reverse order of the way they happened but I'm feeling too lazy today to cut and paste them in the correct order so here you go.

Nathan and I outside the park.

The Hinton Coop (I assume, since that's what the sign says).

Lana enjoying being taller than me (thanks to a slanted rock).

Benj and Lana outside the park.

This is the trail we hiked all the way through. I really felt like we were in the jungle for a while...the water grass was taller than me!

Nathan hiking. :)

This one is part way along the trail that we did not complete - directly behind us is a straight drop off. This particular area is used often for rappelling. I wish I had the tools and skills to do this because I think it would be way fun.

Benj and Lana - nice view from up here. Oh, also, at the bottom of this drop off there was a family camping...a very loud family. The park was way more crowded than we anticipated.

Another shot of the view - I love that we've had so much rain this summer because things are still green and pretty!

Since we were bad and skipped church we did have communion up on top of this rock. Nice place to enjoy the view of God's creation!

Last night we went to Stillwater to take Benj and Lana to eat at Eskimo Joe's. It was YUMMY! We had some sweet peppered bacon cheese fries, I had an Elm St. Fowl Thing, Nathan had a pork sandwich, Lana had a turkey melt (that was fabulous) and Benj had a burger, then we finished it off with a slice of buttermilk pie shared between the four of us. None of us had ever had it before and we thought it might be interesting. It was actually really good but we all agreed that one slice would be too much for one person - it's very sweet. Big thanks to our server Kevin who recommended the turkey melt for L and the pie for all of us, and who was very patient with our silliness. Unfortunately I did not take any pictures of this outing because by the time it was over we couldn't move and there was no amount of sucking it in that would make us feel presentable enough for a picture. :)