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!
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!
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:
- Was this planned? - Yes, we're accountants, we plan EVERYTHING.
- 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.)
- Are you going to find out what you're having? - Yes, see #1 above.
- 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!
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.
