Memorial Day BBQ

For Memorial Day we hosted a neighborhood BBQ. We set up a sprinkler and borrowed a slip 'n slide. It was a SUPER hot day, but I think everyone still had fun.  At least the kids did, who ran around in the water the whole time.

Beau kept getting in the kids way at the slip 'n slide because he wanted to do it but was scared. He would just stand at the edge and not go. So Travis held him a couple times and he seemed to enjoy doing that despite what his face looks like in these pictures!

Christmas

This Christmas hasn't felt much like Christmas to us. We have spent most of our free time preparing for the baby and we weren't able to go anywhere since my due date was 5 days later. On Christmas Eve we saw the Blind Side, which we highly recommend, and went out to dinner, where I ate entirely too much and was in pain most of the night! Christmas morning we woke up and opened the couple of presents that we got each other. My parents and younger brother actually decided to bring Christmas to us and drove up Christmas morning to spend the weekend here. Once they arrived we opened more presents and prepared a nice dinner.

One thing that we wanted to get before having a baby was a video camera. Trying to decide on what video camera to get, when there are so many different types out there, literally gives me anxiety. I hate thinking that I might regret my decision down the road. We went to an electronics store and talked to a rep and thought we had a camcorder narrowed down. I got online to look at reviews and I started questioning our decision. I kept seeing commercials for the flip video so I did some research on them. After doing my research I wanted the Flip. I thought it would meet our basic needs for now so I proposed all the pros and cons about the two camcorders to Travis. Travis wanted to go for the high end camera because he was thinking down the road to when our kids start playing sports where you need something with a good zoom among other things. I was thinking we needed something small and easy to start up when we want to capture that first giggle or smile. Five to six years down the road, when our kids start playing sports, we can look into getting something nicer and by then who knows what they will have available. Travis wasn't yet convinced until he talked to one of his friends who got a really nice video camera before their son was born and now totally regrets it. He said you don't really need advanced capabilities until they get older, it was really expensive and it's a pain to get out and start up. Finally Travis was convinced and I ordered the Flip! It arrived a couple days before Christmas and we love it! I feel good about my decision. In fact, we used the video cam on Christmas instead of taking pictures.

Here is a video of the boys going to an all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ place. My mom and I weren't invited because it's kind of expensive and there's no way we would eat enough to make it worth it. The only problem with them going is once they come back they stink to high heaven! Their clothes stink and their breath stinks like garlic days after. And to make matters worse we had to sit next to them for 3+ hours because we saw Avatar after their lunch. They've learned to change their clothes after so that at least helped a little during the movie.

As far as baby news goes, I am now 3 days overdue. We think we have everything in order and we are just waiting. If he doesn't come on his own then I'm getting induced on the 8th. I'd rather not be induced so Travis and I have been going on walks to try and get things moving. No luck though. We'll keep you posted!

A Carriage Ride

We decided to take a trip to a neighboring town and take a carriage ride to see some Christmas lights.  We luckily had the carriage all to ourselves.  They can hold up to four, but it would have been tight and just awkward facing another couple throughout the whole ride.

The cold, chilly air felt good to me, but poor Travis was freezing!  We enjoyed the ride through the quaint, little neighborhood and I think it helped us get into the Christmas spirit since we've mainly been preparing for the upcoming arrival of our baby.

Holiday Wreaths and Some Antique Door Knobs

I've been working on a lot of projects lately to try and get them done before the baby comes. Here are a few...

This pine cone wreath was a mammoth of a project. Here is the tutorial. If I knew how long it was going to take me (3-4 hours a day for 2 weeks) I would have thought twice about attempting it. Now that it's done though, and hanging up, I am glad I accomplished it. When my mom was in town we made a stop at Michael's and found a bin of mini pine cones for 80% off! Each bag was less than a dollar! We got a lot of bags because we weren't sure how many I would need. I didn't even come close to using them all, but a lot of them were unusable because they were malformed. Our place was such a mess while I was working on it. Pine cones were everywhere; all over the table and on the floor. I couldn't pick up the ones off the floor since most of them were under the table. Travis lovingly did once I was done. I think he was just so glad that I was finally finished that he would do anything to get the area cleaned up. Oh, and did I mention that they were scented? As I slaved over this wreath it felt like my nose hairs were being singed off from breathing in the scented fumes.

I saw another tutorial on how to make this ornament wreath. It is super easy and I think it looks really good. I found the ornaments at the Dollar Tree. They actually have a lot of cute Christmas decorations there if you've never checked them out. You can't beat paying a dollar for these ornaments.

I saw something like this in a store displaying things, but it wasn't for sale. I figured it would be easy to find some door knobs and a scrap piece of wood in my dad's wood shop to easily pull it together. I love going to antique shops and I found all the door knobs there. Some were expensive and others were really cheap so it cost a little more than I thought it would. I love it though and it was the easiest project I've done in a while. All I did was screw some holes in the board, counter sink the holes, find screws that fit the door knobs (they almost all needed different sizes/lengths) and paint the board! I love how it turned out!

Halloween Festivities

I think this is the first year that Travis and I actually dressed up for Halloween together. Since I'm pregnant we had a lot of couples to choose from. We contemplated dressing up as Britney Spears and K-Fed, Heidi Klum and Seal, and the couple from Juno. I didn't want to have to buy anything so that made our decision harder. In the end we decided last minute to dress up as Jim and Pam from The Office. We already had the appropriate clothes! Travis even made the name tags-it says Dunder Mifflin Paper Company along the bottom.

We were invited to attend a Halloween party this year. Some people that attended were Jon and Kate plus 8, a knocked up cheerleader and her quarterback boyfriend, a bun in the oven and a baker, a pea in the pod and a farmer, Glenda, the good witch, and the tin man, a pimp and his 'ho' and Amelia Earhart and Moses/Terrorist. If you can't tell there were a lot of pregnant ladies attending.

We split up into groups and competed in activities. Our first activity was a mummy wrapping contest. I don't have a picture of our mummy, but we won! We wrapped Amelia and she was covered perfectly from head to toe!

Our next activity was a relay race. The first person in the group had to run to a street sign and back. The second in line had to eat 6 Saltine crackers then try and blow a bubble of bubble gum. Once a bubble was properly blown the last person had to carry an egg in a spoon to another street sign and back without breaking it. Our team won again!!

Next, a member of our team had to use their mouth to dig through a pan of spaghetti and find 5 gummy worms. We came in second place, but we think there was some foul play involved because we were sure that we won that too.To end the competition we had to answer some trivia questions about Halloween. Oh ya, and we won that too! Our group was awesome! We had a fun night and thanks to Lindsey and Ed for such a fun party and for all their hard work putting everything together.

Halloween day was pretty low key for us. I gave Travis a hair cut, we watched football, and went for a walk. I made Chili again and Frozen Peanut Butter Pie for our Halloween feast. I made the pie because I like the spider web design. I wish I had a fake spider to put on the pie too, but no luck.

We ended the night watching a scary movie and waiting for Trick-or-Treaters. Unfortunately, we had no-none, zero, zilch Trick-or-Treaters. So we still have all our candy sitting on our counter that will most likely be consumed by us.

I hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween!

Halloween Wreath

I finally got around to making a Halloween craft this year. It will probably be the only one I get around to though. I love decorating for Halloween and there are a lot of things I'd love to make, but I feel like October is speeding by.

I've been seeing black feather wreaths here and there and I contemplate getting them. Some are too expensive and others, in my price range, look cheap. I went to Michael's to find some black feathers and to get as much as I would need would have cost a fortune. I decided to buy a feather boa instead. It wasn't the exact look I was going for, but I thought it would work. I bought two 6ft boas and headed for home. I still had a ton of wire left from my card/picture holder to use as the wreath form.

I made a form out of the wire, wrapped the boas around it and secured with twisty ties. I also used hairspray to make the feathers more stiff.

Here is the finished product. Travis lovingly refers to it as the Black Wreath of Death.

Our 4th of July

We had a great 3-day weekend! My parents drove up and spent the weekend with us. We watched a lot of tennis, had a lot to eat, and enjoyed the sun!

First off, I wanted something patriotic to put up so I decided to make something prior to the weekend. I found a font I liked, enlarged it, traced the letters on some scrap plywood, had my dad cut them out, I painted them, and finally Mod Podged some scrapbooking paper on them. Super easy!

We started the weekend by going out to dinner and watching Transformers. We all loved the movie!

For the 4th we went to our church's flag raising ceremony and pancake breakfast.

We went to our new favorite BBQ place, Gorilla's BBQ, for lunch.

We drove down the coast and stopped at the best little beach. It was a hidden gem! It wasn't crowded, wasn't windy and cold, and had a huge rock to climb on.

We were all attacked by this seagull when we climbed up on the rock.

Personal fireworks don't seem to be allowed in most areas around here (fire hazard, I assume) and there is only a handful of professional shows you can go to. We went to a show held at an amphitheatre, but we chose to find a seat outside so we didn't have to pay for tickets. We setup camp on a huge dirt field because most people were setting up around it and the place was starting to get crowded. We had the best seats and the bonus of having no one around us. It was great!

We hope everyone had a fun and safe 4th of July!

A Very Hairy Memorial Day Weekend

We were able to drive down to my parents house last weekend. We played lots of tennis, watched Angels & Demons (which I thought was really good), and had a great BBQ. Oh, and how could I forget, I cut all the guys' hair.

I buzzed Travis' hair a few weeks ago and when my Dad saw how good Travis looked he wanted to do the same. So, I cut Travis' again and then one after the other.

This is the somewhat before shot. I had already done the sides to give him a mohawk.


My dad hasn't had his hair this short since his days in the army. Yes, he even let us shave his mustache!

Next was my brother-in-law, Martin.

He claims he hasn't had his hair this short since he was 6mo old.

I also cut my nephew's hair, but unfortunately I don't have a before picture of him. He had really long, shaggy hair so it was quite a change.

Here are all of the guys together with their new looks!

This might become a new tradition of buzzing all the guys' hair on Memorial weekend. Maybe. If I start getting paid!

Be Mine

We had a very low key Valentine's Day. I'm not used to having to plan something. When we lived in UVa student housing they provided us with a free dinner at Thai 99. That was probably one of the highlights living there. I also won a DVD one year when they had a raffle. Good times. Anyway, this year we were on our own for dinner. But let me start with breakfast.

We started our morning like most folks on Valentine's it seems like with heart-shaped pancakes. Travis was in charge of breakfast since I was in charge of dinner. He was very inventive and made the mold with foil since I didn't have one. It couldn't be Valentine's Day without an enormous amount of treats, right? I made heart-shaped rice krispie treats. Don't worry, there were a lot more rice krispies than shown in this picture.And my most favorite treat of all, cupcakes!! Chocolate cupcakes that are so moist they melt in your mouth with a cream cheese-whipped cream frosting. These are the cupcakes that Travis thinks are better than that cupcake bakery. They are mighty darn good and I can't get enough.For dinner I made a super delish chicken recipe with cream cheese and garlic mashed potatoes, bacon wrapped asparagus and some bread on the side. My mom made those cute utensil holders. It sure wasn't Thai 99, but it was really good. It was really fun staying in and relaxing, but I sort of missed getting dressed up and going out to Thai food. Maybe next year we will continue the student family housing tradition of having Thai. Unfortunately, it won't be free...so maybe not.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

We hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. Ours was long (in a good way) and busy. We spent it with my parents this year. We also had a great opportunity to drive to L.A. to see Travis' best friend get married. It was such a great wedding and we couldn't be more happy for him.

We were also working non-stop on a new project. I'm trying to make a shelf out of a railroad tie and it's proving to be harder than we thought. We didn't finish it, but it's almost done. Hopefully we can complete it the next time we drive down.

We also needed some railroad nails for the shelf and since there are some tracks practically behind our house we decided to start there.

Travis found most of the nails. Don't worry we didn't take any that were actually in the tracks. We just picked up the old ones that were half buried in the dirt on the side.

I just love this time of year to be able to spend time with family. And I'm a little sad that I have to take down all my Christmas decorations now that it's over.