Amazing Sunset

Just thought this was too beautiful to not share. This picture was taken from our balcony on the 31st floor around New Years. (I promise one of these days I'll share more pictures of the crazy place we call home.) The picture just doesn't do it justice....it was really breathtaking.

Stockyards Adventure

We live 3 miles from the Historic Stockyards. Its the "go to" place we take all visitors. They have some fun western shops and twice a day they have a real cattle drive down the main street. It's really cool. We go down every couple of weeks to see the longhorns. Owen loves the longhorn cows!  Here are pictures from our last adventure. It was FREEZING that day. High of 32. So freakin' cold for here.

Riding on a real saddle in the Ft. Worth Cowboy historical museum.

What a cute cowboy face. 

Riding the $0.25 mechanical bull.

The Jimmer!

We went down to Houston again this weekend for our last little "road trip" before the baby is born. Like I mentioned before my in-laws are always so good about filling our visits with fun activities and great food. This weekend was no different. They took us to see the Houston Rockets play the Sacramento Kings, and Jimmer Ferdette (former BYU allstar and top 10 draft pick) plays for the Kings.  I don't really follow BYU sports because I didn't go there, but I do love an underdog story and when they are really good like Jimmer it's even better. We watched him a lot last year so this was really fun for everyone. Even Owen who last year learned to say, "Go Jimmer". He liked saying that so much that whenever he sees someone playing basketball on TV, even if there isn't a single white person on the court, he'll shout out "Go Jimmer". This was my first NBA experience, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. 

After the game we all got to go on to the court and try to shoot a free throw. I used to be pretty good at that, but with a big ol' belly shooting just isn't as smooth as it once was. The guy directing traffic on to the court even said that I should have to sign two waivers. BLAH! But Owen got to try too, and he loved it.

I think the reason I enjoyed myself so much at this game was for 3 reasons: #1- I understand basketball, #2- I got to sit next to and chat with my sister-in-law the whole time, #3- the picture below tells it all--the kids were in the men's laps the whole night, and we were sitting 3 chairs away. It was beautiful! 

Creative Endeavor

I have had the hardest time buying any clothing for this little baby girl that will soon be arriving. For some crazy reason every time I go in to a store I start in the girl section and end up in the boy section, every time! However I've recently pulled out my sewing machine again and have been working on a few things; aprons at Christmas, blankets for the baby, etc. Then I remembered that my dear friend Tori had once taught me to applique fabric designs onto onsies. They turned out so cute, so I thought I'd try my hand at it again, this time on my own. I pulled out some of Owen's old onsies that I wouldn't mind screwing up and tested out my rough applique skills. I used my Cricut to cut out some letters and shapes and went at it. Its actually really difficult to applique with any sort of accuracy because what you need to be looking at is under the presser foot. So I practiced on the blue one then when I felt somewhat comfortable I did the others. 

My childhood friend Rebecca gave Owen the onsie with the green detailing. I love this onsie, its so soft and came from South Africa where she lived at the time so it's extra special. I wanted to "girlify" it a little more so I added a sweet "J" for Julia, the name we are planning to use. All in all I think they turned out really cute.

Christmas in Texas

Ryan remarkably got 9 whole days off for Christmas. Merry Christmas to ME! It was amazing having him around and just being together. We took off on Monday and headed down to Houston to be with his brother and sister in law. My parents in law arrived on Wednesday. (Side note, some people in Ft. Worth   say to me because we go to Houston so often, "Don't you hate the 4 hour drive?" Truth is I don't mind it at all. It's a very easy drive, very direct, and for 4 hours Ryan is stuck beside me and can't go anywhere.)

My brother in law is awesome at making sure there are plenty of activities and adventures when we come visit. Since we were there for a week, we did lots of fun things. Two days before Christmas we went to Sea World down in San Antonio. It was a 3 hour drive, it was gray and cold, but it was a lot of fun, and I bought an "all you can drink hot chocolate mug" so the cold wasn't a big deal. 

Riding the carousel with Papa.

Check out that FAT walrus in the middle.

A Christmas mariachi band. 

Even at Christmas the Shamu show was very majestic, but there is something a little odd about watching killer whales swim and jump around to "The First Noel" dispersed with random people on the jumbotron talking about Christmas miracles in their lives. Sweet, but a little weird. 

With Christmas falling on Sunday we started the morning at church, not with gifts. The whole program was basically singing through the hymnal with some wonderful narrative about the true meaning of Christmas. It was very touching. The most tender moment was when this little girl with Downs Syndrome got up and sang the first verse of Silent Night. Musically it was awful, but spiritually it couldn't have been any more perfect. Here was this girl (actually probably about 15), who was born with a great disability that will affect the rest of her life, singing about the birth of the Savior - the very one who's life and death will make it possible for her to be made whole and perfect someday. It was such a wonderful reminder what Christmas is all about, the birth of Jesus Christ. It really set the tone for the day. 

Christmas morning.

My 1.5 year old nephew who got ahold of 3 rock candy suckers. 

My mother and father gave Owen some real cowboy boots for Christmas. We used to go to this one store down at the Historical Stockyards and played dress up all the time and he would always put on these same boots. He was SO excited when he opened the boots. Ryan and I gave him the hat to complete his outfit. 

Playing dress up at home. He wore the boots everyday for a week. 

Making gingerbread houses from scratch. They didn't last long before they collapsed, but it was fun for the kids. 

Here is a prego picture! I'm quite boobalicious these days. 

Every gift giving occasion I struggle to know what to get Ryan. He wants for so little and the items he does want are too big or too specific that I dare not buy them without him. He also usually out gifts me on sentimentality too. I usually get him something very functional and his gifts usually have a wonderfully sweet meaning. This year it was jut the opposite. 

Ryan and I met in college at church but never really dated. I took two years off of school and served a mission for her my church in Colorado. While there Ryan and I wrote letters, old school style, through which we really got to know each other, became best friends, and ultimately fell in love. For Christmas I took two years of letters and compiled them in to a book along with some photos from that phase of our lives. While preparing the book I got to re-read so many of our letters. It was such a wonderful experience for me to read how we became such trusted friends and how we fell in love. It reminded me of what lies at the base of our relationship, a mutual love of Christ. I often found myself in tears out of love and admiration for my sweet husband. He is such a wonderful person, a courageous and loving human being. I'm so lucky to have him in my life. Preparing this book for him made me fall in love with him all over again. And that is the most valuable gift I could ever give him. 

Here is what the inside looks like. I did a fun pink background for all of my letters to Ryan and a blue for all of the ones he wrote me. 

School Friends

I have been so blessed to have met some wonderful friends through Owen's school. There are 6 adorable little 2 year olds in his class all with super sweet moms. I am the "class mom rep" and my #1 duty is to get the mom's in the class together outside of school to get to know each other better. Well it only took one playdate for 4 of us to figure out that we really are good friends! I am so grateful for these girls. They are even going to help me with Owen when I have this baby. We try to get the kidos together outside of school every week or so. It helps us all out and we get to hang out too. For the holidays we got together at my place and made Christmas cookies with the boys. Then right before Christmas we took the boys to the firestation just a few blocks away. Here are some super cute pictures from our outings. 

Thanksgiving

This year Ryan only got the day of Thanksgiving off so we were forced to forgo our annual trip home for the Councill Family Thanksgiving. Thankfully Ryan's brother and sister-in-law only live 4 hours away and got the whole weekend off so they were able to come up and join us. And Ryan's sister Sara, her husband and little girl drove all the way (12 hours) from St. Louis to be with us. It was a houseful, 13 to be exact, but it was fun. I cooked all day the day before making homemade rolls that I only make twice a year and pies. I love to cook so it was fun for me, but a long day on my feet and back.

My brother in law, Jared, is a wonderful amateur gourmet cook, and he too takes great pleasure out of spending hours concocting wonderfully yummy dishes. He has come up with one of the most delicious turnkey recipes that includes a 4 hour turkey brine. It is so tasty. He was the mastermind behind the turkey and everyone else pitched in to make the rest. Thankfully Ryan knows this single guy from the hospital who lives a few floors above us and let us use his oven to cook the turkey. It sure made life easier when we needed to prepare all the sides in our house.  Here is a picture of our "spread". Not the best looking presentation, but it was all so YUMMY! I must say, I'm particularly proud of my hubby who year after year delivers on the candied yams. There is no real recipe but they are great every time. He did "toast" the marshmallows a little too much this year, but they were still delicious, just tasted like s'mores on top.

Look at the cute little girl who took a bathe in my kitchen sink. 

Visit from My Big Brother

My oldest brother Jay, who is in the Army, just got reassigned from Reaford, North Carolina to Anchorage, Alaska. After the initial shock of having to move his whole family to Alaska we all got really excited for them and started planning out our next adventure to go see them. Unfortunately, with the reassignment came orders to deploy to Afganistan. So Jay and his son Keller made the trip out to see Ryan and I before he moved. We had such a wonderful visit. We did all things Ft. Worth including the Stockyards, the Water Garden, ate Mexican food, did sight seeing, went to the Children's museum, etc. It was such a wonderful relaxing visit for everyone. I'm so bummed Jay moved to Alaska, making it harder to see him when we do get a chance to go home to the East Coast, but super excited to see him in Alaska in the next few years. Ryan and I have always wanted to go there so now we have a great reason to go. Jay is settled in Alaska and now awaiting word on if and when he will actually get/have to deploy. If you'd like please say a prayer that he won't have to go.

Keller climbing on the life-sized T.Rex outside the Children's Museum, and Owen "feeding" the dino acorns.

Renaissance Festival

Outside of Houston a man with a lot of property to spare has built a permanent Renaissance Fortress in the woods complete with 7 villages representing different geographical areas, i.e. Italy, Scotland, Greece, France, etc. They have all the period food like turkey legs, meat on a stick (a pork chop on a skewer), baked potato filled with stew, etc. The festival runs for almost 2 months, from the beginning to October through the end of November. The festival employs about 1,000 to run the demonstrations, perform, and to mingle adding to the ambiance. Then there are the 25,000 other people who come to play "adult dress up and to people watch like us. The costumes are amazingly elaborate and expensive. You can buy them there as well as all the fairy jewelry, swords, and woodcrafts you could want.  It also seems to be a big excuse for anyone, and I mean anyone, to wear whatever they want, show as much cleavage as they want, and get as drunk as they want. Basically its like an old school Vegas. The whole things is quite remarkable. If you're ever in the Houston area in the fall you should make a point to attend. It's something you'll never forget.

Ryan's brother and his kids have made this a fall tradition and we made a special trip down to attend with them. It was so crazy how "into it" people get. I still can't figure out what kinds of jobs these people have that they can take off for 2 months to play dress up. Here are some of our favorite people from that day. By the way.....in my opinion not EVERYONE should be allowed to wear a chainmail bikini.