Category: Randomness

Here's our tree for this year!

I figured posting a picture of our Christmas tree would be a very nice way to start December!

My dad's dog, Sparks, is the goofiest dog I have seen in a long time. He's about 60 pounds and thinks he's a lap dog. When we were at my dad's house for Thanksgiving, the dog decided he needed to sit on my brother and his girlfriend's laps.

See?! Goofy dog! He also rests on a chest by the front window to watch people outside. He wouldn't sit there long enough for me to get a picture, but I assure you, it's goofy!

Anyone else out there have goofy pets?

And my dad just sent me a couple pictures from Thanksgiving! We had a great time and ate lots!

Look at all these wonderful birthday and anniversary cards we received! I tried to set them all up and take a picture. I don't usually do this, but it just seemed like a good year to remember all that I am thankful for. And I know I am mostly thankful for all my loving family members and friends.

Yesterday I turned 30. There I said it. No second 29th, 29 and holding or anything like that. Just 30.

It wasn't as scary as I thought it would be. Although I am not sure why I thought it would be scary at all. None of my other birthdays have scared me.

Chuck sneakily gave me an annibirthary gift. He gave me tons of candy and snacks (I'm pregnant. I like snacks. He is wonderful!) In one of the bags of candy, he opened and removed some of the candy, then wrapped a ring he got me. It has pink and regular diamonds in it. It's so perfect. Not only do I love pink, but he even thought it would be a great gift since we are having our first little girl. He's so incredibly thoughtful and wonderful. I don't need anything but him on my birthday. I couldn't be luckier to spend my birthday celebrating marrying him every year!

HERE are those pictures. There aren't many pictures because we got a new video camera and Chuck video taped most of me opening my presents. I will have to get around to uploading the videos soon. (We are using it to practice up before the baby comes!) And a neighbor friend brought me a robe for my birthday gift. There's a picture of that in these pictures as well. It was so sweet of her!

Then we worked on tiling the back splash. The tiles are up, we just did the grouting. It's looking wonderful, and I promise I will post pictures soon. We're almost done! Then my mom came over to help get our house back in order after some projects we have been doing. She brought a couple gifts. We are getting together with my mom and crew this coming weekend for a birthday celebration. So there will be more pictures in this gallery soon.

Then we had dinner with Chuck's sister, her husband, their grandparents and one of their aunts (they were in town from Omaha after visiting Chuck's dad).

After all that excitement, we went home and watched a movie. It was a very nice birthday weekend.

We have already celebrated two other times with other family.

Last week, we had Chuck's mom and sister over for dinner and ice cream cake. Chuck's mom and sister gave us the bedding we picked for the baby's room and Chuck's mom made me a diaper bag! It's so cute. She also made curtains for the baby's room and brought those with her. HERE are those pictures.

Friday we had dinner at my dad's house where he made BBQ ribs and twice baked potatoes…just like my grandma always made for me on my birthday. HERE are the pictures.

I am sure there are things I am forgetting, but it was a wonderful birthday. Thank you everyone!

We had a nice weekend. I took Friday off (which is something I never do). I did a few things around the house since I am too tired when I get home from work to do anything. Then my brother and his girlfriend came over Friday night to hang out and play pool. We had a great time.

Saturday, I got together with a friend and went shopping for things for a shower we are throwing next weekend. After all the shopping, I went home and worked on other things for the shower. While I was away, Chuck was hard at work at things around the house. This included working on the tiles for the backsplash in the kitchen. Then we went out to dinner. Then we got ready for a Halloween party at our neighbor's house. It was nice to just walk across the street and hang out for a while. They made lots of creepy looking food1 They did a great job!

Sunday, I had lunch with a friend then ran a couple errands. When I got home, Chuck had been working like crazy on all the tiling and even had some of them attached to the wall. After I heated up my leftovers for him to eat, I helped him work on the rest of the tiling. I took pictures and I will get those uploaded and posted soon. It looks great! I can't wait to see how it looks when all the grout is in! It's so pretty!

Of course, during the tiling and while I was making dinner, we had a bunch of trick or treaters come to the door.

Then Chuck and I were both tired and we spent the rest of the evening sitting on the couch. It was a great weekend. I think weekends get shorter and shorter every week with all the things I want to try to get done!

I hope you had a nice weekend, too!

Oh…and Happy November. And I only have 99 days to go until my due date! Under 100 days left! Woo hoo!

This video is so funny!

Watermelon Baby

Is it bad that I want to try this with our baby some day?!

We finally got around to buying tiles for our backsplash. We have been talking about tiling the backsplash since we moved into our hose a year and a half ago. All I had to do was pick out tiles. Of course….I never did. So we went out and picked some that we liked.

We haven't installed them yet, but this is what they look like:

I think they are going to look so nice. They are travertine tiles with a polished shine to them. I like all the shades of brown in them and think it will be a long lasting pattern and tile color no matter what we end up painting the kitchen throughout the years.

I will be sure to post some pictures when we get it done and maybe even some in-progress pictures if I remember!

Last year I came across instructions to make bird seed wreaths. So I made them for a few people as Christmas gifts. They were a big hit.

First, you'll need water, bird seed and gelatin.

Then make the gelatin as it instructs on the packaging.

Next, spray a mold with cooking spray.

Then add the bird seed into the gelatin and stir.

Then put in in the mold and press down to pack it in tightly.

Let it sit in the mold over night or longer. Some pieces will fall off the edges when you take it out of the mold. We experimented using a little extra gelatin to hold it together better.

I then attached a ribbon through the ring for hanging on a tree and wrapped them up. I wouldn't recommend wrapping them too early. We let one sit around with a towel over it for a couple days and it started to get moldy. You'll get the hang of it with a little trail and error. And the supplies are REALLY cheap for this gift!

I found the recipe/directions for it in a magazine, but I know there are lots of links to it online, too. HERE is one link.

And note, you can make them in other shapes, too. I saw lots shaped like balls or ornaments and they were really cute. I don't know how you hang them, though. Some more research may be needed for that one!

Enjoy!

Last weekend we painted another room in the house. This time it was our office upstairs. We are calling this the “project room” because we have an office on the first floor that we are going to keep clean, so this room will be the one we leave messy.

This is the way the room looked temporarily while we were moving things around.

Then I got it all ready to paint:

We picked a blue color from Behr called “Russian Blue”. I think it turned out great!

I like to look from the project room into the baby's room and see the colors! They look so nice together!

Our house feels so colorful! I love it! I'll be sure to post more pictures once we get this room (and the others) put together.

The other day I posted about one of my best friend's baby, Anne. Well, I finally got around to getting the pictures from Brooke's baby shower for Anne uploaded. (I know, I know, I am way behind, but life has been busy. Give me a break!)

Brooke was so adorable pregnant! See!

My friend Hillary and I put together her shower and we had such fun. We got her a cake, balloons, lots of food, some games…

Hillary is sitting on the chair on the left. I had just found out I was pregnant a few weeks before this. I wasn't feeling great this day. I was so tired and not very hungry, but thankfully, I was able to pull everything together well for Brooke!

Brooke had a great time and loved everything we did, which is all that really matters.

There are a few more pictures HERE if you are interested.