Cranium anyone!

Last night we went over to the Crowther's for a little hangout. Melissa and I decdied that we watch far too much football when we all get together and we needed to take matters into our own hands. We decided to play a little boys vs. girls Cranium. Anyone that knows Nick and I knows that Cranium is a huge part of my families get togethers. We play it EVERYTIME we get together and it gets a little out of control. Aaron and Melissa are just as competitive so we thought it best to stick with our own kind. Melissa and I came back from being behind and we near victory when the boys got two very easy sports questions in a row. This put us at a tie game. We played eight rounds of tie breakers before, sadly, we were defeated! I can admit defeat but there will be a rematch! It was a really fun night - Aaron even made cookies! Thanks Crowthers!

Chain blog - a little about me!

My friend Natalie wanted to hear from whoever read hers so here goes nothing! 8 Things I am passionate about: 1. Nick 2. The Gospel 3. Music 4. Family 5. Making memories 6. Christmas 7. Friends 8. Having babies 8 Things I want to do before I die: 1. Have kids with Nick 2. Go on another cruise - this time to Europe! 3. Go to Australia 4. Finish my CD 5. Sing my music in front of people. 6. Go on a mission with Nick 7. Have our own home. 8. Watch my children grow to serve missions & get married in the temple. 8 Books I have read recently: 1. The Ensign - does that count?!?! 2. Twilight 3. New Moon 4. Eclipse 5. Following Christ 6. 7. 8. * I really need to read more! 8 Things I often say: 1. I love you. 2. Hey babe 3. You betcha. 4. neighb - it's my way of abbreviating neigbor 5. Mongral - I really say weird things. I have been trying to hide my weirdness in my posts but the time has come to let it all hang out! 6. Wombat 7. Love your guts. 8. okey dokey 8 Things that attract me to friends: 1. People I can be my true self with 2. People who are genuine 3. People I can trust 4. People who can laugh at life 5. People who are kind 6. People who have time for friends 7. People who I have things in common with 8. People who want to be around me 8 Songs and Albums I could listen to over and over again: 1. Noel by Josh Groban 2. The Luckiest by Ben Folds Five 3. Gavin DeGraw 4. My mom singing 5. Chris Daughtry 6. Come Thou Fount by The Mormon Taberbacle Choir 7. I Can't Go There by Kenny Chesney 8. Awake by Josh Groban 8 Things I learned this year: 1. I am ready to be a mom 2. That Heavenly Father really DOES answer our prayers 3. Change is good. 4. You can't put a price on having your own place as a married couple. 5. Things happen for a reason - even if they seem HORRIBLE at first. 6. The Food Network calms a troubled heart. 7. I LOVE to cook. 8. That having a kidney transplant doesn't limit me in any way. 8 Random things about me: 1. I had a kidney transplant. 2. I hate feet. 3. I was really into drama in high school. 4. I have been working on a demo for three years of me singing stuff I wrote. 5. I am allergic to olives. 6. I make killer chicken parmesean. 7. I was kidnapped when I was little. 8. I used to have a room that was floor to ceiling strawberry shortcake. 8 People I tag: April, Krystal, Jen, Stacey, Shannon, Heather, Melissa & Melanie!

The Office

This week my office has been moving to our new building. We used to work in this old house in Libertytown and we were just growing out of it. We now have a big, roomy, new building in Mount Airy! I am most excited about this because now I will drive by my padres home everyday which is really nice to be able to stop over after work sometimes. I have my very own office now with a door! I know, I know - not that exciting but it is to me. I have never had my own office with a door and it has somehow made me feel more important of something! I can put up some pictures and I definetly need a plant of some sort! Anyway, if you are ever in Mount Airy, stop on by!

Snow Days

We got our first snow fall on Wednesday. I don't know about everybody else, but I LOVE snow. I wait for it every year and just love to watch it fall and I love the way it looks covering everything. So here is a view from our patio - very pretty. I am now going to use my blog to defend all Marylanders. We get a lot of criticism for "freaking out" about snow and I just feel that it is my duty to defend my peeps. We do worry about snow because Maryland is very humid. That means our snow is very very wet snow. You combine that with fluctuating freezing temperatures and you get serious black ice issues. They cancel school because they don't want your little ones in any danger as they know that they will have to travel on windy backroads possibly covered in black ice. So, just give us a break - we're doing it for the children :-)

It's Christmas time in the city!

This is a very exciting Christmas for us as it is our first one in our own apartment. We decorated my parents basement last year but we never got a tree or anything and it was, after all, my parents basement. So this year I was really looking forward to getting a tree and decorating our apartment with our stuff! It has been really fun! Nick and I ventured out and found our tree in literally about 10 minutes - she's a beauty, eh? Here are our stocking hung by the fire.......uh, or hung on the hutch. No fireplace but our hutch will do just fine! You'd think I would be smart enought to clean off the hutch before taking a picture but no. You can see Stacey & Nate's saw being displayed here as well. Thanks for letting us borrow it you guys! You are the best! Just a few decorations here and there but all that matters is that it is our stuff in our apartment! It's a great thing and we feel so blessed this year. Good family & good friends - we're very lucky!

I can officially celebrate!

I am happy to announce that christmas cards are going out today. Now that my life is not consumed by cutting, pasting, stamping & stuffing I can enjoy what christmas is truly about - shopping, charging, wrapping......JUST KIDDING! Of course I am kidding! Nick and I made a point to get our shopping done early so that we could enjoy the real meaning of christmas and not be burdened down by deadlines. Our house is a christmas stress free zone now and I couldn't be happier about celebrating!

Indians, settlers & The Longs.......OH MY!!!

This past weekend Nick, his mom and I went down to Williamsburg & Jamestown. We have friends that live down there and we love to see them so we decided to cram the touristy stuff and hang out with the Critchlow's at the same time. The Critchlow's got us a room at this place called Powhatan Plantation. It is really cute and there is quite a lot to do there at the resort. Every evening this drummer and piper would come out and play christmas songs. It was really sweet.

We spent the whole day saturday in Jamestown.

This year was the 400th anniversary of the settlement in Jamestown. I remember going to Jamestown as a kid a long time ago but I think I needed to be older to really appreciate what the settlers had to overcome to make a life here. We bought tickets to the living museum and it was so cool. The actors were so great and really made you feel like you were back in time. We also got to board the ships and they were really neat. Even thougth I tried, I couldn't wrap my head around the idea of them living in that little boat for months. Talk about sea sick!

*This is a picture of the Indian village

*This is Nick grinding corn into cornmeal - I don't think we would've survived back then!

*A typical meal for the Indians - potato cakes and some sort of vegatable mash.

*Nick is practicing his swing with a handmade greenstone ax.

*Nick, Carter & Connor outfitted for battle.

Lori, Nick and I on the balcony of the Susan D. Constant - the ship the settlers came over on.

Just a little canoe that Nick and I widdled that morning! J/K - The settlers actually did make their canoes out of trees. They would hollow them out by burning out the insides and scraping it down with oyster shell. Clay was used to patch any holes to outside air. Pretty neat - we got to actually hollow one out that day.

It was such a great trip and I would recommend everyone go this year because of the 400th anniversary. There are a lot of really neat things going on to celebrate! We had a great time.

Sorry this was such a long post - it was such a fun filled weekend! Thanks for hanging in there with me!