the adventures of bryce and kristen

white chicken "chili"

2012-02-09T14:38:00.002-06:00

another day...another soup. i didn't even notice until i sat down to write this that we apparently have been on a soup kick lately.

anyway, as part of my project: organization i have continued on with my pinterest - found meals, and this was another hit at the thompson hizzy.

now, i am going to apply the term "chili" to this recipe only because that's what the original source says, but honestly, it's much more like a tortilla soup in my opinion.

and i apologize for not taking some wonderfully glamorous instagram photos for you all to drool over. i realized after i sent the last of the soup with the hubs today for lunch that i didn't get around to it. woops.

{how to: simplify}

ingredients:

1 tablespoon EVOO
1 medium onion, diced
2 cups cooked chicken

she uses a rotisserie chicken and shreds it.
since i am on a super-tight budget, i used 3 chicken breasts, cubed them, sauteed in the EVOO with s & p, oregano, cumin, a little chili powder and anything else i felt like sprinkling in there. doing it this way, i made the entire recipe for less than what a rotisserie chicken costs. boo yah.

2 cans great northern beans, drained and rinsed
1 can corn, drained
1 can (4 oz) diced green chilies
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1 box (32 ounces) chicken broth
salt and pepper to taste (i use coarse sea salt and fresh ground pepper)
1 lime, juice

get ta' cookin':

in a large stock pot, heat your EVOO, throw in your chicken, season and sear.
add the onions and cook until they are almost translucent
add the lime juice and green chilies. i like to let everything simmer here for just a minute.
add the beans, corn, cumin, oregano and broth.
stir and bring to boil, then reduce your heat and simmer for 20-30 minutes.
serve however you'd like!

i added some sour cream, colby and monterey jack cheese and tortilla strips. i forgot the cilantro at the store, otherwise it would've been on there too:)

super-dee-duper easy "chili" and this is one of those soups that gets better as each day passes! even better news: SUPER low in calories, high in fiber and protein! (just omit the sour cream, cheese and chips...)

my only complaint is that this recipe doesn't make a very big batch...so next time i'll probably double it:)

year end wrap up.

2012-02-03T16:21:00.003-06:00

i cannot believe this is the THIRD year end post since starting our blog...or that it took me three days into february to get last year's wrap up posted...sheesh!

just like previous years, 2011 was pretty good to us. although there were less "major" events as a family for us, watching brice master all her developmental milestones was pretty amazing. seeing as how i post EVERYTHING about her on facebook (and sometimes the blog) i will save you all the monotony of going through the first time she rolled over, sat up, crawled, walked...shook those precious little bun buns...you know, things like that:)

we took our first major mommy-daddy vacation to see two of our FAVORITE people, liz and mitch, tie the knot in napa. we were gone for ten days...and towards the last part of the trip we were both so ready to see our little love bug it was all we could hardly stand! early on in our marriage, bryce and i made the commitment that we will ALWAYS have a mommy-daddy only trip. even if it's only a weekend getaway, we think it is EXTREMELY important to remember that we are - in fact - still bryce and kristen...not only mommy and daddy:)

moose escaped...and then we found him after a week of anguish. definitely NOT a highlight of the year!

miss priss turned one and being able to share such a fun milestone with our family was fantastic!

we also found out that our family would be growing! when i first found out i was pregnant with bt2, i was TERRIFIED. and that is not an understatement. how in the world am i going to love another child as much as i love brice? am i robbing time with her, short changing her in any way? again, the Lord showed His grace and mercy by preparing my heart for the arrival of our new baby boy this spring...and i cannot wait to kiss his fat little cheeks and snuggle him! the thing i am most excited about is watching these children with my husband. i know he acts like a hard ass, but he is the most amazing and tender-hearted father i have ever seen. he is not afraid to be gentle and loving, but will lay down the law when needed. i know without a doubt he is my perfect match. his strengths are my weaknesses and he builds me up, encourages me and loves me unconditionally...especially through the miserable pregnant mood-swings (also known as nine months of grouchy!). to tell our family and closest friends we were expecting, my sweet husband made the most precious dvd of brice's first year and ended the slideshow telling everyone she is going to be a big sister! (although it didn't happen in 2011, finding out we are having a little boy was so exciting!)

i would have to say the biggest event in our lives this year was definitely the move back to oklahoma. i truly struggle putting into words how amazing it is to be HOME. there is a feeling we have when we're in oklahoma and there are no words to describe the feeling of home...

looking back, the "theme" of our family for 2011 is grateful. trying to wrap my head around how the Lord loves us and cares for us is nearly impossible, and we are so grateful for our blessings.

over the past year, we have gained wisdom and are really learning how to be a fruitful family unit. the first few years of marriage can be difficult and throwing a baby into the mix (joyfully!) creates new demands and obstacles that we as a husband and wife have had to learn to manage. we have really mastered becoming a team and are setting healthy boundaries so we can manage our family as we feel led.

over the last months of 2011, i truly felt the conviction to be completely TRANSPARENT in my walk with the Lord, in motherhood, in womanhood...in my life in general, so i'm sure there are those of you out there that think i share everything and that nothing in my life is private (although that is not true!). i have truly felt the conviction that there are other women and young mommies out there that are struggling with the same things i am. if i share my walk - my struggles, my triumphs - it may just be a tool God uses as encouragement or wisdom for someone else who may need to hear what the Lord has put on my heart. i want to rejoice with my friends, cry with them, build them up, and hold them accountable...and i am so thankful the Lord has blessed me with women who do the same for me.

2011 brought me a deeper understanding of what it's like to have freedom in the Lord, and i am working on a daily basis to focus on the big picture. my eternal footprint on someone's spirit is much more important than mopped floors or the perfect dinner party...

so, there you have it. 2011 was pretty fantastic and i know this next year will not disappoint: our first niece, madeline anne, just arrived and my cousin kevin is getting married this summer. our family is growing and i know 2012 will be full of love, laughter...and diapers. LOTS of diapers:)

i'll leave you with a few of my favorite pictures from 2011:

pouty face! two months.

four month old happy girl.

a's - giants game in san fran.

nine months...after my mamarazzi class!

rah oklahoma!

running around at the pumpkin patch.

i hope you all stop and thank the Lord for the blessings in your life and actively invest in the future of your family. live - and love - with intent.

tortellini soup.

2012-01-31T14:10:00.001-06:00

okay, so as part of my project: organization, i made the commitment to making our menu two weeks at a time and one recipe that was a major hit around here was tortellini vegetable soup. although oklahoma is having an ABNORMALLY warm winter, (which, if i do say so myself, is a bunch of garbage. i went on the hunt to find a snowsuit and heavy coat for b in preparation for the annual blizzard...and i'm going to be ticked off if we don't have any snow!) i still love my cold-weather soups.

when i came across the recipe on pinterest, i knew the hubs would love it and it looked simple...two things that make my life easier! as with pretty much everything i make, i changed it up a little bit to add more bulk and to get more meals out of it.

here's the original recipe:

ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 small zucchini, diced
1 medium carrot, peeled and diced
5 1/2 cups chicken stock e oil

1 teaspoon dried basil (more if fresh)

1 bay leaf

1/2 cup canned crushed tomatoes

1/2 teaspoon salt

8 to 9 ounces fresh or frozen tortellini (cheese or meat filled)

2 to 3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Black pepper, to taste

instructions:

Heat the olive oil in a medium soup pot or large saucepan. Add the onion, zucchini, and carrot. Saute over moderate heat for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring often, until the onion is soft and translucent.
Add the stock, basil, bay leaf, tomatoes, and salt to the pot. Increase the heat and bring the mixture to a low boil. Add the tortellini and bring the soup back to a low boil. Cook it for 2 minutes, then reduce the heat and let it simmer for 5 to 6 minutes longer. Gently stir in the parsley and pepper during the last minute or so. Makes about 5 servings.

easy, peasey, right?! rrrrright. i apologize for some of the rough "estimates" i'm fixing to give you. i threw away all the boxes and cans before i wrote this post and i am SO bad at dumping in ingredients and tasting...anyway, here's my adaptation:

1 medium onion, chopped

2 large zucchini, diced in fourths

1/2 bag baby carrots, diced

two boxes of chicken broth

2 (ish?) teaspoons of basil

1 can crushed tomatoes

1 can garlic and onion diced tomatoes

1 box of tortellini

1 bag spinach leaves

s and p to your liking.

in a LARGE stock pot, soften your onion, zucchini and carrots in a little bit of olive oil. DO NOT over cook. they'll turn to mush later. yuck.

cook your boxed tortellini, making sure it is VERY UNDERDONE. (i used boxed because there was about a $7 difference between it and the tortellini in the refrigerated foods section.)

dump everything else in the pot with the onion, zucchini and carrots. return to a boil for about two minutes, reduce to a simmer for about five minutes and make sure your spinach leaves are wilted before you turn down the heat.

now i didn't add the bay leaves because i didn't realize i was out until i got home, so if you don't have any, it'll still be yummy.

this makes a HUGE pot of soup and is super cheap. it reminds me a lot of the minestrone soup from olive garden, which i LOVE. serve this baby up with some bread sticks and you've got an easy, low-calorie dinner...well, except for the bread sticks because if you're like me, you can eat your weight in bread. not good. :)

project: organization.

2012-01-26T08:30:00.000-06:00

my goal for 2012 is for our family to be a well-oiled, organized machine. with number two on the way, the last thing i have time for is chasing my tail, so i have "resolved" (it is the new year, right?) to run our household more like a business. and a big, huge SHOUT OUT to my new bff: google calendars. here's a quick overview of what's going on in january in our house:

i color code EVERYTHING...and it syncs with my phone. double awesome.

after i do the master schedule online, i do weekly updates every sunday on our dry erase board in the laundry room by the door out to the garage. i erase the daily tasks every evening...possibly because i like the cleanliness, but also there is something that gives me the warm fuzzies about marking stuff off our master to-do list... oh and i also put my honey-do's on it because bryce has been so busy with work and i have pregnant brain that it helps us both to have it in sight.

my next step is to get some colored dry erase markers
so i can color code on the weekly board...
but i keep forgetting to write it down
and forget them EVERY TIME i go to the store...

one of my MOST-HATED tasks as a SAHM (or wife/mom in general) is grocery shopping. yuck...one of the reasons i hate it so much is because i HAVE to coupon. not because i'm addicted, but because we are a one income family and i REFUSE to feed my family garbage, which turns into a 3-stop trip for me: homeland (for couponing), buy 4 less (general stock up) and then the farmer's market for my fresh produce. hate it. seriously. well, except for the farmer's market...i love that kind of stuff:)

so, i have figured out how to make this dreaded task a little less dreadful, at least for me: one of my biggest problems is i get in a menu rut, causing my grocery list to be a hodge podge of things i "think" i might need...and i am the kind of person that i can eat the same meal every day for a month, and then i won't eat it again for a year. it doesn't bother me...my husband on the other hand, is not the same. he gets bored with monotony very quickly, and very rarely makes requests, leaving me racking my brain for new options. so, now that we are finally settled in our new house, i sat down and made a two week menu. i had pinned TONS of recipes on pinterest and decided to actually make them...shocking, right?!

i spent about 20 minutes pilfering through everything and laid out our menu for the next two weeks, making sure that i put the direct link on my google calendar in the "description" section. (if you don't use google calendar, this doesn't make any sense, but once you start, you'll figure it out. super easy.)

to help cut down on the dreaded shopping trip, i have made the goal of doing a "stock up" trip every two weeks (or less, hopefully!) to restock the pantry, a quick "coupon match-up" trip to homeland when my coups coincide with their sales (and it's actually stuff i need. i don't understand the idea of couponing and buying crap you don't need. you're still spending money...so put the 15 boxes of breathe right strips back on the shelf...) and my weekly produce run. i am PICKY about produce and have found that the farmer's markets get things (usually) locally and there are fewer middle-men, meaning your produce gets to you sooner, thus it doesn't spoil nearly as quickly as the supermarket stuff.

i hope this helps some of you crawl out from under the menu rut and from those days where you just feel like there's no structure. i am SOOO much more productive when i have a game plan!

oh and i've been couponing for about two years now...so if you have any questions, let me know. i'll be more than happy to help you!

the next post will be the sharing of the tortellini soup recipe that i tweaked...

happy thursday...and happy organizing!

turtle or hamburger: the sequel.

2012-01-25T08:51:00.000-06:00

when i was pregnant with brice, a sonographer came into the bank and told me that on an ultrasound, a girl looks like a hamburger and a boy looks like a turtle...

apparently, the first time around i made a deal with the hubs that if we found out with the first baby, we wouldn't find out with the rest. now, call it pregnant (or selective) amnesia if you would like, but i DO NOT remember this agreement.

this second pregnancy has been COMPLETELY different than with brice, and i have "known" from pretty much the get-go that this baby is a boy. i had been thinking that for a while when bryce looked over at me as we were driving down the road and said, "i have a confession." GREAT. fan. tas. tic. if you know my husband, you know that there is an extremely wide array of what this could entail, which usually gets the typical response from me: "how much money did you spend at cabela's?"

"no, it's not about that. although i can't believe you think i would do that!"

(GIVE. ME. A. BREAK. this coming from the man who sneaks stuff in the house through his hunting backpack...)

"okay, well what is it?"

"i haven't said this out loud for fear of jinxing us, but i think we're having a boy."
"oh my gosh, me too!"

when we were pregnant with brice, we were both certain we were having a girl and we came to this conclusion separate from each other, so when he told me he thought this baby is going to be a boy, it kind of confirmed things. yes, i know this sounds crazy...but i'm telling you, we just KNEW.

we went for our developmental ultrasound last week and i knew if i could get the results into a sealed envelope, my chances of getting that thing open were fairly good...so we went. and we left with an envelope.

we didn't open it for almost five days. i guess bryce had to decide he too wanted to open it...or just swallow his pride and admit that it's not so crazy to want to be prepared. there was one requirement i had to meet prior to the opening of the envelope: i had to sign a contract that we would not find out with the next baby. being the loving and supportive wife i am, i did one better: i said no finding out on any of our future babies.

now what you don't see in this picture is this is the second half of a
previous "contract" i made with my husband.
something about not being cranky or a -ahem- "choice" word...

so, the three of us were sitting around the table and i was nervous as could be. i'm still not quite sure why, but i had a huge knot in my stomach.

bryce opened it, looked, and silently slid it across the table to me.
"TELL ME!!"
"nope. gotta do it yourself."

so i looked...

we were right...again!

WHAM-O!!! not only were we excited (and slightly creeped out) that we were right, but i am so glad that bryce is going to get his mini. he has a wonderful relationship with his father and i can't wait for my husband to have that with our son. i'm also thankful that brice won't really have to share her wardrobe budget...but that's way down on the list:)

this is one of the sonogram images that confirmed we were having a boy for me...even before we opened "THE" envelope. i will warn you: this picture totally creeps me out. not sure if it's because it's just kind of a creepy skeleton face since we're only at 24ish weeks development when it was taken...or if it's because it looks JUST. LIKE. MY. HUSBAND. creepy...

and there you have it! asher graham thompson will be here sometime around the beginning of may. (he will go by graham because all the men in bryce's family go by their middle names.)

anyone want to wager how long it take my husband to walk through the door with a BB gun? :)

crazy Christmas.

2012-01-13T08:55:00.000-06:00

well, we have survived a crazy, whirlwind move...and i'm finally getting around to updating the blog. and yes, i am EX. HAUS. TED.

since we knew we were moving, it was definitely difficult to remind ourselves that we were in fact in the Christmas season. we decided not to do gifts because everything that was purchased in texas would have to be moved to oklahoma...and those of you who know me know there are a MILLION things i would rather do than move. (like pull every hair out of my head, one at a time...)

anyway, i went ahead and decorated the house as soon as we got back from our Thanksgiving trip home because i knew that if i waited, it wouldn't get done and b had to have a tree.

here are a few snapshots from Christmas this year, albeit a small one, it's probably one of my favorite Christmases to date. This was the first year that gifts TRULY didn't matter and we weren't consumed with the commercial side of things. We were able to sit back and be thankful that God had answered one of our most heartfelt prayers, enjoy our little girl and enjoy each other...in between packing boxes of course:)

good news: figured out self timer. bad news: not focused. boo.

daddy and brice

mommy and brice. (and baby bump!)

this makes me smile. she had been playing with this box for days!

hope you all had a very MERRY Christmas season with your families!

grateful.

2011-12-19T21:37:00.000-06:00

take delight in the lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. {psalm 37:4}

now that our time in texas is coming to an end, i have had many emotions fill my heart over the past few weeks. although i have tried to transition our blog into a lifestyle blog, it is first and foremost my outlet for expression, and i want to document this milestone in our lives for myself, for my family...and for any of you who may need to hear what the Lord has put on my heart.

as i sit here with tears streaming down my face, it is absolutely amazing to me that the Lord has looked upon me with favor and blessed me beyond anything i could ever deserve, simply because He loves me. although our life is extremely far from perfect, the truest and deepest desires of my heart have been heard and the Lord has answered my prayers...

i have a faithful and loving husband, a man who is a servant for the Lord and who never waivers in his faith and his provision for his family. he is absolutely the hardest worker i have ever known and he loves his wife and his daughter (and new little nugget that's on the way) with every ounce of his soul. the Lord has used my husband as a vessel to bless my life (and others) beyond measure. he is loyal, he is truthful, and he is a man of integrity. he is my counter-part, my best friend, and my sanity.

i have a beautiful, healthy, happy daughter who is a ray of sunshine and the light of my life. watching her grow and knowing the love we have for her overwhelms me when i compare that to how Christ loves us. she has done absolutely nothing to cause me to love her; i love her simply because she is MINE. and we are His.

it is no secret that for quite some time i have longed, with a depth that is hard to describe, to return home to oklahoma. oklahoma is in me and her simplicity and warmth pulse strong through my veins. i am thankful the Lord gave me a loving family and a simple up bringing in a small town where knowing the little pleasures in life never was over-looked and i am thankful we will be able to raise our children in the same manner.

the Lord has blessed us by providing work for bryce that he loves, excels in, and a company that is like family. I actually am hesitant to use the word company because Reeder General is much more than that: they are our texas family. they have given bryce the freedom to exercise his God-given talents and with that has come great success for all of us. the company is growing at a mind-boggling pace and we are returning home, neither of which would be without blessings from above. i am thankful bryce works for a company that is honorable and trustworthy - because in their line of work the lines can be all too easily blurred. i am thankful that bryce is surrounded by Godly men who challenge him, hold him accountable, but more importantly, support him and stand by him through his professional and personal lives.

so as we pack up and head north, the one thing that rings in my ears is "gratefulness." i am grateful the Lord loves me despite my many, many flaws. i am grateful for a husband who challenges me, loves me and works his hardest to give his family the world. i am grateful for brice, for the funny, ornery little girl she is, and for her little brother or sister who will soon be joining our crazy life. i am grateful for our extended family, for our friends who are family, and for the many ways they bless our lives.

the truest and deepest desires of my heart are not to live in a big fancy house or to drive a brand new car. no, the real desires of my heart are to delight myself in the Lord and watch the growing of my family; to spend as much time as possible with the ones i love and drink in every drop of life while i am here on this earth...and i am grateful, above all, that the Lord knows these things before i do.

adventures in renting.

2011-12-14T14:59:00.002-06:00

okay, so for most of you who read our blog on a regular basis or are friends on fb, you know we are FINALLY returning home to OKLAHOMA!!! be still my beating heart:) what a relief that we got out of here giving birth to only one texan! JOKE PEOPLE. please don't send me hate mail. i come from good, hearty stock of oklahoma sooners, so it runs deep. AND some of my best friends in the entire world are texans... :)

bryce is starting an oklahoma office for his company and we are moving up there so he can run the office and projects on-site, not 200 miles away. anyway, that's beside the point of this post...and i know you don't want me to ramble on about how proud i am of him and how i have THE BEST husband on the face of the planet, and that is not up for discussion:)

since it's been quite some time since either of us have been "renters" i've decided i'm going to dedicate a good majority of the upcoming posts to the renter, or what i consider someone who needs temporary and non-damaging decor. my biggest struggle with a rent house is very rarely do you find a property manager that will let you have free-reign to decorate, so my goal is to make this little house that isn't ours feel like it's ours, especially since baby number two will be calling this place home:)

if you rent or have any design dilemmas, send 'em my way and we'll see what we can come up with together!! i've already got a THOUSAND ideas running through my mind and trust me, we are NOT those people who have unlimited funds! we are a one income family and decorating the is the very last thing that gets any monetary love around here. so on that note, think inexpensive (NOT CHEAP. i hate the word cheap. blah.) and out of the box. some of my ideas are going to use traditional items in non-traditional ways, and you can bet your bottom dollar i'll be churning up dust at all the local thrift stores. so, if you see me bottom's up in a dumpster, don't judge. one of my FAVORITE pieces in our entire house was a 1930's antique hutch we pulled out of the dumpster from our storage facility. boo yah.

we've had PLENTY of practice in rejuvenating a house and please forgive the HORRIBLE quality of those photos. this was way-back-when before i had the mad iPhone photo taking skillzzzzzzz. i've also recently realized there are no pictures of brice's nursery, so i'll try to do a post on that in the next few days (or at least post some pictures). keep in mind that with the exception of laying the carpet/tile, retexturing our 20 foot ceilings that we scraped the popcorn off of and doing the masonry work for the fireplace we did ALL OF THIS OURSELVES. new trim, new doors, new hardware, new wood floors, cedar plank mantle...all of it. and yes i was tired. so even though i don't have a degree in interior design, i do like to think i have a design-oriented brain and a husband who can build ANYTHING. :)

okie dokie, here's where we're headed:

say hello to our new home in edmond!

also, this may be one of the last posts (although it's hardly a post, it's more of a preview) for a while. between packing, Christmas and moving, the blog will more than likely be neglected. poor blog, always gets the short end of the stick...

hot chocolate cookies.

2011-12-12T08:41:00.001-06:00

yes, you read that correctly: HOT. CHOCOLATE. COOKIES. and yes, it's hot chocolate because we're in the south y'all! this recipe is amazing and i'm so thankful to pip and ebby for sharing their discovery from the rachel ray mag.

last week, our friends cole and katie had the second annual chili cookoff. which we will not be discussing the outcome seeing as how the hubs labored and slaved away over what would be a potentially amazing chili, just to let it BURN. ugh. i knew i wanted to take something sweet because usually the boys make chili that is so stinkin' spicy it will melt your face off...anyway, i got on pinterest searching for something unique. i didn't find a recipe that i loved, but i saw a lot of hot chocolate ideas, which got me to thinking, so i searched pinterest for "hot chocolate cookies" and found a yummy recipe..

Now I am not intimidated to try an involved recipe, but when I started reading through it, I knew it was going to be a little more work than I prefer. Of course my favorite recipes are the dump, stir and bake kind, but this does not fall into that category.

here is the original recipe, and my "real-life-i-have-a-13-month-old-tugging-at-my-leg-and-hubs-is-at-work-so-i-have-no-reinforcements" adjustments are in italics. i mean feel free to go through the extra leg-work if you prefer, but anytime i can cut down on prep, i do it. first of all, take note that this dough needs to be REFRIGERATED FOR AT LEAST AN HOUR and requires your eggs to be room temperature, so make sure you give yourself adequate time. i'd say from start to finish you're looking at about a two hour time frame. alright, here we go...

1. In a medium saucepan, melt together:

1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter

12 oz. chopped semisweet chocolate (bars)

chopping semisweet bars? puh-lease. use ghiradelli semi-sweet chocolate chips. it all gets melted together anyway.

Stir frequently over medium heat until smooth. Let cool for 15 minutes.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together:

1 1/2 cups flour

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

3. Using an electric mixer, beat together:

1 1/4 cups light brown sugar

3 eggs, at room temperature

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Beat on low speed until smooth, about 2 minutes. Mix in the cooled chocolate mixture just until blended. Add the flour mixture in 2 batches, mixing on low speed until just combined. Refrigerate the dough for at least 1 hour.

cover your dough so it doesn't get that yucky, crusty film on it. eww.

4. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. F.

Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.

DO NOT USE WAX PAPER. what's the difference? wax paper is coated in, well, wax. it melts and affects the flavor of your food. btw, if you've never used parchment paper, i'm going to go ahead and say you're welcome:) totally non-stick and easiest clean up ever.

Using a tablespoon, scoop the dough and roll between your palms to form 1-inch balls. Arrange about 16 balls 2 inches apart on each cookie sheet, flattening slightly.

Bake until the tops of the cookies crack, about 12 minutes.

i only baked mine for 10 minutes. just watch for the cracking.

5. Meanwhile, cut 7.5 ounces of semisweet chocolate (bars) into 1-inch squares.

Snip 8 marshmallows in half crosswise and stick 1 square of chocolate onto each of the cut sides.

again, what's with all the chopping??! let's show that little gift of the chocolate chip some love! take your marshmallow, sticky side down and smash it into the chocolate chips or a dark chocolate hershey's kiss, point side down. it'll work. i promise...i've used both. the hershey's kiss is better because it gets way down in the cookie for the ooey-gooey center, but if you don't have any, the chips will be fine. i'm sure a dark chocolate hershey's square would work too.

i also like the jumbo marshmallows better than the medium sized ones because there's more roasted marshmallowey goodness in every bite. cut each gargantuan mallow into fourths and use that.

6. Remove the cookie sheets from the oven and gently press a marshmallow half, chocolate side down, into each cookie. Bake until the marshmallows are just softened, about 4 minutes. Transfer the pans to racks to cool for 5 minutes.

i set my timer for 3 minutes and then busted out the ol' broiler. DO NOT WALK AWAY FROM THE COOKIES ONCE THE BROILER IS GOING. watch for the browning of the marshmallows and get those puppies out because they will go from roasted deliciousness to burnt QUICK. i like the look of the toasted marshmallows and the flavor, but you can do what you prefer. if you choose not to use the broiler, let 'em go for the full 5 minutes.

i also slid the parchment off the pans onto the racks helping with the cooling process.

7. Grate 5 ounces of semisweet chocolate over the hot cookies. Using a spatula, transfer the cookies to the racks and let cool. Repeat the process with the remaining dough, marshmallows and chocolate. Bake each batch on a clean sheet of parchment paper.

i didn't measure out 5 ounces because i don't have a food scale and to be honest, i don't care. i just grated my ghiradelli semi-sweet chocolate baking bar onto the top of the warm cookie until i thought it was pretty enough. you could also use a peeler to make small chocolate curls.

and i also didn't use a clean sheet of parchment paper each time. more work, and all i could think about was devouring every single one of these cookies:)

So, there you have it. I hope that my little adjustments will help save y'all some time because this cookie is DE-LISH and there's no reason to be intimidated by it. i'm 99% sure it's my new go-to holiday cookie. but let's be honest, i'm sure i'll be making it a lot more than just at Christmas:)

oh and side note: if you're like me, there is NOTHING better than a warm cookie out of the oven, so even after they cool off pop those bad boys in the microwave for 5-10 seconds. you can relive the glory all over again...and again...and again:)

{photo credit pip and ebby.}
the iphone photos turned out pretty ugly, and i just wasn't in the mood to drag out the ol' dslr.

merry Christmas y'all. as always, don't forget to love on your families!

it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

2011-12-06T09:40:00.007-06:00

AAAAH. CHRISTMAS. my absolute favorite time of the year!!! i am such a giddy little kid when Christmastime rolls around, much to my husband's annoyment:)

most of the decorations are up and the tyler christmas tradition candles are burning away, filling our house with the smell of the holidays and i absolutely LOVE it. cue the santa-enduced butterflies and sugar cookie coma...

anyway, here is love bug "helping" with the lights. i made a BIG mistake by letting her get her grubby little paws all over the lights and ornaments for the sake of pictures because now i can't keep her out of it. oh well, i think the pictures are worth it and i hope y'all do too:)

here are the stats for the photos in case you're interested: canon 50 mm lens, 1/80, f/1.8, iso 1600

merry Christmas y'all!!! don't forget to take time to ENJOY your family and make memories:)

xo.

here we go...again.

2011-12-05T09:19:00.002-06:00

believe it or not, i actually kept a secret. well, kind of...

a long time ago, the hubs and i decided a few things: we want four kids. we want them to be close together and we want to be done as close to 30 as possible...so, here we go, again:)

i, unlike those other women who get to live in ignorant bliss for a few extra weeks after conceiving, know within two weeks that i am indeed pregnant. with brice, i was two hours late...yes, you heard me: TWO HOURS...

anyway, after b, i had also informed my husband that it would be a cold day in you-know-where before i was pregnant in texas in the summer again. so i gave him two options: this august or next august and there was no compromising. as if it's really up to us anyway...we know the Lord will give us children when he pleases to do so:)

back in august, we went up to visit our best friends amanda and garin. (for those of you who don't know, amanda is my female counter part. i think the reason she is my best friend in the history of ever is because she is the girl version of my husband...seriously.) anyway, we went on a walk and of course, babies came up. so, i told her i was late and that i knew i was pregnant. now i hadn't taken a test at this moment, but i knew it. like i said: i pretty much know the second it happens... i didn't want to take a test because we were going home to fort gibson for the weekend and i knew i couldn't keep my fat trap shut and i didn't want to tell bryce the same way i did last time...

when we got back from our weekend vaca, i figured it was time to take the test to confirm that i was right. just like last time, positive within seconds. whew. okay. here we go.

so, i decided i wanted to tell him in a better way and here's what i came up with:

i made b this onesie to tell daddy she's going to be a big sister!
(september 12, 2011)

and, here's his reaction to seeing her new outfit:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOWNiju5x1c&feature=player_embedded

i was trying to upload the video directly to the blog, but i don't know how to do that, so for now just bear with me until i figure it out:)

we kept our secret (well, relatively seeing as how i got busted by a ton of people, mostly for not having an adult beverage at social events...) until brice's birthday party on november the 12th. my sweet, sweet husband made the most beautiful gift for our baby for her birthday: a video montage of all the clips i had sent him of her over the first year and we shared that with our family. at the very end of the movie, we told our entire family brice is going to be a big sister!

our due date is may 13th, but this baby better come early because my best friend ashley is getting married on the 19th, so that could put a serious kink in my social calendar:) plus, she's marrying a guy that we absolutely LOVE so even if i'm tottering around like a beached whale, WE WILL BE THERE!

bt2 at 10 weeks 5 days

so, there ya' have it. our family of three days are nearing an end and we can't wait for this new little nugget to join our party!! sure hope he or she will enjoy it as much as we do:)

for my one year old.

2011-12-02T09:33:00.002-06:00

oh my sweet brice, how this year has flown by. you are without a doubt the greatest adventure your father and i have ever embarked on...

your life to date has been documented and shared with so many people and although one day you will probably hate me for it, when you grow up to have your own family, you will understand why i do it. a good majority of our family and friends do not live near us, but the real reason is life goes so quickly that if i don't document it, i will forget; and i NEVER want to forget every itty, bitty moment i have with you.

from day one, we learned that you are a GIFT from God, never to be taken for granted, and we know that you do not belong to us: we are to protect you and mold you in the ways of the Lord for as long as He chooses. watching you lay in the NICU was by far the most difficult thing i have ever had to endure. i wanted so badly to pick you up and take you home, to take away your pain and to protect you from every little thing that could bring you harm. although i still want to do that, i know that it's impossible to do so and that i must trust the Lord because i know that all things work together for good for those who love God (romans 8:28).

once we got you home, it was very apparent that a baby truly changes everything...and for the better. you were such an easy baby and with the exception of not sleeping through the night until you were almost six months old, you made the transition into parenthood a breeze for us. you have always communicated very well and we knew if you were crying it was because you were ready to eat or because you needed a fresh diaper.

you grew SO quickly that looking back it makes me sick to my stomach. although i am biased, i have always thought you were developmentally advanced:)

here's a quick run down of your first year stats:

you were eight pounds, five ounces and 20 1/2 inches long. super chunk!
three months: rolled over
four months: first teeth, scooting
five months: sleeping through the night, sitting up on your own
six months: crawling, pulling up on everything
seven months: feeding yourself
eight months: playing "chase" and standing on your own
nine months: walking with help, wave bye bye
ten months: walking on your own
eleven months: you can {consistently} sign finish, milk and more, climb up on the couch and into the bathtub (which is scary!).
one year: you weigh 25.6 pounds, are 31 1/4" tall and have a huge head at 19". you wear size 24 month/2T clothes and a size five shoe. you are on the cusp of being able to open doors...but i hope it's a while before you really figure that out! you have 14 teeth and that includes two molars. you can say mama, daddy, boose da (moose dog), biya (diva), "see" when you want to touch something (especially your books), stay, easy (what you call gramsie's dog captain) and da (dog). you blow kisses in the most hilarious way that sounds more like an indian pow wow song than a pucker/lip smack. you love to pop around the corners and try to scare us, the way we do you and bathtime is still your favorite thing:)

you have the sweetest personality with a dash of attitude and are in every single way IN-DE-PEN-DENT. i hate that you got mommy's temper, but luckily you don't let yours show very often - yet, that is. you are so inquisitive and into EVERYTHING and although i do get exhausted from picking up after you and trying to keep you from harm, i love to watch you learn and figure things out. you are such a daddy's girl and you run to meet him when he gets home from work every day. watching the two of you is truly one of my greatest joys in this life.

i know that you won't stay little for long, so please understand that when the day comes that you grow tired of mommy trying to hold you or kiss you that i will always see the sweet, little baby that has forever changed me. you have brought a deeper and truer understanding of what love is. you have brought a clarity to my life that has shown me what it really is all about: the love of family and living for the Lord. i promise that every breath of my life will be spent striving to make our family better and stronger, and although i will at times fail miserably, my love for you, your father, future siblings and faith in our Savior will never waiver. i can promise you that mommy and daddy will ALWAYS be together and will ALWAYS be here for you. we are your safe place and although there will be times that the growing pains will be difficult, we will always do what we believe is best for you because we love you more than life itself.

my prayer for you is that you will come to know the Lord and love him with all of your being, knowing that a relationship with the Lord brings freedom and joy that nothing else in this life can ever give you. i pray you keep your sweet, fun-loving spirit that brings a smile to everyone's face. you are beautiful and perfect and i hope you never forget that.

i am so excited to watch you grow and become a beautiful God-fearing and serving woman, but I beg you, please don't do it too quickly.

i love you so much my little stinky winkers.

celebrating baby b.

2011-12-01T10:54:00.004-06:00

the week following b's first birthday, we spent in oklahoma. bryce was able to take a few days off work so he could go hunting and we could actually stay and enjoy spending time with family and friends...which never happens! on november the 12th, we had brice's BIG party in fort gibson at my uncle kent and aunt jackie's house. their property is gorgeous and they have the perfect layout for big family gatherings!

we were so blessed to be surrounded by our friends and family. it's a very rare occasion that all of the people we love are in the same place, so that made b's party even sweeter:)

thanks to my addiction to pinterest, i was able to find TONS of ideas for the decor for her party. i knew since we were having it at jackie's that i wanted to embrace the country/outdoors and also throw a vintage girly twist into it. luckily, it just so happens that since they've moved into their new house, jackie and kent didn't have room for their GORGEOUS antique dining room set, so we set that puppy up and went to town. greatness:)

after everything was said and done and thanks to A LOT of work, the tally for the decorations was right at $30. the best thing was that i had a gift card so i think i spent about $10 total, and that was for the fabric bunting. awesome? absolutely. :)

here's a quick recap of the party. if you want to see all the photos, you can find them on facebook!

marshmallow pops for party favors, sewn streamers, fabric bunting
and the birthday banner thanks to the cricut and my friend leslie!

one foot tall "1" that the hubs made. there was also a five foot
tall one, but for some reason i totally forgot to take pictures of it!
best thing was they were both made from scrap so they cost about $5
total to make! woo hoo! i'm thinking we'll do this every year:)

year of b banner, smash cake and the beautiful walnut cake stand
my hubby made. he is too good:)

pink ombre cake..that was DELICIOUS.

brice's birthday crown made by our wonderful family friend, ginger gilbreath.
she sells these, so if you're interested, email me and i'll get you her contact info.

brice, daddy and mommy

sweet baby.

she was totally freaked out by the singing and all the birthday shenanigans!

i asked janie to put extra buttercream on the cake so she could get extra messy,
but she didn't want anything to do with the cake. she kept signing finished instead of
eating the cake...figures!

my sweet family.

one of her three bites of cake...how boring! :)

we all had a wonderful time at the party and are so thankful for our friends and family who ventured out to celebrate our sweet girl with us. we are blessed beyond measure and thank God everyday for you who enrich our lives with love and laughter.

happy FIRST birthday to my little nugget!

2011-12-01T08:41:00.001-06:00

it doesn't seem possible that the first year with our sweet little girl has come and gone. i swear it was JUST yesterday i was shoving a pregnancy test in bryce's face to tell him we were going to have a baby...

on brice's first birthday, we were in oklahoma to visit our families. daddy, mommy and b went out to lunch in tulsa before we headed over to celebrate our new niece that will be here in february! we were so excited to get to share in two pretty big events that day, seeing as how my cousin matt and his wife tara live in virginia and we don't see them nearly enough! after the shower, we had a small family party at my aunt julie's. pizza, cake and a few of the people we love the most.

the marshamallow fondant balls were the perfect size for her little mouth.
she kept pulling them off and popping them in her mouth.

happy first birthday sweet girl. mommy and daddy love you more than
you will ever know. thank you for the best year of our lives.

getting a niece.

2011-11-18T09:52:00.001-06:00

holy canoli we have been BUSY! following the chaos of halloween, we headed to oklahoma for a whopping ELEVEN days. yes, eleven. that's a long time...

we started off our vacation with a baby shower for my niece who will be here in february!!!

side note real quick: mom has two sisters: julie (matt's mom) and jackie (kevin and jackson's mom). until jackson was born in 1998, we were all only children and our moms did an AMAZING job at raising us like siblings. so, when i refer to my "niece" she is technically my second cousin, but that just doesn't do justice for how much i love this little bundle of love that will be here in february:)

so, back to the shower! myself and my cousins tanna and angela had a baby shower for matt and tara in tulsa. matt and tara live in virginia, so anytime they can get away from work to come visit everyone basically drops everything to stalk them. yes. seriously. :)

here are a few shots from the party:

matt and tara. love them. so much.

brice was able to share her first birthday with a very special event!

can't wait for baby girl wilson to get here in february! i can't wait to spoil her rotten:)

the bumble B does halloween.

2011-11-01T09:34:00.002-05:00

for our first halloween with b, we headed over to our texas family's house:) we LOVE the reeder/sassaman families and we always joke about how we're the only "non-family" members at their family events.

lane and kelly had everyone over to eat burgers and then take the little girls trick or treating. aslyn is almost three, brice is almost one (barf!) and baby avery is almost five months. brice LOVES playing with azzie, so we were so grateful kelly invited us over! and they're way more fun than boring old mom and dad...

my favorite part of the night was after about the third house we stopped at, the whole idea of "trick or treating" appeared to click with b. after her daddy put her down, she looked up at me, looked at her basket, grabbed it and took off, almost in a sprint. (well relatively speaking seeing as how she has little bitty legs.) it seemed she was almost telling us, "you guys are slowing me down. i gotta go!" so cute.

anyway, here are a few pictures of my little bumble B on her first halloween. i made her costume and with the exception of the antennas, i was pretty pleased with how it turned out (they kept breaking.) i knew it had to be something that was comfortable otherwise, FOR-GET it...she would've pitched a fit and it would've been a complete disaster.

b with daddy, chowing down on a cookie.

b and mommy, post trick or treating.
her antennas got a beating getting in and out of the wagon.

happy halloween!

party time! excellent!

2011-10-26T15:20:00.003-05:00

you know things are in party mode around here when wayne's world is being referenced... (i sure hope no one has to click the link to find out what wayne's world is...)

anyway, b's first birthday party is coming up here in about two weeks. *please forgive me while i excuse myself to go vomit/cry...

whew, okay i'm back...originally, i had decided to make the birthday invitations. i had this crazy idea of what they were going to look like: perfect picture of b eating cake under her humongous "1" that her daddy built (which will be truly revealed after the party, although you can somewhat see it in the photo below), wearing her birthday crown (yes, i said crown) all a-glow on a perfect oklahoma evening. PUH-LEASE. as if things ever go as i dream...

so after i realized we have company coming in/halloween this weekend, followed by a trip to oklahoma and her actual birthday on the same day as my cousin and his wife's baby shower that i'm co-hosting, followed by a family only party two hours later...then the big party the next weekend, i figured it was in my best interest (and the interest of my family) to scrap the idea. luckily, i have pretty fantastic friends that can rescue me at the drop of a hat and always do:) they're the bee's knees.

this time, i FRANTICALLY turned to my pledge sister cara over at o. ink design studio. my goal is always to have invites out at least two weeks prior to the r.s.v.p./regrets only date and that day had quickly come and gone...

SO, here's what she whipped up for me:

good news: they're perfect. bad news: i TOTALLY didn't order enough. but on the bright side of that, i can spend those funds elsewhere!

welp, off to cry again since my baby is now five minutes closer to her first birthday. later gators.

playdate!

2011-10-25T08:24:00.000-05:00

the weekend that we went home for the bridge club reunion, we were able to squeeze in a TON of stuff that usually would've never happened. b and i went home on wednesday, so we were able to see friends and family that we don't always get to...and it was so fun!

saturday afternoon, one of my lifelong friends leslie brought her little boy levi over to my mom's house to play! levi is two weeks older than brice, so leslie and i have been through a lot of the same milestones together over the past year and a half. i remember emailing her when we were pregnant and being like, "um, is this normal?" not to mention we can bounce ideas off each other since we have kiddos the exact same age. she's a great resource:) anyhoo, enough with my girl-crush on les...

here are a few pics from our suaree':

we attempted sidewalk chalk this day before they got there...
and that was a DEFINITE no-go.

our babies! levi's birthday is (TOMORROW!) october 26, b's is november 6

mr. handsome. love him:)

rudeness. brice took all of levi's stuff the second he sat down.

bridge club reunion

2011-10-24T20:17:00.003-05:00

a few weekends ago, the little monkey and i headed home to join my nana, my mom and my aunt jackie for a bridge club reunion. feel free to read the article that was published in the paper if you'd like:) (aunt julie was at laps for little ones at the little light house, so she couldn't make it. if you have some time, go check out what they're all about. it's amazing over there!)

in a nutshell, over 50 years ago, a group of young mothers got together weekly and played bridge. even though there are only three of the original eight still living, they still get together every week to play. this is absolutely amazing to me and now as a young mother myself, i realize how important these friendships are. those women had seen the good, the bad the ugly and everything in between with each other. over the years, they became like family, and their families became like families. they all have children the same age, who have children the same age, and now we are having babies that are the same age. it's pretty amazing to see the (forgive the lion king pun and my sappiness here) circle of life start over with each generation.

my favorite thing that stemmed from the bridge club was the Christmas cookie exchange. as a little girl, i would be so excited to go to my nana's house and see all her friends and my mom's friends...and of course, eat as many cookies as i could squish into my fat little face. (and yes i mean fat. those of you who knew me back then can testify to that.)

now that i'm older, i realize that the bridge club is so much more than getting together to play cards. only in my dreams do all of my best friends live on the same street as i do, and our children will grow up together and become best friends. i think one of the greatest things in life is when the line between friendship and family gets so blurry, that you don't view your best friends as friends, but as irreplaceable members of your family. and praise God that i have women like that in my life. i would be a complete disaster without each and every one of you.

the three original members are on the third row seated.
from left to right: shirley rogers, eileen bishop and bonnie baker (my nana)
the group includes the members, daughters/daughters-in-law, grands and great grands.
(thanks ronda for letting me steal your picture!)

wreaths.

2011-10-19T20:21:00.002-05:00

holy moses i have been BUSY, thus the lack of blogging. bryce is out of town at least one night a week (more realistically usually two) and we have been traveling to home to oklahoma what seems like every week here lately! it appears that the rest of 2011 is going to be just as busy, so i better just get used to the sporadic posting. well and there's a ton of stuff that i'm not posting until after b's birthday party. let's just say my husband is totally annoyed with me and all his projects right now!! but bless his heart, he puts on a smile for me and everything he makes surpasses the crazy dreams i've envisioned in my head. he is a good 'un. :)

anyway, a while back, i told y'all i was going to start selling my crafties. i have had a few orders and wanted to show y'all what i've been doing:)

these are 14" wreaths. $20 bucks plus shipping.

24" wreath...$30 bucks plus shipping

feel free to facebook or email me if y'all want anything:)

between halloween, a baby shower for my cousins and two birthday parties (both in oklahoma) i will go ahead and let you know that i probably won't be posting very often...but come january 2012 you can bet your bottom dollar that 2011 will be blowing up blogspot. okay, i hope that life gives me more down time between now and then, but i'm not getting my hopes up... :)

thanks for reading y'all! xo.

cloth dipe giveaway!

2011-10-05T10:36:00.000-05:00

head on over to eco baby buys to enter the cloth diaper giveaway! once they hit 9,000 facebook fans, it's on!!!!! they're giving away TEN diapers, from brands like fuzzi bunz, which is one of my favorites!!! woo hoo!!!

fuzzi bunz pocket diaper with fleece liner and fleece insert.
adjustable at leg gussets and waist.

cloth diapering 101.

2011-09-18T10:58:00.018-05:00

so here lately, i've actually had quite a few friends ask me my opinion of cloth diapers and to be honest, my most favorite person to share with has been my cousin tara (who is having my first "niece" in february!!!) because she is probably THE SMARTEST person i've EVER met. she and my cousin matt are both surgeons in the navy, so getting to teach the surgeons something was quite an ego boost for this little stay-at-home-mommie:) haha! okay, so enough of inflating my ego here...

so, here is my cloth diapering 101 for y'all who are just starting out. i've also posted about cloth dipes before on why i chose to finally go that route, but i didn't give my in-depth recommendations and my faves. BEWARE, this is a fairly in-depth and LONG post, but i hope it's enjoyable and beneficial for you!

FIRST OF ALL, DON'T BE INTIMIDATED!!! the lingo is ridiculous and it is much like being stranded on a deserted island in russia without a tour guide. crazy. when i first started, i quickly realized cd'ing has what i would equate to groupies, all with inside jokes and lingos that i didn't get. the more research i did, the more i figured it out and i'm here to help you guys as best i can! at the end of each recommendation, i've posted a quick once-over on how the diaper works.

my FAVORITE, number one, go-to diaper:

Gro-Via

we use the "hybrid" shell snap and the hook and loop (fancy schmancy term for velcro). i LOVE this diaper, the snap more than the hook and loop. they're super easy to use, and you don't have to have a shell for every liner, essentially getting two diapers for $18 (they are sold in two packs). this will make much more sense after you look around on the website and learn about them. one thing i LOVE about these is that you don't have to have a shell for ever liner unlike other diapers. i recommend a ratio of 3 shells for every 4 liners because you don't have to replace the shell at every diaper change. since the liners are backed with waterproof fabric, the shell usually stays clean unless there's been some serious work being done...just rinse and let dry. it also reduces the wear and tear on the shell making them last longer.

LOVE the bio soakers for when we're out and about when i want the no-commitment properties of a disposable, but without the chemicals. (although if she's already handled business, i usually don't use them. BUT, DO NOT REMOVE THE STICKY TABS ON THE BACK. i'm not sure why they're even there, but don't do it because the adhesive will jack up the shell.) you can definitely check out the gro-via website, but for some reason i have been having problems with the product page loading.

they have also recently announced they are going to be releasing some liners that have hemp (more absorbant than cotton or fleece) in them and i think they are scheduled to come out in december. i can't remember for sure.

our next purchase for our gro-via system will be the stay dry booster inserts. i have found that sometimes brice needs the wicking properties of fleece to help prevent diaper rash, although diaper rash is pretty much non-existent since we switched to cloth. they've also got some super-fab toddler training pants scheduled to come out this fall too!

cotton liner insert with a waterproof backing, snaps into the shell in the front and back.
adjustable and fits babies from 8 - 35 pounds. they also have newborn diapers that fit babies
from i think 3 - 7 pounds, but apparently i'm going to have beastly 8.5 lb+ babies,
so i won't have to worry about that:)

my second favorite:

bum genius AIO. (all in one, add that to your cloth diapering repertoire.)

this diaper is SUPER, DUPER EASY. one step. no stuffing/unstuffing, or snapping in liners, etc. this is probably the most daddy/grandma/babysitter friendly because there's nothing to do but dump the doody and put in the wet bag. easy peasy. they are a little pricey, but this one helped me break in the hubs on cloth diapering because he didn't have to worry about ANYTHING, so the extra cost was totally worth it for us. plus they are so super absorbant and have a fantastic fit.

here's the breakdown from bum genius themselves.
much like the gro-via diaper, the bum genius fits babies 7-35 pounds
and has an organic cotton liner, except this liner is sewn into the diaper
meaning it IS NOT removable. this really is your one-stop-shop cd.

third fave:

fuzzi bunz one size diaper

these have a GREAT fit. they have elastic on the inside that you adjust (kind of like toddler jeans) to give the perfect fit for baby. you will also get replacement elastic with these in case the elastic around the leg openings breaks, which is FANTASTIC since being down even one diaper can totally screw the ease of cd'ing. these are a "pocket" diaper meaning you stuff the insert inside the diaper into a pocket. they are super absorbent and work well for thicky-thick thighs like the ones we have at our house:)

fuzzi bunz pocket diaper with fleece liner and fleece insert.
adjustable at leg gussets and waist.

accessories:

DETERGENT: you HAVE to use a diaper-friendly detergent to prevent repelling, because a non-absorbant diaper is a useless diaper. and if you have to strip them, it can really damage the fibers of the diaper, breaking down the product much quicker.

i use rockin' green and have had zero problems with it. some people are die-hard advocates for a certain soap, but i don't get caught up in all that. as long as my diapers are clean with no repelling, i'm a happy camper.

i order my rockin' green from diapers.com because there is something to be said for things being dropped on my front door. and the last time i ordered it, they had a coupon so i got it for about $11. awesome.

WET BAGS: gotta have a wet bag...actually have a few. one for the bathroom, one for upstairs, downstairs, car...i think you get the point.

wet bags are kind of like a big ol' diaper. cloth on the outside, water-proof PUL (polyurethane laminated fabric) on the inside, just like the dipes. put the used diapers in the wet bag, zip it up, and wait for wash day...which is usually every other day for me because i'm still acquiring my stash. unzip, dump the diapers in the washer and toss the wet bag in to join the party.

DIAPER CREAM: just like detergent, it is EXTREMELY important that if you choose to use a diaper cream you use one that is cd friendly, otherwise, your arch nemesis repelling will show up for a visit. boo. we very rarely have to use a cream since switching, but when i feel like b needs a little help, we use the gro via magic stick. smells great and zaps any redness that may be creeping up on those cute little bun buns:)

WIPES: at this point, i've got so many disposables wipes due to using coups that i'm still using those, but as our budget allows, i'm going to start acquiring cloth wipes. you can make your own using fleece squares and a serger, or buy them at any of the stores that sell cloth dipes. you can keep them in a wipe warmer, wet or dry. i can't give advice on this yet seeing as how i haven't done it, but once i do, i'll put up a quick little once over.

SPRAYER: my handy dandy hubby hooked up a kitchen sprayer on the toilet for me so i can dump and spray, never even touching the biz. it's greatness. for you out there who aren't married to a mr. fix-it, you can buy a bum genius one.

LINERS: these things SAVE. THE. DAY. seriously. they look just like a roll of toilet paper and you lay them on top of the diaper. they allow the liquid to pass through but hold the solids on top, making clean up even easier. they are flushable and biodegradeable. like i said earlier about the detergent, i'm not brand loyal in this department, so just pick one. they're all the same and their job is to catch poo, so does it really matter??

WHEW! are you totally exhausted and overwhelmed now?? hope not...i know at the beginning it is crazy, but you WILL get the hang of it!!! i haven't even gone into the night time options, but i figured i'd let you digest this 98930428 page post before we dive into that:)

lastly, here are some great resources for cloth diapering:

nurtured family

if you buy from them let me know, i'll send you a referral for credit and a coup.

the green nursery

http://www.youtube.com/user/JaimeeGleisner

her videos are FANTASTIC. make everyone who will be cd'ing your baby watch these videos. she goes through a ton of different ways to cloth diaper, the different types, etc. this is a slightly older video because there are SOOOOOOO many NEW diapers beyond what she has shown on her videos.

***AFTER I POSTED THIS, I WAS ASKED HOW MANY DIAPERS TO GET STARTED. So sorry i forgot to post that! we started out with about 8 diapers, excluding nighttime and that had me doing diaper laundry pretty much every other day. you want to make sure you have at least two diapers on hand when time to wash so you'll have diapers for baby while the other ones are washing/drying. i have heard of people waiting 3-4 days to do diaper laundry, but personally i don't do that because it grosses me out to let them sit that long. i'm going to post a quick diaper care guide here soon, but if you have questions before then, let me know. also keep in mind the bigger your stash, the less wear and tear on your dipes, making them last longer.

GOOD LUCK! if you have any questions, you can ALWAYS email me:) keep in mind that there is still MUCH more for us to talk about, so if you need anything before i get those posts up, contact me!

pre-cursor to an etsy shop?

2011-09-14T15:22:00.011-05:00

okay, so after a ton of encouragement and prodding from you guys - my family and friends - i have decided to start selling my crafties that i so enjoy making! i have been told by so many people to open up an etsy shop, but i'm going to do just email orders until i see if you guys mean it or are just fluffing up my ego:)

so, here are some things that i'm starting off selling:

black silk rosette with gold button on baby brice:)
i can do any color, fabric and embellishment.
$5 without headband, $8 with headband

pinwheel bow $5
feel free to oohhh and awww at three month old baby brice:)

satin flower, starting at $5 for 3 layers with embellishment.
i can do any color, embellishment, and also more layers.
each additional layer will be 50 cents.
(brice's flowers are usually 5-6 layers)

$30
there are SO many ideas running through my head right now!!!!
college, pro sports teams, high school teams, birthdays, stripes
fall colors with your monogram, holidays, welcome baby...
my mind is going nuts right now!

rosette frame. price depends on size and if you want it fully covered
like this one or not because this took me about six hours. no joke.
so, for a 12' x 12' exactly like this one, $50

so, there you have it. if there's something you have seen me post previously in the blog or on facebook, that's not on here and you'd like to have it, let me know! like i've said before, if you see something you like, feel free to contact me and i'd be happy to make it for you!!!! i'm not going to charge a ridiculous amount...just enough to justify my pinterest addiction to the hubs:)

hey and while you're here, go ahead and hit the follower button up there on the top left. makes my day when that number goes up:)

my email is kristenmounts@gmail.com so, give me a shout out and help a crafting addict okay?!! :)

oh and shipping is not included in the price. if you live local, i'll deliver or we can meet up at starbucks and have a cup of coffee when i bring you your new goodies!!!

knock off anthro: diy zinc letters.

2011-09-02T07:48:00.078-05:00

okay, true story: anthro may be the death of me. why? because my husband is going to kill me if i don't stay out of there!!!! :)

if you haven't heard of anthropologie...do yourself a favor and stay away! the store has a cult-like following...kind of like pinterest ha!

anyway...forever ago, i (and every other anthropologie-ite) fell in LOVE with anthro's zinc letters. AND RIGHTFULLY SO...they are fabulous. these letters are absolutely a statement piece and make such a simple, yet boisterous impact in ANY room. (i true love them in nurseries!) here they are, in their full, lustrous glory:

so, here's the kicker. they range from $18 for the small (8") and $98 for the oversized (25"). NOT COOL since, obviously, i want the oversized ones and i'll let you do the math on how much it would cost to spell thompson. like i said earlier: husband. will. kill. me. DEAD. and, they are always limited on what letters are available. as i previously stated: everyone and their dang dog is in love with these things.

the other day, i was poking around on pinterest (surprised? yeah...didn't think so. i start twitching if i go too long without getting a fix.) and found THIS:

thanks to pinterest, i found this tutorial by kristen f. davis who is
a painter based in atlanta. fabulosity. all of it. all of her:)

AAAHHH! A FAUX METALLIC LETTER TUTORIAL. heaven has opened up and poured its sweet grace on me once again. fabulous.

the BEST part of this tutorial is it is SO easy!

here are your supplies:
letter (or frame, whatever you want!)
black craft paint, silver metallic craft paint
cheap-o craft brush. CHEAP-O is important,
as you will tear this thing to shreds.
well, at least i did.
(i apologize for the mini-picture!)

paint your letter black. please forgive me that i did not use my mad iPhone picture-taking skillzzz to take a picture of this. i know, you're upset. we'll work through it. promise:)

after you paint your letter black, DRY BRUSH your silver paint on. you will get better the more you do this and here are some tricks i found from trial and error:

when painting on the silver, if you use long, hard, flat strokes, you get the rough look of the metal.

let each coat dry. it makes the dry brushing MUCH easier. if you don't, you'll pull through to the cardboard and you don't want some nasty brown spot on your anthro-inspired letters!

if you do non-uniform strokes (ie not just horizontal, not just vertical) you get a "rougher" more metal look, and that's what i wanted. feel free to do whatever you like because it's yours!

if you think it's too uniform, use your finger and buff it out before the paint is dry.

if all else fails and you don't like it...PAINT OVER IT! that's the beauty of this!

so, here's the finished product up in action at casa de thompson: (for some reason, they didn't photograph as metallic-ey as they really are. in real life, they are much more vibrant.)

on top of our dumpster hutch. we pulled this beaute out of the garbage at our storage unit
and upcycled it. the hubs is pretty handy if i say so myself:)

up close.

in our OU bathroom.

in our bedroom.
word of caution: try to find letters that are smooth, unlike the T in this photo.
they didn't have any other ones, so i was hoping it wouldn't make a difference, but
you can totally see the bumps, making it a little less anthro. boo. but hey, for $5, i'll take it.
(AND i found that frame in the clearance section at michael's for $8!)

for the most part, i really like how these look...so you can bet your bottom dollar these things will be popping up EVERYWHERE. obviously!

as always, if you see anything i've done that you like, feel free to contact me and i'd be happy to make it for you!!!! i'm not going to charge a ridiculous amount...just enough to justify my pinterest addiction to the hubs:)

happy crafting!!!!

documenting life.

2011-08-27T20:31:00.004-05:00

thanks to the wonderfully amazing ashley thompson, i had the fortune of meeting the fabulous jenny collier. they do a photography class so cleverly named mamarazzi, and it completely changed the way i take pictures of b. by completely changed, i mean they taught me how to actually use my camera:)

here are a few of my pictures pre-mamarazzi and post-mamarazzi:

boo on the blurriness!

see the difference in the photos?!?!! not only am i now shooting in manual mode, opening up a
WHOLE new world of options, but i learned how to USE my camera, not just stick it on auto and go.

okay back to the focus of this posting: jenny had this BRILLIANT idea to challenge all of the mommies out there to document the lives of their children, not just take the same ol', same ol' pictures that we always do.

so, go check out jenny's blog and read about the 52 week challenge. i'm going to do it...my baby is only a baby once.

goodie giveaway.

2011-08-24T18:07:00.001-05:00

thanks to pinterest, i found this fantastically amazing blog, sparkle and hay. and yes, this is now the inspiration for brice's first birthday...

BUT that's beside the point. erin over at sparkle and hay is spreading the word about twisted twig...and they are having a GIVEAWAY!!! here are some of their goodies...

(photo credit twisted twig, via sparkle and hay)

you better believe that those cocktail sparkle sticks WILL BE at b's first birthday. amen. :)

a legacy of love.

2011-08-18T15:58:00.018-05:00

on august 15th, my father and mother in law, Dwayne and Tonya Thompson celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary!!! i am so blessed to have them in my life and i guess you could say this is my "love letter" to them:)

that hair! that hat!! or the creepiest part that this looks
so much like bryce and brittne...

dwayne and tonya have been a part of my life for almost ten years now, and our relationship has changed so much from that "teenage girl helping paint a room, trying to impress her new boyfriend's mother" to friends, to family.

here we are at our wedding in 2009.
thank you to one of my most precious friends
ashley thompson for photographing us.

i have learned from watching dwayne and tonya (and a majority of things being beaten into me repeatedly!! yes, tonya, i am kidding!) some of the secrets to a successful marriage. you want to know what they are? well, i'll tell you...

KEEP GOD FIRST. period. end of discussion. your commitment is to your spouse, but your COVENANT is with God. He designed marriage to be a reflection of Christ's relationship with the church and until the Lord is the head of your household and the keystone of your marriage, don't expect to have a fruitful, abundant relationship.

LAUGH. enjoy each other's company. seriously. you have to remember to "date" your spouse, especially once children enter the picture. and Lord knows tonya keeps all of us laughing with the stories of all her falls!

STAY COMMITTED. there are days that love comes easy and days that you have to CHOOSE your spouse. marriage is not rainbows and butterflies every single day. i always tease that marriage vows should also say "even when i want to punch you in the throat, i will choose to stay and do life with you again tomorrow."

BE PROACTIVE. you never hear newlyweds saying "oh i think we'll be divorced in (insert number here) years." life sneaks in and messes up your plans. be alert and be aware. don't be an idiot and put yourself in "dangerous" situations...abstain from the appearance of all evil (1 thessalonians 5:22). if you wouldn't do it with your significant other next to you, don't do it. seriously.

LOVE FOR REAL. forgive, forget, and give the grace you will need soon enough. you are not perfect. your spouse is not perfect. always strive to love your spouse the way Christ loves you. (yes, i know it's hard...especially when they leave dirty clothes all over the floor or are physically incapable of loading the dishwasher!)

GOD. SPOUSE. CHILDREN. in that order. it is amazing how crazy life gets and that can get out of control. be watchful that your children do not become your idol, nor your spouse. our children are beautiful, amazing gifts from above, but we do not have a covenant with them. the best thing a husband can do for his children is to love their mother...and vice versa. a strong marriage teaches children security, love, conflict resolution and gives them a guide for their future marriage.

i could really go on and on...and on... about the way Dwayne and Tonya have impacted my life. i am so thankful that God blessed me with such wonderful in-laws who are not only family, but friends. i love that they are true to their commitments, follow whole-heartedly where the Lord commands them to go and truly live their convictions. they have a heart for the Lord, for each other and for their family.

i love you both so very much and i am so thankful you are leaving us all a legacy of love. here's to thirty more years of living, loving and laughing.

(PS - Dwayne and Tonya do a marriage retreat every spring and if you are married, getting married or even considering it, you NEED to go. seriously.)

monogram canvas project.

2011-08-15T14:51:00.056-05:00

okay, so i have declared my love for pinterest, and now my obsession is becoming productive. if you know me, you KNOW i love a good craft project and i thoroughly enjoy the time i spend alone getting my crafty on. yes, i just said that.

anyway, so, my most recent project was a wedding gift made for one of my life-long friends...the beautiful miss lauren harris (now lauren deatherage). and yes, i'm totally fixing to blow the surprise, seeing as how i haven't given it to her yet! (but they just turned out so cute i couldn't wait to post it!!!)

alright, let's get going. as always, i have to give credit for my inspiration. so, SURPRISE!!! we head back to pinterest...

i originally saw these on pinterest and you can find them at not on the highstreet {dot} com.
BUT if you like how mine turned out, feel free to contact me and i will GLADLY
make you some and will not charge you $30 per canvas. ridiculous.

so, here's what you need for this project:

two 8x8 inch canvases. or whatever size you'd like. i think these would look AWESOME huge!
paint. hob lob had paint 30% off this week, so it was super cheap.
letters. these are chip board, but you could use wood or anything else.
scrapbook stickers and brads.
oh and a paint brush. obviously...

paint your canvas and your letters the same color.
the canvas will probably take a few passes.

glue your letters on to the center of the canvas.
add your embellishments. i used their wedding date.
*NOTE: the scrapbooking brads will not puncture the canvas,
so i had to cut off the arms and glue the top of the brad on.
yes, i know there are stickers, etc. but i didn't have any...so i made do:)

voila! here they are hanging on my wall.
i will be making these again...and often!
i think these would be precious photo props, party decor,
a huge one in the master bedroom or over the next baby's crib:)
and NO, this is NOT an admission that we are pregnant...just sayin' :)

as always, happy crafting!!! and if you haven't gotten on pinterest yet, go do it! seriously!!!

the first harvest of my pinterest addiction.

2011-08-15T14:12:00.003-05:00

true life: i'm a pinterest addict. seriously. it's border-line pathetic.

anyway, i had been seeing TONS of these precious button projects all over pinterest, so i decided to make one. the more i got thinking about it, the more i realized that it probably wasn't the best idea to make a canvas or anything for the home since we are at some point moving in the near future. one less thing to move, one less thing to fight with bryce about going to the garbage or into the garage sale...

so, here's what i decided to do: a "cute as a button" onesie for my sweet little nugget:)

here's what you need for the project:

buttons, hot glue gun, disappearing ink pen (in sewing department),

monogram and onesie or shirt (or bag, towel...whatever you want!)

if you're more type a than i am, feel free to measure and

find the center of the onesie to perfectly position your letter.

i made this monogram in word and to be completely honest,

put a piece of paper up to the screen and lightly traced it.

i was too lazy to walk upstairs and plug in the printer to the laptop.

(plus i went to the gym the day before i did this and could barely walk.)

anyway, put the monogram inside the onesie

and trace it with the sewing pen.

i then laid out my buttons. if you're as neurotic as i am,

this is going to be difficult for you. take a deep breath, and

pour a glass of wine. (actually, that's best for anytime, right??)

after you have your buttons laid out, place a small dot of hot glue

on ONE BUTTON AT A TIME. do not remove them prior to gluing as it will

turn into a huge puzzle trying to get it back together...and i hate puzzles.

seriously, hate puzzles. blah.

afterwards, i chose to hand sew all the buttons on to ensure they stay put seeing as how i have a CRAZY, active nine month old who would somehow rip them off and eat them. seriously.

feel free to embellish however you choose. i'm going to add a yellow bow to the top left and ~~ruffles on the butt, but i just haven't gotten that far yet.~~ (and hobby lobby is ALWAYS sold out of everything i need. i blame it on the fact that i live in the middle of the S.A.H.M. universe that is the DFW metroplex.)

UPDATE: i scratched the ruffle booty and went with a tutu. it also doubled for the outfit you can see on brice from tri delta alumni night. and i STILL can't find ribbon. i really hate to order online because i think that is just silly for what i'm doing...but desperate times call for desperate measures and we HAVE to HAVE the perfect yellow ribbon to match the tutu, right?!!?!!

i'll put up some final pictures of b in her finished button onesie, but i was just so excited about posting it that i couldn't wait any longer...i've been sitting on this post for almost three weeks now:)

happy crafting!

baby delta.

2011-08-12T14:29:00.001-05:00

welp, i hit another milestone with baby girl this week and like most other milestones, it was no big deal for her...but for mommy, it was a big one! alumni night at tri delta!!

we headed out on wednesday morning to meet up with my mom, and as usual when we travel, i timed the trip with her morning nap that usually lasts about two hours. she slept for about 45 minutes the entire day. ridiculous. i was TERRIFIED she would have a meltdown at dinner or at the house, but she was a perfect little trooper! she stayed awake for all three skits and it wasn't until the last five minutes of two-party day that i took her out because she was starting to talk. she loved watching the girls sing and dance and i'm convinced we have a little performer on our hands:)

it was so crazy at the house that i didn't even get my camera out the entire night:( BUT, here are a few pictures from the evening (and most of them i have stolen from my beautiful friends off their fb pages):

aunt joanna teaching brice her letters.

b giving her aunt cami some snuggles:)

brice and her bff/roomie/pledge sister olivia.
sweet girls:)
you can meet olivia's sweet familiy here.

three generations of tri deltas.
(i guess mom can't stand still long
enough to not blur the picture!)

b and mommy getting ready for the show!

i had such a fantastic time seeing my best friends and catching up with girls i don't see very often, which yes, there will be a post on that later, and yes, you can be certain that it will be ooey gooey gushing about how much i love tri delta and how much i love my girlfriends. feel free to gag if you'd like:)

anyway, we had a fantastic time and i am so proud to see how amazing the chapter is doing. the girls are stunningly beautiful and are winning everything on campus. it's a great feeling to know the future of the theta gamma chapter is in good hands:)

nannie's ice cream and cereal.

2011-08-06T21:08:00.000-05:00

i have the fondest memories of my nannie. she was an absolutely phenomenal woman, who loved God, her family and anyone who ever crossed her path.

one thing about my nannie is that she wanted to feed you, even if you weren't hungry. she wouldn't quit until she got somethin' in your belly:)

one of my most favorite things she ever made for me was ice cream and cereal. now, i know it probably sounds weird, but trust me. what's better than cereal?? cereal with ice cream! duh. it's pretty much a parfait and it is SUPER easy. and super yummy! i will admit, people will probably look at you like you're nuts, but trust me on this one!!

here's what you need:

ice cream (i usually use fro yo, but ain't nothin' wrong with blue bell.)

cereal of your choice (traditionally, nannie would use raisin bran,

but i didn't have any tonight.)

milk. (skim, gotta save those calories.)

assemble your parfait.

layer ice cream, cereal, ice cream cereal.

splash of milk on top to bring it all together.

enjoy!!!

my apologies for the yucky picture. please make your parfait

prettier than mine, especially when serving your guests.

but, i was hungry, so this is what you got:)

and don't worry...i won't judge you for having this for breakfast:)

prayer: it's more than a want list.

2011-08-01T11:41:00.001-05:00

here lately, the idea of prayer and how we view prayer has been weighing on my heart.

a few weeks ago at church, pastor bob said something during his sermon that really resonated with me. (this, of course, is not verbatim because i can barely remember my name most days, let alone exact quotes that i don't write down...) "how do you invest in the relationships in your life? most of the time, you talk to people MANY times throughout the day, not just as certain designated times. so why is your interaction with God any different? he wants to have a personal and interactive relationship with you, and that's difficult to have if you aren't communicating with him."

wow. now, i know God is omnipresent and is with me everywhere i go, but the whole idea of not communicating with him truly struck me. how would my marriage be affected if i only communicated with my husband for a few seconds at meals and bedtime? what about my other friendships? the relationship with my child? it really got me thinking...

thursday night at home group, we dove into this subject even more in depth. we agreed that a lot of times, our human nature has the tendency to "corner" God. when you ask for specific things (ie: God, please remove this post-baby pudge from my belly, or can i have marissa miller's body and still eat cupcakes at every meal.) you are limiting God and his power. when God doesn't answer our prayers in accordance to the parameters we have laid out in our prayer, our flesh and the enemy would have us think that when we pray and ask (matthew 7:7) God has abandoned us when our prayers are not answered. what, you don't think satan will use scripture against you? REALITY CHECK: satan will use ANY and EVERY method available to him and that sucker is patient.

"indeed, my plans are not like your plans, and my deeds are not like your deeds, for just as the sky is higher than the earth, so my deeds are superior to your deeds and my plans superior to your plans." isaiah 55:8-9.

PRAISE THE LORD his plans are far above anything our nimble minds could think of , because what a big MESS we would make of things.

and PRAISE THE LORD for his perfect timing...

when we felt the Lord directing us for me to stay home with the baby, we knew we would be losing our health insurance as i carried our benefits through wells fargo. we were able to keep it through the end of march and then began kind of playing our cobra benefits in case a disaster occurred. we knew that benefits were in the works through bryce's company, but nothing fruitful had presented itself...last week, i received notice of a due date of august 8th for the cobra coverage to continue and was a whopping $5500, plus $1200/month to continue. ouch. we knew that wasn't an option, so i had looked into private insurance. the major problem with that is that there is NO maternity coverage for any private plans. we had been praying for months for God to provide, and we knew he would. He is ALWAYS faithful, ALWAYS gracious, and ALWAYS perfect in HIS timing. not ours.

in God's perfect plan, RGC acquired insurance that is effective august 1st. hallelujah! answered prayer. although our answered prayers are usually never on our timeline, they are perfect in alignment for God's plan.

on a sidenote: i think it is VERY important we share our spiritual walk. you may not think what's going on in your life is a big deal, but a word that God has given you may help another person. so, share your testimony, share your faith, and share the love your God has shared with you:)

...and an "unanswered prayer" doesn't always mean no. it may just mean not right now. i'll go into that later:)

w. t. f.

2011-07-29T11:17:00.009-05:00

What's The Fluff? Well, I'll tell ya'...

Not long after I found out I was pregnant, I really became interested in cloth diapering. To be honest, I really can't even remember how the interest (which quickly turned into an obsession) started. I read, and read...and READ. The more I learned, the more I wanted to CD our baby.

SO YOU'RE TELLING ME YOU HAVE TO CLEAN OUT THE POO? THAT IS NASTY. If I heard it once, I heard it a thousand times. Yes, you do shake the business into the porcelain throne, but cloth diapering is NOT what it used to be. Trust me. I do not have one single diaper that requires me to pin or wrap B up like a pig in a blanket. AND I don't have to touch anything...hold up an end and plop into the pot.

I finally hit the breaking point when B had terrible diaper rash for over a month and although it had healed, it never completely went away. I knew she was hurting and cloth diapers were the ONLY thing I hadn't tried yet. So, when Mom was down a few weeks ago, we went to Baby Rear Gear in Arlington and got a crash course in cloth diapering from Elise (who, btw, is AMAZING!).

We got a few different kinds: Knicker Nappies, Happy Heinys, Gro-Via (FAVORITE!), Bum Genius, Tiny Tush and Fuzzi Bunz (OTHER FAVORITE!) as Elise suggested to get a variety to figure out what I like and what works best for B. (There are also a TON of work-at-home-mom's that make CD's and you can find them on Etsy.)

here's my little wild thing in her happy heiny's:)

So, why cloth diaper your baby? Here are my top reasons:

It promotes faster potty training. The kiddos can feel they're wet and begin to make the correlation sooner.
No chemicals on baby's bottom and they can "breathe." The microfiber lining has wicking properties pulling moisture away from their tush while letting air in.
Cost! Initially, it is more to get started, but think about this: the average child is potty trained between 18-36 months and with disposables, that is an average of $3500. (I can't remember the site I found this on, so sorry for the lack of credit here..) Are you going to have multiple children? Yeah, think about that. I have to admit it is super liberating to know that I will be able to use these diapers for the rest of our kiddos and not spend that money.
Eco-friendly. Do you know how long it takes for a diaper to decompose in our land fills? Like a bajillion years. Okay, not really, but let's just say that in our lifetime we wouldn't see that thing broken down. Yuck. AND you're also supposed to flush "business" from the disposables anyway, because that creates a bio-hazard in our landfills that could infiltrate our water supply. Double yuck.

Yes, there are cons:

It is more labor-intensive for you, but not by that much. You shake out or spray out the incident (Bryce hooked up a sink sprayer for me on our toilet), pop it in a wet bag and wash them. You do have to use special laundry detergent, but I'm not going to bore you with that.
Not as convenient when out and about and I still use disposables when we go out because I haven't acquired enough diapers yet or wet bags. BUT once you get your cute little wet bag that matches your stroller, etc., just plop that baby in there and tend to it when you get home.

There are TONS of resources out there with information on cloth diapering. From pockets to inserts, to all-in-ones, fitteds, pre-folds and woolies, there is an option for everyone.

I believe cloth diapering is definitely worth it...because who wouldn't like to buy a fabulous pair of leather boots for the fall instead of a $40 case of disposable diapers each month?!!

Gotcha' thinkin' don't I? :)

hooked.

2011-07-27T07:53:00.002-05:00

it's not very often that i come across something that creates a new obsession in my life, well with the exception of my sweet little family that is:)

BUT, a few weeks ago, i got an invitation from the fantabulous ashley thompson to join this new site called pinterest. my first thought was "i have NO time for yet ANOTHER social networking site," so i just let it sit in my inbox for a few days. i finally decided to check it out because i am SICK of facebook. let's face it: the iPhone app is PATHETIC and now the spam-bots have infiltrated it. okay, i guess i should give fb some credit since it did help get the word out about moose and it's a great way to share photos, etc. with our friends and family who don't live near us. so, there...i take it back. well not all of it, but a little bit.

anyway, back to the point. what is pinterest? well, you know how when you go googling for things on the web and it is nearly impossible to keep track without writing it down or bookmarking it? (and p.s. who REALLY wants 892038402 bookmarks?!) this is your online idea/inspiration notebook. brilliant. you "pin" things you love, or "like" things you, well, like, but don't want to add to your "board" which is where you categorize all the things you "pin." from anything to fashion, food or home decorating, you can keep track of it all and access it from anywhere. makes my heart happy. aaah.

here's what your home screen will look like. feel free to find me and be creepy:)

WHY THE HECK DIDN'T I THINK OF THIS?!?!! so, go get you a pinterest account. if you need an invite, let me know and i'll send you one. i need more people to get on this so we can quit recycling the same ideas:)

return of the moose. (cue mark morrison.)

2011-07-26T08:35:00.000-05:00

well, it's no secret that moose escaped last week.

last tuesday morning, bryce went to take the trash out and somehow the gate didn't get shut all the way. (now when i first realized this, i was blaming bryce since i had to direct my frustrations at someone, and he is obviously the easiest choice. i am now admitting IN WRITING that it was not his fault and i should not have been so mean to him.) anyway, i let moose and diva out at about 7:45 and diva started scratching to come in not too long after. for some reason, moose loves to be outside (i don't understand why since he is 130 pounds and it is hotter than all-get-out outside) so i didn't really think much of it. at about 9:00, i started to get curious as to why he still wanted to be outside because the temperature was quickly rising. i went to call for him and that's when i noticed it: the gate. WIDE. OPEN. oh crap. now the most bizarre thing of the whole situation is that moose never gets out. diva is always the little houdini that will scratch, claw and wiggle her way out of the yard. i guess she didn't go because she's like her mom and knows there's not a whole lot of things that are worth being out in this miserable heat...

after a few minutes of screaming for him, our fantastic neighbor kara and her son brayden (side note: NICEST kid in the world. seriously.) came over to see if they could help. the baby was asleep, so they offered to go drive around and see if they could find him. no luck. so, i woke up the baby and we went to scour the 'hood. no dice. at this point, i was hysterical, but bryce quickly reminded me that no one would hit that dog because it's not like he can just sneak up on you. i mean he is HUGE.

after 45 minutes of no moose sighting from anyone out and about, i figured we needed to try some different avenues. facebook, craigslist, fidofinder.com. i seriously googled "lost dog" and plastered it everywhere. that night we put up fliers and the following morning (my aunt jackie was here so she helped me!) we put up almost 80 more all over the neighborhood. contacted all the local shelters and the great dane rescue of north texas, all with no luck. at this point, i was starting to believe someone had dog-napped our big moose dog. i was devastated.

thursday, i went home to oklahoma and it had kind of set in that we were going to lose that part of our family. i was physically upset and emotionally distraught. over a dog...

friday morning, i logged on to check my email and there was a message from fido finder. now i didn't want to get my hopes up since i had a scammer call me off of my craigslist ad and most of the other emails were just junk, but there was a phone number and a glimmer of hope began to shine on us.

i called the number. no answer. dang. were we back to square one? NOPE!! a few minutes later, i received a call from a guy who thought he had moose. i couldn't believe it. he asked me if he was "the best dog ever" and i had to chuckle because apparently he had been minding his manners! i asked cory (the potential moose rescuer) where he lived and he told me grand prairie, 45 minutes away, so again, my hope started to fade. i told him i doubted it was moose because of location, but he then told me he was an insurance adjustor who was working in our neighborhood that day. WHAT?!! HOPE SHOWED UP AGAIN!!

he then sent me a picture and sure enough, there was moose in his full glory, smiling with cory and jenny's (his wife) children. relief. not only had we found him, but he had been in great hands all week! since i was in oklahoma and bryce was on his way, they offered to dog sit for the weekend. what?!! are there really complete strangers that are this nice and helpful?! i called bryce and let him know and he called cory. they made arrangements for moose to spend the weekend at the jones' house and we would pick him up sunday night.

sunday, we headed out early to go get moose but when bryce got a hold of cory, he told us that they were about two hours from home, so we went ahead and went home and waited. LONGEST. WAIT. EVER. (okay, maybe i'm being a little dramatic, but it is what it is.) about 8:00 sunday night, we loaded up the family and headed to retrieve the prodigal son.

when we got to their house, bryce rang the door bell and that bellowing howl that sometimes just flat out pisses me off floated through the air like a beautiful melody. aaah. my big dog is on the other side of that door. as cory and jenny welcomed us in, moose was excited to see us and jumped up on bryce. that's when we saw it: the reason they weren't home when we called the first time. TWO black great dane puppies came running around the corner. they loved moose so much that they went to get one, and came home with two!!

reunited and it feels so good!

waiting for the go ahead

to get in the bed with

mom and dad.

mooser getting some

welcome home snuggles.

and mother of the year goes to....

2011-07-09T22:10:00.000-05:00

aaah, the life of a dedicated blogger. i love it when i log on to the blog and realize there are old posts i never finished...

anyway, back in february, i officially lost mother of the year. even though this happened almost six months ago, i can look back on it and laugh. kind of.

i would have to say that not only have i experienced my worst-parenting-experience to date, i might go as far to say that i have recently experienced my worst moment in my life.

i know you're asking yourself, "what has she done that is so awful?!" well, let me tell you. after brice was born, we discovered the amazingly beautiful and ever awe-inspiring, heaven-on-earth place i like to call costco. yes, seriously. i love it that much. we make our trips to costco after church on sunday, and this was like any other trip...until "it" happened...

we were all enjoying our pleasant afternoon strolling through costco with our main focus of the trip being formula. as we approached the tower of formula, i reached up, grabbed a can and handed it to bryce. that's when it happened. my a.d.d self got distracted by who-knows-what (possibly the joe's jeans for $70. or it may have been the space bags that were a steal for $19.99. then again, it could've been the 24 pack of shiner bock that wass $21...) anyway, back to the event: as my attention was diverted from the situation at hand, i proceeded to loosen my grip on the two and a half pound can of formula, expecting it to already be in my husband's hand. unfortunately for our sweet girl, it wasn't.

BAM. RIGHT ON HER PERFECT LITTLE FOREHEAD. oh. my. GAWSH. it took her a good ten seconds to realize her mother - her protector, who carried her in her belly for 37 and 1/2 weeks - had just dented her head and quite possibly gave her a concussion...

never in my life have i exited an establishment so quickly. straight to the truck i ran, cuddling my baby so close in an effort to comfort her...and to muzzle the blood-curdling screams coming from her tiny little lungs.

after about 15 minutes of intense crying from both parties (actually, i probably cried more than she did because i felt so horrible), we were able to regain our composure. unfortunately for b, there were visual reminders: not only was there a dent, (YES, A DENT. I DENTED MY BABIES HEAD. WORST. MOTHER. EVER.) there was a lovely little goose egg that would remind me of the incident for the next week. wonderful.

but, like most mothers learn, she is resilient and it appears that she has made a "full recovery." well, that is until she's a teenager and then her daddy tries to blame me and this "formula-dropping-incident" on her bizarre behavior... :)

blow. OUT.

2011-02-07T13:06:00.000-06:00

aah, the never ending joys of parenthood...

as the whole entire world knows, most of the country was frozen in last week. the roads were awful and there was NO way i was going to venture out in that mess, so i was locked in the house for 4 1/2 days. talk about cabin fever!

on saturday once fort worth began to thaw out, bryce went to work and he told me when he got back that we'd get cleaned up and he'd take me out for dinner. so, we got ready, fed the baby with the intent of her sleeping through the whole meal and headed out. we should've known things wouldn't go as smoothly as we'd hoped...

we headed down into town and she was totally passed out. "aaah, we're going to get lucky on this one," we thought. yeah right. as we walked into the restaurant, b woke up. now bryce is totally paranoid about being "those people with a baby" in ANY public place, so i went ahead and made a bottle so we were prepared.  we ordered a bottle of wine and decided on what we were going to eat and she started to squirm and talk a little bit, but i didn't really think anything of it. the louder she got, i decided to go ahead and give her a bottle to try and get her back to sleep. she didn't want anything to do with it. after a few grunts and screams, i went ahead and got her out of her car seat right as our food was arriving at our table...

as i pulled her out, i realized her right pant leg was wet. my first thought was i spilt something on her, but then i realized that i was dry. great. she's peed herself. awesome. as i realized how wet her pants were, i figured i better take her to the bathroom to put on a new diaper. so i left my new found favorite bottle of wine and napoli style pizza to take the little chunk to clean up her situation...no changing table. awesome. so, i pull out my changing pad and put it on the chair that's in the bathroom. i laid her down and pulled her pants off. much to my dismay, no pee...all poop. everywhere. it had come out the right side of her diaper, from her belly button to her ankle.  all over her clothes. and now, all over the changing pad. awesome.

usually i always pack a clean outfit, but i knew she had just eaten and we were going to the restaurant and straight home, so i figured we'd be okay. well, i learned my lesson on that one. so, i grabbed some wipes and just started to get to work. no dice. at this point, the only thing that's going to fix this problem is a bath...or a hose...or a 12 cycle car wash. i tried to rinse her off in the sink in the bathroom, but something was wrong with their water heater and the water was cold. double awesome.

i finally decided to just give up, get her as clean as i could and get her back in her car seat so we could somewhat salvage any part of our dinner. when i got back to the table, i informed my better half the blow out i had endured in the bathroom. immediately, he asks for the ticket and starts reminding me how imperative it is we get out of there asap. he let her sit on his lap so i could shovel down some food, paid and high tailed it out of there.  we headed straight to the car that would soon be filled with a lovely aroma of "baby." yuck.

when we got home, we went straight to her room and took off her crap covered clothes. apparently the lighting in the bathroom was a lot worse than i thought because she was still covered in it. yuck, yuck, YUCK. we headed to the tub and that's when i noticed it...i was the second thompson girl covered in poop. awesome.

what a lovely little experience to remind us that we really ARE parents...

2010: the cliff's notes edition.

2011-02-02T09:51:00.001-06:00

well now that we're a month into 2011, i figured it would be a great time to do our year end wrap up for 2010...sheesh.

we decided on january 1st of 2010, that it was going to be "the year of the thompson's." cheesy, yes...but it turned out to be a pretty awesome year.

in january, we started really feeling the itch that it was time for a change. we weren't sure at first what it was, but we knew it involved bryce's job. at the end of january, we received one of the biggest (and clearest!) blessings from God: bryce was given the opportunity to go to work at reeder general contractors with our "texas family." (that's what we call the reeders because, well, we love them like family!) it was absolutely without-a-doubt in God's plan for us because the day we both decided that bryce should join rgc, we found out he was being laid off from his employer at the time. so on february 1st, 2010, we jumped on board with reeder and haven't looked back. it has been such an amazing experience for both of us: bryce gets to work with some awesome people and it has brought our families even closer. bryce and i always giggle because we're usually the only non-blood-relatives at all the reeder family functions:) it has also been an amazing learning experience for bryce and he (unlike a majority of the working world) actually enjoys going to work everyday.

in march, we celebrated our one year anniversary. we spent the entire weekend eating and drinking our way through fort worth. i still have trouble wrapping my mind around the fact that bryce and i have been together for almost nine years. on monday, march 15th, the day after our anniversary, we hit another milestone together: we found out we were pregnant. i will never forget the moment i saw the positive test. it was almost an out-of-body experience. i told bryce in the worst possible way because i was in shock: shoving the positive test in his face. for the next few days, we sat around dumbfounded that we were going to be parents. wow.

in april, we started spreading the news of our little nugget. if you want to read about how we told our parents, it's in some of the old blog postings.

the summer brought on a growing baby bump and preparation for nugget's arrival. we had decided we weren't going to learn the gender of our baby (and by we, i mean i wanted to know and bryce didn't), but quickly learned the bigger my belly got, the more we wanted to know. so in july, we opened up our manila envelope in our driveway to find out we were going to be bringing home a little girl come november.

august brought on super miserable texas heat and brought brittne (bryce's sister) home from her time as a missionary in peru. it was so great having her home where we could actually just call her up and talk to her!

the texas rangers made a push into the playoffs, and our house was filled with ranger fever. bryce and kevin dang near put life on hold for every game. our households were in a state of mourning for quite some time after the loss of the world series. we were finally able to piece our broken hearts back together to focus on OU football.

in november, nugget made her debut. two and a half weeks early, brice elisabeth thompson decided it was time to come on out and join the party. i cannot even begin to describe the pure joy this little, bitty (well, respectively seeing as how the little chunk weighed 8 pounds, 5 ounces) person has brought to our lives and our home. i always knew i would love my children, but i don't even think love is a strong enough word. she absolutely melts my heart every time i look at her sweet face. when she smiles at me, i am completely in awe of how amazing she is. it's true, she is "fearfully and wonderfully made" (psalm 139:14) and i will never be able to thank God enough for letting us be her mom and dad. not only has she brought me the joy of being a mother, she has strengthened our marriage. my love for my husband is deeper and richer than ever before. we have learned what it really means to be a team. he is my partner, my best friend, my support and the love of my life. bryce is such an amazing father and i cannot describe the pure joy i have when watching him with his little girl. before we had brice, it was hard for me to wrap my mind around what being parents would be like. now that she's here with us, i can't imagine our lives without her.

the holidays were especially exciting this year since we had our new addition with us. we went home for thanksgiving, but quickly learned that traveling is a completely different ball game with a little one in tow. for christmas, we made our families come to us and i have to admit it was awesome. not only did we get to spend time with our family, but we got to stay on our normal routine with b so we weren't exhausted/stressed out like we were at thanksgiving.

as it turns out, 2010 was a pretty awesome year for the thompson family. we are blessed beyond measure and are so thankful we have a loving God that gives us more than we need or deserve. we are surrounded by friends and family who make our world go round and we are so glad we had another year to spend with you all.

we are so excited for what 2011 will bring, so stay tuned...

popped!!!

2010-12-31T10:45:00.003-06:00

okay, so here's the rundown of where i left you last time: thought my water broke. called bryce, said come home now. drove to hospital. water broke. and broke. and broke...so now you're caught up:)

after the nurse had confirmed my water broke and told us i was dilated to almost a five, they moved us into our labor & delivery room where i was hooked up to the monitors. at this point, i still wasn't really having any contractions, so i was thinking i was going to be one of those imaginary women who would give birth to a baby who basically crawled out. you know, no sweating, grunting, full-makeup, hair done...wishful thinking!! as the contractions started, i was able to breathe through them for the most part. bryce was trying so hard to be a good coach like we learned in class, but we both soon learned that his coaching really did nothing but piss me off. he kept saying "focus on me" and it was all i could do to not punch him square in the face. luckily, we made it through with just one little spat of "seriously, don't!"

as the contractions increased, my body began convulsing. it was the strangest thing because i couldn't stop my body from shaking. the nurse said it was a natural reaction, almost like being in shock after a car accident or something traumatic; my body was basically dealing with the pain by shaking. ANNOYING. i had gone in with the mind set that i really wanted to try to deliver naturally, but i soon realized that wasn't going to happen. about 2:30 a.m. the nurse put a drip of some pain meds into the iv and that helped for a little while. after about an hour of the drip, the drowsiness quickly wore off and gave way to intense pain and the shaking continued. since i wasn't able to use the time in between contractions to rest because of the constant shaking, i put in the call for the heavy artillery. the epidural.

about 4:45, about four hours after we got to the hospital, sweet relief arrived. his name was dr. fox and if i could've kissed him on the mouth i would have. side note: for those of you who have never had an epidural, i have to admit i giggle when asked if it hurt. yes, it is a big ass needle. yes, it is inserted into a spinal cavity. but does it hurt? well, compared to what?! in comparison to the "heaven-has-unleashed-all-its-fury-and-has-manifested-itself-in-my-stomach" pain of contractions, no.

so, after about 15 minutes, the epidural kicked in and we were both able to get some sleep which was welcomed with open arms since we had both been up since about 6:30 a.m. the previous morning. now i have no prior experience with an epidural, but i have to say i was pretty impressed with dr. fox's fancy work: my mid-section was completely numb, but i still had (limited, of course) use of my legs. if i needed to push up in the bed or readjust, i was able to.

at this point, our parents had shown up and each one had the opportunity to come in, say hi and pray with us. kevin had been holding down the waiting room, even though we kept telling him to go home and get some rest. such a good cousin:)

i only got about an hour and a half of sleep and about 7:45 i decided to just give up on it. i kind of felt like a little kid the night before their first day of school and the anticipation of seeing our baby kept me awake. before i knew it, i started feeling the urge to push. about 8:30 a.m. i started pushing and the baby was slowly working her way down. my nurse, cathy (who was aahhh mazing) told me that the baby's head was having a tough time dropping down through the pubic bone, so she had me lay on my side with my leg propped up to try and help baby b get on outta' there... okay, another side note: when bryce was born, his head was too big to pass through the birth canal. i think tonya pushed for like 2 1/2 hours or so before they decided it wasn't going to happen and she had a c-section. at this point, i turned to bryce and told him i was going to punch him in the throat if this baby's head didn't fit through...

lucky for bryce, the rolling around on the bed and laying on my sides gave baby b enough room to pass on through. the nurse asked if i would like a mirror so i could see what was going on and i'm really glad i agreed to that: it made my pushing way more productive because i could see what was working. we pushed a few more times and then called for the doctor. my doctor wasn't on call that weekend, so i was kind of disappointed about that, but all the doctors in the practice are fantastic, so that disappointment quickly subsided. cathy told me that with the next contractions, i needed to try to breathe through them and not push because we had to wait on dr. cope.

at 9:23 a.m. our sweet baby girl made her debut. they put her directly on my chest and her daddy cut the cord. they then took her and cleaned her up, measured her and weighed her. 8 pounds 5 ounces. i couldn't believe it. praise GOD she was two 1/2 weeks early. it makes me shutter when i think of how big she could've been if she would've hung out a little longer.

we left the l & d room and headed to the maternity ward about noon and were met by our parents and kevin (who at this point had been at the hospital for twelve hours, apparently enduring a night in the waiting room with "that guy" who wanted to talk and be his bff).

so, there you have it. that's how brice elisabeth thompson got out of her cozy, little home and into mommy and daddy's arms...and golley geez we're sure glad she's here:)

let's get to the good stuff!

2010-11-22T20:48:00.002-06:00

okay so i had this grand idea of updating on all the doctor's appointments post-appointment six...but i can't remember the order of sequence regarding things, so i'll just get on with the good stuff:)

okay, our 38 week appointment was november 5th. bryce picked me up from work as usual and we headed to the doctor. at this point, i was basically making deals with the devil to GET THIS CHILD OUT. i didn't care how it happened, i just wanted her out. i had crossed over into the land of miserable pregnant women: swollen, waddling, peeing my pants anytime i sneezed (or laughed...or coughed...) and not to mention the heartburn. good lord almighty i'm pretty sure i single-handedly kept pepcid in business this year.

well anyway, dr. walters came in to the exam room and i was bartering with her - bryce could fix up her house. i would babysit her kids, cook, clean...basically whatever i needed to do to have this baby. unfortunately, i was only dilated to 1.5 centimeters, so i headed out of the doctor's office with the realization that i was probably going to give birth to a kindergartner. ugh.

that night, bryce and kevin (my cousin who lives down the street) decided they wanted to go bowling to celebrate kevin's new job. i decided to stay home and have a relaxing evening: bath time and snuggling with the dogs. exciting, i know.

about 11 p.m. i went to turn off the television. well as all pregnant women know, it's not abnormal to pee your pants when you go to hoist your alien-like body out of the bed and that's exactly what happened - so i thought. i was pissed (no pun intended) as i rolled out of bed because i had JUST gone to the bathroom! i waddled into the bathroom and it didn't take long for me to realize it may be a little something more than just your normal pregnancy potty issue.

i called frantically called bryce and told him i was pretty sure my water just broke. "what do you mean your water just broke?" "well, bryce i don't know any other way to say that." he then asked if he needed to come home which i so calmly responded, "HELL YES, GET YOUR BUTT HOME!"

when they arrived, kevin was cheering "we're going to have a baby!!" bryce was super calm, basically thinking i was a nut case and i was freaking out trying to decide if i really was in labor or if i was imagining things. bryce so sweetly reminded me (insert sarcasm text here) that there are two reasons pregnant women go to the hospital: contractions 3-5 minutes apart and/or a big gush of fluid. well, my big gush of fluid wasn't so big, but i figured we should go anyway just in case. good thing we did...

as we pull out of the house, kevin asked where he was going and we told him to just head to cabela's. "where is cabela's?!!?" he had obviously started to panic...

for those of you who don't know, to get to the highway you pull out of our house and go down the street and turn left, followed by a right turn and you'll eventually run into i-35 to head north to cabela's and the hospital. so, we pull out and kevin turns right. "where are you going??!!!" bryce and i both screamed at him..."i don't know!" still in panic mode i suppose...

halfway to the hospital, kevin asked bryce why he wasn't in the backseat with his wife. well, it never really donned on either of us that the daddy-to-be should be sitting in the backseat with the mommy-to-be. bryce crawled into the backseat with me and asked if i was having contractions...still no at this point.

when we go to the hospital, we pulled into the emergency room entrance since it was midnight and all the other entrances were closed. bryce went ahead and ran in to get a wheel chair, check in, etc. any doubt i had about my water breaking was put to rest the moment i got out of the car. my original little trickle had now turned into a full-on gush. i know kevin was glad that happened after i got out of his car:)

bryce rolled me in and the nurse escorted us up to labor and delivery. the nurse told me to go into the bathroom and change into the oh-so-stylish hospital gown. the moment i stood up out of the wheel chair, the full-on gush had turned into niagara falls. i swear i had to have lost ten pounds at this point.

after i changed, the nurse checked and we were already dilated to almost a five...up from a 1.5 that dr. walters had told us a mere eight hours earlier. needless to say, we knew we were having our baby!! we called our parents and they headed down from oklahoma at 1 o'clock in the morning:)

okay well that's a long enough post for now. i'll blog about the rest later...my fingers are cramping:)

bgt.

2010-09-11T23:06:00.003-05:00

well hello, blog. nice to see you again.

since my last posting, there has been quite a lot going on in the thompson house!! we had our fifth and sixth doctor's appointments, started the nursery, started baby classes and i started a new job! this post is about the appointments so i can keep it to a manageable size and, well, blah, blah, blah about the new job...nobody cares about that, right?? :)

doctor's appointment number five was the ever-exciting glucose tolerance test. basically, i got to chug the delicious flat-sunkist-like orange drink and wait an hour to go get pricked. at this point, i had only gained 12 pounds! woo hoo!!! baby girl's heart rate was right around 150 and let me tell ya, this kid DOES NOT like to be messed with. she will scoot away from the doppler and when we finally catch her, she'll kick it. not that i blame her though...i mean she's roasty toasty comfortable in there and i'd want to be left alone too:)

so a few days later we got the results from the tests. every thing looked perfect except my iron was a little low. they like for it to be at 12 and mine was at 10.9...not surprising since EVERY time i try to donate blood my iron is low. so anyway, i'm now enjoying the addition of an iron supplement to my daily pill-popping routine. for those of you who know anything about iron, you know that my level of sarcasm is at an all-time high right now.

doctor's appointment number six was one we were really looking forward to - we had another sonogram! if you remember, a few months ago, they told me that my placenta was low-lying, so we'd need to do another sonogram in a few months to assess the situation. once again, God is totally blessing us, this pregnancy and this baby!!! my placenta had moved so far up that we don't have to worry about it anymore! whew! once again, baby girl was PISSED about being chased around with the doppler. she was kicking the dang thing. seriously. you could see her doing it on the screen. this sonogram brought around a few different emotions for me...our baby is getting so big! i am so excited to smooch her little face, but it made me realize how quickly our time with her is going to go, so i'm trying to enjoy every single second i have with her before i have to share:)

after the sonogram, i got to do the normal activities...get weighed, pee in a cup...you know, all the fun things. well, much to the entertainment of my husband, i got to kiss that 12 pounds LONG GONE. hello 20 pounds, you sure snuck up on me quick. anyway, besides the annoying 20 pounds that are now sitting on top of my short little legs (that i feel could rival the great redwoods), everything is great. my belly is measuring one centimeter ahead, but that's no big deal.

so, as usual, we are very thankful for a fantastic report from the doctor and so pleased our baby girl is enjoying her time in mommy's belly. although i do have to admit november can't get here soon enough:)

turtle or hamburger?

2010-07-11T10:33:00.003-05:00

a few weeks ago, an ultrasound tech came into the bank. we were talking about babies and i told him that my husband didn't want to find out the sex of our baby, but i did. he told me that if our baby is a boy, the - ahem - "business" will look like a turtle. if our baby is a little girl, we'd be looking at a hamburger. interesting...

ever since we found out we were having a baby, i wanted to know what we were having. bryce didn't. i kept bugging him about finding out (and even though he won't admit this) i had just given up a few weeks ago and accepted that we were just going to have to wait. so, i dropped it. well, let's be honest...not completely, but for the most part:)

at the last doctor's appointment, we told them to make sure they put in our file that we didn't want to find out the gender. so, last week when bryce told me this i was surprised: he said that we could have them put what we were having in an envelope and seal it, that way if we changed our mind, we had the option to find out. i really couldn't believe it and to be honest, i thought he was just messing with me. but sure enough, he was serious.

so, friday was our fourth doctor's appointment. we were both super duper excited because we knew this sonogram would show a lot more than just a little baby nugget:) before the appointment, we went to the nesting place, which is where we're going to take our birthing classes. we decided that we're going to take a little smorgas board class that includes not only labor and delivery, but breast feeding and basically babies 101. i was asking bryce if we wanted to do classes during the week or on saturdays and he so lovingly replied, "well i don't have to go to that breastfeeding crap do i? i mean that has nothing to do with me." thanks bryce. his delivery is so charming sometimes. not that i blame him though...i can see why he thinks he doesn't need to know about breast feeding. i then reminded him that although it won't be him that's turning into the milk bank, he will be part of the support team, so tough crap. he's going:)

we arrived for our 1:30 appointment at 1:10 because bryce had the third annual "the golf tournament" this weekend, so we had to scoot so he could get on to debauchery and gambling with the boys. at 1:55, after bryce griping at me to go see what the problem was, the ultrasound technician called us back. she was fabulous! not that i expect anything less from our doctor's office. i just love that place.

anyway, we went back and i hopped up on the table. i had my dress up before she even turned around...let's get this show on the road!! i was ready to see our baby! since the last time we were there, the office had put up a flat screen tv on the wall right in front of the table so the mommies can see it on the big screen. and there the baby was, squirming around all over the tv. i swear i fall in love with this baby more and more every single day.

well, this little squirt is hyper-active, just like mom and dad. i mean would we really expect anything less?? the girl spent quite a bit of time chasing the baby around to get measurements, etc. the baby was waving his/her arms and smacking his/her lips. i think the reason the baby was so squirmy was because he/she was trying to get away from the probe. i mean i can't say that i wouldn't be like quit chasing me with that dang thing and let me sleep!!

we told her that we wanted them to put the gender in a sealed envelope, so she told us to look away so we wouldn't see it. so we did. bryce kept telling me not to peek. yes, i know, i'm a cheater...and if he wouldn't have been staring right at me, i would've looked. for all of you who say you wouldn't, i don't want to hear it. i'm weak, so shoot me:)

afterwards, we went into the exam room to do our follow up with dr. walters. she said everything looked perfect with the baby, but my -eeeek, bryce hates this word- placenta is sitting low, right on top of my cervix so we'll have to have another sonogram in a few weeks to make sure it moves. it's not a big deal, but it could cause delivery to be tricky. as far as i'm concerned, that just means more pictures of our baby:)

okay, so on the way home, we talked about how we were going to open the envelope. i think after bryce saw the baby on the screen, he realized that he wanted to "know" the baby. it sounds strange, but it kind of was like there is a stranger living with us. so anyway, i wanted to take the results to a bakery and have a little cake made for just the two of us and have a special date night. he was so not into that. actually, the tables had turned. bryce wanted to open the envelope right there in the car and i was FREAKING out. i was so nervous i could hardly stand it. after freaking out the entire way home, we decided we would just open it and that way bryce could have all weekend to ponder some names for the baby. so, we stopped by jc penney real quick to pick up some flip flops and then headed home.

we pulled up in the driveway and sat there for a few minutes. i handed bryce the envelope because i was such a nervous wreck there was no way that i would be physically able to open that thing. so, he opened it. "i knew it! i knew it! i was right!" bryce was screaming. i started screaming "tell me! tell me!!" i wish we could've videoed it because i'm sure it was hysterical. so, he never actually told me, he just handed me the picture...

HAMBURGER! the thompson's will be welcoming a baby girl:) from the beginning, bryce had said girl and i had some creepily vivid dreams a few weeks ago about bringing home a little girl, so i think we both knew that we were having a girl. now, yes, i realize it's easy to say that now that we know for sure, but i'm telling you those dreams were crazy!!

so, there you have it world, bryce finally gave in to the persistence of his wife (which is not totally true, but if he wants to use me as the scape goat, that's fine) and we now know that we'll be bringing home a little girl this november. i wish that i had the entire day on tape. this baby has made me fall so much more in love with my husband. seeing his face when he saw the picture made me melt. he is going to be the best father and seeing how excited he is about loving our baby girl just makes my love for him grow even more. i just love that guy:)

okay, so here's the first booty shot of baby girl thompson:

waving to mom and dad!

bun in the oven.

2010-06-30T21:37:00.002-05:00

okay, okay, so as usual, i've been slacking on the blogging...anway, let's get on with it.

i would like to start out by saying that being pregnant is amazing. amazing in great ways, and amazing in not-so-great ways. i sometimes still find myself in awe of the fact that God has blessed us to be the parents of one of his miracles. i totally understand now what my mom always told me: "you won't understand what true love is until you have a baby of your own." thanks mom for being just you, for being my mom. being pregnant and on the verge of becoming a mommy myself takes life to a whole different level.

alright so there was my emotional, hormonal prego side coming out...but here's the real story for this one: i haven't told you anything about doctors appointments #2 and #3. i had no idea what to expect seeing as how we don't have another sonogram until july, so besides being weighed (eeeeeek!) and peeing in a cup, everything was a mystery.

so, we show up, get weighed, pee in the cup and head into the exam room. well "WE" didn't get weighed or pee in the cup...just me. they really have no use for bryce's weight or pee. (which the weight tracking for the daddy-to-be could be interesting...but that's beside the point.) dr. walters came in and as usual, was super cheerful and just all around fabulous. i just love her to pieces. she asked me how i was feeling, any weird things going on (i'll leave those of you who have never experienced pregnancy living in ignorance and those of you who have know the questions...) and then told me to lay down. she put some gel on my stomach and put this little microphone on my stomach. the most amazing sound i have ever heard in my whole entire life filled the room. there it was, clear as day, this precious, little, super-speed heartbeat just thumping away. 170 beats per minute. much like with the sonogram, i sat dumb founded with my mouth open, only this time i was staring at bryce, not the screen:)

doctors appointment number three was pretty much the same thing. this time, baby t's heart rate was 158. once again, we got another fantastic report.

alright, so after much debating (mostly with myself) i have decided to put up some belly pics. i had originally decided not to do this because right now i just feel like a huge fatty who's been chowing down the french fries. (which, just so you know i haven't. that was the first trimester thank-you-very-much.) well that and i think it's kind of weird to post pictures of myself with my shirt pulled up, belly hanging out. i will say though that i find it way less creepy now that i can actually feel the little squirt moving around in his/her baby condo. it's a constant reminder that we really are having a baby versus me just turning into a fatty.

so, here you go. for all of you who haven't been receiving the emails, i will now introduce you to my little bun in the oven baby bump. yes, i am wearing the same clothes. yes, it's in the exact same spot and YES I JUST WOKE UP. no comments about the flannel pj pants (kuchel, this means you!) and back off the sleepy face...i haven't slept through the night once in the past 19 weeks. i always have to pee. ugh.

alright, here's baby t's camp site at 15 weeks:

and here we are at 19 weeks:

so, world, there you have it. i have officially joined the cult of crazies that feel it's acceptable to put naked bellies on the internet for complete strangers to enjoy. i can't even imagine what i'll post once the baby gets here. my poor children are going to be so embarrased by their mother.

whew! we really are preggo:)

2010-06-01T20:30:00.002-05:00

holy moly it's been almost two months since my last post! i can blame this on a few things: 1. we are the owners of like four lap tops and none of them work. pitiful. 2. i've just been lazy.

so any hooo, i'm back in action and hoping to update the blog weekly, especially since the bun in the oven is baking away:)

since my last post, we've been to the doctor twice but this entry is about doctor's visit number one.

our doctor and hospital is in grapevine, about 30 minutes from our house. i never really thought about the drive until we were headed to the meet with the gynecologist who had now become my obstetrician. bryce gently reminded me "baby, this is kind of far. you're not worried about this when you go into labor?" thanks bryce. add even more worries to the crazy pregant lady's list...

when we got to the doctor for the first time, the place was PACKED. we filled out a ton of paperwork and then went back with the sonographer for our first ultrasound. i guess i didn't realize how scared i was because i swear she rolled that thing around on my stomach for three minutes without saying a word. i just knew she was going to tell me i was crazy and that there wasn't a baby in there. i kept looking at her, then at bryce, then back to her, and no one was saying anything. bryce finally asked, "are you measuring" and she replied yes. measuring what??!! an empty uterus?!! i was laying there silent on the table freaking out on the inside.

then, she turned around the computer screen.

i can honestly say in my entire life i have never felt such wonder and amazement (and relief!). there he or she was, with that little heart just fluttering away. it was the most amazing moment of my life. i was hoping she would just let me lay there and watch it for hours. i swear i could have:)

so, she printed off some pictures and we were off to the waiting room to wait for the exam. now maybe i'm a little weird, but i told bryce from the get-go that he was going to be a part of everything: every doctor's visit, ultrasound, anything that has to do with my pregnancy and our baby. so, i informed him that he would be meeting the doctor (i LOVE my doctor but wanted to make sure bryce felt the same way) and he would be in the room during my exam and to be prepared with questions. okay, now some of you might think this is weird, but i figured he might as well meet the woman who is going to be all up in my business for the next nine months.

while we sat in the exam room, i asked him if he was nervous or uncomfortable. of course he wasn't. as always, bryce was so non-chalant about it all. after the exam, we had some time with the doctor to ask questions. she left, i got dressed and bryce looked over and said "that's it?" i could have shot him. i wonder how he would feel with someone poking and prodding around in no man's land...

so anyway, the first visit was not only successful, but it was such a relief to know that this is actually happening and i wasn't just losing my mind:) well and it confirmed what the five pregnancy tests had already told us.

i wish we had an ultrasound machine at home...i swear i'd be on that thing all the time:)

start spreading the news!

2010-04-13T22:11:00.003-05:00

okay, so i know some of you have seen the picture of bryce in the big yellow chicken suit...so here's the explanation.

we knew we wanted to tell our family in a very special way and after three weeks of knowing, we could hardly keep our traps shut! we had originally planned to wait until after our first doctors appointment (just in case something was wrong) but we were so excited we had to get it out! the original plan for easter was that my mom was going to come down, but we decided to go home instead. plus, easter was a great cover up.

so let's go back about 26 years...

when tonya found out she was pregnant with bryce, she hired a singing telegram to come to their house and tell dwayne. much to her surprise, a big yellow chicken showed up with pink and blue balloons. when she got pregnant with brittne, she gave dwayne a stuffed yellow chicken and he instantly knew what was going on. so, with that being said and an on-going family joke, we rented a chicken suit.

we got to tonya and dwayne's about 9:30 after stopping to pick up the chicken suit from mike turner (who so graciously picked up this humongous thing) and i went in first to get the iPhone ready for recording. after a few minutes, bryce walked in donning full chicken garb. big red feet and all. dwayne instantly knew and it took tonya about a minute to figure it out; unknown to us, they had a conversation about two hours earlier about how stupid that big yellow chicken was! she thought they were playing a joke on her and then she finally figured it out!

we then went over to tell nanny and i made all the great-grands onesies that said "i love my ____" (fill in their name).

the next morning, we went to tell my mom. my mom is all about goodie baskets and little treats so i made her an easter basket full of baby stuff and a grandma frame. we walked in and i handed it to her and she dropped it and instantly started ugly faced crying (sorry mom, but you did). it was perfect!

we then proceeded to tell the rest of the family and every one was equally excited! we had a family cookout on saturday night at dwayne and tonya's and everyone had to pick a pink or blue plate based off of what they wanted. quite a few people took both for twins (which i am relieved to say that's not the case!).

we won't know if we'll be buying pink or blue until the baby gets here because we've decided to wait. well actually, bryce wants to and i don't but we made a compromise: since he's mr. fix it and all that stuff, we made the deal that if we wait to find out (which he REEEEEEALLY wants) the second the baby is born he'll be on the phone with painters and other construction guys to get the nursery perfect by the time we get home. i figured that was fair:)

so anyway, there you have it. hopefully soon i'll be able to post the videos:)

nugget!

2010-04-05T21:48:00.004-05:00

i have definitely been neglecting the blog...so here i am for redemption and i'm thinking this post will be just the thing:)

we've had a very busy (and secretive!) past three weeks...

at the begining of the year, bryce and i began talking about when we would start our family. my big thing is that i want to have two or three children and be done by the time i'm 30, so we started at my 30th birthday and worked backwards based on our ideal situation. needless to say the saying "the best way to make god laugh is to tell him your plans" is absolutely true!

i had began researching the whole issue of infertility and found that the average couple usually takes about 6 months to conceive. bryce and i had planned on getting pregnant towards the latter half of 2010 and have a baby next spring or summer. we kind of had the mentality of not trying, but not "not tryng." did that make sense?

any hoo, for us that wasn't the case:)

on monday, march 15th (the day after our first anniversary), i was late. okay so by late i mean just a few hours, but this was not normal for me. i went to target, got some tests and headed back to the house. bryce was just getting home as i went to take the test...

okay, so directions are take test (you know what this consists of so i'm not going into all that mess) and wait three minutes. well, little baby thompson was putting off some serious vibes because that test was positive within 15 seconds. i instantly went numb and had tears in my eyes. i couldn't believe it. (which i still don't really understand why because i know how this whole baby thing works!).

i walked out of the downstairs half bath with the pregnancy test behind my back and bryce instantly looked at me and said "what did you break?" (now for those of you who don't know me, i seem to break things fairly often, and it's usually things that have major sentimental value ie: a nolan ryan plate that bryce's grandmom gave him before she passed away, dwayne's grandmother's crystal pitcher...the list goes on)

anyway, so i shove the test in his face and this is how the next ten seconds went:
"no way."
"yes way."
"uh uh."
"uh huh."
"well how accurate is that thing anyway?!?!!!?!!"
"well i don't know! it was the one on sale!"

i was then instructed to do research on the most accurate pregnancy tests...we went and bought three more. after the first day, i had taken tree pregnancy tests, and those were followed by one in the next few days. after six pregnancy tests, we figured they couldn't all be wrong.

we then decided that we wanted to wait until after we went to the doctor just in case (god forbid) something did go wrong with the pregnancy. but who are we kidding? we have big fat mouths and can't keep it to ourselves! we started with our family (brittne and kevin knew first) and then told the rest of the family and our friends this weekend.

so, there you have it. god has blessed us with a little bundle of joy who will arrive sometime around thanksgiving:) we're so super deee duper excited and can't wait to kiss our little nugget! that's what i'm calling him or her since right now the baby is just a little nugget. bryce thinks it's silly but right now i'm the boss since baby thompson is cuddled up in my belly and not his :)

we recorded our parents when we were telling them so we're going to upload those hopefully tomorrow. i'm going to try to be much better with blogging so i can keep everyone updated on our little blessing!

perfectly perfect.

2010-01-28T20:22:00.003-06:00

what a week it's been at the thompson house...

here are the key player's in this week's happenings for those of you who may not know these people:

cole reeder: bryce's best friend he met through another best friend, tanner
wes reeder: cole's dad who has reeder general construction. cole and lane (cole's older brother) run the company with wes.

okay, that's what you need to know to get going, so with that said, here we go...

over the past few months, bryce and i have really been feeling the itch for a change and we were 100% sure it was time to head back to oklahoma and we had begun making plans. WRONG. we were so wrong and it is amazing how God truly orchestrates things to take care of his children...

on saturday, bryce went to meet with wes over at their office. for over a year now, there has always been conversation about how bryce should go work with the reeder's and how it would be a great fit for everyone. bryce and i both never really took it seriously until saturday when wes and bryce had a serious conversation about the direction and goals of rgc. after their chat, bryce came home and we both knew this was an amazing opportunity for bryce to join a company he truly respects and to learn so much. we still weren't sure about counting out oklahoma just yet...

after days of praying together and separately, we both had a peace about the decision: bryce would resign from employment with andres construction and start with reeder and we would stay in fort worth. God provided both of us the peace to know that it's not time to move back yet, or if ever. i still feel that one day we will move home, but as for now, our home is fort worth.

so, anyway on tuesday bryce sent me a text message to call him, which he very rarely does. it just so happened that i was on my lunch break so i was headed home. i called him and he told me he was on his way home (which is not out of the ordinary when a construction job is almost finished) and that he would see me in a few minutes. when he got home, he asked me what i thought about the reeder opportunity and i told him i had a peace about it and i felt that we should do it. he wanted to confirm that i wasn't just saying that because i knew that's what he wanted, but i was 100% sure that this is what is in God's plan for us. he then dropped a bombshell on me which would turn out to be one of the first HUGE miracles of our marriage...

bryce was going to be laid of the next day from andres. yes, you heard me: LAID OFF.

my jaw hit the floor and i was absolutely awe-struck. God had answered our prayers and given us a direct answer to where he wants us to go. it is absolutely amazing to me that God cleared the way and removed any doubt or fears about taking this job.

it's hard to describe how i feel about all of this because it reminds me how amazing the love of our God is for us. why we're worthy, i'll never know, but how awesome to be loved and cared for by such an all-powerful, all-knowing God. there is absolutely no way this is a coincidence. this is undoubtedly the plan God has for us and we know it is perfectly perfect. :)

so, to wrap it up, we're staying in fort worth until God reveals his next step. 2010 is going to be an awesome year and i can't wait to tell you all about it. there's some more things in the works as we speak, but a magician never reveals their secrets...well, okay i will but that's just because i'm a blabber mouth:)

2009: the year in review.

2010-01-01T20:20:00.003-06:00

wow. 2009 was a doozie. full of highs and lows, ups and downs, we made it through probably the most challenging year of our lives to date.

of course, the year started out with getting married after seven years of dating, a fabulous honeymoon to italy and then returning home to move in together. i'm so glad that we chose not to live together (not only for biblical reasons, etc.) because it was really special to come home from our honeymoon knowing it was the first night as husband and wife in our home. even though we closed on the house in december of 2008, it was still exciting to come home to OUR house, not just the place bryce bought and lived in that i helped him fix up, but really our home.

during the spring and really up through august, i felt like i couldn't get people out of our house!!! things were crazy with weddings, traveling, company and who-knows-what-else. although it was crazy, we enjoyed (almost!) every minute of it:)

throughout the summer, we spent a majority of our time working on the house and i started grad school for deaf education, quickly to learn that i was not called to be an educator. don't get me wrong, I LOVE working with the deaf population, but my calling is more on the clinical and diagnostic side of things. after a summer full of classes that had me working what felt like 80 hours a week, we decided that God had been pretty clear in showing me that i need to put my focus elsewhere. so, with that, we moved on.

at the end of may, bryce moved off of his jobsite at the university of dallas to run his very own project at a private preparatory school in dallas. this was such a compliment for his boss to give him the responsibility of being in charge of everything on a job, especially since he had been with the company only about a year at this point. i have never seen someone work as hard as he did and though it was difficult on our relationship, watching him work pretty much seven days a week for three months showed me that his work ethic is second to none and i don't know if i could find anyone who works as hard as he does. i know he learned so much and was so grateful for the responsibility given to him and for such a learning opportunity.

in june, diva got super duper sick because of the swiffer wet jet, so i decided the thompson house was going green. i started a compost, and am a recycling nazi. seriously. if you want to read more about this, venture through some of the previous posts. they're full of moose and diva stories and composting.

after months without a steady income on my part, i started with wells fargo in october. i work with an amazing group of people and although sometimes i swear that God tests my patience by sending in the dumbest people in the world who have never been to the bank before, i really enjoy the banking atmosphere. it's very social and fast-paced and it's great to get to know the customers.

oh and i also had this little lhasa apso walk into the garage one night. seriously, he just walked in. bryce named him alexander supertramp and he lived with us for two weeks. turned out he was 12 years old and was from little rock, arkansas. the vet i called said that his owner had moved down here to be with family because she was older and couldn't take care of herself anymore. i was hoping i could sneak by and let him live out his days with us, but no dice. thankfully, our neighbor becky has a friend that rescues dogs so i gave him to her before bryce made me take him to the pound.

for christmas, we headed down to peru to see brittne who is a missionary. we left on christmas eve and although it was so difficult being away from my family for the first time in my life, the trip was such an amazing eye-opening experience. i will blog more on this later, so that's why i'm cutting this section a little short:)

so in a nutshell, this year was pretty jam-packed. we experienced the bliss of being newlyweds, but also learned that marriage is not easy. as a matter of fact, it's hard. really hard. we've also learned self control and sacrifice, not only as individuals but as a couple. it's not easy becoming "one" and that's why we've learned that we have to trust and seek the lord...ACTIVELY seek the lord. we're not professionals at this by any means, but that's what's so great about a new year. not only do we gain wisdom with each passing year, but we get a clean slate to start over and make wiser decisions. we're learning to become less selfish, more focused on us - our marriage, our partnership - and on the "big picture" as bryce likes to remind me on a daily basis.

we are so thankful for all the blessings we have received this year, but i must say that the trials that 2009 brought may have been the biggest blessings of all. without them, we would not learn to trust the Lord. you know, it's kind of like getting your battle scars i guess. every one has a story and lesson that goes along with it.

so, what's in store for the thompson's in 2010? job promotions? babies? well, a move for one thing. as soon as we get the house finished, it's going on the market. where we're going after we sell? well we don't know. maybe down the street. all we know is that we bought this house with the intent to re-do it and sell it, and we're almost at that point. that's all we know for sure right now.

stay tuned, for i'm sure it will be another year full of crazy mishaps, tons of stories about moose and diva, eccentric blogging, but most of all, a year full of love, learning and growing. so, 2010, you are welcomed with open arms:)

i've got tired head.

2009-11-05T21:51:00.002-06:00

okay, so i have tried to use this blog simply as an insight into our goofy lives, but a few things have happened in the past couple of days that have really ruffled my feathers and i want to voice my opinion...and yes, ft. hood was the straw that broke the camel's back.

i would like to put a disclaimer on this that if you are easily offended by conservative and right wing opinions, you might as well close this thing down right now. stop reading. seriously. i'm not kidding...CLOSE THE PAGE.

okay, so one thing that has really been on my mind lately is how FREAKING RIDICULOUS the idea of having to be politically correct all the time is. it is just flat-out exhausting me. here are my thoughts: i am prejudice. i discriminate. now before you freak out and let your head fill with the typical racist thoughts, let me explain.

i have a prejudice towards people who feel they are "entitled" to what i have, to what my husband works hard for to provide for our family. we BY NO MEANS are wealthy, we struggle financially, and it makes me EXTREMELY angry when i hear about this idea of "spreading the wealth." let me get something straight, YOU ARE NOT ENTITLED TO WHAT IS MINE.

as a christian, we are called to be generous, to give because what we have is not ours, it is from God. THIS DOES NOT MEAN I AM TO BE A DOORMAT AND TO GIVE PEOPLE WHO DO NOT WANT TO WORK A MEAL TICKET. this also doesn't give people a right to exploit the generosity of christians. i love helping others and serving for the glory of God, but i refuse to let people make a mockery of this.

i understand that people fall on hard times. bad things happen, i get it. as a matter of fact, a good majority of you reading this have no idea the situation bryce and i are in...and it's not any of your business. my point is that you don't see us milking the system, or lining up for a handout. we have sucked it up, given up our luxuries that we were used to and live a modest life.

i really didn't want to ever use this blog as a personal "platform," but i am so tired of our country being a people of enablers. ever heard the saying: "give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day, but teach a man to fish and he'll eat for the rest of his life." ? i feel this is pretty applicable today. think about it, if i'm getting a handout from the government, (taking from your hard-earned dollars, by the way) why the heck would i go get a job instead of sitting on the couch all day???! now, i know i'm over-generalizing. i know that not everyone who receives government assistance is a lazy couch potato, so give me a break. you get my point.

christian or not, here is my challenge: STAND UP FOR WHAT IS RIGHT. PROTECT OUR COUNTRY, OUR LIBERTIES, OUR FREEDOM. i know you may not have the same convictions as i do, but we are all AMERICANS, and we are so blessed to live in such a wonderful country. why do we not take pride in that and protect our country as we do our loved ones?

if you don't feel the same way, that's fine. i am not ingorant to the fact that we all have different viewpoints, BUT, as far as i'm concerned, if you spend more time bitching and moaning about "equality" and blah blah blah in our country, you're probably part of the problem. so if you hate it here that much, pack your bags. get out. that would actually be a blessing for those of us who want to stay here, praying for God's movement across this land and return us to a country of God-fearing, humble people...

quit asking hard working americans to support your lazy butt. you by NO MEANS are ENTITLED to what others work hard for.

the greatest thing about america is that you can have anything you want...and you work as hard as you want to get it.

i know this posting was pretty intense. i am just so exhausted by a country of complainers and this sense of entitlement that is becoming more and more present. it gives me tired head.

...and then he put out the fire.

2009-10-22T21:06:00.002-05:00

i don't know if it's this time of the year or if there's something going on with the moon, but our dogs have officially lost their dang minds...

last night, bryce and i were sitting on the couch watching t.v. and enjoying the rain. (well at this point, the rain had slowed from a freaking monsoon to a nice little shower). as we sat there, we heard a noise...bryce thought it was moose licking and i thought it was the rain picking up again. we both happened to look over toward the kitchen to find moose, hiking his leg and peeing on our chair. I KID YOU NOT, he hiked his freaking leg and soaked the chair, like the damn thing was on fire or something and he had to save us all by putting it out. WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH THESE ANIMALS??!!!

i can honestly say in my whole entire life i have never been more scared for moose because the hurricane was a'comin'. it was almost as if moose knew what was in store for him because he came over, sat down in front of bryce while lowering his ears and tucking his tail. moose was prepared for punishment.

we were both so in shock that we could barely move. well, bryce got over that real quick and beat the ever-lovin-crap out of him with a wooden spoon. and with that, moose was banished to the back yard to endure hurricane rains and wind. after about three hours, moose was still sitting at the back door in the pouring down rain whining to come in. i'm hoping the idiot went and got in his dog house, but we're not really sure if he did or not.

needless to say that our poor mop is on its way out...between moose dookie and moose pee, i think it's seen better days. so, the saga of the delinquent dogs continues...but hopefully we're nearing the end. these dogs are slowly inching their way towards becoming outside dogs, which would be a huge bummer since winter isn't far away!

He dropped a bomb.

2009-10-20T21:25:00.002-05:00

Aaaah...the life of a mom and dad. Now I know that you're asking yourself right now, "MOM AND DAD?! WHAT?!! THEY'RE PREGANT?!!" No. Absolutely not. I am referring to our lovely puppies who seem to always fill our lives with (usually unwanted) excitement.

For those of you that don't know, I started working at Wells Fargo last week. I get off work around 6:15 and PRAISE THE LORD I only have about a ten minute commute. Yes, you heard me. TEN MINUTES. Anyway, much to my misfortune, Bryce was on his way home later than normal tonight and I actually beat him home. Lately, we have been arguing back and forth about me making the dogs stay outside during the day. Okay, I'll be honest. It's really not arguing...it's more of me getting in trouble for not doing what I'm told...and you bet your sweet cheeks that it came back and bit me royally today.

As I pulled into the driveway, all I could think about was getting inside and fixing dinner. I walked through the door and this extremely foul odor smacked me square in the face. I frantically ran around to try to find it so I could dispose of the evidence before Bryce got home because I knew what was coming for me if I didn't get rid of it. It's usually Diva, so I started yelling at her while I was sniffing around for the terds that she usually leaves under the table (I guess because she thinks we won't find it...or that's the only place Moose can't get to her.) Well, it took me about 15 seconds to find it...

As I rounded the corner and walked into the living room, there it was...probably the biggest square footage of catastrophic dog diarreah one has ever seen in their lifetime. Not only was it a wonderful mixture of solid, slightly solid and liquid, as Moose relieved himself the excrement hit our hard wood floors ever so nicely and SPLATTERED. EVERYWHERE. Floors, walls, baseboards, furniture. He dropped a bomb and it exploded right in our living room, and I had the honor of trying to do damage control. Fabulous.

As I stood there frantic, knowing there was ABSOLUTELY NO WAY I was getting this cleaned up before Bryce got home, I started gagging because the whole freaking house reaked of Moose doo doo. When Bryce drove up, I told him I needed his help...and he then ever so sweetly reminded me that I was the one who kept the dogs inside. There was no other way to get rid of this mess than to just dive in, so I did. Well, first I went upstairs (side note: it smelled WORSE upstairs because the fumes had time to float to the second floor and so wonderfully ferment in our bedroom...) and got one of Bryce's bandanas that I so horribly loathe and tied it around my face because if I smelled anymore of that putrid stench, there would be vomit all over the floor to go along with the remnants of Pedigree. I looked like an old-timey western bank robber with that thing on my face.

So, after about ten rags and an entire roll of paper towels, spraying vinegar and mopping with boiling water, the atomic bomb had been properly disposed of and a haz mat shower was in need for all who had been inside the Thompson house.

Sweet Lord, God Almight I pray that I NEVER come home to a nice little surprise like that ever again in my entire life. Needless to say, both of our appetites were definitely surpressed.

I would post pictures of the disaster...but I figure there might be some law against traumatic photographs or something. Well that and I can't find my camera.

The Burglary...

2009-09-02T20:18:00.004-05:00

early saturday morning, bryce and i awoke to the sound of glass crashing downstairs. as we laid in bed scared half to death, bryce whispered, "what was that?!" i obviously had no idea...

bryce instantly got up, walked into the closet and got his shot gun. (i'm assuming he grabbed the one he got as a groom's gift from all his buddies because he hasn't shot it yet...) locked. loaded. he walked out of the closet into a potential war zone...

okay, let's back up so i can give you some background on this. a few weeks ago, we were eating dinner and our door bell rang. it was one of our neighbors coming to tell us that there were three teenage kids creeping around our house. they looked in the back of bryce's truck and walked in our garage and our neighbor said they had walked by three times. the fourth time they walked by, it just so happened that bryce and our neighbor were standing in the driveway.

so, back to the burglary...

for those of you who haven't been in our house, all our bedrooms are upstairs and the downstairs is basically one big circle: front door, hallway, living room, kitchen, dining room, sitting room, front door...you get the point. my first thought was that the burglar would sneak up on bryce because of the lay out of the house, so i grabbed diva, snuggled her really tight because i was TERRIFIED, put 911 in on the cell phone and held my finger on the call button in case something happened. moose, on the other hand, was laying in the closet, obviously concerned about the safety of his mom and dad and sister...pssh!

alas, no gun shots and bryce returns. he then explains to me that one of my pictures had fallen off from the top of the cabinets and shattered. so, no burglary. just poor placement of a large flower print...hello saturday morning, you definitely came in with a bang!

now that the seriousness of the situation had subsided, the thought of bryce grabbing his shot gun now seemed kind of humorous. it was reminiscent of the scene in home alone when macaulay caulkin grabs his bb gun and says "i must protect this house." he then told me that he felt sorry for whoever was looking down the business end of his shot gun because it was full of "turkey shells." now for those of you (like myself) who this means nothing to, apparently that thing would put a hole the size of a basketball in you. yowza...talk about a bad day.

we then realized that moose is a poor excuse for a watch dog...i don't even know if he moved except to grunt with disapproval when bryce turned on the light.

we did decide that if we ever have someone break into our home that bryce is going to shoot them in front of the window...we need new windows in our house:) just kidding...but really...

Moose + Diva = Compost Eaters.

2009-08-21T15:51:00.010-05:00

So, if you follow our blog, you know that a few months ago I went on this "green" kick after Diva got sick from the Swiffer Wet Jet and banned most chemicals (except Clorox Clean Up for my counters and Comet) and started a compost.

Welp, the dogs have discovered the compost.

When I first started it, it was mostly grass clippings, so i just made a pile in the back corner of the yard and turned it. I started doing research on it and then began to add other organic things (food scraps, etc) to help cut down on our waste. Well, soon after that, I began to notice that the dogs would take a lot longer to get to the door when I called them, especially the little one.

I eventually realized that those little snots were eating the compost!!! I tried to bury the food items under the pile of grass, but Diva went in for the kill and dug through until she got what she wanted. So, after I was sick of her face being COMPLETELY crusted over with disgusting, rotting food, I had Bryce make me a compost bin. He took a regular galvanized trash can, drilled some holes in the bottom and voila! Our composter was born.

I sat it in the corner behind the little shed we have in the back yard to hide it...I mean it is a silver trash can, not very aesthetically pleasing. One day about two weeks ago, I was cleaning out the fridge and was taking stuff back to the compost. As I went back out on my second trip, I saw Moose and Diva, both looking very conspicuous. I walked over to Moose and realized that he had a HUGE chunk of pretzel in his mouth. (Mind you, this thing was covered in mold when i through it out...) I did everything short of tackling the dang dog - stepping on his feet, pulling his tail, pulling on his ears which he HATES - and couldn't get his jaws of steel open to take it out. It was absolutely hilarious because he WAS NOT surrendering and giving this thing up, and it was obvious that his mouth was full of something. He obviously thought he could out smart me, because he wouldn't chew it when I looked at him, but the second I turned away he started smacking...this went on for a good five minutes before I just gave up.

Yesterday, I was taking some stuff out to the compost and I apparently had forgotten to latch the lid shut because there it was in its full glory laying on the ground...and I knew who was responsible. After I gave Moose the good what-for, I put the lid on and we went back inside. A few minutes later, I heard him coughing and weezing in the kitchen. I didn't really think anything of it because those of you that know Moose know he makes the weirdest noises. We should've named in Chubacca (sp??) like the wuzzy guy from Star Wars.

Well anyway, so I hear this wheezing and coughing and all of the sudden I hear it. I knew exactly what had just happened. MOOSE HAD BARFED ALL OVER MY KITCHEN FLOOR. He stood there and looked at me, as if he was saying "Welp, clean it up, Mom!" I stood there for a second thinking a few things: 1. Would he try to clean it up himself (GROSS.) and 2. What would be the best plan of attack for this cow-patty sized pile of vomit. I grabbed some saran wrap to keep my hands from getting dirty, held my breath and went in for the kill. It was by far one of the NASTIEST things I've ever had to clean up, and that includes when the triplets would throw up on me.

So, if you have a compost pile and little vermin animals who can't seem to keep out of anything, you might wanna pad lock that thing SHUT. eeew.

My Bubby

2009-08-04T15:01:00.004-05:00

So, the end of our crazy summer is upon us. HALLELUJAH!!!

This past weekend was a pretty important weekend in our lives. Not necessarily between Bryce and I, but for our family as a whole. Kevin (my cousin, who is really more like my brother) closed on a house about 1/2 a mile down the road from us in the beginning of July and this weekend, we broke in the new house! The weekend turned into a house warming party after Kevin had broken his engagement. I am so proud of him. It was not easy for him to go through such an event like that, but he is so much happier and better off! AND, I have to admit...I'm happy to have my Bubby back:)

On Friday, Mom, Julie, Jackie, Jackson and Nana drove down to Fort Worth. We all went out to eat Friday (including our adopted family member, Kyle) and celebrated Nana's 82 birthday. I'll tell you this, the woman's got spunk. Super-spunk depending on the day.

Saturday, Bryce put some meat on the smoker and "man time" ensued. The boys (including Jackson) did Lord knows what, and the girls went shopping and garage sale-ing!! My two aunts found some goodies for me since I didn't go...instead, I stayed home and made carrot cake (YUM!) and baked brie (YUMMIER!).

We all headed down to Kevin's about 4:30 and had a GREAT time. We saw old friends, made new friends and celebrated Kevin and where God is taking him in his life. The boys ended up going downtown, but Bryce and I were exhausted, so the old married couple came home and went to bed.

Kevin said he'd pay me $50 to come and clean up his house on Sunday...I politely declined. Okay, I guess "hell no" isn't polite...

In a nutshell, I am so proud of Kevin, super-deee-duper happy for him and I'm glad I have a neighbor that is family.

OH!!! I almost forgot to mention...one of my favorite things about Mom and Aunt Julie!!!! I L-O-V-E, LOOOOOOOOOVE it when they come to visit. Why, you ask? Because they clean my house! Woo hooo!!! They even scrub the bathtub and the toilet in the guest bath. So nice of them...and I really do appreciate it. So, thank you, Mom and Aunt Julie for always doing that. As long as you clean, the door to our home is always open:) (Just kidding. But really...)

We have survived five solid months of insanity: weddings, honeymoons, birthdays, company, and still re-doing this darn house. I am definitely looking forward to sleeping in on Saturday's and drinking coffee with my hubbee. Oh and football of course:) So now it's time to take a deep breath and relax...finally!

Excuse me, but you weren't invited to the husband and wife weekend.

2009-07-21T17:16:00.008-05:00

So as most of you know, we have been booked solid with company and places to go on the weekends since we got back from our honeymoon in March. Last week, I went home to Oklahoma (Tonya, Bryce's mom took me to see Wicked...A-MAZING by the way...) and I told Bryce that when I got back on Friday, that I wanted a husband and wife weekend. Only us. No one at our house. Well, as usual, nothing goes according to plan in our life. It's starting to be quite amusing, actually.

(Side note: when I talked to Bryce Friday morning before I left, here's what he said..."When are you coming back? I'm a mess. I ate corn on the cob and a bag of cheetos last night." Now, before you go feeling sorry for the man, please realize that we had a conversation the morning I left about how there were left overs in the fridge that were enough to get him through until I got home. All he needed to do was get a gallon of milk. His response was typical Bryce: "I made it 24 years on my own before you, I think I can make it a few days." Pssh...I hope he enjoyed the cheetos.)

Okay, so Friday when I got home, we went to Wal-Mart to get some groceries. We couldn't decide what we wanted, so we agreed it was a great idea to get a whole bunch of junk and eat it...including a box of oreo's. I was so excited I could hardly stand it because I couldn't even remember the last time I ate oreo's!!! We went to bed miserable. Saturday morning, Bryce had to go to work, so the husband and wife weekend would have to continue later that day...ugh. Anyway, while he was getting ready for work, I had to kick him out of the bathroom. SURPRISE!!!! An uninvited guest showed up to the weekend...a sweet little stomach bug decided to visit me for the entire weekend. Yes, the entire weekend.

I called Bryce at work and asked him to stop and get some medicine and diet sprite for me on his way home. I hadn't really eaten much since my stomach was so upset, and the only thing that sounded good was yogurt, so he took me to this place by the house that we just happened to drive by. It's amazing...yogurt and toppings, all you can eat, weighed by the ounce!!! So, I had chocolate cookie frozen yogurt with some strawberries, brownies and crunch bar (yes, I said crunch bar!) on it. It was great...until it decided to come back up that night. Gross, I know.

Bryce was the best little nurse I could ask for. He was so sweet and didn't even make me move from the couch for anything. The only bad thing about it, is that now I know what he's capable of, so he is totally screwed!!!

Two more weekends of social obligations, and then we are done for a while!! We're making the rule that we have no guests staying with us until September, at the earliest. So, on that note, if you want to come stay with us, you better do it the weekend of August 1st or plan on getting a hotel. Seriously. I mean it, people. :)

Independence!

2009-07-08T16:15:00.005-05:00

Well, as expected, July has taken off and doesn't look like it's slowing down! We went to Possum Kingdom Lake for the 4th of July and camped out. Yes, in a tent. I'm sure you're all giggling right now thinking of me in the Texas heat, in a tent. Well, for your reading pleasure, yes, it was awful, and no, I didn't enjoy it.

Bryce on the other hand, had a great time. He and Cole had been working on building a smoker for about a year now and they got it finished. They did such a great job! Bryce smoked chicken, ribs and brisket and it was yummmmmmmy!!! We got out there about 4 in the afternoon on Friday and it was blazin' hot. Cole took his boat, so we went out for a little while before sunset. It's a beautiful lake, reminds me a lot of Grand. Anyway, it was so hot that night that I pretty much slept in a pool of sweat. Gross.

Saturday, we spent the day out on the lake. Of course, I don't know why we would expect anything to go smoothly...something happened with the boat and it died, in the water. Praise Jesus we were close to the bank. I went and swam back to camp to get Bryce and Kyle (who were stuffing their faces, by the way) and the boys got someone to haul the boat to the dock. Eventually, we got it started. That night, I refused to sleep in the tent because there was no air flow, so I slept in the back of the truck. I guess none of us paid attention to the weather, because a storm blew in and it rained pretty much the whole night. Ugh. Oh and did I mention that I made home made chocolate chip cookies and the stupid raccoons ate the ENTIRE bag? Yeah, double ugh.

It was a fun weekend, but it was HOT. I think next year wherever we go, there will be an air conditioned cabin. Call me what you want, but I just can't do it.

Even though the 4th of July is a fun holiday, I think we need to also remember what it really stands for. I'm thankful for all those who fought for our independence so I can even have the opportunity to sleep in a nasty ol' tent in the dirt. I think sometimes we forget the humble beginnings of our country and I think if we all just took a few minutes to really think about that, maybe our country could take a step back to our roots.

Whew! We've been busy!

2009-06-25T11:31:00.006-05:00

The last few weeks have been jam-packed! We had family in town for almost two weeks, grad school started and then topped it all off with a trip to Oklahoma for Phil and Koree's wedding.

We were hoping that once we hit June, things would slow down...WE WERE WRONG! We have had something or someone in town every weekend in June, and July is looking the same!

I do have to say one of the major events that has occurred in the past few weeks is the beginning of my HATRED for Swiffer Wet Jet!!!! About three weeks ago, I was at my wits end trying to find something to clean our floors that doesn't leave them streaky, so I decided to try the Swiffer Wet Jet. Well, after cleaning all the hardwood floors in our house, Diva started acting really weird. I mean really, really weird. Turns out, my Aunt Julie told me that Swiffer Wet Jet is toxic to dogs!!! I took Diva to the vet and they confirmed that any sort of chemicals like that is hazardous, especially to small animals. Now, it doesn't really help that Diva continually scowers the kitchen floor looking for any crumbs, so I'm thinking she probably licked the floor, thus licking up the Swiffer solution, but there is absolutely no warning on the packaging. We really thought we were going to lose her. I laid in bed with her and just cried because her little face was just so sad. Bryce told me after we got back from the vet and everything was fine that he didn't think she was going to make it. Praise the Lord we were both wrong and now she's back to her happy, little princess self!

But, back to my point...DON'T USE SWIFFER WET JET!!! I even sent them an email and they replied saying that it was safe as long as it was used according to the directions. Now what does that mean?!?!!! How else can you use it? Spray, swiffer. Spray, swiffer. It's not brain surgery! Needless to say, I'm trying my best to go completely green at our house. We recycle AND I've started a composter! Bryce made it for me last night, so now instead of having a compost pile, we'll actually have a container that holds our compost. We have worms and everything out there:) Pretty exciting!!

Grad school has definitely picked up in intensity, and there is so much work to do! Between that and our activities on the weekend, it seems like we can't get a break! Maybe soon...hopefully.

Moose.

2009-06-02T12:15:00.004-05:00

Yesterday afternoon, I decided to go for a jog/walk around the park in our neighborhood. I've been trying to take the dogs (well at least Moose) so they can get out and get some exercise. The last few times I've taken Moose, he has to stop every five seconds and pee on everything to mark his territory...sooo obnoxious. This past weekend when Amanda and Garin were down, she wanted to take him on a walk, so we did. Saturday night, Amanda took Moose and I took Diva on a quick jaunt around the block. As we rounded the corner, there was a lady with her German Shepherd mix who was obviously freaked out by Moose - not that I blame her, because Moose did start snorting and was very interested in checking out this other dog. They were getting closer, so Amanda and I decided to switch dogs and I now had Moose. As the other dog approached, the lady decided it was a good idea to stop in the middle of the sidewalk. PEOPLE, IF YOU SEE A BIG DOG COMING AND YOU ARE AFRAID, DON'T STOP IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SIDEWALK. DUH. Well, of course nothing happened because Moose is really just a big weenie, but the lady was obviously pissed. After that, we decided to go ahead and head home. Okay, so there's the back story.

Yesterday, as we headed out, everything seemed to be fine. I try to take Moose between four and five in the afternoon because the park isn't really busy yet. As we were walking over a bridge right by the soccer fields, Moose saw this little Chihuahua coming and of course, he wanted to sniff it out. So as he's walking toward this dog, I tighten up the leash and only let him have about a foot of length between the handle of the leash and his collar. Unfortunately, this didn't help. As Moose got closer to the dog, what did the owner do? SHE STOPPED. I was trying really hard to keep Moose down and away from them and as he jumped, he was yanked back by the leash. He was then all worked up and jumping around that he tripped me. Yes, tripped me...and I don't mean like a little stutter step. I fell straight down onto my right side in front of a ton of people. I even had to pick pebbles out of my hand like I was a little kid that had just fallen off my bike. I WAS PISSED. And a little hurt to be honest...the ol' hip was definitely giving me some problems after that little episode.

Well naturally, Moose just galloped on like nothing had ever happened. I was so pissed at him I could barely stand to look at the stupid dog. Needless to say, Moose is absolutely-without-a-doubt-no-more-discussion-needed getting neutered.

Wedding Season Continues.

2009-05-19T08:26:00.008-05:00

This past weekend we went home to see my best friend from high school, Kendall Pfeifer, get married! The nickname I gave to her in like 7th grade is Piff, so if I refer to her as Piff, you now

know who I'm talking about.

We went to Oklahoma City on Friday night to see Amanda and Garin and their new house! I LOVE IT!!! It's a super cute old little gingerbread house - the kind that the floors creak when you walk on them...basically the kind of house I've always wanted to live in. The house right next door to them is for sale and when we drove up I flipped! "Bryce we need to buy it!!" His response was typical Bryce: "If you're going to be like this all night, I'm staying home with Garin and you and Amanda can go talk about how we're NOT going to buy that house." So, we're not buying the house.

We had a GREAT time with them and I forget how much I miss both of them until we get together. I'm thinking we'll get to see them again pretty soon:)

Saturday morning we got up and drove home for Piff's wedding. We spent the day with our families and then headed over to the church later that evening. Kendall looked absolutely gorgeous. Everything was just beautiful, and the cake was yummy! She had a layer of funfetti (classic Piff), vanilla and chocolate from Harmony House...so you know it was awesome! It was great to see her and I've got to start being a better friend...she lives in Dallas and we never see each other. Sad, I know.

Kendall (Pfeifer) Bowles

Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame

all decked out!

Funfetti, Vanilla, Chocolate!

The beautiful Piff in all her bridal glory:)

Sunday we went to Fusion (Dwayne's church) and then came home and cooked out. The weather was actually awesome, believe it or not! Apparently all it's done in Oklahoma lately is rain, rain, rain. I guess Sunday was a mini-birthday celebration for me because I got some bday presents and Mom made me a funfetti cake:)

Bryce's Nanny gave me a really cute dress and Mom gave me - much to Bryce's dismay - MORE THROW PILLOWS FOR OUR BED!! I was pumped, but Bryce gets really annoyed because I won't let him lay on "the pretty pillows." He says "if they're pillows on my bed I should be able to lay on them!" Our bedding is cream and black, so I FREAK if anything gets on it or near it, especially Moose because he sheds. I spend a lot of time trying to get his dang hair off our comforter.

This next weekend we're going to Houston for another wedding and then we're done for a while...whew! We love going to weddings of people we love, but we are definitely ready to be home and stop traveling for a while. Right now, our schedule is booked all the way til June, so I'm definitely looking forward to next month so we can have a break and spend some time at home...hopefully our house will be done soon!

Our Humble Abode!

2009-05-09T10:46:00.093-05:00

Finally, the long awaited house posting!

We have been working our booties off trying to get this house finished. It's coming a long as well as can be expected seeing as this thing was DISGUSTING when we closed on it. Here are some before and after's:

kitchen before. NEVER IN MY LIFE have i been in a house
that was so disgustingly dirty. yuck.

kitchen before, looking from living room.

kitchen after, the first time. new light fixtues and hardware.

I didn't like the yellow of the original kitchen, so we decided to color wash it with a tan to add a little depth. Well, I didn't like that either and since the kitchen is a smaller space, I felt that we needed something bright and soft...here's what we came up with:

***UPDATE: a lot of you asked how we did our cabinets, so here's what we did: light hand sanding, coat of dark red and dry brush ONE coat of chocolate. we used foam brushes, latex paint (that's what we had laying around) and then finished with a layer of poly.

kitchen after the second (and final) time.

breakfast nook.

looking in from the living. please excuse the HUGE mess, dust on the drop lights
and lack of trim around the pantry door (which is magnetic and chalkboard, btw!)

"Baby's Room" not because we are preggo, because the previous owners had some nasty little baby stencil on the walls. (This is also Jackson's room. He's going to spend a week with us in the summer like I did with Jackie growing up.)

***UPDATE: since this post, we obviously have had a baby, so this really did become the nursery and the office was repurposed into a guest room/office.

stencils. barf-o.

after! new carpet, paint, and trim.
orange quilt/shams, blanket from west elm.
duvet/shams from pottery barn
the throw pillows and sheet set is from target.

This is the "smoker's room." Not because we smoke in it, but the previous owners did. It was the MOST DISGUSTING room I have ever stepped foot in. It's now our office/Bryce's man room.

We are also repainting the stair rails. The white looks much cleaner and fresh. Here are the before and afters. By the way, if you're ever considering doing this, be prepared with LOTS of patience and time. It takes forever and is super tedious...unless you can tape everything off and spray those bad boys. DO THIS FIRST if you are going to do this when remodeling. if you are even considering doing it, DO THIS FIRST. trust me.

we still have a TON left to do, but i think what we've done so far is pretty fantastic! hope y'all like it:)

Matt's Wedding!

2009-05-07T17:29:00.009-05:00

We've been super busy the past few weeks, especially last week! My cousin Matt (Julie's son) got married on May 2nd and I was in Tulsa for the pre-wedding festivities. We had a BLAST! Being the only girl, I've always been a little skeptical of the girls my cousins bring home, but Matt definitely knocked the ball out of the park with Tara. She is absolutely fabulous and I LOVE her. Seriously...love her!

They met in Virginia...Matt was Tara's surgery resident and I always tease him about hitting on the boss lady! Turns out, Tara's family teases her about being a cradle robber. It was great getting to spend so much time with Matt and Tara. Her family is amazing and everyone fits together so well! We're hoping to do a cousin/sibling scuba trip in the next year.

I can't wait to hear about their honeymoon...they went to Grand Cayman and it was a surprise for her and she didn't know where they were going until they got there. My cousin's pretty sweet:)

Julie and Tara

Matt and Tara

Bryce and I at the reception.

Tara asked me to be a bridesmaid and I was so honored, seeing as how we had only "met" each other via phone. She is absolutely wonderful and I am looking forward to making memories with her!

For Amanda

2009-04-23T14:09:00.002-05:00

Amanda has requested a new blog post...so here it is. I hope this will give you a break from perez and/or facebook:)

today, i went over to the apartment in dallas with the plan to get all of the stuff i had left over there. we went a few weeks ago and got the bed and dresser and a few miscellaneous items and we were both under the impression there wasn't much left...HA! holy smokes i have a lot of crap. bryce came over on his lunch break to help me get the big stuff (i had a book case, desk and tv left) and he kicked the moving into high gear. i hate to move, so instead of just sucking it up and getting it over with, i have to whine about it and it takes three times as long.

of course, i didn't take enough boxes, so we resorted to the old "throw everything in a trash sack" stand by. my car was packed. his truck was packed. i have no idea how all this stuff even fit in that apartment. we got everything loaded up and packed up and now it's sitting in the garage of the house...i have no intentions of trying to move it in yet because we're still not done with the house (which is a whole other blog post in itself).

bryce did make the promise to me that next time we move, we're hiring people. i was so happy when he said that i almost cried. seriously. i cannot even begin to explain how much i hate moving.

so, i am officially moved out of the apartment. i guess now we really are truly married because i have nowhere else to go if bryce gets on my nerves:) just kidding! but seriously...

i'm hoping to do a post on the house in the next few days and put up some pictures, but i can't find my camera cord.

manda, i hope this helped pass some time at work. if not, i have a task for you: i think we should all go on a vacation this fall. do some internet investigating (you are sooo good at it!) and work up some options. i love you:)

Honeymoon pics!

2009-04-20T16:16:00.003-05:00

As promised, here are the links to the honeymoon pictures. There are a TON of them!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2300414&id=9601528&l=c31ec5616f

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2300424&id=9601528&l=79bbb6cdc1

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2300474&id=9601528&l=51d69fac31

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2300568&id=9601528&l=b4690a9b01

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2301221&id=9601528&l=90e782966f

Our Honeymoon!

2009-04-15T15:01:00.000-05:00

I started a blog on a different site but I forgot the password and all this other stuff, so here's the new and improved one!

We've been married for about a month so far and everything is great! As cheesey as it sounds, we were totally made for this "married" thing. He's such a good little husband...even brought me flowers for our one month anniversary! (Don't ask him about this, he has to keep up his burly man facade!)

Our honeymoon was AMAZING. We (by we I mean, Bryce, me and Rick Steves) left Sunday afternoon, the day after the wedding (March 15th) and our flight from Tulsa to Atlanta was delayed. We missed our flight from Atlanta to Paris, causing us to miss our flight from Paris to Venice. We got to Venice about 6 hours later than planned, with no luggage...awesome. We went to the lost baggage counter in Venice and the lady was super grumpy. We learned a very valuable lesson: ALWAYS get the number from your luggage tag so they can track it. Luckily, our bags were pretty easy to find since they had "Bride" and "Honeymooners" luggage tags ha! As it turns out, our luggage went to NYC and was delivered to our hotel the next day at about lunch time, so thankfully we were only without our luggage for one night!

Venice
Venice is amazing! There are no cars or scooters and the city is connected via 2000 alleys and 400 waterways...thus it's super easy to get lost because all the alleys look the same! St. Mark's square and basilica were beautiful! I wanted Bryce to take a picture with all the pigeons on him but he said absolutely not! Birds freak me out, so that was out of the question for me as well. I fell in love with the Murano glass and Bryce had to keep me in line so I didn't buy everything I saw! We did splurge on one thing we both agreed on...a painting. It's of the famous Rialto bridge in Venice and it is beautiful.

Florence
We left Venice via train and it was about a 3 hour ride to Florence. Florence is a much larger city...I think about 450,000 people live there. Florence was beautiful (like every place we went!) and is full of museums and is definitely a major center for arts and culture. We saw Michaelangelo's David (which is flipping huge!) and then went to the Duomo which is the big churhc there. From there, we headed over to the Uffizi gallery which houses some majorly famous art...unfortunately, Bryce and I just don't have the appreciation for art. I try, I really do, but I just don't have an appreciation for art that would keep me in a museum for longer than about an hour. So, we loved Florence, but it was definitely a quick stop.

Tuscany
We left Florence via our sweet rental car (we had to upgrade to a four-door because my luggage wouldn't fit!) and headed southeast towards Rome. We stopped at the US National Cemetery just outside of Florence and it was beautiful. We continued on and stopped at any and every winery we wanted to and did some tastings. The second night on our own (without anything planned from our travel agent, Florence was the first) we stayed in San Gimigano. This little town was amazing! It was inside the old city walls and you felt like you just stepped back 400 years. Our hotel was built in like the 1300's...it's so crazy to try and wrap your head around that!

The next day, we did more wine tastings and headed toward Siena. It was really cold this day and the wind was blowing so hard. We only stayed one night in Siena and I wish we would've stayed longer. Siena may be my favorite place from the trip. It's a smaller city (about 60,000) and there's no scooters inside the city walls. It's so romantic and it's a place to just slow down and enjoy great wine or cappuccino...actually, I recommend gelato:) I had it every day. Seriously.

Roma
We left Siena and headed toward Rome. DRIVING IN ROME IS A DISASTER. It took us three hours to find somewhere to return our car and the place we finally found wasn't even the original return spot. Grr. We took a taxi to our hotel to find that Bryce had read the itinerary wrong and we didn't have reservations until the next day. I was not happy. We went and tried to find a hotel to stay at and they were all booked. Seriously, no vacancy anywhere. At this time, we didn't know the Rome Marathon was the next day and there's like 60,000 participants. Since we didn't have anywhere to stay, we went to the train station and used their hotel reservation people to find us a room. We got a room (whew!) which was nice, but in kind of a sketchy area of town. (Yes, I do laugh about this now.) That night, I decided I needed to wash my jeans, so I put them in the sink and washed them with shampoo and hung them to dry in the bathroom. The next morning, we got up early since we missed most of the day before due to trying to find the flipping car return...unfortunately, my idiot self didn't think to hang my jeans outside the window and they were soaked. So, for an hour and a half, I sat in the bathroom with the blow dryer. Idiot.

We went to the Colosseum, Roman Forum, Circus Maximus...all the major tourist sites. I'm not going to write a whole lot about the sites we saw because honestly, there are NO words that can describe how amazing they are. I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact those structures are THOUSANDS of years old and we were standing in them. Crazy!

We saw the Vatican (which was amazingly beautiful) and ate gelato, which was the daily norm:) Basically, that wraps up Rome.

Coming home
By the end of our trip, we were both exhausted and couldn't wait to get home. There were a lot of things we totally take for granted for example, ice. You don't get ice in any of your drinks. Our flight left at 8:30 on Wednesday morning (March 25) and our transfer from the hotel picked us up at 5:30. Early. We got to the airport at like 6:15 and were wondering why the heck we got picked up so early. More frustrating, we were both starving because we didn't eat breakfast and none of the shops in the airport were open yet. Grrr. We got on the plane and headed back to Atlanta. 10 1/2 hours. Coach. Ugh. It was a long flight. When we got to Atlanta, we tried to get on the earlier flight into Tulsa, but we couldn't so we had a five hour layover. We finally got home at 10:30 central time. It was a loooooooong day to say the least.

We didn't have any jet lag going or coming and we know it's because we just stayed up. It was tough and no fun being tired, but it was nice to not lose anytime in Italy because we had jet lag.

We had such a great time and definitely can't wait to go back. Next time, We're starting in Tuscany (wine, duh!) and then heading south down the coast.

I'm working on getting the pics on here. Stay tuned:)