Message Received:

Every morning for the past 4 years Brad wakes me up when he leaves for work so that I can pack his lunch for him and see him off.  Now this is usually between 5:30 and 6:30 in the a.m. so I am usually really sleepy and not fully functional. Brad always is sure to tell me that he is grateful that I get up with him every morning but I think this morning he maybe would take his thanks back.

This is a gtalk message that I recieved from him this afternoon:

so...are you sure you still love me?

'cause i didn't get a coke in my lunchbox...

Apparently the sleep that I give up every morning to pack his lunch isn't worth quite as much as his Coke is everyday....

Its a good thing that I love him and I know that he really does love me more than his coke :)

The Evidence

Last night (or I guess I should say this morning) around 12:30 whilst finishing up watching season 5 of 24 (yes we are a little slow), we saw an advertisement for some amazing looking ice cream bars. As soon as I saw them I really needed to have them.

So we may or may not have driven to the local wal- mart to get us some of those yummy looking bars.  Brad was seriously so embarrassed when we were walking in there. But don't you worry, true to wal-mart form we were still some of the best dressed people in there even though we were totally in lounge clothes.  And also true to wal-mart form, they did not have said bars that we wanted so badly.  But don't you fear, we found something else to tide us over:

And these definitely did not dissapoint.

See:

We ate our fair share of those things while we watched Jack Bauer get taken by the Chinese!

Little Lexi

Meet our newest niece, Lexi.

Our sister-in-law Marci had this cute little thing last Sunday and we finally got to meet her a couple nights ago.  She really is such a beautiful baby and we are so excited for their little family.  

Yay for little babies to hold!

Seriously?!

Its been FOUR years since this happened?

(well technically four years and a few days... I am a little slow)

So we decided to celebrate by devouring some of this:

(30th Anniversary Cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory)

Yumm!

Here is a funny conversation we had the other night:

Me:  I hate when you put all of the covers on my side of the bed

Brad: Well, you should be used to it by now, you have been dealing with it for years now.

Me:  I haven't even known you for years

pause...

oh wait, I guess that we have been married "for years".

It doesn't really feel like that at all... Thats a good thing right?

Christmas Past

You already know that I love this time of year and lately I have been thinking a lot about about past Christmas times.  It is such a wonderful time of year full of so many happy memories! 

I have been thinking about the Christmas that I spent in New York. I spent a good part of my weekends in December exploring the incredible sights of that city. There really is nothing more magical than Christmas time in New York City.  If you don't believe me, just go watch Elf!

This time of year always brings so many fun emotions when I think about the Christmas that Brad and I spent more time counting down to December 28th then we spent counting down to the 25th.  For some reason getting married was just a little more exciting that year than Christmas was.

And I can't help but think of Christmas time when I was growing up.  I love how simple and magical it was.  I kind of wish it could still be like that.  

(I may not look like it, but I was seriously so excited for that little tutu.  I probably wore it everyday for a long time!)

But this year I am trying to spend a little more time thinking about this Christmas:

Because that's really what it is all about.  What an incredible thing to be celebrating!  I am so grateful for the birth and life of Christ.  I am so grateful to have a knowledge of his sacrifice for all of us and to know that he lives and loves all of us!

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Peppermint Anyone?

I love love love this time of year!  I also love to bake!  And thanks to finals being over with I am actually able to enjoy both of those things!  Lately I have been on sort of a peppermint kick.  I think that I have decided that everything is better with a little peppermint extract and crushed peppermint sticks on top.  So here is what I have been up to lately.  (Since I am no longer a captive to maintaining sterile fields, memorizing side effects, or waking up at 3:30 in the a.m.)

Peppermint Swirl Cupcakes:

Homemade Candy Cane Oreos

Peppermint Bark

My sister and I got together yesterday and made 12 pans of this stuff!  It is probably safe to say that we were on a peppermint high by the end of the day, but we had fun doing it... at least I did! And maybe if you are lucky you will get to try some of this stuff!

We will have to see what else is in store for this week!  It just feels more festive in my house when I make something yummy!  And it is always better with some fun Christmas tunes in the background!  I just love this time of year!  Yay for finally having time to enjoy it!

Cute Little Baby!

 Meet Claire Autumn

My sister Bethany gave birth to this sweet little thing on Oct. 7th.  She is so darn cute and I just wish I could hold her all day long.  She was nameless for a few days and so we kind of just got used to calling her baby, though I love the name they picked so I don't think it will be hard to get used to calling her Claire. 

  

I couldn't resist posting this pic, I think that there were a lot of people very excited to meet this little girl!