#6: Visit Rachel & Ryan in Memphis

Hold on to your hats!  I have a ton of pictures from our trip down to Memphis to meet baby Caroline (and see Rachel & Ryan!).  We haven't been to Memphis since we moved to Kansas City from Little Rock two and a half years ago.  It was good to get to see them and it was even better to see Caroline.   We drove down on Thanksgiving Day with Dad and Kim's family and I came back this last Tuesday.   It was tons of fun!  I'll let the pictures tell the story:

 

Grandma made it down in time to be there when she was born!

The Happy Family!

We all had to get our hands on her when we got there Thursday!

Victoria checking out her new cousin.

Alexandra was pretty interested in Caroline too!

Trevor's becoming quite a natural at this baby thing. 

Friday was spent hanging out with the family and watching Nebraska beat Colorado!

Uncle Trevor and Uncle Ryan took Victoria to feed the ducks in the lake behind their house.

Alexandra sat in her Bumbo and watched the game intently!

She prayed really hard that Alex Henery would make the 57 yard field goal to put NE ahead at the end of the game....and he did!!

The rest of the weekend was filled with lots more loving on babies with a few activities scattered about.  We went to Kim & Justin's hotel to watch Victoria "The Fish" Gulbrandson swim, watched the Oklahoma game for Uncle Ryan, Victoria gave us all complete physicals with her doctor kit, and Ryan and Victoria built us a nice fire.

 

Monday we all took on the task of hanging up Caroline's name in her room.  Do you know what happens when you put a bunch of perfectionists together in one room to hang something???

Lots of measuring!

 

But it gets done RIGHT! Even if it is a few hours later... :)

Caroline has a beautiful nursery to enjoy!

Monday was also Mom's & my birthday!  It was nice to be together on our birthday.  We don't get to do that too often anymore.  Someone took our annual picture together, but I haven't gotten a copy.  Hint, hint whoever took it! 

I also got to see my roommate from college, Mary Ellen!  She lives in Memphis and goes to church with Rachel.  She was also excited to come over and meet Caroline when she got back from her Thanksgiving trip.

She brought Mom and I (and Caroline) a delicious "Happy Birthday" cookie cake!

We also had Mary Ellen be our "professional photographer" for the night since she takes great pictures!  She sent me a few of the ones she got of us girls....I can't wait to see the rest!

In all the hubbub of Mary Ellen taking all of our pictures, we didn't realize until the next morning that Mary Ellen and I didn't get one together!  So we set  up the timer on the camera in her apartment before she left for work and we left for Kansas City.  It didn't turn out too bad!

I couldn't have asked for a better Thanksgiving trip.  I am so very thankful such wonderful family and friends!

Congratulations to any of you that actually made it to the end of this LONG post! :)

#16: Have a Date Night with Trevor at Least Once Every 2 Months (2/16)

***First off, I have some big news! Although most of you that actually read this blog probably already know by now...but my sister Rachel had her baby girl yesterday!! Caroline Nora was born at 5:25 yesterday evening. She weighed in at 6 lbs., 15 ozs. and was 19" long. I've only received one picture from her husband Ryan that he took with his phone, so it's not super clear. I hope to get some e-mailed to me soon! Both Caroline and Rachel are doing great. Trevor and I are going to be driving down to Memphis with Dad and Kim's family on Thanksgiving day. Not your typical Thanksgiving Day, but I wouldn't want it any other way. I'll be so very thankful to get to meet Caroline on that day!

I started out to write this post about our date night since I was still waiting for some Caroline pictures, but I just couldn't not share the exciting news!***

Trevor and I had the most simple, wonderful "date" Monday night. When I wrote out my 101 in 1001 list, I wanted to make sure that I made it a priority for us to still go on "dates." At first when I had written the goal, I had decided we should go on a date night once a month, but then I thought about it a little more and realized just how fast a month can go by so I opted for every 2 months instead. I thought that should be simple. Wrong. It is amazing how busy we feel these days. Between family visits, friends, church activities, work, etc., the months (and especially weekends) just fly by. I can't even imagine how it is once you have kids!

Monday at work I realized that the end of November was fast approaching and we hadn't gone on our October/November date yet! I knew with Thanksgiving this weekend, that we wouldn't get around to it before the end of the month, so I racked my brain for ideas and decided to invite Trevor to take a walk with me to get coffee that night. It was my treat since Trevor (of course!) has already ran out of money in his eating-out budget envelope for the month! For those of you that don't know, to help our budget along, we have started doing the envelope system for those categories that we always seem to overspend on. We each have our own "eating out" envelope and Trevor's never seems to last as long as mine! :)

We live about a mile from a Starbucks, so it was a perfect distance for a nice, brisk walk. After Trevor got home, we bundled up and headed out. It was such a nice time to catch up and talk about life.

Now, I never go to Starbucks. Well, not never, but seriously about once a year. Quite frankly the place kind of intimidates me. I never feel like I have the "lingo" down....I just know the baristas are secretly laughing at me behind my back! I still don't understand why a "tall" is the smallest drink there. Does that make sense to anyone else!?? And is it "skinny" or "nonfat"?? Or how do I even know if my drink has milk in it so I don't look stupid when I ask for "nonfat"?!? :) I always feel like I'm being interrogated with all the rapid-fire questions they ask you to customize your drink!

I've been hearing a lot of people raving about the Peppermint Mocha Twists that they are advertising at Starbucks now for the Holiday season. I've totally been craving peppermint lately. Everywhere I go in the grocery store, it seems there's "limited time only" peppermint ice cream, peppermint coffee creamer, peppermint candy bars, etc. So when we got to Starbucks, I prepped myself with all the right "lingo" and got up the nerve to boldly order a "Nonfat, Tall Peppermint Mocha Twist with Whipped Cream"! It was so worth it! Even the whipped cream was peppermint flavored! It was a nice change from my usual "go-to" Caramel Apple Spice that I order once a year.

(Side-note: While googling this drink to find a picture, I learned that you can actually order this year-round. Starbucks just promotes it during the holiday season. I should never have found that information....only bad things can come from it!)

The walk back was the best part of the date. We strolled along at a more leisurely pace and held hands while sipping our hot drinks. It was nice...I can't hardly remember a time we've felt that relaxed together.

Wow. Who would have thought I could write that long of a post about Starbucks...maybe I need to get out more!

Allie

Trevor's brother Adam, his wife Elaine, and our niece Allie live in Arkansas so we don't get to see them as often as we do my side of the family.   We do hope to get down to visit them soon (#4 - Visit Adam & Elaine in Arkansas)!

After I posted some pictures of Victoria and Alexandra, I realized I needed some of Allie!  Elaine is very good about sending pictures of Allie, so we still feel like we get to see her grow up.  Here are some of the latest pictures of her.  She's quite a little dancer!

We're also very excited to meet this niece or nephew in the near future:

Adam & Elaine are due to have baby #2 on June 6th!   I can't imagine anything but another girl, so I keep calling her my niece.  I guess we'll find out....it would be fun to have our first nephew!

Halloween Weekend

I was so excited to have my my sister Kim, her husband Justin, and my nieces Victoria and Alexandra come visit us last weekend.  We had a really fun weekend and it was great to see Alexandra again.  I hadn't seen her in about a month and she is so much more alert now.  She is such a good baby.....so content.  Which is nice for them since Victoria is a real go-getter!  :)

Here are some pictures to document the visit:

Victoria dressed up as a very busy bumble bee for Halloween!

Alexandra was just "So Cute it was Scary"...

We handed out candy to the neighborhood kids....

Victoria went on her first real trick-or-treating trip from house-to-house.  She kept asking at every house we went to, "Are they going to give me candy too?!??"

 

We bundled up Alexandra and brought her along too...

Uncle Trevor and Aunt Steph took Victoria to the park to play...

We slid...

We swung...

We walked the "balance beam"...

 

Alexandra and Trevor read "Huskerpedia" before the OU/NU game...

 

Alexandra cried when Oklahama scored 21 points in the first 3 minutes of the game.  (Trevor cried too.) :)

 

We dressed up for church...

Then we tried to get a good picture of me with both of the girls...

This experience definitely made me wonder how my goal #8: "Hold All 3 of my "Duffy" Nieces At Once" is going to go!!  It was hard enough to juggle these two.  When I was in Nebraska a month ago I was holding them both and said something about "holding my girls."  Ever since then, when I hold both of them Victoria says, "You're holding both of your girls!"  Too cute.

We had such a good time with them all and can't wait to see them again at Thanksgiving!

#82: Vote in the Presidential Election

I did it!  And it only took me waiting in line for 35 minutes this morning at 7:00.  I was pretty pleased with that.   I actually really enjoyed it.  I've been feeling so frustrated lately about the election, politicians, Americans' negative attitudes, etc. , but I made a decision to change my attitude this morning.  I decided to consider myself blessed to live in a country that we are allowed to pick our leaders and to put my complete trust in God that the right decision will be made.  No, I'm not saying that the "right" candidate will win, but rather that God has a plan for this world beyond my comprehension and I need to put my trust in that.  

Instead of following my usual chronological bible reading schedule this morning, I decided to take some time to read what the bible has to say about our government and pray about the election.  One verse in particular stuck out to me:

"Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established."  Romans 13:1

Whether good or bad, God has placed our rulers into office and He created civil government for us to follow.   I found great comfort in that.

We'll be spending the rest of the night closely watching the election results....it is a historic moment whichever way the election goes!

#51: Pay Off the Car!

 

Here I am hugging our PAID OFF CAR!!  It feels so good to not have any car payments again!  We've been diligently following the Dave Ramsey plan for the past few years and we paid off a good chunk of our student loans before we put all our focus on paying off the car.

Let me tell you....it sure drives a lot smoother without dragging around a loan.  The day we paid it off, I honestly heard the song "Free Ride" on my way home from work - how appropriate!  Ok, I know it's not "free," but with no car payments and the price of gas now, it almost feels free!