Bring on the decorating!!

My favorite season has officially begun!! I can't belive its this time of year again already! We had a good thanksgiving with my Mom, Dad and sisters. We ate lots of great food and tried out some new recipes this year! I've gotten really into the food network and love Paula Deen, Barefoot Contessa, just to name a few. I tried 2 Paula Deen recipes that turned out great! One was sweet potato ball, and the other was applesauce pumpkin pie. Let me know if you want either recipe, they were so good. If I knew more about how to post, I could put the links on here for you! Maybe I'll try later on :)
I've included some pics from Thanksgiving day, and some before and after shots of our Christmas decorations. Let the Christmas shopping begin!!

Lucy loves sitting under the tree! She looks a little bit evil in this picture tho.

Bita, Mom and Rachel on Thanksgiving

Sarah and Rachel helping to decorate the tree
I'm not really sure what Rusty is doing here :)
Lucy LOVES getting into boxes-this is the Christmas tree box
our little baby upstairs tree

We've been elfed!!

Thanks to my friend Nancy for showing me this website, I just had to try it :)

Follow the link, you won't be disappointed...

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9560475916

Pictures and shout outs!

As promised, here are some pictures! Sorry it took so long! I had to wait for Rusty to fix the computer and he did! HE is the man. :) We have to make a couple of shout outs with this post too. First of all, congrats to our good friends EJ and Mandy who welcomed Zoey Leigh to the world 2 weeks ago!! She is beautiful!! We also wanted to say hi to Jon, Marisa, Collin and Summer, who stayed with us for 10 awesome days...we had so much fun with you guys and cannot wait to see you again! And last but not least, we are so excited to see Brandon, Anya and Sasha this week, who are here for thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

A self taken picture :)

At the reception of the wedding Rusty was in

Tabitha holding Zoey for the first time

Rusty and Tabitha at the Covered Bridge Festival
Sarah with our pumpkins-pre carved!
Rusty's pumpkin turned out awesome!
This is a random pic but I thought it was so sweet

Festivals & Weddings

Hello loyal blog readers! Its been a busy couple of months. We've been keeping busy with family and friends. Since my last post we've been to the covered bridge festival (an annual family tradition), Rusty was in a wedding, Rusty took his PE (professional engineer) exam, and we've had several visits from my sisters. We're looking forward to seeing them again soon for Thanksgiving. Christmas is just around the corner! I'm thinking of doing a lot of online shopping this year. Lakeside.com is a great website to check out-they have a wide range of items that are very reasonably priced!

FALL has finally arrived in Indiana! We had some unseasonably warm weather, even in the last week. Its been up in the 80s! It seems to have finally settled into the 50-60s and that makes me pretty happy. Sarah, Rusty and I carved pumpkins last weekend while Sarah was home for Fall Break. I've attached a few pics. We got pretty creative with our carving this year, I was proud of us! We also planted a new tree in our back yard. I haven't taken any pic yet and I wish I would have! When we got it, ti had lots of pretty yellow leaves. We've had a few major rain/thunder storms lately and now there are no leaves left. It still looks good though!

An exciting thing that just happened that I am psyched about is the new shuttle service from Fishers to downtown Indy! I'm looking forward to a relaxing commute to and from work. Much different than what I'm used to now! Hopefully I can catch up on some reading, and get a chance to have my devotions every day on the way to work.

We saw a new movie this weekend...Dan in Real Life. Loved it! You should definitely check it out. I'm looking forward to August Rush that is coming out sometime in November.

Well, I tried to post some pics but I guess something is wrong with our computer and it's not letting me do it! :(
I'll try again later this week.

Another long delay

Why do so many of my posts begin with me apologizing for not writing in so long? Hmm. Well, anyways, I hope I haven't lost any of my loyal blog readers with my long absense from writing. All is well with us, we're gearing up for busy season. I think there are 10 birthdays in October and November in Rusty's family! Plus, we have our annual trandion of attending the Covered Bridge Festival in October. Not to mention that Rusty is studying for the biggest test of his life (his professional engineering exam), which is on October 26th. So...this may very well be my last post until Christmas :)

For the remainer of this post, I'm going to share this little email I received that was entitled "3rd Babies". We have not had any babies (yet) and I find this hysterical, so I'm sure all you mama's out there will be rolling with laughter, or at least nodding along in agreement:

1st, 2nd, 3rd baby. This is funnier for those of us with morethan 1 child and for those of you with none this is way too real.

Your Clothes:1st baby: You begin wearing maternity clothes as soon as your OB/GYN confirms your pregnancy.2nd baby: You wear your regular clothes for as long as possible.3rd baby: Your maternity clothes ARE your regular clothes.

Preparing for the Birth:1st baby: You practice your breathing religiously.2nd baby: You don't bother practicing because you remember that last time, breathing didn't do a thing.3rd baby: You ask for an epidural in your eighth month.

The Layette:
1st baby: You pre-wash newborn's clothes color-coordinate them and fold them neatly in the baby's little bureau. 2nd baby: You check to make sure that the clothes are clean & discard only the ones with the darkest stains.3rd baby: Boys can wear pink, can't they?

Worries:1st baby: At the first sign of distress--a whimper, a frown--you pick up the baby.2nd baby: You pick the baby up when her wails threaten to wake your firstborn.3rd baby: You teach your three-year-old how to rewind the mechanical swing.

Pacifier:1st baby: If the pacifier falls on the floor, you put it away until you can go home and wash and boil it.2nd baby: When the pacifier falls on the floor, you squirt it off with some juice from the baby's bottle.3rd baby: You wipe it off on your shirt and pop it back in

Diapering:1st baby: You change your baby's diapers every hour, whether they need it or not.2nd baby: You change their diaper every two to three hours, if needed.
3rd baby: You try to change their diaper before others start to complain about the smell or you see it sagging to their knees.

Activities:1st baby: You take your infant to Baby gymnastics, Baby Swing, and Baby Story Hour.2nd baby: You take your infant to Baby Gymnastics.3rd baby: You take your infant to the supermarket and the dry cleaner.

Going Out:1st baby: The first time you leave your baby with a sitter, you call home five times.2nd baby: Just before you walk out the door, you remember to leave a number where you can be reached.3rd baby: You leave instructions for the sitter to call only if she sees blood.

At Home:1st baby: You spend a good bit of every day just gazing at the baby.2nd baby: You spend a bit of everyday watching to be sure your older child isn't squeezing, poking, or hitting the baby.3rd baby: You spend a little bit of every day hiding from the children.

Swallowing Coins (a favorite):1st child: when first child swallows a coin, you rush the child to the hospital and demand x-rays.2nd child: when second child swallows a coin, you carefully watch for coin to pass.3rd child: when third child swallows a coin you deduct it from his allowance!!

Dunes!

Sorry for the delay in posting! Last weekend was our trip to the Dunes with people from our church! We had a blast, despite the heat, humidity and bugs. I always somehow forget just how many bugs there are when you camp. And its not just at the campsite! The beach we go to has these lovely biting flies that are horrible! But, other than that, it was great. We had pretty good weather, the water was awesome, very refreshing! There was beach volleyball, water keep-a-way, devotions, singing, eating, and fellowshipping! I must say, I'm always ready to come home. This past weekend we didn't do a whole lot, but we are preparing ourselves for my sister Sarah coming home on the 11th! We can't wait to see her! And then the next weekend is when my other sister Rachel has to go back to school. We will miss her! We'll be sure to post some pics. But for now, here are some pictures from the Dunes. The one of the bird is actually a female bald eagle! One came up on the beach and the DNR came and was keeping everyone back, but I got some good pics before they came :)

Our weekend in the Windy City

This past weekend we celebrated our 5 YEAR anniversary by going to Chicago! Our actual anniversary is this Friday, July 27th, but we already had plans to go to the Dunes so we decided to go a weekend early. We had a great time and saw lots of fun things! We went to Navy Pier, Wrigley Field (more on that later), Sears Tower, and Shedd Aquarium. We also took a boat tour to see "architectural Chicago", had an awesome dinner, and saw the play Wicked, which was definitely the highlight for me!! The not so fun parts included having to WALK about 3 miles to see Wrigley Field when we found out (after getting on the El) that the train stop we needed was closed for construction! There was actually a Cubs game the day we were there that was just ending by the time we got to Wrigley. So, it was super busy and so we basically just stopped for 30 seconds to take a picture and then had to walk some more to catch the next train. Then, on the train ride back to the hotel, we got stuck on the El because of construction, which made us late for our dinner reservation! Also, Sunday, we had the hardest time finding a place to eat breakfast. We figured surely we could find a Starbucks somewhere but the one we found was closed on Sundays! So we went to this random little coffee shop that was NOT good. Then of course we passed about 50 Starbucks after that :) BUT, all in all we had a great time and just had fun having fun together! We had both forgotten how much we just enjoy each other's company. Another great part was that we got to see our good friends Phil & Anne on our way home. You'll see in one of the pictures that Anne & I wore almost the exact same outfit, we both thought that was pretty funny.

So You Think you Can Dance?

Ok, I know it is sad, but I have to make a post about how much I love the show So You Think You can Dance. Sarah, Rachel and I discovered it last summer by accident and now we are hooked! We even went so far as to try and buy tickets for the top 10 reunion last summer, but there weren't any shows close to Indy. For any of you poor people who have not heard of this show, its AWESOME! Its by the creators of American Idol, but so much better. The performance show is on Wednesday at 8 and then the result show is on Thursday at 9. Does anyone else out there watch it and have an opinion on which couple they like this year? My vote is currently with Sabre and Dominic! Love them! And if anyone watched it last week and heard the judges mention their routine reminded him of Ivan and Alison's routine last year, but didn't know what they meant, here, for your viewing pleasure, is Ivan and Alison's dance from last year! Oh-and its a good thing Rusty doesn't actually read this blog or actively participate in it at all, because if he did, he'd probably be really annoyed that I dedicated an entire blog post to this show!! :) I tried to post in the actual YouTube clip but it kept giving me an error message, so here is the link! http://youtube.com/watch?v=r-iI5OTPhaY&mode=related&search=

Happy (belated) 4th of July!

Happy belated 4th everybody! Hope you all had a good one. Ours was pretty low-key, probably because it was on a Wednesday! It was weird having a day off in the middle of the week, but I'll take it! And drving in to work Thursday and Friday was awesome since so many people just took Thursday and Friday off too! Our 4th was spent at our house mostly, playing some cards and grilling out. Later on we went to see Ratatouille. Anyone seen it that has an opinion on it? We weren't that impressed! We usually love the Disney Pixar movies but this one wasn't that funny. Was it just us? On Tuesday we had a guys/girls movie night with our small group! The girls went to see License to Wed with Jim from The Office, and the guys went to see Transformers, which they LOVED, to put it mildy. They loved it so much that Rusty and Brandon dragged me and Anya to see it last night :) We were really to ridicule them for their love of Transformers, but we had to admit, we loved it too!! The action scenes went on a little too long for us girls, but over all, it was pretty good.

Well, here's a few pics. There is one of when we had the youth group over (last Sunday), and the rest are of when we went to see fireworks on the 4th. We found a great little place to watch the fireworks at Conner Prairie without actually having to go to Conner Prairie! I will not reveal our secret spot though because I know if have SO many readers that next year, they will all come flocking and then it will be too busy!! :) :)

Wedding Weekend

This weekend was Rusty's little sisiter, Kelly's, wedding. We left early Saturday morning to head to southern KY. It is a LONG drive! Luckily I brought our portable DVD player and ending up watching lots of Friends :) We met up with his Dad, sister Melissa, grandma, sister Lori, and nephew and niece Matt and Jordan! We were quite the caravan! I hadn't seen Jordan (4 yrs old) since Christmas, but she somehow remembered me and wanted to sit with her "Aunt Babitha" the whole time. She is a cutie! There is a cute pic of her and me attached. We arrived in Scottsville, KY around 2 and got to the hotel to change. Around 3, the sky got very dark and it started to rain, then rain some more, then rain some more! It turned into one of the worst storms I have ever seen! The rain was actually horizontal! So, needless to say, the wedding (which was outdoors) got postponed until the rain stopped. We finally got on the road to get to the wedding (which we were assured was a 20 minute drive). About 45 minutes later, we ended up in TN and had to sit in a church parking lot for 20 minutes until someone could come meet us there and take us to the wedding!! Unfortunately, that was not the end of the adventure as most of the roads were blocked by fallen trees! We finally ended up at the wedding, just a few hours later :) Luckily, Kelly wasn't too upset and the rest of the evening went without further complications. We spent the night in a hotel, and Rusty and I got home today (sunday) around 6. I can't believe tomorrow is Monday already. And next weekend...we get to go to another wedding! Luckily this one is in IN.

Here are a few pics from the wedding! I also have a pic of the patio with the new furniture set we got. Enjoy!

And....we're back

Yes, after another long absence, we have returned to posting! Sorry for the long pause since our last post :)

Some highlights for us over the past month or so is having my sisters home for the summer, getting to visit with my friend Michelle who lives in Virginia, and building our new patio!

I have lots of pics of the patio, from the beginning to end. I have to give credit to Rusty for pulling it all together. He did a great job! My advice to anyone who decides to do this themselves is get lots of help! It's been a week since we started and its still not completely finished.

I also have some cute pictures of our time with Michelle. Rusty and I took Michelle, John, and Nathan to the Indy Zoo. We saw lots of exciting things, including a man getting arrested for jumping in the elephant exhibit! Sorry, I didn't get any pictures of that :)



Have fun looking at the pictures! I put some in of our house too just because I planted a ton of flowers and I wanted to show them off!! There's also one from last week when I babysat Sasha.

OK-I just uploaded my pics and they are all in the wrong order and I don't really know how to label them so you'll just have to figure out which one is which.

Babysittiing Fun

Well, I meant to post over a month ago with pics of the big snow storm we had! But, since its practically spring and I really don't want to think about snow anymore, I'll just have to wait for next year's snow!

Just thought I'd share some cute pics with you of our fun babysitting night. You can ask Rusty for his description of the evening, but deep down I bet he would admit that he had fun watching our friend's baby Sasha. Thanks Brandon and Anya for trusting us to watch your baby!

This weekend we're headed to Lafayette to celebrate my best friend Lissa's daughter Emma's brithday. Hard to believe she is 1 year old!! Rusty and I thought it would be fun to hang out in Lafayette for awhile since I grew up there and he spent 4 years there at Purdue! We thought it would be great to go to some of our hold Hang-Outs. But then when we tried to think of where we used to hang out, we drew a blank! The only place I could think of that we used to go to a lot was Applebees....woo hoo! So I'm not sure what we'll do.

Sunday we head to celebrate my cousin Noah's 8th birthday! We're looking forward to spending time with family.

Ok, here are some pics of our babysitting night. And also one pic of my amarillus plant because I am so proud that it bloomed!