Merry Christmas

We want to wish all our family & friends a VERY Merry Christmas!  Hope you get what you asked for and also remember why we get to celebrate this amazing day.  Happy Birthday, Jesus.

Cutting down our Christmas Tree Part Deux

So, you may remember this from last year. We went to Cackler Tree Farm again this year.  Nate's parents came too, which was fun.  It was a very similar situation from last year.  Very cold, and pretty quick.  It did also start spitting snow flurries when we got there, which made it more authentic.  We both found our trees pretty quick.  Nate cut them both down.  Again, got a quick picture, paid for our tree, got some hot chocolate, and headed home.  I look forward to this tradition every year!  There is nothing like being out in nature, with the snow falling down, pine scent in the air and making memories with my sweet family.
We actually are hoping to get a permit next year and head out into the woods to find the "perfect" tree.  Until next year.

Photo Op

Hauling both Trees

Thanksgiving 2009

This year, we decided to have another "friendsgiving"  We had the Gross's and the Hunter's over.  We did this 2 years ago, and just had to do it again.  Even though we have Nate's family here, most of our friends do not, nor do they go home for Thanksgiving since they are leaving for Christmas.  So, we all get together as "family"  We ate great food, as always.   We also played Cranium and then, while the boys played X-Box, the girls looked the the Black Friday ads.  It was a great day and it was a great way to remind Nate and I of how grateful we are for all the friends we have made out here.  It was also bitter sweet as this will be the last time the Gross's are here for the Holiday season.  >>>Tear<<<

The Turkey

Carving the Bird

I have a picture almost identical to this from 2 years ago.  I looked, but could not find it because of the great computer crash of 08.  Just picture it ;)

Nate's 26th Birthday

While my dad was here, we had a semi-surprise birthday party for Nate.  I decided to combine the Iowa game with his party and make it a Buckeye Party.  My dad and Nate went shooting out in West Jeff, which gave Renee' and I just enough time to make the food and decorate the house.  The party was a huge success with great good and even better company.

The Food

The Football Ice Cream Cakes

Make a Wish

Gift-Time

Happy 26th, Baby!

Visit from my Dad & Renee'

My dad and Renee' came to visit the Land of the Buckeyes a few weeks ago.  This was their first time in Ohio.  It was such a great weekend, weather-wise.  High 50's and low 60's the whole time!  They came in Wed and stayed until Sun.  We didn't have much planned before they came, but somehow found plenty to do.   We went to the North Market in the Short North District.  It was right up their alley!  We all bought some good food, ate some yummy Jeni's Salty Caramel ice cream, and enjoyed the eccentric atmosphere.  We then went to German Village.  Here is my dad and me in front of an old church.

We also went into the 32 room Book Loft.  It reminded me of a labyrinth of books.  Crazy!  We all found some good books though.

Outside the Book Loft

Outside of Schmidt's

After all this, the boys decided to go golfing, and the girls went to Kenneth's Salon.  I got my hair cut, and Renee' got a Mani.

This last picture was the whole fam right before they left.  Thanks for coming, Dad.

New Mo-o-o-o-on

New Moon was A-MA-ZING!  Jacob was so stinkin' hot...'nuff said.

i HEART Guitar Hero World Tour

Nate gave me (yes me) Guitar Hero World Tour for my last Anniversary present.  I really did want it.  It has provided so many hours of fun since that time.  I just had to post this pic because #1, Jay is hilarious in the background.  #2, I love how BOTH Nate and Mel have their legs up like real Rock Stars!  And #3, notice how Tyler has his DELICATE pinkie out like he is drinking tea, not playing the drums. (click on pic to enlarge)  LOL

ROCK ON!

Card Swap

I held my first card swap about 2 weeks ago. I did not set a theme, so we had quite the assortment of cards made. I was very impressed with how well they all turned out. I look forward to doing another in a few months. I am thinking Jan. girls, so get your card thinking caps on. If you would be interested in joining next time, leave me a comment and I will be sure to send out a notice once we get closer.

Bob Evans Farm Festival

This was our 3rd year attending the Bob Evans Farm Festival.  My mom decided to come this year.  We went down Thursday and stayed until Sat night.  Unfortunately, it was not the best year, weather-wise to go.  It rained almost the entire weekend!  We still managed to have quite a bit of fun. 
Every year, our group of campers "The Redneck RV Club" gets bigger and bigger.  We are all family and friends!  It is such a great group.  We eat great and have loads of fun with each other.  The year we even had Tur-por-kin for dinner one night.  What is Tur-por-kin, you ask?  It is a pork loin, stuffed in a chicken, stuffed in a turkey.  Yum!
Our group also competes in the Bob Evans Contests.  Nate and I have competed every year, but never won.  This year, we actually won 3 contests between to the 2 of us.  I won the corn shelling contest, Nate won the egg toss contest with a friend, and Nate and I won the team cow chip tossing contest.  And yes, he was actually throwing dried cow poop and I had to catch it in a bucket and throw it back.  It was fun though. Hopefully next year, it will be better weather.

Busy Weekend Re-Cap

This weekend was crazy busy.  Here is a quick-ish recap.  We went to the Circleville Pumpkin Festival Thursday night with the Hunters.  Ate the following :pumpkin ice cream, pumpkin doughnuts, roasted corn, fresh rootbeer and cream soda and pulled pork sandwich.  Good food.  Saw some HUGE pumpkins and watched a few highschool marching bands.

 

Cool Collection of Pumpkins and Gourds.  Love the warts!

The 1st place winner was very close to breaking the world record!

Friday was a Costume Party.  Nate and I dressed up as the Publisher Clearing House Couple.  It was pretty fun and easy, as far as homemade costumes go.

Had fun making this big check...even has Ed McMahon's signature.

We had to leave the party early because I had won 8th row tickets on the radio to the Zac Brown Band concert.  We were so excited...we really like their music.  Now, we LOVE their music.  It was such a good concert.  They put on a great, harmonized show.  And get this, we even got to meet the whole band after wards and get all their autographs.  Way cool, down-to-earth guys!

 

He was saying "cheese" just for me!

 

Saturday was going to be a stay-at-home, watch-the-game, clean-out -the-garage day.  The May's invited us last minute to come to the game for free instead, and we really couldn't turn down a Buckeye game.  Even though it was pretty cold and windy, it was a great game and we really had fun being there.

Even after all the activity, we still managed to come home and clean out the garage for the next 4 hours!  We got rid of so much stuff and now we have room for both the pop-up camper AND my Jeep!  So excited about that.

Sunday was just as busy as the previous few days.  Church, Choir Practice, Home Teachers, Visiting Teachers, Dinner and games with the Hunters and then a visit to his dad who is in a re-hab center for double-knee surgery.  No Sunday Nap for us this week!

I love this time of year.  There is always so much going on.  If you made it through all that, congrats!

Hocking Hills for Labor Day Weekend

Nate and I have gone camping in Hocking Hills every year since we have moved out here. This year was our third year at the very same camp site. It always feels so good to get down to hills and nature. Feels like a slice of the Northwest-my kind of place. Below are just a few pics from the weekend. We usually go on Memorial Day, but had to change to Labor Day this year. I do not recommend going down there this time of year. All the waterfalls, rivers and creeks were almost completely dried up. We will def. be going Memorial Day next year and every year there after.

Old Man's Cave

Ash Cave

Our First Real Garden

We attempted a small garden last year and learned there is such a thing as planting too much in a small place. We learned our lesson this year and expanded it about 3 times the size. We also added a better fence so the dogs could not get in and ruin it like last year. We planted the following
Beans, Onions, Zucks, Corn, Romaine Lettuce, Strawberries and 3 types of pumpkins. So, far we have harvested about 10 zucks, 2 bags FULL of beans, and 6 heads of romaine lettuce. Our corn is almost ready and the pumpkins are well on their way to Halloween time. It has been alot more work that we thought, but also very rewarding. We have learned new lessons this year that will hopefully make our garden next year even better.
Thanks, dad, for giving me my green thumb!

Cedar Point & Camping

My best friend from Seattle was able to come out and visit me about 2 weeks ago. Her husband is from Northern Ohio and they were here for his father's funeral. They suggested we go to Cedar Point while they were here. We, of course, were happy to oblige. I made a reservation at a campground on Lake Erie for the night before. We swam in Lake Erie, had foil dinners for dinner and played "BANG". We woke up early the next morning and headed to CEDAR POINT! We were so lucky for another unseasonably cool day and had loads of fun riding those crazy roller coasters. The Raptor was my fav!

Make a Smilebox scrap pages

Utah & Idaho Vacay

You can click on the pictures if you want to see them bigger.

Make a Smilebox photobook

6 words...

Harry Potter was A-MA-ZING. Nate and I spontaneously decided to go see the 12:01am showing of Harry Potter last night. I have seen most of the Harry Potter movies at midnight and was not planning on keeping up the tradition this time around due to Nate having to work at 5am every morning. But he surprised me last night and out of the blue said "How about we go see Harry Potter?" I was more than happy to oblige. We arrived at 10pm and had to wait outside in a line (expected). We came prepared though with a blanket and Phase 10 to play. It made me very reminiscent of the days of being more spontaneous. Like the time we decided at 10pm on Friday to go camp out in downtown Salt Lake to save a spot for the Parade the next day (I do not recommend this, though)
Anyways, I will not give away any spoilers, but it was a pretty good adaptation of the book. They, of course, left out some pretty key things, but overall, I was very impressed with how the movie was made. I will def. see it again.

New Moon Trailer

I know I have been posting a few videos, but this one tops them all. It is the official first New Moon Trailer. It actually gave me chills watching it. You can tell their acting has improved so much since filming Twilight. You can ALSO tell they have ALOT more money for filming New Moon. Special effects looked good. Hope you enjoy as much as me...

Memorial Day Weekend!

This may be a week late, but oh well. We had our first annual Hayslip Family Camping trip. It was a lot of fun and Hueston Woods State Park was beautiful. There was so much to do. We went on many hikes, swam at the beach, made great food over the fire and played some fun games. We were lucky to have such great weather! The dogs were so tired when we got home-they slept for 2 days straight. I always look forward to the great camp kick-off that Memorial Day offers. We have about 3-4 more planned camping trips and I look forward to every one!
You can click on individual pictures to make them bigger.

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

I am Glee-Ful!

So, I don't normally promote a television show, but after watching Glee last night, I could not stop thinking about it! It was comical, musical and captivating. The singing is AMAZING! Love Rachel! And it is based in Lima, OH! Here is a little snippet of what I am talking about. I really hope Fox will bring this in the fall like promised! You can watch the whole episode on fox.com.
*taken down due to copyright laws.

Random...but oh so funny!

Race for the Cure

Last Saturday was the Race for the Cure in Columbus. Apparently, it is the 5th or 6th largest in the nation! Nate's mom is a 2 year survivor, and my Aunt Joy has been a survivor for many years now. I walked in their behalf. His mom and sister walked with me too. It was very overwhelming how many people were there! I got choked up about 4 times. Very inspiring! This was just a fraction of the people that were there supporting Breast Cancer!This is Nate's mom walking through the Survivor's Tunnel. Very cool. The African-American lady in the back was dancing the whole way through-very funny!

Cleaning out the Fridge

You probably just read that title and wondered why I would post about such a silly thing. Here is the reason:
I am fortunate enough to have a husband who takes his night off to help me clean out the fridge. The above invention was solely his. He found that his shirt would not stay up, so a piece of string did the trick. Now, I am sure you are still asking yourself why this is so funny...again, let me explain. In the process of the "Great Fridge Clean-Out of 2009", 2 things were said by Nate that left me rolling on the floor laughing, tears a-streaming. The first was this, "I can still smell it!" Followed shortly by, "If I throw up, it is going down my bare chest!" This is still so funny to me-I am cracking up again while writing this. Maybe it is one of those "had to be there moments", but I will forever cherish this much-needed "silly" time with my honey!
And yes, we had quite a few "left-overs" that got to be included in our "what were you originally" game. I should be ashamed of how long is has been since we have cleaned out the fridge (6 months maybe), but I am not because it was our entertainment for the night. I guess I am easily entertained.

Entertainment Stand

I am finally getting around to posting pictures of Nate's first woodworking project. He had a TON of help from Beau, his mentor, but I am still proud of all the work he put into it. I LOVE IT! Here is where we found the inspiration. Can you believe people actually pay that much for this? We probably spent less than $500, including paint and hardware!
I am so glad Beau talked me into painting it red, it really makes the room pop! They started it last fall and finished it by Halloween. They just barely added the trim to the top though. I wanted to wait to post the pics until that was done. We distressed it and used Nate's sweet Restoration Hardware discount to get the knobs and handles. Now I can count on Nate to build other things around the house, like a crib someday!I found the idea for the drawers on Pottery Barn also. Showed Beau the pic and he just figured out how to make them! We already need more room for the DVD's though ;)Side view showing more of the crown molding they added to the top. Added just the right touch.