::mothers day bracelets::

I was inspired by the tutorial on my friend Katy's blog. I just loved the bracelet that she had made out of wool pebbles. I thought one of those would be a fun mother's day gift.
But I'm nothing if I'm not practical--I knew I wouldn't get it done if I tried to make my own pebbles. I'll try it some day, but for this time I ordered some from here. Isn't etsy wonderful?
Once they came (all the way from the UK), I took a bunch of beads from back when I thought I might have a knack at jewelry making, and I put them all together.

I think the pebbles are just so interesting--they've got such a cool texture, and the marbled colors are beautiful. It was fun to pick beads to play against the pebbles.

Kris was concerned they'd look like "dryer lint bracelets." He admitted they were cool once I was done.


I like them. What do you think?
Thanks for the inspiration Katy!!

::some christmas::

We had a great Christmas. It was very quiet--just the three of us--and very fun. We were more than spoiled by our families.
Here's Max on Christmas eve. He's wearing his new sock monkey PJs and putting out the santa cookies. We all got new PJs which is so fun. When my mom was in town she bought me some and wrapped them up. It was perfect.




I could hardly sleep all night. I had a cold and my nose was all stuffed so I could hardly breathe. I felt like a little kid though, waking up every half hour, looking at the clock and just wishing it was time to get up!
We told Max that he couldn't leave his room until 7AM. We gave him a little travel alarm clock so he'd know exactly what time it was. When I got up at 6:30 to shower (after lying in bed awake since at least 5:30) he was totally conked out in bed. As I was drying my hair at the stroke of 7 he popped into the bathroom "It's SEVEN!!" and proved it when I asked him to show me on his clock. It was pretty funny.

Santa brought something pretty cool. A Buzz Lightyear telescoping robot arm. At least it doesn't make noise.



He was really excited even though what he really wanted from santa was an EVE robot from the WallE movie. Unfortunately Santa couldn't find her anywhere. But come on, like a robot arm isn't cooler?

We had a great morning, taking a break from the gift giving fun for some german pancakes. Mmmmm.

This picture sure does make them look delectable. And they are, by the way.

Max helped Kris wrap the presents that were for me--and he labeled them all. They turned out very very cute, naturally, and he only ruined one shirt in the process (as a result of using a permanent marker). I had to take a picture of all of them of course. But I won't post them all here.

I think this held my favorite present from him.
Sock monkey slippers. I love them.

Cute AND warm. And so Max.


We got to have several video chats with both of our families which was definitely fun. It's hard to feel too far away when you can see everybody's faces and talk to them.
We also got to do a big computer conference call with Murphy on his mission in Argentina. That was really fun, and so amazing that it actually worked. It was really fun to hear his voice. He seems to be doing great and we're so proud of him.


I didn't get pictures of all the presents of course (I missed some of the more big exciting presents), and don't want to make a big list of all of them here, but just want to say thanks to our families for all the love. Here are a few additional fun pictures of the day.














And now we've put away all the christmas stuff for next year. And we look forward to it. Especially Max who's been trying hard to understand how long a year actually is. He was confused enough when he woke up on Dec 26th, came in and asked us permission to go into the living room and see what Santa had brought. Wishful thinking. It would be fun though.

::so mysterious::

We keep getting packages. It's so much fun. Whether I've ordered the stuff in the boxes or not it doesn't matter. It's still fun and exciting for me to get them. And since I did almost all of my christmas shopping online we've been getting a lot.

This one is the most tantalizing though. Don't you think?


And here's a fun little shot of our tree. It's the best I've got so far.

I have to take a whole bunch of the ornaments off tomorrow and replace one of the light strands. It died just before we left on vacation and it's driving me crazy. I've got to fix it soon.

We're getting excited for Christmas!!

.::Happy Happy::.

birthday to Kris!!
I'm a little behind here (as usual). Kris's birthday was on saturday. We got back from new york late thursday morning and have been scrambling to finish up moving in and stuff since. So saturday we spent most of the day running errands (trying to actually get some food in the kitchen) and cleaning up, washing little boys, you know. Important stuff.

We went to a cool sporting goods store by our house and bought Kris some nice new flip flops for his birthday. I think he likes them.

Our sweet friends Chad and Melissa offered to watch Max for us so that we could go out to dinner and actually talk to each other. It was really a combination birthday and anniversary dinner since Kris was going to be in NY for our anniversary. It was really nice. We went to a great place called Blaze that's right across from our house. The food was delicious and the place was really nice.

Afterwards we came back and ate cake with Max and Chad and Melissa. The cake turned out looking really great. But it was the first thing I've tried to bake in this new oven and it was a little underdone on the inside. It's an electric range/oven and I can't remember the last time I've used one. The cake still tasted good though. I always think frosting makes the cake anyway. Well, homemade frosting does anyway!


After looking at the following pictures, I'm not sure whose birthday it actually is!

I could barely get one quick shot before all the candles were blown out. Can you see the blur of Kris up on the left hand side trying to blow one of them out before mr wind machine got them all?

I only had one present for him. But it was a good one.

And no, it wasn't my son. He was a present, but back in 2004.



Again, whose birthday is it anyway? Nobody can really tell....not even Kris.

We got him a spare tire cover for our one and only car. Now we can feel cool because we finally have a safari animal on the back of our Rover. Thanks to ebay. Yay for ebay!


So happy birthday to my sweet Kris. He's in New York right now and we miss him!
Who couldn't miss this sweet face?

Or this smooth dude?

I love you Kris!