Baker's Birthday!

Saturday was Baker's 2nd birthday and here are some photos of our fun day. First, he has marshmallows for breakfast, b/c they are his new favorite thing. Then he and daddy went to the pool. Baker loves to swim so he had been anxiously awaiting his bday so he could go to the pool. Then we went to Applebee's for lunch, not b/c he wanted to but b/c we had a gift certificate. Then it was nap time. After nap we had a "party". Brian and I worked hard on conforming our dining room to a party room. Baker didn't really seem to notice though. He loved the balloons. We did a lot of skyping and opening presents. I was very upset b/c he didn't eat his cake that I worked so hard on but I am over it! Then we had pizza for dinner which is maybe his 2nd favorite.

Brian was a little sad b/c we had no guests and he wasn't sure if Baker felt special but I am certain he had fun. His 1st birthday was about as good as they get so it wasn't good for comparison. The hardest part was trying to video and get pics and enjoy the show. Thanks Tim for taking care of all that last year! He really loves to open presents. He is enjoying his desk and we are very glad to watch some new Barney videos. Geez I was sick of the ones we had!

Anyways, life is good, just wanted to share some pics.

Home much sweeter home

I don't have any pics to post but I do have a lot to say. Things have been progressing quite well since we decided to stay in ND. Yes, Brittany, there was an opening in TX and of course we wanted to be closer to family so we were for sure going to move there.. obviously until Brian visited. So..
We have been attending EBC,Evangelical Bible Church and I am really enjoying it. I am not sure Brian is 100%satisfied, but I believe it is the best in town. The people are becoming friendlier and I am being as outgoing as I possibly can. We met a great couple, who happen to be OU fans (so rare up here) and we really like them. They are our age and of course don't have kids but we get along great. They are both natives and she actually knows Anne Hullinger- how crazy is that?

Anyways- we were invited to our first game night on Saturday and we had a great time! I think people liked us... hopefully. When we left Brian said "so I guess there are people like us up here." It was nice.

Then, today I decided to host my own playdate. I love play dates and I think they are necessary for my sanity!!! Especially if Brian is having a busy work week. I passed out little hand written notes Wednesday night at church and we had 3 moms come- woo hoo! I always get nervous when hosting an event that no one will show up. So that was 7 kids total. It was great to play in our huge basement or what I like to call Toys'R Us. Baker had a lot of fun. We can tell that he misses interaction so I am trying to get him involved. He loves to go to church and they gym. We have been going to this thing at the rec. center called Kid Fit. It is really for 3yr olds but Baker does okay. They run and play lots of imaginary games and throw balls. It burns energy.

Baker's 2nd birthday is Saturday and we are excited to celebrate. It will just be the 4 of us but that is okay. It's hard to believe he is 2 and I have 2 kids now and some of you that were at the hospital when Baker was born STILL DON'T HAVE ANY! It's okay though- to each his own.

So, just wanted to let everyone know that things are looking up socially. As far as house hunting goes... I don't have anything positive to say. We found a house we loved, made an offer, raised our offer, and then they accepted someone else's. All during the first day on the market. It's like a war for a house. Anyways they are just different up here. Not many people have master baths and NO ONE has a one story. They are all crazy levels. Brian says the Lord has a house for us and we will see. They are much more pricey up here but that is okay. I just don't know if we will get one in our range. But, like my dad says- we have time. We like our rent home just fine. I know some of you are.. on the nosy side (like myself) so if you want to see what we are looking at then the website is
crerealestate.com
If it has an R beside it, it means it is under contract. So... yah. That's all. Just wanted to update

Your state is only cool if it has snow

I love watching the national news. Brian Williams is my preference. It keeps me in touch with loved ones ranging from OK and TX to NC. Looks like everyone is hit with snow. This is a video Brian took. My defenition of blizzard has now changed. I think it really just means high winds. We lost power Sun and went to a hotel that night. Power was back up Mon but some places here are still out. So I hope you all are staying warm in OK. I am sure it sucks but hey... it gets a lot worse! Who wants to come visit?

House Hunting

Well, Brian is on his way home from work. We are going to look at houses here in Dickinson. Yes, I know we might be the most fickle people ever, but we are now staying in North Dakota. Permanently... or as permanent as we can be... which really doesn't say much over 1/5yrs.
I am sure this is a surprise as a lot of you thought we were moving to Midland (Ashley you should call me), however, Brian took a trip down there last week and was thouroghly disappointed. In everything really- the terrain (apparently you can see a dog run away for like 10 miles), the neighborhoods, the schools, the housing costs, and the traffic. Lots of things but mostly his work load. It would close to double and you just can't afford that when you have young kids. You can't get time back and so for the sake of the 4 of us we are staying. Apparently the small town life is pretty nice. So- who wants to come visit???

A perm for me and a black eye for Baker

We have had an extremely eventful week. I decided to give myself a home perm, yes, I am that cheap. I also thought I could use a color treatment since I never see the sun, so Brian lightened my hair for me. I like it. It is much easier to deal with now and since my hair doesn't get much attention each day it looks better curly than just... flat. So, that was scary but turned out alright. One pic is right after the fact and the other one is with it dry and an attempt to fix.


So, that was Thursday during the national championship, poor Colt McCoy, and then Friday night we went to the ER. Brian was laying on his stomach on the ground and Baker was on his back. He jumped off but fell and all of his body weight landed on the edge of the coffee table! So, we went to the ER b/c we were certain it was broken even though there was no blood. Praise the Lord it wasn't though! So, we have just been icing it. He doesn't seem to remember that anything happened but he looks AWFUL!!! It is very very sad to see him. He hasn't slowed down a bit though. He's not even 2 and he's had stitches in his lip, surgery on his chest, and now this awfulness. The Lord still provides for us though and God is still good!

New Year, New You

Oh wow, let me tell you. Life is funny up here. I think we (Brian and I) are really changing, or at least I know I am. For New Year's Eve we tried to throw a party but no one wanted to come. We were dumb founded on what to do. So, I got dressed up and we ate at the Chinese buffet. Then we went home and played a lot of Skipbo! I guess the longer I am surrounded purely by testosterone the more I revert back to my old self, long before a lot of you knew me.
In high school and especially in Jr. high I LOVED "style". I could spend literally hours in my bedroom playing records picking out what outfit I would wear to school the next day. I always had makeup on and I am pretty sure I always fixed my hair. I know at least in Jr. high I always curled it. Somewhere in college I switched over to a more plain Gap girl. Not that there is anything wrong the Gap, I love it, but I just went more... plain and I certainly slowed down on the makeup. Anyhow, I have kicked that out the door. It started with a purple headband and has now stretched to skinny jeans and leopard earrings. So, this was my outfit for New Year's Eve


It makes me laugh b/c in the picture it looks awful, but I have to tell myself it looked better in person. If you know me at my core of cores you know how I love to dress up for certain things. Like, I need a special birthday outfit and I want to be dressed up for New Year's Eve. Anyhow, this was pretty last minute but a major attempt at looking different than everyday. Trust me, I promise it looked better in real life, you can laugh. Anyways so, I am branching back out and embracing my femininity. Brian said I looked like one of the Young family women. At his grandpa's funeral they were all dressed to the T with their class, big hair, edgy style, and bright lipstick. They are beautiful. Brian's grandma and great aunts had a club in high school and I think they called themselves the "Petite debutantes". It was exclusive and to this day they still talk about it with pride. It's so cute!Anyways, I am not sure Brian has totally embraced this side of me, but he certainly knew it was always there.


So, we didn't leave the house for a couple of days and it was wonderful. I loved it. Brian once gave me a card that said- I love the days when we never get around to shoes. And that is what this weekend was. We have certainly learned to enjoy the company of just the 4 of us. I began reading "Going Rogue" and I am loving it! Sarah Palin is quite different than I perceived her to be. It has been a long time since I got lost in a book. I read a lot but more topical or self help type books but this is a great story.

Also, we had our usual New Year's Day dinner but without all our wonderful guests, we missed you all. We cooked the turkey and it was delish! We also had mashed potatoes, rolls, green bean casserole, and a little champagne... since we actually fell asleep at 11:30 on NYE, oops!



Anyways, love you all and hope you enjoyed this!This is my "normal" self watching the OU game that day- Boomer Sooner! We finally get another bowl win!!!!!!!!!!!!

Never seen this much snow in my life!

Well, when we returned from Oklahoma on Sunday night we found quite a lot of snow. It had snowed 4 inches the day we left but from the minute we got in the car we knew had missed the first blizzard of the season. As we drove through town we just saw these huge piles of snow in parking lots where they had compiled the cleared snow. They had made a median out of snow on the main street in town! We have never seen anything like this in our lives! Then, when we arrived on our street we found that our neighbors car had been buried in snow but the biggest surprise was when we arrived to our house. Our driveway was covered in 4 feet of snow. Now, I am NOT exaggerating here- literally 4 feet. We were like- what the heck are we supposed to do? Someone had cleared a little path thru the snow to our front door but there was no way we could get Brian's truck in the garage or get my car out. Brian shoveled for like... ten minutes without any progress and then decided there must be a better way.
Monday morning Stuart, one of Brian's co-workers, came with H&P's bulldozer or bobcat and moved our snow to a huge pile in our neighbors yard where apparently everyone is stacking their snow. I seriously don't know what we would have done without it. Today is Wednesday and that car is still covered in snow. Anyhow, the roads are much slicker now so we are having to be extremely cautious driving but the weather is nice, it should be in the 20's most of the week. So sad when I say that. It def should be an oxymoron to say nice and 20 in the same sentence.
None the less, it is still interesting to explore more of the earth that God created. This is def some different creativity!