It's almost 11pm,

and we're watching the ball drop and going to bed. We were with friends and all of us joked about how we used to stay up until 2-3 am. We laughed as all of us headed home at 10pm. You know, kiddos to put to bed, pregnant women to get sleepy. That sort of thing. Luckily in the central time zone you can just pretend it's midnight when the ball drops.
Hope your New Year started in a more exciting way. :)
Happy New Year's Family and Friends- Wishing you a healthy and happy year ahead with wonderful memories to make and cherish.

I know I know....

Three posts in one day. But I've had requests for an explanation of "retro space." The bedding I picked out is being shipped to me so the process is in full swing. Here's what we had in mind....



Here's the bedding that we have chosen:

The under side of the quilt is hard to see, but it's a count down from 10-1 to teach our genius math baby. The sheeting is the same.

Here are all the pictures we took at Disney. They really speak for themselves in how much fun we had. Feel free to watch the whole show, but warning, there are 250 of them. :)

This though is my favorite picture ever!

I know I know...

I promise I'll get a post in about Christmas at Disney, because it was truly amazing. But until I get that one finished,

Ahhhh, so this explains it....

Happy Christmas!

I know Christmas isn't until Tuesday, but I can guarantee I'll be too busy to post before then. See, we'll be at "The Happiest Place on Earth" for the holiday. That's right, Disney World here we come! I won't get to ride all the rides, but that will just give me an excuse to watch ALL the shows and Christmas spectaculars and eat everything I can get my hands on.
We'll be back on Thursday night and I'll have a doctors appointment on Friday, so I'm sure I'll have a lot to post about then. Cheers! And wishing you the warmest of holidays.

Come visit us!

I know every now and then I make a plea for people to come visit, but now's the perfect opportunity.
Southwest Airlines is running a special for flights during the month of January if you buy your tickets by December 27th.
Come see us! :)
Check out the good deals.

Which Austen character are you?

Take the Quiz here!

Ok so the quiz kind of was easy enough to allow me to cheat, however, I am most like Elizabeth Bennet.

Book Hunting

Adam and I have a hard time buying books at full price. See our problem is, that we are collectors and therefore because of the sheer amount of books that we own we cannot justify spending the full amount they are sold for. So we frequent Half Price Books on a fairly regular basis in order to fulfill our pack rat desires. We have a system that we follow almost every time we go.
We start to the right of the front door and walk towards the crafting section. Here's where I end up with most of my books to glean ideas from. In order to get to this section we have to walk through the antique books section. Normally we avert our eyes and keep walking, (these books can be very expensive, but I love them so much) as to not lose ourselves in the endless aisles of barely discernible titles on the spines. Our trip on Friday night however, had a different twist. Walking down the aisle to the craft section an older book basically jumped into my hands. Entitled, Thurber, I instantly knew it was related to the author James Thurber, writer of wonderful short stories, illustration sketches, and fellow Columbusite. He just happens to also be one of my favorite authors because of his timeless humor and wit. It ended up being a compilation of stories that appeared in the New Yorker and it happened to be only $5. I knew the book belonged to me and wanted to come home with me.
We made it to the craft section and I perused through the knitting, crochet, embroidery, and textile books (no I still can't knit, but I like to get ideas from knitting). It looked like it had been completely revamped since my last visit (it had become a little disappointing), but still nothing that I couldn't live without, until Adam exclaims, "Look!" He saw a coveted item that had long been on my Amazon wishlist. The Happy Hooker. It is a current book of which I had been wanting to make quite a few patterns out of. (Crocheting friends, you may laugh that I don't own this book already, but as stated before, I hate to buy books at full price, so I've been just waiting for it to show up at HPB.) He feebly made an attempt to make me choose between my old love of James Thurber and my new love of crochet, but I resisted and happily walked through the rest of HPB without adding any new paper. On our normal route we then go from the craft section to the children's section in the back of the store. It is the bridge between our interests. We both love children's and young adult literature. I can normally find old copies of Laura Ingalls Wilder or The Babysitter's Club to fondly reminisce over while Adam looks for newer books in the fantasy realm. I normally get bored of that section before he does, so we split up and I head to general fiction while he finishes up in children's lit, makes a stop by science fiction and fantasy for adults, and then meets up with me in fiction for the last remnants of that. We easily spend an hour or so walking through all the books and both often have to pare down our pickings by the time we hit the cash register.

Just thought I would share with you a little piece of one of our favorite things.

A day of fun, but not for some...

Boo! Snow! Ice! Boo!
First of all. Pray for our friends in Missouri- Michael, Kristi and their four kids. They have been without power for four days now and may not have it back before the end of next week.

Here's part of an email from Kristi I got yesterday:
I am tired, frustrated and also getting sick now. I am at a friends house with my four kids and her two today while all the other adults went to work (God is so laughing with me right now as I remember how many times I said the kid care is not my "gift"). Our friends have been so gracious to have us move in their house but I don't know if this is a good solution beyond a day or two.

Bless those friends. I wish I was there to help. The kids have not had school or anything because of the lack of power. The most I can do is pray that they continue to be healthy and safe.
That and anticiapate their visit to us right after Christmas. I can't wait.

Best New Year Ever?
Also, I heard unofficial word that our friends from California will be hopping in after Christmas for the New Year. Is that true Danny and Jessica? Please tell me it's true. Having some of the old gang together would be the ultimate!

Thursday o' Fun
Yesterday was so much fun for me. I was so full of excitement by the end of the night that I couldn't sleep very well and it was as bad as being a kid on Christmas Day night.

We had a wonderful two hour lunch with Bill and Darby and Miss Kate. Merry Christmas!

Then we went to Matt and Rebecca's to spend some time with their new little ones. It was so much fun! I wish I could post pictures of these two, they are pretty much the cutest little boys I've ever seen. We played on the floor and then Kenneth showed off his bike riding skills.

We went to Grand Prairie to see the Christmas Light Spectacular there. It was a lot of fun. Except when I tried to go to the bathroom. I almost had to pull the pregnant lady card to ditch some people in line. But I didn't. I waited my turn patiently. We all had a lot of fun watching the dinosaurs eat Santa.



We had so much fun, here's just a slide show of all the pictures yesterday (minus our visit to Matt and Rebecca's). Enjoy!

Littlefoot
Long before we even knew we were pregnant, Adam and I talked about children's rooms for our hypothetical children. For little boys we talked about Adam's favorite childhood things, Dinosaurs and Space. We agreed on a retro space theme if we ever had a boy. When things looked more and more like a reality, we revisited that theme and decided to go with it. In the world of fabrics, there is a resurgence of retro reproductions being made from the 40s and 50s, so it has been a lot of fun getting some ideas. So because I love having themes for everything (parties, holidays, etc.) we will be persuing a Retro Space theme for Littlefoots childhood enjoyment.

So much to do

My little ticker on the side of my blog told me today that apparently I theoretically have less than 150 days until Littlefoot is born. Lots to do and very little time....
Just thought I would share that really exciting news! :)

Today I have a busy day ahead, but not a lot to do until the laundry is done and I have something to wear. :)

We are having Christmas Luncheon with the Kooglers.

Then we are meeting up with Matt and Rebecca to meet their sweet little ones, Kenneth and Michael.

Lastly we are having dinner with Hans and Courtney and going to Grand Prairie to a park that they do up in Christmas lights and you get to drive through and look for a certain amount of money.

Crafting

Here are some updates on crafting....

Advent Calendar
I can't decide on stitching for the star and trunk so I may leave it as is until I can think of something. But I had a request for a picture of the whole thing, so here it is.


Christmas Present
These stockings are being given away for Christmas. But I can't say who for, that would ruin the suprise.


Belated Birthday Present
Come on Nick, did you really think I forgot? It's just that this pattern has been the bane of my existance. Almost four months late, I am seeing the end of this afghan for my brother's birthday.

Neck Cozy

And I was asked for the pattern for the neck cozy I made last week.
The pattern came from Crochet Kids by Kelly Ronci (a really wonderful book that has great patterns, but also teaches you how to crochet as well) the neck cozy is right on the front cover and that's what attracted me to the book. The pattern is just back and forth making what I would call a swatch using super bulky yarn (as I did). Their's calls for a single crochet, but I'm pretty sure I used a half double. Attach a button and button through the stitches. I wore mine this morning and I like it a lot except that it sticks up a little far for me in the back, but I think if I button it differently it will lay a little better.

Today someone asked

why I wasn't drinking coffee anymore. You mean you noticed a change in my drinking habits, but didn't notice the growth on the front side of my body that makes me look like I'm wearing a pillow under my shirt?
And just to prove how much I've grown (and maybe justify the lady at the mall's comment last week) here's a belly pic for you.


My thoughts during this picture: Don't forget to smile. And, I hope that Adam is remembering to cut my chubby arm out of the picture.
Thanks Adam for not forgetting. That's why I love you.

PS. Seriously I've only gained about 5 pounds the entire pregnancy. I wouldn't even lie or talk about it if it wasn't true because it just blows my mind that I look like this and haven't gained the poundage to prove it.

Pictures to go with previous posts...

Group Photo from Department Christmas Party last week.


Semi-finished penguin army

Stitching on our advent calendar. Now I know how to blanket stitch.

Growing family

Dear friends of ours, Matt and Rebecca, decided to become foster parents earlier this year and finished the process just a few weeks ago. Their intent was to have children who are available for adoption in their home and eventually adopt those children if possible. They received two little boys this week, Kenneth and Michael who are just the most adorable little things I've ever seen pictures of. They are three and one. I am hoping to post pictures of them here if I am allowed (I don't know the regulations yet because of them actually still being foster children). But Adam and I will get to meet them on Thursday and I can't wait. Pray for their family as the boys adjust to their new environment and pray for Matt and Rebecca as they adjust to being instant parents. I know they will do great and are so excited to love these little ones (just as the rest of us are).

Mind Spinning

I've often made fun of pregnant women in my head for doing funny things, like leaving car doors open. But I've found that unless you've been pregnant, you do not know the enormity of things that can spin through your head at any given moment during the day. Add on top of that, the busyness of the holiday season this year and I'm amazed I make it to work in any semblance of a fully dressed person.
In the past few weeks I've gotten to work before realizing that I've left my entire purse at home (I NEVER leave the house without at least my purse and typically one other tote bag of something). I've started mixing up words and phrases when talking to people, this is great especially because my job requires me to talk on the phone 99.9% of the time. And I can't even find the multiple "TO DO" lists I've made in the past week to keep myself on track for gift buying, making, shipping, baking, crafting, organizing, cleaning, visiting, cooking, etc. that I do on a regular basis. I started taping a craft TO DO list right next to the light switch in the craft room in attempt to keep something together in there.

In finished TO DO list items... Cute penguins have been made at work thanks to Eleamar's help and the initial blanket stitching has been completed around the advent tree. I am trying to get creative with the trunk and star. We'll see what I come up with. (pictures of these will be added as soon as I remember to bring my camera to work. that could be days or months.)

This is the neck cozy I finally finished this evening. I love taking naps in the afternoon because then when I can't go to sleep in the evening I find lots of unfinished projects to put the finishing touches on. Like, putting the button on this which I had actually made a few months ago and just couldn't decide on a button. Now it just has to get cold enough here for me to wear it. (Ahem, it will be 80 degrees tomorrow.)

I have a really long to do list in the craft world right now. Tonight as I was trying to make a path through that room that has been taken over by yarn, Christmas stuff, and the growing collection of baby stuff we are acquiring, I made a list as I went of all the projects that have been started and not finished or that need to be done by Christmas or that I saw that I would like to get done in a timely manner. Whew, the list ended up being around 15 things long. It's going to be a long winter folks.

But enough of yanking your chain, we went to the doctor today and found out we are officially having a baby. Yup a baby. They did get a little more specific and tell us it is a boy! Unluckily, we had all good girls names so now we are in a constant argument about what to name this thing. For now the current nickname is Littlefoot. You know from the Land Before Time? The original one at least, not the 25,000 sequels that they made of it. So Littlefoot it is. As for its real name, we'll have to wait the next 5 months to find out. Hopefully, Adam and I can agree by then.

We are both very healthy and have no complications or risks. I only gained about a pound (even though I feel like I've gained around 15) so I am still allowed to eat whatever I want and Littlefoot is growing immensely. He tends to lay with his feet to the right side of my body and his head to the left and decided to move his mouth around and do some side twists while we were watching him today. The doctor had high praise for him and said he looked great.

I promise to post a new belly pic soon. A lady at the mall yesterday asked if I was having twins. I was so mad. Also, the ultrasound pictures were not very good this time around (but the video was pretty good) so those may or may not get posted quickly. Taking suggestions for names, but only "hey this is a cool name," not, "I really don't like this name at all." What's wrong with people, if I'm mentioning a name it's obvious that I like it. Duh.

Thanks to Tip Junkie for reposting this from Executive Homemaker. I totally wouldn't have seen it there and it warmed my heart immensely.

'Twas the Night Before Christmas Texas Style

'Twas the night before Christmas, in Texas, you know.

Way out on the prairie, without any snow.

Asleep in their cabin, were Buddy and Sue,

A dreamin' of Christmas, like me and you.

Not stockings, but boots, at the foot of their bed,

For this was Texas, what more need be said,

When all of a sudden, from out of the still night,

There came such a ruckus, it gave me a fright.

and I saw 'cross the prairie, like a shot from a gun,

A loaded up buckboard, come on at a run,

The driver was "Geein" and "Hawin", with a will,

The horses (not reindeer) he drove with such skill.

"Come on there Buck, Poncho, & Prince, to the right,

There'll be plenty of travelin' for you all tonight.

"The driver in Levi's and a shirt that was red,

Had a ten-gallon Stetson on top of his head.

As he stepped from the buckboard, he was really a sight,

With his beard and moustache, so curly and white.

As he burst in the cabin, the children awoke,

and were so astonished, that neither one spoke.

and he filled up their boots with such presents galore,

That neither could think of a single thing more.

When Buddy recovered the use of his jaws,

He asked in a whisper, "Are you really Santa Claus?"

"Am I the real Santa? Well, what do you think?"

and he smiled as he gave a mysterious wink.

Then he leaped in his buckboard, and called back in his drawl,

"To all the children in Texas, Merry Christmas, Ya’ll"

PS- Last chance to weigh in on whether you think Baby Kipp is a boy or a girl. We'll find out later this morning. Horray!

I'm off to make apple crisp and a cheese ball for a Christmas Party tonight with all my great work friends.

Oh Texas....

This is a common saying around our house. We said it when we had a bit of snow flurries on Thanksgiving Day, or this morning when when the Cowboy Emporium (I can't remember the real name of the store) had a commercial on advertising everything cowboyish for Christmas.
This time it is said in honor of the seasons.
It is 70 degrees today, a little chilly this morning (in the 40s) but it will be nice out later today.
This is a picture I took this morning while waiting for the elevator (still loving our new camera by the way).

Yup it is December, however in Texas it is just now autumn. Everyone else is blanketed in snow and having floods, here it is bright, sunny, 70 and autumn. Go figure.
Not that I'm complaining. My Christmas tree is up, so I can ignore the outside world and just sing "Let it Snow" inside. I'll just turn the air conditioning down so it feels chilly.

Fun weekend

I'm trying not to fall asleep at my desk today. It's too warm in our office and I tend to nod off around this time of the afternoon.

This weekend was really nice. On Saturday night we attended Andrew Peterson's Behold the Lamb Christmas concert at a large church in town. Before you think we spent the whole time singing Christmas carols, let me explain about this concert.

Andrew Peterson is a singer/song writer and gets a few of his friends who are also singer/song writers to come along with him. Saturday he had Bebo Norman, some guys from Caedmon's Call, and my personal favorite Sara Groves. There were some others along, but no one I'd ever heard of before.

They do a Nashville Round (thanks Hans for the term) where they all sit on stage and just talk about how they know each other, why they wrote the song they're about to sing, etc. while they each sing a song or two each. That's probably my favorite part. But then they did the actual Christmas part of the program where Andrew Peterson goes through songs that he has written in chronological order about the old testament leading up to the birth of Christ. It is moving to go through the whole old testament in an hour, let alone through song. I had heard many of the songs (thanks again Hans) but hearing them performed live and in order was really moving.

I think the last "concert" (not play, or performance) we had been to was before we moved here to Texas, so it has been a while. It was really great to just groove on some good music.
Oh yeah, Baby really liked the music too. I'd been able to feel it move once or twice before, but with us being in close proximity to the stage, I could feel Baby Kipp moving a lot. Maybe we'll finally have a percussionist in the family.

Worth a post...

A reminder, this Thursday is our appointment to find out for sure whether we are having a boy or a girl. As all good parents we are just hoping the baby continues to be healthy, as with all honest parents we are secretly hoping for one sex or the other.

We've decided we will (of course!) find out whether it is a boy or girl, and share that news with our family and friends (and the whole world), but we've decided to keep the name a secret until the birth. This infuriates my mother, who apparently is all of a sudden very concerned about having gifts monogrammed (I never had anything from when I was a baby monogrammed). But I guess that's a grandma's prerogative. None the less, Baby Girl or Baby Boy Kipp will remain nameless (except for the heinous nicknames we'll come up with to use in the meantime) until she or he is here.

We have decided this for a number of reasons, which follow:
1. People can be completely insensitive and say they dislike a name, but if you introduce a child with the name people are a lot less likely to say something out loud about it.
2. You have to have some sort of building suspense to go along with a birth besides whether or not the baby will have hair or be bald.
3. I have decided that I will probably have two names picked out and then see which one suits the baby better once they are born. (This reasoning has yet to be ran by Adam, but I'm sure he'll agree with his pregnant, irrational wife.)

Speaking of irrational, here's my latest completely irrational pregnancy story-
A side effect of hormones is apparently having completely ridiculous dreams. I've had these pretty much from the get go, but the one I had a few days ago was just out there.
In real life, my boss had purchased some cheese and ate quite a bit for lunch before realizing it was quite moldy and probably not healthy to be eating. So in turn, in my dream, I had a dream that all the cheddar cheese (not the Parmesan or mozzarella) had gone bad and moldy. So the next day (in real life again) I asked Adam to throw away all the cheddar cheese in our fridge because I couldn't eat it any longer. Rational, normal Cara knew that the cheese in our fridge was in no way moldy or even old, but pregnant, irrational Cara could under no circumstances eat the cheddar cheese that was in our fridge at that moment.

The cheese was promptly disposed of.

My Political Views

Those of you who know me, know I don't enjoy politics, but I do love Chuck Norris, so enjoy.

Our Thanksgiving Wrap Up

We had a great meal if I do say so myself (but I made most of it, so it's a little hard to be impartial). I loved spending the day in the kitchen cooking away. We watched the parade and the dog show that was on afterwards. We are totally dog people, but some dogs are just so sad looking. We had a great time making fun of the ones who looked like they hated themselves for how they looked.

While I was cooking and watching television, we set up our Christmas decorations. This is always a big deal around our house, as the addition of a Christmas tree in the front room throws off the entire balance of the rest of the furniture requiring something (normally a bookcase full of heavy books) to be moved into another room. Previous years have not been too bad, but in the past year we added new furniture to our apartment which took up the additional space in the rest of our rooms. We laughed at ourselves when we realized the pregnant lady and man with the bad back, made a bad pair for having to move heavy bookcases, but we safely arranged everything where it needed to be and have begun the holiday festivities in our home. Nothing but Christmas music will be played henceforth until January.


Our new camera can even take nice pictures in hte dark.

Thanksgiving dinner was great, it was nice to actually spend a holiday with the Kooglers. Since we've known each other, one or the other of us has been disposed during a holiday so it was great to spend one together for once.


Kate's in the Moby behind Darby's head.

On Friday Adam woke me up at 3:15 in the morning to stand outside Best Buy until it opened at 5 in the morning in the freezing cold to get my Nintendo DS. Actually getting a pink Nintendo DS with the paw print on the outside and Nintendogs Best Friends Edition was totally worth freezing my pants off for an hour and a half. But the kicker was that then I had to go to work for 10 hours and try and stay awake and then go out to dinner for my bosses birthday.


These were originally the placecards on our Thanksgiving table, but I made an extra for Tina, my boss. The pattern is from Martha Stewart and can be found here.

The Turkish restaurant, Cafe Istanbul, was great and they even have live entertainment (a belly dancer) on the weekends. It was fun until I realized that my boss was telling me to go home because I was falling asleep at the table. The best part of the night was when a stranger gave a coworker's 2 year old a dollar to put in the belly dancer's waist band. Hilarious!

Eleamar and me at Cafe Istanbul

On Sunday I started an Advent calendar to put up around the house. I wanted to make something that would last longer than just this year, and I wanted it to be made out of felt since that is my favorite medium at the moment.


Here are the bare bones, I am still anticipating doing some hand blanket stitching to give it something extra. The bulbs will have velcro on the back so they can be added and rearranged as the days pass.


Dear Santa,
Adam has been such a good boy this year, he tries so hard to help me while I'm crafting. Please bring him a hand saw so he can keep all ten of his fingers. I'm sure he'd like some Legos too. We'll leave out extra cookies for you this year.
XOXOXO
Cara

Happy Early Thanksgiving

From the land of perpetual summer. Today I'm wearing capri pants and a sleeveless shirt and it's 80 degrees outside. Doesn't really get me in the mood to roast a turkey and spend the day in the kitchen cooking with the hot oven and bring out the mistletoe in preparation for Christmas.
Luckily, a cold front comes through tonight and it will be dropping the temperature all day tomorrow. Here's hoping for a White Thankgiving (yeah right, that would never happen here, we might get down to 50 degrees however).

This weekend...

was a great weekend. We were super busy, but it was great.
Sunday we had the privelege to drive to Gainesville to watch our friend Hans Googer on his first morning leading worship at Gainesville Bible Church. The church's pastor happens to be a dear friend of ours, Colby Torres, so it was double special.

Hans groovin'


Preach the Word Colby


Micah and Auntie Cara love each other

I got to cuddle with Colby and Christy's two year old son Micah who is such a wonderful little boy and see Christy in the full bloom of pregnancy awaiting their next son, Joshua. It was such a wonderful day. It really blessed me to see how God uses the people we know to minister to the people of this world. And I always enjoy hearing Hans play, whether its sitting on my couch or in a formal setting. Great job Hans.

The house (in the background) and the mailbox (in the foreground) are exact replicas. Ha!


The lighthouse on Lake Kiowa


Wait! What's that sticking out of my sweater. Oh my goodness, it's my belly bump.


A baby blanket I finished this week. Nope, it's not for me.


Adam with my bosses dog, Taly.

Typical Day at the Office

We try to entertain ourselves around here at the office, so I was super excited when our new camera came in the mail and I got to bring it to work today to learn how to use it.

So this picture represents that they stole all the trashcans from the immediate area around my desk (there used to be three within trash tossing distance) and so things accumulate until I have to get up to go somewhere like the fax or the bathroom. I think someone has it out for me.

This is Eleamar. I know she looks like she's working, but she's actually using my color pens to update her Christmas list.

The pictures are dark, not because of the new camera, but I decided not to use flash. The flash tends to cause 50 people look my way all at once, scowling because they are having to work and I'm not.

Design Style

Quiz of the day... Finding out what my design style is...
You're eccentric with a touch of: sweet and classy.
Ok like we didn't know I was eccentric....
Take the quiz here.

Ahhhh.

I am finally able to sleep almost a whole night without waking myself up coughing.
I am drinking Starbuck's Caramel Apple Spice (why can't they just call it cider?) in my red cup with blue sleeve.
I'm back on the hook (crocheting that is) so we'll see if I can get myself up to speed to get all my intended holiday hooking done.
Life is feeling a little bit better.

Adam's Birthday Bonanza and Baby Kipp Update

Birthday Bonanza
So while I was on the fictional brink of death this past week, Adam's birthday came and went without much more than a, "Happy Birthday" from his wife. Luckily, Adam's good friend Bill came to the rescue to take him out to breakfast while I was the Princess of Porcelain and Mucus. But today we finally got to celebrate "his" day. We went to Chip's Hamburgers for lunch.
Then we went to Sprinkles, a gourmet cupcake bakery that has the most delicious cupcakes ever. Really. Ever. That's all they make are posh, delicious cupcakes.



The Red Velvet cupcake was so rich that I could only have a bite of it when we got home from the store. But don't worry, I ate a whole Pumpkin one later that night and it was so good I didn't even mind when it all came back up later. (I guess I'm not quite ready for that much sweet stuff yet.)

Baby Kipp Update
We had another doctor's appointment yesterday and got new pictures of the baby! I really love that our doctor does a sonogram every visit. Especially right now when I still can't feel the baby move or even really know it's there. But even though I wasn't eating much the baby looks like it has had more than its fill.

Look at that belly! The head is there on the right and the little legs are sticking straight up in the air. You might also be able to see the little back arm up by the face.
The doctor does a video on VHS for us when we go and she forgot to put the tape in so we got a double long sono and while the tape was in Baby decided to show off, sucking its thumb and then getting the hiccups. It's super cute, if I do say so myself.

The Holidays

I LOVE the fall and winter. I love holidays- decorating, cooking, baking, going to parties, traveling, the airport, shopping, traffic. The whole shebang. I'll admit it, I'm a little bit crazy about the holidays. I plan out menus, and keep a Christmas notebook with addresses that get updated (sometimes!) throughout the year, gift lists with ideas and budgeting (that always gets blown out of the water), cut outs from magazines with crafts and recipes and ideas (that never all get tried out and accomplished).
Adam has set very clear boundaries for me during the holiday season. The decorations do not go up until the day after Thanksgiving, that is also when the holiday movies and music are allowed to begin their 24 hour vigil in our house. They are put away sometime before the end of New Year's Day. The only contraband that is allowed out before Thanksgiving is the Christmas cards (that were purchased the year before on sale, I can't justify the 100+ Christmas cards we send out unless they are on sale), because they have to be prepared and ready to mail the day after Thanksgiving. (Note: This year they will be a little later. I know! Horror! But I promise the wait will be well worth it, so keep your pants on!)
We have the same (but less stringent) boundaries for the fall. The fall decorations come out after it is officially Autumn and not before. And really I can't justify that one any earlier here in Texas since it is usually still 90 degrees outside when this occurs and I'm allowed one mini pumpkin spending spree- Can't have big pumpkins in a tiny apartment.

But what I love most about the holidays are traditions. I love knowing that I will do the same thing every year without having to really think or plan well for mishaps or problems. But I think what I appreciate most this year is how the traditions have morphed over the past few years. I know that for Thanksgiving there will be Kristi Campbell's Stuffing, Grandma Kipp's Corn Casserole, Laura's Cranberry Cobbler from her grandmother, we will all go around the table (whether it's a table seating 2 or 20) and say what we are thankful for (from my Step-grandparents, Bugs and Judy).
For Christmas, we will hide the Baby Jesus from the rest of the nativity until Christmas Eve, then the wise men will get increasing closer to the nativity as the days go on after Christmas, and we will open at least one good present on Christmas Eve so I can sleep (thanks Mom!). This year may be a little different because we will be at Disney World for Christmas, but usually I would have Black Forest Pie and Monkey Bread for Christmas Breakfast and Adam and I would fight over whether we should have ham or turkey for dinner (we usually end up having both). We would watch the full 24hours of The Christmas Story on TV, even though we have it on DVD and I hate that movie.

What are your favorite holiday traditions?

Oh the joys,

of pregnancy. It basically means that your body is not going to make any sense for 10 months at the very least. I believed myself totally prepared for this: getting up in the middle of the night to go to the restroom, morning sickness, all day sickness, many other things not appropriate to really share on the blog. I've been through the whole nausea, morning/all day sickness thing and was pretty much over it by the 10th week of pregnancy. I was totally praising God everytime my meal stayed where it should and I could go about my normal business.
But really a cold/undiagnosed sinus infection is something I lived with about 5 times a year in Ohio, but for the pregnant Cara, it's a totally different story. Apparently, my body has decided that while it is sick, all foreign things that come into my body are deemed bad and must be immediately expelled from the nearest exit (mostly out of my mouth again, the same way it came in). This would include water, juice, vitamins, tylenol, benadryl, any form of food that is not bread and by bread I mean basic white bread, no buscuits, wheat bread, or rolls allowed. I've lived off of ginger ale (no Sprite or 7-up allowed either) and white toast for a week now, I've tried to eat other things thinking I was a little bit better to be sorely disappointed by the resulting cleaning that then needs to take place.
Adam jokingly asked me yesterday if I was trying to vomit in every room in our apartment. So far I have just about every room down. At least I have goals in life.

Every single time...

I go back to Ohio, I get sick. Sad part about the last two times I've gotten sick is that, since I'm preggers I can't take anything that really kicks it in the hind end. Tylenol, Robitussin, and Benadryl have never really done it for me (I'm a NyQuil girl), but now they are pretty much the only things I can take. So I've been miserably at home living off of a loaf of white bread (because it's the only thing I can eat), ginger ale, and a box (actually two) of tissues.
I don't have this problem when I go to Florida. I'll just have to go visit Baby Ella from now on instead of the rest of the family. Hope you don't mind Ryan and Laura!

Weekend in Ohio

The Wedding
Jessica's wedding was more beautiful than I could have imagined. I took lots of pictures, but these three are my favorites.

Jess, the beautiful bride, and the fall foliage.


Aunt Jessie is super excited about Baby Kipp.


Andi told Dustin to "look GQ" and this is what he gave us. I think he's handsome.

Busy Saturday
I didn't take pictures, but it was one busy day! I went shopping with Barb, Momma Music, Andi, and Preggers Erin. We went shopping for the "new mommies" and spent a few hours in Jeffersonville making fun of each other in maternity clothes. It was such a good time, it makes me sad now because I wish I could do that all the time.
We then popped by the Douridas Pig Roast for a while and caught up with the church crowd. We then stopped by the Music's to watch the first half of the game and then left at half time to go back to the Kipp's house for me to go to sleep. But before I could go to bed, I had to have Johnson's Pumpkin Ice Cream.... the best ice cream in the whole wide world.


Busier Sunday
After church on Sunday Mom and I met up with Nick to have lunch at the Buckeye Hall of Fame. I had the best Reuben I've ever tasted and the view was all Ohio State as well.
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This is the best billboard I've ever seen.
Nick and I then went to Mom's dance lesson she takes with her friends (since it is in Grandview, Nick and I snuck out for a bit to go to Stauf's- Yum!). Then we picked up some of my cute little cousins to take them to meet Mom's new horse, Rocky.

Mom and Rocky, my fifth brother.


Amber showing off her tonsils.


Trever turned three a few weeks ago!


Cailynn's going to start learning how to ride horses soon.

My Favorite Part
The underlying best part of my whole trip was that it was truly autumn while I was there. I wore sweaters and real shoes and felt a nip in the air. Hot tea was great while it was still hot, and the leaves were a myriad of wonderful colors. My cousin Jacob found a few beautiful leaves and some wonderful acorns for me to take home with me, if I could have fit this tree in one of my suitcases, I would have brought it home too.


Baby Kipp is already popular (like we knew he/she would be)
Everyone was so sweet to me about my "condition" while I was home. I should have made a short informational pamphlet to pass around so I could have saved myself from sounding like a broken record, but I enjoyed answering all the great questions and kept trying to think of a different was to say we are absolutely thrilled to be parents soon. The best reaction was John Harmony's (who was our youth pastor in high school and performed our marriage many moons ago). He said first- "Is it Adam's?" When I laughingly replied that I hoped so he said, "Did you think this through?" Oh, John, you crack me up!
Baby Kipp even got some presents while we were in Ohio (and even more were waiting for us when we got home). Baby got some Ohio State gear from Aunt Kara and Uncle Nicky (which I don't have a picture of yet), and Aunt Andi made the baby some really sweet onesies as well (she was still working on one so I'll share that one once I receive it)

At some point Adam decided he wanted to name our kid "The" so that his name could be The Kipp and Andi made a shirt in homage to that long lived dream of his. I especially laughed at the PK one (slang/term used by Christians to denote Pastors' Kids [there is also the term MK for Missionaries' Kids])

When I got home last night this package was waiting for me from Aunt Glenna. It was the perfect gift for us bookwormie parents. Baby Kipp's first book and the cutest book ends I've ever seen (I love the turtle).
So until the thank you notes get in the mail. Thank you to everyone who helped me, hung out with me, and was super sweet to me this weekend. I had a great time "home."