We're not in California anymore Toto... I mean Carter!

I came up to Chicago to visit my brothers who are in town for Christmas and was surprised (ok, not really) by yet another Chicago winter storm!

Here is Sunday's forecast...

A high of TWO

And here is the storm advisory. 40 mph winds and temps near zero... sounds fabulous!

And there was also an ice storm before I left Indiana. All the trees looked like there were under the spell of the White Witch in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. This is at a rest stop...

Ezra being goofy

Eleanor showing off her reading skills.

Uncle Dan being goofy.

Six month anniversary festivities...

Carter had off work yesterday, which was perfect timing for celebrating our sixth month anniversary. We haven't really celebrated any other "month" anniversaries, but this one is special because it was this time last year that we got engaged too!

Anyhow, we spent part of the evening putting the final decorating touches on the tree...

We had a bunch of ornaments from growing up, but we didn't have any colorful glass ball ornaments... so we added these at the end!

The final tree

We decided to get one decorative ornament that we can always remember our first Christmas together as a married couple. We thought two snowmen (I guess a snowman and snow-woman) would be appropriate! Cute :) 

And finally, the ever-important STAR :) It is very sparkly! 

Christmas Picture 2008

Thank you Natalie!

My sister-in-law Natalie loves to quilt. In fact, last May she presented me with a quilt she is making for Carter and me as a wedding present. I had posted on it earlier, so if you click on the word "quilt" in the second sentence, you can view it!

Anyhow, she sometimes stays with us when she is working in Indianapolis and last Thursday she did just that. It was so great to have her here! She also presented me with a quilt that she made, and STARTED making as a wedding quilt for me, just months before I was even dating Carter... SHE KNEW!

With the new quilt she prefaced everything about it. She basically has had the appliques (spelling? I think appliques are the flower designs) made for a long time (she started the March before Carter and I started dating in June), but never liked any way she put it together. Then, because of that, she used it as a practice quilt to practice with her new long arm quilting machine. She used lots of different thread colors/types to test them, practiced different pattern techniques, and just had fun with it! So cool!

Anyhow, she gave this to me as a Christmas present. Our family decided not to exchange presents since we are not going to be together this Christmas, but she gave it to me anyhow... wahoooo! :) 

I love the quilt and I love the fact that it was a practice quilt for her to try new things. Natalie is so creative and it is so fun to be a part of that. I have a piece of art history! Plus it gives us a LOT of color in a pretty much bland room :) What a popping piece!

Side view

Every day my favorite flower design changes... so I put up a few!

View from the end of the bed

THANKS NATALIE!

Quilting Beeeeeeee

So the camera my mom and dad are letting me borrow arrived today, so I am posting a picture of the table runner that Carter's cousin made for us. We love it so much we hung it on the wall so we could see it all of the time :)

Breakfast

This morning I asked Carter if I could make him anything for breakfast. His response was, "No thanks, I think I'll just have some more cookies." 

Yesterday I made some Christmas Spritz cookies (tea cookies) that my mom makes every Christmas. They are pretty easy and fun to decorate, but I think next time I won't make a full batch! We now have a LOT of cookies :) Cookies anyone?

P.S. The middle cookie in the second picture (the one with all the red hots) is mine ;)

Where is the star???

The lights are finally on the tree!! It only took three trips to the store (some of the strands weren't working, and then I exchanged them and the same thing happened!!) 

So after a completely rearranged room, and all of the trips to the store, we have a lit tree! Time for the ornaments... And a star! :)

O Christmas tree

Carter and I went to Menards to buy our Christmas tree tonight... we'll start decorating this week for our first Christmas as a family!!

Self-Picture in line

Carter in line (I love this pic!)...

Carter balancing the tree to make it straight!

Yay for Christmas! :)

Reasons to be Thankful

Eleanor's silliness...

Eleanor sounding out words...

Happy niece and nephew...

One fish, Two fish, Red fish, Blue fish...

Eleanor learning to text at age 6 :)....

She texted all the family and friends who were out of town...

"I Love You You See."

(I think she got the cadence of that sentence from Dr. Suess)

And Carter cooking a Chocolate Caramel Cheesecake!!!! Yummy!

Carter and I are thankful for each other and thankful for our families!

The weather outside is FRIGHTFUL!

Here are some pics from our recent trip.

From left to right: Dad, Mom, Me, Jamie, Chad and Andrew

There was ice on the seats, and our bodies melted the ice. 

Therefore, we had wet behinds the entire game! brrrrrrrr

After the Steven's Point win... Dan is in the middle.

Us waiting in the van before the second game, avoiding cold weather. 

The second day was much warmer, but we still avoided :)

brrrrrrrrrrr...

On Saturday my Mom, Dad, Andrew and I met Jamie and Chad at Messiah College in Pennsylvania to watch Dan's sweet sixteen game against Steven's Point. Steven's Point is one of my old college soccer rivals, so it was fun to see Dan's team win 1-0 in the chilly weather. He made it to the Elite Eight!!! That meant he got to play a second game on Sunday against Messiah. They lost the second game 2-0, but played really hard and it was fun to cheer them on and see them play such a high level of soccer. 

On Saturday there were a few inches of snow on the ground so the game was delayed to fix the field. It also snowed during the game! It was SO BITTER COLD that we decided that we didn't care what we looked like, we were going to bundle. We got a very HILARIOUS family picture of us looking like the gigantic marshmallows, but it's on my dad's camera. In the meantime, below is a picture of Jamie in her "under" layers after the second game. We had to unlayer in the car so we wouldn't suffocate. ;) 

We figured out that we drove 28 hours over this past weekend to see two soccer games and hang out with family. We left on Saturday morning at 4 a.m. and I got back to Muncie at midnight on Sunday... my parents got back at 2:30 a.m. However, we all decided that we would do it again in a heartbeat!! (But maybe not EVERY weekend! hehe)

Flowers!

When we had all that company I splurged on a fall bouquet for our coffee cart. Thankfully, they are still beautiful! I have been enjoying their company! :)

Fall or Winter?... Finter! or is it Wall?

Indiana has confused seasons. This tree in our backyard refuses to drop all of it's leaves, yet yesterday I raked under it while it was snowing. hmmmmm...

More pics

Part of the fun of the Mast visit was visiting Carter at work. The kids got to run around in the field house and take turns catching the football while diving into the high jump/pole vault pits. Levi had fun making faces through the nets, and Maddie joined him. The phone's camera doesn't have a flash though, so it was hard to capture his cuteness :)

Toby and Josiah wrestling on the mats.

Evie eating her lollipop.

MMMMMMM... post raking hot chocolate.

Post nap cuteness.

Giggling with Uncle Carter.

Maddie and Kristie have birthdays coming up, so we sang an inspiring

rendition of Happy Birthday