christmas part 2

It snowed while we were there, and I made my first snowman! (I realize I'm 26 and have never done this, but I live in Texas so give me a break.) The snow was really dry so creating balls was tricky. It would have been more enjoyable had Rebecca not been sitting inside the door yelling at me the entire time about what I was doing wrong and what I needed to do differently. I'm still pretty pleased with how he turned out.

When things got boring we would just watch Rebecca's stomach when the kid was going nuts. I think she had just eaten a lot of sugar before this video.

Rebecca and Michael took us to It's a Wonderful Life at the Biograph theater. It was so good! They even passed out audiograms where you could write a message to someone that they would read during their commercial breaks. They even read the ones Michael and I (with Michael's help) wrote. The audience laughed pretty hard at them. Why wouldn't they? We are pretty hilarious.

Another Christmas tradition is we always do a puzzle, so of course when we got back to Houston that's exactly what we did. I even found earrings in the box!

Merry Christmas y'all!

christmas part 1

Because Rebecca is super pregnant she can't fly anymore without having to jump through hoops with her doctor to get permission. (Not literally, although that would be fun.) Since she can't fly that meant an early Christmas in Chicago. It was great being somewhere that was actually cold on Christmas! We have a lot of traditions for Christmas Eve, and everyone decided we should start a new one. The new tradition is "How long can you stand outside before you freeze to death." It was 1 degree outside with the chill factor, and I wasn't allowed any extra clothing other than what I was currently wearing. I'm not quite sure why I volunteered.

When we have Christmas in Houston the tradition will switch to who can stay in the pool the longest. I'll probably win since I showed my superior cold weather handling skills. I was able to stay outside for 5:57 minutes and only came in because we were all getting bored of watching me. Actually, since I was the only one who was outside I think this means I will be the only one carrying on this tradition...maybe I need to rethink this...

Some of our other Christmas Eve traditions:

Mexican train

 

Pizza making

 

Yup, drinking straight from the bottle is also a Christmas tradition.

We also always watch a Christmas movie while we make and eat our pizza's.

This was part of Holiday Inn I think, one of the most redonk Christmas movies I have ever seen. I don't think you can even count it as a Christmas movie since Christmas is only in it for about 5 minutes.

On Christmas day mom always makes a big, delicious meal for us. Since Rebecca was hosting, she was in charge of making dinner. Normally this wouldn't be a big deal for her because she's an awesome chef...but my food issues just about killed her. It took her forever to figure out what to do so I could eat and everyone wouldn't be pissed about the meal. I think she did an awesome job! She even got me coconut ice cream for dessert since I couldn't have their dessert. (She did say she had to use gold bars to pay for it because it was so expensive. Sorry!)

The best Christmas present was Bananagrams. This is probably now going to become one of our Christmas traditions.

I also learned all about Krampus. I'm sure glad I didn't grow up in Michael's family because I probably would have feared Christmas all year long knowing about this guy. I would rather meet Satan than this dude. I think Satan would be more forgiving. Check out Rebecca's blog to learn more about him. The video is my favorite I think.

The rest of Christmas will be posted soon.

houston (again)

This time I was home for Jillian's bachelorette party. Before all the shenanigans happened dad told me it was time to empty my piggy bank because it was officially full. Let me back up and explain. In high school I was wanting extra money but not wanting to actually do anything to get it. So, I made a box and drew pictures and wrote things like "I love the sound of money" all over the sides and top. Dad started putting in his loose change at the end of the day, probably thinking after a few weeks I'd be done with it and get rid of it. He apparently underestimates my love of unearned money! The box eventually broke and I upgraded to an actual piggy bank, and yes, dad still puts money in. I hadn't emptied it for a year and a half, and was quite excited when I realized how much was actually in there!

 After totaling it all up there was $327. 15. Thanks dad!

I also thought I should point out the amazing ornament I made in kindergarten that still gets put up on the tree.

 

It is made out of a walnut shell I painted, and a clay baby Jesus with a poorly drawn on face. I know you are jealous!

I ended the weekend celebrating Jillian's last night of freedom. (Well, not really since she doesn't get married until January, but whatever.) Here are a few pictures you are allowed to see. It was a crazy night, just like all bachelorette parties are supposed to be!

angie got married!

weAngie got married earlier this month, and I'm a little late on sharing some of the amazing pictures from the big day.

 She had a mariachi band come and play before we ate at the rehearsal dinner.

The bride's room at the church was being remodeled so we were in the youth room. The room was right off of a big hall where they were having a huge potluck dinner. Walking in with all of us holding her dress up and carrying her long veil was interesting, of course everyone was staring at us. It was pretty weird walking through their food line every time we had to go to the bathroom. 

Of course we started playing with all of the games and toys we found while we waiting for the wedding to start!

I have a pretty awesome friend. Her sister got me gluten free cupcakes for the hotel room before the wedding (only 2 were for me, not an entire box), and Angie made sure my dinner was a gluten free dinner.

I believe this was right before the Footloose dance circle began. They probably win for best dance music so far.

Angie also had a photo booth outside the reception with props. The line was long, so Wes and I decided to make our own photo booth.

It was an awesome wedding! She even got a huge bottle of wine from Jimmy Buffet who was playing a charity event upstairs. Congrats Angie and Michael!

really?

Are beavers really a problem here in Austin? Also it says etc. What else could be an issue? I'm going to trap a beaver and let it loose in Crissy's house to see if these people really know what they're doing.

lunch

One of the worst things about my diet is the fact that I am screwed if there's no food in the fridge and I forgot about lunch the next day. I can't just run across the street and buy something from Starbucks or Food! Food! Normally there's something in there that I can throw together to make something for lunch. Apparently today my luck ran out. Below is today's lunch. And no, there is nothing on that 1/3 cup of rice. When school was out I thought I was going to pass out from hunger.

thanksgiving

Crissy, if you're reading this, stop now. I don't want to hear your complaints about how this is just a reposting of Rebecca's Thanksgiving post. Everyone else, you may continue.

After leaving Houston from the baby shower, I had to drive back to Austin to work for 2 days. It was pretty annoying, but whatever. We (mom, dad, Rebecca, Michael and I) were going to drive to Shreveport from Houston, and then to Austin. Because of this I flew to Houston on Tuesday night. I made sure to get there early enough so I wouldn't have to wait in the long security line. It took me less than 5 minutes to get through. No problem, I'd rather be early than running through the terminal like in Home Alone. So everyone boards and we are at the end of the runway ready to take off when they say they're doing construction at the Houston airport (perfect timing bozos) so we had to wait on the runway for almost an hour. By the time I finally got to my parents house I could have driven to Houston and back. 

The drive to Shreveport was fine, nothing too exciting to note other than the fact that Michael continues to amaze me with the amount of candy he can eat in a 4 hour time span. It was great seeing everyone, and the food was delish. Especially the separate meal my awesome parents made for me so I could still eat. I even had a real pie with crust that tasted real! Everyone thought it was hilarious I kept saying it tasted like a real pie...but it did! Any gluten free, dairy free people know how rare that is! (Below are pictures taken from Rebecca. My camera officially died so I'm stealing from her.)

Here's out cousin who willingly locked himself in the dog crate. The best was he had a hard time unlocking it, and he kept asking people to open it and no one did. At one point he had a rubber chicken in there with him.

When we got back to Austin my running group had our unofficial 10 mile run up to Mount Bonnell. The 10 miles would have been...bearable... except the run UP the hill to get to Mount Bonnell almost killed me! Our coach said before we got to the hill that she wanted us to run up it as best as we could. At one point I started walking and I was walking faster than I was running up it. It was crazy steep! We then ran up the stairs to see the view before running back down and finishing our run. I didn't have my camera with me (obviously) but here's a picture of what I saw. It was great! But sad that I was only halfway through my run.

We spent Sunday hanging out and eating. It was a pretty great end to a fun weekend with the family!

 This last picture cracks me up! I can't wait to see Rebecca and how big her belly has gotten! Only 2 more weeks!

rebecca's having a baby!

The weekend before Thanksgiving my mom and I threw Rebecca a baby shower in Houston. Rebecca's baby room theme is classic books, so I figured why not take that and make the shower around books? It all started with these super cute invites that I found which Amira was able to change using photoshop. I think pictures will do the shower more justice than my writing about it, so this post will be a picture post. Enjoy!

 Mom and I.

 Everyone sitting down to the lunch that was all book themed. (Of course!)

Some of the books lunch was based on.

 We had a party crasher! Yes, that is King, and yes he is wearing an adult diaper!

 It fits!

We played a really fun game. Below are some of Becca's hilarious answers.

We had rubber duckies floating in the pool.

Here's what was inside of the boxes. Each person had their own bookmark originally created from the most awesome person on etsy.com! I think mom and I did a pretty awesome job on the shower if I do say so myself!