Good old MLK

Okay....so about once a month blogging isn't thaaaat bad, right? This is a MLK weekend we spent in Taos, NM with our good friends Eric and Amber Green and Cody Moore. Eric, Adam, and Cody all have dental school in common, so they had a lovely reunion. They spent most of their days skiing, and Amber (who's a day in front of me pregnancy wise) and I just lounged it up. We decided we needed to have at least 1 outing a day, and we met our quota.....barely. :)


This is our first day's outing. It consisted of petting the horses and generally just poking around in the snow. We topped it off with a trip to the grocery store, some Thai food for lunch, and that about topped us off. Not bad for a first day. ha!


Eric and Amber decided to have a dance party of 2. Amber may be 5 months along, but check out those moves!


Day 2. We decided to go see 27 Dresses, and we'd gotten halfway down the drive when we realized we'd left our FREE waters in the house. So, I pulled into a little turn-off and tried to back the trusty Explorer up. The tires spun mightily, but we didn't really go anywhere. Rather than risk making ruts, we decided to abandon the car with a note and head back up to the house for the rental car. It was more fun to drive anyway. :) Amber thought this might be a good spot for a belly picture.

Now, I know I'm standing kind of weird, but Amber explained that when taking belly pictures, you should always be able to see the curve of your back. Well, I wasn't quite sure what to do with my arms, so that's the pose I ended up with. The first afternoon, Amber came to me for some eye shadow, but, alas, I had forgotten to bring mine. You can imagine my shock the next day when I came down to see her beautifully painted lids. I was a bit baffled until she pointed to the picture below.....That's right.....nothing like a little soot to darken your lids when you find yourself in need of some au natural cosmetics. Amber is so creative!Our last day, we decided to hunt down the infamous Outback Pizza restaurant. It was soooo worth it. The slices were HUGE! Can you tell we were a little excited?

Now...the picture below is the marker of a momentous ocassion! Our good friend Lindsey Enderby owns a Western shop called Horse Feathers. It's got everything you could imagine. Well, we saw the cutest little cowboy boots and felt it was only fitting that the first item of clothing we purchased for our newest addition fit in the palm of my hand and just made you want to squeal! Don't worry, we won't have to jam his little fit in there. They've got a handy zipper. Thanks Lindsey!!!!

No vacation would be complete without a game of FARKLE!! Kyle, Shanna, and Drew were on their way back from Aspen and decided to stay the night. The boys caught the short end of the stick with the consequences.....Eric became a painted lady, Cody had to dance a rain dance to some grrrreat Indian chants AND take a snowball to the back, and Adam got some handfuls of snow down his shirt. The girls remained undefeated.

Well, that's all for now. Tune in next month......

A filler update

Okay....I know I'm not the best blogger, so here are a few pictures until I have something interesting to talk about. I'm finally showing, which is pretty exciting!!! Okay...first belly picture!!! This is 19 and 1/2 weeks, so I'm alllllmost halfway done! That is CRAZY to me!

So, this is our future nursery. I know, I know...dead animals on the walls might scare the baby, so........drum roll please....Adam has made the decision to ship them to a temporary home in Longview. A big thanks to Clark and Kathy for serving as a storage facility for all of our stuff!!!!
That's right......all of the boxes you see in the corner are the fruits of our labor on Saturday. Those will also be making the trip to Longview so we can have a little room for baby stuff. I mean..how do you accumulate that much in an apartment!?

Our next appt. is on the 24th.....I made sure to double check our time, so there won't be a repeat of last appt. I really look forward to these appts and seeing how he (who shall remain nameless) changes from month to month. Well, that's all for now!

It's a BOY!!

Well, the fabulous Dr. New squeezed us in on the 26th, and we confirmed 100% that we're having a boy! Hope you guys are all enjoying the rest of your holiday season. We're in Nashville right now, and I'll try to post the video of the ultrasound whenever I can figure out how to get it to load. Yaaaay for boys! :)

Boy or Girl??????

I have to say, I woke up this morning with a bit of an extra spring in my step. I mean, I've been counting down the days till this Dr. appt. for about 2 weeks. I made it through a crazy day of 7th graders and booked it out of school to make it for our 4:30 with Dr. New. I had my DVDs in my purse, swung by to pick up Adam, and we were on our way.

The excitement was building as we waited in Grapevine traffic. The moment arrived, and we pulled into the hospital parking lot. I showed Adam the way, and we punched the 3rd floor button for the office. We walked up to the door, went to push the handle, and.....it was locked. The lights were off inside, and the waiting room was suspiciously absent of patients. I looked at Adam, and he was reading the sign on the door that said the office was closed....was always closed at 12:30 on Fridays.

A bit bewildered, we headed back down to the elevator, down to the 1st floor where we got back in the car and drove home. I have no idea what happened. I looked at my calendar, and there was the appt.....4:30 on the 21st with Dr. New. So, for all of you who were waiting....it will be just a bit longer. Who knows when my appointment is/was supposed to be. Pregnancy 1, Kristen 0.

This year we had our 2nd annual Spencer/Dean/Spencer Christmas tree farm extravaganza. We are currently looking for a new title for this prestigious event, so if you have any suggestions...we're open. We chose Kadee Christmas Tree Farm in Greenville, TX this year, and, although it was warm, it still felt a bit like Christmas. Below is the proud specimen (no, not Adam...) that we took home with us. It looked perfect out there.... And then they shook all the dead needles out of it, and it looks a bit lacking all decorated in our apartment....somehow less of the tree we thought we were getting and a bit more Charlie Brownish...This ornament, however, could make even the scrawniest of trees shine. This ornament was won in a white elephant gift exchange 2 years ago. Lane Brown, I believe, had been the previous proud owner. I'm pretty sure it's a collector's item and worth a fortune.
The rest of the picture are Adam playing with Avery. I'm sure it violates a "blogger code of conduct" to post so many pictures of another parent's kid, but I just couldn't help myself!! I mean, how cute is she!!

Adam taught her all kinds of neat tricks!!

I'm counting down the days till the 21st...possibly THE day when we get to find out the sex!! I can't wait!!!

12 weeks pregnant and Thanksgiving

I have to say...I love Thanksgiving. I had been craving my Grandma Saunders's mashed potatoes for a couple of weeks, and let's just say they didn't disappoint! :) We go every other year (due to the married, rotating schedule) to Rogersville, TN, which is where my Dad's parents live. It is pretty much in the middle of nowhere, but it's always been so much fun. We've had an annual paintball tournament for as long as I can remember; we play cards; we relax; and we get to be outside. It's perfect. To the left is a picture of the Saunders clan. It's been quite a while since everyone's been together at the same time! As you can see, Thanksgiving is quite a formal affair.

We also had our Church cousin Christmas party at my Aunt Kay and Neal dog's house. We normally play some kind of Bingo type came with everyone's birthdays for some fabulous prizes, provided by Aunt Kay. Without fail, Elizabeth always remembers the most birthdays. I've already begun studying so I can dominate next year.

And last, but certainly not least, I had my 12 week check-up yesterday, and it made me sooo excited!! the ultrasound actually looked like a baby, rather than an alien or...well....nothing. It did a couple of flips, which I thought was very impressive. I think it will be a coordinated athlete, much like its mother. ha! It was just amazing to see arms and legs. The next appt. is on the 21st, and if the baby cooperates, we'll be able to find out the sex! Woohoo! None of this waiting for a surprise. Yes, I'm calling all of you out who wait and torture the rest of us.

Well, that's all for now!

Evening Sickness

Well, I decided not to post the ultrasound picture. It looked like a bunch of grainy nothing, so I'll wait until you can actually see something before I put it up. It's finally starting to sink in that I'm pregnant. Maybe it has something to do with throwing up my dinner, which is the newest fun experience. ;0) Here are a few pictures from this past weekend with Rachel, Mo, Katie, and Janelle. We decided to take a girl's trip to Jasper, Arkansas, and it was WONDERFUL! We actually got to see leaves that changed color. Enjoy!

Here we are the morning before our first hike. This is the balcony of Misty Bluff, our Arkansian paradise. :)
We stopped in the lower Boxley Valley (Katie, am I right?) the first morning to look at the elk. Katie almost wet her pants she was so excited!
Mo took this picture of us at Hawksbill Crag, the destination of our first hike. It was beautiful!
Thanks to Katie's handy dandy attach to anything tripod, we were able to get some group shots. This is one of the few pictures where we're all being serious.



Sister Picture!

The trees were beautiful!! We took quite a few at this spot.

After our hike, we had a bit of a fender bender. We were all okay, but the other car didn't come out without some bumps and bruises. Luckily, our car was fine, and we could drive it home!

Our second morning, we drove to Harrison to a famous cemetery....famous for it's Maple trees. They were unbelievable. When we first got there, we laid down to appreciate the leaves, and the girls watching wanted to know if we were there for a photography class. Nope, we're just big dorks! :)

Our second hike was quite different from the first but just as much fun! We had so much fun exploring the caves! mwahahaha.

Katie made us a rope so we wouldn't get lost while navigating the dark passages of the cave. It was made of masking tape, and I for one felt muuuuch saver with it wrapped around my waist. Katie, you are a woman of many talents....

We spent our last night out on the deck looking at the stars. It was a perfect way to end our last night.