It's Tradition

Some traditions just aren't worth keeping. Like getting sick for the Holidays. Someone please explain that to Kaci who got sick (sore throat, headaches, runny nose etc) two days before we left and succeeded in passing said sickness on to her loving parents. Since I can barely keep my eyes open and my nose is raw and my throat is burning with every breath... Here's a sneak peek at our amazing New York trip sickness and all!! Lots of videos (like me doing a jig at Times Square) and pictures to come!!

Streets of New York

In the Spirit of Thanksgiving!

1. Blogs
2. It's NOVEMBER, my favorite holiday, Thanksgiving is coming!!
3. I slept in til 8 am!! No seminary!
4. Brad!!
5. Daylight savings.. it's light outside at 6am now!!
6. I'm not in high school anymore, one hour a day with teenagers makes me OH SO VERY GRATEFUL!!!
7. My mom
8. Sundays... and nursery!
9. A knowledge of God
10. Playing games in any form!
11. two new mommy friends
12. kaci's giant floor piano
13. Brad wakes me up for seminary... three times if necessary... I was really into my dream this morning (even though I don't remember it).
14. a whole day with just Brad!
15. 12 hours of sleep or pretended sleep at least
16. the scarfs my mom made me, I feel so fancy in them!
17. tea tree oil
18. my excitement for the MACY'S THANKSGIVING DAY PARADE is oozing out of my ears now!!! I love it!
19. the sunshine days that follow the rainy ones... when the sun shines through the windows again and I can't get enough if it.
20. my nutty seminary kids
21. zachary from church, kaci's only real friend
22. visit teaching Sister Halling for the past year, love that lady, she reminds me of my mom
23. fun, simple, easy, creative art projects--like the kind you do when your in grade school
24. my sister married a great guy and created the cutest kids ever

Guessing Game Giveaway!

hope=expect with confidence

(see post here from N. Norton's blog)

That definition suits us perfectly right now because even though Brad doesn't even interview til December 1st (woohoo) we have been making detailed plans on moving there for the past few weeks.

Anyone want to play a game?

Leave a comment with your best guess of where we are planning to move for Brad's internship.

When I disclose where we are going, I will also announce the winner and their prize.

(we figure we'll know before Christmas)

A prize will be one of the following:

1) something we own that we can't take with us

2) one of my many magical paintings

3) a shrine of you on our sidebar til we move.

So, in your comment leave your guess and your prize of choice!

Happy guessing!

Parade Update

I know the weather could change by next Thursday, but right now the prediction is a 30% chance of rain... which on the East Coast that means it's going to rain.

I've heard that this could be a good thing. Less people come because of the rain, like all the locals. And usually the rain makes it a tiny bit warmer and that means it won't be below freezing which I was worried about. I'll pack my rain boots and the umbrellas.

Let's hope it's a drizzle and not a down pour!!

Late Breaking News

The oh-so-very generous and loving Papa Call bought tickets for us to join them for Christmas. My eyes bugged out of my head when he seriously wanted to spend that kind of money just to have us around for a couple weeks. I know they mostly just want to love on Kaci, but I'm happy to mooch off Kaci's glorious-ness if it means decorating gingerbread houses, seeing the SLC temple lights, yummy food that I don't have to fret about planning and making, and lots of family time. I get to see my not-so-new-anymore nephew too. I'm pretty excited. Everyone start praying now that we aren't sick and afflicted over Christmas like we have been the past three years!! We'll be in Utah from Dec 17th through Dec 29th.


the usual spread for decorating gingerbread houses... this is one of the craziest things to be apart of. candy land heaven for sure to decorate with and to eat!

A Christmas celebration two years ago... Hawaii style... see how tiny Kaci is...

Temple Date

A lady in my ward with 5 kids offered to babysit Kaci so Brad and I could go to them temple together. She's one of those amazing moms who is a complete whiz at everything she does. I hesitated to accept her offer (because she already has 5 kids), but she insisted. So, I dropped Kaci off at her house at 8am and didn't return until after 6pm (the temple is 2 hours away) Is your jaw dropping yet? When we picked Kaci up, she not only kept all 5 kids alive, fed, and happy. She also canned apple pie filling, made muffins, lunch and dinner, and pulled out a hot apple cobbler from the oven. I'm telling you she's amazing. Oh, and one of my favorite things about her is that she and her kids make leaves and hang them from the ceiling for fall. There are like 100 leaves hanging by fish line from her ceiling. There are also lots of hand drawn pictures taped to the walls and furniture. She lets her kids decorate too. I love this lady. Kaci had the time of her life yesterday...

And so did I. I got to spend that entire day with Brad. No entertaining Kaci, nothing to worry about at all. We talked non-stop the entire time we drove there and back. Apparently we had some catching up to do. This is the busiest time of year for Brad, so naturally I am exhausted too because he is gone more. A whole day to just be together was very much needed and appreciated. I can't tell you how in love with that man I really am. Going to the temple reminds how deep and lasting our love is already and that it has yet to get even more amazing as we stay married to each other.

tip of my tongue

I have got big news... on the tip of my tongue. Brad and I have made a pack not to disclose our new big adventure until it is final. What is it... moving of course... but WHERE we move is the adventure.

A few weeks ago, I went for a walk with Kaci. As I was walking a little voice in my head starting convincing me that we would LOVE living in this one particular place. I argued with it for a couple blocks, but by the time we got back to our apartment I was giddy with excitement to move there.

When I told Brad, he was giddy too. The giddy-ness lasted for a long time, but then on Monday, I thought about all the arguments I originally had against the idea and I got really sad about it. It's not good to get sad about something so BIG! Especially when it's that little voice that convinced you it was such a good thing in the first place.

After talking a lot about my feelings with Brad, I am back on the giddy feeling. I may have reservations about it, but I like the happiness and giddy-ness I felt when I trusted that little voice that we would LOVE it there.

So, don't make me lie to you anymore. We do have a set place in mind, we are doing what we can to go there, but we are also doing the necessary yet terribly un-necessary and applying to variety of other places too. We still just don't know for sure on paper yet, just in our hearts. Hopefully we'll know for sure on paper sooner than later.. a lot sooner. (We're hoping to know by February at the very latest instead of May or June)

You may think I'm silly for thinking so much about all this because it's so far away still, not moving til June at the earliest. But moving is a big big deal and it will impact every aspect of our lives. Including trying to get pregnant again. Once we KNOW ON PAPER where we are going, we can start planning a little one again. So much to think about. So much to plan. So I think about it, and I plan.

baking with Kaci

It's getting colder and colder outside which means it's time to turn on the oven and get out the yeast!

I checked out an amazing book from Mr. Lib (that's what our library is called, massanutten regional library is abbreviated to mrlib... love it!) King Arthurs Baking Companion. Over 600 pages of detailed how to whip, fold, cream, etc recipes. They explain why you have to whip butter for 5 minutes before adding the sugar and then one egg at a time to a cake recipe. I love it. It's got some pretty hilarious commentary as well. I've had it over a month... I HAVE to give it back in a week to let someone else have a chance to read it... I think that person will be BRAD!

Kaci is my helper. She scoops the flour, cracks my eggs, spills the sugar, and taste tests everything. Here are a few of our creations that would certainly turn out better if I could manage to actually measure the flour that Kaci dumps in.




We've made: hot buttered pretzels, lots of bread sticks, whole wheat pizza, whole wheat fry bread, devils food cake with caramel icing, brownies, pumpkin cookies, and apple dumplings to name the most recent.
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Oh bother

Brad is busy busy busy. I am tired tired tired. Kaci is happy, running, dancing, and now singing.

If I had family or friends around this would be the day I'd take advantage of them.

Watch out people who volunteered to substitute for seminary. I'm giving you each a call today!

Happy to You!

November is the month of birthdays on my side of the family. Mom, Marsha, Garrett, Nate, and now Bruce too (maybe forgetting someone... am I?). Kaci learned the Happy Birthday Song to sing to Mom, unfortunately, she didn't answer the phone in time to hear it. But, later I got it on video. Happy Birthday Mom! And Happy Birthday to everyone else this month too.

Happy Birthday from Kaci!

offended?

Should I be offended that Brad gets all the cool nick-names from Kaci? She never calls me anything but Mom.

Kaci now affectionately calls Brad Daddy-Boy! That's right. Daddy-Boy!
Guess what Brad was for Halloween... it's a lifelong dream of his to have a Charlie Brown shirt... he may or may not wear this to school now, with flip flops, in 30 degree weather.

Oh, I guess she has figured out that everyone else calls me Kerri, so sometimes she yells "HEY! Kay-EE!" She's also caught on that Daddy-Boy also responds to Brad.

Kaci is talking so much now, catches onto everything anyone says. Her vocabulary and pronunciation is pretty amazing to us. She's constantly asking us to "Watch ME! Watch ME!" Her favorite thing to perform for us lately is to "ula-oop" with beads. She also tells us to "TRY!" when we say we can't do something, like hula hoop with the beads.