Reprieve from Winter

We got a little taste of Spring weather in the midst of winter and decided to take advantage of it.
We took the boys out to the river a few days ago and had a Great time! Murph loves the water! He's definitely got some Newfie in him. Hutch and Charlie are not quite as comfortable in the water as he is but they are coming around. See the big smile on Murphy's face in the picture below:

This is as deep as Charlie got in the water.

Here Murphy is fetching a stick.

We all left pretty wet and dirty (it was hard to escape the dogs when they shook the water off their coats) but we had a great time.

Christmas!

Christmas is wonderful! It's my favorite time of year. This is the first year out of the past 3 years that I've been in my hometown for Christmas Eve and Christmas. Christmas Eve was spent with my Dad's side of the family. We had crab legs and orange roughy...yummy! As you can see below Jason is loading the crab leg plate sky high. My aunt (pictured) and I were trying to discourage him from piling them even higher.

Here's the whole bunch of us gathered around for the feast! It was SOOOO GOOD!!!

We also played pool, opened gifts, and sat around and talked. Wish we did this more than once a year!

Mom is trying out her Christmas present. She sank one on the first try!

Jason and I spent Christmas morning at our house and celebrated together, enjoying a relaxing Christmas day. This was the first time we exchanged Christmas gifts since we've been married :-) We decided that we should do the same next year! I had no idea how good he is at picking gifts for me ;-) He picked out a beautiful pattern and the yarn to make it. I cast on immediately. I love it! I'll post a picture once I've gotten a little more done. We ate a late Christmas lunch with my mom's side of the family. It was another delicious meal (pot roast, potatoes and gravy, deviled eggs, etc. followed by rum cake and molasses stack cake). Yum! I didn't get a picture of that spread b/c I was too hungry :-) Trust me, it was good.

Lance and Jason are pictured below (too full to move after eating). This sight struck me as funny (they both have their cell phone/PDA's out).

I think this post has gotten a bit too lengthy so I'll just leave you with a teaser for the next post. It felt like a Spring day today so we took the dogs to the river. We all had a great time! I can't believe how warm it was. I'll post more pictures of our day at the river later.

Graduation!!!

Jason graduated from BLET on Tuesday evening. It was a fun night and a very nice ceremony/dinner. Jason's mom and dad drove out from Missouri to celebrate with us. We all had a great time and are very proud of Jason!

Carolyn and Mary smiling for the camera.
John and Al talking before the graduation ceremony.

The dogs were in Heaven with all the attention they got!

Here are Mary and Murphy on the couch:
Here are John, Hutch, Charlie and Jason.

Snow Day!

We had a beautiful snow on Friday. In fact, this is our 3rd snow so far this winter! It's beautiful but not so much fun for driving. It's been extremely cold and windy here too. Last night it was 14 degrees and the windchill was 3 degrees.

Check out the video below!

The dogs gave me a good scare today. When I went to let them in this morning before work, they were nowhere to be found. None of them came when I called either. I was very worried to say the least! They couldn't have been outside for more than 15 minutes. I called Mom and Dad for backup. Mom was on her way to help me so I got in the car and drove around to hopefully find them. I drove around and then saw a black dog from a distance. The dogs were about a quarter of a mile away at a tree farm. I pulled in and started calling for the dogs. The first one to see me was Charlie and he started sprinting toward me as fast as he could. Murphy and Hutch were right behind him. They all got right in the car just as Mom pulled into the tree farm lot.
We went to a wedding this weekend. One of Jason's Army buddies got married. Here we are afterwards (back at the hotel). We had a good time.

Remember these? I finally finished Jason's socks. One has been done for quite some time now but it's mate was just completed this week. Now his feet are warm :-) (If you are wondering what that dark spot is, it's apple cider: Jason accidentally dropped the sock in his apple cider mug right after I finished them).

And also I took a little video of Lilo rolling around in her ball. She's such a cutie!

Preparing for winter

Tonight it's supposed to be cold so we brought most of our plants inside, covered our tomato plants and put our ceramic vases in the basement. Jason mowed the yard (hopefully for the last time this year). We also went to the pumpkin patch and bought some pumpkins. We both love fall weather!The trees have been gorgeous. The colors are so beautiful.

I just got back from Nashville last weekend. It was just a weekend trip (and it was a day of class) but I had a good time. I went with my mom and dad. Dad and I took a course. We also went on a carriage ride and to the Grand Ole Opry. It was a lot of fun packed into a weekend. I hope Jason and I can go to Nashville sometime soon for a nice mini-vacation. I think we could have a lot of fun!
This was my second visit to the Opry. It was the Opry's 83rd birthday the night we went. Below is the group Riders in the Sky with the huge birthday cake. Kenny Rogers and Darryl Worley were also there.




This was pretty cool. Check out all the pumpkins!
Here Mom and Dad are in downtown Nashville.


And below is a really cute gift that the girls at the office got for me for bosses' day! Even though I'm not really the boss (they were very kind to include me). :-) See her earrings and hair bow!

And here she is having a beer. I guess Jason thought she needed one ;-)

This week in Pictures!

It's been a pretty busy week! I got my hair cut and colored on Saturday (a week ago). I've been wanting a change since most of the time my hair is up in a ponytail. So, I went for a pretty big change!

I also finally finished a pair of socks for my mom. I intended to make them for her for Mother's Day...then her birthday...but it just became a matter of me getting them done at some point :-) Fortunately it was before Christmas! :-) She tried them on for me last week and they fit very nicely! I am very pleased ;-)

How does your garden grow?

We've made some updates since our last post! Notice anything different about the barn? Even though we got a late start on our mini-garden this year, all the plants are growing beautifully! We've even eaten our first cucumber that we planted.

I just took this photo today. I really like this picture!

These sunflowers are getting ready to bloom too!

Here's our little garden:

Our first cucumber! What a beauty! And tasty too!

Some healthy looking Roma tomatoes!

They're growing fast!

Growing cucumbers!

And here I am in the first sweater I made myself. I just finished it last night!