Randomness

This is personally one of my favorite pictures. It's almost like Craig is shouting at you through the picture, "I'm so famous" and "No pictures!" Craig was trying on his new suit and wasn't sure he liked it...yet.



I went for a little something different when I got my nails done for New Year's Eve. Sarah gave me the idea! My nails looked good with the dress, but my boss didn't really like them on Monday morning! He looked at them twice and then asked me, "What is on your fingers?" I laughed and just said they were left over from the weekend. He said, "My 1st grade daughter would love those!" So I took the paint off that night! After it started to chip it almost looked like I had been playing in the dirt for a little too long!

Our paperwhite lillies were beautiful this year! They are very tall and falling all over the place! I love getting them each year from Aunt Gay and Uncle Bill and watching them grow from tiny spikes barely poking out of the dirt to blooming by Christmas!

Since our tree was so massive this year, all the Christmas cards that we received found a place on the tree! It helped fill in the spaces!

It was definitely a learning experience having a live tree for the first time this year. Our tree stopped drinking water and started losing needles. This is the pile just from taking off the lights and ornaments. Lesson learned: Apparently they make huge bags that you hide under the tree skirt and then just easily pull up and over the tree to get it out of the house.

UGG!! What a mess! It took forever to clean up the needles! My vacuum really got it's workout!

A couple weeks ago we ran to Assembly Hall to watch the half time of a women's game.

My friend Mandy is coaching some 5th and 6th grade girls and they got the opportunity to scrimmage during half time. They had just started their season and still had a lot of learning to do but it was pretty entertaining to watch!

On the left: New toothbrush. On the right: Craig's toothbrush.

No matter how hard I try to be the best dental hygienist possible, I have failed. I try and try and try to get the message across to my husband that he doesn't have to "scrub" his teeth and apply so much pressure! His toothbrush usually looks this bad after about a month! If I can't break my husband's bad brushing habits, how can I help the great patients in the Ellettsville/Bloomington area?!?!

Really?! Wow.

2011

2011 has gotten off to a great start! We had a nice celebration on New Year's Eve with some friends in Terre Haute and watched the ball drop in the rain. It was fun to get dressed up for the evening even though we ended up being a soggy mess!

Blessings in 2010:
* News that we have a nephew growing bigger everyday in Sarah's belly!
* DC Marathon trip with Mom and Craig while visiting Aunt Gay and Uncle Bill
* San Diego Trip
* Los Angeles Trip
* 3 friends brought new blessings into this world - Kaden, Thomas, and Bruce!
* 3 friends tied the knot - Nicole and Derek, Jared and Jenna, and Blake and Elizabeth

Prayers for 2011:
* Easy delivery for a healthy Baby Lindley
* Grandpa Beynon treatment for Lymphoma will be successful and painless
* Mandy's Mom's breast cancer surgeries/treatment will be successful and painless
* Grandpa Woody's knee replacement will be successful and painless

The main thing that stands out about 2010 for me is the events that brought me closer to God, my husband and my family. I have had amazing support and felt lots of love! I'm excited about the new year and the new opportunities. Happy New Year.

Our Christmas Tree!

Yesterday we went Christmas tree hunting! We went to a local tree farm and found the perfect tree! We were warned that there weren't very many good trees to pick from due to the drought, but we found our tree pretty quickly! I think we were a little over excited because we had never had a real Christmas tree. We have used Craig's grandma's fake tree for the past 5 years. We decided it was time for a change!

Craig spotted this one! 7 ft tall spruce!

It has a few areas of "character," but it has a nice shape!

That tree never saw Craig coming!

One last hug before we killed it!

?

With Craig's trusty new sharp saw that tree would have been down in 30 seconds, but I thought I had to try. I made NO progress, so Craig finished.

Ta Da!

The tree is cut! We found out that this kind of tree is pretty pokey - it's needles are sharp! Also, it has really sticky sap! I had to dig out the rubbing alcohol just so my fingers didn't stick together! We were warned that this tree is a little sensitive, so we bought tablets to put in the water. I have watered it several times already. I hope this tree will last through the new year and that we are good Christmas tree parents!

While we were waiting on our full service Christmas tree experience, Craig made a friend!

They had free cider and hot chocolate! It tasted very good and it was also a nice finger warmer!

This is the contraption that binds/wraps the tree after it has been shaken.

Our tree going in!

Craig strapping it to the roof!

I got the stand ready while Craig got the tree untied and brought up the stairs.

All lit up!

I put the ornaments on this morning. We definitely have a different branch to ornament ratio this year!

Our 6th Christmas! Fav ornament!

I'm so glad we got our tree yesterday 6 hours before it started snowing! It is definitely starting to feel a lot like Christmas!

Special Moments!

Sarah had some special news to share with Grandpa!

Sarah and Eric are expecting!

Sarah showed Grandpa an 8 week ultrasound picture!

"That doesn't look like a baby!"

Hopefully next week they will have another picture that shows the gender!

We are all so happy for Sarah and Eric!!

2nd annual pottery painting!

We went back to Potter's Alley again this year and had a lot of fun! I got a little too involved in my projects to remember to take any photos! I can't wait to see how everything turns out!

Catching up...

Saturday we had some great company - Chad came for a visit!! We love guests! After some lunch, we checked out Oliver Winery. This next photo is when we were leaving, with the full moon coming up. It was a really pretty afternoon to sit outside under the heater and enjoy my new favorite wine!

Sunset at Oliver

All ready for Christmas!

me and Craig

It's hard for Chad and Craig to take a good picture together without acting goofy

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Sunset earlier this week

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I met Mom and Mike at McCormick Creek State Park while they were camping there a couple weeks ago. They happen to pick the perfect three days in November to go camping. We followed Mike around on some trails for a couple hours and had a great lunch at the camper.

Every great hiker needs a little rest!

The ground was completely covered in leaves!

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Before

The picture doesn't really do it justice, but we have rearranged our bedroom! Last winter I felt like my head was going to freeze off during the middle of the night because our bed was against the poorly insultated windows. I kept telling Craig I was going to go out and buy curtains...but never did. So this year, I decided we will just move the bed to a different wall! So in the end, no money spent and it feels like the bedroom is brighter and bigger!

After

Thomas

Almost a month ago, we had a wonderful get-together with some high school friends. We got to spend some time with 5 month old Thomas!

Craig is holding Thomas in this picture - definitely checking him out!

Thomas looks almost as big as Eliza in this picture! David and Eliza made a great meal and it was so nice to catch up with everybody!