Wonderful Thanksgiving Break

Lot's of pictures and stories to share but just wanted to include a brief update until I catch up from last week's activities.

A sleepy Avery after Thanksgiving dinner #2.

Life is good :)

Sarah & Lucy at Sparks Marina on a windy day.

Zach in front of the Korg mobile. 

Thank you everyone for taking such great care of us in Reno :)  

Happy Thanksgiving!

On too Christmas....

Forgive My Absent Mind

Just wanted to apologize if my blog posts or my attention has been less then alert lately.  I've been spending my free time studying for the LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) USGBC certification exam.  It is sucking up most of my pregnant brain power but I promise I will return with more promising updates after the exam on December 6th.  Wish me luck :)

Snow Day

Still trying to get out the door to work today....
Maybe you can tell why from these pictures I just took.

I knocked the snow off the top of our cars and front patio 

at 6:30 am but it still wasn't enough to get our cars out.  

Zach happily got out the blower.

Lucy LOVES winter just like Zach :)
She's looking for her next snow ball to destroy.

Ducks, Daffodils, and Snow

It's no longer a question of when but how much snow we will be getting!  The white stuff has been falling consistently for the past weekend.  Zach and I managed to get in a few more things before we really get burried.

Saturday morning Zach and Lucy left the house by 5:30am to join Nick and dogs in a duck hunt down at Silver Creek.  They had some success but I think the ducks were happy to sleep in with me during the first snow storm of the year. Afterward they sat by our woodstove happy to warm up a bit. 

Later that day I was determined to plant some daffodil bulbs that a friend gave me before the ground was completely frozen.  Yes, there was snow on the ground but underneath the soil was still warm and I even found a few worms wishing it wasn't winter.  I'm looking forward to seeing if these daffodil's bloom.  Fun to think that they will be a good sign of our baby arriving as well :)

Darleen Meier Jewelry

If you haven't seen my dear friend, Darleen's, 

beautiful jewelry creations 

now is a great opportunity to check it out.  

Her recently released new arrivals are fabulous!

Have your honey find something 

lovely for you this Holiday Season!

 

http://www.darleenmeier.com/index.html

Closet Clean OUT

With only two bedrooms in our house it was inevitable that we were going to need to get rid of a few things to make room for the littlest member arriving this April.  It's amazing how much "stuff" you accumulate when you have the space.  Extra bags, fabric, coats, pillows, frames, hats, books, gadgets, sheets, you name it!  Zach was a trooper and managed to plow through his stuff overlooking any little sentimental value it may have held.  I was amazed!  He is usually so attached to everything I was actually convincing him he should keep a few things. 

I now have a car full of stuff to give away and it feels good to clean out all the "un-needed" items from our home.  How quickly I forgot that in my college years moving was a yearly event which naturally helped me get rid of things I didn't need.  Now that we are settled it seems we are much more relaxed about taking things into our spaces that don't make our lives necessarily richer. 

If your in town and interested in a "trunk show" stop by and visit our trash.  It may be your next treasure :)

On It's Way

From fall to winter...Zach and I have been making good use of our fall wood collecting efforts this past week.  Lot's of toasty fires in the evening with a warm cup of tea.  The time change puts us home in the dark and the temperature seemed to shift over night.  Waking up this morning we had a little "skiff" of snow on the ground, as Zach liked to call it.  Just a taste of the winter season ahead. 

Images from here.

Hallow-eeeennnn

Image from here.

Zach and I were invited to a costume party Saturday night so we scrambled together a couple costumes for the event.  I went as the Virgin Mary and Zach was Joseph.  They were really comfortable costumes, except for I enhanced my already pregnant belly with a pillow to emphasize the "belly" part.  I was amazed at how many people actually thought I was that big at four months!  I've been telling myself it's because most of the people were drinking and their vision must have been a little slurred.  Makes me feel better then realizing how big I will actually be someday.  Getting in and out of the car was not easy with my sudden growth in belly.  I learned, only after Zach pointed it out, that I have to take my seat belt off first otherwise it won't matter how big your belly is you won't be able to get out.

Joesph, costume inspiration

Mary, costume inspiration

Back to the Halloween party, the most popular costume seemed to be a girl named "Snookie" from the Jersey Shore show.  I've never seen the show but judging from the costume characters I really don't have any desire now.  Our friend Mark was a whoopie cushion, an Elvis, lot's of disco party people, a little pig that was far from little, a parachuter with umbrella harness attached, bee's, Willie Wonka, and Little Bo-Peep were some of the most memorable costumes of the night for me. 

Alas none of our pictures really turned out from the evening so I'm hoping my text can provide visual stimulation for all :)

Happy Halloween