Yes, I'm in Boise. Please don't rob my house.

I hate getting too far behind in the blogging b/c then I have so much to write about that I just dump and forget forever. Truth is I've had a long string of bad luck this month so I haven't wanted to write anything b/c deep down I know my life isn't all that bad. It's actually really, really good. But still, when you have a mugging outside your house, and you've been sick all month with only 3 days off, and have a husband that was in a car accident with the car in the shop and luggage missing for 4 days, miss out on a trip to Canada for a wedding you wonder what else might happen before your luck turns for the better. Tomorrow is Christmas Eve and I just want to put all this behind me and sit back and enjoy Devin, Eva and the Morris Clan. The lights and snow are beautiful here and it makes me think about the light of Christ and how that is really the only thing that makes you feel good in this world. I am so grateful for God's gifts of joy, peace and happiness through Jesus Christ. So if I don't make it back to the blog before Friday, Merry Christmas!

Clemson Visit and Thanksgiving

The weekend before last we took a trip down to Clemson to visit friends and go the the last home football game. It took us a little over 6 hours to drive there and it was a piece of cake thanks to Eva's portable DVD player. Saturday we visited friends in the morning then went to the game with the Newbolds and Melissa K. She got us amazing seats in the West End Zone so we didn't have to take the babies into the wild student section. She's not quite old enough to learn the meaning of the word "drunk". Instead we worked on "pretzel". There is nothing quite like the football atmosphere of Clemson with all the tailgating, running down the hill, sea of orange, excited fans... It was enough to inspire Devin to do a man-blog but he says he's going to wait until the ACC conference Championship is over so he doesn't jinx the team. We went to church on Sunday and had a great time. We love our ward there and miss it terribly. It was so good to see all our old friends again.

Thanksgiving was a fun one. We stayed in Richmond and spent it with friends. I once again got out of having to do a turkey. I don't know why I'm so scared of that thing but I am. Anyhoo, Friday night we had a pie party and ended up with a house full of people and a fridge full of pies. It was great. I always think that no one is going to show up to my parties so I spend the week before thinking that I'm a loser and that I'm never going to have a party again then it turns out great and I worried for nothing. I didn't take any pictures of the weekend so sorry about that!

Devin was in NYC this week for training so Santa came early to bring me a new KitchenAid! I'm so excited and am starting on a batch of whole wheat bread as we speak. Let me know if you have any good bread recipes that work well in the mixer. (preferably whole grains)

Happy Birthday Grandpa Tom-Tom

Happy Birthday to Grandpa Tom-Tom! Today Devin's dad is one year older and one year wiser. We're so happy to have such a wonderful grandpa in our family. I don't know what it is right now but it seems like more and more guys are joining the dead-beat-dad club, helping me to appreciate even more the importance of the role of a father. Devin is so much like his dad and I'm grateful to Tom for showing his son how to love and lead his family. Now you can all put a face and a name with all the hilarious comments that show up on our blog. (They never fail to crack me up and send spittle flying all over the monitor.) So happy birthday, Grandpa Tom-Tom! We hope it was a good one and can't wait to see you at Christmas!

The End of the Baby Mullet

Here I am on a Friday afternoon typing away and Eva is having a telephone conversation with the lotion bottle. She jabbers, pauses, says "oh, cool", pauses, jabbers some more. If I were an alien I would have no idea she wasn't having a real conversation with someone. They pick up on so much. It is funny to me to see all my awkward speech habits showing up in Eva. For awhile there she would just go around shouting, "no" and "don't". Wonder where she picked that up? Now she starts every jibber with "uuuuummmmmm". Opps. Gatta work on that one. Then there's the "cool!" exclamation which is really cute but I catch myself saying it much too often and in the same exact intonation. I wonder what habits I'll see next. I just hope her next word isn't "like".

I finally got the courage to chop the baby mullet. Devin and I had been debating about it for weeks then my friends told me that you never listen to your husband about things like that. I'd like to see the rest of that list. So I chopped it and I think she looks very cute but Devin is still missing the mullet. I told him she can grow it back but it didn't seem to comfort him much.

*Keep in mind this is a total hack job! I think we are in need of some professional help on this one! But here's the pics as promised.

This weekend we went to Raleigh to see the baby twins, my parents and a Clemson football game. Little babies are so sweet! Especially these two. They are so happy and content. I'm hoping for one of those next time. Eva didn't seem to care much about the babies. She was more interested in launching them out of their bouncers. Devin and I took off for a football game and had a great time while Eva stayed home with the grandparents. She turned on the charm of course. My mom said after a couple hours she looked at my dad and said, "da da" then gave him a kiss on the cheek. I'm sure he was thrilled. Eva just seems to know all her grandparents. Even when she hasn't seen them for months. Maybe she can sense when someone has and intense love for her. Families are such a blessing to us.

Auntie Nat and a Snuggie for my buddy

My sister Natalie came through for a few days this week. It was good times even though Eva was a nightmare. Again, teething/cold/time change or a combo of all three. Either way, I was happy to have someone there to distract the little rascal. We had fun walking the canal, James River, Maymont park and mansion tour, trying to get Eva to look at the camera, shopping at Trader Joe's and I even set her up with some dental students. Eva wants you to come back and take another nap with her, Nat!

We had a birthday party for our friend Kim. She's been such a fun friend for me here in Richmond. She lives 30 feet from my house, has a girl just a few months older than Eva and is a tri-athlete which has been great for my exercise habits. So right next to the pineapple that I needed for the fondue was a display of Snuggies. Weird combo, I know, but I couldn't resist. Tip for the holidays: Snuggies make the best gifts. You'll get a great laugh and they are quite useful, keeping you warm and delivering a laugh every time you put one on.

Food, Fun and Fredricksburg

I love it when Joan comes to town because we always eat such good food. She is always wanting to try new restaurants with us and I'm never afraid to try out a new recipe. While she was here we ate at a fun French Cafe in CaryTown and a pizza place under the rail road tracks down town, tried yummy chickpea burgers by Carina, and had our neighbors Mary and Joe over for an Indian food party. It helped that they are from India and cook amazing dishes for us all the time. I even tried out Julie's exotic korma murg which had an amazing flavor. Maybe one of these days I'll get the ambition to post it on my food blog. Man it was good. And then to work it all off, a trip to Bell Isle and a ride on the techno zebra.

Devin's mom is also a history buff so we went up to Fredricksburg to check out a couple battlefields from the civil war. I'm living right where most of the civil war action was, Richmond being the Confederate Capitol. My civil war knowledge didn't go much past slavery and Abe Lincoln but I'm starting to really understand it and the history really is quite interesting. The statue I'm in front of is a memorial to a Confederate soldier that crossed enemy lines during the night to give water to injured Yankee soldiers before fighting resumed the next morning. Next to it is an original slavery auction block that still remains in downtown Fredricksburg.

Trick or Treat

Eva didn't really get it but we sure enjoyed her candy. It was fun to take her out and show her off to all the neighbors. We ran into a big group of our friends that had all clumped together. It was funny to see people's faces when they opened the door and saw 20 kids at their door. It was kind of a mad house and Eva only lasted 45 minutes but Halloween is finally fun for me again. Yay for kids. Holidays lost some of their magic for me through my teenage and college years. But I'm starting to get it back as Eva gets old enough to experience them. I can't wait for Santa to come!

Monticello

Last week Grandma Joanie came to visit! We had so much fun running all over the place seeing so many new things. I was so excited when she wanted to see Monticello out in Charlottesville b/c I've been waiting to go there ever since we moved to Richmond. Monticello is the plantation of Thomas Jefferson and he picked a great spot. It was so beautiful with 360 views from his home. The interior was fascinating as it illustrated what an inspiring person created it. Pick up a nickel and you'll see Monticello looking back at you.

Here's a couple pics from the Carter's apple orchard and Michie's Tavern. The wind was horrible but the apple cider doughnuts were to die for.

Hair Bows 101

The rain is crazy here right now. There is no way I'm going out in this storm. Devin braved the torrent to go to his weekly basketball night. But I, being inspired by this clip be Elder Uchtdorf, decided to stay in and create something. About 3 weeks ago I went to a party where everyone had to bring a bow or flower and the materials for everyone else at the party. Then we sat around until the wee hours of the morning chatting and making all the bows. I went home with 15 different bows that Eva won't leave in for more that 2 seconds. Oh well, I guess I have Christmas presents taken care of. So I went a little wild last night and decided to take step-by-step photos of one technique. Sorry about the bad photos.

You will need ribbon for bow (1 inch to 2 inch wide), thin ribbon for clip and center (1/4 inch?), alligator clip, hot glue gun, wire, fire.

Step 1. Go like this.

Step 2. Wrap the ribbon behind your hand 2 and a half times ending with the ribbon up. You can trim later.

Step 3. Slide off your hand, grab in the middle.

Step 4. Smoosh together in an accordion fashion if possible. Wrap with wire or string. Wire works the best. You can use floral wire or jewelry wire or anything thin. Then wrap a thinner ribbon over wire to cover it and glue.

Step 5. Trim the ends, hit with a lighter so it won't fray.

Step 6. Cover an alligator clip (I bought 100 at Sally's for a couple bucks). Then glue back of bow to clip.

And here's the holder I made for all the bows. It is a 16x20 canvas. I just glued strips of ribbon on the back part of the frame so the clips can slid right in. Fun stuff!