Colorado

During our first year of marriage, Ben and I took a trip to Beaver Creek, Colorado with a group of friends. With the exception of 1 day on the slopes many years before, this was my first attempt at snow skiing. This is how the trip started out.

This is how the trip ended. Can you say ski ambulance?

While I am smiling in the picture, I ended up with a crack in my tibia (I think) right below my knee. This was a direct result of me attempting to ski down a slope that was entirely too difficult for my skill level. Lesson learned. So, when the idea of the ski trip was brought up again this year, I wasn't totally gung-ho about it. However, Ben LOVES skiing so I didn't want to hold him back. Plus, we had a free place to stay thanks to some very generous friends and you can't really turn that down, can you? I immediately started to debate whether I wanted to re-attempt skiing this year when lo-and-behold, baby Mason makes his presence known, thus the ultimate excuse for not having to ski!! Yay!

Thus, here is how I am spending my Colorado vacation this year....

Can't complain about a little R and R in the beautiful snow covered mountains. This is the part of the view from the balcony where you can watch the skiers come and go.

Yesterday my friend Kristen (who is here relaxing with me because she is also pregnant) and I went to the spa where we each got Prenatal massages. It. Was. Amazing! On the way to the spa we walked by the ski lift and saw the skiers coming and going. I must say I felt a twinge of anxiety just looking at the lift. Then I smiled to myself at the fact that I was going to get a massage and not going to spend hours in the freezing cold falling on my face.

Cara is here this year and she is doing great which is no surprise. She loves skiing and she has a really good teacher. Here they are all decked out and ready to go on the first day. The following pictures looked totally different when I edited them on my computer than they do here. I am not sure what went wrong... excuse the odd coloring please.

Ben (talking about my husband Ben, not the Ben pictured above), who has deemed himself "Black Magic" is beside himself about hitting the slopes on the first day. Here he is with Cara getting ready for the action.

And that's about it from Day 1, more to come though. I think I will go get a facial now and be thankful I am not face-planting in the snow or skiing into trees.

More to come from Ski Trip 2011/ The Last Hoo-Rah Before Baby....

New Things

Greetings from Pike Road during the ice storm of 2011!! I have to say that it was a bit of a let down for me, seeing as we didn't get any snow. We did, however, get a little ice covering here and there and I woke up in time to snap a few pictures of the ice covered pines before they returned to their normal state.

Now, on to new things....

First of all, we have decided on a name for our baby!! He will be called Mason Grant Lassiter. Mason is my mother's maiden name and Grant is Ben's middle name. Although we have thought this would be the name for a while now, it has been really hard for me to say it was a definite! It is just that he will be stuck with this name for the rest of his life and I wanted to be sure he would like it. I hope that he does! For Christmas my sister-in-law, Jessi, gave me some monogrammed cloth diapers with Mason's name on them and they are adorable! It was very exciting to get his first personalized item! I have officially bought all of the fabric for the bedding (that my friend Kellie is going to make, she, along with mom and sis have been a huge help) so now I can get going on the nursery!

With the new year comes new year's resolutions.... I make these resolutions pretty much every year with last year being the only exception. I thought, I never keep these resolutions so why make them? So, last year I was resolutionless and somehow I survived 2010....shocking. Anyway.... this year I went back to my old ways and decided to make some resolutions... I'll begin with the one I have actually kept:

1. I cannot order a beverage with any meal (other than water) unless it comes with a combo or a special (like at a bar-b-que place where tea is included, etc.). I did this back in 2007 and it worked well. Cuts back on unnecessary calories and saves money... two for one bonus! Ben and I make this into a competition to keep us motivated and so far we are doing a good job with this one.

2. Bedtime at 10:00 and wake up time at 6:00. So far this one is a no go. We have made it to bed at ten on occasion, but it is the waking up a 6:00 that gets me every time. I wanted to do this resolution because I feel that I will be more productive if I get on up and going earlier in the mornings. You know what they say, "Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man (or woman) healthy, wealthy, and wise!!!" I know that 6 is not early for many, but it is early for me!

3. Read my Bible more often. I set my goal for 3 times a week. I am not doing so well with this one either but it is going to improve!! I am going to start a new Bible study (a 90 day study) called "Becoming the Woman God Wants You to Be" focusing on Proverbs 31 and I am quite excited about it. I am waiting on my book to get here from Amazon so I can get started. My friend Shelley is doing this study with me and my mom has already started it with some of her friends. I think this study will help me with my "read the Bible more often" resolution for sure!" Now, if only my book would get here!!

4. Exercise more. This also has a 3x per week goal. So far I stink at this. What happened to those days in college when I loved to go running as a stress reliever? Now thinking of running causes me stress. Granted, I can't exactly run with this belly because it just feels bazaar, but I should be doing more exercise wise. Why is it that the older you get and the more exercise you need, the more difficult it is to do?? Life can be so ironic sometimes.

5. Thank you notes. I AM AWFUL. I mean, I did well with the wedding and showers and writing hundreds of thank you's for those things. However, I am really bad at writing sporadic thank you notes. I want to be better about this. Several friends have already given me little gifts for Mason that I appreciate so much but I only think of writing the thank you note when I am at work or driving or in some situation where writing a thank you note is completely inconvenient. Ben, who doesn't really see the value in or the necessity of a thank you note says I need to let this go, but I can't. I can't. It is good etiquette to let the gift giver know you are appreciative. Ben's reasoning is, "you don't expect a thank you note, do you?" Granted, no, I don't expect one and I wouldn't remember if I didn't receive one. But they are really nice to receive, aren't they?

So, there are some other things that I have been working on lately that aren't really resolutions but just things that I am enjoying and wanting to do more of:

First, pictures! We have finally purchased some wedding pictures (yes, over 2 years later). We decided to purchase the cd of all the pictures so we could do what we wanted with them. It was just waaaay to hard to pick and choose a few. I am excited about putting together a photo book and getting some of these pictures printed to actually HANG ON MY WALLS. If you have ever been to my house then you are aware that I have NOTHING on my walls and NO recent pictures displayed. It is pretty sad actually. We have been here 3 years in May! So, before Mason gets here, we have got to get some photos up. When we have a baby, we are officially no longer newly weds and it will not be acceptable to have no wedding pictures out. Here is one of my favorites! (Seems like it was just yesterday. Sigh.)

Another thing I have been wanting to do for a WHILE, and have recently started, is archiving recipes. That probably sounds lame. I love to read recipes but when it comes time to cook, I get so overwhelmed trying to choose a recipe out of the thousands on line and in the fourteen hundred cookbooks I have, that I freak out, mentally shut down, and then cook Poppyseed Chicken Casserole. That is always fine with Ben because that it is his all time favorite, but I want to try new things!! Thus, let the archiving begin! What I mean is, I will write down the best recipes on notecards and store them in my handy recipe organizer box that mom gave me (it has a bluebird on it in honor of Mr. Tweeters). Then, when I go looking for new things to cook I can just consult one consolidated place instead of searching the afore mentioned plethora of recipes. Ahhh, I can think better already. On a side note, if you have not checked out PW's Tasty Kitchen site, please do so! I especially love the Tasty Kitchen blog. The blog often features themes of recipes that have been posted on the site. The themes include Mac and Cheese recipes, Pasta Salads, various beverages, chocolate desserts, etc. etc. etc. I love it!

And last, PHOTOGRAPHY! I have enjoyed this hobby so much and I have so much to learn! Very soon my reason for taking up this hobby (my baby) will be here in all his glory for me to photograph for life!! Thanks for all the practice, Pete and Berkley, but I am movin on up. I am very appreciative to my friends Kellie and Lindsey and Jessi for letting me practice on their babies.

In conclusion, a very special shout out to my Auburn Tigers!!! Good luck guys and WAR EAGLE!!!! It is almost game time!!!!!

Christmas in Pictures

Happy New Year!! I cannot believe that 2010 is already behind us and that 2011 is here! We have been so busy with work and spending time with family and friends that I haven't had the time or creative energy to keep up with the ole blog... So, I thought this would be the easiest way to document what we did over Christmas.... mainly pictures with a few much needed explanations....

My family came down to Pike Road the weekend before Christmas just so we could have some extra quality time together and do our traditional "ornament making." The following picture was used for my parent's Christmas card this year. And yes, I am looking quite pregnant these days as I am now almost 6 months along!

The "ornaments" we made were headed up by mom and they consisted of felted Santas as well as sculpy clay ornaments. The following picture is sort of what the felted Santas were supposed to look like but we couldn't find any flesh colored wool so they ended up looking a bit albino.

Ben took an original route and his Santa ended up being the "Zoro Santa from Texas."

Dad took one look at his Santa and died out laughing when he realized it looked like one of the band members of ZZ Top.

Oddly enough, the felted Santas provided fun for the entire family. This week I got more pictures of Matt than I have gotten in the last 3 years since he actually allowed me to take pictures of him! He and Cara decided to use the sculpy clay to make their Santa's faces instead of making wool faces. They were the creepiest things I have ever seen. (Pictures of Creepy Santas further down)

Then things got a little crazy with the sculpy clay.

Here we have Creepy Santas (Cara's on left and Matt's on the right) and the sculpy elf that happens to look exactly like President Obama.

And here we have the final cast of characters.... yes, we did set up a scene, complete with backdrop, to photograph them. In case you are wondering, the green balls with faces are "Christmas Peas."

The family visit was a lot of fun and it was nice to get to spend some "extra" time together since we no longer have those long breaks that we once got when we were in college!

Ben and I opened our gifts to each other on Wednesday night before Christmas so we could get rid of our dead Christmas tree before we had to go out of town. Here is our attempt at a photo of ourselves. Thankfully I got a tripod for Christmas so no more having to prop the camera on various pieces of furniture!

Christmas Eve was off to a great start with breakfast at Ben's parent's house for the Lassiter family Christmas. Ben and I were so proud of ourselves for leaving our house on time that I ran out the door without my camera!! I stole this family photo from Jessi's album on facebook.

In one of my previous posts I accidently said that our baby would be grandbaby #5, I meant #6!

Ben's parents even gave our baby Christmas gifts including cute little clothes, a book, a toy, and a stuffed animal! He is already spoiled and he isn't even here yet! We had such a good time with Ben's family and really enjoyed watching all the kids open their presents.

After Christmas Eve breakfast, Ben and I loaded up the dogs and headed North to Florence. We woke up on Christmas morning to a beautiful winter wonder land! Snow had been predicted but it was really a surprise that it actually came and stuck!

Of course, we had to take our traditional Christmas picture on the steps. It's a good thing that mom and dad's new house has stairs since we have been taking this same (or similar) picture on Christmas morning for about 20 years. We used to all three sit on one step. Those days are obviously long gone. Please excuse the sleepy looks and the strait out of the camera shot much in need of editing.... I just found it too funny not to share.

Christmas morning was complete with Santa hats and reindeer antlers for all.

Matt was thrilled. This is my favorite picture of the morning.

Berkley had never played in the snow before and didn't know quite what to think. He took off running in it like a maniac and he would lay down and stretch out all four legs. Then he would eat the snow and lay in it. We all got a good laugh out of him and if I can figure out how to edit and share the video then I will do so later. When it was time to come inside, Ben and I had to blow-dry Berkley for about half an hour to get all of the snow balls off this pompoms because they were completely frozen to his fur. You can see them in this picture...

I enjoyed getting to take some pictures of all the beautiful scenery:

Our Christmas festivities ended with the "Cousin Bash" with all of Ben's first cousins, siblings, and spouses. Ben wore his festive Christmas sweater and everyone was jealous. I again failed to bring my camera and I got this picture from facebook that Tori snapped of Ben in his Christmas get up. (My mom bought Christmas sweaters like that a couple of years ago for all the guys in our family as a joke. You can find them in the women's department at Wal-Mart. Don't all rush out at once.)

The "Cousin Bash," complete with Dirty Santa and multiple games, turned out to be so much fun! I wish we all could get together more often. Ben and I racked up in dirty Santa with a gift card for me and a Shake Weight (that we actually brought) for Ben. We will both be extremely buff in 2011 from working out with our Shake Weight. Get excited about pictures to come!