CHRISTMAS TIME!

With Christmas less then a week away. We are both getting very excited. We have made sure that we have been good all year long so Santa would come for milk and cookies instead of blood.


I went and got a Christmas tree and deceratored her up for the season. I surprised Megan with this. Yep! I did it all by myself.

And of course to bring the spirit of the season into our home other decorations were put up. Including this hand crafted wreath. We only put the finest up at our house.

Christmas time is one of the best times all year. Megan has been wrapping presents for weeks I am so excited. Christmas morning I will put this kid to shame.

Megan and Me Love Christmas!

A Landmark Achievement

I owe much to this man. And so do countless millions all over the world. His name is Alexey Pajitnov and he designed Tetris.

For those who don't know Tetris is 25 years old. It is a little late in the year, we should have had a Tetris birthday party on June 6, but Tetris isn't a person so it won't hold it against me. What better way to celebrate then to pay homage to greatest casual game, if not the the greatest game of all time.

Recently I had the chance to play a round of Tetris and was so excited when I was able to beat it. That is right, I was able achieved 'Game Over' not because of a block out but because I had reached the confines of the program. And accomplishment that I will cherish for a long time*.

I hope that you all take a moment to reflect on your Tetris play and give thanks that we have such an amazing program.

*Maybe not that long because I have since done it several times on the mobile Tetris version on my phone. You only need to get 150 lines.

I'm So Lucky!!

I am up and not able to sleep so thought what better way to spend my time then tell y'all how much I love Jeff. Today was a rough day, I have got a nasty cold and it kept me in bed or on the couch all day long. Jeff was amazing and I am so grateful for him. Even though he was busy with school and work and just his life in general, he was wonderful to me and did so much today. I came downstairs this afternoon and he had cleaned the house and done ALL the laundry. I was so happy that is almost made me cry. Ok... I probably did cry a little bit but I am going to blame it on being pregnant and sick. He is just the most amazing man ever and I am so lucky that I found him. I am thankful for him everyday and thank my Heavenly Father for him every night but it is days like these that I just love him even more. Anyways... that is my little rant for the night... JEFF IS THE BEST AND I LOVE HIM SO MUCH!!!

BACON AND EGGS ANYONE????

So... I decided that since we were going to take a quick trip out to Rosemary to see my sister and her kids for Halloween that we should also dress up. I worked until 7am on the 31 so came home and went to bed for a few hours. I got up and made a trip to Wal Mart and came home to put my Martha Stewart hat on. About an hour and a half later I had them done and in the car on my way to pick up jeff from work. It is amazing what you can do with a little foam, spray paint, and a glue gun. Although I had lots of burns and I was covered in a ton of foam... I felt like I would have made Martha proud.

When I pulled up to get jeff he looked in the back seat and wondered what I had done. He just laughed and told me I was a geek. It is ok though because he knew I was a geek before he married me and he still loves me.

We went and had a great time with the boys. While we were out collecting candy we went past the school park and my husband being the boy he is thought we should play. As you will see our costumes really made it hard to play but we laughed and had a good time! I just love him!!!!! He makes me laugh everyday which I love!!!

Here are a few pics of the evening, hopefully y'all enjoy them!!

Here we are with the three boys, Levi the chicken, Carter the frog and Zack Count Dracula. They are too cute!


Jeff and I trying to play on the swings but having a bit of a hard time. So fun though!!

Pumpkins and Taquitos

The other night we had a few people over for a bit of a shin-dig. The original plan was to go bowling but with the late start and lack of resevation at the alley, who knew that you need reservations for a bowling alley? So the idea was put forth that we go buy some pumpkins and carve jack-o-lanterns.

Off to the grocery store we went and searched through hundreds of huge orange gourds. Megan had given me the resposibility to find a pumpkin worthy of sitting on our porch for this spooky season that is upon us. Meanwhile, Megan went to go grab some snacks for the people that were now coming over. One of the things that she got were taquitos.

I love taquitos. Just look at them, what is bad about them ... nothing.

As important as taquitos seem to be and as important as they were that evening, they had to give way for the main event. Taquitos can not give you the awesome entertainment that scooping out Pumpkin guts can. And then when you add the sheer pleasure of carving holes into the face of a pumpkin a state of nirvana is nearly achieved.

This lady knows what I am talking about.

We had a lot of fun and our pumkins turn out, specifically into jack-o-lanterns. Check it out for yourself.

Happy Halloween!

Soon to be Three!!!

Well Jeff is usually the one to do the blog as I have never been a blogger but he is slowly teaching me so I decided to try my hand at this. Although my husband is much more witty and funny then I, I hope I do alright :)

So in case not everyone knew... we are expecting!!! We are SOOOO excited and very nervous and scared of the whole parenthood thing. We are due on the 30th of March so that puts me just over 18 weeks. I have had a very easy pregnancy I guess. Haven't been sick at all and have really been feeling great other then being tired!! I am lucky for that and hope it stays the same for the next couple of months. Yesterday we went for an ultrasound and I cannot stop looking at the pictures. It sort of made it more real to see this little thing inside of you. We don't want to find out what we are having... so when the tech said she was going down in that area we closed our eyes. I was so proud of myself that I didn't even peek!! When she told us she was done, I asked if she knew what it was... of course she said yes. I'm not gonna lie.. I panicked abit and almost blurted out for her to tell me. I just don't like the idea of a stranger that I just met knowing if it is a boy or a girl before I do. I took a few breaths and got over it. So we don't know... although Jeff thinks he knows by one the pictures. I guess we will just have to wait a little while to find out for sure!

We are just so blessed and so excited for this new adventure of ours although it is a very scary step and a bit stressful to. Everyone has told us to just enjoy it and sleep as much as possible :) That is what we are trying to do, and I know I keep saying it but we are excited. I am so excited to watch Jeff be a father... I love him so much and I know he is going to be an amazing dad ( I am sure he will be the favorite parent) but that is ok.. because he is my favorite as well!! I am so lucky to get to go through this life with him and experience it all with him. Well that was my little sappy rant about my best friend but just wanted you all to know how much I love him!!!

Well... we have so much catching up to do still on this blog thing... Jeff repelling down a huge building for work, our trip to Boston with the family, pumpkin carving with friends, so don't worry hopefully that will all come soon. I think I will get Jeff to write that all because I am sure that y'all will enjoy that much more :)

Here are few of my favorite pictures of our little one...




This one is obviously the profile of our little one... I can't believe that is inside of me!!!


I don't know if it is true but I see "it" sucking "its" thumb in this one. I just think it is so cute. And just so everyone knows I hate calling my baby an "it" but if I say he or she people get so excited!!



I just can't get enough of this one. I know I am a nerd but how cute is this... our baby just chillin and waving hi to us to let us know "its" there.



Well since I put one up of the hand I thought I should put one up of the foot as well. Crazy... I just can't get over it.


So I had to post this one... as this is the one that Jeff thinks he can tell we are having a boy. We are looking at the babies bum I believe and Jeff is pretty sure there is something there between our little ones legs. I'm not sure if I am convinced but like I said we will just have to wait and see. If any of you know how to read ultrasounds and know for sure... please don't tell us. Although we would love all your opinions on the matter :)

Well, that is enough for me and hopefully I did not bore you all to death with this first post of mine. We are just so excited and wanted to share it with all of you. We just hope and pray that all goes well and that we are blessed with a healthy little baby!!!

Our Camera is Sick

Yes it is true. It is just not what it use to be. We are having more tests down next week after taking it in to see the doctors. She was telling us that its recent change of diet in Penticton of excessive heat and sand have not been very good for it. Poor Pentex's cholesterol is through the roof. We are trying to make it as comfortable as possible. We have some good days and bad days. Mostly bad days. We are preparing for the worst. The doctors have mentioned H1N1. I thought such electronic devices were immune to it. Pentex has always steered clear of bacon and ham. It is a 'nonitatrian' after all, it doesn't eat normally.

We have been putting this off and putting it off, all in hopes that it would get better so we could take some pictures and share them with you all. Penny really does a good job on the pictures when its is feeling 100%. We think everyone has found out that Pentex is not its usual self seeing as there have been no pictures that we have taken on the blog lately. We really want this all to go away. It may be time to come to terms with this unfortunate situation. There may be something for us to learn from this experience. I hate to say it but, Penny will be going to a better place.

Little Pentex was able to muster out one shot while we were in Penticton though. Hopefully this gives you a good idea of all that we did on our holiday. It was a lovely time aside from the obvious.

Not it's finest work but we can't expect too much from the little guy. Seeing as it is passing away we have decided, in lieu of all the flowers to create a fund to go towards the future purchase of a camera.

Thank you for your understanding in this difficult time.

The Lion King

I am sure you are all familiar with this animated flick. I really liked the movie and actually saw it countless times growing up because it was often the feature presentation of the night while Alita was little. Alita watch The Lion King so many times that the VHS actually broke and would no longer work. It has more recently been replaced with a DVD by my parents so that future generations can enjoy this classic story.

There are many memories that I have from my childhood in relation to this movie. One in particular, that I think Scott might remember, is that oft quoted line by mother "This is the part where he faces his fears." It is one of the classics of the Disney animated movies. And if you have not seen it then I would suggest you need to put in your priority list of things to do.

If you don't have time to devote 90 minutes to watching a great film then might I suggest that you see the broadway version. It is currently in Calgary, so Megan and myself went and saw it the other night and we would have to described it as simply amazing.

Our camera is currently broken and also you are not allowed to take pictures during a live performance so I found this video that gives you some what of a taste.

The show was amazing! The show I refer to is The Lion King not The Rosie O'Donnell Show. Which is actually quite obvious by the fact that The Rosie O'Donnell Show is no longer on the air and The Lion King has been on Broadway for over ten years now.

But comments on The Rosie O'Donnell Show will be left for another post. Or fell free to comment on the show yourself.

Megan is the BESTEST!

I love Megan so much but I think that she loves me more because she does awesome things for me like making pancakes that say "I HEART U" I mean just take a look.

That is right. A few weeks ago I woke up to this and a beautiful wonderful wife that I love so much. Thanks for being the best Megan!

A new addition to the family....

That is right there may be a new salmon running around our house in no time. But it is not what you think. Megan has recently come up with the idea of getting a hedgehog. The reason for that is because I often work nights and she is lonely and wants some thing to play with. A cute little hedgehog is her choice for a friend to entertain her on those lonely nights.

She calls them cute and I do agree that they are quite adorable little creatures. Just take a look at this picture here.

There are plenty of hedgehogs in Britain and I saw them everywhere. There was on that we saw almost nightly and had the chance to feed our old and stale bread.

Over in England there are people called Gypsies. Anyone that knows something about Europe is aware of the said people. They are different folk, to put it nicely. We won't get into all the ways that they are different but one way in particular is that they eat hedgehogs. They even approach them when they were trying to make hedgehog flavored crisps (chips).

I don't blame them for eat them. They are super easy to catch and can grow to be as big as a watermelon. Albeit most of that girth is spines they still would provide enough meat for a family. I never had the opportunity to eat one on my mission even though I tried. So to me I view a hedgehog as more of food source and less of a pet. It would be like having a pet cow. I would want to eat it one day but I would have taken it for walks and played catch with it. It would have a name like Betsy of something as well. I would become attached and then not enjoy a perfectly good steak. I am sure that is why there are not many pet dogs in China.

If we got a hedgehog then there would be some confusion in my mind over something you love and something you love to eat. Pets and livestock shouldn't be mixed in my opinion.

So I wanted to try and present the hedgehog as a more menacing creature and less of a cute pet. I think that this picture portrays exactly that.

I think that the Gypsies are on to something. That animal looks more like food now then ever before. Eat or be eaten!

The Perfect Time to Head South

We woke up to this "beautiful site" greeting us on our front porch. It is a week away from May and we get snow?!?!  Ridiculous!  We are so glad that we are flying south for the next week. So the pictures we obtain down there should have no snow but plenty of sun.

Pay no attention to the play house in the corner.  That was there when we moved in and haven't gotten rid of it yet. The child's toy is not an omen of things to come. . . yet.

Retraction

On Friday April 17 a spelling mistake was made in the printing of the blog. The name 'Sarah Orton' was mispelt. It should have be spelt 'Sara Orton'. we apologize for any inconvenice this may have caused any of our readers.

Thank you.

For Sarah, and Others

Sarah has been pestering me to blog. Well I guess at this point it is only bothering me about blogging. I decided to post before it turned in to a vexation.

The most exciting thing that is happening in our lives to date is a countdown. We are currently counting down to a holiday that is getting underway this Friday. We will be heading south to Tampa Florida, boarding the Carnival Inspiration. We are very excited.

We are not taking this trip just to get away or because we need a vacation. Megan's little brother is a Dancer aboard the ship and we need to go support him. This trip is not just some pleasure cruise it is so much more important then that. What sort of sister and brother-in-law would we be if we didn't go and support Tyson in his endeavors.  It is more of a fact finding mission. I like to view it as an opportunity to critique his performance. Constructive criticism is an important part of improvement. 

I am sure we may have some fun.  That will only be a byproduct, not the intended outcome.

Make sure you visit our blog in the near future for pictures.  We will blog again.  That is not an empty promise no matter what you think.  Besides we have no pictures to post and blog about.   We live a life of text.

Glory be to Capitalism

No amount of apology would suffice for the lack of blogs or the amount of time that has transpired since the previous blog.  Regardless, we would like to fill in those who care enough to read this blog.  However that is not going to happen here.  Much has happened in the last four and a half months.  And most it, if not all would be of much more value to write about then the content of what you are about to read.  But, we find this incredibly enjoyable and the opportunity presented itself to blog on such a subject.  So, here we are.

Let me bring you up to speed.  Megan, Alita and myself went to the new Zac Effron Movie "17 Again".  It was excellent by the way and I would suggested it to anyone.  It comes out on the 17th so if you are in the mood for a movie this weekend check it out.  Seeing as it was the premiere there were a bunch of promotional events going on.  One of the promoters of the premiere is a store called Gravitypope here in Calgary.  And their promotion was giving away 25 dollars off a minimum purchase.  Great!  The grand prize however was a 100 dollar gift certificate.  Yipee!  Well Alita was lucky enough to have the winning ticket.  She now has a hundred bucks to put toward some shoes, clothes or accessories, all of which Gravitypope sells.  One Hundred dollars we thought would go a long way in buying accessories.  Oh, how we were wrong.

When you need $275, before tax, to buy a necklace made of a shoe lace, you know that you are over our price range.  What am I saying you are ridiculously sky high compared to our price range.  But we guess people shop here because Gravitypope have been in business since 2001. 

Good for them.  If you can convince someone that they need a pair of "low crotch jersey shorts" more power to you.

If work is a little slow or you just want to laugh and roll your eyes in disgust peruse the rest of their stock.  There are some real gems.

The Wedding Update of all Wedding Updates

WE GOT MARRIED!!!

Yes contrary to popular belief Megan did say yes.  I know that there were a lot of skeptics, most of them did not attend the ceremony so you will not see them in the picture below.

It was however a . . . I am searching for an adjective that would effectively describe the day but non of them are good enough.  The day was great.  We could not be happier.