Name that tune....

Ok, so I know the video is dark, but you can hopefully appreciate what it is. I hope you have speakers. Justin and Morganne spend pretty much every afternoon at 5pm watching Bonanza together. Real Daddy/Daughter bonding. She has now begun to recognize the tune and gets very excited when it comes on. Usually she starts bouncing up and down and turns to the TV. This video, she is pretty much asleep and though it takes her a few seconds to realize what's playing, it definitely gets her attention. Someday I will get better footage of her Bonanza reaction. Just had to share. (Don't ask me why Justin is wearing a stocking cap. Yes, we keep the thermostat low in our house to save money, but I promise it's not that cold! :cP)

Christmas!!!

Our first Christmas as a family! We were very blessed this year with family visits and wonderful gifts. The weekend before Christmas we traveled out to visit Sue and Fred in Iowa. Morganne was a trooper and really didn't fuss at all the entire way there and back. (Did I mention we are blessed!?!?!?) We also had good weather for both trips, were as Lynsey and Derek unfortunately can not say the same (an 8 hour trip home turned into 13.5 due to a severe ice storm). We enjoyed the time spent with family and watching the girls interact in their first Christmas together. They both were great all weekend. I must say I was very impressed by my sister-in-laws craftyness as she made the girls felt lunch bags with toy food inside. They were adorable! Justin was also very excited as he got his Camelbak from his parents for his bike rides. He really made out quite well this year. The only dissappointment for the weekend was at the end when I accidentally deleted all of my Grant Christmas pictures (about 75 of them). Yes, I cried. This was Morganne's first family Christmas and now I had no pictures left of it. Those of you who know how I am with my camera, can attest that I was very upset by this loss. So, the only pictures I have are ones Sue took on her camera and a few of the girls before we left that morning. We have good memories however. We had delicious dinners all weekend including steak and a fabulous cheesecake made by my brother-in-law Derek. I'm not usually a cheesecake person, but this was great. BTW, he sells them, so if anyone is interested I can put you in contact. (He is also starting a catering business Asher Foods and Catering, so if anyone needs a good caterer, again, I can put you in contact.)

We then went to dinner and Christmas eve service with my parents at their church, as ours doesn't do an eve service, and it's a good time to see people we haven't seen in a while. Everyone loved seeing Morganne and we got to see a friend of ours new baby girl for the first time. She is 3 months old, and is just now weighing what Morganne weighed when she was born, and she's still not even as long as Mo was. And, Gracie was full term. Ha! My girl is definitely healthy! Anyhow, we had a good time.

The next morning we woke up and had a small family Christmas together. My dad made us probably my favorite Christmas present, a wooden mirror coat rack for our living room. It's beautiful. (see picture below). I am so impressed by his talent. We went to my parents for breakfast and their Christmas and then up to Phil and Sue's for dinner (they are close member's of the family, practically another brother to my mom growing up). It was good getting to see my grandparents again. I wish we were closer. Morganne makes them smile. Again, we have been so blessed by family, friends, and our health. Justin's mom pointed out that things could have been much worse when I was upset about losing the pictures. She's right. It was a good Christmas.

A few pictures of Morganne's reaction to her new toys:

(Please ignore the clean clothes on the back of the couch in this photo! :cP)

Every child needs a good teddy bear. This one came from Grandma and Grandpa Grant.

Nana made her a sock monkey! He is now loving named King Luey by Justin (the monkey from the Jungle Book, Justin's new/old favorite kids movie).
I love this picture, they are reading "Pat the Bunny" and there is a mirror on this page.

So tired from opening gifts, Morganne has already crashed on Daddy just an hour and a half after waking up for the morning.

The gorgeous mirror my dad made us... I can't wait to hang it up!

Our annual Christmas photo on Christmas eve in front of my parent's tree. Last year I had a big belly in the photo.... :c)

The vest is one that my mom made me when I was 2 years old. It fits Morganne now... Thought it was fitting for the Christmas get-together.

Morganne and Denver, their first Christmas', playing with their new toys. Aren't they cute!

On our way to Muncie, to Phil and Sue's for Christmas...

Mo and Granddad being ornery.

Nana and Mo singing Christmas carols together. Well, Mo knew what she was singing....

After dinner, 4 generations snoozing.... This is priceless...

The Grant Christmas pictures... Annabel using Morganne as a step stool...

The lunch bag that Lysney made the girls even had bendable bacon! How cute!

Kissing cousins!

Morganne and Annabel with Grandpa and Grandma in their matching outfits from Great-Grandma Peg!!!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!! God Bless!!

Last note: found this video on Jen Sherrick's blog. It's a little after the point, but is pretty awesome and wanted to share. This year with limited budgets, our families made more gifts instead of buying lots of things. I'd like to continue this tradition and then when we can afford to buy more gifts, we give it away instead. Sound good anyone???

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVqqj1v-ZBU

Lions, and Tigers, and Bears, oh my! Well, Tigers that is~!

So! I had an awesome, rare, opportunity today at work. Dr. Lemmons, our dentist, extracted the canine teeth from 2 six month old tiger cubs!!! Unfortunately, the first owner, in their stupidity and inhumane-ness, clipped the canine teeth in order to make the cubs "less" dangerous. Luckily, they were rescued from this person and the new owner paid to have Dr. Lemmons extract the damaged teeth that were completely infected. It really is pretty sad. So, we had the opportunity to work with them in the clinic today! They were SherCon and Nala, and they were about 60-70 lbs. each. The worst part of the day was the incredible smell that came with them. THEY STUNK up the ENTIRE clinic!!!! It was still very cool though. Here are some pics from the day! Yes, I got to touch the tigers, even when awake!!

That's me!

That's me again, with Nala!!!

Bitter beer face

Ok, so this was too funny not to post. With this last bought of sickness and runny nose, Morganne began scrunching her face whenever her nose would run. I always knew that she needed her nose wiped when this happened. I caught the face in a picture and Justin said that it reminded him of the "Bitter Beer Face". So we looked it up and here is the comparison. Pretty funny if you ask me.... It will at least make you laugh.

Keep on reading, I posted 2 today!

Thanksgiving

Sorry, this has taken me so long to post. We had a very busy, very good Thanksgiving with both sides of the family. We had dinner on Thanksgiving at my parent's house with the Ufkes family. It was so good seeing Grandma feeling so well. She looked 500% better than last time I saw her- that was 2 days after major surgery to remove part of her colon due to colon cancer. She is still pretty weak but overall improving every day. They were so happy to see Morganne. They don't have internet so they don't get updates very often. I try to remember to send pictures when we can.
Then on Friday we traveled to Justin's Aunt Sandy and Uncle Brian's house in Kentucky for the weekend. It was a good time. They live on a huge cattle ranch farm. Lynsey and I got to go horse back riding with Sandy which was so much fun. I miss riding. We had some of the best steak I've ever eaten for dinner Friday night and then I tried deer meat and cow tongue, yes, I tried tongue. I must say I hope to never have to eat it again. :cP The deer was ok, Fred did a great job with the seasonings. I think I prefer beef however.
It was so good to see Grandma Peg again. She is pretty spry for 86! She can always make us laugh. She loved being around her great-granddaughters for the weekend. We look forward to visiting the ranch again sometime soon.
Unfortunately, Morganne came down with a fever for the whole weekend. Even feeling crummy, it didn't seem to upset her mood very much. She is such a good baby. Notice her rosie cheeks in most of the pictures however. Luckily, our big family portrait that we had taken while down there, is in black and white, so you can't see the reddness. Good thing too since she was wearing a red dress that was too big for her and had red cheeks, she looked a bit like a cherry. A very cute cherry nonetheless. I definitely don't recommend department store portraits. I guess they were good because they were affordable, but the quality left much to be desired. After nearly 3 hours in the portrait studio we finally got something that was decent. I don't think I will do that again however.
Our ride home was frustratingly long as a 4 hour trip turned into 7 with two hours of less than 20 mph speed due to traffic and accidents. Morganne was a trooper though and really didn't make a peak. Luckily the Colt's game was on the radio to keep us entertained. I took Morganne to the doctor's Monday morning as she was still running a fever. We got some antibiotics and she seems to be doing very well now. Well, here are several pics from the weekend.

Ufkes family dinner

Four generations photo