Random Photos

One of the gifts Chad received this year was a gift certificate to a sports store where he planned on purchasing a weight bench. He says 2009 is his year to "Bulk Up." So, like all the other new year resolutioners he went and purchased exercise equipment. It was a challenge to assemble...especially until he found the instructions, but he got it together. He is thrilled and plans to work out everyday around lunch.

Here is a picture of him standing proudly in his new weight lifting belt.

And here he is on the bench in the garage...those weights aren't light...trust me.

Since we got back from our Christmas Vacation I have been in full on Nesting mode. I am ready to repaint the inside of the house, every room. I am thinking about how I can more efficiently organize everything...planning a garage sale for Spring and I even purchased graph paper so I can draw out how I am going to make our bedrooms work with all the new functions we are going to need out of them (nursery, office, guest room squeezed into 2 small spaces).

Even though I have oh...23 1/2 weeks before Baby Martin arrives I have already cleaned out 2 shelves in the kitchen cabinets where bottles, and whatever else babies need (funny that I don't know now!)

And finally, I got home today and this is how Chad had Sampson tucked in on the sofa.

Who knows how many hours he has been laying here...what a spoiled pet!

Griswald's Christmas Vacation at the Farm

And so we were...Griswald's Christmas Vacation at the Farm...

AIR TRAVEL

Chad and I headed off to Hayesville, NC on Monday with nothing but positive spirits! We knew traveling could be difficult and I had prepared to the hilt; snack bags, twizzlers, oreos, single serving lemonade powder, a book for each of us and a carry on bag with 1 set of extra clothes. I was prepared for the worst!

When we arrived at the Reno airport and there wasn't a line to check in at Delta and I was thrilled, shhhuwe one airport down. Then we arrived at Salt Lake City and I began to relax enjoying a snack bag and on my way to refill my water to make lemonade with my single serving pack (the fact that I was so prepared made me happy beyond means). What did I see on my way to the water fountain...Las Vegas flight CANCELLED!! Put on the breaks, pull out the ticket, surely they aren't referring to my flight on the morning that had gone so right! Oh yes they were...to the help line phone we went.

This is when I had to remind myself and Chad that we expected this and we were to remain positive. An Angel sent from Heaven answered the phone and not only rescheduled our flight so that it was direct and therefore landing 2 hours earlier than originally booked but she upgraded us to FIRST CLASS! I can't tell you how dreamy first class is on a 4 HOUR flight across country. We ate a steak dinner and watched a movie...next thing we knew we touched down in Atlanta! I think I smiled the entire flight. In fact, I told Chad that I was so happy at that moment I wouldn't even mind if the plane crashed.

FIRST DAY IN HAYESVILLE

After waking up and drinking my hot chocolate I looked out the front window and saw the horses walking up the driveway headed for a trott around the neighborhood. This was not supposed to happen so quickly Chad and his dad put on their coats, grabbed some feed and went after them. Next thing I know I see Chad running down the driveway with the ring leader in tow and the others following behind. I couldn't get the camera fast enough to get them running down (which was a sight to see) but here they are back safely in their fenced area.

Chad's Uncle, 3 cousins and 2 twins and dog were also in Hayesville for the holiday. They were over for breakfast and we were having a great time seeing everyone for a first in 2 years then...we heard a comotion from the laundry room/dog food area and sure enough 2 of the dogs were in a fight. Out came Lucky (cousin's dog visiting from FL) wounded. Now Lucky is a 5-6 year old Chocolate Lab who is as sweet and clueless as it gets. This is the second time he has gotten beat up this year...his circumstances are not living up to his name! He cried when touched and there was a major gash on his back. So as we debated over whether to take him to the vet or not all the girls decided it was necessary and off we went. After his initial cry Lucky seemed to not be in too much pain and rather enjoyed the extra attention he was getting.

In the truck on the way to the vet...how come the girls so smiley and Lucky looks nervous!

Turned out that a deep gash should not be sewed up but rather allowed to heal from the inside out. Lucky got the area shaved and doctored up. From this day forward, Doctor Jana would take care of his wound per the vet's instructions.

Later this night we were telling Kiersten how much we liked her newly darkened hair that we decided that Heidi and I would have Allee touch up our color. Unfortunately, I forgot the camera but it was a fun girls night at the other cabin as we hung out dyed hair, doctored Lucky and enjoyed each other's company.

DAY 2 - PETTING ZOO
Next day we visited some Chad's parents friends houses who have farm animals that we could pet. First stop, Alpaca farm.

We learned the Alpaca is a safe but timid animal. If you have food they will come.

There were three baby Alpaca's that were less than 1 month old.


Brooke and Parker were persistent to pet the animals however without food in your hand they only ran away.
And we're off to the next farm!

Here we saw a 4 month old horse named Dreamer who mistakenly thought Brooke's hair was hay!

And this big ole Bull who we realized was standing in his own feces...oh wait, we were standing in it too! We also saw a goat but he was intent on punching a hole in the fence everytime we came near so he lost the right to have his picture taken.

CHRISTMAS EVE

Christmas Eve we went to the early Children's church service. It was cute as each child received an animal from the Christmas story and as the minister read the story he would pause as he said the animal's name and the children were supposed to bring the figurine to the front. This was a little challenging with 2 year olds.

We came home, enjoyed dinner together and the girls opened an early Christmas present from Preston...matching pjs.

Buddy the dog has a way with winning the men over.

Like father like son.
Santa and his helpers spent the rest of the night assembling bikes, a car and a rocking horse.

CHRISTMAS DAY

Brooke and Parker were excited to see Santa waiting on the front porch to deliver them their new mini bicycles!

Parker is checking out the features of his new car. He has tools in his trunk that he can fix the engine with, fun!

In the afternoon on Christmas day everyone started getting a little stir crazy from being inside all morning. We decided to pack into the car and go check out a new neighborhood development that was being built along the river just a little bit down from Chad's parents. As we pulled into the first lot we realized the road just ended and when we went to reverse...we got stuck! With 7 backseat drivers giving direction we were still not able to get out of this hole. And in fact the more we tried the WORSE we sunk. By the time I got out we were sitting in pure mud!

Everyone tried to give it a push with no result except mud flying everywhere!

Those left in the car were the only ones safe from the wrath of the mudslinging.

We were able to flag down a passerby and as most all residents of Hayesville, he had a chain in the bed of his truck to pull us out! Thank goodness for Toyota!

More pictures of how deep we were.

That was eventful and nobody got hurt. We were able to laugh the entire way through it.

Later that night we sat around and played Balderdash for hours. It was a great time spent with family.

FAREWELL

Before everyone left we attempted to get group photos. Here is everyone but Scott, who is the photographer.

The Martin's

The Rodenbaugh and Armstrong's

The guys

This was a fun and memorable Christmas Vacation. I am thankful for the blog to make me write it all down.

Thanks to Matt for staying with our sweet puppy dogs while we were gone.

Happy 30th Birthday Leslie and Kallie. I didn't have cell reception to call you but I was thinking about you anyway.

Pre-Christmas

Since Chad and I were traveling to North Carolina for Christmas this year we decided that we would celebrate at home with the dogs before we left. This year my car got the majority of the gift with new brakes and some electrical work (exciting:). Chad received peace of mind that his wife and baby to be are traveling safe. In addition we got each other a few other small things. A tradition we have is to always act Over The Top excited when we open each and every gift.

Chad opening his first present!

Both dogs are VERY curious about what is in the bag!

Did I mention that Sampson was a BIG dog!

A special Onesie for Chad.

How thoughtful...Santa brought Jana one too!

Stockings!

And Santa brought Milkbones for the dogs (even Maya).

We also got together with our friends in Reno and had a Christmas Dinner potluck style. This was very special as none of us have family in town and so we celebrated our friends as family! Unfortunately, my camera battery died and I didn't have my charger. However I shot the most important pictures, Ethan and Nico!

After eating we played Pictionary Man . Chad and I don't play games often so forgive us for being behind the times but that game seems perfect...no pieces to carry around and full of fun. The guys did win technically but the girls played better. Thanks yall for being our Reno family!

Forbidden Fruit

I have fallen in love with the forbidden fruit!

I had always passed over the Cutie Tangerines at the grocery store opting instead for the full size oranges. My reasoning was if I was going to peel it I wanted there to be more substance. However, this past weekend I discovered the Cuties at my friend Rachel's house and before I knew it I had peeled and eaten 3 without coming up for air. My will power was absent that day. I soon found out that 3 Cuties mixed with 2 glasses of OJ equaled a roller coaster for my tummy.

Next day, I am grocery shopping and I decide that I must have some. They are sold in a box of about 20. I give Chad a taste of the forbidden fruit and he was immediately in love. I try eating 3 again thinking maybe it was the OJ that sent me over the edge but I was wrong...roller coaster tummy. Nonetheless, I am addicted to the sweet taste of these little fruit and I will keep eating until I find my maximum.

Sure, you might be thinking...how about you just eat one, Jana. But trust me, you can't eat just one. I have put a 2 limit per sitting maximum on myself and I have asked Chad to help reinforce. I highly recommend that you purchase some and taste for yourself.

By the way, my baby is larger than a Cutie now. I am not sure what fruit it compares to but last week it was a peach. We added a Poll on the sidebar of the blog where you can vote whether you think it is a boy or girl. We are expecting to find out in our February 2nd visit. Here are some hints: I was craving sweets early on; My skin is breaking out; The heartbeat is on the high side of the range. Now, I actually don't believe any of the wives tale predictions but maybe you do.

Feels like Christmas

With snow falling all day long it is really feeling like Christmas now! Luckily we didn't have to get out of the house early today and we could relax and enjoy the snow and hot chocolate.

Today was my deadline for getting all my gifts in the mail so I packed them all into a big box and headed to the Post Office (in the grocery store). I knew the line would be long so I was mentally prepared to wait. I would like to say that the grocery store post office was the Way To Go! First of all, the people were nice. The store offered hot chocolate to us while we waited AND there was music in the store. This was much better than my previous experiences at the regular Post Office (no music, no hot chocolate and no cheer). Thanks Raley's.

Before the winter storm came we had winds of up to 100mph (sounds crazy but true). The wind woke me up in the night feeling like the walls were moving. All of this to show you a picture of a tumbleweed that blew into our back yard. This is for Leslie who wanted to see a tumbleweed while she visited but we couldn't find one.