fall highlights

Well, winter is practically upon us!  Today, Rebekah saw her first snow.

We haven't been good about updating over the past few months because we've just been plain busy.  Nathan was in charge of a product launch at work and was putting in a few more hours to get that accomplished.  Praise - it was a success!  Kristin has been working hard to get as much done on her dissertation each day as possible.  She is absolutely determined to graduate in 2013.

Since we'll have lots to write about in December, we thought we'd do a picture recap of the past few months to get everything up to speed.

First, Miss Rebekah turned 8 months old in October. 

That month, she also learned to clap!  She practiced her new skill all the time, even when she was crying.

She finally discovered her headbands and decided she wanted nothing to do with them.  So, now that she won't wear a bow, we get congratulated on our "cute little boy" at least once a week.

She also learned how to read....just kidding!  She does love books, though.

For Halloween, we continued our annual tradition of pumpkin carving.  This year, Nathan designed a real winner - it's Goofy! :)

Nathan dressed up as William Wallace (aka. Braveheart) in an attempt to win a costume contest at work.  He wore his kilt, my Moby baby-wearing wrap, and designed his sword and shield from our old fence.  He ended up winning third place!

Our little Pebbles also dressed up!

Kristin...well...she just dressed like a mom.

In November, Rebekah turned 9 months old.  This was a big month for her!

She joined her dad for some X-box time and even got her own controller.

Thanksgiving Day was lovely.  We were in Oklahoma visiting with Nathan's family, and Rebekah enjoyed playing with all of her cousins.  It was the first time she was actually old enough to interact with them.  Most of all, Rebekah loved eating.  Over Thanksgiving weekend, she learned to eat "real" food - she had macaroni and cheese, turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, sweet potato pie, chicken strips, French fries, and a hot roll.  We, in turn, got to change out lots of interesting diapers.

She interacted with her first dog over Thanksgiving weekend.  She crawled up and pulled his ear.  He handled that well enough that she was able to sit on his back and "ride" him for a few seconds.

She also learned to sit up from a crawling position, to begin pulling up on furniture, and to destroy everything in sight.

Our little adventurer loves growling at her toys and climbing over any obstacle course Nathan happens to set up.

Because she now gets into everything, we ended up setting up our Christmas tree in our bedroom where she can't get to it.  We take her in for "visitation" about once a day, but otherwise it's ours to enjoy.

We're excited about celebrating our first Christmas as a threesome.  We utilized the Christmas decorations at church to take some pictures on her 10 month birthday.  She made everyone smile with her Mickey Santa hat!

singing in the rain

by Kristin

Nathan's September date for me was SO FUN!  He kept it a secret...just told me to dress comfortably since we would be outside.  I woke up that morning to cold and rainy weather, so I asked if the date was still on.  The answer was "yep!"

We all got in the car, and Nathan drove to a dentist's office. :)  Apparently, the trunk wasn't closed completely, but he didn't fill me in on that.  For a minute, I actually thought he took me for a date to the dentist!

We ended up at a restaurant in an area of town I've always wanted to explore.  The place is called Twisted Root - they have great burgers, shakes, homemade root beer, and a pickle bar!  Nathan had told me about it (he had been before with his coworkers), so I was really excited to try it out.  It definitely lived up to the hype.  My burger was so good that I didn't even need condiments.  Apparently, the place has been featured on Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives!

Rebekah really enjoyed herself, too.  I think she entertained all of the other tables around us with her big grins.

And, she learned to "high five" while we were there!



We tried walking around after lunch, but it was pouring rain.  So instead, Rebekah drove us to our next location.

Nathan's surprise for me - a nature walk through the Arbor Hills Nature Preserve in Plano!  It was wet, but really fun.

Fortunately, the path we took was paved, so we were able to pack Rebekah in the stroller and let her nap while we talked.

The trail had signs telling you about all of the wildlife you might be able to see.  We were fortunate enough to be able to view some of that "wildlife".  Here's what we saw...

Seriously, though, some of the paths were really, really beautiful.  It was impressive, considering that the preserve is in the middle of Plano.

During lunch, Nathan gave me a small notebook and had me make two lists: 1) my top ten financial priorities, and 2) my top ten life priorities.  While we walked, we compared notes and discussed our priorities.  This was great and much needed.  Last year was a big year for us, having moved across the country, had a baby, and bought a house.  Things are completely different for us, so our priorities have changed quite a bit.  It was nice to get on the same page and really hear what was important to each other.  We are really blessed that we agreed with each other's top three and ended up coming to a compromise consensus on how we should order all the others.

The walk wasn't without frivolity!  Nathan got super excited to see a bridge going to a lookout. :)

When she awoke from her nap, Rebekah was a happy camper as well.  We'll have to go back sometime...maybe in the rain!

coffee, cars, and books, oh my!

In September, we re-instituted our creative dates!  Each of us designed a date with the other one in mind, using the book 40 Unforgettable Dates with Your Mate as a guide.  The book encourages you to create a date that meets one of your spouse's needs - like spiritual intimacy, physical intimacy, friendship, etc.  Kristin went first, designing a date for Nathan to meet his need for friendship.

The date took us to Denton, TX where the first stop was an eclectic coffee house that friends had told us to check out. 

Then, we roamed around the courthouse square where (surprise!) a classic car show was going on!  Denton has one of the coolest courthouses we've ever seen, and the square is full of fun restaurants and antique stores.  We didn't actually get to any of the eating or shopping...there were too many classic (and some new) cars to see.

Part of the point of a "friendship" date is to learn about what interests your spouse.  Here's what Kristin learned...

Nathan thinks these Jaguars are a bit ugly, but he thought the engine and sleek engine compartment were worth admiring.

Wind-up cars are cute!!!  (Okay, so Nathan didn't tell her this...she figured it out on her own.)

Nathan thought that while the color combo was a bit odd on this Willys, the details were immaculate.  Notice the recessed headlights, single-piece fender and side panels, and the paint scheme that carries over into the engine compartment.  The Willys had very odd suicide doors that looked more like small hatches - that would be really impractical.

We both liked the following car.  Obamacare EMS... very clever. :)

Kristin liked the pink '32 Ford truck.

Rebekah learned a lot, too!  She really enjoyed her daddy-daughter time with some old cars.

This truck had an extremely elaborate paint job.  They had painted each rivet and the windswept staining with such detail that even up close, it looked almost real.

While walking around, we discussed friendship...ours as well as Nathan's need for friendships outside our marriage.  That's been an issue for both of us since moving to Texas and having Rebekah.  It's just not easy to make friends anymore.  Fortunately, we've gotten connected with an adult fellowship at church and have started going individually to Bible studies in the evenings, so we're working on it.  But it was good to talk through some of our friendship desires and encourage one another in that.  It also really helped us to know how we could support one another in making friends, whether that be Nathan taking Rebekah for an evening or Kristin being willing to host X-box parties at our house.

We ended the date by hitting up an awesome used bookstore called Recycled Books.  It's actually an old opera house turned into a book store.  The store is unassumingly large, and it's got some great finds.  We spent as much time as we could before Rebekah had a melt down (that's what happens when we skip nap time to look at cars).

five...cinco...yay!

Yeah....I'm way behind.  We celebrated our fifth anniversary in August, and I'm just now writing about it.  The reason I'm so behind is that we've been a little busy going on dates!  Life has been crazy recently with a crawling baby, a dissertation to edit, and a new project for Nathan at work, but we managed to re-institute our creative dating this past month.  We look forward to sharing them with you over the next few weeks.

The fifth anniversary is the wood anniversary, or the silverware anniversary according to modern gift charts.  We've always tried to be as creative as possible with our gifts, and this year was no exception.  Nathan had a brilliant idea - he couldn't take me to the woods, so he thought he would help me look like the woods (i.e. camo pajamas).  He ended up not being able to find what he wanted, so he scrapped that idea.  I thought it was hilarious, though, so I made sure that at least one person in the family was in camo for our big day.

We went for breakfast at a restaurant that I'd been wanting to go to for some time - Bread Winners in Plano.  The idea was to get eggs benedict, just like we'd enjoyed on our trip to New Zealand.  We got the southwestern eggs benedict, which we unfortunately regretted later.  The hollandaise sauce had Tobasco in it, which neither of us cared for.  We're still on the search for a good eggs benedict in this hemisphere.  The best part of the meal was the Mexican hot chocolate...yum!

We ran various errands after breakfast (after all, it was a Saturday morning), and then stopped by a cupcake place on the way home.  Once we got Rebekah down for her nap, the gift giving began!  Nathan went first.  He set up the massage table in the living room and gave me an hour long massage...the first since I got pregnant over a year ago.  Once I was good and relaxed, he walked me to the master bathroom where he had prepared a warm bubble bath.  The even bigger surprise was what was sitting on the window sill above the bathtub...

He got me a candle holder made out of a wine barrel!  I was so excited.  You see, I had told him how much I wanted to get a candle piece for that windowsill to give our bathroom more of a "spa" feel.  But, it's not a necessity - it's really not a necessity.  I had decided that I would treat myself to one as a reward when I reached one of my post-pregnancy weight loss goals, but when that time came, I decided to give that money to something a bit more important.  Nathan remembered and even took the trouble to look up one of my favorite stores in Napa Valley to find the one made out of a wine barrel (another thing I've always eyed).  It was so, so thoughtful, and I couldn't have been more surprised.

I got to enjoy my new candles while taking a bubble bath and eating cupcakes.  It was divine!

My gift to him wasn't exactly fancy, but it did get a big smile out of him.  We are both huge fans of Everybody Loves Raymond, and one of our favorite episodes is called "Baggage".  In that episode, Raymond and his wife have a lengthy standoff over who should put away the luggage from their recent vacation.  In an attempt to get his wife to finally take care of it, Raymond sticks some stinky cheese in the luggage before leaving for a business trip.  The cheese stinks up the whole house, and his wife is incensed when she figures out what he did.

At this point, Raymond's mother steps in.  She tells Raymond's wife about how she received a giant fork and spoon for her wedding (the kind that go on the wall), and she and her husband had a similar standoff over who should take them back to the store and return them.  She came home one afternoon, and rather than taking the big wooden fork and spoon back to the store, her husband had nailed them to the wall.  Forty years later, they were still there.  The episode concluded with one of the best pieces of marital advice that we'd ever heard..."Don't let a suitcase filled with cheese be your big fork and spoon."

In honor of that advice, I decided to combine the traditional gift of wood with the modern gift of silverware...no, not by getting Nathan a giant fork and spoon.  Instead, I got him this...

I bought a cheeseboard and custom wood burned the quote into it!  Now, whenever we have gatherings and bust this out, we have an instant conversation piece and a reminder than standoffs never do a marriage any good. :)

We concluded our celebrations by making our anniversary dinner together.  We typically would go out to dinner, but that didn't work as well this year with Rebekah.  We made a delicious meal of steak strips, bacon-infused risotto, marinated vegetable salad, and strawberry shortcake for dessert.

All in all, this anniversary was wonderful - looking forward to the next one!