The Yearbook Picture

On Monday Mark had to dress up for yearbook pictures...reminds you of elementary school all over again, right?! But no one ever had an elementary school photographer like Mark had! In Mark's words, "He violated my expectations." (yeah those lawyering phrases pop out every now and then) The photographer was posing Mark when all of the sudden he got about 2 inches away from Mark's face, stared at his forehead, and exclaimed, "Wow, I can see the EXIT sign reflected on your forehead, clear as day!" Then the good photographer busted out a container of makeup powder and started applying it--a little on the forehead but why stop there--and he proceeded to powder Mark's entire face! (Now my husband is a manly man, and he does not tolerate makeup coming anywhere near him. I know because in our early marriage year I tried to talk him into letting me put make up on him. Usually my begging can talk him into just about anything, but he wasn't budging on the makeup issue.) The weirdness of it all didn't end with the powder though. Then the photographer began taking pictures. "Ok, give me some smiles. Now let's try mouth closed. Whoah, that is not you! Let's go back to mouth open." And on it went with the photographer taking at least 8 pictures posing Mark for each one. Finally, Mark escaped from the twilight zone he felt like he had stepped into and frantically wiped the powder off his face. I'll let you know how it goes next year!

The Snowy Day

Today is snowed/sleeted all day long! Consequently, everything was closed/canceled so we got to spend the whole day together...a rare treat :) It was great! Cala and I went on a LONG walk (me walking pulling her in a sled) to the law school to get a book out of Mark's locker while Mark worked on homework. In normal conditions it probably would have only taken 45 minutes, but it ended up taking me 1 1/2 hours. We had a good time though. At one point I was pulling the sled up onto the sidewalk after crossing the street, and all of the sudden the sled was so much lighter and I thought, wow that's nice...but then I wondered how that had happened. So I looked back and there was Cala laying in the snow by the curb! oops!

Our $8 entertainment center!

After getting Mark's Christmas present back to our apartment we realized that we would need a new entertainment center to fit it. Since we are living on a student budget we had to get creative...

This is our old entertainment center.

This is the entertainment center in the midst of modification. Right before this picture was taken we were starting to wonder what we were thinking since we had been using a hand saw. Then we borrowed an electric saw from a friend, and it saved us...well Mark actually. (Hint: It's best to use an electric saw outside or in a garage, not in the LIVING ROOM, due to the thick layer of saw dust that will surely cover everything in sight.)

And this is the finished product!

Classic Holiday Moments!

Cala bucket head!

When coming in from the cold and in a hurry to play video games, which should you take off first? Pants or coat...? Dave knows!

You might be a redneck if...

My own personal Jack Sparrow! Look out ladies, he's all mine!

When given a choice between pink binkie or blue binkie, Cala chose ALL the binkies!

Cala finally conquered her fear of the mustache! And Pap is so happy!

Ho Ho Ho! A Hipple Christmas

We had been watching the weather for about a week trying to decide which day would be best to head home for Christmas. It was supposed to snow on Friday, clear up for Saturday, and then snow again on Sunday, so we thought that Saturday would be a perfect time to go. Well, this is what we woke up to on Saturday morning... So we shoveled the car out and left as soon as possible before it could snow anymore!

This is Cala Christmas morning sitting in a chair that her Aunt Amanda got for her.

My grandpa won the prize for receiving the funniest present! It's a nice cushy toilet seat, if you are having trouble telling what it is :) Mark even offered to break it in for him...how nice of him.

Cala with my granny.

The Christmas aftermath!

Then we were on to more presents and another Christmas dinner with Mark's family...

Cala had a good time opening presents, but she didn't quite understand that first you open all the presents and then you play with them so Mark and I got to open quite a few of hers.

Me with my new GPS wearing my new sweater!!!

And yes, this is the "Daddy of 'em all"... Mark's new plasma TV! He said that if he got a TV for Christmas that he would run around the house, and he did! In socks! The new TV was much needed since I think our current TV is from 1980!

We hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas too!

Christmas in New York

We decided to visit NYC after Mark's finals to see Santa and all the decorations. We took the train so we wouldn't have to worry about traffic or parking...and 5 hours later we arrived! It should have only taken 2 and a half hours but the brakes on the train went out so we had to wait for the repair. A friend of ours told us that it would be insanely crowded in the city, and she was right. We were shoulder to shoulder with people everywhere we went! When we finally got there, our first stop was Macy's Santaland where you go on a "journey" to the North Pole to visit Santa. Along the way there are lots of fun things to see like dancing bears and talking trees. Cala LOVED everything until we got to Santa. As you can see from the picture, Santa is her worst nightmare. We think it's probably the beard, she's not a big fan of facial hair :)

Next we went to Times Square and then to John's Pizzeria for some New York-style pizza. The pizza was delicious! And the building was originally a church, so we ate under a beautiful stained glass window.

After pizza we headed over to Rockefeller Center to see the Christmas tree. Notice that Cala is passed out! It was a big day for her.

We also stopped in at the NBC studio store, and I just had to get a picture by this...it's filled with M&M's!!!!

Then we went for a stroll up 5th Avenue, which is just as cool as I imagined it would be. We went in St. Paul's cathedral to see the nativity. Our final stop was FAO Schwartz where we played with lots of toys. Cala loved the larger-than-life stuffed animals. So much so that Mark was considering buying her one! For $120! We also got to see the floor piano that Tom Hanks danced on in "Big".

It was a fun trip and we can't wait to go again!

Finals are over!!!

Woohoo! Finals are over and Mark has survived his first semester of law school! We are so excited to have some time to spend together, and I am so proud of him!