We have a new home!

Rachel's 25th

So, my birthday has come and gone once again. To celebrate, knowing we'd be traveling on the day of, Marc took me to a wonderful dinner and a piano bar the Saturday before. The restaurant was a steak place with candle light, wine, and live Christmas music on piano. So nice! Then we walked maybe a block to a piano bar and spent the rest of the evening enjoying the fun and music. Marc let me open my birthday presents on the way to the restaurant, since we were celebrating after all. A hat and gloves (much needed for where we are and where we're going) and earrings with my birthstone in them :) It was a nice celebration. Then, on Dec. 20, we drove from Little Rock to Oklahoma City in route to Clovis, our destination. That evening we spent some time with Marc's friend Magno, catching up and celebrating the day of my birth!

Make a Smilebox greeting

Santa Pippin

We bought Pippin a Santa suit. He didn't like it at first, but got used to it after a little time. It has a hood that, if put over pippin's head, covers his eyes. He was running around unable to see, so the hood stays off. So cute!!

Making Cookies

As a holiday tradition, my mom makes sugar cookies and we decorate them. The fun is definitely in the decorating. This year, since we wouldn't be there for Christmas, we decided to do Thanksgiving cookies instead...and Marc joined in (almost willfully) :)


She's a good cook

working hard on his Santa

Even daddy helped

Baylor leaf

My Mrs. Claus

Marc's Santa

Marc's Canadian leaf

I bit the leaf off the apple and made it a pumpkin

We had fun

Working hard



Our creations!!

Later in the weekend, we played games with old friends and took the typical Rachel and John shot :) (we've been taking this picture for years..haha)

Thanksgiving Break

We're headed to Houston for Thanksgiving. We've got a 9hr drive ahead of us - twice - but looking forward to decorating cookies! And since we're going to be gone for the few days after the holiday, we got a tree today! It's approx. 3.5ft tall with a 1ft angel on top :) Short, we know, but we're not sure if we are gonna be able to take it with us to Clovis, so we didn't wanna spend too much. And we put it on a tray table so Pip couldn't chew it to pieces like he does to everything else.

Pip was very curious

We've Moved!

For the first time of many as a married couple, we've moved to Little Rock, AR. Corpus Christi was a blast, and we're looking forward to our short stay here.

Marc is here to learn the C-130. He had his first day of training yesterday and came home with a big box. I said "what's in there?". He responded with "study material". ...ouch He'll be learning academics and fly in simulators until February, and all of his actual flying will be in Feb. His simulator schedule is 9pm-1am...that's right, every time he has a simulator, it'll be all through the night.

Pippin didn't fare so well during the trip here. We didn't even make it out of Corpus before Pip threw up 3 times...once in my hands...yummy! We have learned that he drools when we put him in the car. Apparently, it's common for dogs to drool in the car out of nervousness, but that it can increase to motion sickness if the dog is not used to being in the car. By the time we made it to Houston, his motion sickness was gone, but he continued to drool if we put him in the closed crate in the car. If i opened the crate, while he hung out inside during the drive...no drool. He's fine now. We think he likes it here. The office staff loves him and we've met so many people because of him. He doesn't even seem to care about the cold.

We're gonna take a Christmas picture while we're here with the gorgeous fall foliage. I'll post it once we take it :)

Pictures of Pippin

videos

PUPPY!

We adopted a maltese puppy and named him Pippin. Marc has not yet met him in person. Marc's in training up in Washington State and will not be back until October 11th, but until then, I'm taking good care of the new addition. Pictures coming soon. I can't wait till Marc gets home!!

NYC

And while were in New York for the reception, we found time to do some more sight seeing...a handful of the things we didn't get a chance to do last time we were there. We went to see The Phantom of the Opera and Spamalot, visited Times Square, Went to the top of the Empire State Building, spent the evenings with Marc's family, went to Central Park (a place I would love going back to again, over and over), and watched home videos before bed each night. It was a wonderful vacation!

2nd Wedding Reception

After the wedding in Houston we flew to New York City for our 2nd wedding reception. It turned out great!