Christmas Morning

This year we were a bit of a grinch. There where no lights up and no real tree. We have been trying to get our place ready for our new addition that we, well we just couldn't be bothered with our usual Christmas decorations. We did display our Christmas cards and the stockings where hung (over the radiator) with care. Our Nativity Scene was set up and the snowman and moose where out. So I guess we weren't a total bah' humbug.

Our gifts to each other where the couch we are sitting on in the picture and a love seat to match. We even had them under the (wooden) tree. We did get to unwrap some gifts though. So we wanted to say thanks for the cookbook from Mom and Dad, the onsies for Maximilian from Jamie, the digital photo frame from Tyson and Dee and the first aid kit from Rebecca and Robert. 

As we unwrapped our gifts we did one of our traditions of playing Christmas music while we watch the yule log burn. (this year it was in HD)

Merry Christmas

From Campbell's Golden Mushroom

Big League Chew

You all remember that gum don't you. Well Carrie had a little gift exchange thing at her work and she came home with a bag of candy. In that bag was a pack of Big League Chew. And… well I guess I'll just let the video tell the story.

yup that's right, I ate the whole pack in one go. It was disgusting and I'm on a huge sugar high right now.

I think maybe I will go eat some vegetables.

amazing!

I know this has nothing to do with anything other then I

saw this and thought it was one of the most amazing

things I've ever seen. so I'm sharing it.

if you are not totally amazed you can have your

money back. in fact you can have double your money

back.

elf yourself

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

shower

Carrie's sister, Laura, held a baby shower for her this past weekend and I thought I'd just share a few photos with you all. and by a few I mean 2.

this first one is a picture of the cake that Laura made. 

and this second one is of Carrie and myself. 
okay so you probably could have figured out what the pictures were of without my little explanation but, it's too late now, I've already typed it and there is no way to remove text from a computer once it's typed. 

trip to utah

okay so I know it's been two weeks since we were there but here is a recap of our trip to utah.

we will start off with the most important thing. tyson let me ride his motorcycle. I have to say it was a lot of fun, thank you tyson. I didn't really like the cruiser style bike but after riding it I'm starting to change my mind. 

we went out to lunch with gary, fanessa and ender. I can't remember the name of the place but it was kinda like a cafe rio only better, much much better. 
we had a pizza party at mom and dad's where I snapped this amazing shot of nathan eating.
while in utah we got to meet cameron's wonderful wife sarah. It was nice spending time with the new couple whom we also went out to lunch with. 
this last picture is of sedona doing what sedona does best. 

The Birds

Out in front of our place there is a garden area, (nothing has ever been planted there, but the dirt is there) there is another garden area (flowers are planted in this one) just under our living room window.  The garden area is basically a big garden box. Anyway, there are a bunch of House Sparrows that use the garden area to take dirt baths in. This garden area is about 10 feet from our window and Carrie and I like watching the birds play in the dirt. 

Recently the Birds have been picking at the wood that is holding our air conditioner in. Which means that they are right next to our window. So I decided to place some bread crumbs out on the window ledge and see if I could get some photos of the birds.

Well about a week has gone by and I wasn't able to get anything. Until today that is. I heard them outside playing on the AC so I opened the window a bit and grabbed my camera. After standing motionless by the window for about an hour I finally got a few pictures. They aren't great because I was shooting through the window screen, but I thought I would share the pictures anyway. (and a long story to go with them)

These guys are playing just under our window

He was scared by the shutter sound before he got anything to eat.

Finally I got a picture of the bird eating the bread.

Max's First Halloween Costume

Jared and I got into the Halloween spirit last night and decided to dress Max up in his very first costume.  I only wish it was warm enough so I could go out trick or treating and reap the rewards!! 

Fall Colors

Thanksgiving was last monday here and since we had the day off we decided to go for a walk in the woods behind our place, and have a look at the wonderful autumn colors.

Bumbleride

Carrie and I spend the day driving around. Fist we went to go look at a condo but the real estate agent didn't show up. So we went to have a look at some baby stuff at Sears, then to Toys R Us. After that we stopped into Costco, back home for some lunch then back out to another baby store to look at a stroller. Then to a grocery store to get the things that costco doesn't have (or that we don't need 50lbs of) From there we went to another grocery store to get cream cheese. (the other store was all out) On the way home we decided to stop in at the cookie factory to pick up some ginger snaps. 

We are finally back home and we decided to set up the stroller, and because we knew that you would all be interested in seeing us set it up here is a video.

sick

This was one of the worst weekends ever. I've been sick since friday.

I wasn't feeing 100% friday evening but Carrie wanted to go out to eat. So what am I going to do, tell a pregnant woman she can't have what she wants. So out to dinner we went. We ate at a place called "The Keg." Your standard steak and potatoes kinda place. By the time we were walking out the door after dinner I knew I was in trouble.

Any way friday night was mostly okay compared to saturday. That's when the real pain started. I can honestly say that the headache that I had on saturday was the worst headache I've ever had. Then there were the far too frequent trips to the bathroom. Don't worry I'm not going to say any more about that. 

Carrie kept bugging me to check my temperature and I finally gave in. Well my temp was 101.8F. I knew my temp was going to be high, and I knew that if Carrie knew how high it was she was going to call her mom and, well that's exactly what happened. 

When I checked my temp again about an hour later is was on the way down at only 100.6F. So I decided to get the second mattress and sleep in the front room for the night. I didn't want Carrie to get sick or be bothered by me getting up throughout the night. 

Sunday was much the same. Except the headache was at about 30% of what it was the day before. Before I went to bed I did check my temp and it was back to normal at 98.6F.

Now it's Monday and I would say that I'm almost better. Luckily I don't have to go to work until 12:30pm and it's just for some safety training thing so I don't think it will take very long. At least that's what I was told last Friday and I haven't turned on my phone to see if there are any messages. 

they've all been sold

looks like I won't be getting any of them. now that I've finally gotten round to phoning the (old) owners I've been informed that all of them have sold.

but on the up side I think I have decided what bike I'm going to get.  Kawasaki KLR 650. now I just have to find one for sale.

thinking about a bike

but I'm not sure what one to get. There are three for sale around here that I like. Well I like the picture and description of them, I've yet to see any of them in person. 

I'm interested in what you guys think. What bike should I get? Please take a moment to vote for your favorite bike.

Family Pictures

we were up at Laura's house a while back and I tried out my new 50mm f/1.8 lens by taking some family photos. They all turned out pretty bad but I've decided to post one anyway. I would love to blame the lousy photos on the lens but sadly it's all my fault. I'm just not that good… yet.

the rain…

only fell after the last person finished their test. The day before there was only a bit of light rain at the end of the day. It turned out to be a wonderful weekend. 

Best of all was the fact that I passed the test with a 2. Zero is a perfect score. I got a point for going too slow by 11 100ths of a second on one exercise and another point for going too slow by 49 100ths of a second on another exercise. By the way you are only allowed 11 points. 

weather report

so I finally take my motorcycle training course this weekend and, yup you guessed it, it's going to rain until monday. Just what I was hoping for.

I'll let you all know how it goes.

License or Licence?

well I guess it doesn't matter what way you spell it I have it. A motorcycle license that is. I went and wrote the test today. I missed two questions about road signs but aced the rest. I was only slightly nervous before I started because I saw 4 or 5 people fail the test before me. (they call out your name after you have taken the test and let you know if you have failed or passed and they do so loud enough for everyone to hear.) 

They do a bizarre graduated licenceing thing here where you have three different levels of license. The first level, M1 (the one I currently have) is only good for ninety days. At which point you have to get the next license M2. You must carry that licence for at least 22 months and no longer then 60 months before you can receive your M license. I will have to take a road test or do a driving course to get the M2 and to get the M I have to do another road test. The regular driving license is the same type of mess. It all seems like a money grab to me. 

Now I just have to go buy a bike and practice doing wheelies. 

Naked Baby Photos

Carrie went for another ultra-sound today so again we asked for some pictures. I know those of you that already have children are going to be bored with these photos but we still think they are neat.

Baby Bean

We just got back from Carrie's first ultrasound and wanted to share a picture with everyone.

Feta is with us no more

Feta has passed away. The little guy tried to eat last night but couldn't keep anything down. Carrie tried everything she could including taking it to work yesterday so that she could feed it throughout the day. She even held the bird so that it would keep warm. But in the end there was nothing she could to and nature took it's course.

Fuzzy Feta

So we get back to our place last night and look out the window to see the tree out from had lost some weight. There was a big branch on the ground so we decided to go have a look up close. At first we thought the tree might have been struck by lightening, and were saddened that we weren't there to witness the event. Well upon closer inspection it seems it was just wind that did the damage.

We were getting ready to head back in when Carrie noticed a birds nest on the ground with a baby bird in it. A newly hatched bird without many feathers. There was also an egg that hadn't hatched yet and another baby bird but this was not alive anymore. 

Carrie has decided to try to save this bird. She had been feeding it mashed up brad and cat food. She is keeping the bird in an old feta cheese container and so has named the bird "Feta"

Father's Day

We just wanted to wish all the dads out there a "Happy Fathers Day"

 Hope you got to sit back and do nothing today. unless you actually wanted to do something then I hope you got to do that instead of nothing.

Concert

So Carrie and I went to the R.E.M. show the other night. It was a lot of fun but at 10 o'clock we were both hoping the show would end because we wanted to go to bed. I guess that is one sure sign that you are getting older. 

The opening acts were Modest Mouse and The National. The National wasn't too bad, though Carrie didn't like them at all. Of course we both liked Modest Mouse. They were part of the reason for going to the show in the first place. Unfortunately they only played five songs. Some of the people in the crowd knew who they were but most didn't realize it until the last song they played (Float On) the everyone stood up an sang along. I found it quite annoying that everyone decided to stand up then because I was enjoying the show from my seat and once everyone stood up I couldn't see anymore. Yes I'm lazy and I wanted to stay sitting down.