Mullett

My favorite place on Earth is here...Mullett Lake, MI.

Luckily its pretty enough that Eric puts up with going there every (other) year and spending a week with my family (in virtual seclusion).  Did I mention how much I LOVE this place?!?  Well this year it was even more fun b/c my nephew was there, and my SIL's parents got to come stay for a few days, and my SIL and I shared mocktails all week long... that's right!!  I am going to be an aunt AGAIN!  And even more fun these cousins are going to be just a few weeks apart!!!  So exciting.
Of course one of Mullett's fine traditions is taking family photos on the porch.

Beck, Dad, Chad, Mom, Mama Sue and me

 Heading to Vivio's for pizza is also always on the agenda.

Where we have the BEST pizza ever, and of course take more family photos around the table. :)

Dad, Mom and Mama Sue

Kelly's parents - Marilyn and Bill

Kelly, Drew and Chad

Eric and I

Then after stuffing ourselves full of pizza we stop for ice cream on the way home.  (remember - eat, look at the baby. *wink*)  Drew REALLY enjoyed this part of the day, going from Grandpops to Gramps getting bites of all their ice cream.

The pregnant ladies also really enjoyed the pizza and ice cream...

What a great start to a WONDERFUL vacation!

21 weeks, 20 pounds...

I won't make excuses as to where we have been for months, or why it hasn't been here.  I'll just start right here where we are today - 21 weeks pregnant.  (for the 99.99% of you who are family and already knew that - no shocker, if you didn't surprise!!)  This week instead of emailing out my 'belly' pics I decided to start updating this space again since I figure I better get used to it once our little man comes along.
Also this week we decided to show off more than one belly.  Eric swore he was going to go to the gym and get all buff during my pregnancy - alas, he has matched me pound for pound - and this is OUR 21 week picture, we have gained 20 pounds (10 each).  :)

 In other bump news... last week was my big half way mark (and my 30th birthday on the exact same day!)  I honestly really enjoyed my birthday this year.  As scary as I thought 30 was going to be, it wasn't.  I am so excited to be starting this new 'phase' in my life and a new decade just seems like a great way to celebrate it all together.  Bring on my 30's and bring on the kiddos :)

And for my next trick I'll actually try to update this blog with our Mullett pictures :)

Project Warm

After the snow melted a bit we had an opportunity to volunteer with our church for an event called Project Warm and what an amazing blessing (for us!)  Our job was to re-roof a house in desperate need...

(this was the second day - after we took the old roof off)

 (Eric ready to go with his tools!)

I wasn't sure I was going to have the courage to get up on the roof and certainly didn't think I had the skill set to lay shingles, but it really was quite easy to learn, very rewarding to do and a blessing to us to be able to help.

(Karen got off to a bit of a rough start trying to figure out the nail gun - ha ha!)

Eric was running the show inside planning, cutting and installing trim around the entire living area.  (that 12" compound sliding miter saw came in pretty handy!)

We both felt very accomplished, overwhelmed with the reality of the many many (MANY) blessings in our life and the opportunity to help others.  It was a GREAT day!

And to boot the house looked great too - and Miss Mary was very happy! :)

Other Things

Christmas?  Really?!?!  That was the last thing I posted about (a month after it happened?)  Well - there has been ALOT since then.  Nothing earth shaking, ground shattering, or the like.  But snow that shut down the South...

Frightening eh?  Well we took full advantage of our two days off work.  We played in the snow with the dogger (he love catching snowballs), we made chocolate cookies (come to think of it - those are a bit earth shattering - best chocolate chip cookie recipe - EVER), and cleaned out all our kitchen cabinets.  Yup, productive.

YUM!

Now that I've given up TV for Lent - I may just have time to go make another batch of those.  (or keep blogging... lets do that - see you tomorrow!)

CHRISTMAS!

Christmas was very fun and laid back this year.  Eric's mom came to the house and stayed with us.  We had a good looking tree thanks to our trip with the Fricks and had plenty of gifts for the three of us (well four - Mason had a few too!)
 

 (Miss Kevin in her handknit socks I made her!)

We opened presents, had the traditional coffee cake and egg casserole breakfast, opened more gifts and then cooked lunch together.  Miss Kevin helped me make a beautiful ham and set a good looking table (if I do say so myself!)

The highlight for me was the very last gift of the morning.... (drumroll please...)

TA-DA!!

My brand new DSLR camera!  My original one was a gift from my husband on the eve of our wedding and was stolen from his truck in our driveway in September.  He replaced it with a bigger badder one this time that even takes HD video.  I am LOVING it!  Its a Nikon vs a Canon so I have to relearn everything but I'm just so grateful for a husband who spoils me so much!

Duck Hunting

Part of my Christmas vacation includes activities which cater to my caveman tendencies, the most prominent of which is my primal need to hunt for food.  Luckily, American society has provided grocery stores as the main source of food for people like me since my hunting abilities are "limited" at best.  Even so, this duck hunting trip is yet another in a series of outings this year which leads me to believe I'm getting better at this.  As with any duck hunting trip, this one began before dawn.  It continued as many duck hunting trips do, without any ducks.  We deployed our gear and sat in the mud from 6:45 to 8:45 with no action.  Luckily, Lenny and I find this lack of action quite amusing and use up the dead time with sarcastic remarks like "the birds will be here any minute" and "they really start flying after 9".  Amazingly enough, one single group of birds did come in at 9, but landed just out of shotgun range to our right in the back of the cove.  After watching them on the water for a half hour we decided to perform the "famed" stalk maneuver which has never worked before but was always referred to as an effective way of getting birds.  We decided to sneak through the water behind some grass to get closer to the birds and amazingly this worked.  Only problem was, they kept swimming further back in the cove looking for food and we were no closer to them than we were before.  After 45 minutes of this nonsense, I whispered to Lenny that this would never work and in fact has never worked before.  He cut his eyes at me and said that quitting was not an option.  We continued after the ducks in stealth mode and did in fact sneak up on them and took three out of the four birds!  This is my first ever successful stalk and I'm proud to say we didn't quit.  Behold natures bounty harvested by cunning, perseverance, and gunpowder!  Wood ducks are pretty up close and these were no different. 

Many thanks to my lovely wife for taking pictures of more dead animals than she would like.  Here is a pic of the noble hunters and their take for the day. 

Sightseeing

After relaxing and skiing we headed to Boone and Blowing Rock for some sightseeing and shopping.  We had lunch at a great place in Boone (a friend of a friend owns it) and took a peek at Appalachian State's campus.  It was a dreary, rainy day and we walked around Blowing Rock. They had a cute little park and we used a timer (and self portrait stance) to snap a few photos of ourselves...

We also found a great little knit shop (eek! - and um, not by chance) where Eric picked out yarn for his new hat (old one was itchy) and I found a little something for myself too!  You can check out hat details here and here but the yarn...I'll go ahead and share a sneak peak with you...

mmmmm....Malabrigo.  lol.  All you knitting people know what I mean!
We had a great trip to the mountains and came home refreshed and ready for all the Christmas festivities!