Making Cookies

Three blogs in one day is more than enough for me, so this will be my last one until after Christmas.

Last week, I got together with my friends Jan and Linda and their kids and we made cookies. The kids started by decorating cookies we had made the day before. There were 13 kids in all, but only 11 that started decorating and in the end only 8 remained after the fun of licking off the frosting wore off. John didn't actually decorate, he sat at the table and as the kids finished putting on frosting and sprinkles he would take the cookie off the tray and lick off the good stuff. Then he would thoughtfully put the cookie back on the tray. I ran around throwing away cookies so no one would have to eat John's slime.


These are some of the kids eating lunch.


John eats like a dog right now...don't know how to stop that.


Here are some of the cookies.

I was horrible about taking pictures this week so I will again refer you to another blog site so you can see a little of the mess the kids made. Jan is the one who got me started with this whole blog thing so have fun checking out her site.

These last two picture were taken at our open house on Sunday. This is John's future wife Elizabeth. He already loves her!! I told Hans I didn't care how he made it happen, but I have to have the Meliuses as my son's in-laws.

Elizabeth wasn't too sure about this.

She is just the cutest little girl, but my picture does not do her justice so you will have to check out Jan's blog.

Merry Christmas everyone!

My brother

My brother, Mark, and his business partner, Ryan, own a company called "All Signs and Tint."

You can check out their website www.allsignsandtint.com
They do wonderful work like most new business owners they have worked and continue to work hard to keep the company thriving.

They've had two big events in the past couple of weeks, and although I have ZERO pictures because my brother doesn't think to take them, Ryan's sisters somehow got pictures and I'll refer you to their blogs.

The first event was All Signs and Tint had the opportunity to the windows of a house being built by Home Extreme Makeover in Keller, Texas. The house had about 49 windows which is a lot of work and the guys scrounged up all of their employees and trusted friends to tint all of the windows in one day. Heather has pictures of the big reveal here.

The second event was the ribbon cutting ceremony at their store. They have had the store for a few months but have just now joined the Chamber of Commerce. I think this was a very smart move and should bring them some good business...but what do I know? Melissa has picture of this here. For those of you who have never seen my brother he is the one standing to the far right in the first picture.

I wish both guys all the best!

GREAT with child

OK, so I've been horrible about posting things so you will get a few weeks worth of posts today. My pregnancy is still going well. I'm very tired but that could also be because I'm working three mornings a week at a preschool and running around after a two year old. I look forward to the time when I can sleep in until 8 without a cute little boy saying "Wake up Mommy" as he is poking me in the eye.


24 weeks...no make-up and all you guys get the real me!


26 weeks

If I'm lucky and the baby keeps growing as fast as he/she has been, we could have a new addition to our family in as early as 10 weeks!

Thanksgiving

This year was the first Thanksgiving held in our home. We have always spent Thanksgiving with Hans' or my family, but this year we had to do all the cooking ourselves. Grandma and Grandpa Fiene came to visit us for a few days which made our Thanksgiving much more enjoyable. They flew in Thanksgiving evening so I had all day to prepare things for their arrival. The dinner, I must say, went very well. We have TONS of leftovers, but that is what Thanksgiving is for, right?

John and Grandpa being silly, cutting the turkey.

John had to stay next to Grandpa's side the whole time.

Grandma and John read lots of books the two days she was here.

We woke up to snow one morning, which John calls snowman. He asked all morning to play in the "snowman" so Grandma and Grandpa took him outside and had a snowball fight.

We were also able to go to Garden of the Gods which was beautiful.

In this picture John is throwing a snowball at Grandpa.

We had a wonderful time and I was very thankful that John and Solveig could visit us. John was very sad to see them leave and cried all the way home from the airport.

Leaves, Leaves, Leaves!

Hans and John decided it was time to rake leaves before it started to snow. It's a good thing they did it this day because it was a nice warm sunny day. Two or three days later it snowed. I'm not sure how much John actually helped, but he had fun.






My two hard working guys.

Me and My Big Baby

Hans, John and I went to the doctor's office on Tuesday and got to see our baby! We did not find out what we are having so you will all have to wait a few more months. We did, however, find out that we have a big baby. I kept noticing the sonographer double checking all of her measurements and she finally asked me how big John was when he was born. John was about 2 weeks early and weighed 8 lbs 5 oz. I am at 22 weeks and all the measurements she took put me a couple of weeks ahead. This means that at 36 weeks I will have another sonogram to see how big the baby is so we can determine when I will deliver. This makes me feel a little better about my weight gain. I am still doing much better than last time, but still not as good as I would like...but doesn't everyone feel that way?

Here is a profile picture of our little Myrl.

For those of you who have been asking here are my preggo pictures so far.

13 almost 14 weeks.

19 weeks

21 weeks

Trip to Texas

John and I hopped in the car last Tuesday morning and drove to Texas for a week. There was literally no planning, just going. It is a 12 hour drive with not much to look at, so I was fortunate enough to get to listen to 12 hours of Thomas the Train.

Now, for those of you who haven't been to Texas, this is probably what you think it looks like.


But, what do you know? This is Oklahoma!

This is Texas!

But, in all fairness this is western Texas and not the Dallas/Ft. Worth area.


We left Denver at 4:30 in the morning and got to my parents house around 6:15 in the evening. When we got there we put together this Thomas the train set that my friend Schel gave us...which is staying at Grandma and Grandpa's house. This train set occupied John the whole time, we didn't even need to go anywhere!



The first night we had it up he laid like this for 3 hours...seriously!!


Of course he enlisted help from Grandpa and Uncle Mark or whoever else was within grabbing distance.


On Wednesday and Thursday we spent the majority of the day up at church where John fit right in with all the other preschoolers.


This is John giving Graysen a hug. Graysen and John are pretty much the same size, but 2 years apart. Hans and I claim Graysen and Emily as our own, even though they already have a great mom.


This is Emily. John just loves Emily and cried when she had to leave.


John also visited Grandma in her art room which is on the second floor of the school. We quickly realized why kids are not allowed to use the elevator when John pushed the emergency button and my dad had to explain it was just a two year old with quick fingers.


This is John's first painting. He had a lot of fun...




and made a big mess.


On Friday I talked my parents into playing hookie and we all went to the Fort Worth zoo and took a ride on the train we called Donald, that goes through Trinity Park.






When we weren't at the zoo, or church we sat at home and were entertained by my silly kid.






As long as this post is I still have tons more pictures. It was hard to choose which ones made the cut.

John did absolutely wonderful in the car so I think I'll keep him, for now.

John's first trick or treat

Yesterday John and I went with some friends and their kids to a trick or treat event at a local high school. This was John's first time to trick or treat since he was having too much fun giving candy away last year...boy that phase didn't last long.



John and his friend Thomas were both firemen. I had several people ask if they were twins, which is very funny since they look nothing alike.


John learned quickly the high school kids were handing out candy and that if he stood there long enough they would give him more.






Here is my little fireman...Happy Halloween.