Playtime

Maggie and I were playing a little fetch with the tennis ball tonight...

Leap Day

Wednesday was Leap Day. February 29th of 2012. And apparently God decided I needed a day of rest on that extra day of the year. I started feeling crummy on Tuesday night and didn't eat much for dinner. I went to bed early.

My head kind of hurt, I didn't have much energy and was weak and stiff. I got caught up by 3 days on my Bible reading (because I was 7 days behind). I did some scrapbooking. I napped. I watched Walk the Line. I ventured out for a short walk just to get out of the house and try to loosen up. I watched Survivor.

I stayed home with Maggie all day. She's such a goofball. A couple of different times throughout the day I sat down on the love seat in the living room to read. I stretched my legs out to be more comfortable. Well, Miss Maggie wanted to join me on the couch like she has been recently when I read. (Normally I don't take up the whole couch.) But I was taking up the whole couch. She didn't like this. So she decided that she needed to nudge all 70 pounds of herself up on the couch even though there wasn't much room. I did sort of move my legs so she could join me, but it was still quite funny to watch her try to fit. Had to capture this the last time this happened...

Where did February go, anyway?

all about Miss Maggie

I just wanted to post some pictures of Maggie that I've taken in the past few weeks. It ends up that she is one of my main objects to photograph. And I need a reason to use my new camera and fill up my Project Life album (which is going wonderful, btw)!

Each one has a bit of a story to go along with it...

Maggie with one of her favorite toys, her stuffed dinosaur. Chris won this for her at the 2010 white elephant gift exchange and she's hardly put it down since (as evidenced by the fact that it's ripping apart). In fact, she even carries it up and down our stairs and has come very close to falling multiple times.

Caught red-handed sleeping on our bed while we were at work. This has become a more common occurence (her still being on the bed when we go upstairs) as she's getting older and loves to sleep more.

Maggie really, really, really wanting Chris' milk cup. I don't know why I ever started this when she was less than a year old, but it has stuck ever since. She has this sixth sense about when you have a glass of milk, especially around bedtime. She will literally come from another part of the house if you are having milk and sit like a perfect little angel, just hoping that you will let her lick your cup when you're done :)

great start

We had a wonderful Christmas! It was a great time to see family and friends. And we even got to bring in the New Year with a small party at our house :)

Our year is off to a great start! But it's always tough to get back into our routines again after having a lot of days off for the holidays.

We got a new camera (finally) this week! Our old one has been on its last leg for a pretty long time and it's almost 5 years old. (I guess that camera didn't ever start off too well since Maggie got ahold of if when she was a young puppy!) Wow, has technology changed. I'm already absolutely loving it! It's just a point and shoot (Canon Powershot) but it's so easy to use. I can't wait to play with it some more and to use the 1080p video! Here are a couple of my favorites from just the last few days...

Lake of the Ozarks 2011

We had yet another great vacation at the Stevens' cabin in Lake of the Ozarks last week!  It was some much-needed vacation and relaxation time and was really wonderful being able to spend 10 days together.  I'll let the pictures speak for themselves...

we made it to Missouri after going through our fav small-town stop along the way!

 good times catching up with some college friends! (thanks again to all of you for making the trip out!)

(Jason skiing for the first time!)

(Jason learning what it's like to fall on skis!)

(Chris)

 (Josh wakeboarding for the first time!)

reality of life didn't go away...we had an issue with the boat (see melting plastic since the engine wasn't being cooled properly!)

reading 2 good books and savoring sangria all week (my fav summer beverage)

Maggie hung out on the deck a lot when it wasn't too hot...

and when she wasn't swimming :)

really nice dinner at J.B. Hooks overlooking the lake - delicious food, wonderful company, and gorgeous views

 (it's right by the toll bridge)

 stop by the Bagnell Dam since I had never been

fun on wave runner
(we also had some CRAZY-fun times tubing with Chris' uncle John driving. I've never gotten so much air while tubing! I think Chris and I maneuvered the tube quite well, but Chris definitely helped me out a few times! we were both sore the next few days but I think it was well worth it :) it was also great seeing John's family last weekend!)

(my favorite place to ride by on the water)

most of all I loved being with my two favorite people :)

spring at the Barnes'

I have to say that we are enjoying all of the green outside at our house this spring!  It feels like we have plants and flowers coming up everywhere, especially in our backyard.  It's quite the difference from our last house that had practically no landscaping compared to this house.  I'm loving seeing some of God's beauty at home :)

Yesterday we even planted our own vegetable plants.  We had been debating about exactly where we should locate a garden in our backyard.  So instead of really having to make a decision and to see what we could do before putting a dent in our backyard grass, we decided to plant several pots of veggies!

green and yellow peppers

roma tomatoes

celebrity tomatoes

zucchini

Honestly, we don't exactly know what we're doing with growing these vegetables, but we thought it was worth a shot.  (We know the containers we used a couple years ago to try and grow tomatoes were too small, so we went with bigger ones.)  I just need to remember to water them everyday, especially since they're in pots and will dry out faster and I've been reading that the zucchini love water.  And we'll have to keep the bunnies away.  If they start eating them, then we'll just have to put chicken wire in front of the holes that they get through under the fence right now :) Maggie loves chasing them, but they are pretty brave bunnies. We had one come in the yard on Saturday night while the 3 of us were out there having dinner on the deck!  It had some nerve, but Maggie quickly chased it out of the yard.

I've been having fun taking pictures of our pretty plants and flowers...

hostas - we have so many and this is just one kind that we have!

lily of the valley completely surrounding our tree (and invading into the grass)

(btw, i'm loving this pic, if i can say so myself :)

the 3 trees I thought "were dead" - they're blooming! we're hoping it helped that we cut off a lot of the dead branches last fall

found this little guy on the tree branch...I suspect this may be one of those "fake ladybugs". I'm not sure if they can harm trees but it may not hurt checking into. We've found some of the same ones in the house before...hmmm.

more lily of the valley - they are slowly taking over all of our flower beds

and yet another huge patch of it! we also have a large area of chives (or wild onions, which is what my mom said they might be). feel free to ask us for some if you want some chives!



Feel free to leave any comments if you have tips for us on our gardening.  We're hoping our little garden will be fruitful so we'll be eating some home-grown veggies in a few months :)

Guess what we did today...

I just had to share a couple pics from my playtime with Maggie today when I got home. We were enjoying the absolutely beautiful weather and got to play with her beloved frisbee which we haven't used much since last fall.

I could tell Maggie was ECSTATIC about playing!

These pictures just make my heart happy :)

*december 18th*

We had the best time on Saturday night! We had a progressive dinner with our small group. And it wasn't just any progressive dinner - it was a fancy-dress dinner :)

I was excited for it. I took Chris with me to try to find a dress. I was a little skeptical at first, but we ended up finding one for $15 (before the extra 15% coupon we had) on clearance! And I really like it - I hope to wear it again. (Thanks honey for helping me find it.)

We had appetizers at the Osbourne's, dinner at our place, and then dessert at the Gerlemann's. All of the food was absolutely delicious! Chris did an amazing job with the brisket (and tried some new recipes which turned out wonderful), which went well with the creamed corn and awesome potatoes (thanks Kim!). I think my favorite part of dessert was the hot dark chocolate and thumbprint cookies.

After eating, we also had a white elephant gift exchange. Chris and I ended up with 3 gifts even though we only brought 2! Chris was able to keep his beloved stegasaurus - it is blue with pink spikes and even has a pocket on one side...he fought hard for that thing :) And I came home with a dip chiller, which I'm sure will come in handy. We even got to take home a microwave that is better than the one we are using (because no one else wanted such a gift)!

It was such a great time and we hope to do it again soon! Here are some pics at the dessert portion of the night.

Chris and I in front of the beautiful fire place (hopefully the better pics will be coming our way soon)

Chris was so cute using his new ipod to take pics of the dessert table. It's fun to see him taking pictures (since he hasn't much up to this point)!

And Chris with his stegasaurus...he said that he was trying to "win" it for Maggie :)