Christmas!

We had a blast with Ethan and family this Christmas. Here is a photo recap of our events!

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

Merry Christmas from the Vandevers

(Pictures from our Christmas card below + one)

A Funny

I received this in an email today and thought it was pretty good. Merry Christmas lighting to you!

Happy Halloween!

OBX

The family went to the Outer Banks this week.... Jason, Ethan, and I that is. We thought camping with a soon to be 7 month old was a little ambitious.  We met up with some good friends who were also spending the week there and had some great times with them. We discovered that Ethan can sit in one of those restaurant high chairs and eat baby food while we eat our meal. It made us more mobile to do that with him. He did try to eat sand again but we were on our A game and kept him from his favorite salty snack. We went to a few pools and beaches and he loved every minute of being in the water.

We stayed in a family friend's condo that had a lot of mirrors. Ethan loves mirrors. He would crawl up to one and start screaming at his reflection. He loves looking at himself. All the furniture was a good height for Ethan to cruise around on. He could grab onto the coffee table and walk around it.

We went onto this fancy pier to watch the fisherman and to see the huge waves from hurricane Katia. Ethan loved the wind and screamed every time the wind blew really hard. It was hilarious.

My favorite times were when we would go take walks on the beach at sunset. It was beautiful and the weather was so nice. And because of hurricane Katia, there were huge waves and the surfers would be catching their last waves of the day. It was really fun to watch.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today is my birthday. Jason, Ethan, and I hung out at Carter Mountain this morning. Jason played with Ethan in the afternoon so I could take a long nap. Then, we went out for dinner with family tonight. It was a wonderful birthday. Now begins the 10 days during the year when Jason and I are the same age. :) Happy 28th to me!

You know someone loves you when....

they love the people you love. My mom demonstrated her great love for me this weekend by visiting our little family. I know it is quite a journey from Houston to Central Virginia.  It means an entire day in an airport/car. Packing a suitcase, sleeping in a strange bed, and in our case being awakened throughout the night by a little bundle of joy.

My mom braved it all. She loves me. I know it. Here are some pics and a video of our visit.

We had a great time just doing simple stuff- like going for walks with the stroller, having tummy time, playing with Ethan, rocking him to sleep, and making him laugh. It was so fun. Thanks for coming to visit Mom!

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day-- pre-babiness. This is what we did to celebrate.... :)

Mom made the heart shaped pizza- pepperoni and mushroom- yum! Jason and I made a barbeque chicken pizza- yum! And for dessert we had chocolate covered strawberries.  Followed by  the movie Up that was showing on TV. We laughed a lot. That movie is pretty great.

You can see that I am about to drop this child on the floor. :)We have an induction planned for tomorrow. That will make him born one week past due. Not too bad. I hope you had a wonderful Valentine's Day too!

Mmm Holiday Recipe

I love mushrooms. I know that there is a significant part of the population that would disagree with me. I will admit they have a rather sponge like consistency and absorb any flavor they are combined with. Some people don't like how they burst their juices in your mouth after they've been cooked or have to be chewed a few times when raw. I love it all.

I made some mushrooms to take to a housewarming party last night and they were not a hit. I ate almost all of them because I love them so much. I don't think the people there were mushroom people. I did take the leftover filling and served it with crackers. This was a big hit. The filling is amazing- I just don't think people appreciated it inside a baked mushroom.

In the off chance that you are a mushroom person, here is the recipe. If you are not, you could make the filling and serve it with crackers.

Ingredients:
2 cartons of bite sized mushrooms
1 tube Jimmy Dean mild sausage
1 block of 100% real cream cheese
some pancake syrup

Directions:

Filling:
Brown the sausage
Squirt some syrup into cooked sausage- mabye 1/4 cup
Add cream cheese
Stir until melted

Mushrooms:

Destem mushrooms
Clean by using wet paper towel and wiping off dirt- if you rinse them in a dish drainer they will absorb too much water and become slippery
With a small spoon, fill each mushroom with filling and place on a baking sheet or pyrex dish
Cook for 20 minutes in a 350 degree oven

Serve leftover filling with crackers.

Yummy!

Where have I been?

I can't believe the last time I posted anything was in October. Wow. Well a lot has happened since then, including..... my brother's wedding. It was so fun to see my brother tie the knot. The wedding was beautiful and they thought of every last detail. Including their wedding dance. Here is a little magic from their special day.

The next big event was my Mom's graduation from college! She had so many people come into town to see her walk across the stage. I got to spend a lot of time with her. It was fun to have some quality time with my mom.

We have also been working on Baby Vandever's room. It has gone from a cluttered office/guest room to a nursery. We had it painted last week and have a few pieces of furniture in it. It makes the whole baby thing so much more real. Soon I will be covered in spit up and be losing lots of sleep all while getting to see what Jason and I look like if you were to put us together in a person. It's going to be fun and life changing! Here is the nursery so far.



My Dad comes to stay with us tomorrow for the next 2 weeks. We have 8 weeks until Little Vandever arrives. I have a few weeks of school left. It is all going by so quickly! I will try to update the blog more frequently...but I cannot make any promises. :)

Birthday Boys and a Broken Camera

All the Vandever/ Ringle men have birthdays within 1 week of eachother. Last weekend Jason's uncle and dad were up. We had a good time with them.

David (uncle) about to blow out the candles

David and the kiddos (Becca, Andrew, and Debbie)

We went out for pizza with David, Janet, the kiddos, Patty, John, Barbara, Jason and I. We had a great time. David had a punch sheet and got us some free stuff with all of his stamps from each time he has been. We had a lot of fun figuring out what we could use. The food was really good too. :)

The next day it was Tom's turn (Jason's dad).

Tom blowing out his candles.

Lucy made a fantastic peanut butter cake from scratch and we played a murder mystery dinner game. I gave Lucy the link to a website that Alison (of Hansen Happenings to the right) had posted from a game she had played with some friends. We didn't dress up like Allison's group did, but we had fun playing the murder mystery game. It had a very unexpected ending.

Today, was John. (Jason's grandpa)

John with all the grandkids (Jason, Becca, Debbie, Andrew, and a picture of Justin)

John turned 79 today and his lovely wife Barbara made a spice cake which she has done every birthday for many years. I like the tradition because the cake was fabulous! We had a great time.

The bad news is I sat on our camera and broke it. The lense won't pop out now. I hope the camera shop can fix it! So, I may not have any new pictures for a while.

We have another lull before the next round of birthdays hits in July. Faith- July 2, Jason- July 12, Barbara- July 13, My mom- July 15,( our 5th wedding anniversary- July 16), and Patty- a few weeks later on August 13. Whew! What was happening 9 months before July. Mabye I shouldn't ask that question. :)