Extra, Extra...

"Ratliff Gets 5-Year, $20.5 Million Contract Extension"

My sister happened upon this headline, and naturally forwarded congrats on to us! Although this is a different J. Ratliff,( I don't think any college employees get paid that much! With the exception of athletic coaches OF COURSE!- one must have priorities!) it sure would be nice to find out this guy is related!

13 Days until Christmas!

This has been such a fun and busy month so far! I LOVE Christmas time! Here's a list of my favorite Christmas-y things this year!
1- Amazon.com! This is me after all, so of course the first thing on my list is related to bargain hunting! Hooray for way marked down toys, free shipping, and the joy of tracking tons of packages! Today our Christmas packages are in Knoxville, Pocatello, Doraville, and Richmond! How exciting!

2- Christmas decorating on a budget! This year my new addition is a wreath made from green paper, hot glue, ribbon and plastic ornaments!. (pictures coming)

3- Sunshine! It feels like the ever dear to my heart sunny San Diego Christmas of my youth! It's been in the 70's all week!

4- Wait- this should be number one, but since I already have a one, this will be...

.25- The first presidency Christmas Devotional! By far, my favorite part of the Christmas season! Our ward had a nativity social beforehand and we had yummy treats and looked at over 100 different nativities! I think my favorites were the kid-friendly lego nativity, and the felt board nativity!The kids loved the craft table- you can entertain a child for hours with just a few pipe cleaners!
Hope you all (Okay, fine i'll say it!) Ya'll are having a wonderful December too!

The Big NEWS!

Yes, that's right! It's a BOY!! It took a few hours for the initial shock to wear off since the last ultrasound proclaimed it to be a girl. We are very excited to welcome baby Lincoln into our home in just 4 short months!

It's our family tradition that we go out to eat after the ultrasound: Jason's pick if it is a boy, and my pick if it's a girl.
Brooklyn: Teryaki Chicken Bowls at Teryaki Stix in Rexburg
Diego: Burritos at Chipotle in East Lansing
Lincoln: Polish Dogs for lunch at Sam's Club in Athens

Just for the record, Brooklyn and I were so excited to eat chinese food that we WILL be eating at Super China as a secondary celebration for dinner tonight!

Brain Drian!

Well, I have had the occasional pregnancy brain drain in my day, but this week takes the cake! So, I was standing in the hallway at church in the middle of an impromptu Relief Society planning session when Jason said, "Hey, did you see Diego.. oh" and then turned around an walked the other way, to look for him since I was in a meeting (so I thought). Diego had just been walking in the hallway by me so I assumed he might have wandered into the classroom next to me where the choir was practicing for the Christmas program. I excused myself from the conversation and poked my head into the classroom to look around for Diego. I didn't see him in plain sight so I asked one of the young women if she had seen Diego come in there. Awaiting her reply, I did another scan of the room and and I found him... on MY hip. Yeah... too bad I noticed this AFTER I had made it clear to the choir that I didn't know where he was. I almost cried from laughing. I can see forgetting glasses on your head, but a child on your hip... REALLY!!
This is comical, but does give me some relief/hope that at least my subconscious mind knows what it's doing, and is tending to my responsibilities. Much less scary than REALLY forgetting him or losing my sweet and wonderful little guy! Just the thought makes my heart and mind cringe. I'll take the short term memory loss of picking him up any time!

HALLOWEEN!!!

Hey guys! This year we rocked the family theme costumes, which was a blast, so you all have to pretend to be surprised when we do the same thing next year! ( yes, we have a baby incredible costume for the new addition) Here are some of the highlights!

"Violet Incredible" rides the pony at the free carnival this year! She was holding on for dear life, and loving it!

"Dash" even got to ride (with a little assistance) . He was definitly more interested in petting the horse's mane than holding on to the saddle.

"Girls come on! Leave the saving of the world to the men? I don't think so!"

Father and son, saving the world one muscle flex at a time!

"The Dash likes!"

How was your Halloween?

Ode to the straightener.

I have a new found respect for all the cute, in-shape ladies I see around Georgia with perfectly straightened hair! So here's to those amazing women who go running at noon, and have magic hair!

I look out my window and what do I see?
100 degrees of humi-dity breathing at me!
I live in Georgia and it's not a joke,
That taking out my garbage , I am risking heat stroke.
I can get dolled up while the babes are asleep,
I straighten at 11, though it curls up by 3.
So if you ever brave the heat to visit me,
I'll be the puddle of sweat under the massive frizzies.


Okay, so not my best creative genius at work here, but I never outgrew the phase in elementary school where all your poetry sounds like a sad attempt at Dr.Suess. Hehe.

PS: This picture is AFTER I straightened my hair, but BEFORE I entered deathly abyss that is the Georgia heatwave!

Georgia!

Well, to all 2 of you that read this (hehe) we miss you all terribly but are loving Georgia. I've always been a list person, so here goes...

Top Ten Favorite things about moving to Georgia

10. Warmth coupled with a healthy dose of A/C!

9. Trees. We thought Michigan was green, but whoa, we feel like we are living in the camp lodge here!

8. Our own personal washer and dryer. We were fine without one, but now we can(and did) potty train our daughter. Hooray!

7. Fun new church callings. Just as cool as our fun OLD callings, yet still exciting. Jason is liking ward mission work, and I have a blast in primary and cub scouts.
6. ATLANTA! A major airport, the Temple, Six flags, the Aquarium, and Ikea give us lots of fun stuff to do, and plenty of incentive for friends and relatives to visit!



5. Good employment, well, enough said.
4. Southern Food. Where else can you get fried chicken served with your waffle in the morning?
3. Did I already say Ikea?
2. Cheap rent and big bedrooms!
1. And the number one reason we love it here is that we feel right where the Lord wants us to be!


WHAT DO YOU LOVE ABOUT WHERE YOU ARE?

Silly stuff...

As I was wandering through the Disney Store website searching for coordinating shirts for the family trip to Disney(!!!), I lamented at the fact that they don't make shirts for children under size 2T. I realize that 0-24 months is a very small percentage of the population, but still, Disney? Kid friendly right?
I wonder how hard it is to fake a mickey mouse emblem on a baby polo. I can just hear my little boy in the future, "I was always the odd one out, they didn't even get me family shirt on our disney vacation."

Third times a charm...

Well, yet again, I sheepishly admitted to a friend that I do, in fact, have a blog. Be it lame, it still pops on on the link whenever I post on blogs of friends. It seems that the only option I have is to stop avoiding my blog, and EMBRACE IT! So here we go, let's cross our fingers that the third time really is a charm.

Here's the family, to which this future AMAZINGLY COOL blog will be dedicated to.