It's a baby (shower)!

A couple of weeks ago, I went to my friend Megan's shower. I cannot take credit for the great decor, but I can take credit for these pictures. I'm learning from Blake how to get low and get good angles, but I wanted to show off some of my good ones from the occaission. I'm glad they worked out because I became the official picture-taker of the gathering! =) Congrats to Rickey and Megan and we're so excited to meet Isaiah!

Merry Christmas!

Just wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas! I hope that amongst the business of the holiday season, we all have a chance to reflect on the miracle of Christ's birth. He is the only gift worth getting. Thanks for everyone's prayers and support this year.

Best.Gift.Ever.

So, on Thanskgiving afternoon, I was minding my own business when my Meme (my Mom's mom) came in and said she had something to show us. We all went in the bedroom and she had laid out this quilt on the bed. After several minutes of ooing and ahing, she handed me a note stating that she had started working on this quilt in 199? (she thinks it was about 18 years ago) because she wanted me to learn U.S. geography. She has been working on it ever since. It is an incredible gift! She spent 18 years on this thing! Wow! She did it all by hand and it is incredible. Each square has a different state: the outline of the state, the state bird and the state flower. And there are buttons for the state capitols which all came out of my great-grandmothers' button boxes.

Needless to say, I have a new treasure. It's going to be the first think I grab if there's ever a fire, that's for sure! Thanks, Meme for the amazing gift!

Merry Thanksgiving!

Well, this is a little bit of a late post, but still worth doing. We spent Thanksgiving at my parents' house with my sisters and mom and dad. Thanksgiving morning started in the traditional way of my sisters being dragged out of bed, but this time it wasn't me! It was Robert C. dropping by wearing his shorts and boots to tell us Happy Thanksgiving! I will take hugs from that guy any day of the year. =)

Later on Thanksgiving day, my Meme and Papa came up as well as my Aunt Joyce and my parents' best friends Curtis and Marie. It was a HUGE spread and one big giant table that we got to sit and chat around. It was so wonderful to all be together. Big kudos to my Mom for the amazing dinner she prepared. It was a perfect Thanksgiving!

P.S. Check out my Dad's sweet goatee!

Franklin

When we were in Tennessee, we had a morning with no wedding events, so Blake and I headed to Franklin, Tennessee, USA to enjoy the fall colors and the really cute main street. We had been there before (when we were engaged!) so it was fun to see it again. We really enjoyed strolling and looking in all the little shops. It was beautiful and the day could not have been any more relaxing!

Tennessee Bound

We never go places in America, so when our good friends Michael and Erin decided to get hitched in Tennessee, we started making plans to go! They were both j-men in North Africa with us and we got to know them each really well. So, when they began dating, we were so excited for them! Anyways, here are some pictures of the first day, which involved the 11 hour drive and a fun bachelorette party for Erin! It was so fun to see all of our friends again. More pictures to come!!

What Blake Was Doing

You may have noticed that Blake was in none of our pictures from the race. He's not really into group running, or running at all. He has a really high metabolism! So, he became our race photographer. But

from the gun until we got to the finish was about 40 minutes (it took us 10 minutes to get to the front!) so he had to do something to pass the time. Well, he took his camera and went to the river where he found these statues and made good use of his spare time!

Racing For The Cure

A few weeks ago, Oklahoma City had the big Race For The Cure to benefit breast cancer research. My work had a team participating, so my family decided to join up. We had a blast! We got to run/walk a 5K and it was just so much fun to do something as a family. Kudos to Katie coming in first and to Mom and Dad for walking half of what they do on a normal day! Check out some of th

e sights and sounds:

By the way, how beautiful is my Mom

Reunited!

The Paynes are home! On Tuesday we took the day off and drove to Yukon to meet them at Gary's parents' home. The reunion's were sweet! I honestly didn't expect Emmy to be so excited to see us. I arrived first (we had to drive separately) and was so surprised to see Emmy so excited. And the other shock is how big Logyn is! Wow! She's walking around. And then when Uncle Blake showed up, it was so sweet to see her running across the yard yelling "Uncle Blake! Uncle Blake!" He is so excited to see those girls. And little Logyn was going "Bake, Bake!" I don't think she knows who he is, but Emmy was yelling it so she was too!
We loaded up the vehicles and drove over to the house they will be staying in. After a great lunch at Chili's we went back to their house and cleaned and unpacked. After 5 months, it was so nice to be together again!

A Very Botched Birthday (Cake)

I usually use this online forum to make fun of Blake, but since it's his birthday week, I'll make fun of myself. Blake's 26th birthday was a week ago and it was a very busy week, so other than going out to eat, we didn't get a chance to celebrate until Friday. So Thursday night, I set out to make a cake for him since some friends were coming over. So, I made the cake (which tastes really good by the way) and I bought a little bag of icing they sell at Walmart. My plan was to write "Happy Birthday" in blue icing. Well, I started on the "H" and messed up. The icing wouldn't come off, so my next thought was to spread the blue icing over the cake. Well, turns out, there was not enough icing (see in the picture!). I only made about a third of the cake blue. Blake laughed really hard at me. I got really mad at myself, but if Blake can get a good laugh out of the deal, I'm okay with it. =) At leasted it tasted good.

The candles on the cake are in honor of his inner age. I always tell him that he acts like an old man!

Moroccan Tea Party

We have been back four and a half months, but we still miss some things about Morocco. Mostly, it's people. But recently we had the opportunity to have some college students over to our place. They were all in Morocco over the summer and even though we had never met, it was great to sit and talk about similar places and people. It was so neat to hear how God worked over there. It was so great to hear about women that I had shared with that the girls had also gotten to share with. Anyways, it was my first time making couscous and tea by myself. I think I did a pretty good job for a rookie! We had a blast and are looking forward to our next tea party! Oh, and I was telling a story in the picture of Chen Chu pouring the tea. I wasn't telling her what to do, I promise! Although, that would be something I would do....

Memory Lane

Today is our good friend Kate's birthday. Last year at this time we were sitting around a small town in Africa and were very, very bored. We decided to come up with a video fo her birthday and this is what resulted. It's always fun to look back at good times and this was certainly a good laugh!

Volleyball Tournaments

That's right I said tournaments. The past two weekends, my cousin Jill and her family have been in town for volleyball. They had two tournaments in a row in our neck of the woods. It's great for us because we get to see them two weekends in a row, but it stinks for them because it's a 5 hour drive (one way!) from Guymon, Oklahoma to Norman, Oklahoma.

We had a great time and Jill gave us our money's worth because they won both tournaments! Go Tigers!

P.S. The best part of the weekend was taking Jill to Chick-fil-a and watching her get harrassed by multiple people because she was wearing orange!

Desperate in Norman

So, we're back in the States, but somehow have less access to OU football than we did in Morocco! How did that happen? Well, we don't have cable, for starters. We could care less about that except for 12 Saturdays a year. We went to our friend Beau's place and his bunny ears weren't working so Blake had the idea of extenting the antenna via their legs (see picture). Needless to say, it din't work.

Then this past weekend, Blake and I spent seventy bucks on the bunny ears and converter. They didn't work at all! Poor Blake spent much time trying to add the foil to the antennas and no luck. So, we went to Louie's to watch the game. The food is good, but it's just not the same as sitting in your living room watching.

We do have a solution this weekend. Our friends Justin and Natalie have graciously invited us over to watch the game with them. We're excited to hang out with them and their two kiddos. I'm hoping to make my chocolate chip cookies over there as a reward!

Always Be Prepared

Just a heads up. Blake's camera is always looking for someone to snap. When Blake says "Work it!" you'd better be ready. You might be just walking around or standing there, but here are some pics of people that have "worked it" for Blake recently! Not everyone responds in a normal way, as you can see!

Harper Mae

Some of our best friends from college and beyond had a little girl in early August. Since they live down in Plano, TX we decided to make the trip down to meet Harper. Here are some pictures of her and them. She's so cute and they are great parents! Congratulaitons Beau and Stacey!

Oh, and I love the picture of Beau grinning and Harper screaming. =)