Sunday, December 25, 2011

Merry Christmas!

Wishing all of our friends and family a very Merry Christmas!!


Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Look What I Found

The other day, Luke & I were driving down the road along the edge of our property and we noticed something hanging from one of the trees. Strange. Didn't think too much about it; left for the weekend. A few days later I went for a walk to get some fresh air and decided to go see what it was that was hanging in that tree.

It was still there, a white paper box hanging from a very long string. My eyes followed the string up to the very top of a neighboring tree and I spotted what looked like a popped, orange balloon. So I got a stick and finally was able to break the box free from the string it was attached to & this is what I found:



  On the box it says it's a "harmless weather instrument". It's a balloon-borne instrument used by the NOAA National Weather Service to obtain weather data used for forecasting and weather research. It came with a pouch and says that if found, please return. I did some research online about the "Mark IIA" and it said they fly above 90% of the Earth's atmosphere and can travel for hundreds of miles before the balloon pops. Once the balloon pops, an orange parachute (what I saw in the tree) slowly floats the Mark IIA down to the ground. It says only about 20% of the launched weather balloons are ever found and returned so I think it's pretty cool to have found one.

I emailed the National Weather Service to see if they could tell me where it was sent from and when it was sent because I was SO curious. They actually emailed me back with lots of info! It was launched on Dec. 14 from Topeka, Kansas (about 250 miles away). The balloon burst at 103,709 feet and the coldest temperature recorded was -90.6F. The fastest wind it experienced was from the Southwest at 150 MPH at an altitude of 36,830 ft.

Luke asked me if I now want to be a meteorologist, but I don't think I will take it that far. I do think this is pretty cool though!


Picking Out a Tree

 We went in search of our 2011 Christmas tree a couple weeks ago. We knew we wouldn't be home for Christmas and would have to take the tree down before we left, so we wanted a decent one, but it didn't have to be "perfect". We knew just the place: Hick's Tree Farm in Brashear. We have gotten our tree here ever since we moved to the area, but they are getting really picked over. Let's just say the trees are HUGE, so you "pick" whichever one you think you can get in the house. We always seem to find one though.


It was a chilly December afternoon!
"I think this one will work Dad!"

We loaded up the tree of choice and have been enjoying it in our living room for the past couple weeks. Last year Molly was too little to help us pick it out-she just sat in the truck. This year she got to be part of the experience! Here's a picture of the end result:

Molly & I in front of the decorated tree.

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Dancing With Santa


Luke had a cowboy Santa statue when we got married, and every year we put it out in our living room around Christmastime. I thought the batteries in it had just gone dead, but Luke said he had never put batteries in it to begin with and didn't even know it was a singing/dancing cowboy Santa. So...this year it got batteries and oh what fun it has been! Molly runs right up to it, presses it's hand and dances right along with Santa.

Regarding Santa, you will not be seeing any photos of Molly sitting on Santa's lap this year. She waved at him from afar but became hysterical when I tried to put her on his lap. They asked if we still wanted a photo...yeah, not so much! Sorry Santa, maybe next year.

Monday, December 12, 2011

Christmas Cookies


Molly & I made Christmas cookies yesterday. It was so much fun to have a little "helper". She kept stealing little pieces of dough and shoving them in her mouth! She is quite the character and was completely covered in flour by the time we were done. Christmas is so much fun with Molly!

Sneaking some dough.
Pretty proud of herself!

Monday, November 21, 2011

I Almost Forgot

In October we went to a wedding in a cave! I can't believe I almost forgot to blog about this! The cave was called Bridal Cave and they actually have lots of weddings here every year. It is definitely a unique choice of wedding venues. Here is the link if you're curious.

This is where the bride and groom stood. There was room for about 40 people in this opening inside the cave and it was pretty well full, so the picture isn't the best.


Here is our little family. Molly enjoyed being able to run around and play instead of being in a church-haha!

Luke decided to further explore the cave after the wedding was over. He took Molly along for the ride. It was a neat cave-as far as caves go I guess. The lights were turned off just a short ways down there so they didn't get too far!



 The wedding reception was also in a cave (crazy huh?). It's called the Cave Restaurant and the website is here. The ceiling to the restaurant was actually the roof of the cave and inside it was all set up as a regular restaurant--very bizarre and definitely unique.

This wedding was one-of-a-kind for sure and we wish Luke's cousin Amy and her new husband a very long, happy marriage. What an experience of a wedding!!

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Pebbles

 Molly was Pebbles Flintstone for Halloween this year. We thought it was pretty fitting since she has the red hair and typically wears it in a pony tail on top of her head to keep it out of her face. All we had to do there was add a bone clip! I made the costume & it was relatively easy. In total, her costume cost $1.98 in fabric to make & the rest of the supplies I had.

What do you think of the resemblance?















We had a really fun time with Halloween. It was Molly's first trick-or-treating and although she was pretty scared to walk up to anyone's door, she really enjoyed the candy! Her first stop was at Grandma Debbie's house, which was pretty special because she was Grandma Debbie's first ever trick-or-treater. They have always lived out in the country and were either taking the kids around or home-just too far out for anyone to make it by.



We tried to take some photos before heading out, which proved to be quite the challenge with Molly & Kelly. Neither of them were very cooperative about showing off their costumes, as you can see in the expressions shown below.

Hope everyone else had a very fun Halloween and thanks to everyone who we trick-or-treated! Molly ended up with quite the goody bag!