Merry Christmas

We have some great weather today to be playing outside.

Carissa's Songs

At 10pm last night, Carissa "blessed" us with a musical performance. The first two are originals. The third song is one that she is practicing for a holiday show at preschool. As a disclaimer, the Dora pajamas are favorites that we can't give up :)

Evidence

Here's a few ultrasound photos from week 13. We're currently in week 17. We'll find out the sex just after the new year.

Big News

Christina's pregnant! We've known for a while now, but we decided to wait until Thanksgiving to tell most of our family in person. She's due around May 14. Carissa is very excited and has lots of questions, including, "Momma, why did you eat that baby?" Answering them has been tricky, yet fun. 

Check back for some photos from the ultrasound later.

First Camp Out

Back at the beginning of September, Carissa experienced camping for the first time. Bella camped out with us too (and kept me up most of the night barking at random noises). 

Our Little Photographer

Carissa had some fun taking pictures along our trip. All her work tends to look the same though :)

Christina snapped a few nice ones too. 

NC Arboretum

One of our free afternoons at the worship leader retreat, we checked out the North Carolina Aboretum. 

They had a bonsai exhibit going on while we were there.

Carissa built her own bonsai.

Post #nwlr Fun Part 2

Our destination yesterday on our short trip down the Blue Ridge Parkway was Devils Courthouse. That's the rock outcropping at the upper left. It was a pretty steep, 1/2 mile hike to the top. Carissa actually walked quite a bit of it, but ended up on my shoulders the rest of the way (I'm submitting this to "Dad of the Year"). 

Carissa got a little tired on the way up (after riding on my shoulders most of that time), so we took a little break. 

With the help of our daughter, we actually got a picture of us :)

That's where we parked (in the lower right).

On our way back we stopped at a few places to take pictures of Looking Glass Rock. When it's wet or covered with ice, it shines like glass.

There was also a pretty nice looking waterfall that you could hike down to but we all pretty exhausted from our previous hiking trip.

Post #nwlr Fun

So, we've been out in Asheville, NC for the Vineyard National Worship Leaders Retreat (#nwlr). After we finished this morning we took a small trip down the Blue Ridge Parkway. Fall colors are just starting to set in here.

Someone didn't appreciate their picture being taken.

We ate lunch at a park near Mt. Pisgah. It was beautiful up there.

We'll post more photos of our adventure later.

First Pigtails

A few weeks ago, Rolla had it's 2nd annual Celebration of Nations parade, basically a parade to celebrate all of the nations and ethnicities represented in Rolla. For the parade, Carissa got her first pigtails. I'll post more photos from the parade later.

We Are Still Alive!

So, it's been a long time....

The past few months have been busy ones and October isn't looking calm either. We went to Silver Dollar City in September and Carissa had fun on the rides (it was the first time we've been their since she grew taller than 36").

To start things off, a few funny faces from Carissa,

And some dance moves,

That's her and Christina's mom in the center,

2011 Summer StL Trip

2011 Summer StL Trip, a set on Flickr.

We spent the past weekend in St. Louis with Christina's parents and her brother and his family. We had a blast at the zoo, the Arch, and the Magic House.