2008 Year in Pictures

I always make it a point to give Darcie a year in review - but since the picture frames are taking over our house (and since we enjoy sharing our story on the ol' blog), I thought I'd try a video this year. Many thanks to the folks at Animoto for the cool video stuff and to Steven Curtis Chapman for such a great song. Hope you enjoy the look back at such an amazing year! Merry Christmas!

Oasis

I'm basking in the glow of what is the approaching Christmas break.  I just wrapped up my 7th semester of the Forge (geeze!) and I have some serious plans to sleep for the next 3 straight weeks.  Don't blame the students - they have really been an exciting and engaging group this year.  It's just been a long fall.  Lots of life lessons, struggles, bewilderments and sleepless nights (thank you Heidi), but I've made it to the oasis of Christmas - 3 glorious weeks of finally getting the chance to process my own thoughts and get caught up on all that I've fallen behind on.

I'm also looking forward to celebrating 6 years of being married to Darcie here in a couple of weeks.  That's like 12 semesters + a lot of summer school!  It's great to see her shine as a mommy.  She loves it (and Heidi does too) and I don't think she realizes how much it makes her shine to me.  Just another bonus of having a child, I guess.  :)

Darcie and I are hoping to be able to take a short vacation for our anniversary, but a 5-month old and a 1 year old dog present quite the challenge to that endeavor.  We'd really like to go skiing - mostly because neither of us have been since high school and we have friends up in Colorado.   Hopefully we'll work something out!

I'm also sad to report that my Fantasy Football team failed to make it to the Super Bowl again this year.  It was a good season - finished up 9-5 on the year, but my players underperformed all season and I just couldn't catch a break when I needed it most.  Still so fun to play, though, and look forward to next season.

...speaking of next season...only 1 month until Lost season 5!  

4 months old!

Heidi had her 4-month checkup last week, and we can't believe how fast she's growing!  She is so much fun now, laughing and "talking" and interacting with us and her toys so much more now. One of her favorite new activities is jumping in her bouncer seat that I got at the children's consignment sale (which is one of my new favorite things... the bouncer and the sale!)  

We had a great time with families over Thanksgiving, and we're looking forward to Christmas already.  Heidi has a little cousin, Meredith, on the way - probably at the end of December, and another one due in June, so we're excited to welcome more babies to the family.  So far, there will be 4 girls and 1 unknown.  If it's a boy, he'd better look out!

Thanksgiving in D/FW

Happy Thanksgiving to all! Hope you all have enjoyed some extended time with your families and friends. Darice and I took Heidi to DFW for some time with both of our families. I wish we could say that we were the main attraction this time around, but, alas, Heidi is the main event - and we're just her roadies. But I'm okay with that. :)

Here are some fun pictures of the Main Event from our week in town:

Tis the Season(s)

Or I suppose you would put "th'are" instead of "tis", but...

Darcie has had lots of fun keeping busy during the daytimes and when Matt is on trips by taking fun pics of Heidi around town and at home.  What good is it having a baby if you can't put them in silly poses and take pictures so you can embarrass them when they're older?

Heidi had her first visit to see Santa last week with her good friends Nathan (the Halloween giraffe) and Mackenna.  We actually got Santa pics at the same grocery store where the pumpkin 

pictures were taken.  What's next?  The Easter bunny?  All three kids did very well - a lot less crying than the older kids that were in line in front of us.  Heidi had on her normal "serious" face most of the time. She also got a good hold of his beard at one point and she has a good grip. We figure next year she'll be old enough to be scared of him.  

She is also learning to talk a lot more, and has gained some control of her once flailing hands, so she can grasp at things and loves bright colors.  It's a lot of fun to watch her learn.

Are you smarter than these guys?

So, I was updating my fantasty football team tonight and just happened to notice these ads at the bottom of the screen. I couldn't help but laugh out loud. Can you spot the goof....and the irony? :)

Weekend Getaway

October has been a busy month for me. I was gone for 2 weeks and left Darcie and Heidi here all by themselves. So, at my first opportunity, I wanted to treat Darcie to a special weekend just to say thanks for taking care of Heidi all by herself those weeks and for making it possible for me to do the things I love to do. So, here's a fun little recap of our adventures in Dallas this weekend!

First priority: ditch Heidi. We love our daughter, but she wouldn't make for a very nice evening for the two of us. Fortunately for us, my parents live in Plano and were more than excited to watch her for the evening.

After dropping her off, we headed straight for our favorite restaurant: Del Frisco's. We used to go there once a year for our anniversary, but since Tyler is fairly slim on classy places to take your wife to tell her you love her - we have to make do with our occasional visits now. Nevertheless, it is the BEST steakhouse anywhere. Really. I'm not just exaggerating. It really is that good. I mean, just check out the onion rings - if the onion rings look this good - can you imagine how amazing my steak was? Anyway, I could go on...


After stuffing ourselves we headed Uptown for the David Wilcox concert. Now, the weird thing is that the concert was held at Bend Studio - a yoga studio by day and a concert venue by night. I was a little skeptical when I saw that's where he was playing, but it was our only chance to catch him, so I had to give it a shot. It actually made for a very nice atmosphere for the concert. There were only about 80 people there, it felt like we were sitting in his living room and it provided us with the opportunity to meet and speak with him at the end of the show! Very cool place. Would definitely see a concert there again.


The concert itself was fantastic. Dave played all of the favorites along with a few new songs that he's been working on. It was a treat for me to be able to see him again, but it was Darcie's first time, so she was excited to be able to put a name with the face - even if he was wearing an Obama/Biden t-shirt. Perhaps one of the best moments of the evening was when he decided to play one of his most popular songs, "Waffle House", as an encore. First he had to teach himself the chords again and then couldn't remember all the words! So, he brings up an audience member who gets to sing along with him the words to a perfect song to sing on Halloween. It was a great time. If you aren't familiar with David or his music, here's a youtube video of "Perfect Storm" - a good song for these tough times.

Upon arriving back at the hotel (Homewood Suites by Hilton - a very nice and affordable place to stay), we caught Heidi watching a show she shouldn't have been watching. See for yourself:



The next morning we had breakfast with Nana, Pops & Jodie before heading back to Tyler. And to top-off the weekend I saw something I thought I would never see again in my lifetime: gas below $2 a gallon. Unbelievable.















So, all in all, a great little getaway for our family!