Thank thank thankful

Thanksgiving. What can I say about it? Eric and I have so much to be thankful for--my job, his school, our home, marriage, family and friends, good health, our good looks...haha (not all in that order). But really, it's been a tough year, but we've never been short on blessings. 

We've made it a tradition here in Kansas to do Thanksgiving with Karrie and Austin each year. This year Ty, Randii, and their daughter Chloe joined us too! It's nice to be able to spend Thanksgiving with amazing friends when you aren't able to visit family. It was even nicer that we didn't host this year! :) We were able to sleep in and scan through ads rather than working our butts off first thing in the morning.

Happy about our relaxing day! 

Karrie and Austin hosted, so they got the lovely turkey duty!

Austin hard at work slicing the turkey.

Randii getting ready to make gravy!

 Eric decided that the mashed potatoes needed to be a little snazzier...

Exhibit A.

 And finally, with the help of everyone we had a fabulous Thanksgiving dinner! 

Karrie is so festive with her decor! I love it. 

It was a good day full of great food, laughs, and SHOPPING! That's right. Immediately after dinner Eric and I stopped at Michael's before heading home. We took advantage of the great "Black Thursday" sale by stocking up on Christmas decor. Eric always hated our Christmas decorations, but now we are both thrilled with the results!

We hope everyone had a HAPPY THANKSGIVING! 

26?!

He did it again! Eric had ANOTHER birthday, and now he is closer to 30 than 20. I made a delicious birthday cake (confetti with butter cream frosting) for Eric. We ate it in less than three days. But in all fairness, Eric had the majority. 

My old man with his birthday cake.

Blowing out the curly candles. 

Obviously enjoying the cake with a full mouth.

Kisses for the birthday boy!

We had a pretty low key birthday this year. I got off of work a few hours early, went to the grocery store, then came home to bake Eric's cake. I also bought him 2 different types of eggnog for his birthday, which he absolutely LOVED. Yes, those are both gone as well. 

Our activity for Eric's birthday was going to Cinema Suites at the movie theater. The chairs were super comfy, and we were served dinner during the movie. It's almost like watching a movie in the comfort of your own home/going out to eat all rolled into one. We saw Breaking Dawn Part 1 and it was so good! The movie wasn't only for me; Eric liked it as well, so don't judge me for taking him. 

Hope you had a good birthday, Eric! I LOVE YOU!!

Baby Shower Time

On Saturday I threw a baby shower with Natalie and Randii for our good friend Karrie. It was the first baby shower I've ever thrown, and I could not have done such a good job without Natalie and Randii's help! Thank you so much you two!

The decorations were so cute and all the food tasted great. Natalie picked up some great decoration ideas from Pinterest that we tried out. 

The food table. A little decor in the back corner made out of muffin liners.

The present table. You can't really see it too well, but we made a little pink and purple garland made out of construction paper and ribbon at the top of the picture.

Natalie and I took a stab at making our first diaper cake. I think it turned out pretty dang cute!

Best diaper cake EVER.

 And what's a party without games!? We started off guessing the different types of baby food. No one got it all right, so I think it was a success! Then we all guessed the measurement of Karrie's stomach. Someone guessed almost exactly right! It was pretty impressive. 

Here, Karrie chose three people to chug water out of a baby bottle with her. The bottles had the smallest hole size, so the girls drank very very slowly despite all their efforts. It was hilarious to watch!

 

Then everyone sat in a circle and they had to pass around 4 different presents every time Natalie read the words "right" and "left" from a story.

And of course, Karrie opened presents after the games. She received so many cute items!

Thank you to everyone who came to the shower. It was a great turn out and Karrie loved all the gifts!

I almost forgot...

WE GOT A NEW CAR!!

Eric and I have been wanting to purchase a second car for awhile now, but we just didn't know when the right time would be. Eric has been sick of riding his scooter around since it's like driving in an oven during the summer and it's quite freezing in the fall. We were going to get through this winter and buy a car in Spring, but I get excited and wanted to start looking early so I would be prepared for our "real" car hunting trip.

After looking at some brand new but small cars, we stumbled upon a 2011 Camry for a GREAT deal. It's a certified used car and has a warranty for another 7 years. We couldn't turn down such a deal for a car that we love, so we pulled the trigger!

I was pretty nervous about our decision after we drove it home, mainly because I hadn't had a chance to check out the market for 2011 Camrys. But when I got home and did some research I was pleasantly surprised with our purchase price. My slight panic attacks only lasted a few days and now we are LOVING our new car. It makes our other Camry seem so old :)

Halloween Hustle

He's at it again! Eric entered another race, only this time he stepped it up and ran a 10k! HOLY COW!!! The Halloween Hustle took place last Saturday morning. Eric didn't invite me to run this one with him, which is a good thing because I would have refused. A 5k is enough (too much actually) for me. I was an excellent cheerleader though :)

This race was much smaller than the last one, but it made for better pictures. It looks like Eric is looking right at the camera, but he's really smiling at me (I was standing behind the camera man). Everyone dressed up for Halloween, so Eric decided to be LeBron James.

Starting the race off.

 I was cozy inside playing Scrabble on the iPad while Eric ran 3 miles, then I decided to come outside and snatch some candids of Eric (these aren't my pics, but they were free and much better quality!).  

Mid-race action!

 I love this picture. Eric looks so victorious with the bell tower in the background!

Eric did fantastic at the race! His goal was to finish under an hour, and he finished in 58 minutes. This is even better because technically this course was .2 miles longer than a real 10k. I think he's crazy for choosing to run 6.2 miles (or in this case 6.4) but I'm so proud of him for finishing. He now qualifies to start at the front of the pack for the Disneyland Half Marathon next September!

Anonymous

Eric was watching the news today and heard them mention that there would be a pre-screening tonight for the movie Anonymous. Anonymous doesn't come to theaters for another 2 days, but in Kansas City it won't come to theaters until November 4th. Eric was able to go online and get us free tickets to see the movie!

They overbooked the theater so it would be full for the screening, so we arrived early. Eric and I grabbed some Noodles and Company and then sat in line at the theater. I've never been to a pre-screening of a movie before, so I don't know what is normal, but we had some entertainment while in line!

These people were from the local Renaissance Festival. 

They juggled for us, taught an old fashioned dance that you see in the movies, and played their "role" the entire time. 

I guess I should mention that Anonymous takes place in Shakespeare's time, hence the Renaissance actors. It is a story about Shakespeare not being the actual author of all those plays, but taking the credit. I really enjoyed seeing a different perspective on Shakespeare. The movie made such a compelling argument that Eric and I walked away feeling like Anonymous was the true story behind Shakespeare. 

And in other news...

We came back from the movie to see my poor little pumpkin looking like this:

The eye was big to begin with, but not THIS big. 

I would be a little stumped on how my pumpkin got ruined, however, last week we came home from the store and discovered Eric's pumpkin looking like this:

You can't really see it, but there are teeth marks in the pumpkin. 

 And to make matters worse...it was so fresh that the juice hadn't hit the ground yet. That just made the whole scenario even worse!

 The squirrels around here are stinkers!! Maybe next Halloween we'll get some squirrel traps. Do they even make those?

Pumpkin Season!

After letting our pumpkins sit outside for a week, we finally carved them yesterday! We have started a little tradition here in Kansas -- every Halloween we carve pumpkins with Karrie and Austin. It's a lot of fun doing the festivities with another couple. Enjoy the pictures!

As you can see, Austin was hard at work carving their pumpkin.

Karrie taking out all the lovely guts!

I'm not sure...

This was the thickest pumpkin I've ever carved.  Just look at the top part right there!

Eric was the only one who didn't trace a picture.  I guess his creative juices were flowing!

Look how cute we are!

I love how focused all of us are on our pumpkins. 

Traditional "gut" picture. I may have lost my pumpkin's guts...or I forgot to take the picture? You decide.

After much time carving, here are the finished products! From left to right: Eric's, mine, and Karrie and Austin's. 

And because Eric's pumpkin just looked like two slits, we had to get some light on the pumpkins. 

Pumpkin face and Iron Man. 

And of course, here they are on our porch. I love having a porch and being able to put our pumpkins there! I can't wait until we have an actual house. 

Johnson Farms Pumpkin Patch

I had never been to a pumpkin patch and wasn't really sure what it entailed (besides the obvious pumpkins). But around here, I kept hearing "pumpkin patch" come up. Eric found a 2 for the price of 1 entry fee to the Johnson Farms Pumpkin Patch, so we decided to give it a whirl!

Eric received AMAZING reviews from his friend at school on how great it is to go pick your own produce. Since we'd like to eat healthy, we thought it would be cool to get fresh vegetables.

For awhile, all we were able to pick was what you see in this picture. It is a lot harder than it looks to pick produce! Especially if you have no idea what you are doing.

Eventually we started eavesdropping on people to see where more types of vegetables were. For example, we heard someone tell another member in their party, "There's broccoli over here!" Eric and I immediately started heading over to where they were looking, and we approached a bunch of plants. We didn't see any broccoli. After a little confusion, Eric pushed aside a leaf and looked in the center of one of the plants. What did he find? A bundle of broccoli!! We were so excited about our discovery! The broccoli was a success, but there were still many plants we left without ever finding out what they were for.

After coming to the conclusion that we will never be farmers, Eric admitted that his friend (the one who gave the raving reviews) would have loved to be a farmer himself! Ha. Note to self: Take recommendations from people who have similar interests to your own. Picking our own produce was still fun to try, even though it was a little frustrating! 

In addition to the produce, there were many fun things to do (mainly for kids). The kids could play on these barrels of hay, pet animals, go on a hay ride, etc. We didn't do any of those things, but who doesn't love a good picture opportunity? 

Eric made a lifelong friend... 

while I showed off my love for broccoli. 

Then of course we had to pick our pumpkins!!

It was quite the dilemma for Eric to find the "perfect" pumpkin (see it in his face). 

There were so many choices!! Eric eventually came to a decision, ending our pumpkin patch adventures! I'm sure we'll go back, but maybe not pay to go inside the farm until we have kiddos to enjoy the activities. 

PuMpKiN rUn

Last Saturday Eric and I participated in a 5k Pumpkin Run. Eric's been running constantly over the past couple months, so it was a great way to track his progress. As for me? I haven't ran or done too much physical activity lately...but I've always wanted to do a 5k for some odd reason (even though I hate running with a passion). Consequently, Eric was lucky enough for me to tag along!

There were about 3,500 runners. Eric and I started the race together, but I knew he could go a lot faster so I told him to run ahead of me. He finished the 5k in 26 minutes and 24 seconds!! This put Eric finishing in 276th place out of 3,500 people!! That is an awesome finish by my hubby. Here he is crossing the finish line!

And this is me crossing the finish line, wanting to pass out! Yes, I took so long that Eric went back and finished with me. I was originally going to walk the 5k, but I made the mistake of starting with Eric so I felt a lot of peer pressure to run with everyone else. I ran (aka jogged) and walked off and on. I finished in the middle of the pack in 40 minutes and 18 seconds! Not TOO bad for never running!

Check out the sweet shirts we got for running the race! We also received free adjustments and snacks after we completed the 5k.

We didn't take any pics before, so here we are afterwards. I was EXHAUSTED and Eric was doing fine as he usually does after running. I couldn't even lift my legs for a couple days afterwards. Note to self: At least try to do some sort of cardio before running a 5k.

We were glad that we were able to participate in this community event. It was definitely cool to see what a 5k was like and to do something I don't normally do.

In a couple more weeks Eric will be moving on to run a 10k! I will be the cheerleader at that event :)

And finally...here's a note from ERIC WALKER:

I just wanted to say that I'm so proud of Cindy for running this 5k with me. The course was pretty terrible considering how many up-hill sections. I was very impressed that she finished with such a great time, and on top of that she didn't even do much training! Although she did well, I don't think I can convince her to run the 10k with me in a few weeks, ha!