Casey "lumberjack" Mau

I have been doing a very good job of forgetting my camera to our last few dates. Ughhh. So, last weekend we went to Gallivan Center and went ice skating on this outdoor rink. It was super fun. The trees around it were covered in lights, they were blasting Christmas music, and I attempted some Michelle Kwan type tricks like sticking my leg out behind me. It was amazing!! My favorite part was that I would start racing him like Apolo Ohno, but unlike Apolo, I couldn't stop, so Casey would stop before me and I would go flying into his arms. It was pretty cute. (Last night we went to a Christmas party where Pope's kids were singing. Aren't we cute. Well, I'm not sure what my bangs we re doing, but otherwise...cute.)

Then Tuesday we went to Devri's house to do sugar cookies with her 7 kids. Casey became the two boys best friend and they played hide n go seek, pretend angry birds, cars and at one point Casey has a hat and scarf on. Casey had Kono- the 4 year old, decorate me a cookie. It was literally covered in chocolate chips and weighed about 3 pounds. Yeah, I ate it. LOL.

Last night before the party we went and ate at a Brazilian restaurant, which was so good. I had

my first flan and I'm in love!! I feel like I need to eat a lot of flan to make up for all those years of missed flan eating. Then we sat back and just watched the talent show.

So Casey met the Popes. Saia doesn't usually say much, but liked Casey cuz he was a wrestler. Luisa chatted with him and while I was in the bathroom, I heard her say something like...Lori hasn't dated a lot of nice guys..so if you're mean to her, we are going to beat the crap out of you. Then started laughing and invited us for Christmas. Gotta love Pope. He seemed ok with the threats and will probably recover by next week sometime.LOL.

Best Best BEST weekend ever!

It all started with an amazingly delicious thanksgiving meal. Wow. All of the food was amazing and we ate ourselves silly as usual. We survived another year of black friday shopping. We almost died at Walmart - both inside and outside of the store. Despite the total chaos we were able to get out faster than anticipated. Ruby decided she didn't want to miss out on all the action and refused to sleep so we ended up bringing a 7 month old, bright eyed girl out to Kohls for her first midnight shopping experience! We got a lot of great deals and I got a few horrified "you are a terrible mother" looks - totally worth it! We shopped around all day long including 3 trips to meijer, a quick stop at JC Penny, and a LONG wait at JoAnn's. The day ended with a delicious batch of pocki!
***Sugi-Mania***
***ESPN camera man...BOOOO....***
***3 BIGGEST fans***
Saturday was easily the third best day of my life (Preston informed me that it's offensive to rate a win over the buckeyes above the birth of your child or wedding day...). The weather was PERFECT and the game was GLORIOUS! Our seats made it a LITTLE hard for us to see the action, as did the very unpopular camera guy, but nothing could dampen our spirits when the final buzzer rang and we rushed the field screaming HAIL TO THE VICTORS! Literally my face hurt from smiling so much! We raced home for some INSANELY thick and delicious grilled steaks at Tim's house. The perfect day. The PERFECT weekend.
***Denard's bum was on this bench! What up!!***
***Even got Dad down on the sidelines***
***COMPLETE CHAOS on the field - TOTALLY AWESOME***



(These videos are a little nauseating...sorry 'bout that - got caught up in the moment :)

Best weekend EVER!!

After the Michigan game, we high tailed it back to Grand Rapids to see Jordan's band performance. I think Jordan is in this picture, but not totally sure. LOL. (for mom who may have forgotten, that means laugh out loud)

It was really good!! I'm pretty critical and was trying to find people out of step the whole night, but Northview had a great show. Way to rock it Jordan!!

I forgot to mention the amazing steaks we had a Tim's house on my first night. I dream almost every night about them and wake up in a pool of drool. Below is Mr. Friendly who looks a bit like our dad and shared with the primary about the stories in this months friend.

So, the young group went well, but by the older kids, Mr Friendly had met his match. Some of those kids may have been smarter than this crazy Asian in a polar bear cap.

And no good post would be complete without a picture of the amazing Ruby. She hasn't yet mastered the art of drinking from the water bottle. But she was lickin it like a mad woman!

Purdue can't touch the Maize and Blue!!!

Well, this week's game left us with nothing to cheer about. But last week was awesome!!! HOMECOMING!!! The highlights were the rocketman who flew in the game ball from the

top of the stadium. We all thought he was gonna go crashing into the student section, but thanks to stellar Michigan technology, he hit the breaks and flew it to the fifty yard line!!

The half time show rocked with the alumni band complete with super old guys throwing batons, note I didn't say catching batons, LOL. And a former drum major that could do a backbend down to this head and back up without using his hands. I think that this should become a new quest for Taki to try!!! But it was all awesome and a success as no one broke a hip. LOL.

It did start to rain towards the end, but that didn't make the game any less awesome for us! Even though we blew them out, I was nervous until about the last quarter.

We had fun signing the fight song, seeing a safety (hasnt happened for like 6 years) and some great catches. Overall, did I mention it was awesome!!

SERIOUSLY?!

Is it possible that this girl is already 6 months?
She is super obedient. Pres told her to hold onto his papers and she took the job very seriously.
She is sitting up all on her own!
She LOVES other babies (including the super cute baby she sees in the mirror :) Her newest favorite friend is the pampers baby!

She's a Sugi!

Our little girl is growing fast and she is HUNGRY! I tried feeding her carrots the other day. It was semi-successful, but mostly just messy. Ruby has become fascinated with food. She will salivate and "chew" while she watches the fork go from you plate to your mouth over and over and over again - as if it's the most incredible thing she's ever seen! She will also try to put ANYTHING that is within arms reach into her mouth :) NO doubt about it. She's a sugi!
Preston, just finishing up a crazy delicious gull meadows doughnut, goes to get a sip of cider but finds that someone has beat him to it!

ooh...a freshly picked apple...yes please!

Having picked blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries this year I must say that picking apples is my favorite! They are SO easy and you finish so quickly! Awesome. Now we just have to figure out what to do with a whole peck of apples! Yes that is a REAL pumpkin!
Frankenstein Baby!

Happy Columbus Day!!!

So thanks to Columbus, I have the day off and time to post some pictures of my trip or pictures I got from others of my trip. I started off in Australia. I'll just post on Sydney today.

This second picture is of Manly, which is a city in North Sydney where I did a bunch of hiking. The way back on the ferry was gorgeous as it was sunset and the view is just like the picture above.

I did a 10 mile hike on Manly. The next day I went swimming even though it was freezing cold. The waves were huge and it was really fun!

This is the blue mountains and specifically the three sisters. It was a gorgeous little view and had a more jungle atmosphere in the interior hikes. If you want to see more of my New Zealand pictures, I posted them on Facebook.

Busted!

So lately I have been accusing Taki of being clumsy. It seems like he can't get through one day without dropping his food on the floor or dripping toothpaste down his shirt, etc. Well this morning I caught him like this:

Game #2: UM vs. Minnesota

It was the battle for the little brown jug...although it didn't end up being much of a battle, but we were ok with that! We got to Ann Arbor without any traffic issues, but had a little trouble with parking. The cheapest parking was $15 but you had to "jump the curb" to get to it...not ideal. We drove a little further and found a place for $20. We drove in and then down into a bowl which ended up being quite muddy because of recent rain. Basically Tim's BMW got stuck, there was pushing, there was sliding, and then there was more pushing. We finally decided to back it into a spot as it maneuvered better in reverse. People were joking that the $20 better cover towing expenses...seriously. Well, Tim got nervous that we wouldn't be able to get out because the climb out of the bowl was pretty steep and muddy and he knew he'd have to get a "running" start in order to get up it, which he wouldn't be able to get with 100 cars all trying to get out of the bowl so we found a spot up top and Tim made the magic happen.

It was a BEAUTIFUL day! The air was crisp, but the sun was shining! We had great seats again, in row 10. I think I may wear heels to the next game though as when you are that close the difference between rows is like 6 inches and newsflash - we are shorties!

I wasn't trying to get an artistic shot or anything, I was trying to get the touchdown throw, but the guys in front of me both stood up and threw their arms in the air which totally obstructed my view with their maize and blue jackets.

The "nard" dog runnin' it. woot woot.

3 happy Sugis after a major Minnesota slaughter.

GO BLUE!

Conference Favorites???

So, I am wondering if everyone can post their conference favorites to humor me- and who wouldn't want to make me happy???? (we'll see)

Game #1: UM vs EMU

Happy birthday, Happy anniversary, Merry Christmas to me! This year I decided to cash in all of my presents and buy a pack of Michigan football tickets! It's our last fall in michigan and the first time in 7 years that we've got a shot at beating those "nuts" from down south. Our first game was last saturday.

We were in row 3 - I am NOT zooming at all. awesome.

We were in the CrAzY section with the cow bell guy
And this guy who led us in the MICHIGAN cheer
It was a beautiful day for football! I was a little annoyed when I found out that even with Ruby in a bjorn carrier I still needed a ticket to bring her in...seriously!? I did my homework online and knew that I couldn't bring our camera with the detachable lens or a purse - so I borrowed a small point and shoot camera - case and all it fit in the palm of my hand. They told me at the gate that I couldn't bring in the 4 inch x 3 inch case, but that if I took the camera out and put the case in my pocket that would be ok. WHAT?! Do my liquids and gels need to be 3 oz or less in a quart sized ziplock bag? Should I take off my jacket and belt and place my cell phone and keys in a special bowl? Oh my gosh I felt like these guys were TSA instead of stadium guards...sheesh. Next weekend look for dad, Tim,and me when we play Minnesota! Don't look for Ruby or my camera case :) WOW.

Holy Crap.

I'm thinking someday Ruby will be looking through the books that we make of our blog and feel MORTIFIED by how much we publicly discussed her bowel movements! But she had one yesterday that was definitely blog worthy :)

She was sitting in the bumbo on the table when I heard it - and I knew right away that it was no ordinary poo so I immediately grabbed her out of the bumbo. While I was surveying the damage she started leaking :) I panicked! How do I get her to the changing table without leaving a trail?! I grabbed a washcloth, held it under her, and made a run for it!

I was wishing that Preston was home partially because he always seems to miss the big blowouts, but mostly because it's near impossible to keep her hands out of the poo when it's EVERYWHERE. And as she likes to stick everything in her mouth these days I was especially paranoid. In trying to get the onesie off without her getting her hands in it I officially got poo everywhere - shoulders, arms, back of the head, etc...

I finally get her cleaned off enough to take her to the shower, I stand her up and...you guessed it. She starts peeing. I just stood there, holding her, letting the washcloth soak it up, LAUGHING my head off. It was awesome.

I know what some of you are thinking - "really Annette, do you always have to include PICTURES of the mess? Gross." My reply - yes, absolutely! Who wants to read a post without pictures?! What I'm wondering is if this is normal. I've tried just about every diaper - target, walgreens, meijer, pampers, huggies...I've tried keeping her in smaller ones, using the right size, getting them larger - but it seems like EVERY poo is a blowout! I know you staunch cloth diaper people preach that you rarely have blowouts and I'm about ready to convert. At least with a cloth diaper I wouldn't have to clean my kitchen table in addition to her clothes :) I'm also thinking I maybe should buy stock in oxiclean as it has become my new best friend!

We recently put together this exersaucer and at first I think Ruby was a little leery about it, but after a few minutes she warmed up to it. These must really be a workout for babies because that girl is TIRED when she gets out.

At first I thought, what a wuss (I know, I'm such a kind mother)! But then I realized that when you normally just lay around all day, standing up might be pretty darn exhausting. Not to mention she has to hold up that noggin.

Two weeks ago college football officially started! For me it's a day that ranks up there with Christmas, my wedding day, the birth of my child... Yes, I love it that much. What a glorious time of year! We got little Rubes all decked out with her Michigan onesie and BYU headband. I can already tell she's gonna be a major football fan!

****And to anyone who caught the end of the michigan game last week....CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?! Without a doubt THE most exciting finish to a football game I've ever seen!

White Water Adventure

Well we finally got out to enjoy the Colorado great outdoors.  Tad came out to visit for almost a week.  We did some work on his teeth and hung out while we waited for the awesome weekend ahead.  Lori met up with us at Glenwood Springs for the White Water Adventure full day extravaganza.   Supposedly when we showed up they looked at us as experienced rafters, so they gave us a small boat.  Smaller the boat the bigger the rapid.  We started off on some pretty sweet rapids, one after another.  Then we hit some mild river and Tad took the opportunity to bust a flipp-a-rooski off the boat.  The rapids were intense, but nobody popped out. 

At various spots along the river there are natural hot springs that flow into it.  Some of the areas have rocks that have been built up to create a natural hot spring "tub."  We had the chance to relax in one which was a nice contrast to the super cold river, but made us all wreak of sulfur.  At the end we had the chance to jump out and float down river to the pickup zone.  Connie was the first one in.  Our guide was super cool and we all gave a high five with our paddles at the end. 

After rafting we took a lunch break where they had some pork bbq sandwiches that were delish.  For the second half of the day we decided to hit up the kayaks.  We each had our own and had a blast attacking the rapids head on.

As the day went on we got more and more adventurous.  Lori at one time decided to hit a rapid sitting ontop of the kayak.  I looked back to

see her kayak straight up and down as she popped over a rapid.  Later on Tad thought it'd be cool to kayak standing up and took a dip as well.

All in all an awesome trip.  We definitely conquered that river!