Freezing with a chance of "Holy Crap, it's COLD!"

It was 4 degrees this morning. FOUR!! And with the wind chill, I'm pretty sure that made it somewhere in the negative area. I've never been so ready for a trip to Houston in my life! (we leave tomorrow.) Houston is near Mexico...which is near the equator...which sounds SO steamy hot and amazing right now. I want to sit on it. I would sit down on the equator and melt, just like that little snowman kid in the Campbell's soup commercial. (mmm...tomato soup sounds so good right now.) Instead, I feel like this little tree. I'm freezing and I think I have a fever, which means I'm probably getting sick. It's bitter cold outside and I can't keep my head up. Tired and cold and ready for Christmas vacation:

The littlest intern EVER!

Delaney came to work with me on Friday because she was running a little fever. Day-care wouldn't take her. Mommy was in Omaha. Daddy had a meeting at school. Nana Beth was hosting bible study at her house. So, "Aunt Ashley to the rescue"!! We brought plenty of markers and paper, but Delaney was fascinated by my Wacom pen. She watched me once and then mimicked me picking it up, drawing on my Wacom tablet, setting it back in the stand, and then typing on my keyboard. She was a natural! She only re-named, like half of the files on my desktop. No big:



We brought in Play-Doh, so Delaney was requesting a "N0-MAN" from all of the designers on my team. She had no trouble making friends:


Time to go home and brag about our awesome card-making skills:

Office Christmas Party

Our little team Christmas party was Thursday and we had pizza, salad, cookies, and a white elephant gift exchange. This is my team at work. We have a lot of fun, as you can probably tell:


This is Liz and Buck, testing the idea of "leg-wrestling-for-gifts", like in case there's a tie and two people really want the same gift. When Liz flipped Buck over, we all decided it was a bad idea, and possibly very dangerous:


The spread:


The gifts:


The wrapping:


Erin (our AD) handed out little gift bags, which were super cute and thoughtful:


Everybody sat around sharing Christmas plans and eating pizza:


Then the White Elephant craziness began (starting with a wind-up eyeball):


Ann was next...


She opened an awesome displayable plate (hand-painted and everything!):


Kathy got a baby owl, dressed for Mardi Gras:


We named him "Mardi":


Liz opened a giant jar of pink lemonade mix:


Buck (opening his first gift) got some cute little Chinese ornaments (which were stolen):


Then he opened a couple of bowls and one of those light-up ornament things you hang from your tree (which was stolen):


I got Mexico's version of a Chia Pet (Buck apparently smuggled it in). But it got stolen:

Amy got little egg-beater things:

Erin got a jaunty little hat:

And then I got the best gift of all...EDUARDO!!!!  

Our team is OBSESSED with the game Nertz. We play it every day over lunch time. This was "power-nertz" with partners. We decided to stand up so we could all reach the middle. If you've never played Nertz, you should ask me how...it's crazy fun!  (Ryan also knows how to play. He's played it since he was a little kid.):

Naughty Christmas party

There was a Christmas party at Nick and Raegann's house last weekend (Ryan's cousin = Nick) and I realized I couldn't post most of the pictures I took. The whole theme was "Adults Only" and everybody was supposed to bring naughty, adult-type gifts and then we would exchange them, White Elephant style. So here are the G-rated photos that were appropriate enough to share:

Raegann's OB/GYN (and neighbor) gets "Cathy, the inflatable cow" (and decides it will be a great pool toy - the kids will never know):

Nick tries to decide if his "Barenaked Ladies" cd is audio or actual porn:

A homemade gift - decorated with thumbtacks, house keys, pennies and Nick's face, "King of the Throne". I won't tell you what that big blob on top is. You can probably figure it out (p.s. It is not a turkey):

Ceri gets a "fancy" new matching set of undies:

(they're interactive!  and the crotch was cut out...classy.)

Kara got stuck with a very fashionable Christmas-themed vest. She worked it all night:

Mike made these earrings. They were gross. That's all I'm going to say:

Chris opened MY gift and immediately put it on (a little "Santa's helper" outfit):
Super cute...

It was immediately stolen by Jen:

And then immediately stolen by Tom (The rule was, if you picked it, you had to wear it):

(he picked it for Kara, but we all agreed he looked fantastic):

Ryan got a great little outfit for Christmas (it was fancy - it even had "tails"!):

Sara opened Ryan's gift, a pair of silk boxer shorts with "Hot Stuff" written all over them. Those got stolen too:

Everything that was not photographed was purchased at Priscilla's. Including my gift, which nobody will ever see (or speak about). 

babysitting

Ryan and I got to spend a full 20 hours with Delaney last weekend! Whitney had to work the MU vs. OU football game and Troy was lucky enough to go too. The way the timing worked out, it made more sense for Delaney to just spend the night at our house. Fine by me! I bought a bunch of Color Wonders coloring books (and markers!), some new bath toys, a "button" that plays "I Wanna Hippopotamus For Christmas" (which Delaney mastered immediately), and made sure we had plenty of milk and cookies (because that's what Aunts do!) :) It was really fun. Peeking around the door the next morning and seeing Delaney standing there in the pack-n-play (wearing her little pink jammies) was by far my favorite part. She was very smiley and snuggly all morning. It all but confirmed that I'm really, really, REALLY ready to be a mommy. I know it's not up to me anymore (it's become a battle of science vs. God) but I'm ready. I'm SO ready. And I know I don't want to babysit just any kid. Delaney is by far my favorite. It's just rare that you babysit a kid and then get to see that same, cheery little face the next morning. It stirs something up inside - like hope and faith and happiness. This kid makes me happy:

You can sort of tell that she doesn't really want to sit still - she's half-poised to jump up and start dancing again: 

Whitney would be mad if she saw this picture. She always tells her to "turn your legs around" because it's really bad to let kids sit this way. I was really focused on watching her pull every marker out of the box and put them all back in: 

Some very focused coloring - on the back of the book:

Ryan and Delaney watching "Mu...ttets" on the living room floor:  (that's "Muppets take Manhattan" for anyone who doesn't speak Delaney.)

I'm pretty sure Delaney was swinging her legs around and kicking Ryan - hence the "restriction":

In motion - Delaney dancing to "Hip...pot...mis":

Waiting for the purple (color wonder) to appear. The good thing about these markers is that they don't write on skin, furniture, carpet, dogs, or clothing (believe me, we tried). The bad thing is that there's a delay. Kids have a hard time waiting so long - especially this one:

Such a cutie-pie...little sugar pants:

...and the pages got too boring, so she went to the cardboard:

My little Piper finds the sunshine while guarding the front door: