As Phoebe Buffay Would Say...

"Are you in there little fetus?

In nine months will you come greet us?

I will...buy you some Adidas."

Well, our little fetus won't arrive in nine months, but in just over SIX months! We are due October 24 and are so excited for this new adventure.

Easter Dinner is also somewhere in there. I don't think I'm that big yet.

Cricut Craft

I found this idea on some craft blog months ago, but never made them. After getting my Cricut for Christmas I decided it was the perfect time!

I got fifteen 2" blocks from Michaels and painted them white. Then I cut the letters out onto contact paper and then used them as stencils so I could paint the letters on. I thought about using vinyl for the letters, which I will probably do next time, but decided against it since I didn't have any around. I really wanted to get this project done!

I finally finished them a few days ago after going back and touching up a few places. They're sitting on the bookshelf in our living room and I just LOVE them. There are over 50 phrases that can be made with the blocks, so I'm excited to change them with the seasons!

PS - I have FINALLY gotten all caught up so there are a bunch of new posts below, if you haven't seen them in the last few days.

New Table

We have a dining room table!! This is something that we have (and by "we" I mean Darren) been working on since we moved out here in July. If you can remember back to when we lived in Idaho, we bought this beauty at the local DI:

Yea...not very beautiful. We knew we didn't want to keep it the nasty burgundy color it was, so we just had a tablecloth over it the whole time we were in Idaho. When we knew we'd be living at my parents' this past summer we decided that we would take advantage of their carport and re-do the table!

We spent way too many hours out in the heat with liquid paint stripper, gel paint stripper, and then finally an orbital sander, trying to get the layer of burgundy paint off, as well as the lime green layer that was underneath it. We learned way too late that the sander was definitely the way to go. It took us (again, Darren) until Thanksgiving break to finally get everything sanded off. We then went out and picked out a stain, only to find out that when applied to the wood it turned an ugly orange.

By this time we both felt totally defeated. My mom suggested putting a darker stain over it, but I didn't really want a dark table. We decided though, that that was probably the best bet. We went and got a VERY dark stain, but then decided to wipe it on instead of letting it just layer up. Hopefully that makes sense :) The end result is exactly what I wanted. Darren was able to finish staining while we were down for Christmas and we brought it all back up with us when we came back after New Years.

We still had to apply a clear coat to protect it, but that didn't take nearly as long and it's been mostly set up (we've somehow misplaced the screws...) and we both love it. I think Darren might a bit more, since he put the most sweat into it, but that's ok. Here it is!

Maybe Darren has a future in wood re-finishing...

Meet Bessie!

We bought a new car! Bessie is a 2007 Toyota Corolla CE, and we are more than thrilled to have added her to the family.

After finally selling our Civic (Chuck) in October, we'd been looking around at different cars, trying to find something we liked and would work well for us for a long time. A day or two after we got to my parents for Christmas, I was browsing CarMax online and saw a blue Corolla that looked great and was actually the same price as some older models we had been thinking about. I talked to Darren about it and we decided to have it sent down from the store in Maryland so we could at least look at it and then decide.

It got there pretty fast, so we scrambled around and got auto loans figured out on the off chance that we were going to go through with it. We went down yesterday afternoon to have a look at it, and ended up driving away with it! I kinda freaked out at first, since we hadn't really planned on all of this happening so quickly, but she's the perfect second car for us and we both felt that this was all falling into place for a reason.

I am LOVING having a radio and CD player again, and I no longer feel like I'm going to get stranded at work. (My parents' red car was having major issues and wouldn't start on occasion) Hopefully she'll stick around for a long time!

Christmas

Christmas this year was at my parents' home! It was the first time in 5 years that we were ALL together, and I was so excited. We drove down on Thursday, the 22nd, and everyone else was already there by then. Friday before Christmas my mom treated all of the girls to pedicures, while the boys did who knows what at home. We had a lot of fun watching old home movies, playing games, and just hanging out each day.

Christmas morning we got up bright and early for stockings and presents! I think we were all up by about 7:30 and started about 8.

Charles, Trish, Grant, Stephanie, Sarah, Dallin & Mom

Darren, Natalie, Charles & Trish

Justin, Darren & Charles

Santa spoiled each of us, and then my dad passed out all the presents and we started the day-long process of opening...

Aaron & Dad

Dad & Justin

My parents have us open one gift at a time and go youngest to oldest. We got maybe half way through the ten of us kids before we went to church, and then finished after lunch.

Darren with his new Brian Wilson jersey! I was so excited for him to open it.

Sarah loves her new Ipod Touch

Darren loved his jersey. He only took it off for church...

Charles & Trish

Justin

Showin' off my new headband from Justin

Darren had a Giants filled Christmas! A framed photo from my parents, "The Magic Inside" DVD from Santa, jersey from me, and Brian Wilson bobblehead from my brother Dallin:

Dallin & Darren later had "The Battle of the Bobbleheads". We got Dallin a Jayson Werth bobblehead.

I don't have a picture of it, due to unfortunate mailing blunders all committed by us it didn't arrive until after Christmas, but Darren got me a Cricut Create as well! I'm so excited to play with it and do all sorts of fun things.

After everyone had finished opening gifts we had our big Christmas dinner! Unfortunately my parents don't have a table big enough to fit all 12 of us, so we were split between two tables in the kitchen. Maybe we should invest in some more dining chairs as well...

Charles & my dad. No, my dad isn't that short. His camping chair just sat super low...

Everyone else

We had a great Christmas, and were so glad Trish & Charles, and Grant & Stephanie were able to come out this year. Hopefully it won't be 5 more years until we are all together again!

Rackham Family Photos

As mentioned in our last post, we did family photos Christmas Eve morning. A gentleman up the street from my parents is a photographer, so my mom had him come over. He was literally there for fifteen minutes and did a great job!

Back row: Darren, Stephanie & Grant, Aaron, Justin, and Sarah. Middle row: Natalie, Dallin, Trish & Charles. Front: Dad & Mom Rackham

Throughout most of the process my parents' dog Sadie was barking and whining in the window, so my mom grabbed her for a photo too... 

Darren and I decided to get a photo taken of us too. We had one taken last year when Darren's family did something similar, so I figured it'd be a good tradition to keep up.

I think they all turned out pretty cute!

Hail to the Redskins!

On Christmas Eve, Darren and I had the great opportunity to go to the Redskins game! We had been offered the tickets months ago (by my mom's boss who has excellent hook-ups with the team), but figured that since it was Christmas Eve and all it probably wouldn't go over well with my family. We were offered them again the week before the game and, after talking with my parents, decided that since it was an afternoon game we wouldn't really miss much and decided to go! Darren was SO excited, and then to top it all off we ended up getting pre-game field passes too!

We headed up to the game about 11am Christmas Eve, right after my family had family photos done by a guy up the street. We got to Fed-Ex Field a little before noon, and got down to the field about 12:15ish. It would've been sooner, but I forgot my ID in the car and everything was under my name at Will Call, so Darren had to go back and get it. Luckily, we had front row parking thanks to Mr. Eckert!

Once we got on the field we took it all in, and then headed down towards the team entrance and just watched them warm-up and then scrimmage a little right before the game.

As we were walking down the field we passed the NFL Instant Replay booth. I pointed it out to Darren, since I thought it was really cool for some reason. The guy manning the booth must have seen that and called me over. I was quite confused at first, since I didn't realize he was waving to me, but eventually I figured it out. When we walked over, he asked me to do him a favor and said most people can't say no to him. I said okay, and then he handed me his headset! He then asked me to turn towards Darren, and yell, while waving my arms angrily, "I can't believe it!"

Afterwards he had me reach into his magic bag and pull out a candy cane. I'm pretty sure he was mostly doing this for the kids, but I enjoyed it!

After a few more minutes standing on the sideline the Vikings started coming out of their locker room to warm up. I'm sure Darren could tell you who they all are, but I've got no clue.

I know this one though! - Percy Harvin

When the Redskins came back out it got really fun. I wish Darren would've had the opportunity to talk to some of them, but he says he still had a great time.

#89 Santana Moss

#8 Rex Grossman (we saw a sign saying "Gross-Man". hilarious)

The highlight of our day! #12 Bro. John Beck (we can cal him that, since he's in our ward)

Bro. Beck can spin a football on his finger. Pretty cool...

Enjoying probably one of the best days of his life

A Viking

So, there's a funny story with the above photo...As he was running by a few of the fans near us started booing him. (Why he ran down the 'Skins sideline I'll never know) He kept going, but as he did we all heard, "Aw, shut up!" Most of us started laughing, and I thought it was dang funny. Anyway...

Heading back into the locker room

After they left the field, we went and found our seats. We had some pretty good ones, and enjoyed three quarters of the game from them! (I didn't wear warm shoes and I got pretty cold, so we watched the second quarter and the half-time show from inside the warmth of the club level)

Coin toss

This guy was hilarious! Our in-game entertainment.

Unfortunately, there was one completely wasted Redskins fan who had to be stupid...

Adrian Peterson had just gotten hurt, so I'm not sure how that dude got on the field, but it was quite fun to see him be tackled and taken off the field.

Even though the 'Skins ended up losing, we had a GREAT time and our first NFL game was a very good experience. As we were walking back to or car everyone was wishing eachother a "Merry Christmas". A huge thanks to Mr. Ron Eckert!