It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

We did it. We put up the first Norman Christmas tree. And it's beautiful. At least we think so. Take a look...

And as you can see on the first picture, we already have gifts under there. I'm only 3 or 4 gifts away from completing Christmas shopping! My dad and in-laws are kinda hard to shop for. Hope your holidays are off to a merry start :)

BACON!!

Saturday I went to the store. I passed the isle that has the bacon and sausage and other things like that. As soon as I passed it, I swiftly turned around and went to look at bacon. "hmmmm," I pondered, "should I make today the day I buy bacon to cook for Jake and then try it again (see our 101 in 1001 post here)?" I decided that day was a good day to do it. So I picked up about 10 different packages of bacon to finally settle on one of the mid priced regular bacon packages. That was success #1.

Success #2 came tonight! You know what #2 is? I COOKED it! see...

Sorry for that crooked picture...but look at how crispy I got that bacon. Jake is a fan of "extra crispy" bacon. I made a glorious breakfast for dinner complete with eggs and waffles!

So, take a guess at what success #3 was? Yes, that's right, I ATE the bacon! WOA! I can't believe myself. I semi-enjoyed it. I think I need a couple more tastes before I can say I like it again. Mmmm, bacon!!

I wish I were a Children Photographer

Often I think I would love to be a photographer. Babies/children/family photographer. If only that made money. I'm not a good photographer at all, but I do love how kids' personalities are so easy to capture in one simple click. This past weekend, we went to San Antonio to hang out with the fam (celebrating my mom's 50th birthday!!), and I got to take some cute pictures of Mia. Here they are, for your enjoyment. Now, if only I had a fancy camera, these would be killer pictures!

The last one is my personal fav. She's pretty much the cutest little girl in the world. I love you Mia :)

We failed at 101 in 1001

Some of you knew that I had tried to start a 101 in 1001. We (as in Jake and I because I made it our thing instead of just mine) have failed. Miserably. I think I started the list about a month ago, and we got as far as 37. That's not even half way there! But just so that you do know we tried, here are our 37 "101" items. I think we'll still strive to do these 37. I'll blog about them when I do.

Start date: 10/8/09

End date: 7/4/12

1. Go on 3 vacations outside of the state of Texas. 1/3 down with Playa del Carmen (see previous post).

2. Make a pie completely from scratch.

3. Have a baby.

4. Get back to pre-baby weight after having the baby.

5. Go to a live baseball game (Round Rock Express doesn't count).

6. Meet 2 more of our neighbors. Done! getting a puppy made this super easy!!

7. Paint at least 2 rooms in the house (hiring someone does count).  This is done!  I'll post pictures of this eventually...we painted our powder bath and our kitchen!  wooohoo.

8. Write a blog every day for 5 consecutive days.

9. Make snow angels.

10. Pay off my car (that means we have to pay it off 1 year and 3 months earlier than needed).

11. Get wood floors for our house.

12. Eat at 10 new restaurants in Austin, TX. (6/10 - Mangiari's, Mesa Rosa, La Condesa, Asti, Ciola's, Torchy's Tacos...we're getting there...)

13. Plant flowers that last through an entire season in our front yard.

14. Go to the Austin Zoo.

15. Take 3 equipping classes at the Austin Stone. (1/3 - taking one right now).

16. Go on a marriage retreat.

17. Host Thanksgiving at our home.

18. Cook bacon at home for Jake 3 separate times. (2/3). The second time we got the healthy no nitrates one - it was peppered bacon. And it was delicious!  I like bacon now.  I don't think getting to 3 will be all too hard.

19. Read 3 books from beginning to end (don't laugh at how small that number is; we both don't like to read).

20. Go a full week without sweets.

21. Sleep more than 9 hours 2 days in a row.

22. Put up a Christmas tree in our house. Done! See it here.

23. Go camping. One time. I must sleep in a tent, not the car.

24. Finish the black and white picture collection in our game room.

25. Learn how to take professional pictures. This is in process....I got a nicer camera, so I'll get to taking professional pics soon!

26. Make cute cupcakes.

27. Go to a new winery. Done! See the post from May 31st.  We went to Mandola's with my mom and dad and we loved it!

28. Get a video camera. Done! Got jake a Flip HD for Christmas :)

29. Drink hot cocoa at home with the fireplace going.

30. Quit our #1 bad habits; for Jake it's biting his fingers, and for me it's biting my lip.

31. Iron everything in the ironing basket so that it's empty for once.  Yessss....Jake did this. All by himself!

32. Cook a recipe from Real Simple.

33. Watch Lord of the Rings with Jake from start to finish without falling asleep (just the first one).

34. Try bacon again (I've hated it for the past 8 or so years). Done! And I kinda liked it!

35. Give food/clothing/shelter to the homeless at least 20 times. (3/20)

36. Get a puppy. Done! Vince Norman joined our family in May 2010. He's quite the cutie. You'll love him!

37. Climb a tree.

So there you have it. Our failed attempt. It's the Norman 37 in 1001 :)

Life Lately

I do wonder when the day will come that I will stay consistent in blogging. That day will come, I promise! There's just no telling when.

Lately, life has been busy. It gets busier and busier and busier. And just when you think you're at your busiest, it's gets busier. Anyone feel like that? Surely, someone reading this does. And we do know, that as we get older, it will only get busier.

Let me just tell you a little bit about the past month and half. Work has of course kept us the busiest. Jake's 3 jobs + quarter end at my job = super busy working Normans. Both of us were pulling good 70-80 hour weeks. Eeek! In between the hectic work life, we both fought (and still are fighting for that matter) yucky allergies. I even had to go to about 4 dr appointments to end up getting an MRI. Just swollen lymph nodes; no worries. Somewhere in there we also had the Q4 Norman smoke-out to celebrate my and Martha (Jake's step-mom)'s birthdays! That was fun. My family came for a weekend, and then the following weekend was somehow the weekend of Jake and I's long awaited vacation to Playa del Carmen! Oh and in between that week, we had (well I had), the scariest house experience ever. Someone throwing rocks at the back of our house. Consistently. For about 2 hours! I had to call the cops. TWICE! They didn't catch anyone, but it hasn't happened since. Pray it never happens again because my heart almost beat out of my chest that night.

Yes, last week, as my birthday present, Jake and I went to Mexico where we got nice and tan and relaxed as much as is humanly possible. It was very glorious. And then I've gotten to celebrate my birthday a couple more times, including a delicious dinner at Jake's mom's house. Tasty seafood and bread pudding were perfect!! And we had a halloween party at our house. The first halloween at our house was way more fun than I ever expected. I LOVED the cute little trick or treaters. I leave you with some pictures from the past couple weeks...