Dec 29, 2007

if you don't like puppies or xmas cover your eyes now

As promised I've uploaded pictures. A lot of them. But I did narrow it WAY down. I started out with 200 pictures...so, here are the pictures that go with the last couple of entries I posted.


The studio I work at all decorated for xmas!


Our first day with our new baby. We picked her up in OK and then stayed the night in Joplin, MO because of the crappy weather.


Bean chewing on a MO phone book at the hotel.


Izzy being afraid of her new little sister.


Riding in the car on the way from Joplin, MO to Ames.


Taking a nap on the ride. So cute.

For those of you who haven't been to Iowa, here it is.


The best site ever after three days of driving.


My cool little bro. Yep, he meant for his face to look this way.


Litle sis, Emily with her new camera. Her boyfriend Curtis looking awesome.


Nate with the puppies at his dad's house. Sioux City, IA.


Grandma and Grandpa Dass, Sibley, IA.


The Rippke family in Moville, IA.


My sister on her new moped.


Nate and I at the cabin.


A view of the valley out at "The Land"


My family at the cabin my dad built out near Stratford, IA.


My best friend since I was five, Mama Natalie and Tyler.


Me and baby Tyler. Eagan, MN.


Shaun and Heidi (Quatch's mom) at breakfast, St. Paul.


Thaddeus aka "Quatch" giving Nate some of his drink in St. Paul, MN.


Me and my girls.


Wrinkle pup!


Bean snuggling with her dad. Such a sweetie.


Me and Beanie weanie.


Cousin Winnie (red collar) hanging out with Izzy (blue collar)

Dec 28, 2007

it's kinda like speed dating...only family...and christmas

Merry Christmas everyone! I know...it's a little late. Nate had a show (Sons of the Republic) in Minneapolis last night so we're up even further North for a couple of days. I FINALLY got to see my best friends baby boy last night. He's such a sweetie, and really cute! We're going to eat dinner with them again tonight and hang out before we head back to Iowa tomorrow morning.

I can't believe Christmas has already come and passed. We had a really great holiday this year. Nate and I started by heading out to Sioux City to see his dad and step mom. Izzy and Bean loved to play with their puppy "cousin" Pidge. Little Bean is a brave one and appears to have no fear when it comes to dogs bigger than she is...which is pretty much all of them. Izzy's getting a little beat up from Bean playing with her, but she's being a very good big sister and is very calm about the whole thing. She's such a little lady.

While we were in Northwest Iowa we stopped up in Sibley to see some of the Dass family that we hadn't seen in a really long time. They didn't know we were coming so it was nice to surprise them. We only got to stay and catch up for a short time though because we then headed back down to Moville for the Rippke Christmas. I have pictures of all the families so when I get back to my own computer I'll upload all the pictures from Christmas. We always do a white elephant gift exchange with the Rippke's which is really fun. This year we played BINGO to determine the order and Nate and I ended up with a movie and some champagne. Date night! The Rippke Christmas was also a short one because after that we headed back to Sioux City to see Grandma Jo and spend time with the Irwin side (are you keeping up with all the families?) before we headed back to Ames to see some of my family and get ready for the next day, Christmas Eve. It was a lot of driving, but worth it to see everyone.

Since both of our parents live in Ames, Nate and I spend Christmas Eve with both sets. We also do a white elephant with my grandparents and cousins and all. It's one of our favorite traditions. After doing Christmas with my grandparents and Grace we headed over to Nate's for the rest of the night and then back to my parents to get some sleep before "Santa" came.
Santa was good to Nate and I this year. Everyone was. We had a great holiday. Busy, but great. And we ended up getting to see people and family we hadn't seen in a long time which is good since we don't know when the next time we'll be back up here is. 18 hours is a long drive.

We spent the night out at the cabin my dad built. It's pretty awesome. I also have pictures of it at home. I'll post them tomorrow night when I get back from MN. He did a really great job and it looks amazing. It wasn't finished before I left so this was the first time I'd seen it completed. We played a conversations game, and watched a really lame movie. Haha. It was a nice peaceful night away from everything. The land out there is so calming. We'll probably head back out there before we go back to TX.

Time is going really fast, but after we get home from MN we are done traveling. We're going to get together with some of our friends now that the holidays are over, and just relax and play with our new "toys" for the next week. Bean and Izzy are still getting along. They're so cute together. I can already see Bean growing...which I have to admit I'm kind of looking forward to just so she's not quite as small compared to Izzy. I'm sure my parents are not loving keeping their eye on them this couple days that we're gone. Bean just will not sleep in her kennel. She really needs to learn to quick though. Or at least stop the howling through out the night.

Hope the new year finds you well!

Dec 18, 2007

back in the heartland

We made it! It took us three days of driving instead of two because of the ice storms in the Midwest, but we eventually made it.  It's pretty great to see family and friends again.  This town hasn't changed much in the last six months...well, except that most of my college friends aren't here anymore.   

We picked Bean up on the way back (pics to come).  She is cute as a button!!!  And so sweet.  Izzy is adjusting well to having a little sister.  They're really good about playing together.  Izzy seems to know that she's quite a bit smaller so she plays more carefully with her.  Bean does not like her kennel at all though.  She's getting a little better about it, but that first night alone in it she just screamed (so my parent's tell us, we were out with Rachel).  

My mom had her annual cookie party tonight.  I didn't take any pictures, but maybe I'll get one of my tray of cookies later.  Tomorrow we're doing Christmas with Grace and her family.  My sister was sick today so hopefully she gets feeling better.  I know she'll be sad if she misses it.

I've taken some pictures since we've left Corpus, but haven't gotten a chance to load them onto the computer yet.  I'll post them as soon as I do.    

Dec 7, 2007

good news!

Quick update on Nate's job situation. They've asked him to stay on after his "contract" job is done (next Friday)! Woo Hoo! This is good. Two paychecks are better than one. It's also a great place for him to get to work on some really great projects and learn A LOT. Everyone at the studio really likes him (who doesn't), and his boss wants to continue investing some time into helping him develop into an even better designer/advertiser. It's a great environment for someone right out of college. We both got really lucky to end up in such positive studios.

Oh, and it's only a week till we leave our 80 degree weather to go back to Iowa! Tell it to stop snowing. Please.

Dec 5, 2007

puppy's first christmas

We finally got our Christmas stuff put up! Nate's been working late the last couple of nights, and I wanted to wait to put the tree up until he was around. Izzy loves it! She's already gone to bed for the night though ("under" the tree of course). I think it tuckered her out. We took a bunch of pictures of her first Christmas tree experience. She's pretty cute.

I talked to Bean's breeder tonight. Everything is going well and she's doing great. We set up the plans to meet and will get her in 9 days!! She also sent me some pictures of her playing with her siblings and the other litter of puppies that were born around the same time. I wish I had a house full of baby doxies!

Nate and I will have some pictures published in the Corpus Christi Caller Times (it's the newspaper here) this Sunday. They're some of the ones we took at the Christmas light event we went to the other night. I'm not sure if any of the ones I posted earlier are they ones they chose though.

Oh, and for anyone thinking about going to Nate's show in St. Paul the date has been moved to Thursday the 27th instead of Friday.


Izzy looking at her dachshund ornament.


Nate and Izzy with the tree. How cute.


Christmas kisses!


Izzy looking at her and Bean's stockings.


She likes to sit on the couch and look out the patio door. We don't let her though. She's too clumsy...and will probably hurt herself someday.


Izzy telling Nate to get off the computer....Nate over-reacting slightly. Theatrics.

She started getting tired.


Carrying on the family tradition of sleeping under the tree on the night that we put it up.


Our cute little wine covers Grace gave us last year.


Puppies! Bean with her little friends and siblings.

Dec 4, 2007

some websites to check out

So the studio I work for, McLeod Creative has a blog now too. You can either get to it by linking from our studio website at www.mcleodcreative.com, or just go directly to the blog at mcleodcreativeblog.squarespace.com

Dec 3, 2007

ok ok, so we took a few pictures

We took a bunch of pictures this weekend so I'll try to keep the text part of this entry pretty short. The weather was a beautiful 80 degrees so we decided to head out and visit some of the part of Corpus we hadn't been to before.

We started out at the auto show. One of Nate's co-workers had tickets she wasn't going to be able to use so she gave them to us. Nate won a free casino cruise trip at it which is cool, and we got to sit in some expensive cars. Overall though, we decided that we like our CRV better than any of them.

We also hung out at the Port of Corpus Christi, which is where all the HUGE barges come in down under the harbor bridge. It's a nice view of the city because you can see all the stuff over on North beach (like the aquarium and USS Lexington), "Seatown" (which is the baseball field and American Bank Center), Downtown, and out into the water. You can only take pictures in certain directions though. I guess it's a post 9/11 law. Still, it's a nice place to go and just sit for a while...if the gigantic bridge over your head doesn't make you nervous.

The Corpus Christi Museum of Science and History is also down by the port. Nate really wanted to see it, so we walked over to check it out. At first I wasn't super thrilled about spending money on going to a museum right now, but it happened to be a "free day" so we were pretty excited about that. It's actually a really nice museum. It has a lot of stuff about the history of Corpus Christi, South Texas, and Mexico...which I didn't know anything about. There are also exact replicas of the Columbus ships that you can walk through. I honestly don't know how anyone made it across the ocean alive in one of those things.

Izzy attempted to send herself to the ER vet again tonight. She was a little spastic and tripped on the sidewalk slamming her face onto the concrete. It was one of those things where you're just waiting for the blood or something to start happening. Scared the crap out of me...and her too I think. Not for long though, we checked her out and it took her about 5 seconds to shake it off and start running around again. Must not have hurt her too bad, she went right back to chewing on her toys and bones. We're still keeping our eye on it though. Currently we're at Kailo. Nate's helping get a project done that has to go out tomorrow. And I'm just here for moral support. Well, so much for keeping this short.


Nate as a small Spanish child.


Us in front of the Pinta.


Nate doing something on the Santa Maria...I'm not sure what though.


Me on the Santa Maria.


Checking out some shells.


Huge-eyed Nate.


Nate with the largest crab ever...and the sickest one ever too.


My hips weren't meant to be on horseback.


Nate as a cowboy.


A replica of a Spanish ship...inside the museum.


Me at the Port of Corpus Christi.


This was a huge back seat for a truck. Nate even fit in it.


A roadster.


Woo hoo he won a Texas Treasure cruise!


Nate's Christmas present from me. For his desk of course.


Nate and Izzy hugging. She's the cutest ever.


Izzy hugging Bobo. She looks cross-eyed.