SNOW!!!!!

It snowed here on Thursday evening.  We were SO excited!  And even better, there was still some snow left on Friday morning! Sweet!

We're gonna have to work on my kids winter attire.  Bentley was wearing some mittens my mom knitted for Chris.  Makes me laugh.
Chickie opted to go sans coat.  
Didn't slow her down.

ewwww.
After about 20 minutes of hardcore play time.  We put our "snowman" in the freezer and got some hot chocolate!

I'm thankful for snow and the holiday season! So fun!

Chris and Andrea

My Dancing Debut!!

O Christmas Tree

We've been sick.  Super sick.  Which has caused me to slooooooow down.
I've been making yo-yo's.  A lot of them.   Into garland for our tree.  I'm all out of red fabric. I better go shopping!
Unfortunately it only covers about 2/3 of the tree.  Oh well, it'll be an ongoing project.  
Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

OH!! THAT's why we moved here!

SOOOO!  I am such a nerd!  After my last post I decided that excitable blabbermouths like myself should not be allowed to have blogs!  It should be against the rules!  There should be a disclaimer on blogger or some sort of question and answer test.  Ah well, what do ya do?  That's me I guess.  

So here Chris and I are with Jonathan Roberts and his pro partner Valentina.  They are the current American Smooth Champions! They are stinking awesome.  As the champions it makes sense that they would be!  Well, they are!  

Saturday night I danced for the very first time in a show!!! I was very proud of myself just for doing it!  And I didn't fall down.  And I think I did the dance almost as well as I can.  So I was happy with it.  If (when?) we get it on video I will put in on here!  Of course me, being me....I would choose to dance for the first time ever when the current champions and four other pro couples were dancing.  This studio is so awesome!  That's why we moved here!  And I have to admit I've slacked from my normal ways of being overly grateful and I kind of lost focus as to why it was we were here.  Instead I've been pouting about how small our house is and how cold and humid it is here. And how lame it is not knowing people....etc.etc.  And then added on that the stresses of trying to figure out how to be a working mom and still fit dance time in.  I was feeling a bit overwhelmed the other day.  I had pretty much decided to stop dancing completely.  Then Chris and I worked out how we could make it more fun together.  Which basically meant really scaling back my progress as a dancer.  I was so sad it felt even worse than being tortured by having my husband as my dance teacher.  (love ya babe!)  Chris agreed he thought it was worse than being tortured by having his wife as his student!  So we went in Friday morning to practice and we had a pretty laid back but fun lesson.  Jonathan was there again and didn't have a coaching during one hour so Chris being the awesome guy that he is snagged him up and we got to have a coaching with him!  The first question Chris asked was, "How do you deal with dancing with your wife!?"  Jonathan said, "We quit!" We had a good laugh about it and I think it made Chris and I feel better. It really is hard for some reason.  You wouldn't think it would be.  But just trust me on this one.    The coaching was awesome!  It was for sure a ton of fun!  I can't wait to practice what he taught me more!  And I did get to dance with him for a teeny teeny bit as he was showing me how to drive down the floor with my legs.  SO that totally made a huge difference in my dancing and it made my day just because I'm such a nerd.

So it's time you all met Merrida:
Isn't she cute!  She's Chris's new pro partner. And I love, love her!  I got to see them dance for the first time Saturday even though they've been dancing together since before we actually moved here.  And I loved it!  They were awesome! I can't wait to see more.

So in other good news:  Saturday night I started dreaming again.  I love my dreams (except when I'm pregnant-yikes!) and I haven't had any since we moved.  So I guess something in my psyche is put to right now.  

This is so long! Holy smokes did anyone actually read it?  

I'm thankful for the numerous challenging opportunities that I have been insane enough to bring upon myself all at once.  Even though they make me cry sometimes.  Because it's worth it.

PS:  Note to self:  Next time you dance get super huge lashes like Merrida's and some lipstick might be a good idea. 

PPS:  Did I mention that everyone at DanceWorld is so awesome?  I seriously love everyone I have met.  

PPPS:  One of the other pro couples Saturday night were Jeremy Gatlin and Ana Harwood.  SO stinking fun watching them dance!  Jeremy said he would take me on as a student! Sweet!

I take it back. I totally lied.

I just danced with Jonathan Roberts! 

So excited.

Will blog later!

(guess I lied about photoshopping all my pics too.  That makes two lies.  -oh well)

Bentley just met Jonathan Roberts!!

You know, from Dancing with the Stars.  Bentley was very excited about it as you might imagine.  I was practicing with Chris at the new studio and there he was!  He is here to coach and to dance in the show Saturday night.  I am dancing in the showcase beforehand with Chris for the first time ever!  I picked an interesting time to do it didn't I?   We are dancing a Viennese Waltz to a Josh Groban song.  Although I can't remember which one.  Not from lack of hearing it.  I guess I'm busy thinking about other things.  I realized today that I'm not dancing for work or fun.  Only for torture.  I decided I don't like dancing for torture.  It's lame.  No fun in that.  So for now on I'm only going to dance for fun and I really don't care if I'm dancing in the floor or if my legs are driving.  I don't care if my head isn't out far enough either.  I don't care about being a good dancer.  I only want to dance for fun.  Maybe then I will start listening to the music.  If this restricts my dancing to crazy dancing in the kitchen, I think I'm fine with that!

And Chris is dancing with his new professional partner Merrida for the first time as well!  I'm very excited to see them dance together!    

That's it for now.  I think I'm going to watch a movie and have a laundry folding party now.  Because that's the closest thing to fun I can think of to do.

I could not get enough!

of this!!!
or this
or even this
and this!
Even this was great.  I wish I could blog that baby smell.  Because it was perfect!  I am so thankful for my visit with my new little nephew Eli (oh, and the rest of the family, too!)

I miss you already!  At least I have a few (hundred) pics!