The NWSS

What is the best part about January in Colorado? Why the National Western Stock Show of course!

Last week, Nate and I got to hang out with my aunts and uncles who had made the long trek through Utah and Wyoming, just to attend this annual event. It was so fun to see them and get a chance to hang out at the stock show. Here's a glimpse of what we got to do...

First of all, here is my family. Uncle Tim is on the right, Uncle Jay is in the middle, and the side of my Aunt Kathy's head is on the left. (My Aunt Leeann is behind Kathy. I have a picture of her by herself but I think she would get mad at me if I put it on here).


Here's me and the front of Aunt Kathy's face. Can you see a family resemblance? I'd also like to point out the fact that I'm 39 weeks pregnant in this shot, kickin' around at the stock show. Give it up folks. Also, please note the lens flare... how artistic.

And here's my cute husband, who fit in quite well with his nice Carhartt jacket.

The first night we were there we went to the Super Dog Show. It's basically a dog agility show that's kind of aimed at kids but is pretty entertaining. The dogs race through jumps and tunnels, catch Frisbees, etc. etc. Oh yeah, and there's a bull dog that can't do any of those things but goes around knocking things over. The best part is the Bob Barker-like announcer guy that comes prepared with jokes for the dogs like..."what did you eat for lunch...jumping beans?" Ahahaha.
Anywho, the cool part of the Super Dog Show was that they set a WORLD RECORD for the highest dog jump!

(Please forgive the mediocre picture...the arena was dark and we were far away.) Nate is skeptical as to whether or not a record was actually set, but I'm going to assume it was. The Stock Show is where history is made people!

Besides the rodeo, I'd have to say our favorite event was the stock dog trails. These dogs are hard-core, and Nate and I both like to dream of what it would be like to have Izzy do this kind of stuff.

Basically, the dogs are instructed by their handlers to herd three cattle through two barrels, between two fences, around another gate, and then into a trailer. Oh yeah, and they have 7 minutes to do all of it. If you've spent any time around cattle, you know that they're not too keen on doing...well anything other than eating and laying so these dogs have their work cut out for them. It was pretty awesome to watch.

We spent all day Friday at the stock show, mostly watching draft horses and a little more dog agility in the evening. Here's some more pictures:

Umm...I love this picture.

So that's basically it. Don't you feel like you were there? Now Nate and I are going to busy ourselves setting up a dog agility course for Izzy. We're hoping that while we're at work, maybe she will want to run around the yard in a clover formation dodging in and out of tunnels instead of digging holes. We'll let you know how that turns out.

Look What I Made! Part II

These fingerless gloves were a belated Christmas present to my friend April (the lovely hand model pictured above). The pattern is from Knitty, and I've been wanting to make them since the pattern came out in the Summer 2006 issue. I am now proud to say that I have finished one and a half pairs of these lovely gloves and will probably make more!


I feel obligated to explain why this project almost didn't happen AGAIN (since I had originally planned to make these for April LAST Christmas). The pattern calls for one skein of Debbi Bliss Cashmerino Aran which is a super soft yarn that comes in beautiful colors. The yarn store didn't have exactly the color I wanted for April's gloves, but I found the red color above that I thought would still be pretty. Well, turns out I knit a little looser than the pattern (believe it or not, I never check my gauge) so when I had one and 2/3 of a pair of gloves...I was out of yarn. Grrr. So off to the yarn store I go, only to find that they are out of the yarn that I used for April's first glove but now had the color I would have preferred in stock! Double Grrr. Luckily, it didn't take them long to get more of the yarn I needed in stock so that I could finally finish the gloves a month after Christmas. Now I just have to wait for them to get more of the yarn I need to finish my co-worker Angie's gloves AND the pair that I wanted for myself.



This is a great glove pattern because it is fast, pretty, and not very complicated. The cables knit up fast even though when you first start (if you're anything like me) you risk poking yourself in the eye with one of your double pointed needles because you're holding the knitting close trying to concentrate...



This is the other project that I've been busying myself with lately...burp rags! I got a few really cute burp rags from my Aunt Kathy but from my experience with babies, I'm going to need more than a few to get me through the day. I saw some really cute ones at a high-end baby store which were obviously expensive beyond reason...because they were in a high-end baby store. So I decided to make some of my own. I bought some cloth diapers anb cut up some cheap flannel I had laying around. I sewed the flannel and diaper together, and lined the plain side with coordinating ribbon. Cute huh? I only have the ones with the polka-dot back finished but the other ones will have the striped fabric with polka-dot ribbon. I was just too impatient to get this on the blog before I finished all of them.

P.S. I saw this morning that my sister-in-law over at noisy stuff is making the fingerless gloves too! She's using a different yarn so I'm excited to see how they turn out for her.

Summary of Contest Entries

Through the magic of google documents I have laid out who "owns" what times for the baby coming. Now, there were a lot of strange times given (3:03am, 11:37pm) which is fine, but won't fit in the spreadsheet I made. As such, I rounded to the nearest hour for making the spreadsheet. However, I will look at the actual times given when it comes to judging the winner. So click on the link below, take a look, and let me know if there are any especially bad mistakes. Good Luck!


http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pErgDkdqjjvt8s0Aqfa1meg

A Contest

We decided it would be fun to have a little contest on our blog.

Guess Little Spike's Birth Date

So here's the deal. You have until 12:00 PM (noon) on January 30th (Wednesday) to guess the day and time that Little Spike will finally grace us with her presence. So if you think she's coming before Wednesday at noon you'd better get your choice in. Whoever is closest will get a prize! And trust me, the prize is worth the 30 seconds it will take you to enter the contest.

Just put your picks in the comment section. If you are too scared to use the comments (or have never figured out how) you can email them to me or Nate and we'll enter them in for you.

Here's the only two things I can tell you that might help you decide...my ACTUAL due date is 01.31.08. My ORIGINAL due date was 02.02.08.

Good Luck!

Ta Dah!

The long awaited...completed nursery. Let me take you on a tour.

We have a lovely crib thanks to Nate's parents, and a super soft crib quilt made by my Aunt Kathy...thanks everybody!

Some of you may know that I decided a while back to go with a "jungle animal" theme. I had this great fabric to inspire me, and I was going to make these fabulous 3-D animals to decorate the walls. As soon as I began making them...I knew it was a mistake. I can't tell you how many times I almost gave up in frustration. Every time I started to make one of these stupid animals I wondered why in the world I'd made so much work for myself...WHY? Luckily, I ended up not hating them in the end. Especially the hippo. He is by far the best one.



Anyway, if any of you think that these animals are so great that you'd like to make some of your own, please call me, so that I can talk you out of it.

Next we will move on to the rocker. It is my grandpa's old rocker that was sitting in my parent's garage. It is covered with my inspiration fabric (not covered for real...I literally just draped the fabric over it until I figure out something better). My brother fixed it up so that I won't have to worry about any screws falling out causing me to crash onto the floor in the middle of the night.


This closet could have potentially ended our marriage. We'll just say we were deciding what to do with it during a time that I was not so...rational. Aside from that, check out what a fashionista our little girl is before she's even born! I have to say, people are very very generous.

These are the cute finger puppets and night lights that we got for Christmas.


This is where I'm planning to keep most of our toy storage. Not that this is realistic at all. I've been in enough homes with babies and toddlers to know that something like this will never contain the amount of stuff they accumulate.

Remember how I said we got our swing for free? Well if you don't remember, we got a used swing from our doula. Then we found out that we could go on Fisher Price.com and get all new fabric and a new toy tray, so now it is practically new! Also, we got some cute pictures from my Mom for Christmas. They're hanging above the swing and go perfectly in the room.

Finally, the beginning of our daughter's plush animal/doll collection. My two favorites are the Ugly Doll from Nate, and the people pillow from Neve. (I'll let you know when Neve opens an Etsy shop so that you can own a People Pillow of your own!)

So that's it. I hope you enjoyed the tour. Now all we need is the baby right? Well, Little Spike seems quite content for the time being, though she knows she's welcome to come anytime. Believe me, I've told her.

Seriously.

I was trying to write a blog posting pictures of the finished nursery but it is taking FOR-FREAKING-EVER. So I'm going to bed. Check again on Saturday, I might have regained my patience by then.

Quaker Oats

So I was listening to NPR yesterday and there was a story about Quakers in Kenya (apparently that's where most of them are) and I was trying to remember what their offical name was because I remember liking it. So I looked it up on Wikipedia today (it's Religous Society of Friends) and found something much more interesting... or at least I think so. Below is a compilation of pictures of the Quaker's founder, George Fox, along with the label for Quaker Oats. As far as I can tell they are the same person.

So there you have it, the guy on the front of Quaker Oats boxes is the founder of the Quakers. Makes sense I suppose, but I thought it was cool.

Also, Nate wrote this... I feel like we need a better way to differentiate Nate posts and Miranda posts.

You Get Everything You Want

That's what Nate said as we were leaving Best Buy. It might sound like he was jealous but I'm pretty sure he didn't mind that I saved up all of my birthday and Christmas money in order to purchase a Digital SLR (the Nikon D40). As you can see here, he has already been putting it to use.

We actually bought the same camera as our friend Ben, who took the above pictures. But look! Here's one I took of Ben taking pictures with his twin camera!


Now all we have to do is wait for this baby to come so that you can all oogle over the nearly professional pictures Nate and I can post of her (not that you wouldn't already be oogling over how cute she is). In the meantime, I'll be working on reading the manual from cover to cover so I can figure out what the heck I'm doing with this thing.

I'ma eat youuuuuuuuuu!

A pregger picture

It seemed unfair that Miranda would go through pregnancy without more pictures of her on the blog. So I took it upon myself to get one of her up here. And here it is. Also, if you look closely you can see the pac-man hat that Ben got me for Christmas.

Yes, unfair is the word I would use for it too Nate. Given this picture, I would like to add a request. Not to my loving family and friends...but to the general public, casual acquaintances, and a few of my clients. I am aware that I look as though I am "ready to pop." No I am no due tomorrow. I promise to quit wearing the horizontal striped shirts that I love so dearly if you will stop telling me how huge I am. Furthermore, my doctor and I are quite sure that I am not having twins...so if you would stop asking me if I am it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.