Once A Coug... Always A Coug!

Here's to hoping that we get a little Cougar pride into McKenzie while she's young and impressionable! This weekend was the 101st Apple Cup game between the Washington State Cougars and the University of Washington Huskies. And despite being tied with the Huskies for one of the lowest positions in college football on the way in, the Cougars managed to pull it off in OT and win the game! Go Cougars! We can hold our heads high at Thanksgiving this year!

Here's McKenzie around half time looking a little bummed because the Cougs were behind... little does she know to never give up hope on our Cougs!



Here she is with a classic 'Touch Down Cougars' at the end of the game!!!


Washington State University is one of those places in the world that you just can't explain to someone who hasn't been there. You share a universal bond with anyone who's attending school there. Matt and I both loved our time there and we have so many good memories of Pullman and the watching the games there in Martin Stadium.

Go Cougs!

Hitting The Hard Stuff...

I have to admit I have been hitting the hard stuff lately... shocking I know for someone who is pregnant. To me the hard stuff of the moment is eggnog. I have a terrible sweet tooth - thank goodness I don't like chocolate but can focus mainly on the pure sugar variations of candy or else I'd weigh a ton. I eat candy year round but there are two times of year when I have special indulgences. I allow myself to have candy corn only in the month of October and then in November and December I have eggnog. I also have strict standards on what candy corn I will eat - only Brach's, no other brand and if I can at all help it I avoid the 'Harvest Mix' bag which includes the candy corn pumpkins and the ones with brown on them. I think the brown taints the whole lot. With eggnog I'm not as picky on my brand.

I actually started this post last week when I bought my first half gallon of eggnog for the season. I had already been having steamed eggnog if I went to Starbucks but having it at home was really agreeing with me. Unfortunately, I ran into an issue with drinking my beloved eggnog last week when the results from my glucose screening came back - my sugar levels were very high and so I had to go back in for a three hour glucose test last Friday which involves not eating anything for 12 hours before the test, then drinking a drink made of pure sugar and food coloring and then have your blood drawn once an hour for three hours. Nothing like that to make a pregnant lady feel great! I was very worried that I would have to watch my sugar intake for the remainder of my pregnancy and in my mind that equated to not enjoying the holidays to their fullest. Luckily my second test came back great with no elevated sugars so I'm in the clear to enjoy the holidays and their sweets! I guess when they said eat normally before coming in for the first test they probably thought I wouldn't be chugging down a glass of eggnog with lunch. I was very careful with what I ate prior to the fasting period for the second test.

Knowing my own sweet tooth as I do, I have been trying to keep McKenzie off the sweets. Luckily she doesn't know much about candy or what it looks like in stores yet so she only wants something if I'm having it. I made it almost all through October without giving her candy corn. It's sad to admit but I was hiding it from her and sneaking it sometimes when she wasn't looking. I can remember my friend Carrie telling me that she did that with her little boy Kaden and I thought that was crazy but now I understand. I also have given her a drink of eggnog and the verdict is in - she likes it! Or should I say loves from the way she held the cup up trying to get the last few drops.

Here's a couple of recent pictures of McKenzie. The first is playing video games with Daddy in the game room and the second is with Grandma Z who came over today to watch McKenzie for the morning while Aunt Kacey went on a field trip.

Time to Give Thanks...

This is the time to reflect back on all the things that I have to be thankful for. This year more than ever the thing that I am most thankful for are my friends. I am also lucky enough that I can be thankful for good health in my family, my job, my house among many things. Not all my friends are so lucky this year. We've had some tough times this year but through it all our group of friends sticks together and helps where we can. Each of us has something different, something special and something critical to offer.

I know I've posted in the past about my best friend Carrie and my hopes that McKenzie someday will find a 'forever friend' like her but I also hope that McKenzie is blessed with a whole group of long term friends who can stick together through thick and thin. It's not often that I meet people who are still close friends with people from high school, let alone from preschool. I have been very lucky to have people in my life who are friends and not just acquaintances - here today but gone tomorrow.

Here's a little photo tribute to my friends and all the memories we've shared and the ones we have yet to make. Hang in there - things have to get better!

Happy Halloween!

We had a great Halloween - not as many Trick or Treaters as we would have liked but maybe next year now that the word might be out that we gave out full sized candy bars! McKenzie was feeling a little under the weather but she rallied for the end of the day and seemed to enjoy going out after dark all bundled up.

Here's our pumpkins in the day time as well as at night. Matt did the really intricate one with the witch stepping out of the cave and I did the two face ones. I think I make basically the same pumpkin every year but that's okay by me.



McKenzie wore her dog costume for Halloween and we had Matt's family over so she got to show off for Grandma and Grandpa Z and Aunt Jennifer, Uncle Chris and best of all cousin Claire. First we have McKenzie getting ready to go out doing a little last minute clean up with her lint roller and then we have our little doggie trick or treating at the neighbors. She just kept taking more and more candy... Matt finally had to pull her away.




McKenzie really enjoys spending time with all her cousins - Nathan and Kayla get their fair share of 'loving' from McKenzie but at least they are bigger and can love back if they want to. Baby Claire has to just put up with it. There is no doubt that there is a big kiss in Claire's future!




Here's another picture from last year - with McKenzie and one of our pumpkins.