Andrew & Ann

Birthday, Birth Day & a Wedding!

2009-10-05T15:09:00.005-04:00

This past week has been full of significant events!

Last Wednesday (9/30), my mother turned 60!!

Isn't she pretty??

Then on Thursday evening, in Dallas, at 5:30pm, Luke and Carrie welcomed Gabriel James into the world!

(Just barely missing his grandmother's 60th birthday)

Such a little "Peanut" - 5lbs, 12oz, 18.75in long!

He has little black fuzz on his head :)

Friday I had the day off to help with Beth's last minute wedding preparations, but it turned out that I need to make a few stops first. So, before I went to the church to help decorate, I went to have my 1st x-ray and EKG. How exciting, right? (Turns out I'm fine) So, after that, I went to the church to see what I could do to help...

Later the night I went to the rehearsal dinner at A.Q. with Kristin (Beth's roommate). We had a wonderful time just chatting and getting to know each other better. Then I went to Suzanna's to put the rest of the reception favors together. There I met some wonderful Missouri girls! (The wives and girlfriends of the groomsmen.)

The next morning, it was off to the Gupton's to get ready for the wedding...

Like my hair?? Beth's friend, Laura, did all the bridesmaids' hair and she did each of us in like 15 mins! That girl was amazing! :)

Then the wedding!!

I took this right after the ceremony (where we were all hiding in the nursery while everyone filed out of the sanctuary). Aren't they precious?!

After the wedding, Andrew (& CJ) convinced me to drive to Dallas to see them and the new baby! Andrew was down there with his family to watch the A&M game. So, Duncan and I loaded up and headed out to Texas. We stopped for a snack at Braum's in McAlester and guess who was there? My parents on their way back from visiting the baby!

After we left Braum's (and Mom & Dad), we ran into rain. We also made a few wrong turns (or non-turns) due to misnamed roads (my opinion of course...), but finally made it there around midnight on Saturday. It was a long day... Good, but long :)

But we made it!

Then Sunday morning, Andrew and I went to Baylor hospital (where I was born too) to visit Gabriel, Carrie & Luke. He was so little, but very healthy and sleepy :)

Can you tell we walked in from the rain??

While we were there, the hospital discharged Carrie and Gabe. So we (and Carrie's parents) helped them gather their things and go home! (Home was just a couple blocks away.)

The Rogers are home at last! Someone decorated their apartment door :)

After that, we headed back to Cherith & Stephen's to hang out for a bit and then headed on home!

Camping & Canoeing

2009-09-28T15:01:00.001-04:00

This past Friday night, Andrew and I went camping with Clay & Lindsey for Andrew's birthday. On the left you have Clay's vehicle carrying Jeff & Chrissa's canoe that they borrowed. On the right is Andrew trying to clean out the cast-iron skillet after he cooked us all eggs and bacon for breakfast!

Here are the boys in their river clothes. Stylish, eh?

I didn't get too many pics of the camping part of our trip because it was dark when we arrived and I was about to puke from carsickness.

This is where we stopped for lunch (ritz crackers with turkey & cheese, doritos, & dr. pepper). I think this is the only picture of Lindsey, since she kept avoiding the camera. As if we all didn't look fabulous?? ;)

The water was beautiful!

The boys testing the water and then plunging in. It was quite entertaining to watch. We have videos of them doing the redneck infinity pool plug :)

Did I mention it was a really really gorgeous day to be out there? Good cool breeze, plenty of water flowing, a tad warm in the sun and a tad cool in the shade. Perfection!

The ground looked like it was crawling! These little guys were everywhere.

And last but not least our little froggy friend. Frogs are so cool!!

He was just slightly stunned when Clay put him back down. But he hopped away pretty quick when I took his picture :)

Can't wait to go next year!! Although next time I'm using spray on sunscreen or someone is helping me out. Ouch!

Cherith & Andrew's Birthday 2009

2009-09-19T01:25:00.012-04:00

This year for Cherith and Andrew's birthday, since there would be nothing as exciting as skydiving, I decided to take on a project that a friend had shown me a couple of years ago on the internet. A girl had make an entire game board (and all the playing pieces) for "Settlers of Catan" out of vegan cupcakes. Since they both love "Settlers of Catan" it seemed appropriate that I should attempt it for their joint birthday celebration. By the way, mine were not vegan, only vegetarian. And I only made the board, not the playing pieces, since we weren't actually planning to play on it as girl on the internet had done.
After baking for a couple evenings and then decorating for a morning, I had to transport 66 of the 84 cupcakes that I had made to the Whitbeck's house for the birthday party. This proved by far to be the most nerve-racking part of the entire ordeal. This is all 66 cupcakes in the back of my car.

Luckily Mom W. came up with a brilliant idea to fill cupcake tins up slightly with something so that I could just plop the cupcakes into the tins and they would be high enough not to ruin the icing. She had suggested beans, but since I didn't have any I used rice krispies, macaroni noodles, and duplex cookies (I didn't have very many of each). It worked great!

The Ore cupcake: Chocolate cupcake, white icing dyed grey, & ground dark chocolate chips

The Water cupcakes: Chocolate or white cupcake, blue & white icing smooshed together

The Sheep cupcake: White cupcake, white icing dyed green, marshmellows

(btw, do you see a pasture of sheep or just one sheep??)

The Wheat cupcake: Lemon cupcake, lemon icing flipped up with a toothpick

(Couldn't really think of a wheat design that wasn't gonna take a ton of work so that's the best I got)

The Wood cupcake: Pistachio cupcake, chocolate icing, pretzels

The Clay/Brick cupcake: Strawberry cupcake, strawberry icing, twizzlers

All set up on the actually game board. Andrew made the wooden board that we use to set the game in.

The cupcakes turned out well, they actually looked better than I had hoped. One corner that I cut was that I did not make the all the different icings, which is what I had originally planned. Instead I bought all canned icing. I apologize to all the purists out there, but I almost always use cake mixes too, so sorry.... um, actually not really :)

By the time we had dinner eaten and settled, the gnats had discovered the wonders of icing! Apparently they were attracted by the chandelier hanging right over the cupcakes :( However, Stephen kindly removed all of them and if a few of us got a little extra protein, it can't hurt, right?

The birthday siblings :) And one little girl who was very ready to eat some cake!

Andrew & CJ - Hope you enjoyed the cupcakes of catan even with the added protein (oh wait! Does that mean they weren't really vegetarian??). I thoroughly enjoyed making them for you :) Love you both, happy birthday!!

Ski Trip Cont'd

2009-03-16T22:44:00.004-04:00

Some more photos:

This view is from Montezuma Bowl, looking out to the south from one of the Blue runs that Luke and I liked.

This is a picture of the trail map of Montezuma Bowl. The blue run is right down the middle of this map. I have some other pictures below this that correspond to the double blacks on the left side of this map.

This is a picture of the ridge of Montezuma Bowl looking down at some of the double blacks. This is the first time in my career of skiing that I have ever had to take my skies of and hike to the ski slope. It was exciting! Pretty cool view I thought.

Looking down into the bowl.

The hiking paid off. I was able to get some views of mountains off in the distance that I couldn't see from anywhere else on the resort. (The ski resort off in the distance is Breckenridge)

All in all it was a great trip. Arapahoe Basin was a fabulous resort!

Ski Jump

2009-03-16T22:24:00.004-04:00

I tried to work on my jumping ability this week. I had a good time. Here is a video Luke was able to get of me going off one of the bigger jumps I did today (I'm surprised I didn't bust it:)

Not quite as good as the professionals on TV, but it's a start. (I'm looking forward to watching the winter olympics next year already!)

Ski Trip Day 1

2009-03-14T22:53:00.007-04:00

This was a sight for sore eyes after we had been on the road for 11 hours or so! Those of you who have driven through Kansas, know what I mean.

However, Kansas has added some fun scenery. I like the giant windmills.

So far the trip is going great. No injuries to speak of, just a lot of sore muscles:) Here a few of the pictures we taken: This first one is a view off in the distance from the living room of the Condo.

This next one is taken from one of the lifts going up the mountain. This is Luke and I's favorite area to ski in because it is all above the tree line.

The ski resort (Arapahoe Basin) has a front and back side you can ski on. This is a view from the very top of the mountain looking down the back side of the resort (South). Just spectacular!

This view is also from the top of the mountain, but it is looking to the west. It is great to be in the Rockies, wonderful creation in every direction.

Thanks for viewing. Maybe there'll be more to come...

Mom and Dad's House

2009-01-28T21:06:00.003-05:00

The gauntlet. Mom and Dad's house is on the right. You can see a bit of the pine tree.

And the view of the basketball court...except no basketball goal. Now what are we going to call it? the concrete slab in the back??

Ice, Ice and more Ice.

2009-01-28T20:47:00.003-05:00

Here are some pics of our home... Don't know how long I'll keep the internet, so I'm not gonna type much. Enjoy.
Bradford (sp?) Pear tree in our front yard. View from our front porch.

Neighbors to the north. Their Bradford Pear couldn't decide which way to fall. So it compromised.

View of our corner lot. :( Not quite as pretty as it once was.

The Whitbeck Motel

2008-10-05T18:24:00.005-04:00

The Whitbeck Motel features one newly renovated non-smoking room, well-equipped with crown molding, dimmers, new window blinds, two fully-loaded bookcases, a new ceiling fan and a gently used treadmill.
The mission-style bed, pillow-top mattresses and vera wang bedding materials are also new with the renovation. These plush additions add an immense amount of comfort to the room. (See guest comments below.)Also newly added is a beautiful armoire for hanging up your formal wear. The armoire was originally purchased to house the television and dvd player seen in the above picture. However the t.v. was too heavy and too large for the armoire. (We regret to tell you that the television is no longer an available option for this room. The dvd player is still available.)
This room comfortably accommodates two adults with room on the floor for at least one additional guest. Extra pillows, blankets and towels available upon request. Accommodations for pets may be negotiated (extra charges may apply). This room also features beautiful artwork by the photographer Andrew. The canvas above the bed is an original photograph taken by the artist almost two years ago in Ghent, Belgium.

We are please to announce that the hall bathroom should be exclusively available for this room by Christmas of this year and we hope that this slight inconvenience of temporarily sharing the bathroom will not keep you from visiting.

This room is available by reservation only, so please make your requested dates known promptly. (Unfortunately we are already booked through New Year's of next year.) We look forward to your visit!

Guest Comments: (3.5/5 stars)

Stephen - "These pillows are like marshmallows!" ****

Cherith - "Well, the mattress isn't hurting my back yet." ***

New Car!

2008-07-24T00:49:00.004-04:00

Last night, Andrew & I & Dad W drove over to Tulsa and got a new car! We traded-in the Eclipse, which was kind of sad... however, Andrew was thrilled to leave it behind. Our new car is a Hyundai Santa Fe. As you can see from the pictures it is "slate blue." It's also AWD for any winter weather we might have here at home or on ski trips :)

Master Bath Remodel

2008-06-21T20:45:00.007-04:00

Just wanted to share some pictures of our master bathroom with everybody...
If you want to see more, click on the title to this post and theoretically it should take you to a web album of all the pictures of the bathroom.

Updates

2008-02-01T18:25:00.001-05:00

Undoubtedly it's been a very long time since we've posted anything, so here is a whole smattering of pictures from the last few months...

We got a new canon elph, kind of a Christmas present to ourselves and we had a blast with all the cool settings and features. This picture and the next we were trying out the macro setting. Oliver (Mom & Dad W's cat) really appreciated me using him as a test subject. This was the last picture I got before he ran and hid :)

This picture was after we discovered the color selective feature... pretty neat.

Okay, enough playing with the camera.

Cherith, Stephen, Justin & Sarah were wonderful enough to invite us on their post-Christmas vacation to the Smoky Mountains. Thankyou! So, New Year's Day we left to go visit the bears.

Here is a really cool picture Andrew took from the car on the way to Tennessee.

This picture was taken on our 8 mile hiking trip, right as we were nearing the end of the hike. Andrew has gotten really good at the waterfall pictures :)

Andrew and Stephen at the Chimney Tops.

Here's a night picture from the back porch on our cabin. Quite a view.

And a sunset picture.

On one of our hikes we found this carved in a bridge. Thought JC & KC might appreciate it :)

And since we're on the subject here's a picture of their little girl Gillian.... Isn't she precious?

Her brother was already in bed though, so no pictures of him :(

And, back to the trip to Gatlinburg and the Smoky Mntns...

This is Andrew zorbing. He got a whole outfit and everything so he could roll down the mountain in a giant ball :) Looks like fun! (Gatlinburg is the only place where zorbing exists in the US at present)

Oh yeah, I said we were going to visit the bears didn't I?! (This guy was about 10 feet away from Justin & Andrew while they were loading the car to go home, they quickly ran inside as soon as they realized he was observing)

Back to Arkansas...

Andrew was up at the University on Sunday and found his name in the sidewalk!! It's kind of in abscure place, but it's there.

Hope you enjoyed, we'll try not to let it be so long in between posts (I finally figured out how to post with our macbook). Goodnight!

Attack of the Ants

2007-10-06T17:45:00.001-04:00

Wanna see something gross? This is the inside of our shed. Yes, those are ants. Dead ones.

The bug man came and sprayed these little guys.

He said he'd never seen so many ants!

When Andrew swept them out, it looked like a pile of very dark rich earth, but when you look closer...

Oh, and they're back by the way. We drug everything out of the shed Saturday for optimum bug spraying.

Gutsy Gazebo

2007-07-22T22:55:00.000-04:00

Here are some shots from the Gazebo that Andrew was helping build today...
Not for the faint of heart!! Ask Andrew for the details.

Wow! That's a long way down :)

Vacation!!

2007-06-30T12:52:00.001-04:00

The beach was great! We stopped in Vickburg to pick up Luke & Carrie and then continued on to Florida...

Here is our condo.

Funny story about how we got this one... We arrived in Sandestin at a reasonable hour (can't remember what time exactly) and searched for the hotel to check-in. We got keys to the condo we had rented and then drove to the right neighborhood. Mom had to get out and search in the dark for the right condo, because the addresses were on the condos and they weren't lit up :) Finally she spots it and we go inside and the first thing we see is... a 8x10 room with a bunkbed in it! So, she calls and explains in her very kind & gentle way that we have 3 couples and this is just not quite what we had in mind :) Luckily they were happy to oblige.

Andrew quickly discovered that the water turtles in the pond outside our condo were expecting us. He walked out onto the dock thing and immediately a dozen little turtle heads popped up from around the pond and started towards him. We had a fun time feeding them cheerios all week :) The last time we fed them, we had 25+ turtles show up!

Here we are waiting for the tram to come pick us up (see the rain?) we were playing tennis :)

The first time, we got rained out, we rode our bikes back in the rain! It was kinda fun.

We went to a little town called Seaside for a few hours one day (where "The Truman Show" was filmed) It was a cute little tourist town, right on the beach of course.

We also did some kayaking, although it was more just paddling ourselves around the bay and through some reeds (probably lots snakes in there). Luke & Carrie got to ride a waverunner and saw some dolphins, but unfortunately I don't have any pics :(

This is Taylor, he's a very old parrot that lives at the marina! He stays in the trees and then when he gets hungry or sleepy, he goes inside. When I was little, he was in a cage, so he's definitely happier :)

And of course the beach was fun! We had a great time jumping in the waves :)

We found out Friday night that there were sharks spotted on Thursday and they had closed the beaches. Fortunately, we hadn't gone to the beach that day!

Dad, Luke and Andrew got to play golf on some beautiful golf courses!

One night, we took a ferry over to Sandestin Village to have dinner. No, that's not the ferry. The town was neat, live music, good food and lots of tourist shops.

It was a great trip!! Thankyou Mom & Dad R. for inviting us :)

Blast From the Past

2007-06-14T13:01:00.000-04:00

Here's something Andrew and I found while searching frantically for some golf coupons! 5 years ago this past Easter, if you can't tell by the cake....

Andrew graciously grew out his hair after I suggested it. And it was cool.

I like his hair now :)

Flowers!

2007-05-28T16:18:00.000-04:00

Here are some beautiful orange lillies that are no product of my little black thumb :)
However, thanks to pro-gardener Kristin, Andrew and I may be able to enjoy some lovely German tomatoes this summer!

An update on some remodels...

2007-05-28T13:35:00.000-04:00

We've been working on the spare bedroom/office.

In case you don't know or don't remember what it used to look like, here are some old pics (march-ish)...

And here is the finished product...

Well, still no doors yet, but close enough ;)

Giant Moth?

2007-05-25T16:58:00.000-04:00

This morning as I was backing out of the driveway, I saw this huge moth/butterfly thing on Andrew's car! It was so big that I promptly stopped and ran in to get my little camera. Seriously, his wing span was probably at least 8-9ins or so. Before long, I decided that I really needed to get out my big camera. Andrew soon joined me (took some pics of his own, and yes, this is one he took... ) and we study the little guy for quite awhile. Needless to say, I was about 30mins late for work :)

Pictures de la nuit - Ghent Day 2

2006-12-23T18:11:00.000-05:00

Here are some more pictures for your entertainment. Keep in mind none of these images have been edited yet, so do be too critical. These are just some that we really enjoyed from tonight. Ann, Cherith, and Stephen were quite cold, so it was quite nice of them to allow me to continue taking some long exposures. Enjoy...let me know what you think. I guess we are off to Scotland tomorrow. I don't know when the next time we'll be able to post some more pictures. It may not be til we get home, but who knows so keep checking:) Merry Christmas

Stephen and I particularly enjoyed this photo of an angel slaying a dragon.

Gent Day 1 Cont'd

2006-12-22T18:11:00.000-05:00

Here are some more pictures. Here are some people that I just ran into HALF a world away:)

2006-12-22T17:23:00.000-05:00

We wanted to post you some pictures from our day. Hope you all enjoy them. We've really enjoyed it so far and we will continue to post pictures as we have time. Au revoir.

Lights on the Square

2006-12-17T22:42:00.000-05:00

Tonight Andrew and I went up to the square with our friends, Robbie and Erin. Their precious baby girl, Sarah, went with us as well :) Andrew and I didn't make it down there last year and I had heard that they used colored lights as well as the white this year. It was quite cool, although I heard a few complaints that colored lights are retro?! After eating a some excellent pizza at a very crowded Tiny Tim's, we all walked around the Square. Andrew and I both with cameras :) Baby Sarah seemed to really enjoy the lights (at least for awhile).
Andrew really liked this blue star :)

And of course, we all loved the Razorback! There were actually several scattered throughout the area.

Camel ride anyone?

We highly recommend going down to the Square if any of you have not been yet! And right now, the weather is gorgeous. We weren't even the slightest bit cold!

18' Christmas Tree!!

2006-12-16T11:26:00.000-05:00

Last night, Andrew, Marcus, Tamara and I went out to my Uncle Trail and Aunt Becky's house. They were giving us their old freezer (it's been passed through my family a few times I think) Anyway, they have the biggest indoor Christmas Tree I have ever seen! I believe that it is close to 18 feet tall!!

I stuck these two pictures in here so you could see and truly appreciate the tree's true height and volume next to the furniture and one-story ceilings in the house :)

Merry Christmas!!

Side by Side Comparisons

2006-12-12T22:32:00.000-05:00

Okay, well I can't figure out how to get them exactly side by side, but close enough...Too bad they're not at exactly the same angles.

Hopefully this is not picture overload for you all :)

Can you tell much of a difference?

Hope you enjoyed the pictures!

Home Theatre Room!

2006-12-12T21:41:00.000-05:00

Surely, you knew there had to be one :) Yes, after 3 coats of dark red paint (much to Andrew's dismay) among several other remodeling activities our second bedroom is now a fully functioning home theatre. And the color, well, it will never change! This window is going to be covered by the time spring comes, too much light for watching tv or movies. By the way, do you remember the green curtains that used to cover this window?! Also, the window is actually clean, but the seal is broken, hence the dirty looking foggish stuff :)
The closet as you can see has no doors at the present time, but since this room is not, nor will be for some time, used as a bedroom, we don't find that to be a problem. It makes the perfect little nook for guitar playing and dvd storage :) It's a very deep closet, so you can sit in there very comfortably on the stool. You may be skeptically, but I promise, it doesn't even feel like it's out of place at all :)
Nope, no door into this room either :) Can you see the master bedroom? Oh look, there's Andrew in the mb closet working away!

Unfortunately for my parents, we took back the futon. It makes for great napping :) Eventually, Andrew will get some real home theatre seating. Eventually :) Thanks for visiting! By the way, if you're curious about what all went into the remodeling of these two rooms, just ask. It might suprise you :) I just realized, I didn't put in any pics of the new ceiling fans... But, that's because they seem to just dissapear :)
Anyway, if you want to, come by and watch a movie, or just drop in for a chat! We would love to show you everything in person :)

Master Bedroom Remodel 95% Complete!!

2006-12-12T21:17:00.000-05:00

You see, since we took so long to starting posting pictures, we sort of have several to get through... Anyway, here's the master bedroom remodel. As you can see by the new pictures and the fact the Andrew was in some of the pre-remodel pics, he has worked so so very hard! Can you believe he got that much done in just two weeks?! Amazing :)

The closet is the 5% not quite finished, but he's working on it... Here's the master bedroom, keep in mind that the bathroom door will be changed to a white 2 panel arch door and there will be doors to the closet and the hallway in the future :)

Sorry, the room is such a wreck.... I tried to keep most of it out of the pictures for you :)
Yes, I know what you're thinking (if you know Andrew very well) Those are indeed brown sheet on our bed! We needed new sheets and these were a good price and a good color for the room, even Andrew likes them.

Pics of the Second Bedroom

2006-12-12T21:08:00.000-05:00

As promised, here are a couple pics of the second bedroom. Now, it's very important to remember what these look like when you read the remodel post. And yes, the ceiling fans really are important!!
And here's one more of the master bedroom, can you see that gold sponged wall?!

Our New Home :)

2006-12-12T20:50:00.000-05:00

Finally, our first post! Well, as many of you know, we recently bought our first house :) It's right across from Tyson Park and we're told the lights from the baseball fields are blinding! Thankfully however, we have only two windows that actually face the park. Unfortunately there are no pics of the exterior since it's dark by the time we get home :) Anyway, enough rambling, here's the master bathroom.... And here's the master bedroom...

Okay, a few more of the bathroom...

Anyway, we hope you all (esp. Cherith and Stephen) enjoyed the pics. More will soon be posted of the second bedroom and the master bedroom remodels :)