Christmas

I am happy to announce, this is my first slide show posted on my blog...aren't you proud I've figured it out months after all of you have? :)

We had a great Christmas in Utah with Marc's family...we were there for a week and had lots of time to hang around and do nothing (which is always nice), hang out with the fam, go shopping, cook, bake, have a Rueckert side family reunion (that's the pics you see where we had an airplane throwing contest & pinata), play with our nephews Ben & Owen, and just enjoy Christmas.

For Christmas Marc gave me a really cool new cell phone...called the Treo. It's kinda like a Blackberry--it has so many cool features on it, I've been constantly playing around with it ever since. But my favorite present that he got me was 4 baby outfits...I LOVE that he went to the store and picked out clothes for our baby by himself...I don't know why I love this so much, but I just do...he got 2 basketball outfits and 2 outfits that have frogs (cuz I'm decorating the nursery with a frog theme).

I gave Marc a few things, but one was Guitar Hero 3...and that was quite the success...I don't think I saw Marc for 2 solid days after he opened that on Christmas. He was down in the basement where the t.v. is, playing it SOLIDLY. I was glad cuz I wanted to give him a present he could play with.

We are back home from Utah now and getting ready for our annual New Years party with my family...hope you have a Happy New Year!

The Sad Story of our Caramel Apples

The sad story is...we basically failed miserably. After Rachel saying to me, and I quote, "There's really no way you can mess them up," I guess you can say I decided to challenge her statement:) Here's Marc showing the hardship on his face...
Marc and I tried so many times to let the caramel toughen up more in the fridge, and then put the M&M's on again...but every time we'd check in on them, it had all slid off the apple. I think I used crappy caramel. (I'll blame it on that and not me:) It was some packaged mixture you add sugar and milk to...
Yes, I know. I'm kind of embarassed about the picture above. I swear there are other things I can bake that turn out good:)

We finally managed to get some of the caramel to stay on the apples and just patted coconut all over them to mask the bald spots.
I thought I could trick people into thinking they were good if I made the wrapping around the apples look really nice. The more I sit here and think about it, the more embarassed I am that I actually delivered these to our neighbors. I don't even think they tasted that good. Maybe the next thing I deliver to the neighbors will be apology notes:)

The Old Days of Rach and Lu

This last week has been awesome cuz I have gotten to hang out with Rach so much. Rach & I met at BYU and instantly became siamese twins...friends truly connected at the hip:) We are definitely kindred spirits...and I have missed all the laughing and fun we have, ever since we have been apart! The last time we saw each other was right before her daughter Anna was born...so it had been too long! Her and her cute fam (Mike & Anna) came on a California vacation and came out to Torrance one of the days to hang out. We went over to the beach in the day...Marc was still working and poor Mike had to deal with us reverting back to our old ways of laughing so hard over stuff that no one else around us understands what's going on. But soon Marc got home and we went out to dinner and hung out...and the boys were able to talk about boy stuff:)

Her daughter Anna is ALL girl...I love it! We bonded as soon as I pulled my lip gloss out of my purse and put it on her...she wouldn't let me stop!
At Claim Jumper...


*MY FAVORITE HAIRDRESSER!!!!!*

In college, Rach and I learned how to weave hair...and we literally changed up each others' hair every week...she does hair better than anyone I know. Marc & I stayed with them in Vegas on our way to Utah over the weekend...we wanted to hang out more and see their place. Rach did my hair and I LOVE IT. Of course I knew I would cuz she is so good. She bleached it, dyed the bottom dark, and cut me some bangs. Rach, you rock:)

This Weekend

I just thought I'd post a few pics from this weekend...my fam came to see our new place and deliver the desk Marc & my Dad made. Yesterday after church I had to take a pic of Marc & Mike cuz they just looked so handsome...
Here's me & Mike acting like we're taking a picture for a My Space page...even though the face I made looks retarded, we were laughing about the fact that all the girls always look away and pucker out their lips...or they do that big smile surprised look...hence, this picture:
Okay, here I am at 25 weeks and counting! We took a tour of the Torrance Memorial hospital yesterday...and it was really nice and made us both feel more relaxed about knowing what to expect at the hospital.

Scrapbooking Desk!!!

We've been up to Bakersfield a couple weekends this month because my Dad and Marc have been working on a project....making a scrapbooking desk for me!!! I can't even tell you how exciting this is to me. In our old apt. all my scrapbooking stuff was just stacked in a messy pile in the corner of our family room...but since our new place is a little more roomy, we decided to build a desk that sits next to our other one (that my dad & Marc actually built a couple years ago) so I could organize all my scrapbooking stuff into it. My Dad is an AWESOME carpenter and has quite a nice workshop in the garage...and Marc really wants to learn how to do that stuff...so it was a great project for them. Marc learned a lot and they both had fun...and it turned out so nice.
Now I've got the job of painting it...so I'll post pics of it once I do that...

My ward baby shower

My old ward (as of a few weeks ago) threw me a baby shower on Dec. 5th. It was so much fun. Since I have been in Young Womens with my calling the entire time I was in that ward (3 1/2 years), the Young Women President, leaders and the girls wanted to throw it for me. It was at the Young Women's President's house...and the Young Women planned and ran the games and everything. It was awesome...Between all the young women and people from the ward, we had a full house...it was definitely a fun party. And I got some really cute stuff for my baby boy:) Here are just a few of the pics:

This is me with Rebecca, the young womens president
With some of the girls...I can't tell you how much I'm going to miss them!!!
With my friend Katie, who actually got called into young womens just a few months ago...and I was so excited--but then it turned out we had to move....she did a lot in helping to plan the shower

Blog page fixed!

Okay, I can't even tell you how happy I am right now. I messed up my blog somehow a couple of weeks ago...and have been trying to fix it ever since. I accidentally upgraded to a new kind of blogger template and wasn't able to view my page elements or anything. Seriously, I was so bummed cuz I thought I'd just have to delete this blog and start a new one. I FINALLY figured out how to fix it and so I am back in the blogging world! I'm just telling you this in case any of you run into this problem. Just ask me and I can tell you what to do. Now I can post again. Woohoo!