And the tree is up!

So believe it or not, this is the 1st year since Philip & I have been married that we have a real tree! I forgot how much I love the smell of fresh pine.


I love Christmas ornaments!

Americans & Our Obligation

::warning:: a small rant coming on -

Around Thanksgiving, I was thinking about what I'm grateful for. Of course - family, friends, and health. But I've been thinking a lot about how grateful I am for our freedoms and our rights.
As Americans, we are lucky enough to have freedom of choice, religion, speech... etc. We have the right, just living in this country, to vote. Which I think is an awesome blessing. And with that, there comes obligation.

An obligation to get educated and informed. (which I hope people took the time to do BEFORE they voted)

With that said, anyone that voted in the past 2008 Presidential Election has the responsibility to follow up. To know what's going on with our country right now. With the war, with healthcare, with the economy.
There are so many who voted (whether their candidate won... or not), that are uninformed & completely oblivious to what's been going on since the election. Whether you voted for this President or not, is irrelevant. We should not take for granted this privilege we have to vote for our own leadership by neglecting our duties as citizens of this country.
It saddens me how many people voted for President Obama and have no idea what his plans are, how they've changed, and what has already come to pass since he's taken office - whether it be good or bad.

Why would someone take the time to go out and vote and then choose to be ignorant thereafter?

Anyway, I hope this didn't come accross too harsh, I'm just in a mood. And I thought it was too important to neglect sharing my feelings about the issue.

On to other things:
I can't believe it's December already!!!! I am really looking forward to Christmas!

Getting there, getting bigger!

One of my friends was kind enough to point out I haven't posted a "belly pic" in like 6 weeks. Ooops. I'm not much a fan of having photo's taken of me, as you can see... I'm getting bigger and less photogenic. Well recently Philip and I had a couple pics taken (thanks to my sis!). Here they are, and these were taken more than a week ago and I already feel like I've grown SO much. How is there any more room in there? Ha ha.

Our very own Thanksgiving

This year, Philip and I shared our 1st holiday... just the two of us. It was so nice to actually have a day to spend with Philip. He's gone so much between his work and school schedules, and when is he home he's engulfed in homework. A busy little bee he is. But Thanksgiving was such a blessing for us. We got to wake up when we wanted and just enjoy the day.

The morning started by turning on one of my favorite trilogy's. Lord of the Rings. For some reason it's kind of a holiday tradition. Every year we have a LOTR marathon. So.... one of the 3 movies was always on in the background.. for the entire day. Which I just LOVE. Something is so perfect about it.

For breakfast: crepes! We have a yummy recipe and every so often we'll take it out. We thought this was a good occasion.

After breakfast, I got a knock at the door. It was my good friend Aga, she came bearing gifts for us. So sweet of her to bring it by, it was the cutest little baby box filled with all kinds of clothes and goodies for our little Clark. Love you Aga! Also, thought it was time to get Jeffrey in one of his Christmas sweaters. You know, get him in the spirit! :-)

The preparation for our little meal came next. The peeling of the potatoes. And.... didn't go so well. Philip got a little excited and decided to cram ALL the peels at once down the disposal. We ended up with a little clog. Oops. P fixed it up nicely. A clogged drain and potato water all over the floor never hurt anyone, right? :-)

Mmm... here comes the food. I know you're thinking: "Where is the turkey??" Well I've never been a huge fan of turkey. I'll eat it most definitely but I prefer ham. Besides, we weren't' ready to throw ourselves into preparing a turkey quite yet. Maybe next year.
You better believe this is how Jeffrey sat the entire day, right outside the kitchen waiting for his Dinner. And he gobbled down that ham so fast, I think it's safe to say he enjoyed our cooking.


Our evening didn't end there. Philip and I decided to play a little Mortal Combat together... an old past time. Then our friends Garth & Jessica came over for a visit later on in the evening! So happy we have friends so close in the area.
And lastly, we realized we didn't' have any dessert at all so we made a trip to the only place open at 10PM on Thanksgiving. Walgreens. Picked ourselves up some candy treats and ice cream.

Although we missed our family a lot, our day was pretty much perfect.

What are you thankful for?

We all have so much to be grateful for! We are all so richly blessed in so many ways. I love this time of year. I am thankful for my my husband, my family, my faith, my freedoms & choice, the armed forces serving our beautiful country, my friends, my dog, technology, and of course my little baby on the way! (and this only begins to cover it!)

What are you thankful for!?

Are you getting emails?

Hi.
I know that there are some people getting emailed when I post a new blog. Did you subscribe to those? Do you even still want them? ha ha. I bet it's annoying sometimes huh? I can probably go into my settings and stop emails from going out.

You always have the option to come to my actual blog and visit: HERE is the link.

Either way, hope you stop by and see how things are goin over at the Chiappini residence!

My Girls!

Everyone has a group of close friends in high school, and I am lucky enough to have remained friends with my best friends from high school. Although we're all so different now - it's so nice to be able to get together to see them!! We made dinner and enjoyed some dessert.. .and had some much needed girl talk. In fact, we were up until 1AM chatting... I haven't stayed up that late since... well.... I don't even remember when. Ha ha.
LOVE you girls!
My besties from high school: Lindsay, Carly, Lindsi (and the cutie pie little girl is Emma, Lindsi's daughter) Don't mind my big ol belly either... starting to feel pretty frumpy. Ha ha.
[oh and also, please excuse the poor camera quality... I only had my really really old point & shoot!]

Lyrical Hip Hop anyone?

You all know my obsession with Dance. And, So You Think You Can Dance.
I normally post 380293 video's, but so far this season, although the dancing is fabulous - there hasn't been a whole lot of pieces that have "wow'd" me.

Anyway, over the past few seasons, I have been loving the lyrical hip hop choreography from Tabitha and Napoleon. This is one from last night's show!


And here is a contemporary piece from last week I really enjoyed!

'Dear John'

So you know these movies? Romance Drama's based on Nicholas Spark's novels, sure to make you cry??

Well there's another one headed to the theatre's in Feb! This time, featuring Channing Tatum - my fav :-) Can't wait to see it! I'm sure it'll be a tear-jerker like all the rest!

Everyone loves soft serve!

Yesterday was awesome. The sun was out and I got to enjoy it a little bit! Philip and I took Miss. Alison out on a little date. We took her to a "grown up restaurant" as she calls it. We went to the Olive Garden and chowed down. Then of course, we had to stop by Mickey D's for ice cream. Ali and I totally share that love. But who doesn't love soft serve, seriously?
I just love how enthusiastic she is about the trampoline. What a doll.. she is such a blast to hang out with. She's so sophisticated for her age, yet still has that little girl essence about her.

Uncle P and Alison


Also earlier that day I had the opportunity to shoot with this beautiful couple down at the waterfront.
[more on the blog, of course] :-)

100 grams of glucose....

... at 9AM. Ick.
Am I complaining and being a baby? Yes, Sorry.
I went back to take the 3 hour glucose tolerance test. Have I mentioned I'm actually not much of a 'sweets' person. I prefer salty things.
Last time I got 50g of the orange drink. This time they were kind enough to give me 100g of this fruit punch flavored drink that I had to get down in 5 minutes, after 12 hours of fasting. Bleh. They poked my poor little arm every hour (a total of 4 times) to get their blood samples. Anyway, at least they had a cozy little room for me to sit in for 3 hours. I brought the laptop and watched a movie to help pass the time... always waiting for the bell to ring, letting me know I had a friendly needle coming my way.
Well I'm just glad that's over. A minor annoyance. Now lets just hope that I pass with flying colors.

Failed.

Guess who failed the glucose screening? I did.
Dang it.
I officially despise this little drink.

I'm going back to take the 3 hour test this week.
Please please please please pass this one!
Ugh.