baby shower for DEB

my friend and co-worker, debbie, is having a baby, so today our team threw her a baby shower!

welcome charlie! jodena thought of the great idea to decorate the wall using clothes pins with onesies and booties! rachel did a great job of getting onesies and booties that matched perfectly with our theme--blue and brown with polka dots!
our kinder team
the invitations that i made for the shower
the frames that i made for debbie. we brought pictures of us as babies! i got the idea to make these frames from adam's sister, mandy. she made frames for her baby's bedroom like this.
aren't the decorations precious? i love the diaper cakes that brandi made!
the monogrammed cake that jodena got! ahh, i love monogramming!

mY fAvOrItE tHiNg

i needed a picture of me as a young child for school tomorrow. here's one of the pictures my mom e-mailed me. she titled it "laura's favorite thing." this is so true. i definitely love talking on the phone and my love obviously began at a very young age.

too bad the phone is upside down.

decorating OUR first HOME for CHRISTMAS

i was so excited to decorate adam and my first apartment together for Christmas, i just couldn't wait.
He is the reason for the season. a fontanini nativity set we got from my aunt as a wedding gift. love it.

i couldn't resist this good buy from wal-mart. i love wreaths and i love anything red berry for the holiday season.

i got the little trees in the middle of the table from the dollar tree. oh golly, how much i love the dollar tree! i got the candle rings from kohl's half-off. everything else i already had.

a view of our living room. i decorated with mostly red and some gold.

our first Christmas tree as a married couple.

a view of the fireplace. i love stockings and i love these simple stockings i found at garden ridge. they were 8 dollars each. i got the wreath and garland half-off at garden ridge, too. you probably can't tell but the wreath is greenery with red berries and pine cones on it. i love decorations that are from nature (even if they're fake, haha!).

another view of our living room. on the coffee table, i have pine cones decorated with gold glitter on them.

it's probably a good thing i don't have more space to decorate this season!!

in honor of tHaNkSgIvInG

in honor of the upcoming thanksgiving, i wanted to make a list of some of the things in my life that i am thankful for.

1. a loving God
2. an amazing husband
3. a wonderful family
4. a roof over my head
5. a bed to sleep in
6. never going hungry
7. electricity and running water
8. AC/heater
9. my health
10.having access to medical care and medication
11.having the choice to vote
12.having religious freedom
13.having freedom of speech
14.living in a country that offers education for all
15.having a job that i think is one of the most important jobs in the world
16.living in a very efficient society
17.beyond these things are "extras" in life which i am also so thankful for and my "extras" list could go on and on but i really wanted to focus this list on things that most of us in the US have, that much of the world doesn't. most of americans' standard of living is way beyond a LARGE majority of the rest of the world. happy thanksgiving.

may the best man win...the better of the two choices, that is

i showed each student in my class, the pictures below and asked them to tell me who the pictures were of. 3/4ths of my class correctly name and identify mccain and obama. impressive for 5 year-olds! then, i wanted to see who they wanted to win...who, oh, who will it be? i'm pretty sure that obama's going to win but i asked my 5 year-old students who they wanted to win and here's what they had to say...

here's who won:
10 votes for mccain
9 votes for obama

i couldn't resist, i just couldn't stop there. i asked each student why they voted the way they did. here are some of the responses i got...

"i voted for mccain because i don't want anymore of my money taken away!"

"i voted for mccain because i don't want higher taxes."

"i voted for mccain because he has the most experience and he fought in a war."

"i voted for mccain because he is old."

"i voted for obama because he would be the first african-american president."

"i voted for obama because i like his name."

"i voted for obama because i like his hair."

"i voted for obama because he is younger."

i didn't realize that by asking my students about who they wanted to win they would get in a heated debate with classmates. literally. some students felt VERY strongly about their candidates and tried to get their classmates to vote for who they wanted to win.

one child said that one of the candidates was a liar and called hillary clinton a monster. haha! really these 5 year-olds were cracking me up today!

at the end of the day, during free choice centers, a lot of the kids made "signs" cheering on their candidate. i REALLY wish i had my camera today! oh well, there's always nov. 5th, 2012.

some pictures from the past

my mom sent me some pictures of her and her family growing up.

my grandparents. what a good-looking couple.
i think my grandmother was very stylish.
very jackie-o.

i thought was a neat picture of my mom.

i just thought this was a cool pic. it makes me smile.

more important than pictures, are the wonderful memories made in the moment captured.

el rancho de raetzsch

last weekend, we saw this at el rancho...
and we relaxed.

and we chillaxed.

and got some fish.

with friends and family.

precious niece definitely has a dad who's a HUGE aggie fan

so we headed over to adam's parents for a little football...well, the guys watched football. the gals made ornaments.

but who really cares...let's get to the more exciting part!
summer in her too-cute aggie outfit

i think she knows she's cute, too!

'cuz she's sure hammin' it up for the camera! can she be any cuter??

ah!! i promise i don't normally make babies cry!!