Big News!!!

Well, we can finally announce it to everyone...we are expecting a baby Keenan in August 2009!!! We are very excited!!!
Christmas was definitely a great time this year. Jeff and I went to Pickerington to my Aunt Barbie and Uncle Jerry's to spend Christmas Eve with my Dad's side of the family. It was a very fun time and it's amazing to see how big some of my cousins are getting! They are so much fun to be around! We did the annual gift exchange and I think that everyone ended up with some great gifts. After we left Barbie and Jerry's house, we headed up to Wadsworth to spend the rest of the week with Jeff's family.
We kept the baby secret until Christmas dinner and it was killing us! My Mom was driving up from Columbus and we wanted to make sure that we told our parents at the same time. I literally was forcing down food because I was just so excited to tell them and we really wanted to pull off the surprise. I wrapped up picture frames that said "Baby" and put a piece of paper inside that said "Coming Soon...August 2009". Our parents waited until after dinner to open up the gifts. Right before they opened the gift, Jeff's mom jokingly said "Maybe it's an ultrasound!". We played it off and said that it's nothing big and we had forgotten that we left them in the car. They opened up the packages and all of their jaws dropped and Jeff's mom let out a loud scream. Everyone was soooo excited and we were happy that we got their reaction on video. (I will attempt to post the video when we get back to Clarksville.) The rest of the night was full of phone calls to other friends and family to let them know the exciting news.
I'm about 6 weeks along right now and so far, so good. A little nausea at times, but nothing major. We are so thrilled and look forward to many more exciting times to come!!
We hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas!!!!

Ice, Ice, Ice...

So, you want to hear about our night!?!? We left Clarksville around 11:15a.m. (CST) to head up to Columbus, OH to start our Christmas holiday. We got all the way to Louisville and then we began to have some issues. When I drive through Louisville, I always take the Gene Synder Expressway instead of going through downtown because I've heard that it saves about a half hour (Jeff questioned my judgement this time and yes, I should have listened to him). About 8 miles from where we got off of the expressway and onto 71, the traffic just stopped. We inched along for about an hour until we decided to get off on the nearest exit and attempt some backroads. By this time, it was raining, but cars were beginning to slide on some icy patches. We managed to maneuver through some back roads and ended up getting back onto 71N about 40 miles or so out of Cincinnati. The freezing rain was coming down and we were moving at about 20-30mph. Suddenly, the traffic just stopped again. We sat in the same spot on the highway for over 2 hours. We heard on the radio that bridges were being shut down which completely eliminated our chances of getting out of Northern Kentucky since we have to go over the big bridge into Ohio. Sitting in a car can obviously lead to a severe case of boredom and annoyance! We pulled a Chinese fire drill because I was scared and sooo sick of driving. Every half hour or so, we were able to inch our car forward, but the area in front of us had already frozen over. We finally decided to get off on the exit which was right next to where we were "parked" and try to find the nearest hotel for the night. Our friend, Jon, was giving us traffic/weather updates on Google Talk and he helped to give us a few names of hotels nearby..or so we thought. We have a Garmin. Her name is Isabel and Isabel lied to us. We searched for hotels and many came up but the moment that we would pull up to where the hotels were supposed to be, there was nothing! After continuing on the road for about a half hour, we came to a neighborhood and parked cars everywhere. It looked like a graveyard of cars and they were parked all over the place on the side of the road, even facing the wrong way...probably the strangest thing that we had ever seen. Finally, we ended up in a familiar area south of Florence, KY and stopped to have some Skyline Chili at 10:00p.m.. We watched the local news and it was not looking positive to get all the way up to Columbus. In Florence, we found a hotel and camped out there for the night. We have a lot to be thankful for! I feel very thankful that we made it safely because we saw so many bad accidents and so many cars turned over. I am also thankful that I didn't kill Lucy since I was squeezing her soooo hard throughout all of this. So 24 hours later, we are now safe in Columbus, thank god!
Today we will be heading to lunch with some friends (since we missed dinner with them last night), heading to my Aunt Barbie's for the annual Christmas Eve, then up to Wadsworth to spend some time with Jeff's family.
We hope that everyone has an amazing Christmas!!

First Post!

Well, I am definitely new at this, but I thought that I would give it a try!

We have had a very exciting 2008 full of good times with friends and family and lots of Bearcat football. This year was the debut of "The Ultimate Tailgate Trailer" and it definitely added to the awesome environment that Cincinnati's campus turned into this year during football season. It's amazing how the atmosphere changes when the football team is actually worth watching!! We were able to make it to 3 home games and traveled to Louisville for a cold and rainy game. The Bearcats are BCS bowl bound and we will be heading to Miami for the New Year to watch them take on Virginia Tech in the Orange Bowl! We are so excited to celebrate the Bearcats' football season with so many friends!

We're looking forward to heading to Ohio for Christmas next week! Patrick, Jeff's brother, is home on R&R from Iraq so we are definitely excited to spend some time with him as well!

Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and New Year!!!