F.R.I.E.N.D.S Christmas Party

It just isn't Christmas until you've had a Dirty Santa gift exchange and dinner with friends.  So goes our party at the Brown's house this year!   The gift rules were simple: Be awesome.  And cheap.  The food was extraordinary, as always.  And it was of course a good time.

I'm not sure why I'm feeling Jesse's face here... but it must have been for no good reason.

Look at all those presents!!!  Becky is obviously excited about them.

We managed to stop Kelsen for 5 seconds to get a picture.   Cheeeeeeessseeee!

Danny rips into his present as Dave contemplates whether or not it is worth stealing.

Copies of the Bro-Code AND The Playbook by Barney Stinson?  Legendary!!

And Dave steals my books......... jerk....

So for my next gift....

THE DUCKY TIE!!!!!!!!! BEST... PRESENT... EVER!!!!!  (Note: If you don't watch How I Met Your Mother, this makes no sense)

Brian has the power with his replica Harry Potter wand that LIGHTS UP!  What awesome person brought that gift????

Brian and Katie wrangle Kelsen and Haley, who don't want to leave the fun.  But none of us do.  Next year will be here soon... with an additional person and a marriage to add to the fun!

Thanksgiving at the Biltmore

For Thanksgiving this year, we decided to be different (Scary!!).  Brooke, her mom, Russ, and I all packed up and headed to Asheville, NC, to have Thanksgiving in a cabin and visit the Biltmore.  After a nice long drive through the mountains, we finally made it there on Wednesday night.  On Thursday we cooked up a Thanksgiving feast and ate all day.  Friday was spent walking around the enormous Biltmore Estate before coming home on Saturday.  It was a fun, quick vacation with the Yeiser bunch!

Our Thanksgiving home.

How we spent Thanksgiving Day - in front of a fire with football on the tube.

Madelyn is enjoying her first Thanksgiving... I think... she kicked a lot, does that mean she had fun?

Ham, dressing, potatoes, green beans, cranberry salad, rolls... awesome.

Great view of the mountains from Blue Ridge Parkway.

Family picture!

I didn't see a single Bull.  False advertising.

My new house!

Family portrait!

Can you deal with that view every day?

Now on to the game of "Name that creepy statue!" 

This is the angriest flute player I've ever seen.

Brooke took a similar picture last time she was here with crazy half-naked dancer statue.  Had to do it again.

The conservatory was bigger than our house twice over!!

If you've never been to the Biltmore, it's amazing.  Gigantic.  And it will be mine!

20 Week Ultrasound

Here are the pictures from our 20 week ultrasound.  We apparently have a very shy child, as she would not reveal her face for the 3D image... so I guess we'll still have to wait a while to see what she looks like!

Here is the top of her head with arms on either side.

Our best picture of Maddie, her profile and cute little nose!

Baby foot!

Baby Leg!

Torso shot with an arm and some ribs.

You can see her spine and hand bones here.  She must not like what she hears, as she has those hands over her ears.  Can't wait to see a color, 3D version of her soon!

It's a......

Since we definitely didn't get to surprise the world with news of our pregnancy, we had to do SOMETHING to surprise people.  So we did with the baby's gender!   We found out several weeks before we announced it, and somehow kept it a secret the whole time.  No small feat!  We had a bunch of family members and friends over to tell them what the baby is... and it was so much fun to torture everyone!

A big day for me, a half-marathon and a gender reveal party!

Everyone is trying to figure out what it is... or they're eating and talking about other things... we'll guess it's the former.

I think Brian and Becky are going to take Kelsen as their own... he's got a death grip on her...

The big reveal!!!! (Courtesy of the Arringtons)

Mom and Mom are so happy!



Moms with their presents, ultrasound pictures of their future granddaughter!

It's been a long time coming, and we're just happy to have a baby... but so excited to meet our little Madelyn Brooke!

Run Tyler Run!

So a while back I decided it was a GREAT idea to run a half-marathon, just to say I did.  So I signed up in May for the Murfreesboro Middle, a 13.1 mile run through downtown Murfreesboro and around MTSU.  After an ankle injury healed up, I began training in June for the October run.  The first 6 miles were no problem, as I had already done a 10K (6.2 mile) run in April.  However, I found that running 13 miles is a whole different ballgame. 

I had only three goals: 

1) Finish the race 
2) Finish in under 3 hours 
3) Don't stop running the whole time

A lot harder than I anticipated...



It's really, really, really, really early....

I'm starting to realize what I signed up to do...

The fast people are up front... so I'm in the very back...

And go!

Found me!  It's like a game of Where's Waldo... if Waldo had a lot of blue MTSU gear on...

Waiting... waiting... waiting...

Meanwhile, my legs are on fire and I can't feel my feet...

Hey, I'm still alive!!!

So close!

I'm smiling because I know I'm never doing that again!

But I got my medal!  And my sticker!

Greg was there for support... and just in case my heart stopped...

Mom came by for moral support, too!

And my biggest fan!  She was so supportive through all my 5 AM runs, late night jogs, and silly dedication to this race.  But I did it in under 3 hours (2:51), I never walked or stopped running, and I FINISHED!!!