i'm dreaming of a san fran xmas

i'm so glad i was able to spend christmas with my whole immediate family this year! and in san fransisco? you can't beat that. we had a blast. i finally told my siblings that i'm pregnant, and now i'm relieved to not be carrying around that secret!! :) i'm also glad that now everyone knows, i can start blogging about the wonderful things that are happening with my body everyday- things like crying-spells out of nowhere, throwing up or feeling nauseous at all times, sleeping 22 hours a day... you know, the joys that every woman wishes she could endure everyday of her life. :) actually, it's going to be SOOOO worth it in the end, so it's a mixed feeling of frustration and joy. i spend 100% of my time thinking about this baby. i'm a woman, so naturally i can think of other things at the same time (haha!), but it has clearly damaged my brain cells so far. i have spelled my name wrong, and claimed it was 2006, both last week. yes, babies take your brain cells. :) 1/3 of the time i'm excited and thinking of names and nursery themes, 1/3 of the time i'm worried that something will go wrong, and 1/3 of the time i'm having a mini panic attack at the thought that i'll have a child in less than a year. :) am i strange or do all parents go through those cycles?

i'll post more on my pregnancy later, i may actually start a pregnancy blog- i've thought about so much i'd like to write about. 2009 will be a BUSY year for the guice family!

here are some pictures from our trip- we saw the golden gate bridge, we went to muir woods and walked through a redwood forest, and spent christmas night at nana's place in walnut creek- she rented a building for us and it worked out perfectly! they had christmas pinatas set up for the kids- they loved it so much. it was a great time, and we were sorry to leave, but the real world of work and bills must go on! :)

sorry boys!

well, i had a hilarious video of emma and brian playing tug-a-war tonight, because dallin and kevin wanted to see them play, but this stupid computer won't load it, and i'm tired, so i'll try again tomorrow. in the meantime, here are 2 funny pictures i caught tonight- one is emma shaking her head, one is of brian giving me the "evil eye." if you click on the one of emma to see it closer, you can even see some dust flying off her head. sweet dirty dog. ;)

one of many firsts

today we spent a few hours at the new practice ripping up carpet (well, i provided moral support while brian ripped up carpet...). :) it was nice to do something to make it feel like our own. brian set up 4 meetings for us on tuesday with different contractors and designers to bounce around different ideas for flooring and construction. it's all going to be happening really quickly in january! we're hopefully going to be having brian's mom's professional painting assistance :) when we get to that, and my parents have offered their help, too, so we're probably going to be able to open by march 1st with no problems! whew! it's going to come quickly!

let's see what else is going on... winter in little rock has been hit or miss. it's freezing cold one day and muggy and barely cool the next. i want it to snow at least once! we'll see if that happens...

i can't believe how soon christmas is creeping up on us. i'm very much looking forward to our san fran trip! it'll be too too too too good to see the pratt family again from their long time living in germany, and i'm going to melt when i get to meet my first niece cate!!! she's such a doll, and i can't wait to squish those adorable cheeks. and i can't imagine how many times i'll be outsmarted by alex and nathan. they're practically in college now from the smarty-pants they're turning out to be. i still have some christmas shopping to do, and it's going to be a challenge, because they all have to fit on the plane!

i'll post more updates about the practice as they happen!

THE KAVANAUGH EYE

here are some pictures of the new place, as promised. i don't have good inside pictures because we don't have the keys yet, but don't you love the dark wood and open feel of the windows for walls? we're going to paint the walls (perhaps a darker red, like the kitchen in our memphis house, but not all walls, just accents) and put in dark, stained concrete floors. doesn't that sound hip? we'll also have bright lighting everywhere :)

i played with some of the pics to have the name on the awning. pretty cool, huh? i can't wait!

GOOD NEWS!

brian got his loan tuesday and negotiated all terms of the lease yesterday, so we are OFFICIALLY owners of The Kavanaugh Eye!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! we get access to the building and $$ in january, so we're hoping to have him open by late spring. key word: hoping. we'll see how everything goes, but we're both very very excited about it. we went to shogun last night to celebrate, and just kept looking at each other, shaking out heads with wide eyes, thinking to ourselves, "WHAT IN THE WORLD DID WE GET OURSELVES INTO???" :)

i'm so proud of him. i keep saying "we" cause we're a team, but HE's done this. he's worked his butt off (with my support, i know), for a REALLY long time, and has done more research and studying than i can comprehend, and it's finally here for him. it's a very emotional time for me! i'm just oozing with pride for my husband. :) he's going to do so incredibly well with this place and i'm looking forward to helping him in any way that i can. we're still working out the details of how i'll be a part of it, but i'll at least be doing a lot of the marketing/advertising in the beginning. oh, and whether he likes it or not, i'm helping decorate!!! :) oh, what fun it will be... :)

i'll post pictures of it as soon as i can. i should've gone over there today, but i'll wait till we get keys (i think tomorrow), and i'll get some good pictures inside, outside and all around it.

bah humbug!!

okay, so decorating your christmas tree is supposed to be fun, right??? well, it was, for the most part, but the following things make it hard to enjoy yourself:

1. when you put up your entire fake tree, and realize that the last row of branches is completely missing.
2. when you can't find an extension cord in your ENTIRE house.
3. when you go to plug in the lights on the tree, and they don't turn on.

well, after much agonizing, i finally got it all up. i still haven't found another extension cord for our smaller tree for the endtable, though. poor brian kept saying, "are you okay in there?" because i was acting like the tree was out to kill me. :) i did find some cool new things in the boxes that i had forgotten i had bought after christmas last year when they were on mega-sale. :)

here are some pictures of my "half-tree" (the solution to my missing row of branches- i re-used a row, and had to make it a half-tree, which helps in our small dining area anyway).

good night!

happy turkey day!

happy thanksgiving everyone! brian and i had a great trip to dallas (although too short!) to visit mimi and the family. it was a lot of fun! brian drove down on tuesday morning with brandon, raven and addy, and i flew down on wednesday night. it was a nice flight. i got on the plane just before sunset, and just listened to my ipod while watching a beautiful sunset. the flight was less than 1 hr. so it was just right. my luggage taking just as long as the FLIGHT to get to baggage claim, however, was less than just right. :) ah well, it wasn't too bad.

we had a perfect thanksgiving dinner on thursday: roasted turkey and ham, cornbread stuffing, mashed potatoes, fruit salad, super-bad deviled eggs, buttery peas, green bean casserole, cheesy corn, cranberry sauce and crescent rolls. oohlalah! it was so great! all bellies were full and happy. :) then we topped it off with pumpkin pie and chocolate cream pie. as if that weren't enough, after a walk around the pond feeding the ducks with addy, we went to see twilight at the theatre, with popcorn and pretzels. i don't think i'd be able to make the weight limit in an elevator right now. haha! some of my friends love the twilight books, so i had already seen it, but val and amanda are twilight-aholics so we had have the guys watch it too. that edward is QUITE the handsome vampire. :)

i hate that we had to cut the trip short, but i had to work tonight, so we left at 7:30 this morning. it's guice thanksgiving tradition to wake up at the crack of dawn to fight the shopping crowds, then eat breakfast and take a nap. well, amanda and i were the only ones to agree to go this year, so we set our alarms for 3:45. well, at 7:00, we both realized we were still in bed. :) oh well. better luck next time.

i always enjoy spending time with our family. kepler has gotten so big and his personality is just TOOOO cute. he looks at you and you melt. i've posted pictures of addy feeding the ducks and kepler in his favorite cowboy hat (he wouldn't take it off!). you know how men have their "la-z-boy" and their beer watching the football game? well, kepler sits in his carseat and eats cookies while watching cartoons. :) i had to get a shot of him in his baby-la-z-boy. :)

i'm a lucky girl

i forgot to include this story in my last post. saturday i had a wedding, and sunday i had a family portrait session, and all this after a long week of working at trio's half a day and capi's the other half of the day, so naturally, i was ready for a nice long nap on sunday afternoon. i fell asleep, and 2 hours later woke up to brian nowhere to be seen. i called his phone, and he was in the "man-garage." i went out there to see what he was doing, and he had changed my oil and changed my break pads- they've been squeaking lately. he wanted to do something nice for me to say he noticed that i've been working hard for us. :) he's such a good guy. he's been giving me nice little back rubs and "back poppers" as we call them (hugs where he picks me up and pops my back!) to make me feel relaxed. he's such a great guy. it's funny when the conversation arises that i mention i got married at 21, everyone looks so surprised and wonders if i regret it- sometimes with their face, sometimes with their mouths. well, i say, i'm a lucky girl because i got it right, even though i was young. i couldn't have dreamed up someone smarter, more genuinely honest, more silly-when-i-need-silliness, more philosophically like me, more politically like me, more hard-working, more determined, more level-headed, someone who takes the commitment of marriage as seriously as me, someone who knows that it's not all a walk in the park and that it's work AND play- not just play, someone who understands that i'm a social animal :) and need girls' nights out and supports that.... my list of wonderful things about him goes on and on. i love my husband- just thought you'd like to know. :)

I'm published!

i picked up my "capture arkansas" book today, and i have a photograph in it! it's huge, too- it takes up 1 1/2 pages! :) i'm so excited about it. it's this photo:


also some good news, brian had 2 different interviews with 2 banks today, and we think they went well! the first one was really stressful for him, but the second was better and more relaxed, and he thinks they liked him (of COURSE they do!). SOOOOOO, everyone cross your fingers for us that we'll hear some really freaking good news sometime in the next week or so.

"capi's" opened last thursday (the new restaurant). opening night went SOOOOOO well! it was pretty emotional for all of us who were involved in the process. it was our baby being "birthed," if you will. :) the kitchen was so incredible. i was so impressed. the food was great, and we went on a wait! AND, it was a "soft opening," which means there was no advertising- just word of mouth. i can't believe how smoothly it went. everyone did an amazing job. i've had a huge sigh of relief now that it's up and running.

i also finished a long string of doing photography EVERY weekend- i haven't felt like i've had an ACTUAL day off in forever! i've loved every second of it, but my poor house is falling apart. :) i have today off, and it's raining and cold outside, so i've been "forced" to relax all curled up inside. :) i'm making some homemade chicken noodle soup in my slowcooker right now. yummmm... i've been working a bit on photos, but i'm having a good relaxing day.

i meant to blog about the election right afterward, but i haven't had a moment to sit down. i can't put into words how relieved and proud i am of our country right now. yes, all politicians have flaws (usually much bigger and more selfish than the normal person), but i think a small step forward is so much better than staying in the muddy crap we're in right now. i don't think obama is a perfect man, nor my ideal president (taking all his policies into account), but i know with all my heart that he is what we need at this moment. i felt so emotional and proud to be an american, looking around at all the other people, clapping and hugging (i was at a bar with some friends from work when it happened- brian was in conway with his brother). it was the first time since 9/11 that i felt actually connected to other people as AMERICANS. i felt like we are all in this together, and that we actually pulled it off- being able to be gutsy enough to make such change for the better. it's not been fun trashing government the past 2 terms- republicans think we like being negative and pessimistic, but we DON'T! we WANT to feel patriotic and proud. we're headed in the right direction, and that's all i ask of this country right now. i know there will be plenty more challenges ahead, but i hope that this momentous and HISTORICAL event will change the way we live. i hope that obama can continue to enliven the patriotism in so many of us that have been discouraged and disconnected for the past 8 years. i hope that he challenges us to free ourselves from our dependence on foreign oil by changing the way we view energy. we need to explore different methods, and put a LOT of funding to this. we need a mandated recycling program, we need our troops to be TRULY honored when they come home by giving them the mental and physical care that they sadly lack. there are SOOOOO many things we need to work on, and i hope that the election of the first black president will encourage us to make other momentous changes that this country needs and deserves. i am a proud american right now- i hope you are too.

adorable portrait session on sunday

i went to high school with sarah and jake- the mom and dad in these photos. we shot these at this wonderful couple's land that are friends of her parents. her daughter, lily, is adorable! we had a lot of fun- i think they turned out great.