The Sandman

Baby Sanders is here! Mel and Sean had their little guy this past Tuesday and he's just too cute!!

Stats:
Name: Sanders Pierce
Length: 18.5 inches
Weight: 6lbs 9oz.

We went down this weekend to visit and watch the game.

We're all hoping for some Sanders Magic for the rest of the OSU season!


Mase and Aunt Sarah stop playing to pose for a picture.


Mason loves to hold Baby Sanders!


Does he look like me? No...actually I think he looks just like his dad.


Welcome to the world buddy! We've been waiting for you and are so excited that you're here!!!

Love,
Aunt Stephee

Politics and My Hair

If you know anything about me then you know that politically I lean far to the right. HA! (If you don't get sarcasm I simply cannot help you.)

So, I was wondering...were my husband not Canadian and we actually had a shot at being a major political couple in the news what would my hair look like? My hair and I rarely get along but if I were in the public eye all of the time I would surely be able to get whatever hair I wanted, right?

I'm doing a little hair poll. Feel free to leave your vote in the comment section below. I started with a very random picture of myself and then tried on the hair from some of our leading political faces.

Me as Cindy McCain:
With this look I would have to always have a smile plastered on my face and look like a Barbie. There would be no room for a muffin top and I would need to wear very bright colors.


Me as Hillary Clinton:
With this look I would always have to don a nice navy or black pant suit. The shortness of my hair would mean I'd likely need to wear a broach or pin on my lapel.


Me as Sarah Palin:
This look would require me to have a moose sandwich with my pal Vlad. I'd likely have to drop my Oklahoma accent as well as drop the 'g' from all words ending in 'ing.'


Me as Michelle Obama:
This would require me to come across as a very loving and compassionate person. I might even have to do some community organizing and likely would not be viewed as a 'true American'.


Cast your vote today!

xoxo,
Steph

Another Big Endorsement for Obama!

Proud Season Ticket Holders

Some of you poked (no pun intended) fun at our impromptu season ticket purchase at the beginning of the season. Well, laugh on friends! This has proved to be the best OSU football season since 1945!!!! Nick and I are ecstatic with the Cowboys thus far, who would have known we'd be 7-0 AND ranked #6 in the BCS AND ranked #7 in the AP Poll??

We do have one complaint about the season though. Our tickets happen to be right in front of, what could be, the most annoying man ever. Man?? I dunno, that might be giving him too much credit. I'm sure he really believes that he's the only person in the stadium that knows a single thing about football. He seems so proud when the officials call offsides..."Yeah, back them up five, that's right!". I'm admittedly no genius when it comes to sports but even I know that's a five yard penalty. Actually I'm probably selling myself short here because I do know quite a bit about football. Sean told Mel and I that we would 'scare some guys with our knowledge'. HA! I wouldn't go that far but I'll take a compliment when it's passed out. You know my incredible sports knowledge is one of the main reasons Nick keeps me around, well that and I'm a girl that likes to drink beer.

Ok, where was I? Oh yeah, the weirdo guy. GIVE IT UP DUDE OTHER PEOPLE KNOW ABOUT SPORTS TOO! He's one of those loud-talkers, calls-everyone-by-their-first-name-like-they-are-best-friends kind of guys. Trust me, if you had to sit directly in front of him you'd want to smack him too. Our only hope is that somehow Mase wipes a gooey candy hand on his jeans or something, then perhaps we'll feel vindicated.

Either way he will not kill our orange spirit this year. The Cowboys have quite a difficult game ahead of them next week. We travel to Austin to play the #1 ranked Longhorns. Here are some pretty cool stats:

• Texas is second nationally in rushing defense, allowing just 48 yards per game while Oklahoma State is fifth nationally in rushing offense with an average of 283 yards per game. OSU has been the Big 12’s top rushing team each of the past two seasons and leads the league in that category again in 2008.
• The game will feature two of the top five scoring offenses in the country. Texas is second nationally at 48 points per game while OSU is fourth at 46 points per game.
• In total offense, OSU enters the game No. 7 nationally with 501.4 yards per game while Texas is No. 10 at 484 yards per game.
• The Texas defense is No. 4 nationally, registering 3.4 sacks per game. OSU counters with an offensive line that is fourth nationally allowing less than a sack (.71) per game.
• Both teams are in the NCAA top 10 in net punting with OSU fourth (41.3 yards) and Texas eighth (39.8 yards).
• Texas is third nationally in time of possession at 33:20 per game. OSU is one second behind in fourth at 33:19 per game.

We are anxiously looking forward to the game on Saturday, wish us luck!

Go Pokes!
Steph

Pumpkin Patch with Livee & Lovin' on Baby Josh

With this post I am breaking my number-of-pics-per-post rule...but who cares right? :)

These pics detail our recent trip down south to visit Tim, Summer, Livee and Baby Josh! We had so much fun!! Josh is such a cutie pie and looks JUST LIKE LIVEE did at that age. It's hard to not fall instantly in love with him.

We had a lot of action packed into 1.5 days. On Saturday we watched lots of football including the Texas/OU game and then watched ecstatically as our OSU Cowboys beat Mizzou. In between the games the kids made some caramel apples.

Before heading home on Sunday we took Mase and Livee to the pumpkin patch which was a lot o fun too. So, without further adieu here are our pics from the weekend:

Baby Josh posing for a photo.


Mase gives his new cousin a kiss on the head.


Mase watches as Livee feeds her baby brother.


"Oh my goodness he's so soft and funny!"


My little caramel apple helpers.


Unwrap the candy and put it in the pot!


"Oh my Uncle Timmy look how strong you are!"


Yummy!


Those are some great looking apples if I do say so myself.


The night ended with a fun game of "CRASH!"


We're here are the pumpkin patch!


Mase rides the pony by himself.


Posing for a pic with Tim.


Look, no hands!


Livee and Mase on the animal 'train' ride.


Face painting - Mase picked out an orange pumpkin!


We also took a hay ride. Mase LOVED putting tons of hay on Nick's legs.


Mase and the tractor.


Pumkin chunkin' with Piggy.


How fun is the bounce house?



xoxo,
Steph

Halloween Story

Please sit back as Mason reads his Halloween book to you!

Turn up the volume because some phrases are hard to hear.

Mel's Bambino Baby Shower

My friends Sarah and Mindy along with myself recently threw Mel a baby shower. It was a cute bambino-inspired event and Mel made out with lots of loot!

Here is a shot of the nursery. Sarah painted the canvases along the back of the crib...aren't they darling?


Yummy food!


Mel got so many fun items and the house quickly went from normal to stuffed-with-baby-items!


Mase loved being a helper. He moved the opened presents out of the way for Aunt Mel and made sure to take her trash and put it in a bigger box. He was such a helper!


This is Hazel, Mindy's little girl. I love this picture because I'm sure she's saying "Go Pokes!"


Mel and Sarah...or as Mason says "Aunt Mewl and Aunt Sarwa"


It won't be much longer now until Baby Sanders is here...we're soooooooooo excited to see him!!!

xoxo,
Steph

I've Taken Up Running

For those of you that know me...stop laughing. I'm serious!

I have taken up running. Three weeks ago I started the Couch Potato to 5K program and am currently in the middle of week three. It's been so much easier than I ever imagined! Nick is a great coach and supporter, he runs with me (even though he could leave me in the dust) and keeps time for me. When I'm ready to quit he encourages me to keep on truckin'. If I'm being honest though a couple of the workouts have kicked my ass. I've been keeping track of my running and have logged one hour and 11 minutes of run time so far. I think that's the most running I've done the whole rest of my life combined.

Running has done a couple of things for me. First off it's raised my metabolism enough to make me hungrier, but due to the nature of the program I'm not burning enough calories yet to make up for the extra food. So, I've not lost a bit of weight and maybe even put on a pound.

It's also motivated me to take better care of myself. I devote a lot of time to my family because I think they are special and certainly deserve it. I had a goal close to the beginning of this year that I would do more for myself. I've slowly added things as the year has progressed and have found it to be fulfilling. I remember who I am again! It's so easy to get lost when you have a kiddo. Now I'm rambling...

Anyway, I'm now the proud owner of these shoes (as of lunchtime today) and I'm jazzed to get home and strap them on. They have Nike+ technology so now I can sync my running time with my iPod and learn all kinds of cool facts like how many calories I burn, how far I go, etc.

Off to hit the pavement....
Steph

Dancing with the Stars Champion 2027

When Nick and I picked up Mase at school he said "I'm not going home, it's time to dance!" He was so sad because the class was about to break out in song and dance apparently. They started learning about the letter 'D' today so I'm sure the dancing had something to do with the lesson plan. Either way we had to go and he missed his dancing.

He wasn't ready to give up though. Due to lack of any good television tonight we were stuck watching Dancing With the Stars and that's all Mason needed to get his groove on.

We do provide him more cultural knowledge than this, I swear. Please excuse all of the 'guys' scattered about on the floor. They were leftover from a previous game tonight.

And now weighing in at 35 pounds and 43 inches tall...your 2027 Dancing with the Stars champion Templeton the Great!

Happy Birthday Pistol Pete!

Our weekend was orange to say the least. Mason and I headed to the football game against A&M last night as Nick stayed behind for a photo shoot. We happily watched the Cowboys cream the Aggies in a sea of orange!

Today we decorated for fall! Mase had a great time picking out pumpkins and moving them about. We decorated the mantle inside too so we're all pumpkined out. Another fun orange activity.

Then after we decorated we headed to the zoo for Pistol Pete's birthday party!!! I think he turned 85, not sure. Either way we sang happy birthday in another sea of orange and ate orange cake afterwards.

Here are a few pics from our orange weekend. We gave ORANGE POWER a new meaning! :)

Mase helps me unload the tubs of decorations and sort through them.


We finally got our mantle all sorted out. Our mantle is one of my favorite things about our house...I love how deep it is and how fun it is to decorate for the holidays.


Check out all of our pumpkins! We each picked out one from the pumpkin store. They had more types of pumpkins than Nick and I had ever seen! Mase picked out the two white ones. Mine was the "Cinderella" one that Mason is touching and Nick picked out the orange/green striped one.


Nick and Mason had fun installing the ghost lights!


Pistol Pete's birthday cake!!!


The boys enjoying some cake.


Mase checking out a very small pumpkin patch at the zoo.


Go Cowboys!


Mason and Nick stop for a picture with Pete.


Mason stands with the kids for a group picture with Pete.


Then he realizes that we aren't beside him and that he doesn't know those kids so he decides to jet!


Beat Mizzou!
Steph

The Thirsty Beagle Beer Blog

Nick has taken to the world of blogging. Welcome Nick!

I would like to note that I, his loving wife, have tried relentlessly to get him to be more involved in blogging about his family or posting a nice birthday message for me. After all, he's the writer/editor of the family, right? He did finally give in and joined the blog world just not as co-writer for "The Adventures of Nick & Steph"...I'm still flying solo over here.

He is Canadian so what else would he blog about except for BEER!? He started The Thirsty Beagle and has been quite excited about getting it up and running. He writes about the latest in beer news, shares funny clips and even gives reviews. A good beer gets five beagle heads...a bad beer just gets one. I will give him credit for tying it into his family as he's using a photo of our dear Buster the Beagle for scoring purposes. I always knew that beagle would come in handy for something one day.

So go ahead and quench your thirst for beer knowledge by reading The Thirsty Beagle!

And for the record, I think "The Adventures of Nick & Steph" deserves five beagle heads.