Tristan and Jackie

Birthday Trip

2012-02-07T13:41:00.000-08:00

So, here it is, the much awaited and somewhat publicized birthday beach trip. Jackie and I headed down to St. Pete Beach right after work on Saturday to celebrate my birthday. She showed up all dressed up and looking beautiful with a cute little package of delicious cookies for me. I devoured most of these on the trip home just to stay awake, as I was beyond exhausted for some reason. I made it home, but just barely, and Jackie even had to drive part of the way. How embarrassing!

We got to the beach just before dusk, magic hour for any of you hunting dragons, and had a very pleasant stroll in the surf. It was peaceful and very pretty. The clouds hid most of the sunset, but it was still a beautiful skyline.

Here we are on the boardwalk heading down to the beach.

Check out my beauty!

There's a not-so-revealing shot of the sun going down. It was much prettier than this. After our walk on the beach, we drove down to a fancy little street corner with a bunch of restaurants and had a delicious meal out on the covered porch. All in all, a great evening, and a wonderful 29th.

More About Spain!

2012-02-04T07:00:00.001-08:00

On Wednesday night we had our first team meeting! It was really just to tell us a little more about what we'll be doing while there and to see who may be interested in the trip. Over 30 young adults have expressed interest! Overwhelmingly more than expected! On a side note, it's pretty cool to see a group of (stereotypically selfish) young adults set aside everything to dream of affecting strangers with the love of Christ. There's nothing that is more unifying than that love!

So here are some details. As I mentioned before we'll be going to Madrid which is in the very center of Spain. We'll be teeming up with missionaries David and Dana Santiago and their family to do some street evangelism and share the love of Christ. They have been missionaries to Spain for 25 years! They started a Masters Commission program in Madrid several years ago which aims to train Spaniards to minister in their own country. Who can relate better to a Spaniard's way of thinking than one of their own? And recently, David has taken on the position of Senior Pastor at the International Church of Madrid. His church is considered a mega-church and it has only 80 members!

Needless to say, this trip is going to be very different than any of the mission trips I've ever been on. These people are not aware of their spiritual poverty as it is covered by affluence and busyness (much like the US). This makes them less open to the gospel. But God is bigger! They also have centuries of history that have given their nation a bad taste for "religion" and the god of political oppression in the past. We definitely have our work set out for us but as I have been praying for Spain I am confident that God is going to show up in a mighty way and that the people of Spain will begin to see Him for who He is. We may not see the full fruition of this on our first trip but we are so excited to invest in this country and people long-term! We greatly appreciate your prayers!

Some prayer requests that you can add to the growing list are:
-That God would begin to soften the hearts of those we'll come into contact with
-That Tristan and I will have the diligence and discipline necessary to review our Spanish and that we'd be well equipped to share the gospel and our testimonies in the Spaniards' "heart language"
- That the team would be formed perfectly according to God's plan with perfect unity between members and that nothing could prevent any one team member from going where God is leading.
- And of course, that God would bring in all the funding.

Again, we greatly appreciate your prayers and support!

Happy Birthday Tristan!

2012-02-03T10:44:00.000-08:00

Tristan turns 29 tomorrow! As I've decided to stay away from desserts for, well the entire year (but that's an entirely different subject) I had to find a time to make a cake when it would actually be consumed in the same day and not left to stare me in the face as he slowly whittled away at it. With this in mind, I decided to make a cake to share with our small group. A group of 12-15 people can surely polish off one measly little cake. After much thought as to what kind I should make; after all, if I'm going to be a professional baker (Another entirely different subject) I better pull out all the stops for my husband! I decided on an inside-out german chocolate cake. What's that? you ask. Well it's three layers of decadent chocolate cake with dulce de leche coconut pecan filling, covered in a thick layer of semi-sweet chocolate ganache (How's that for a description!) Needless to say it was a hit with the man of the hour and mostly everyone else.

I also tried my hand at making chocolate leaves for the first time. They turned out pretty nicely but I also learned a few things so they'll be even better next time!

Tomorrow we're headed to the Gulf Coast after Tristan gets off work to enjoy the beach and eat dinner while watching the sunset over the water. Sounds like a wonderful day! Of course I'll bring our trusty camera to fill you all in on our adventure next week!

Fiona vs. the Prickly Cactus of Doom

2012-02-01T09:55:00.000-08:00

Yes, I do realize that this is not a cactus, but it gives you an idea of the scrapes our little girl can find herself in. Plus it looks funny. So, yesterday, while I was at work, Jackie and Fiona decided they would enjoy the warm winter weather of the Florida outdoors and ventured into our backyard. Jackie put on her gloves and began to weed and rake as our chubby-legged little one ran pell-mell down the slight incline toward the back fence. She loves dogs, and even the sound of our neighbors' dogs barking at her behind the fence gets her excited. She cared nothing for the quality of her socks, which were quickly covered in filth and muck (maybe just dirt), but began to wander between the fence and her mother in an aimless plodding exploration of all things new and exciting. Moments later, upon returning to her mother, it was found that her pants and legs were covered in tiny yellow hairs, bristling about like angry porcupine quills. Jackie immediately took her inside, stripped her naked and spent the next hour in an oatmeal bath with a pair of tweezers removing the unwelcome pricklies. Apparently, Fiona had found the one small cactus plant that had popped up unnoticed in our backyard, stepped on it, then finding that this was not pleasurable enough, sat her tiny bottom dead center on the plant. To her credit, she did not cry or even seem bothered by the irritating spines, especially since she didn't have to remove them herself, and instead got to enjoy playing in the bathtub with her mama. Needless to say, the cactus was taken to a remote location and thoroughly destroyed, and Fiona can now roam free from worry in our exciting back yard.

So that's the tale, retold by yours truly. Some details were more than likely exaggerated for dramatic effect, but it was quite an ordeal. Jackie didn't get a picture of Fiona, and the little cactus spines were almost too small to see, so these shots from a few months ago are included to appease your thirsting eyes.

Just before Kelsi's beautiful wedding, my parents flew out to spend some time with us, and we all went to dinner at Brio Tuscan Grille to celebrate our anniversary. Since Jackie and I take our fancy new camera with us everywhere now, we have some pretty good shots of everyone.

Last but not least, here's the heroine of the story, geared up for an arduous walk about the neighborhood with her fancy new shades that I got at the lost and found at work. Well, love you all. Jackie will be back tomorrow with more harrowing adventures from the Cross clan.

A Blog of Another Kind

2012-01-24T05:42:00.000-08:00

Hello blog followers! Today I have decided to fill you in on some really exciting developments in our life. As most of you know we are very involved in our church and our first priority is our relationship with God. You probably wouldn't know it from just reading our blogs but that's going to change a little as the year progresses. Some of you know that Tristan and I have felt for some time that we're called to be full-time missionaries somewhere overseas. We had not yet had any clear direction as to where, when or what we'll be doing. Lately, God has really been speaking to us on this subject and it has been amazing! I've been asking Him to send us on a mission trip this year to whichever country He's sending us to long-term to make connections and get more of a heart for that country. Through a series of different dreams, interpretations of those dreams, words from God through other people and words from God directly to us we're beginning to feel confident that that place is Spain. I won't go into full detail here of how all of this has unfolded but if you're interested to know I'd be happy to talk with you over the phone or to shoot you an email. After we started to get the impression that we're called to Spain we discovered that the young adult ministry at our church had just finalized a trip this summer to Madrid, Spain! We are obviously planning on going on this trip and we are both very very excited!
I'm writing this blog to ask all of you, our friends and family, to begin to pray for us and this change that's coming in our probably not-so-distant future.

Here are some things you can be praying for:
- Overall direction
- Confirmation that Spain is in fact where we're suppose to go
- A clearer idea of what we're going to be doing there
- Direction on how we need to be preparing now
- That God would increase our passion for missions, His people and Spain
- More visions and dreams of things to come (Joel 2:28/Acts 2:17; John 16:13)
- Clarity on whether we're called to a specific people group and who they are
- That we would make contacts with the right people when we get to Spain and even now

We really appreciate your prayers and I look forward to keeping you all updated as this unfolds! I plan on starting to send a weekly or biweekly email to our "prayer partners" to keep them in the loop and to fill them in as new prayer requests and praise reports arise. If you're interested on being a part of that group and receiving more in depth information about this process please let me know via a comment on this blog, email, phone call, Facebook or any other possible form of communication. Unfortunately, faxing and beeping are not an option.

Just for good measure here are some photos of Spain:

This is a picture of the Alhambra in Granada, Spain

This is a picture that my sister, Natalie took while she was living in Spain. I'm guessing it's of the Northern coast because that's where she lived.

And here's Madrid at night.

As you can see Spain is absolutely beautiful and I'm finding it hard to believe that we could one day be living here! Thank you for reading this all the way to the end and look back for more details in the future!

If you just read this blog and thought "What the heck is she talking about? Hearing from God directly and in dreams? Having a relationship with Him?" please let me know and I'd love to explain! If you don't already know it, I want to tell you that we have a God who loves us dearly and wants so badly to have a relationship with us. One where we talk every day and where He takes care of us. Afterall, He sent His son to die in our place just so that He could spend time with us! Again, if you have no idea what I'm talking about please email or call me!! If you don't have my phone number let me know and we'll exchange numbers and chat!

Tristan's Posting Day

2012-01-23T14:43:00.000-08:00

Well, continuing with the daily posting, I have decided to grace you all with my dictionary presence. Jackie and I had a fairly busy weekend, but that excuse would only be valid for yesterday since Sunday's are her blogging off-days. I'm covering today, and she'll be back tomorrow. I just wanted to drop a few pictures for your viewing pleasure in the meantime. The above shot is a night we spent out at the fine establishment of Chili's. Someone gave us a gift card, and Fiona was very excited. So excited in fact, that she managed to reach over when the waitress brought out all of the food for the table across from us, and got a handful of someone's sour cream. Nicely done!

Since Jackie would probably beg humility and decide not to show you these pictures, I thought I could give a little behind the scenes tour of that last amazing cake of hers. This is the bottom, 10" tier, which was by far the most beautiful in my opinion. Here she is preparing the raspberry filling and getting ready for layer number two. It's quite a process.
This is the completed bottom tier, sans the fondant of course. Three layers of delicious marble cake, raspberry filling, and fudge frosting. Ahhhhhh.

Here's our little girl, following in her daddy's footsteps. Sure, they're freshwater fish, but she'll gain an appreciation someday for exciting specimens.

Once again reading, this time with her adopted sister, Reida.

And lastly, our little beauty in all her glory. Alright, I'll hand it back to my lovely wife tomorrow. We'll also have to find some exciting stories or something to share with you guys. Or perhaps I'll write you a story...

Daily Blogging

2012-01-21T06:19:00.000-08:00

So it turns out it's pretty difficult to blog every single day! For the last two days I've been trying to post a video but it would never load. At least I can say I tried to post every day! Here's a couple of pictures to hold you over until I figure out how to post the videos or something exciting happens around here. Above is Fiona reading. Her books are by far her favorite of all of her toys and we often find her sitting or laying flipping through the pages of a book. More often then not the book is upside down but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

And one of our friends had an umbrella and she was very intrigued so I was trying to show her how to hold the umbrella over her head. She was skeptical.

Well, that's it for now. I'll be back either Monday or Tuesday!

Another Cake

2012-01-18T08:08:00.000-08:00

I know half of you that will be checking our blog were actually at the wedding and saw my cake in person but for those of you who weren't, here's my very first wedding cake! It was for Kelsi's wedding on December 20th and I was very pleased with how it turned out!

I'm serious about this daily blogging thing so I guess I'll see you tomorrow!

January

2012-01-17T11:37:00.000-08:00

Here are some photos to document what we've been up to lately. Unfortunately, they're out of order so bear with me. Tristan and I went to a wedding this past weekend and I happened to make the wedding cake as well. Here we are at the reception. Finally getting a chance to wind down after three days of baking and decorating.

After Kelsi and Matt's wedding Tristan's aunt Shannon and her daughter Brooke spent some time with us. We decided to go a walk to the park and I forgot the diaper bag. Of course Fiona needed to be changed while we were there so this is what Brooke and I fashioned for her. A couple of changing table liners folded up to be a diaper and then covered in a Walgreen's bag. Pretty innovative and it did the trick!

Here she is wearing her shades

Fiona's favorite activity is reading. Here she is enjoying a good book.

Here's the aforementioned cake. My first fondant covered wedding cake. It was definitely the most complex cake I've ever made but it turned out quite nice.

And Tristan reading to Fiona. A common occurrence in the Cross household.
Well, that's what I've got for now. I'm going to try to post daily even if they're only brief postings so check back for more to come!

The Year in Retrospect

2011-12-16T15:37:00.000-08:00

Jackie and I were just looking back on 2011 and we are so thankful for so many of you. God has been so good to us here in Orlando, and all over with wonderful family and friends. So here's a little montage we put together to celebrate the great time we had with y'all. We're so excited for next year and we love you all. Enjoy!

Fall in Florida

2011-11-16T08:11:00.000-08:00

We had about a week of cooler weather so we decided to take advantage of it. Fiona had to wear her adorable hat that her Auntie Brooke made for her.

While Tristan and I were serving at the God Encounter for Youth some friends of our watched Fiona and took her to a Fall Festival. She had a great time.

Here she is after a bath in her monster towel courtesy of Uncle Colton and Auntie Michelle. The front shot is adorable too but I didn't think she'd appreciate that being put on the internet.

Last Friday Fiona and I went, with some friends, to an Art Festival at Downtown Disney. Here she is all ready for the cool weather (mid 60s to mid 70s) in her hat that Nanny knitted for her. It finally fits correctly!

Tristan got to see Disney's Headless Horseman. This fella leads the Halloween parade at a full gallop. Check out the size of that horse!

And in the department of baking, I haven't been doing too much lately. This is an ice cream cake I made for our friend Dana's birthday. Our freezer wasn't quite cold enough to make it firm so it bulged a little but it was delicious!

And finally, a video of Fiona in her new Radio Flyer wagon. She loves it. Poppy and Kiki got it for her for Christmas. Yes we opened it a bit early but we just had to try it out!

Well that's it for now. More blogging to come soon!

Some Extras

2011-10-10T13:08:00.000-07:00

Fiona was testing out a motorcycle.

Close up in her Mexico sweater that her aunt Natalie bought for her.

And here are some pillows that I've recently made for our sofa. This was my first attempt at pillow-making and I think I did pretty well. I actually posted all of these on etsy. So if anyone is interested in buying them or having me make some to your specifications I'd be glad to!

And finally a video of Fiona walking and one of her eating a banana because I know all of you who live anywhere other than Florida don't want to miss anything ;)

Fiona's First Birthday!

2011-10-10T11:07:00.001-07:00

On September 16th Fiona turned 1 year old! This year has really flown by but at the same time it feels like she's always been with us. Here's some pictures documenting her party.

The three of us.

The dessert table. I made the cake and cupcakes and my mom made the beautiful lemon meringue pies. She decided to make a trip to be at Fiona's party at the last minute and it was so great to have her there.

Fiona's cheesy, super-excited smile. She doesn't even look like herself but it's funny. She couldn't wait to have her first dessert!

First a taste...

"Yep, I like it!"

And from there she proceeded to devour the entire cupcake.
Like mother like daughter.

Present time! Fiona got some really great gifts. Lots of adorable clothes and a group of people pitched in to get her the next-size-up car seat. What a blessing! If I haven't said it before, we have great friends!

Fiona playing with our good friends PJ and Roxy. Incidentally, They just celebrated their first anniversary yesterday. Their's was the first wedding Fiona ever attended.

Fiona and Grandma. What a pretty pair.

And here are some bonus pictures of Fiona looking like a toddler and some of the aforementioned adorable clothes she got for her birthday.

In recent weeks she began walking and now has 6 teeth!

A Photo Update

2011-09-27T07:55:00.000-07:00

Well there have been a lot of things that we haven't documented yet so I decided to have a photo update. There's some photos of every day life, some photos of our trip home to Oregon and the above picture is from Fiona's first birthday party!

Raspberry picking at Nanny and Papa's

Hanging out at the beach. Fiona wasn't sure about me holding the twins.

I love this photo because everyone is in their own world. Kelsi and Matt, Tristan and I and Jim just staring out to the Ocean.

And the babies were napping...

I love the Oregon Coast!

Bonfire time!

Auntie Bre

Cousins

At the cafe

Aunties Brooke and Natalie

The Smith girls

Grandpa Smith

Swimming!

Great-Grandpa

Looking like a toddler.

Fiona in a box.

Well that's what I have for you now. I'll post more photos of Fiona's party soon!

A Teaser

2011-09-12T13:18:00.000-07:00

Hello Blog followers! My sincerest apologies for the lack of blog updates lately. I thought I'd post a fun little video quickly and I promise I'll be back to post a longer update before the end of the week!

The Great Bahamas Adventure

2011-08-01T21:12:00.000-07:00

So, I know that everyone has been waiting for this. Here it is, in all its glory, revealed to you now in technicolor and vivid terror.

No, but seriously, for those of you that don't know, a couple of weeks ago, a certain employer of mine sent me down to the Bajamas to collect some fish. I know, I have a rough job, but somebody has to do it. The above picture was from our flight from Miami to Marsh Harbor, and it was a little sketchy. Especially as we were landing, and I could look out the window and see wreckage from some of the twin engine planes that 'haven't made it.'

This is later in the trip, but it gives a good view of my daily duties. Most of the time we were out on the water in this little collecting boat, usually two divers in the water, and a safety snorkeler to keep an eye out for danger. Behind us might just be the Disney Dream as it docks in to Disney's Castaway Cay. It's a pretty ridiculously fancy ride.

So, here's me in all of my collecting glory. We had some weighted nets for the dumber fish that we'd set up and then herd them into. Notice: this only worked for the moron fish, and we ended up catching a lot more of those than other cooler fish because it's a scientific law that the cooler a fish is, the harder it is to catch. I think that it's actually an exponential curve.

Once the net was up, one or two of us would herd a bunch of fish into it, and then scoop them up while they continued to try and ram forward. As dumb as the fish were, I had a real hard time catching them and keeping them in my net this first run. My fins kept floating over my head, and then I would get tangled in my own net. It was kind of embarrassing, but thankfully no pictures of that.

These are just some cool shots of some things we saw but did not catch. This is a pretty big Southern stingray.

A trumpetfish that lurked around and kept trying to eat the fish stuck in our nets.

This is one of our hauls toward the end of the week, when our quota for dumb fish was just about met and we were focusing on others. You can see the nice rainbow parrotfish that my boss managed to snag while I watched in dumbfounded surprise.

And here is the moment you have all been waiting for. I know, not so impressive when it's not real life, but this was the grey reef shark that tried to eat me several times. She never came at me, but was very curious. She was 5-6 ft., and had a nice 3 ft. female following her around.

Then a 9 ft. nurse shark decided he would join in on the fun, so yes, I had three sharks circling me as I nervously emptied my netful of fish into the holding tub.

I'll leave you with this last picture. This is what I saw when I looked down for the first time. I had no idea that anything was around me, and I glanced down, and there she was, swimming toward me. Kind of freaky. Anyway, I made it home unscathed and am currently awaiting my connecting flight in SF to good ole Redmond. I'll see y'all soon.

Our Water Baby

2011-07-16T08:35:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, while Tristan was on his way to the Bahamas for work, Fiona and I went to the beach for a church wide beach baptism bbq. Most of the adults thought the water was way too freezing but Fiona's Oregonian blood proved true and she absolutely loved the water and playing in the sand. I forgot my camera but fortunately Carolina captured Fiona's pure joy as she walked through the surf.

A Birthday Surprise

2011-07-01T10:02:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago we threw a surprise party for my dear friend Massi. I was enlisted to do the dessert table so this blog is dedicated to all of the "goodies" that I made. It took me the better part of three days to make all of these things but I truly enjoyed it and the final result made it worth it. Above are my chocolate dipped strawberries. These were the favorite among most of the guests. And I have to give the photo credit to my friend Mike. I am not a skilled photographer and if it wasn't for him I'd have very poor pictures indeed.

Here are my mini cheesecakes. These were a hit and actually not as tedious as I thought they'd be. Thanks Mom for your amazing no-bake cheesecake recipe. It's always a crowd pleaser.

Here are the brownie bites and the chocolate dipped marshmallows. Bite-sized items are very dangerous. Somehow one feels justified eating the equivalent of four brownies if they're broken up into bite-sized pieces. Oh and for the record, I didn't eat a single one of these treats, not even while I was baking. I've decided to cut dessert out of my diet and this was the ultimate challenge. I'm happy to report that I resisted.

Here's a close up of the cupcakes. They turned out really cute. I hand-tied all the little bows and glued them to the wrappers after the cupcakes had cooled. And I dyed the fondant for the cake and the icing for the cupcakes and was very happy to discover that it was the exact shade of the plates and napkins!

And here's the cake. You can't see the peacock feathers in all their glory but I was pretty proud of my creation. Definitely the classiest confection I've made yet.

And finally, here's the birthday girl with her cake and tower of cupcakes. Love you Massi!!
That's it for now. I hope I'm not boring you all with my forays into the baking world. I just have to share my excitement with someone! Thanks for listening (or in this case reading)!

The Latest Goings-on of the Cross Clan

2011-06-24T10:06:00.000-07:00

We havent' had too much exciting going on here in Orlando but I thought I'd post some recent photos and videos of our sweet baby girl.

Crawling with the best of them

She's sleeping like the mean kid Sid from the original Toy Story.

I've been doing a lot of baking lately. This is a sample of one of the cupcakes I made for my friend Carolina's birthday. Devil's Food cake with cream cheese frosting and a white chocolate garnish. (Don't I sound like a professional baker already! haha)

I've been hanging out with one of the girls in our youth group and for her twelfth birthday I invited her over to make her cake together. Her birthday party was art-themed so here's our creation. The fondant was actually marbeled orange and white but you can't tell in this photo. The flap on the front is suppose to imitate painter's plastic.

Sienna drew on the fondant "canvas" with crayola markers. Pretty impressive! All the elements are sculpted out of fondant. And I forgot to take a close up of the cupcakes but each one had a mini palette and paint brush. We were both pretty pleased with our final product.

And finally, I'll leave you with two videos of Fiona. The first one is of here learning to crawl over a big body pillow. This video was actually the fourth take so she was getting a little tired. And the second video is of her standing! Yep, that's right, she has started to pull herself up on furniture and pretty much anything that's taller than her. Enjoy!

Memorial Day Jamboree

2011-06-03T11:08:00.000-07:00

On Memorial Day weekend, we went down to Kelly Park to spend some time in the hot sun and crowded summer waters. The pictures to follow are a chronological display of what took place.

Here's our sweet chubby little girl ready for the 15 minute walk down to our friendly neighborhood state park. She's got her sun hat, her tutu bathing suit, and a whole lot of anticipation.

OK, so maybe the chronology of this thing is a tad off. Here is the before shot in which Fiona shows us once again how much she loves having a sunhat covering her view of the world around her. Aren't they cute, though.

Ta-da. We made it down to the water. The park was pretty packed. They actually reached capacity at 11:00, but we were safely inside by that time, and it never felt like we were sardines or anything. Some of our friends rented some tubes and floated down the springs, and the three of us, enjoyed the hot sun and squishy mud bottom of Wekiva Springs.

Here's Fi, getting her feet wet. She thought it was cold at first, but like all instances in which she has been placed in water, her initial displeasure quickly turned to leg-kicking excitement.

She made her first look today. Our little girl now does a pretty good motorboat with legs windmilling, although she hasn't quite made the connection between dropping her face in the water and holding her breath. I'd like to point out that she dunked her own face in and came up spluttering. I had nothing to do with it.

'I love my mama.' Pretty impressive first words, right?

And after all that, she crashed in a hot, sweaty, sunscreeny mess in her jogging stroller.

Alright, just a few last pictures just to show off my beautiful girls.

And of course to show how Fiona deals with being stuck in her playpen when the exciting world is still going on around her.

This is the after picture. She kept lunging forward toward me and smashing her face into the mesh. Yes, some might call me 'mean' or call to remembrance the three-chew-toy fiasco of some months ago, but she was laughing and smiling the entire time. Perhaps not as much as Jackie and I though.

Adventures in Sewing

2011-06-02T08:57:00.001-07:00

For my graduation my mom and dad bought me a beautiful Viking sewing machine. Isn't it great! This is my new sewing station.

For my first project I decided to make Fiona a dress. A little ambitious I know, but that's just how I roll. I found an old tank top that I didn't wear anymore and I had some scrap denim to use and so began my sewing adventure. I made my own pattern out of tissue paper. I had to pull out my old geometry skills to make sure the proportions were correct and Tristan kindly checked my work afterwards before I started cutting.

Pattern pinned down.

Almost there! It just needs some straps and, much to my chagrin, some buttons to be added last minute.

Once I finished the dress I thought I might as well make a matching headband.

I had this orange ribbon from a cake I made last year and that paired with some extra buttons that came with various items of clothing I embellished the little bodice.

I got the idea for the headband from a friend's headband. I examined hers to figure out how they had made it without even knowing that a couple days later I'd be making one of my own. This button is one that was in the bottom of my jewelry box. I think it fell off of an old swimsuit years ago. I'm pretty proud of the fact that I didn't have to buy anything that went into this outfit. After all that hand stitching my fingers were a little sore. I guess that Jo-Ann fabrics lady was right when she said I needed a thimble.

And here's Fiona wearing it. As you can see the skirt turned out to be pretty tight and kept riding up. I found out that sewing on T-shirt material is pretty tough so the skirt ended up tighter than expected. It also turns out that babies' heads are almost as big around as their chests and using none-stretchy denim doesn't work so well. I had to add buttons at the last minute. Fortunately, my amazing machine has an automatic button-hole foot but I still managed to mess it up by not putting the presser-foot down. I had to find an even smaller button for that button-hole, in short, it was a bit of a fiasco. Nevertheless, the outfit turned out pretty well for my first try and for using a home-made pattern.

And finally, a front view of Fiona wearing the dress! Now what should I make next?

80s, Hats and Army Crawl

2011-05-25T14:23:00.000-07:00

We took Fiona to Roxy's pool and she got to wear a new hat for the occasion. She liked it for about 30 seconds and then she pulled it right off.

Our young adult group did an Eighties dodgeball night so we dressed up to the best of our ability without actually buying anything. Here we are in all our 80s glory. Fiona even had an outfit. Thanks Colton and Michelle for the leg warmers!

Here's a close up of her outfit. She even had baby "converse" to match her Mom and Pop.

And finally, I received my diploma in the mail today so it's officially official. I have an MA in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages! It feels great to be done and it's pretty cool accomplishment! Well that's all our news for now! I'll leave you with a video of Fiona "army crawling." It doesn't look very graceful but it gets the job done.

Dedication!

2011-05-21T13:19:00.000-07:00

Last Weekend, I managed to get off of work early and zoomed down to our church for our daughter's dedication. Grandma Peggy flew out to watch, and the three Florida Crosses ventured onto the stage with our pastor.

Here we are outside of the church in all of our newly acquired Dedication outfits (thanks Peggy).

This is us on stage. We were at the front of about 15 other families. It was amazing to stand with our church and pastor in dedicating our daughter and promising to raise her according to God's will...and then she proceeded to wet her diaper all the way through and drip onto the stage. We had to stand there and wait for everyone else to get prayed for and hope that no one noticed.

In other news, Jackie had an interview with guy with a cake business here in Orlando, and had to make some figurines. This is what she came up with, and he really liked them, so it seems that she will be making some figurines and toppers for him from time to time. It's pretty exciting, and Jackie has obviously neglected to mention to everyone that she has a hidden talent for sculpting.

And last but not least, here's a picture of little Fi while she was hanging out with me. Jackie and Peggy had gone to the Women's Encounter with our church, and she stayed home with me. We were visited by a massive thunderstorm and our little girl became entranced by the falling rain. She's definitely a lot of fun. We'll make sure to keep y'all posted on the goings on of our little fam over here.

Fiona's TV Debut

2011-05-03T09:22:00.000-07:00

My friend Jeané called me about two weeks ago and asked if I would be interested in letting Fiona be in a Christian Kids TV show. Jeané was asked to make all the outfits and the producer asked if she knew of any cute baby girls and she thought of Fiona. Here are some pictures from the studio.

Jeané hand made the flower on Fiona's headband and onesie, as well as the tutu.
So cute!

Here's Fiona with some of the other babies. Jeané also made the boys onesies with ties sewed on.

They obviously don't know how to socialize yet. They're only interested in the plastic balls.

And the girls.

And finally Daddy holding her on the set. She just recently began sitting up so she tipped over and bumped her head a few times so she needed some comforting from her Dad.
The photographer is getting me a disc of these pictures without the watermark so if anyone is interested in getting any of these printed just let me know and I can get the watermark-less photos to you.

Exploration and Madagascar

2011-05-02T09:39:00.000-07:00

Fiona has really been on the move of late. I keep finding her trying to chew on things she shouldn't such as books, papers, stroller tires, lamp bases, etc. One morning when I was getting ready to go for a jog I came back into our living room and I found Fiona like this; playing with/trying to chew on the tire of my jogging stroller. Caught red handed!

A few days later we were eating dinner at the table and when we glanced over we saw this. She just wants to check everything out.

In other news, I made a birthday cake for our friend Carlos. It was the first I've made of this magnitude. I was two-tiered and each tier had four layers apiece. The bottom was carrot cake and the top was red velvet. And all was covered in cream cheese butter cream icing.

Carlos made a video invitation using footage from Madagascar the movie so I decided to surprise him with a Madagascar themed cake. Please notice how nice and level the cake looks in this picture.

I waited until we arrived at our destination to put all the pieces together. Unfortunately, we were short on appropriate tools so the top layer landed off-centered, a mistake not to be remedied, causing the entire cake to tilt to the left. Live and learn I guess.

Here's the final product. The palm tree should've had another frond but I couldn't get it to stick.

Here's Marty the Zebra. I sculpted all the animals out of fondant icing. It was my first attempt and I think it turned out pretty well. I drew on the finer details with a marker (aka the zebra's stripes and the others' eyes and noses)

Alex the Lion

and Gloria the Hippo.
This cake was definitely labor-intensive but I had fun and it boosted my cake-making confidence.

And finally after many failed attempts at uploaded the video of Fiona's "maiden voyage" that I mentioned in the last blog I decided to just post a picture instead. Here she is cruising around our kitchen. Thanks to "Kiki" for her new headbands. They're so cute!

Well that's it for now. In the next day or two I'll be uploading photos from Fiona's TV debut so stay posted!

A "Catch-Up" Blog

2011-04-25T13:12:00.001-07:00

The last month or so has been an exciting time in the Cross household. Tristan got a promotion. I passed the exam that determines whether or not I graduate. Today I took my last final of grad school which means I'll be graduating next week and Fiona is doing new things almost daily. We've been busy indeed!

Here she is in her "Fuzzibunz" cloth diaper. We finally have enough of these to make it through an entire day. I've just been washing them by hand as we go and air drying them so they're ready to use again the next day. It's a little more time consuming than the disposables but they're really quite easy and this way she doesn't have to wear pants! That's always a bonus in 90+ weather.

A couple of weeks ago I spent the day with Grace celebrating my passing score on the comprehensive exam for my program. Here's Fiona meeting Macintosh. He was surprisingly gentle with her. He must have some kind of baby instinct because he's not usually that calm with adults.

We also took advantage of Grace's pool once Tristan got off of work and Fiona had her first swim! She even got to float on a inflatable pool mattress. Unfortunately, we were both in the pool with her so we didn't document it.

The water was a little chilly but once she was immersed she started to have more fun.

She's also started to sit up on her own. Here she is showing off. She's also gained a lot of weight since we were home in March. She has her double chin back!

Yesterday was Fiona's first Easter. We went over to Grace's mom's house to celebrate with their family. Here's Fiona in her Easter outfit that my mom got her. So cute! She's trying to roll over but Tristan's leg was blocking her.

And here's a family Easter photo! We had a great day celebrating the resurrection of our Savior!

I'll leave you with a couple of videos. The first is of Tristan playing peek-a-boo with Fiona and making her laugh. I know this may not be terribly interesting to many but again I thought the grandparents would appreciate seeing the milestones. And the second video is Fiona's "maiden voyage" in her baby walker. She's cruising around our kitchen, yelling and having a great time.

The Man of the House Returns!

2011-04-01T13:47:00.000-07:00

That's right, everyone! After years of anticipation, I have returned! Jackie has been monopolizing the computer use, so whenever a chance arose for me to talk to all y'all, she would need the computer for online classes or studying for her teaching exam or rekindling old friendlationships on Facebook. All that being said, we had an amazing trip to Oregon to see most but not all of our loved family members. We'll track down some photos and post those for those of you that haven't seen them. For now, we have a few shots from our second annual Music on Fire Festival. Actually, these are all pre-bonfire and music, but they show a little of the evening. Fiona, as usual, was super cute.

This is her new favorite perch.

She has now figured out how to hold her own bottle, and does pretty well with it. Sometimes she tips over, and doesn't know how to get it back, but it's pretty fun to watch.

Here's Jackie and Carolina preparing food in the kitchen.

And this is Nathan engulfing Fiona in his giant and loveable man-frame. This was right before he ran into our sliding glass door with his bearded face...twice. Very funny times.

And last of all, we'll leave you with a video that's just for fun. We found out that our little girl likes to grab at things, and I just couldn't resist. Enjoy!

Bonfires, Cakes and more

2011-02-23T07:09:00.000-08:00

In the last month or so we've said goodbye to three of Tristan's coworkers. That meant two different parties. The first was a bonfire at a friend's house. The picture above is Fiona watching the fire. She was mesmerized by it and everyone else was mesmerized by her.

The second party was at our house so what did I do? I made a gigantic cake! This party was for Linsey so I wanted to do something special for she and Amy (the other girl that was leaving). It was fun having everyone over and we too had a bonfire in the back yard. There was roasting of marshmallow, many s'mores assembled and of course a lot of laughter. Above is a picture of the cake before I added the decorations. It was four layers of yellow-butter cake with raspberry curd filling and fudge frosting.

To top the cake I made two "postcards" out of fondant. Linsey's going to Texas and Amy's headed to Hawaii .

And here's the finished product. I had fun making it and I actually didn't stress at all. I definitely planned ahead better this time so I wasn't scrambling to put everything together at the last minute.

Apparently, everyone was outside laughing at us as we discussed how to cute the cake. Here we are trying to decide whether we should cut it in 16ths or 20ths. I think 20ths won out. The cake was so tall that 1/20th of the cake was more than enough.

I'm not sure what Tristan's doing here but it's funny. I think he may have been expressing how bright the flash was in the darkness.

In other news, Fiona's been eating like a champ. So far she's tried carrots, green beans and sweet potatoes. She's enjoyed them all. Here she is with carrot all over her face. She's still working on not pushing the food out of her mouth with her tongue. She's definitely improving though.

We also suspect that she may be teething. She drools a lot, chews on her own fingers/hand. And anytime Tristan is holding her she lunges for his thumb and chews, hard. We got her some teething rings that you refrigerate. She'll happily chew on them for about 20 seconds but then she gets bored and returns to her hand.

And I'll leave you with just a couple more photos. Usually, she likes to be held up high and seconds before this picture was taken she had a huge smile. Unfortunately, I couldn't capture it but this face is pretty priceless too.

Another one of her and her daddy. And finally, the ducky towel. It's just cute.

Happy Valentines Day to Me!

2011-02-12T12:45:00.000-08:00

On Thursday Tristan told me to put on a dress for a surprise date. Linsey arrived to watch Fiona and we were off. To be honest, I was really quite nervous because I had absolutely no idea where we were going but I figured Tristan knew what he was doing so I complied with his requests. As we pulled up to Orlando Shakespearean Theater I knew I was in for a treat. I then saw that the play showing for that night was PRIDE and PREJUDICE! I was so excited. Well actually, it took me a few minutes to let the anxiety wear off and the excitement to set in. I had no idea anyone had adapted Pride and Prejudice for the stage. The play was excellent. The adaptation was really great. They did a fantastic job of filling in less important details without skipping too much. And the best part was that a few years ago Tristan read the book upon my recommendation and enjoyed it so we could appreciate the play together. We couldn't take any pictures but I found some online. Can you guess who the characters above are? Glasses and book in hand? That'd be Mary Bennet. Older lady with lacy hat-thing? That'd be a delightfully annoying Mrs. Bennet. The man is Mr. Bennet and the prettiest one is, of course, the heroine Miss Elizabeth Bennet herself.

Here are Mr. and Mrs. Wickham (aka Lydia Bennet). This girl did a great job as the flippant and ridiculous Lydia.

And finally Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth. Forgive me if you've never read the book or seen the movies, actually if that's the case you should go do it right away because the story is excellent and, contrary to popular belief, not just for women.

I am so thankful to have a husband who cherishes me and still takes me on dates! He's definitely a keeper! Oh and the stop at the cheesecake factory afterward didn't hurt. :)

She's on the move

2011-02-09T09:52:00.000-08:00

Last week I laid Fiona on her play mat and went into my bedroom to work on homework. When I walked back out this is what I found. I just started cracking up. She had turned herself all the way around, scooted way off the mat and managed to take her blanket with her! It's still a mystery how she manages to move so far and in so little time.

That's all I've got for today. Just thought I'd share. And for those of you in Redmond and Klamath 20 days until you get to see this sweet little face for yourselves!

28 Big Ones

2011-02-05T08:01:00.001-08:00

Looking back, this sadly has been my first contribution in quite some time. I believe that with Jackie's newly acquired taste for Fiona capturing, my blogishness has been placed on the back burner. But here, finally, is something that has brought me out of hibernation, to brave the frightening and technologically advanced civilization once again. That thing, of course, is my birthday.

As you can see by these splendid photos, Jackie outdid herself with a very special evening for yours truly. She made menus, decorated the table, and then set about to cook me the finest dinner I have ever tasted in my now 28 years of living.

Here's the lady herself, cooking up a storm in her kitchen. You can't tell here, but there was quite an impressive spread of food being prepared.

First course: House salad with sparkling red grape juice.

Remaining courses: Bacon-wrapped filet minon, deliciously spiced red potatoes, and shrimp simmered in butter. It was amazing, and left me very satisfied and quite stuffed. After this, Jackie set about making a brand new dessert, and she's probably going to be sad that I put this in here, but it turned out nowhere near as good as the rest of the meal. She actually took one bite, and threw the rest away. It was quite humorous, really, and I actually enjoyed the first half of mine before I too ended up tossing the leftovers. They were small chocolate pudding cakes, but we ended up having unsweetened baking chocolate instead of bittersweet, which as it turns out is quite a difference. We added sugar, but the cakes didn't raise at all, so they ended up looking like dark piles of mud inside tiny ramkins. On a side note, the caramel for the top also got burned, so it was sort of a disaster. I guess you can't go into the cake baking business without a couple of those stories.

Jackie made it up with a delicious breakfast the next morning, blueberry compote and cream cheese crepes. I'm sorry that we didn't get a picture of that, but they were gone too fast.

Here's our post-dinner family photo. Someone was being a spoil sport because the evening was about somebody other than herself, but it doesn't bother me. She's the one that's going to look back on this one with embarrassment.

Plus, she quieted right down when we told her she could fly around the room for a little bit. So that was the day. I had a great time, and I'm so thankful for these two beautiful ladies. They treat me so good. In fact I'm watching Tiny Face, as Jackie calls her by myself today while the wife is away, and she's been doing great. Such a cutie.

Until next time, which I promise will be sooner, adios.

Miles of Milestones

2011-02-02T07:51:00.000-08:00

Fiona has been doing a lot of new things lately. It's been so fun to see her learning and growing. Here she is propping herself up on her elbows. She's even mastered sucking on her hand while propping herself up, pretty impressive. I know the picture below is almost identical but her facial expression is different so I thought I'd share it. Check out those baby blues. Now that she can prop herself up she's also rolled over from her tummy to her back, milestone 2.

Milestone 3: We fed her solid foods. She lost a little weight so the pediatrician advised that we try to feed her a little bit of solid food. Her first meal? Mashed up avocado with milk. She wasn't too sure about eating from a spoon but she managed to swallow.

The biggest challenge was keeping her from sticking her hands in her mouth and getting avocado all over them. As you can see Tristan is restraining her.

She really likes looking at herself in the mirror too. Here she is contently gazing into her own eyes...

Now she's getting a little frustrated/tired...

And finally she gives up. Check out that bald spot! Now that she can prop herself up I've been leaving her on her belly more often so hopefully that will fill in in no time.

In other news, we spent one day last week going to thrift stores and book sales and we really made out. Check out our haul.

Well that's it for now. More to come soon.

January Thus Far

2011-01-20T07:50:00.000-08:00

Tristan decided to spend his birthday money on Scrabble. After playing in Virginia we decided we needed our own board. And boy was it a good investment! We've been playing about three times a week. We're trying to get out of the habit of always watching movies or TV shows on DVD when we have the evening free. Our solution? Board games. Hopefully our next addition will be Boggle. Unfortunately, the new Boggle is pretty stupid looking and it's huge. We've decided to scour thrift stores to try and find the original instead. I also want to re-learn cribbage because I remember loving that game and watching Colton and Michelle in Virginia totally content playing it between just the two of them inspired me to get a cribbage board and play again. I learned in the sixth grade and probably more frequently than we should have, we played that instead of having a math lesson. I wasn't going to complain. Does anyone have any other suggestions for games that are fun for just two people? For now Fiona's not too into Scrabble or any games for that matter. We try to include her but she just falls asleep.

Here she is, standing on the counter, and all matchy-matchy. I think she looks pretty cute though. I think her shoes are my favorite part. You can't seem them too well but they're fake espadrilles. Some of my college friends got her this entire outfit. And finally, below I've posted a video of Fiona "talking." I am perfectly aware that it probably seems absolutely ridiculous to be posting such a boring video on our blog but I thought for the select few who wish they could be experiencing every stage of her development I'd post it. Trust me, it's not super exciting, it's just an example of the new noises she's started making of late. Also please excuse my heavy breathing that can be heard in the background from time to time. I have no idea why I was breathing so loud. I should also warn you that the video's a little long and she doesn't really get started until about 2/3rds of the way through. With that said, Enjoy!

Christmas

2010-12-31T07:41:00.000-08:00

On Christmas Eve we had dinner with PJ and Roxy and her mom and then we headed over to our church's candlelight service. The service was great and it was nice to be with friends. We missed being home but our friends took care of us and made sure we weren't lonely for the holidays. Here are Roxy, Linsey, Tristan and Fiona waiting for the service to start... Fiona was getting a pre-service nap.

She got to wear her Christmas dress again complete with tights, sock-shoes and pretty white ruffley bloomers.

She got a little bored I think. She fell asleep with her fingers in her mouth and this is what happened. Not the best look for her.

Our tree. Our family spoiled us by sending all of these gifts in the mail all the way from Oregon. We got some great stuff!

On Christmas Day we had a couple that Tristan knows from work over for dinner. We weren't sure how many people would be coming so we bought a turkey. It turned out just two came and they're vegetarians so needless to say we have a heaping plate of left-over turkey. Not that I'm complaining. They did bring a tofurkey which was surprisingly delicious. Now that I'm writing this blog I realize I probably should have taken pictures of Scott and Jessica, the tofurkey and everyone we had dinner with on Christmas Eve. I really need to get better at documenting important occasions. On Christmas Day Fiona got to wear her new dress that Uncle Andrew and Auntie Brooke sent her. Isn't it adorable?

We didn't have a matching bow so I pulled the closest-matching ribbon out of our gift wrapping supplies and improvised. I didn't think Fiona should be without a bow on Christmas. It looked pretty cute but it didn't last long.

And finally, a few weeks ago we got a jogging stroller! My aunt gave us a gift card to Babies'R'Us and we got some other money from some family friends so I was able to get this awesome stroller. I love it. It rides very smooth and Fiona seems to enjoy it. It definitely makes the run more of challenge considering it weighs 47lbs with Fiona in it. It's a great work out though and it's just what I needed to help me get into an exercise routine again.

Here I am after a 40min run. I was pretty exhausted but I've got to start somewhere! I also love that it has a tray for my water bottle, keys and ipod. I'll be back in shape in no time!

And finally, I got a job!! I have been hired to teach private English lessons to a professional athlete! I can't divulge the individual's identity but I think it's going to be really fun! I'll be teaching four days a week in the evening and Tristan can watch Fiona while I'm working! Thank God for a job in my field and not retail!

Santa's Coming to Town

2010-12-19T07:53:00.000-08:00

Christmas is here and so the festivities begin. I love the holiday season. There are so many reasons and opportunities to get together with friends. We've been to four different Christmas parties and three were this weekend! Of course we dressed Fiona up for the fun. The red dress was my Christmas dress when I was a baby... I would've been only two weeks older than she is now! How cool is that? Below is a giant Christmas tree sugar cookie I made for one of our parties. I actually made two of them. Who says you can't bring the same dessert to two different parties?

In other news, Fiona is now playing with little toys... well kind of. I put the rattle in her hand and she chews on it and makes it jingle a little. I don't think she understand she's making that sound yet though. "Shake, rattle and nibble"

And the most exciting development... She's holding her head up high when she's laying on her stomach! I realize this is not very exciting to many people but I thought the grandparents that are 3,000 miles away would appreciate it. Love you all!

Fiona's First Thanksgiving

2010-12-12T07:53:00.000-08:00

For Thanksgiving this year we had dinner with Dana and Grace and Grace's parents. It was nice to be part of a family-style Thanksgiving again. There was also another couple from church and a Chinese exchange student who came. We had a lot of fun. Everyone whipped up their holiday bests and we had quite the feast. I, of course, made a couple pies.

Here's Fiona in her Thanksgiving outfit. I know it's not fall-ish at all but it's cute so I didn't think it mattered.

Grace took some cute close-ups with her phone so I thought I'd through them in here.

And these two are just cute so I thought I'd include them too. I was trying to teach Fiona how to text but she wasn't interested. As Tristan would say "That's my girl!"

And finally, she was worn out after a long day of texting and church so she zonked out in my arms. She's such a little lady with her hand always by her face when she's sleeping. I looked pretty worn out too.

Well that's it for now. We'll try to take some more photos and keep everyone updated on the goings-on here in Orlando.

Our Trip to Virginia

2010-12-06T08:31:00.001-08:00

We got to spend a week with Tristan's family in the Shenandoah Valley two months ago and I'm finally documenting it. The valley was absolutely beautiful with the changing leaves and we had such a relaxing and fun time with the family. Here are a few pictures from the trip.

We kept giving Fiona her "Silly Buddy" a long-limbed duck in the hopes that one day she'll love it for real.

She often gets a hold of her headband and ends up like this. Strangely enough it doesn't usually bother her.

We decided to go in the outdoor hot tub so we took shifts holding the baby just inside the door. Nanny took the first shift.

I tried to give Fiona a styling head scarf... She didn't like it very much.

Toward the end of the trip we went on a beautiful hike in the Shenandoah National Forest. Here we are about half way down. The way back up to the top was challenging but it felt good to be in the great outdoors.

Well that's it for today. Next up, Fiona's first Thanksgiving!

A Little Late

2010-12-05T18:48:00.000-08:00

Here she is in all her Orange and Black glory. That's right. Jackie couldn't resist putting Fiona in her little cheerleading (or as Natalie pointed out, her flagger) outfit in honor of the Civil War game. Of course, now that the game has passed, I feel as if we have dropped the ball. We always were such a sports-minded family. It's pretty much all I do now, watching the ole tube whenever there's a match on.

And of course here are a few more random pictures just for fun. Whenever we're feeling guilty about our blogging we honestly just grab the camera and pose her in random positions. This is Fiona's new favorite way to sleep. It's the 'raising the roof,' or 'I'm so scared I fell asleep' position.

What is any bunch of pictures without a token Anne Geddes shot?

In other news without endearing photos, Jackie has been applying for teaching positions for the evenings at some community colleges in the area. I have been sending out query letters to agents and publishing companies in the hopes of getting published. More or less news to come, depending on how eventful the week ends up.

Giving Thanks

2010-11-25T07:29:00.000-08:00

This is the face I received this morning when I went to get Fiona up (actually it was a much bigger and goofier smile but this is what I could capture on film) and I was overwhelmed with thankfulness. To be honest, I just paused for a second and then began to plan out my schedule for the day as I'll be making two pies and the famous Cross rolls (which I've never made without supervision!) but I decided before I released myself to focus on making beautiful pie crusts and activating the yeast without killing it I would stop for a moment and rejoice over the things that God has blessed me with. He is so faithful and good and I can't believe all the blessings that He's poured out on me. This year has been crazy and filled with all kinds of challenges but I am so happy to know that my God is faithful and that "It is [He] that holds [my] right hand; it is [He] who says to [me] 'Fear not, I am the one who helps you.'" (Isaiah 41:13) This post is already going in a different direction than I had planned but I can't even begin to explain all the things that God has showed Tristan and I over the last year and I am so excited for what is to come! In two weeks we will be celebrating our 3 year anniversary...

I couldn't have ordered a better husband :) He is so kind and loving toward me and now toward our daughter. He takes such good care of us and I am sooo thankful for a man that is a strong spiritual leader and who looks to God and His word for direction.

He is already the greatest dad and I love to watch him hold and play with Fiona. This little girl will never doubt that she is loved and I can't help but be proud in knowing that Tristan is being to her an example of what the Father's love is toward us.

I have been so blessed to be raised by incredible parents who have instilled in me the Truth of God's word and who showed me what a successful marriage looks like. They have also fashioned godly parenting and I know I can go to them for support and questions about raising our daughter. And look at my mother she is absolutely beautiful!

My dad has been such a strong foundation in my life and I am so thankful that like Tristan will be for Fiona, he has been an example of unconditional love and a symbol of safety and comfort in my life.

I am also incredibly blessed to have A-MAZING in-laws. They are truly a second set of parents to me. I cherish the time spent with them and I am so thankful that they have raised Tristan to be the man he is. Kristy also makes some pretty mean baked goods and any woman who can figure out how to make chocolate chip cookies with pancake mix is a champ in my book!

Tristan didn't just become a good husband overnight. He has had Neal as an example of love and devotion to look up to and I am so thankful for the discipline, work ethic and affection that he has exemplified. Neal has definitely led by example in his children's lives. And he has figured out year after year how to celebrate their anniversary, Kristy's birthday and Valentines Day in three separate occasions (they all fall on the same day) and this is how I know he is a good man :) Not to mention he can wear a baby with the best of them!

Now for my grandpa... He has always been the express model of generosity and affection. He is a solid rock. I watched him care for my grandma and my mother with such gentleness and lovingkindness and I have always admired his ability to accept and immediately love any person he comes in contact with. I have known some interesting characters throughout my life due to this man's unending generosity. He has always been, although I'm not sure he knows it, my ideal picture of a godly man. He also taught me how to bake a cake and he'd always let me lick the bowl :)

"Nanny and Papa" were immediately welcoming to me when I first met them. They have always made me feel included and loved. Papa always keeps me laughing and Nanny always has helpful hints for cooking, gardening and everything in between.

This is Andrew and Brooke. Andrew, my oldest brother is THE smartest guy I know. And he's been an excellent big brother. He has always been constant and although not very affectionate ;) I've always felt loved and supported by him. And Brooke, well Brooke is just AMAZING! She is so sweet and loving. And she settled right into our family like she'd always been there. And best of all they make each other soooo happy! I've never seen Andrew smile so much :) Isn't she gorgeous?!

And my dearest Natalie. This woman is a rock! She is the most courageous person in our family. She has lived all over the world and even faced NE Portland! She has always been my best friend and my style inspiration. (It would usually take me at least six months to catch up with her trend-setting ways) She is so strong and she is not controlled by what other people will think and I have always admired that. She's now adventuring in Mexico, teaching English to first and second graders and doing an excellent job if you ask me.

And my brother Nick has always been interested and supportive throughout my life. He's always been there to give me a hug (even if I didn't want one) and tell me that whoever was mean to me was an idiot. He is an extraordinarily kind person and I used to awe at the way he could make any person feel comfortable. And he's become quite the mountain man.

Now for Colton and Michelle. These two are so much fun!! Colton has made me laugh from day one and well the moment I met Michelle I loved her. Even though, they've only been married a year I never knew the Cross family without Michelle so I've considered her family for far longer than that. :)

Brea and Jim are also awesome and so much fun! Just look at these two! (Sorry guys I couldn't resist) I am thankful that Tristan has such good relationships with his siblings so that I can too! These two are so loving and welcoming and always up for anything :)

And then there's Kelsi. She is the most fun-loving person I think I've ever met. She is a ball of energy and I am so thankful that from the moment we met she immediately welcomed and included me. I am blessed to have her as a sister-in-law.

Almost there I promise... I am also incredibly thankful for my friends here in Orlando. If it wasn't for them I wouldn't know what to do with myself. God has brought us all together to advance his kingdom as part of the leadership team at our church but also to have godly encouragement and support. I love these women!

And finally, we are so fortunate to be able to even attend church openly. And to have an incredible place to worship has been invaluable. Our church is absolutely amazing and we have learned so many things in the last two and a half years as a result of this church.

All that to say, I love my family, my friends and most of all God who has blessed me abundantly!
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Return to Exercise

2010-11-16T16:13:00.001-08:00

So I just joined a website called Daily Mile and I posted the tracker on here so I'll have some more accountability. I'll be posting my workouts throughout the week. The website keeps track of my miles per week, calories burned and other cool stats. Hopefully, this being public will motivate me to get back to running. My goal is to run a 5k in December. So far I've only got up to one mile but I think I can get to the 3.1 pretty easily (especially considering the 1 mile was in the rolling hills of Virginia instead of sea-level). We'll be updating soon with the goings-on of the Cross family so check back!

Getting Our Feet Wet

2010-10-30T16:24:00.001-07:00

While my family was in town, we made it out to New Smyrna Beach. Although this wasn't Fiona's first beach trip, it was our first as a family, and my first in a long time since Jackie has this admirable habit of going to the beach with friends and visitors when I am working. I will harbor no bitterness, however, because we had a great time.

Fiona donned her brand new sunhat and frolicked in the shallows, making sure to do the Stingray shuffle. She's learning to avoid dangerous marine life at an early age.

Here we are, in all of our Cross glory. Apparently all of mine is pale and wiry. Also, I don't know how I feel about the whole 'letting cars drive on the beach' thing. It sort of upsets the peaceful and beachy atmosphere, and the jaywalking fines are terrible.

My mom went on a walk and tested out one of our awesome slings.

Lots of hotties on the beach.

And then they both fell asleep in the sun in the exact same position. How incredibly cute, right? Thanks for all of the fun times you three. We're excited to see you in just a few days!

Fiona Mae and the Great Grandparent Adventure

2010-10-22T16:00:00.000-07:00

Last week, Fiona's great-grandparents came to town, along with Grandma Kiki. It was a great, relaxing time, filled with plenty of magazine reading, puzzle building, and banana grams playing.

Here's Nanny. What a cute pair. It's almost as if she has more of these back in Oregon. It was so nice to have them all out, although next time, we'll make sure to have some more interesting reading material for you, Papa.

My mom really enjoyed spending time with her very first grandchild. She spoiled the pants off of all of us.

We broke out the bathtub that Carolina and Massi gave us at Jackie's shower, and I must say, Fiona wasn't too keen on the whole bathing thing. Check out that belly though. Obviously, she figured out how to eat like a Cross kid.

That's right, she even gave us her first look.

We had a couple of amazing days around the greater Orlando area. The three of them blessed us with a bunch of free labor and some plants, so now we have a much better looking yard. There are some blackberry bushes along the back fence, and some climbing flowers on the front porch columns. Plus, we even got my tiny raised bed vegetable garden going. I may have left Oregon, but it's still hiding inside me somewhere.

Jackie took the opportunity to watch us work in her rocking chair on the porch. Then, she got bored and went and took a two hour nap. Nice.

We took everyone down to Kelly Park one evening, and it ended up being a spectacular time for it. We had the place to ourselves, but saw a raccoon, some deer, a bunch of turtles, and...

That's right! Fiona got to meet her very first alligator snapping turtle. I had to wait until Jackie turned around to take this picture. Dad, I'm sure you understand. Some things just have to be done. Okay, that's it for now, but we have lots of other pictures and adventures, so plenty more to come.

Fiona's First Wedding!

2010-10-19T06:33:00.000-07:00

One of my best friends, Roxy got married last weekend so here are some photos to chronicle the event. I wish all of you in Oregon knew the people in these pictures because they're amazing and have been such a blessing to us. We are truly loved and supported over here. Here's a family photo. Fiona was wearing an adorable dress her aunt Natalie gave her and was even sporting silver shoes (that happened to match the bridesmaids :)) but it was so cold in the reception we had to bundle her up and cover up her outfit.

This is the night before, at the rehearsal. Jeané made us all these cute "Bride's Posse" tank tops to wear and Roxy got one that said "Mrs. Canterbury" This was such a fun bridal party to be a part of!

Tristan was kind and courageous enough to take care of Fiona all night by himself so I could go stay with the girls at the hotel. He did fantastic although he ran out of milk at 6am and had to bring her to the hotel. And then he had to manage her through the entire ceremony and picture-taking process. What a trooper :)

Here's the beautiful bride. She looked gorgeous!

And the happy couple.

Jeané did my hair and make-up. I'm not used to wearing that much make-up (I didn't even wear that much make-up for my own wedding!) but I think it turned out pretty good.

Here we all are in our dresses. Roxy did a great job of picking a pretty dress that looked good on everyone. On the far right it Christina, she performed an original song during communion and the lighting of the unity candle. She was basically an honorary bridesmaid.

Tia Carolina, giving us an opportunity to dance a little

Fiona got out on the dance floor as well. (My hair is kind of covering her but she is in my arms) We danced a little Electric Slide together! Well that's it for today. Stay tuned for the photos from Grandma Cross (aka Kiki or Cookie, or whatever Fiona decides to call her) and Nanny and Papa's visit.

Fiona's First Trip to the Beach

2010-10-06T07:38:00.000-07:00

This last weekend Fiona and I headed to the beach for my friend Roxy's bachelorette party. We rented a fun beach house on Ana Maria Island and spent the weekend relaxing and celebrating Roxy.

We stayed in the shade while the other girls enjoyed the ocean. Unfortunately, Fiona's still too small for her adorable swimsuits and I thought 2 weeks may be a little young to face the stingray infested waters of the Gulf Coast.

It turned out to be a really relaxing weekend for me because everyone else wanted to hold and play with Fiona. It has been such a blessing to have such amazing friends who are constantly making sure that I'm able to rest and they made it possible for me to eat without juggling baby in one arm! If your wondering where the baby is she's attached to Roxy in my amazing sling. That thing works like magic. She loves being all nestled up to me, or whoever happens to be wearing it. :)

Carolina and Massi Diplan (the girls who were the masterminds behind my baby shower) were amazing hostesses as usual. They brought groceries and cooked up all kinds of delicious food for us the entire weekend. Here we all are relaxing while Caro and Massi cook up a storm in the kitchen.

The beach house allowed us private beach access with these great lounge chairs and umbrellas. It was a great place for the Cross girls to relax in the shade.

I think Fiona enjoyed herself thoroughly.

Carolina, Kristina and Massi enjoying the water.

The Bachelorette was spending quite a lot of time with Fiona... perhaps this is a taste of what's to come :)

Everyone needed a photo op with the baby. Above is "Auntie" Grace and below is "Tia" Massi. Massi was talking to Fiona in Spanish baby-talk all weekend. It was quite humorous.

Who needs to bring a pack-and-play when you have a suitcase? We didn't have a lot of extra room in the van for baby paraphernalia so we improvised. Fiona didn't mind one bit.

And finally just a cute picture from home. Here she is in her jamies and resting inside the Boppy breastfeeding pillow after a long weekend. That thing has many uses!

So that's it for now. Coming up this weekend... Fiona's first wedding! She's quite the social butterfly already.

Home with Grandma and Grandpa Smith

2010-09-25T13:57:00.000-07:00

Our little daughter is home, safe and sound, and she spent the week in the loving arms of Alex and Peggy (as yet to be christened with grandparent names) Smith. We had a great time with them, and we're pretty sure that they're excited about their granddaughter.

Fiona didn't even bother them in the middle of the night. They were able to sleep all the way through the night, which is more than I can say for Jackie and I.

It's like he was made for this.

In other news, Fiona is smiling every once in a while, though we're not sure if she's actually happy, or if she's just exploring what her chubby little cheeks can do these days.

After a few days inside, Alex was getting a little stir crazy, so an adventure to the mall was made, and the padded stroller was quickly created to accommodate our little one.

Man, what a couple of cuties. Naptime has become a regular addition to the daily routine.

"I'm gonna eat you."

Yes, I do get to take naps also, but not nearly as many as Jackie. I think Fiona might be scared of my banana hands just a little. She acts as if they might swallow her whole, and she wakes up crying about sausages holding her down.

She loves her super soft blanket, and she hasn't even spit up on it. Thank you Brea and Jenna (I know that both of you read this)!

So, there we have it. One cute baby girl, one really great mama, two wonderful grandparents visiting in between medical mission trips, and curly haired bio nerd taking pictures and running about to help out with whatever he can. It was a week worth remembering, a week worthy of a blog posting.

Fiona's Arrival

2010-09-24T08:20:00.001-07:00

Here's a few pictures from our stay at the hospital and Fiona's first few days of life.

Daddy meeting daughter for the first time.

"Kangaroo Care"

Burrito baby

Open eyed

Going home!
Stay posted for pictures from our first week at home. She seriously changes a little every day.

A Sneak Peek

2010-09-18T16:24:00.000-07:00

We thought we'd post a shot of her face. More photos to come as soon as we get home from the hospital.

The Cross Family is Complete (For Now)

2010-09-17T17:06:00.001-07:00

After much anticipation, the world is now free to make the acquaintance of our beautiful little daughter, Fiona Mae Cross. There will be many more pictures to follow, probably more than you all care to see, but here is the one we wanted to share for now. It's our new family's first moment together! Jackie was such a trooper and did wonderful. And look at that, she still looks as gorgeous as ever. Our little girl came at 3:08, September 16th, 2010. She was 7lbs 3oz and 20 1/4 inches long. Stay posted for more updates.

Happy Birthday to Me

2010-09-06T09:02:00.000-07:00

Last Tuesday Tristan and I met up with a bunch of friends for a joint birthday dinner for me and Roxy. Her birthday was August 31 and mine was September 1st. We went to this really fun tapas bar in downtown Orlando. Who knew there was anything but bank skyscrapers down there. There's not a lot of culture in Orlando.
Here's a picture of the girls. There were just as many guys but they weren't as excited about picture taking. We've been so blessed by great friends here, I don't know what we'd do without them.

My friend Jeané gave me these adorable little outfits for Fiona for my birthday. She made them herself! One is for Halloween, it's a little lady bug outfit and the other one is just for fun. I love the matching headbands and I can't wait to put them on Fiona. And the tutus are adjustable so they'll grow with her. I love homemade gifts!

And for anyone whose counting I have only five days until my due date! I actually feel remarkably well but I am ready to not be pregnant anymore and to have our little babe in our arms. We'll keep you all updated.

Duckies for the Nursery

2010-09-02T14:13:00.000-07:00

A coworker of mine at Gap painted this picture for our nursery. Isn't it cute? And it looks great on the green walls. (Ours is in a cherry frame that matches the crib perfectly but this image from her website looked better than the picture I tried to take of ours hanging on the wall). Arrolynn is really talented. If you like this you can have one of your own from her etsy shop. http://www.etsy.com/shop/Arrolynn?ref=seller_info She has tons of cool prints and they're really inexpensive.

Here's another one that I think is super fun. It's a mermaid dance party!

Bridal Baking Extravaganza

2010-08-29T06:06:00.000-07:00

This weekend I was asked to bake for my good friend Roxy's bridal shower. I've been kind of teaching myself how to decorate fancy cakes so I thought this was the perfect occasion to try out my skills. This was my first attempt at using fondant icing and it actually was much easier than everyone makes it sound. Thanks to Martha Stewart Wedding Cakes and her great organization and directions I was able to do a pretty good job. My idea changed at least 5 times due to material availability/cost but it was fun and Tristan was a trooper helping me at each step (and recording the memory in photos) and putting up with me in my stressed out moments. Here's some pictures of the different things I made. Above are the mini brownie cakes. They're just stacked brownie pieces covered in powdered sugar, royal icing dots and coconut but they turned out really cute.

This is me "dirty icing" the red velvet cake.

Placing the fondant wasn't too hard but getting rid of all those ruffles proved a little more difficult.

Here's the final product. Very simple but I think it turned out pretty cute. I meant to take a picture of the inside too but I forgot with all the hubbub of the shower. Fortunately it tasted as good as it looks.

This is the dessert table. In the middle is a mascarpone white chocolate tart with chocolate crust and fresh raspberries. Sounds pretty fancy right? Yep, I made that too. Let's just say I was literally baking for days which proves to you how much of trooper Tristan really was.

My second-to-last plan was to pipe these beauties and adhere them to the cake with icing but after Tristan kindly traced a bunch of them from a template we printed out and I piped them onto waxed paper I realized that they were too big to fit on the cake without having to curve (and consequently break). Not to mention the purple color was not what I had imagined and no amount of food coloring was going to fix it. I was pretty sad but at least I know I am capable of making royal icing from scratch and piping something so complicated. I guess I'll have to make the cake taller next time.

In other news, my parents got me an awesome diaper bag for my birthday! Isn't it beautiful? It's more of a fun purse that mommy can put Fiona's things in. It comes with a nice little wipes case and a matching changing pad that fits nicely in an interior pocket. I can't wait to meet our new little one and fill this bag with her things! Only two weeks until my due date!

And to top it all off, it turns into a backpack which I can imagine will be really handy.

And finally, we are officially connected to the World Wide Web at our house (no more mall or library internet sessions!) so our blogs should be coming more frequently and we're on Skype for those of you who are interested in talking with us via video chat!

Babymoon River Brewery

2010-08-14T07:26:00.000-07:00

Here we go! As promised, the second half of our awesome vacation in Savannah, Georgia is here. Jackie and I packed up the car and made the twenty minute drive to Tybee Island for some time at the beach. It's amazing the differences in beaches that you find when you move around. In Okinawa, there are lots of broken shells and coral pieces and trash washed up to add a little color to the shoreline. In Oregon, there are flat, sandy stretches, broken up by craggy rocks and tidepools that I can geek out over. In Florida, there are plenty of underdressed tourists and strange, Jimmy Buffetish townies. In Savannah, we found the beach to be crowded, but very pleasant. The sand was very flat and fine, and reminded me of my youth spent digging around for shark teeth in North Carolina. There were lots of people, but Jackie and I enjoyed our day.

Well, perhaps I enjoyed the day. Who is this girl mad at? It was pretty fun, all in all. I had to hold on to our umbrella because the wind kept trying to drag it out of the sand and send if flying across the beach. But, the water was wonderfully warm and stingray-less (I assume). We did however see a dolphin. A dark fin kept popping up just a ways out past us, and no, it was not a shark. Sadly, I have to admit that it was a cool experience, even if it was a marine mammal.

There's no one interesting in this picture. We just wanted to show the pier.

Back at the place, this is my lovely wife getting ready for the day at her sink. She's a cutie. And she doesn't set her ovens on fire. Sorry, I couldn't resist.

The next night, we went out on the town. Both of us got dressed up all fancy like and picked a place by the riverfront. It turned out to be less fancy than we thought, and somehow we ended up choosing to go out on Friday the 13th, when all of Savannah was doing their haunted pub crawl, but what can you do?

This is Moon River Brewery, where we ate out. My burger was quite delicious, almost embarrasingly so.

Jackie's food, however, was not. Always a sad night when you get excited about ordering a crab melt, and then finding out you don't really like crab meat.

But I made it up to her and we went out to Lulu's Chocolate Bar. It was a fancy little place with amazing deserts. Jackie had a piece of chocolate peanut butter pie and I had the inside-out german chocolate cake. A perfect ending to a perfect Babymoon.

Babymoon

2010-08-12T15:21:00.000-07:00

Welcome to sultry Savannah, Georgia, home of the Savannah Sandgnats. Jackie and I packed our things into the brave little toaster and headed across the state line for our last little vacation before Fiona comes along.

Here are some pictures of the little suite that we're staying at. It's a renovated old place with great wood floors and huge vaulted ceilings.

This is the kitchenette.

The bathroom with Jackie's sink on the left and mine on the right. We like having our separate areas, so this was one of the factors about the place that really sold it.

It even came with a claw footed tub.

Jackie and I enjoyed a day out in historic downtown. We walked around and found that downtown Savannah, while beautiful and full of culture, is mostly just very expensive antique shops.

It was just a little hot, and I guess I shouldn't have made my lovely wife walk around so much.

This is the little front yard at our place.

We even had a nice candlelit dinner with tortellini. I know what you're thinking. You all saw the kitchenette, and now you're wondering, 'How did they make tortellini without a stove?' Well, let's just say that it involved a very large bowl in a very small microwave. Kind of a gamble for me, but it worked out pretty well in the end.

And last but not least, my beautiful 8 month pregnant wife on our porch. So, a quick 'how do you do' from Savannah. Enjoy the pictures and tomorrow we'll tell you about our beach trip to Tybee Island.

A Few Trifles

2010-07-30T08:40:00.000-07:00

Several weeks ago, Jackie left me for the weekend, all to myself to wander the lonesome halls of the Cross home with no one by my side save for our new stuffed rabbit friend. He stayed with me through it all, inspired me to keep writing, and made sure that I didn't snack too much.

Jackie actually meant to put this picture up in the shower blog, but somehow it got left out. These are amazing friends Carolina and Massiel. They are the event planners that, along with Grace, put together the whole shower. Their business is called A Boutique Affair.

This is obviously a basket. It appears to be filled with blankets.

Here's the nurser. Just like the bumpdates, we like to keep you up to speed on how Fiona's future lodgings are going. It's finally to a point where everything is getting properly organized and not in stacked piles on the floor. She's going to have a blast in here. We're very excited! And only 6 weeks to go!

Baby Shower #2

2010-07-29T11:33:00.000-07:00

On Saturday some of my friends threw me a fantastic baby shower. My mom and sister were even able to make it over for a quick visit and to make an appearance at the party. It was great having them there and Tristan and I felt so loved and supported by our friends here in Florida. Instead of trying to explain the whole party to you I'm posting a bunch of pictures. Please excuse the plethora of food pictures but everything looked so beautiful I couldn't resist.

The center pieces. Yes this baby shower had center pieces. My friends Carolina and Massiel are event planners, can you tell?

Everyone got a bookmark to remember the day and they even played on our nursery's library theme with the due date on the bookmark! So creative and so much attention to detail!

They made me a "Mommy-to-be" badge, it was adorable.

The shower was co-ed which made it really fun. Here are some of our friends feeding their significant others baby food while blindfolded.

Opening presents, and yes that's a purple tutu. So cute!

The crowd

Grace was kind enough to hold the fan for me while I underwent the strenuous work of opening presents (Dana and Grace's air conditioning broke that day so it was a little warm!)

So that's it. It was a wonderful party and we had a great time. We are so blessed by our friends here!

As Promised

2010-07-07T09:19:00.000-07:00

So, here we are, and yes, two days in a row just happened. You probably should not get used to it, as much as we both would like for this to be a habit.
As you can see, our good friend Sierra made it out, and here she is on our comfy red couch. It was so much fun with her here. I had almost forgotten what that old Hayden zaniness was like. She got to go to a fish fry at work with us, and then a pool party and finally we all got completely drenched at the Animal Kingdom. All in all, a memorable trip.

These are all kind of out of order, encompassing the past two months, so I apologize. This is cake no. 2 for Jackie, and it was amazingly delicious. White cake with raspberry curd and fudge frosting.

There are the girls. Linsey is living with us for a couple of months since she's staying on for a second internship. She's moving in with a friend at the Seas in a couple of weeks. It was fun to have everyone there for the week, but I felt a little bad about Linsey having to sleep on the couch. She got over it.

Look at her go. Frosting some red velvet cupcakes.

Every day with cantaloupe is a good day.

We spent a couple of days down at Kelly Park a while back. It's a ten minute walk and only a dollar to get in. The water is pretty nice, but you get a strange crowd floating down at times. She's pretty cute in her little bikini, but I was told specifically that the back shot was all you get. Sorry.

The token picture of the author so you don't forget about me.

This was a while back, but we wanted to put a picture of our sweet haul at Jackie's shower. Thanks again to everyone. She says it was a lot of fun, and our little girl is going to be happy.

Just a cute one to finish it off for now. We'll make sure to keep up on this more often. It's great to hear from you all whenever we do. We miss Oregon a lot, and it's been wonderful seeing you all when we've had the chance. We're really looking forward to October and November...after all, company is always appreciated.

Glimmer of Hope- Yes we still blog

2010-07-06T12:05:00.000-07:00

I am officially the worst blogger ever! Here is my most recent "bumpdate" and a picture of our beautiful crib with the bedding that my parents bought for us. This is just a teaser blog to reward our faithful blog followers. We'll post another with a full update of the last couple months either tomorrow or Thursday. So don't loose heart and check back soon! We love you all and miss you!

The Boring Life of a Single Married Man

2010-05-08T11:36:00.000-07:00

So, what does one do, when your super cute pregnant wife leaves you for two weeks? That, my friends, is a very good question. For one, I am appearing on here for the first post in many posts, mostly because I have found internet once again. So, here I sit at the public library, learning how to use the google on the internet machine. Another thing to occupy my time is harassing the local wildlife. We found a very small tortoise in our yard and so here I am, enjoying the company of someone that has become very near and dear to my heart, although a poor substitute for Jacqueline.

Just to give you an approximation of his size, I have removed my thumb and placed it next to him. It's a pretty good scale indicator in a pinch.

Action shot! Apparently, this type of tortoise runs away from lettuce and carrots. Go figure. Anyway, he's roaming in our yard somewhere as we speak. Such a cutie. Like an cuddly little tank.

So, that's the picture update. I've been enjoying a weekend filled with lawn maintenance, writing, reading, and watching terrible movies like G. I. Joe which Jackie would never watch with me. Apparently she knows better. I'm looking forward to making it to Oregon in a week, though it promises to be a long one. Take good care of my two ladies, those of you who are back in Oregon, and I'll see at least some of you very, very soon.

19 weeks!

2010-04-20T11:40:00.000-07:00

Here's a picture of my little bump. It's still not much and actually the belt really accentuates it, in most shirts you can hardly tell. But why not flaunt it right?

A friend of mine found this beautiful crib and mattress for me... for FREE! It is all hard wood and matches the nursery really well. It's just an inch too long to fit in the space we had originally planned but upon further consideration we decided it would probably be better not to put a sleeping baby under a hanging bookcase... just in case. This is the arrangement we landed on. At first I didn't really like it but it's really grown on me. I think it will be nice to have access to both sides of the crib.

What do you think?

And finally a real picture of our sweet little...... drum roll please..... GIRL!
She was moving all over the place during the ultrasound and giving the technician a real run for her money. In the end she behaved and the lady was able to get all the measurements she needed and our little babe even did a little dance for us!

We were thinking it was going to be a boy so we were quite surprised but as soon as we found out I realized that I really want a girl. Baby girl clothes are so much cuter and I can't wait to put clips and bows in her inevitably crazy hair! We're still at the drawing board with names but we have a few ideas and we have plenty of time. Right?

So that's it for now. We'll be home in May to see most of you and I can't wait!

Natalie comes to visit!

2010-04-05T12:22:00.000-07:00

My sister Natalie came and stayed with us for about 8 days and we had a blast. It was great to be able to hang out with her. I realized it had been two years since we'd hung out just the two of us! We went to the beach, and shopping and of course we took her to Disney.

We also spent a lot of time just staying home, playing guitar, reading and sitting in the sun in the back yard. And of course sleeping in. Just what I needed.

New Smyrna Beach

Here she is in Asia with Everest behind her and a lot of funny tourists.

Still fresh while waiting in line... in the shade. It was our first park and our first ride.

Waiting for the monorail

Wiped out after a long and hot day! We had a great time but it made me realize how much I miss Oregon and living close to family! I know we'll move back eventually but for now we're where we need to be and we're doing our best to enjoy Florida.

4 months down

2010-04-05T12:14:00.000-07:00

So here's the updated bump picture. It's not much but it's progress!

Here's Tristan modeling his birthday gift that his sisters gave him. It's awesome! He wanted to see what it would feel like with a baby in it so we tried our 8lb bag of brown sugar. Thanks Cosco!

A friend from work gave me a car seat! You can't see it very well but it's blue and "gently used" so I'm excited.

We only have about two more weeks until we get to find out the sex so we'll make sure to post a blog as soon as we find out!

First trimester conquered!

2010-03-01T13:12:00.001-08:00

This is what little baby Cross looks like so far! At twelve weeks the baby can distinguish sounds and it's skin is sensitive to touch... How they figured this stuff out I'm not sure but the process of a growing baby is absolutely amazing! I guess this means Tristan and I will have to revisit the days of reading children's literature aloud in British accents.

On another note, I haven't started showing at all (I've actually lost a few pounds) so I'll hold off on the "bumpdates" as Jenna so creatively coined them. Other than that I'm still experiencing very mild morning sickness but seeing as I've just entered week 13 I'm praying that this is just the tail end of it. "Feeling of well-being" here I come!

2010-02-10T08:15:00.000-08:00

Wow! We're back. After months of silence, the Cross family has once again graced your presence with a fresh new blog. Most of you we got to see recently, and I guess that we took that as reason enough not to keep you posted, but know that we have come to realize our mistake, and it will not happen again, perhaps. So, the big news most of you know, but here it is for all the world to see...

That's right, this beaming beautiful lady is pregnant!
What excitement!
What anticipation!
What adventure!

Here we are: Mere weeks in and ready to begin the conversion of our extra bedroom/library into a nursery/library. So much for precious moments and lacy flowers.

Here am I, poised with the first coat of wet paint, creating a mess and making our once-bland walls avacado-like

Jackie got her hands dirty as well, although the novelty of painting the room soon wore off under the pretense of morning sickness. I finished the job, but I am not complaining. It was very rewarding, and I'm taking good care of my little wife.

Here are a few pictures of the almost completed room. The other window has blinds on it now, and once our little kid comes to hang out with us, the desk/table will be replaced with a crib.

Here are some of our beautiful books and the map so that our baby can see all of the places he has traveled.

Don't worry, there's more to come. Jackie has promised to keep up on the blogging after this so that everyone can track her baby bump and whatnot. Also, I believe we have some good pictures to put up of the trip to Oregon, and some of my birthday. Hope that you still checking in enjoy the much-anticipated update.

2 years down...

2009-12-08T11:35:00.001-08:00

... and so many more to come. I can't wait!

Pre-Thanksgiving Still Lives On!

2009-12-03T16:28:00.000-08:00

So yes, there was much to be thankful here in November in balmy Orlando, Florida, although having my hand stuck inside a turkey was not one of those things. I never knew that you could get your hand so far up...well, hmm...Anyway, Thanksgiving was a wonderful few days here, although it was sad not to spend it with most of you.

Jackie and I dressed up real nice and went over to our newly married friends' place the night before. It was a fun evening with more food than I would have expected, but who's complaining. She's a mighty fine catch, ain't she?

Here are the Janiczeks! They made an amazing honey-glazed ham, and if you are an old-school Cross-blogger, you'll notice these familiar albeit unmarried faces from last year about this time.

(insert whistle here)

Ah, yes, you thought they had been humanely put to rest, but it was not to be. The amazing Christmas sweaters came back out for Thanksgiving night, to everyone's amazement and wonder. This is why both Jackie and I got our current jobs. Actually, that's not far from the truth for me.

We opened up our place for those away from their families, and ended up with quite a spread, as seen below.

I'm fairly proud of my turkey. The extra loving I gave it paid off, I must say.

And there we are. We had some friends from church and Jackie brought a couple from Korea that are in some of her classes. It was pretty fun and we ended up with too many leftovers. I know that sounds absurd, but it was true. I don't think that I can look a dish of homemade macaroni and cheese in the face without dry heaving now.

Well, until next month when I find the time to go somewhere that has internet, I will say goodbye. Except, by then, I'll be home and seeing your smiling faces. We're very excited!

Music on Fire

2009-12-01T14:13:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago we had some friends over to sit around our fire, play some music and make s'mores. Here is a picture of Tristan chopping wood and me attempting to get some smaller pieces with our handy-dandy hatchet.

Saturday Afternoon Tea

2009-11-16T09:21:00.001-08:00

As soon as I uploaded the last post I stumbled upon some more fun pictures from a tea party that I went to with some girls from church. We went to a little neighboring town called Mt. Dora. It was like Sisters without the Pine trees. The Tea room that we went to had an array of fun hats to wear while your having your luncheon and tea. This was the chicken salad and fruit that I ordered. It came with bonus mini-muffins and an edible flower to boot!

We wandered around the town a little bit and found some creepy knick-knacks such as a fur-covered pig in heels. You can put lipstick on a pig...

Hat #1

Hat #2

And Hat #3

Here we are in all our feminine glory.

We found this fun porch and rocking chairs during our wandering. It was so fun to sit together and look out over a big (albeit smelly) lake. My rocking chair even had the quintessential creak!

A Floridian Fall

2009-11-16T08:46:00.000-08:00

A few days before halloween we went to over to our friends' house and had a festive dinner followed by pumpkin carving. I have to say it was strange to be carving pumpkins when it was in the 70s outside. Here are the pictures from that night. If you hadn't already figured it out ours is the pumpkin on the left that says "Cross" in the middle of a heart. How sweet, right?

Here we are beginning the carving. The girls designed the pumpkins and then we had to leave it to the men to handle the big knives.

I made a pumpkin roll for dessert. It didn't quite look like the picture but it tasted great!

That's about it for now. We have some more pictures of fun get-togethers that we've been a part of lately that I'll be posting soon so check back within a week or so for more Florida Cross family fun!

Retraction

2009-09-15T12:07:00.000-07:00

I have to retract my previous claim that we had a badger for a neighbor. That is just not true but what we do have is a very large gopher tortoise. Apparently badgers don't live east of the prairie-like states. I'm also not sure how we mistook one of these for a badger. My only defense is that his hole is very dark and all we could see was a large animal with "claws" lumbering backwards as we peered into its burrow.

We have neighbors!

2009-09-14T07:29:00.001-07:00

We officially live in the Florida woods. Above is a picture of our neighborhood Black Bear as he strolled through our front yard one Sunday afternoon. And below is an image that captures the essence of our other neighbor, the badger. We've yet to see the red foxes and armadillos but rumor has it that their living just as near! It's almost like Oregon!

Meet the Children of Haiti

2009-09-11T15:30:00.000-07:00

So here we are, part II of our amazing journey down to Haiti. Yes, yes, I realize that I am incredibly sweaty and gross, but apparently not enough to make the children run away screaming. This is Dienelle, and she was adorable. We split our team into groups during the week for our Vacation Bible School. I had a sports group, Jackie was in the arts and crafts, and there was a Bible lesson section. The kids were all split by ages into three groups and then they rotated throughout the morning. In the afternoon we just hung out with them and had a service. I may have said all of this already. Oh well.

Jackie and Margerite. This girl made me teeter-totter her like nothing else. She kept making me bounce her higher and higher, but I started to find out quickly that this does not feel all that good. Those seats are very hard on the old gluts. The kids really loved us hanging out with them, and it was so crazy to see how attached they got to us in such a short time. Goodbyes were very hard.

Jackie decided to begin practicing for her Michael Jordan birthday early. She's pretty amazing at blocking the box.

Outside of Danita's orphanage, most of the houses look like this. A lot of them have tin roofing, but for the most part they're all home-made cinderblock squares.

A mission trip is not complete without a naked kid or two.

Just to see the faces peering through the gates at the orphanage was heart-wrenching. You could tell that all of the kids in the city wanted to come through those gates and play games and have the life these priviledged 68 have.

This is Evanson. He's a kid from the city that goes to school at the orphanage, and he attached himself to Jackie right away to try and teach her some Creole. He's a really sweet kid. He has MS, but has a really loving family.

So that's it. There are a lot more pictures and stories and such, but it's hard to put it all down, so you'll have to run us down and ask us about the trip to really get an idea for all that God did down there and the things that he is still doing. It's all very exciting.

Away We Go!

2009-08-15T11:22:00.000-07:00

The two of us are back from a wonderful trip to Haiti, and I know that not everyone has heard stories or seen pictures, so we're going to break the trip up into a few days and let you all in on what went down in Hispanola.

Here we are all cute and matching the morning we left for the trip. We had our bags packed, and Peggy, you would have been proud. We ended up splitting one suitcase for the entire week and didn't really find ourselves missing anything.

Somehow, Jackie always ends up embarrassing herself with food. I think that she knew we were going to be away from desserts and snack food, so she tried to sneak it all in at the airport.

Here is our room in Santiago. This trip to the D.R. was a little different than our last one, but the room was still pretty nice. I got super excited walking in and seeing candy bars and chips, and then my world crashed down around me as Jackie pointed out that we had to pay for them. Stupid.

The next day, we all packed into a large bus that didn't really have any storage space for the luggage and headed out on a three hour trip to the border.

This is the border between Haiti and the D.R. There was a noticeable difference in the way of living, and you can see all of the ladies using the river to do laundry in the distance. Also, some guy got punched in the head right as we were about to leave the bus and go over the border. It was kind of unnerving.

Immigrations at Ouanaminthe

Two old guys pushed our luggage around in these.

This is the hotel we stayed at, which was mere minutes away from Danita's Children. Not too shabby, though the rooms were nowhere near as cushy as Santiago's.

And here is the border from a distance. It's kind of crazy to see, and hard to picture without actually being there, but the poverty is so overwhelming. All of the homes are cinder block squares, only some having tin sheet roofs. Naked kids are running all over the place and motorbikes threaten to run you over wherever you go.

Anyway, this is all before we headed into the orphanage. We'll go into the tour of the place and meeting the kids and such in our next post.

Before...

2009-08-01T11:30:00.001-07:00

Last Wednesday, Jackie and I closed on our very first house, and surprisingly were able to move everything we own into our new home. It took all afternoon/evening, but we're all in, despite the torrential downpour that attempted to thwart us. We had a couple of friends to help, which was such a huge blessing, but I can't say that it looks pretty.

Here's the kitchen and living area, which is actually much more cluttered than it appears. It was so hard to capture it all in one shot, but believe me, there was a labyrinth of boxes and furniture here.

This is the entry and to the right the living area.

There is one more bedroom besides the master that has a bed in it, but this, which we have deemed the library has become the storage area for everything we have not unpacked as of yet.

We picked up a little the next day, and even had our Bible study group come out. It was fun to show off our new place.

More small groupers enjoying our first meal in our new kitchen. We can't wait now to get this place really settled and to have some family and friends come out to see it!

...And After

2009-08-01T11:12:00.000-07:00

And here's the place now, 100% Cross household. It's still a work in progress, in that we have plenty of boxes to unpack and things to find homes for, but it's so amazing to be in a place and not worry about sharing walls with drug dealers, or in our case crossdressers. We absolutely love it!

Isn't it just adorable. We found out quickly that gutters are going to be essential, but I rather like the place.

The master bedroom! The ceiling has a really cool vaulted thingy in the center which you can't really see, and right now we have some really pretty curtains up on the windows that obviously are not in this picture, but trust me, they look great.

The den/living area as of now. Once we get everything unpacked, it is very likely that things are going to move around.

Our wonderful kitchen. Ahh, it is so nice to have counter space, a silverware drawer that fits our silverware, and brand new appliances. It's the little things like this that make me realize that I am now a boring grown up person.

Yeah, I guess this room kind of looks the same still.

The dining room! And the first person in a picture. Everyone must be bored out of their minds by now without any people to look at. Well, here's the beautiful missus.

So, there it is, the new place. We'll keep you posted on more stuff going on, but there won't be anymore house stuff for a little while since we're flying out for Haiti on Monday morning. Keep us in your prayers, and we promise to take lots of pictures. Our pastor has already begun to post some pictures up on the church website, and has told us that he's going to continue to post them while we're on our trip, so while we're gone, you can still see us if you check that website. Also, we'll try to blog if that's possible, but if not, then when we get back. The website is transit1824.com.

Adventures in Moving

2009-07-15T16:54:00.000-07:00

Jackie and I have spent the last three weeks living as vagabonds. We carry our house around in cardboard boxes that we've stored anywhere that we can find a place for it. We're waiting to close on our house this week which will lead us into move #3 for the month, but we're super excited. At the moment, we're crashing in our friends, Dana and Grace Gagner's house, which has been awesome.

Here's move #2 into the Gagner's place. It was a very long day, moving both our lives into a brand new house, but now it's beautiful and the only boxes left are the ones belonging to us in the garage. Also, Jackie loves condiments.

Here's Grace, excited about being a first-time home owner and giving me a very strange, E.T.-like peace sign. I think that she's half Japanese.

Here's Dana with his cute cheesy little grin. He's just bubbling up with happiness over having a pool that looks as if it's filled with lime jell-o. Memories of North Carolina are coming flashing back.

In other news, now that Jackie and I are going to own a house, we decided to go thrift store shopping. After all, you really don't need much of an excuse to go thrifting. We found quite a steal. Here is our almost new front loader washer and dryer.

And here is our new queen bed with matching entertainment center and nightstand. We got all of this, plus the mattress, box springs, washer, and dryer for 5oo big ones. That's right. Jackie knows how to fanagle.

So that's the quick update. We'll definitely have some more to post in about a week when we're in our new place, and we're getting geared up to go to Haiti pretty soon, so I promise the page will be just swimming with new posts. You won't even know what to do with them all, there will be so many.

Brushing off the Cobwebs

2009-06-22T16:10:00.000-07:00

This past week we had a few visitors. Four in fact, or possibly three and a half. Jackie and I had a great time sharing the week with Brea and Kels and our friend Aiyana and her little girl, Jadyn. It's kind of weird having to deal with a stroller when I am so used to avoiding the thousands of them that are at Disney World every day.

This is little Jadyn. As you can see, she is very effectively working at destroying any hopes of our putting off having kids. Just kidding Peggy. She is cute, though, you have to admit.

The girls spent lots of time down at the pool, and I have decided that the two of us did not take advantage of it enough. Especially now that it's sweltering hot and blowing winds not unlike those experienced when opening an oven, we're spending more time in the water.

Apparently this is comfortable.

The deceptively long line of the Jungle Cruise.

I believe that they're looking at an anti-aircraft hippo. Our guide said that they are known to leap from the water and take down a plane. You learn something new every day.

Most of the week consisted of this: Laying around. It was extremely pleasant. Also, I hope for Kelsi's sake that that is my hairy leg.

We spent one day at the beach, which was amazing. Jadyn found out that she was scared of waves and also of getting dirty. The rest of us had no qualms, and spent the afternoon jumping waves. We also caught sight of a little green sea turtle in the water, and Aiyana and I saw a stingray jump completely out of the water. It was pretty amazing, but then again, these things just tend to happen to me.

Dinner night with dresses. I had to take the picture because Jackie wouldn't let me wear one.

Kelsi and Jackie were enjoying the breeze and pretending they were in an old-time picture show.

We had a great time, and now it's back to life, although it has been anything but normal. Jackie and I have been doing a lot of paperwork stuff because we just bought our very first house. We'll make sure to post more later after we move in and get some pictures, but we're very excited and now all you visitors don't have to sleep on our living room floor.