Hi...

My Top 10 Christmas Wish List:

10. A heartburn free night.
9. To tie my shoes without having to go through strange yoga positions in order to reach my feet.
8. To reach the pedals in my car without hitting my belly on the steering wheel. (Those over 5 foot nothing probably won't understand this one.)
7. To stop having to wake up every two hours at night to empty my bladder. (Yes, I'd much rather replace that with waking up every two hours to feed a baby.)
6. My ribs to return to their normal and comfortable position.
5. To get off the couch or out of bed without thinking to myself, "This must be exactly what a beached whale feels like!"
4. To run until I get rid of this obesity stricken body!
3. My lungs to be able to expand to their full capacity and be able to inhale all this fresh Dallas air.
2. To find out exactly how dominant my Swiss genes are and see if Tessa turns out blond or brunette.
1. To quote Max, "I want to hold baby Tessa in my hand!"

If you know me at all you know that I'm not very good at surprises, so I'd rather not wait for Christmas to get my Christmas gifts. The sooner the better!

Tyler had the entire week off of school for Thanksgiving. Up until this week he has been at the school Monday-Friday from at least 6:30 AM to at least 7:00 PM. The past couple Saturdays he would have to be gone from 8:00 AM-11:30 PM. His upperclassmen warned him that the first year was terrible at Baylor and they weren't kidding. For example, on his last gross anatomy test he was required to know and be able to locate over 600 terms in just the head and neck. He also had to pass the test or retake the class. (He got an A, so we won't be going through that craziness again at least!) Tyler was in need of a good break, and Max and I were certainly ready to see him again! It was a wonderful and relaxing week, and gave us enough of a break to get us through these last three weeks of school. That said, Max and I sure missed him Monday morning when we woke up and he was already at school. Max cried for about an hour saying "I need Daddy" over and over. Three more weeks, then it's a big break. We'll get through this, I'm sure!

This looks more dangerous than it actually was. There is a big soft bed just outside the picture. Ty is way more fun than I am, that's for sure.
This is a pre-break picture. Max likes to do homework also when Ty is studying at home.
At the Dallas Zoo. We've been waiting for Ty to get out of school to go again because I only dare go there with someone else. It's close, but you have to get onto about 10 different major highways in the space of about 12 minutes time. That makes me nervous in Dallas traffic. Unfortunately, the day we decided to go happened to be Dollar Day at the zoo so it was quite a madhouse (we have a season pass, so we don't have to pay anyway). I have never seen the parking lot so full, they were having to turn people away.
Max and Tyler found some treasures in our closet. Don't ask me why I brought a snowboarding helmet to Dallas.

The other day Max decided to give himself a makeover. I held him up so he could see himself in the mirror and admire his work. He smiled and proudly said, "I look like a kitty cat, Mommy." He also had some pretty sparkly lips, but you can't see them that well in the pictures. (Yeah, I know, he got the mascara pretty close to his eye and could have poked his eye out. My makeup is now kept out of reach.)

All right, Savanna tagged me a while ago, but I haven't gotten around to posting anything lately. I guess I'm supposed to state 5 things about myself. Here goes:

1. I love winter, absolutely LOVE it. Christmas, the cold, snow, winter clothes, skiing, etc., it is all so wonderful. I find it funny that somehow I ended up living in Texas for 4 years of my life. It is the middle of November and still HOT, mid to upper 80s! St. George is way cooler than here right now. I get so mad when I watch the news and the meteorologists use the term "unseasonably warm". It is not warm, it is hot! It really is getting very discouraging. I just have to keep on telling myself how lucky we are that Tyler got into Baylor Dental School. It is a great school, plus a minimum of 60 thousand dollars cheaper than any other school Tyler could have gone to. We're really lucky, but could it just start to cool down?

2. I went to college for 5 years and ended up with an Associates degree of nursing. Yeah, I know, great job, Cass. That's what happens when you can't make up your mind and switch your major three times. I plan on going back to school some day. Only, I don't think I'll get a bachelors degree in nursing. I want to major in music (this was my declared major for a year, and I think I probably would have been happier sticking with it).

3. I hate grasshoppers. This hate stems back to 4th grade when I happened to walk into the middle of a huge congregation of grasshoppers. I still recall vividly their crunchy little bodies hitting me as they tried to jump out of the way. It was terrifying and absolutely disgusting. This aversion to grasshoppers made for some stressful times as I was playing my violin in the pit orchestra at Tuacahn. It is an outdoor show in the desert and there were grasshoppers galore that seemed to be attracted to our lights. Most of the orchestra just took the grasshoppers in stride, but I hit more than a few wrong notes because of these terrible little creatures. I think it was Beauty and the Beast where I had this really exposed solo and one landed right on the tip of my bow. It hung on through the entire solo, and I was so terrified that it was going to jump on my face that I could not play worth a thing. Grasshoppers are gross, give me spiders any day.

4. I am a little embarrassed to admit it, but I have read all of the Twilight books by Stephanie Meyer. There must be something wrong with me though, because unlike the entire rest of the world I like Jacob way better than Edward. This obviously has led to much disappointment for me. I have not heard of anyone else who feels this same way (and I've heard a lot about this book) although Annaca was nice enough to listen politely as I voiced my frustrations. Needless to say, I will not be recommending these books to the bookclub that I'm in as we plan next years books.

5. I love to run. I really miss running and can't wait to start again. This pregnancy I ran up until about 7 months. I probably could have kept on running (actually more like jogging), but the weird looks I was getting from everyone who saw me kind of got me discouraged. Running is good therapy for me and helps to balance out all of the ice cream that I eat.

Okay, so I'm not exactly sure who reads this frequently but I'll tag Aubree, Annaca, and Tiffany H. Just ignore this if you've already been tagged. I know there's a lot of tagging going around lately!

I really was not in the Halloween spirit this year. We had missed our ward's trunk-or-treat on Saturday, and I was still a little sad about it. I didn't feel like trick-or-treating, plus someone had told us that people might be putting cheese in candy and giving it out (not the dairy product, the really really bad drug mixture). Tyler talked me into taking Max out though, and it turned out to be pretty fun. We went to the millionaire area of Dallas and there were a ton of little kids out, even after dark. It was definitely different than what I was used to in Utah though. Most parents out with their kids were either carrying a bottle of beer or a wine glass. Some of the parents were definitely intoxicated, and their kids were probably taking care of them rather than the other way around. I was very entertained hearing the very drunk and very rich people talk. Parents here get to have fun on Halloween too, I guess! The Halloween decorations were pretty sweet. If these people get into Christmas like they do Halloween it will be way fun to drive through the neighborhood looking at lights. Don't worry, I inspected the candy very thoroughly. Tyler and I have been the ones eating it all anyway. Not even one trick-or-treater came to our apartment. I had bought a huge Costco bag of candy for the trunk-or-treat that we didn't attend, so we have enough sugar to last us through the year, at least.

We went to the arboretum the other day with Logan and Giannina. We got there late and the festivities were sort of winding down, but Max and Logan were more than happy playing in the hay maze and pumpkin patch. They had over 20,000 pumpkins there, so there were plenty of pumpkins to play on! I doubt Max would have allowed someone to paint his face anyway. Max still talks about playing on the pumpkins and how Logan "fell in the mud water."

Here are a couple cute pictures of Max. I guess this is mostly for the grandparents sake. I was excited to take pictures of Max wearing fall clothes, up until a couple of weeks ago it was still hitting the 90s. I can't figure out why, but all of my tall pictures are being flipped, so I can't post a lot of his best ones. If anyone knows how to fix that problem please let me know!