Domestic Kate

Look alikes?

2012-01-24T13:34:00.001-08:00

What do you think? I've been hearing it more and more lately. I do see that they look alike at times. I couldn't help but put together some side by side pictures and I think this one really shows off their similarities!

We're having a blast over here. I just can't help but be reminded of how blessed we are with these 2 healthy children. We just love and pray for them every day!

I'll be back shortly with some updates including posting pictures of Hans' 2nd birthday party!!

Kid Photos

2011-12-13T13:32:00.000-08:00

I've fallen in love again...with taking pictures! Maybe it's the fact that I have a newborn and a newborn remains relatively still. Maybe it's the fact that our big move is over and we're finally settled into our new home. I don't know what it is, but I've gotten the bug again and I like it! I found a cute idea of using chalkboard as a background and put up some chalk-stars for the background. I wanted to use Christmas lights as well but they are all currently in use and it required waaay too much effort to take them down just to use for a photo op. I have a toddler and a newborn, nuff said! ;)

Tom was home for a awhile this afternoon, so before Hans' nap, I begged him to stay awhile and help get the kids dressed so I could take some photos of them.

I like how they turned out! We already have our Christmas cards made up but it'll be nice to get these framed for the Christmas season next year!

Introducing....

2011-11-13T07:07:00.000-08:00

Caroline Marie born on October 29th 8lbs. 15oz. 21.5 inches

She has been such an amazing addition to our family! She is such a sweet baby and we love her to pieces!

I have written, and re-written this post. I've found myself coming back to it several times and editing it only because so much time has past since I've last updated everyone. As I come on here and edit this post, I'm deleting the phrases like, "Caroline is now 2 weeks old" and "Caroline is now 3 1/2 weeks old" and "Caroline is now 4 weeks old", etc....you get the point. I've decided to post already so...here goes...for the last time..."Caroline is now 6 weeks old!". We've really adjusted to a life of four in our family and couldn't be happier. Caroline has more and more awake moments and we relish her little smiles she throws our way and her sweet "coo's".

Hans has really taken to his little sister.

From the moment he saw her in the hospital it was like he knew this was his special little sister. Even today, 6 weeks later, he is still taken with her. He literally beams when she's around him and loves playing with her hands and feet and giving her kisses.

He reaches for her and says "hold her". I love seeing my babies love on each other!

He loves to climb into her crib and relax with her. We're all on to his secret though, because we really know that he just loves his old aquarium and likes showing off on the fact that he knows how to push all of the right buttons, etc. It's ok Caroline, you'll catch on!

Changes

2011-10-26T06:49:00.000-07:00

For those of you that have noticed, I have had a lack in posts lately. We're going through some changes over here. Things like moving and having baby number 2 have gotten our priorities all out of whack. ;) I'll be posting pictures soon, most likely after our precious little girl arrives. She is due this weekend and we're eagerly anticipating her arrival! We have been reading "Big Brother" books to Hans and have been smothering him with snuggles and kisses.

We'll be back and posting soon!!

"Cheese"

2011-10-05T07:13:00.001-07:00

It's funny that Hans has picked up on the fake "cheese" smile. I really don't think we've said it to him that often, but alas, whenever he sees the camera pointed his way, a "cheese" smile quickly follows.

I remember my mom having me sit down before picture day (the days we actually remembered it was picture day...)and practice my smile. She didn't want me to give my uber big and uber fake smile, so we would practice a small, simple, non-scrunchy-face, smile.

Now, I can understand why. Although, these pictures really crack us up, the "Cheese" smile isn't the real "Hans" Smile.

Check out the progression...

What a cheese ball, huh?! I love it!

The difference a year makes...

2011-10-03T12:06:00.000-07:00

We went to the apple orchard this weekend and took a picture of Hans behind the cardboard tractor "photo op" they have there. When I uploaded the picture, I immediately pulled up the same picture from last year and couldn't believe the comparison. I'm sure you've heard every parent say this at some point or another, but it truly is amazing how fast children grow. And, it was just a year ago...

Apple orchard, 2010 (hans, 8 months)

Apple orchard, 2011 (hans, 20 months)

Our church is starting a MOPS group this year and I have had so much fun being involved in the developing of our group. In September, Hans and I headed over to church for our first steering team meeting. It was the same time last year that Hans and I went to our first ever MOPS meeting. Of course, pictures were taken both mornings. Another comparison shot...

1st day of MOPS, 2010 (hans 7 months)

1st day of MOPS, 2011 (hans 19 months)

{*please note, the growth of Hans in the last two pictures, not the growth of me ; -) }

State Fair

2011-09-07T06:17:00.000-07:00

Last week we went to the state fair together. Believe it or not, it was Tom and my first time going to the fair together...crazy, huh? It had been 5 plus years since either of us had gone + one little boy who loves animals and tractors + one pregnant lady who was dying for the fair food...well, you can do the math ;). We thought it was high time we hit the great minnesota get together this year.

Of course, we had some fair food! We started the day off with a delicious cinnamon roll in the food building. It was one of the best! We must have been starving and unable to resist dipping into our amazing roll because we didn't even take a picture. But, it was shortly followed by cheese curds which we were able to document.

Notice the little ketchup fingers to the right of the above photo...

We people watched. And we walked and walked....

We visited farm animals...

And even milked a cow!

We got a ribbon and free milk after milking the cow. Awesome!

We had lunch...

Mmmmm Mmmm...Pronto Pups...Yum!

And after lunch, we had Sweet Martha's Cookies for dessert!

Shout out to Smokey the Bear! I had to visit my ole' pal. I was the 5th grade Smokey the Bear Poster Contest winner, after all (For the whole state of minnesota, I might add. No Biggie...)!

We went to Machinery Hill and saw all of the tractors there. We almost couldn't leave because Hans liked it that much

We went to the Helping Hands part where everything was "Pretend Farmer". Hans was a little too young for this, but it was really cute!

Pick your chicken eggs, Farmer Hans!

We had a melt down halfway through, so we skipped the rest.

It had been a long day and we saw a lot. We really had a great time together!

We had a full and FUN day at the fair!!

Daddy Golf

2011-09-07T06:06:00.000-07:00

We took a quick video of Hans before Tom left for work yesterday. Hans likes to tell me all day long that "Daddy golf." and "Daddy mow." Yes, Hans, Daddy plays golf. Yes, Hans, Daddy mows the lawn. And on and on it goes. It is usually followed with Hans grabbing his golf clubs and playing golf around the house or taking his little mower and mowing it all around our yard. It's so cute to see how he wants to be just like his Daddy.

This morning, Tom was getting ready for work and turned on his electric razor in the bathroom, as soon as Hans heard that thing going, he was out of my arms in a flash. He ran to the bathroom and just stood in awe watching his Daddy shave.

I really don't know what is up with our video thing. It's actually clear on our computer but when I upload it, it's so tiny and fuzzy. Regardless, you get the point...Hans is cute and adorable, etc, etc. =)

Trip to OH

2011-09-02T13:08:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we flew out to visit my sister, brother in law, and family out in Ohio.

At the airport with Papa

We stayed with my sister in my nieces adorable room (I'm going to do a post soon with pictures of their room, it is that adorable). Hans decided that he wasn't going to sleep the greatest the first couple nights and that made for an exhausted and overly emotional mom, but I had good help from my sister and mom (and nieces!), so it was all okay!

We were able to fly out and be there for my niece, Emily's, baptism. It was a really great experience. She gave her life to the Lord last year and has been waiting and waiting to be baptized. They wanted to her to wait awhile so she fully understood the meaning and reason for being baptized.

She gave her testimony to the church and was baptized in Lake Erie.

I took this picture of my mom and Hans on the beach and liked it so much I had her switch with me and hopefully recreate the picture of Hans kissing my tummy on the beach in SD.

He just wanted to run around and play, but at least we were able to take a couple of pics.

31 weeks on Lake Erie with Hans

Hans loved waking up to a house full of cousins and family. Molly especially took to Hans and felt it her responsibility to make sure he had toys to play with and his sippy cup close at hand. It's funny because they are only a few months a part but she really looks at Hans as a little baby. Any sort of whine he would make and Molly would rush over to him with his sippy cup and give it to him like a bottle. Such a nurturer ;)

We had a picnic on Lake Erie and gave Molly gifts for her upcoming 2nd birthday. My brother in law treated us all to ice cream afterwards. It was a perfect evening!

Hans was testing his boundaries of listening to me, but like I said earlier, it was great to have family around to help out.

Thank you guys for such a fun trip!!

Johnny Appleseed Plays Golf

2011-08-24T13:20:00.000-07:00

Meet Johnny Appleseed...

We took Hans out to the golf course the other day. It's a really fun family outing for us. Hans is so intrigued with everything that Tom and I are actually able to play a few holes with him. He loves playing on the golf cart and when he tires of that, he hops out and sets up his own tee and does a little golf practicing.

And when he tires of that, we pick some apples on the course and he has a snack.

We love our trips to the golf course together!

Treasures

2011-08-19T10:44:00.000-07:00

One man's trash is another man's treasure..

Today, I'm thankful for big brothers and sisters that give us clothes and toys that their kids no longer use. And, I'm thankful for neighbors that give away perfectly good climbing cubes/slides. We've been so blessed with many "treasures"!

Hans is now 19 months old! We've been having a great time together. With trips to the park, playdates with friends, trips to the cabin, and swimming almost every week, Hans has been keeping pretty busy! He's talking more and more and trying to copy almost every word we say.
The other morning when he woke up he said "Daee?" and I said, "Daddy's at work."
Hans replied, "Daee, golf.".
He's so adorable and just loves his Mommy and Daddy!
He loves to play golf, read books, play with his trucks, cars, and fish, and pretty much run all over the place! We love the energy he continues to develop. He is a sweet boy with a kind heart. We love you, Hans, our little Big boy!

Sorry we're lacking in posts lately, we've been too busy soaking up as much summer as we can!

Cabin and Hans at breakfast

2011-08-03T10:10:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday we went up to Tom's cabin (not to be confused with 'uncle tom's cabin') for the day. It was hot and sunny. A perfect day to be out on the water....and IN the water!

Hans had fun with Grandpa!

Hans has no fear of the water. Whether it be a pool, pond, or lake...he will just head straight to the water!

Hans also enjoyed some fun talks on the deck with GG..

Tom took him for a fourwheeler ride which he loved. He drove him over to a farm to see some cows. Hans and the cows had a lot of fun "moo-ing" back and forth.

The day went by fast and we all had a lot of fun!

I'll leave you with a short video of Hans and me talking together at breakfast this morning. Lately he has been so chatty and we love it. He is repeating a lot of things we say and identifying things he knows around him all day long.

Recipe for Breakfast

2011-07-30T07:21:00.000-07:00

First, we start with prayer. We thank Jesus for our family. We ask him for a safe day and that we please Him and we thank him for our food. We also like to throw specific prayer requests in there too but that changes from day to day.

Next, we enjoy our banana, flax seed, and protein powder infused pancakes. Delicious!

I'd like to try a homemade pancake recipe some time. But, for now, Bisquick 'just add water' is quick and easy and when I throw in our extra surprises it makes me feel better about giving it to Hans.

Good Morning!

1st Haircut!

2011-07-29T11:50:00.001-07:00

At 18 Months, we finally bit the bullet and took Hans to get his first haircut. Hans' hair, although long, was such a trademark to me. I feel like it became part of his personality. I loved to see it sort of flop around as he ran every where he went. And the little curls around his head were just the best! After 18 months though it was just getting a little too long and a little bit out of control.

Tom was finishing up some work on the lawn that morning and I needed to finish getting ready so I turned on Sesame Street on tv and came out of the bathroom to find Hans like this..remote control and all! I think he knew he was in for a busy day and just wanted to relax ;)

We're heading in!

Waiting so patiently for his turn.

Hans had a lot more fun than most of these photos would lead you to believe. He didn't really want to sit down for the hair cut so he's just sort of whining to get up and move around. The hairstylist worked great with him though and kept moving fast and kept Hans distracted for most of the time. There were also little kid TVs at each station but it didn't keep Hans' attention for very long.

Ahh, I don't want to sit here!

Ahhh...

...Wait, do they do nails here too? nevermind..

Ahhh!!....wait...I like this TV and this haircut isn't so bad...

Hans is saying "cheese"..

Mommy and Hans...all done!!

We like a little bit of a longer look on Hans, it just seems to fit his personality more. So, we decided to give it a little bit of a clean up and trim. She also thinned out the hair on top of his head a little bit which should help him keep cool during these hot temps!
Before we left, he got to put his Adventure Pass into this machine to get a prize! He was excited that something came out of the machine but then politely returned the prize before we left ;). Guess he's not too keen on plastic hand clappers that don't really work..who can blame him?

And, as promised, we let Hans play in the fountains before heading home.

He's looking pretty "fly" if you ask me! Still as handsome as ever!!!

Rally!

2011-07-26T05:40:00.000-07:00

This weekend, Tom invited his mom, my mom, and me to come and play in a Rally for the Cure event at the golf course. We played 18 holes and had such a great time! I haven't played too much golf since Hans was born so I was nervous about playing a full 18 holes but it was a scramble {best ball} so it seemed to go by fast and with the all around beautiful weather and wonderful company, 18 holes flew by!

Everyone had a balloon on their cart. We had a white balloon to signify that my mom is a breast cancer survivor. Go mom!

At 6 months pregnant, I even managed to win a contest! Closest to the pin on #3!

Gotta keep that knee straight! Grr...

And here I am with Baby Girl at 26 Weeks. Feeling Great!!

According to the weekly emails I receive, Baby Girl is about 14 inches {the vegetable equivalent of an English Hothouse Cucumber, if that helps} from head to heel. She is very active and kicking all of the time! Tom and I are preparing for another active child...gotta love it! ; )

Resemblance?

2011-07-07T07:22:00.000-07:00

My mom recently found this picture of me taken when I was young up north. This weekend, we snapped this picture of Hans while he was making his very first s'more up at the cabin. It is just a coincidence that we are both carrying graham crackers and when I looked at this photo of Hans I immediately thought of this photo of me.

In this photo, I think Hans and I kind of look alike, don't you? Now, in all honesty, I don't really think Hans looks much like me in real life. I think we have many of the same facial expressions, wavy curls, and hair color (when I was young it was a lighter color) but I think he takes after his cute Daddy and his side of the family. So...when I find pictures like this I get excited because I love to see little bits of me in my little man every once in awhile! ;-)

Baby #2 Update

2011-07-06T14:39:00.000-07:00

I've realized I have never put up a photo of baby #2 bump so I'm posting a photo that was taken two weeks ago at 21 weeks.

I'm now 23 weeks (That's about 5 and half months for those of you that read this blog and aren't too sure about the weeks of pregnancy) and feel like I'm showing even more but I don't have a bump picture to post for a current update. I'll be posting baby girl's growth sporadically here and there because I like to look back on the pictures later on. I've found myself looking back at pictures I posted when I was pregnant with Hans and comparing how I was carrying him vs. baby girl.

The Fourth

2011-07-05T14:15:00.000-07:00

Hans took a break from the 4th of July festivities to sing "America The Beautiful"

We spent the weekend at the cabin and had a great time. As usual, I don't have all of the photo's I want from the weekend because some are on my mom's camera so I'll just share a few right now.

We took a few boat rides and even went tubing on my parents new tube (very comfortable and fun!). But, pictures of our tube ride are on my mom's camera.

We did a lot of swimming...

We did some throwing...

and we did some fireworks-ing...

Hans really loved those little snap-its that you throw on the ground. Tom bought a few extra so we can enjoy them again at home ;-)

Hans had a fun time playing with his cousins and being o-u-t-s-i-d-e!

My brother bought that big plastic ball that you can get in and roll around in. If you look closely, you can see David peeking out while Hans is mowing.

We had a GREAT 4th of July vacation playing on the lake, hanging out with family, fireworks, and good food. FUN!

Our Fathers Day

2011-06-20T11:40:00.000-07:00

This Sunday we woke up in the morning, packed our day bags and drove up to Taylors Falls. We were really looking forward to our day together. Tom had the day off, the weather was nice, and we were all in a great mood. We brought my brother and sis in law's hiking backpack for Hans to sit in while hiking the cliffs, however we decided to stop at a new place, Fawn-Doe-Rosa. I say new place not because it's actually a new place, but for all of the times and years Tom and I have done day trips in Taylors Falls, we had yet to experience this petting zoo. We pulled in not knowing what to expect. Apparently I have been here when I was young, but I don't have any memory of it and I only knew they had deer and ponies. We pulled out our wagon and walked inside to pay our entrance fee. As soon as we walked out into the park, a friendly buck came to greet us.

Tom and I looked at each other and Tom said what I was thinking "This is worth it!"

The deer were walking around everywhere. Sometimes we fed them behind fences while other times they would just walk up to us in the field or the walking path.
Hans was pretty confident around the deer. He would run up to them in the field and chase them if they ran away from him.

Farmer Hans

We showed Hans how to keep his hand flat when feeding the animals.
Hans feeding the goats.

Hans took to the deer right away and wanted to spend most of his visit there feeding them. It was so adorable to watch him. (notice the flat hand)

He took charge of the bag of animal food

And sometimes the deer actually got some food from his hand before it fell to the ground!

His little squeals of delight after feeding the animals were hilarious!

We took another family picture without his paci and guess what happened?

Plop...animal food goes in the mouth! Tom and I caught Hans doing this a couple of other times but he would immediately spit it out. The funny thing about this picture is that neither Tom or I knew had happened until we looked back through our photos! Poor kid, you can't blame him- it was nearing lunch time!

There was a beautiful deer laying by the pond so we walked over there to get some pictures of Hans feeding him by the water.

Shortly after the picture, the deer ran off due to Mommy (that's me) running in to save Hans from taking a leap into the pond. That fearless boy!
We did manage to get someone else to take another family picture! Don't mind that we're out of focus. We're just happy to get a pic of us together!

They had so many animals there! All kinds of farm animals, ponies, deer, geese, llamas, and wild animals from the area (bobcat, lynx, wolves, grizzly bear, foxes, raccoons, rabbits, and elk..to name the ones I remember)
We weren't the only ones out there enjoying father's day...

This goat was king of the mountain while we were there. It looks like his little kids are running under him while he basks in his glory of fatherhood. =-)

It was cool to see all of the animals. They were pretty noisy and I feel like Hans has an even better grasp at what noise each animal makes now.
The geese were honking like crazy and Hans was mimicing their honks each time.
The animals also loved Hans..

The Lynx (kind of hard to see) is in the cage to the right and every time Hans ran back and forth the lynx would run from side to side on his cage following him. The weird part is that there were other people and kids around so it's interesting the lynx singled out Hans....hmm...maybe I'll keep him inside a little more while visiting my grandma's farm....
Hans loved to run around that place and visit all of the animals. Can you tell he was more than thrilled when I picked him up for a picture?

Before heading out for some much anticipated lunch, we said goodbye to the bunnies. The deer just didn't want to leave Hans either it looks like...notice the deer nose...

And the poor bunny was such a good sport. Hans was overall pretty gentle but he did like to go for the face quite a bit..

We had such a great time at the Fawn-Doe-Rosa and completely recommend it to everyone. We didn't even get a chance to go hiking and use the backpack I mentioned earlier. We were ready for lunch and ready to head home. I guess we'll have to go back up sometime soon to fit in a family hike!

And finally, we took Daddy out to lunch at one of our favorite places..The Drive In. We were pretty hungry so not as many pictures here. Just imagine a delicious meal of cheeseburgers and corn dogs, preceded by cheese curds, yum!!

Daddy and his boy on Father's Day. What a fantastic day spent together. Tom, you truly are a wonderful daddy. Caring, loving, smart, strong, and kind. The recipe for a great Godly husband and father. We love you and are so thankful for you!!

Weekend- Father's Day!

2011-06-17T10:12:00.001-07:00

We are so excited for the weekend and the opportunity Hans and I have to celebrate Tom! He is an awesome man and I'm just so thankful for who is he in this family! He works so hard but thankfully was able to pull off a day this weekend for us to hang out together and love Tom to bunches.

We are also reflecting back this weekend on our own fathers and grandfathers and the legacy they have left for our family!
Happy Father's Day!!!

Almost 17 months

2011-06-14T13:13:00.000-07:00

Hans is almost 17 months and we feel like everyday he is in a growth spurt...both physically and cognitively. He's repeating more words and likes to have conversations with us. He also loves music, singing, and dancing. He is still working on his golf skills almost on a daily basis and his favorite part of the day is still waiting by the door watching daddy's car drive up. Speaking of cars, he loves them. And trucks, and tractors. They're his new found interest and it's very cute seeing what he notices around him.

We love you Hans! You're going to be a great big brother to your little sister!

Trip Remembered

2011-06-14T12:48:00.000-07:00

So I finally got all of the San Diego trip pictures on my computer and edited. It was so much fun going through all of the pictures last night with Tom and telling him all about the trip.

Originally I planned this trip to San Diego just for Hans and me. I wanted to visit some old friends and show Hans around the city where I spent 4+ wonderful years in college. When I was talking to my mom about the trip, we kind of nonchalantly talked about her coming out too (and Hans and I extending our trip). It actually worked out and after a few days staying with friends, my mom flew out and we got to hang out for a few extra days with her at a hotel. It was so much fun extending our stay and hanging out together. We had fun exploring the city, eating great food, swimming, relaxing in the sand, and taking pictures of it all!

Hans and I stayed with my friend Sarah, her husband Mike, and their little girl Poema. Hans and Poema hit off wonderfully!

They would play together very nicely and kept each other entertained. We took them to Point Loma one morning and walked around campus with them.

I miss that view! This is what I got to wake up to every morning and look at on my way to class....sigh...

Of course we had to get a picture of them on the track together because Sarah and I both ran track while at PLNU. And, of course, getting a picture of them together on the track is remotely impossible (two very active toddlers).

Sarah and I go back to freshman year on First South in Nease Hall. So, we also decided to get a little picture in front of our dorm. It was closed because school had been out for about a week already.

We had so much fun catching up and playing with our little kids together. We had a beach day in La Jolla too. Hans and Poema had fun playing in the sand together.

One night, after we put the kids to bed, Mike stayed home and Sarah and I got to go out for dinner. It was so nice to chat and catch up without any interruptions! We went to Islands which was a place we liked to go to in college...pretty much everything we did and everywhere we went held some sort of memory for me.

Hans and I were also very excited to meet up with our friends Ian and Asher (and their mommies too!) at the San Diego Zoo. Ian was born in the same month as Hans and Asher is just a month older. The boys were fast facebook friends as soon as they were newborns. Leanna and Amy are also college friends from plnu!

I was trying to refrain from taking pictures of the animals at the zoo because it is always something I think later, "why did I take so many pictures of these animals?" and end up deleting eventually. I couldn't help it with the hippos though! There was a little baby in there and if you look closely, the mom is pushing the baby hippo around in the water. It's so cute!

The closest the boys got for a picture together without their strollers!

After a few days of hanging out with old friends, we welcomed my mom down to San Diego!

We stayed at a cute hotel on Shelter Island where we were able to do fun things like swim and wake up with really bad hair

There was a small beach by the harbor at our hotel so we always headed there first before going into the pool. I would set Hans down on the beach and he would just sit down right away and get busy playing in the sand.

Our hotel was also within walking distance of a really nice park on the harbor. We took a walk over there and watched the ships along the way.

..and met a new furry friend...

...and a new bronze friend...

He sure loved his new sand toys and didn't want to let go of them, not even for a trip to the park.

Wheee!

One thing I miss about San Diego are the many many many favorite restaurants. There weren't enough days to try out all of the places I missed. But, we did make time for a breakfast stop at Kono's. It's a great bfast joint on the beach and if you visit on the weekends or during the busy breakfast time there is always a line. We decided to go there at about 10am on a Wednesday and there was still a line, but it went fast!

Hans had his way of keeping himself entertained during most of our restaurant visits...

At breakfast one day we gave Hans a lemon to see what sort of faces he would make...and it turns out he liked he and asked for more lemon! silly boy!

We went to Coronado one day and visited the Hotel Del and walked along the beach, grabbed lunch, and stopped into a few shops. It was a beautiful day and the sand was amazing. We would visit Coronado often during college years. I remember studying with friends during finals at my roomate family's condo. Of course, it involved many dips into the pool and time out in the sun....oh those college days were fun!

The flowers were gorgeous everywhere (and I love how you can see Point Loma in the background..)

Another afternoon we went to Old Town and walked around the old shops there. Full of history!

We grabbed some sweet treats at the old fashioned candy shop. We tried their homemade salt water taffy, yum!

We also stopped by Point Loma a couple more times so we could visit the gift store and buy some Point Loma things. Shirts for Hans and family, little toys for Hans, etc. I love alma mater stuff on Hans. After all, he needs to get used to green and gold so he can go to plnu someday =-).

This face is just too cute..

Hans perfecting his perfect golf form (with a stick)

Kind of a random spot in this post, but wanted to show you one of Hans' favorite hang out spots at the hotel...

It was tied with the porch we had and were able to walk to the pool and yard from

Our last breakfast before catching our planes....What a fun trip!! We'll need to get away together again sometime soon!!!... After baby girl arrives... =-)

Good bye San Diego!

It's a ....

2011-06-13T18:44:00.001-07:00

We had the big 20 week ultrasound today and decided to invite the family over that evening for a gender reveal! Tom and I found out during the ultrasound and kept it a secret (which was super hard to do, even for a few hours!) until we had our family over. We found this really cute idea on how to "reveal" your babies gender from our friends here.

We made cupcakes

And inside of the cupcakes we filled it with colored frosting (pink for a girl, blue for a boy...not telling yet, wait for it....)

Hans was so excited for everyone to get there (see? it was even hard for Hans to keep the secret!). He ran and got daddy's shoes and was putting them on by the door.

Everyone chose a plate and a cupcake and we went into the living room to bite into it together...

And......

IT'S A GIRL!!!!!

Hans is already learning how to blame things on his little sister...tsk tsk. Hans, we totally saw you eat the cupcake, silly!

We missed a lot of family members that really wanted to be there but we were thinking of them the whole time! =-)

We are so so happy and excited to welcome a precious little girl into our family!

Welcome! Welcome!

The due date is Oct. 31st 2011!

San Diego

2011-06-01T07:24:00.000-07:00

Hans and I took a little trip out to San Diego where I went to college (Point Loma). We visited some old friends, new friends, and even got to relax at the pool and beach when my mom came out to vacation with us! We had an absolute blast and I can't wait to post all of the pictures on here but I will have to wait until I can get them from my mom's camera because she took most of the pictures. I was already traveling (alone) with luggage, a car seat, a backpack, a diaper bag, a stroller, and a 1 year old, I figured I already had enough to worry about let alone taking my nice DSLR camera along for the trip.

Hans is now 16 months old and I am 18 weeks along in my pregnancy. Time is flying by!!

When I get the rest of the pictures, I'll be sure to post again soon!

Hans loves to give the baby kisses!

Hello

2011-05-09T12:18:00.000-07:00

Just came on here for a quick "hello". Speaking of "hello", that is one of Hans' favorite words right now. He loves to answer you back when Tom or I greet him with a cheery "hello". It's so adorable!

Hans is now 15 months (almost 16!) and just as fun as can be. We have been outside enjoying our much anticipated spring weather almost everyday. He is loving it. I think he could literally be outside all. day. long. and be in heaven the whole time. He is noticing all of the sounds around him and will often stop everything he is doing to look up into the sky and spot the occasional airplane or bird that is chirping nearby.

When the weather has been warm, we've made a couple of stops to visit Daddy at work. This is quickly proving to be a highlight for Hans as he is so happy every time we're there and loves to grab different golf clubs and golf balls all over the store. We take him out putting and he actually does a great job out there. Last time, we took him to the driving range and Tom hit a few balls with him. Every time, Hans had a HUGE smile on his face. He was loving every minute with his Daddy at the course. Unfortunately, the few times we've brought Hans out to play golf, I've forgotten my camera!! I'm so sorry for this because it is definitely a moment we want to capture, but there will be plenty more visits to the course this season.

Every time we go, Hans wears a little golf cap just like Daddy. I say, "Hans, you want to wear your hat just like Daddy does?" and I put it on his head and he walks around patting his hat saying "Dada! Dada!"

Some snapshots of our time outside this past week.

At the park, giving our friend "Rhino" some kisses.

Right back at 'chya

Riding around with cousin, Molly

One of his favorite parts of the day, waiting for Daddy to come home!!

I hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day weekend. We were able to celebrate my mother-in-law on Saturday with a family bbq and Sunday was filled with lots of quality family time- just what I wanted! Hans has a cold so we weren't able to bring him to the nursery at church. We decided to bundle him up and take him on family walk that morning. I'm so glad we did too because the sun was out and it was a gorgeous morning for a walk...and an hour after we came back home, it turned cloudy and rainy! He also got in a good morning snooze too (something he never does anymore without the aide of a cold) .

Mother's Day family stroll

So, there you have it....a quick hello and Happy Monday!

Easter Time

2011-04-26T11:07:00.001-07:00

I have been absent from my blog for quite some time and we've had a lot of fun times I've forgotten to blog about. I may fill you in at some point, but for now I'm just going to pick up from the present and try my best at continuing to blog from here on out. We'll see how it goes =-)

We had a fabulous Easter weekend celebrating our Christ's resurrection! Tom and I really wanted to remember the Lord this Easter season and prepare our hearts for Easter by reading chapters in the Gospels, Isaiah, and reading commentaries in a devotional book called "Jesus 90 days with the One and Only" by Beth Moore. We read these together on Friday afternoon and then went out to dinner and attended Good Friday service with Tom's mom and her husband. It was a nice service with good time of worship.

It is really important to us to truly remember the reason why we celebrate Easter. I really don't want to confuse Hans with mixed meanings of the holiday, but want him to know the true story of Christ taking our sins upon Him (who knew no sin) and dying on the cross for us. And that, on the third day (Easter), he rose again and still lives today! And because of this, we no longer have to live separate from God, but can have life through Jesus Christ. This is the very truth I am meant to live by every day and I am meant to not only teach this to Hans but to show this to Hans every day. I pray that Hans will absorb all of the things we teach him and show him and will one day choose to give his life to Jesus.

We had a great Easter with the whole Kobie clan....with a whole bunch of Kobie cousins!!! My sister's kids were here for the whole week leading up to Easter so my mom and dad had fun activities lined up all week long. We joined up with them at Grandma and Papa's house and we also went the Shoreview Community Center for some fun in the pool! With all of the adults in the pool with the kids, we, unfortunately, don't have any photos to show you of our fun time at the pool, but let it be known that it was a BLAST! Hans loved it and even got to go down the water slide with his big cousin, Emily! And Tom and Emily went down the big (and slightly scary) "shark attack" slide! We had dinner there together afterwards and the kids were wiped out from all of the water fun together!

Now, on to Easter morning....Before church, Hans hunted for his Easter Basket....

(note: golf club in his hand...always)

Hans continued munching on his easter snacks throughout the morning.

Easter family photo...

After church, Tom headed to work and Hans and I went over to my parents. The cousins had their lunch at the "kid table" but Hans has to wait another year to join them so he ate with mommy and his aunties, uncles, grandma, and papa in the dining room. Again, no pictures, but the table was very cute with each mommy at the table having a cute little potted flower at their table spot. (Mom, remember you need to keep that alive for me until I can pick it up!) I decided I need to get better at taking photos of the table decorations during holidays because that is a favorite thing for me. In addition, it gives me ideas for holidays I may host down the road!

After lunch, the kids headed outside for the Easter egg hunt. All of the eggs had to be collected before the kids could get their gift from Grandma.

Hans found all of the dark green eggs and had fun finding out what was inside each one!

Here are all of the cousins looking through their goodies!

The Nee kids

Ellen started a little game of Hide-and-Seek...

Cousins/Buddies

And my sisters and I wearing our Peruvian boots. My mom bought these in the town of Cusco in the mountains of Peru and brought them back for us! The guy in Peru custom made these and delivered them to my mom's hotel...pretty cool! We love our new boots!

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend!!!!

Some news to share...

2011-04-22T10:03:00.000-07:00

Hans received an early easter egg this year that held a special surprise for him and he's ready to share his secret with you!

Hans is going to be a ....

We are all so excited about our new precious gift!

And this weekend we are celebrating the greatest gift of all...

Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Happy Good Friday and Easter!

I did it!

2011-02-22T12:22:00.000-08:00

Last night, we whipped up this shirt for Hans from an old t-shirt of Tom's that was in a rag pile. We used this tutorial from the blog I mentioned a few days ago, MADE.

Even though it was my first time making a clothing item (I made a little jewelry bag a few weeks ago to re-fresh my sewing skills) post high school home ec, I'm super happy with how it turned out. The tutorial is referred to the "90 minute shirt" but it took a little longer with that. =-)

I'm completely inspired to make more cute things for my lil guy!!

Sew what?

2011-02-16T11:14:00.001-08:00

Tom bought a serger for me for Christmas and we were kicking around the idea of keeping it even though we don't have a sewing machine. A lot of items that I like in etsy and around in various stores are often made by just using a serger. However, I barely remembered what I knew about sewing from high school home ec! So, we decided to return the Serger and by a sewing machine instead. By the way, for those of you looking to buy a serger for a good price (they are usually quite spendy), Tom bought ours on black friday for a really good price. Once I get the hang of sewing, we figured we could always purchase a Serger sometime around black friday and hope to get a steal like last time. Also, Tom's mom has a serger and has said we could always swing by if we had a project in mind!

I'm talking about Sewing right now because for the whole month of February, this blog is doing a celebration on making things for BOYS! How awesome is that? There are always soooo many adorable girly things to make and very little patterns or ideas for boy things. I was just browsing her site right now as Hans is fast asleep and I couldn't help but wish he was awake right now so we could jump in the car and head to Jo Anne's. My 40% off coupon is burning a whole in my pocket right about now!!! =-)

I'm seeeewwww making these for Hans this summer

(ok, i'm already getting sick of the play on words "sew" and "so". I'll stop now)

I also love these etsy finds that she posted....

I actually bought a little jacket like that for Hans from a thrift store awhile back... I was going to swtich out the current buttons for some chunkier ones like in this picture. Hoping it will fit for Easter...or a fun summer wedding. The jacket I found is made from cotton but navy blue but should still work for spring/summer. I also think it could be cute with the sleeves rolled up and a collared button up on underneath.

Here is the link for the middle picture. I would also love to do some screen printing on some summer play shirts for Hans. The tutorials are all very thorough and make the project seem do able if you can find all of the materials! Might be nice to make when the weather warms up!

I love love the cap on the right as well. That is something I'm wanting to make Hans. It's very similar to a hat he has now (passed down from his cousin, Ryan..from Hanna Andersson). It is my favorite on him and I'm sad for the day that it will no longer fit him. I think this cap will be a good substitute!

So for all of you mom's out there with boys...go check out this blog, MADE !

Even if you don't sew, they have really cute ideas for other things to make, and she will post many etsy finds on there as well.

Florida Part 2

2011-02-07T07:47:00.000-08:00

I forgot to mention how our first flying trip with Hans went! I took this picture on our way down to FL where we had an open seat in the middle of our row! It worked out perfectly for us. Hans was technically a lap child, but we were fortunate that our flight wasn't full and could keep our middle seat open. I had brought along some new small toys and books that Hans hasn't read or played with yet and was going to bring them out if he ever seemed restless or bored. We also had our lap top with his favorite Baby Einstein movie and a new blue's clue's movie I downloaded. He ended up being so fascinated by everything that we didn't have to bring out any books or toys and ended up falling asleep as the plane took off in Chicago! It was a great experience but on the way back we didn't have such luck with open seats! All of the flights were full so we quickly grabbed the bulk head seats (thanks for the tip, kim!) and when we were up in the air, we put hans down so he could play around and make a little fort =-) . Again, he fell asleep as the plane was taking off so that helped a lot too!

On to the rest of the vacation. The day after Tom's conference ended, we jumped in our cars and drove to Clearwater beach, just west of Tampa so we could take a peak at the gulf coast and enjoy the sand and sun!

Hans was really funny when it came to the sand...While we were walking on the beach, I was holding him, and he was clutching on to me for dear life. He was staring down at the sand and when we finally got to a place where we wanted to set up our towels, Hans started making this whining voice and clamoring to come back into my arms! This is very unlike Hans as he is usually a "go get 'um" type of boy that we can hardly keep in our arms! When we set up the towel, he was perfectly content to sit on it with his toys and not move anywhere. He started to eye a seagull...and this particular seagull intrigued him, so he began to stand up and reach out for the seagull....Welllll, one step on the sand had him begin his whining voice again and he was completely frozen and wouldn't move back onto the towel! It was quite comical! Mommy rescued hans and brought him back to the towel, safe and sound! phew!

Playing with Daddy on the beach....ahhhh, I love this picture!! Those boys are so cute...I love them both so much!!!!

By the end of the day, Hans was brave enough to walk in the sand...and I think he even enjoyed himself!

(I absolutely love how Hans crosses his feet like in this last picture...He does it all of the time and it's so adorable. Just like an adult, he knows what's comfortable!)

After the beach, we walked around the town a little bit and stopped into a few shops along the way. It was a relaxing and beautiful day!

During our trip, we kept our eyes open for an Orange Grove or something of the sort. I remember going with my parents to FL and I have this memory of stopping at an Orange Grove, picking our oranges, and drinking the juice with one of those special orange straws. Well, we saw a sign for Parkesdale Farms and thought we'd check it out.

It was kind of hard to read some of the signs.

And when we finally found it, the line was super long! The line was filled with locals in the area and other people that visited the farm during a vacation long ago and decided to make the trip back because it was THAT good!

What's on the menu, you ask? Strawberries, strawberries, and STRAWBERRIES. For real, that's it! The line moved quickly and with the options being a strawberry shake and strawberry shortcake, we had our food in a jiffy!

This is where we ate our treats...super cute and super clean. We met a group of really neat local christian kids there. We took their group picture and they were telling us how lucky we were that we stopped by Parkesdale because it really is the best food around. We agreed! Yum!

The strawberry shake won an award on the Food Network and it did not disappoint!

There was a market there too so before we left, we picked up a bag of oranges and grapefruit.

Check out those prices! Almost makes me wish we lived in FL or CA...almost... ;-)

As I mentioned earlier, our trip was extended by a few more days due to weather. After we got back to Orlando, we received the call (actually a text) from the airline telling us about the cancelation. There was absolutely nothing we could do to change the weather, so we decided to make the best of our extended vacation and packed up our bags and headed to the gulf coast. We enjoyed our day in Clearwater so much so that we knew we would appreciate a couple more nights in that area.

We went a little further south and stayed in a cute little Bed and Breakfast in St. Petersburg. The weather was absolutely gorgeous so after checking into the B&B and asking the owner for neat places to see, we decided on going to Fort Desoto. Fort Desoto was voted the Best Beach in America in 2005 and since then has almost always been voted one of the top ten best beaches. You can see an aerial view of the beach here I'm not exactly sure what the "hands across the beach" thing is on the video, but you get the idea of what the beach is like!

It was a really windy day, but we were able to find a little area hidden behind the sand dunes...it was down right hot behind there and we loved it! Check out the next two pictures in sequence....

See? Windy. What you don't see (but we have documented) is me running after his hat down the beach. I got it and didn't put it back on until we were safely hidden behind our sand dune protection.

Hans wasn't afraid of the sand this time. I guess he just had to get used to it. He's my little January baby, but he loves the sand now!

All of the beach playing made Hans tired!

We had to. The sand was so perfect and silky-like...I had never actually buried someone in the sand...and it was fun! When he got up, the sand just fell off of him.

Say goodbye to Fort De Soto!

We drove back to St. Petersburg where we ordered an extremely overpriced pizza to-go, put the babe to bed, and watched a movie in the attached porch to our room. Wonderful!
The next day, we took a trolley tour of the town of St. Petersburg. It was a really cool trolley ride with the drive giving you the history of certain buildings, trees, and statues along the way. The whole loop costs a quarter each! It's like stepping back in time...way back!
Waiting for the trolley to pick us up.

And I copped an attitude. hee hee, just kidding! But I bet I had some of my family fooled (who like to throw around the word "persnickety" pretty loosely with me!) We were just creatively passing the time away ;-)

We took the trolley to the pier where we visited the aquarium. Tom got some cool shots of the pelicans on the pier too. This pelican (that's tagged red) was a pelican that was rescued from the gulf oil spill and then released in St. Petersburg.

The aquarium was inside at the end of the pier.

While we were there, Tom and Hans got to feed some leopard sharks in their tank!

We also got to touch some sea urchins and star fish. We had a lot of fun looking at and learning about all of the sea creatures.

All in all, we really really enjoyed our time in St. Petersburg and are so thankful we had the extra few days to experience that cute little town!

Our flight back home left in the morning, so we spent our last night in Orlando, close to the airport. After checking into our hotel, we returned our car at the airport and ended up spending most of the afternoon there as there were a lot of restaurants and shops outside of security. By the end of the day, Hans became good friends with Mickey there. We would say "Hans, where is Mickey?" and he would do his little speed walk over to Mickey Mouse on the wall.

On our next trip to FL, Hans will be old enough where we'll probably make it a priority to go to Disney World. It really is a magical place (not just for children!) but we wanted to make sure he would at least have some recollection of his time there!

So that's our trip to FL in a nut shell! I know it may be hard for some of you to believe but that was probably an 1/8 of the pictures we took from our trip so I did try to narrow it down a bit for the blog!

And thanks to my hubby who is upstairs getting dinner ready! He said, go downstairs, relax, and get caught up on your blog!!!!

Happy Valentine's Day!!!!!

Florida Part 1

2011-02-06T11:23:00.001-08:00

A few days after his birthday party, we packed up our suitcases and headed to Florida for a week of vacation! We saw the Atlantic coast, played some golf, stayed in Orlando for a conference (and pool time for mom and Hans), and headed to the gulf coast for a couple of days.

We arrived in FL a couple of days before the conference so we could drive up to Ponte Vedra Beach because Tom was fortunate enough to play golf at TPC Sawgrass. His good friend from college, Matt, is the head golf professional at the TPC and got him a tee time on the Stadium course.

The clubhouse at Sawgrass is huge and gorgeous. It was built fairly recently and built specifically for The Players Championship Tournament that is held there every year.

After Tom's round of golf, a volunteer took us all out on the course so we could take some pictures and so that I could look at one of the worlds most famous holes. Above, we are standing near the 18th hole with the clubhouse in the background. Below, is a picture of the famous 17th hole (which Tom got a par on, by the way!).

The grass will be green during The Players, however it's bermuda grass and is dormant in the winter...so we didn't see it at it's peak of prettiness but it was still awesome!

Later that night, Matt took us to dinner at the club house and then, later, gave us a private tour of the place! It was so incredible to look around where the Greats of golf practice, play, and hang out. It was also neat to hear all of the background stories Matt told us about the different rooms and players. One part of the club house is open to the public and then over half of the clubhouse is reserved for current PGA players...locker rooms, restaurant, bar, lounges, etc.

This picture is of a private room that tournament pro's can hang out in with tv, pool tables, etc. They can bring family members in if they would like, but only if they are male...I felt pretty special =-) hehe!

There is a huge locker room that only the players can go into and then there is another, much smaller, locker room that only past Champions (of this tournament) can enter. All of the past champions have their names engraved on a locker. Tom and Hans are standing next to Tiger Woods' locker.

Right outside of the locker rooms, sits a barber chair. The legend surrounding this barber chair is that when players had a bad round of golf, they would sit in the chair and get grilled by other players about their (bad) playing. Looks like Hans didn't mind the grilling =-)
We ended the clubhouse tour by going underground to get a look at the tunnel the players use to head to the practice facility. The tunnel allows the players to practice and warm up relatively undisturbed. This is also where they will meet up with their caddy, before heading outside. As you can see, when building this new club house, they truly had The Players tournament in mind!

And...while daddy was playing golf....Hans and I enjoyed a delicious lunch at Chick-fil-a and played at the playground! The two things I looked forward to most about the nice weather was taking Hans on walks and finding a swing set! He had fun...but in the picture he looks a little tired!

After that, we made our trek back to Orlando for the PGA merchandise show. We weren't really in a hurry so we drove along the coast and stopped along the way for pictures. It was a little bit windy that day so you'll notice Hans was wearing his coat. The sun was out and warm, but it was slightly chilly.

Tom was busy the next couple of days at the show, so Hans and I spent the days exploring what Orlando had to offer and mostly spent time hanging out around the hotel.
We played chess,

We went swinging,

and we went on walks then rested by the pool.

When Dad came back on his last day, we got to go swimming! It was warm out and Hans loved the water.

Hans even went under water for the first time!

After swimming, we got Hans all dried off and into cozy pj's and played miniature golf at the hotel. Hans actually shows some interest in golf..we know that he loves golf balls and golf clubs! And, he cries if someone tries to take either away from him!!

We went out to eat that night in downtown disney at the rainforest cafe. We also have one here in MN, but Hans has never been to it and he loved looking at the fish and all of the "animals". He was a little confused when the thunderstorm turned on, but was content looking around, trying to figure everything out.

I love the little flippy curls in his hair!

Just about the only picture of the two of us during this trip!

An attempt at a family portrait. Hans was not having it, so Tom and I gave in!

Our 7 day vacation turned in an 11 day vacation due to the snow storm in the midwest. It was wonderful to have a a few extra days to spend in FL together! On the other hand, our clean clothing stash was running out (even though we did a load of laundry while we were down there), we weren't being compensated or given any vouchers from the airline b/c it was weather related, and we were looking forward to our own bed (and crib) at home!

I'll share the rest of our trip in a separate post sometime tomorrow of our time spent on the gulf with trips to the beach!

Busy January

2011-02-05T17:55:00.000-08:00

January came and went in a whirlwind! It's really hard for me to believe that it is actually February. I'm really excited to settle back in at home and get back into the regular routine. I'm actually looking forward to regular things like....laundry and cleaning! I told Tom that that's all it takes for me to appreciate and look forward to housework....a vacation! So, looks like I'll just have to take a mandatory vacation each month. Haha! Wouldn't that be nice?

The beginning of January consisted of setting aside Christmas decorations and gifts and getting prepared for our little man to turn one! And turn one he did! We had such a great time celebrating with family and friends that have been there from the beginning, watching our little peanut grow up right along with us.

We had a "golf" birthday party theme for Hans and held the party at Tom's golf course. It was a freezing cold day but we had a blast with everyone at the party!

We made make-shift knickers for Hans to wear by altering sweatpants. We cut them short, tapered them, and then sewed the hem. We also hot glued little diamonds on the side of the knickers using left over coordinating blue fabric.

Playing in the ball pit with his buddies...

Of course, the kids enjoyed playing golf. Hans waits patiently for his turn while his big cousin eyes the hole.

Hans couldn't wait to get his hands (and mouth) on that golf ball cake!!

Sitting in his new basketball chair.

Ellen enjoying the golf car

Dumping out the golf balls after the party!

I love looking through all of the pictures...just a glimpse into the great time we had. Thank you to everyone that made it a special day for Hans!

On his actual first birthday, Tom and I took Hans to a local favorite bookstore.

Chasing the chickens!

They have chickens and cats running around (among other things) and Hans just loves to look at them and...chase them! It was so cute to see because he was so curious and wanted to chase the chickens, but when he would actually get close to them, he would quickly turn and pretend to be interested in something else. It was so adorable to see his excitement and curiosity and then all of a sudden his timidity.

Happy Birthday Big Boy!! We love you so much!

almost there...

2011-01-11T11:48:00.000-08:00

Yep, it's January. That means that my precious little guy is almost ONE year old! As all mothers say, I truly can't believe how fast this year has gone by. Tom and I have been looking back at photo's from Day 1 of little man's life and he was just so darn cute and tiny! He's gotten even cuter as the year has gone by, but not so tiny any more!

Forgive me for not updating the blog as often as I'd like to...we've been busy over here working on some projects and often preparing for the big O-N-E birthday party! We're doing a golf theme and we're able to have it at Tom's golf course. We're keeping the budget low and, so far, have been super excited at what we've been able to make with things at home and at the golf course. This week, I'm going to attempt to make a (practice) cake that is a ball shape. If it all turns out well, I'll be making Hans' birthday cake as the shape of a golf ball. If it turns out to be a disaster I can always use the little cake that comes with the sheet cake we're purchasing for everyone else!

Here are some golf flags I made that will be a part of the centerpieces. This was a really simple project made with three colors of felt that I cut into pendants, shapes, and number 1's, and hot glued them onto dowels.

Hans' first birthday invitation.

I love how he has his tongue out in the picture. He was in such a goofy mood this day and I think the photo captures that!

I had actually been waiting for invitations that I ordered online (from a company I wouldn't recommend) but the order was taking so long to go through and they weren't willing to do what I requested so we decided to go in a different direction and make our own (in 45 minutes!). We've decided that we'll probably make our own invitations in the future. Tom and I worked on them together and had a lot of fun and (with Tom's help on the computer), it was pretty simple!

Tom's Tricks

2010-12-29T12:13:00.001-08:00

At first glance, it may seem like my sweet nephew with the striped hat isn't on our sleigh ride....

but after looking again, {and Tom's photoshop skillz} you can see that he is indeed on our sleigh ride!!

Can you find him?!

Child Dish Set

2010-12-29T07:21:00.001-08:00

Tom got me a gift card to Anthropolgie and I was able to browse the store earlier this week while Hans was napping. I love gift cards because I like to take several trips to the store and know I have money to spend there, but still take my time looking through things. I like to really stretch those suckers out rather than spending it all in one shot.

While I was there this week, I found this adorable set of children's dishes.

They are china but they are safe for the microwave and dishwasher. I love how the animals stick out from the dishes. I would have loved these as a kid! I know they are easily breakable but I'm looking forward to making a "special" lunch for Hans one day using these dishes. I'll probably wait until he is around preschool age. Right now, we're working on using a plastic children's plate without slamming it on the floor. =-)

Over the river...

2010-12-28T12:56:00.000-08:00

...and through the woods, to Grandmother's house we go!!!

We truly had a "vintage christmas" this year as we all headed back to my Grandma's house. All of my siblings and nieces and nephews were able to go as well making this a very special time!!

Because the size of our family has more than doubled since we were little kids, we are no longer able to sleep snuggly at Grandma's house and were fortunate enough to be able to stay at a cozy little hotel in town. It felt like we should be waking up to a mountain range out back and with the off and on snow fall throughout the weekend, it really felt like a Christmas in the old movies {for lack of a better description}.

There were too many places I wanted to stop along the way from our hotel to my grandma's house. I could take pictures of every old building in this town! To say I'm sentimental would be an understatement.

Although, this building holds no significance to my family. I just liked the green garage door.

"Little Bohemia" is a little bowling alley that we used to go to where there are only 4 lanes and you have to walk down into the tiny basement to pick your ball. Good times.

A few of us woke up extra early on Christmas morning {4:45am} to go to Julotta which is a morning Christmas service at church. It was a great way to start the day. Putting my focus on Jesus' birth as our Savior as the reason for Christmas. It was a really great service and really fun to go because my Grandma remembers going every Christmas with her family. They would wake up really early and go to church on their sleigh. She tells the story of listening to the jingle bells on the sleigh as they went to church and as they grew closer to church, they would hear more jingle bells from different directions letting her know that more sleighs were coming to worship at Julotta that morning. The picture below is a picture I took in the morning before going to Julotta.

On Christmas Day we all went over to a nearby farm for a horse drawn sleigh ride! It was beautiful and perfect. We even got to see some wild life! If you look closely in one of the following pictures, you'll see a white stag!

After our sleigh ride, we headed inside to their cozy lodge for hot chocolate! The lodge reminded me of the lodge on White Christmas [I know, another reference to an 'old movie'...}

After Christmas, we had a fabulous day outside in the snow! The cousins had fun sledding, four wheeler rides, and building snow forts! They all played so well together and had so much fun! My sis-in-law has more photo's on here blog here.

Of course you can't have a get together with the little cousins without some silliness...

Speaking of silliness, I don't know if you realize how hard it is to get a decent picture with 8 kids under the age of 7...
Case In...

Point..

Somewhere in between eating, catching up with family, sleigh rides, sledding, and playing with kids, we also made some delicious home made popcorn using ears of "popping" corn we picked this fall at an apple orchard. We told all of the little ones they were eating popcorn like Laura Ingalls did. It actually tasted pretty good too!

The cousins were able to help take the corn kernels off of the ears of corn. Here is a picture of Hans helping too!

We had such great Christmas celebrations this year! We were also able to celebrate with Tom's family as well and, unfortunately, forgot to bring my camera to the parties!
Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Merry Christmas!!

2010-12-14T12:51:00.001-08:00

Thanks to Shutterfly {and my friends that told me about it!} for this free Christmas card. They gave these out to bloggers who posted about all of the cards they offer on their site!

Retro Plaid Christmas Card

Customize your Christmas cards with Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

Christmas Time....

2010-12-13T12:44:00.000-08:00

Oh boy, one of my favorite things about the beginning weeks of December leading up to Christmas is when the mailman delivers the mail. Why, you ask? No, it's not because I am waiting for a packaged present, it's simply that I'm so so excited to see what Christmas cards we receive that day! My husband had the pleasure of opening our first card of the season a few weeks ago (grrrr...) afterwards I kindly told him how much I long to rip open each card we receive =-)....so we compromised, he opened the first card aaaand now I get to open the rest! =-)

Being a new mommy (and even before!), I've had the pleasure of using Shutterfly to organize and print our photos (including our darling birth announcement *note: the link does not include the photo of our son) and now, with it being our first Christmas with a family, we are able to order everything from Shutterfly, from our Christmas Photo cards all the way down to gifts for our family and friends! By the way, I think Shutterfly has a great selection of photo cards here !

I've also been planning my son's first birthday party in January {pretty much since I found out I was pregnant, I've been dreaming up ideas for his party} and I love the cards that Shutterfly has available for birthday cards . Adorable!

Need a cute address label to go along with your Christmas cards and Birthday invites? Look no further! Check out these cute labels!!! You can't go wrong...so many cute options!

Merry Christmas!!!

Rub a Dub Tub...

2010-12-09T15:20:00.000-08:00

We had a little fun simulating a good old fashioned bath....in an old galvanized washtub no less! I've literally scoured the internet, antique shops, garage sales, and thrift stores trying to find one of these for a reasonable price. I have visions of using this thing for all sorts of things....from photo op's with Hans (and future children), to tie dying shirts (do people still do that?!), washing the family dog (if we ever decide to own one...), and finally I wanted to use it to put my Christmas tree in this year....only to realize our beautiful tree stand for our Fraiser Fur doesn't fit in the wash tub....I said I had visions people, this doesn't always make it reality!!!

I go out walkin', after midnight...

2010-12-08T15:55:00.000-08:00

Perfect Morning

2010-12-06T07:03:00.000-08:00

Morning Coffee, Knitting, and my little babe snuggled in his bed....

Photos and Hans

2010-12-01T11:58:00.000-08:00

As any new mother can probably attest, photography takes on a new level of passion once you have your special littles in your life. It's been some of my favorite times shared between Hans and me, especially as a stay at home mom. I just love when he wakes up from his nap and the sun is at it's perfect place and we get crazy and silly with photo's. And another thing I love about photos is that I can choose where I point and shoot my camera. Meaning, I can point at my little guy playing with his new hat rather than the multiple piles of laundry that were once folded in a basket and are now strung all over the floor (thanks Hans). Anyway, taking pictures of Hans (among other things) has just been so fun for both Tom and I.

We started playing around with our pictures in photoshop and let me know just tell you....comp.li.cat.ed . Tom is figuring it out like a pro but I'm struggling along. I took some photos of Hans today and just wanted to share a couple of them. I might use some others that I took for either a Christmas card or a birthday card so I won't be showing the best of the best but just a mere sample.

Check out our little bundle of cuteness.....10 months old!!!

facial expression

2010-11-21T19:55:00.000-08:00

While I know this is a horrible picture of me, I just had to share it because I think it's funny that Hans and I are making the same expression with our mouths.

Hans continues to look like a complete combination of Tom and I. Sometimes, when Tom is holding him, they look identical and then recently I've noticed a lot of expressions that Hans makes remind me of me when I was little.

Regardless of who he looks like, we can't help but fall more and more in love with this little guy. Can you believe he is already 10 months old?!

Right Now

2010-11-05T08:06:00.000-07:00

I still haven't uploaded the Halloween pictures but wanted to put up a recent picture of Hans because I just feel like he has grown by leaps and bounds since our Superior trip.

He just seems like such a 'big boy'.

About a month ago, I definitely thought I heard him say "Hi" as he was waving to himself in the mirror and then just a few days ago we were at my parents house and he was waving to me and my mom and we BOTH heard him say "Hi".

Last week, he was playing with some toys on his play table and hitting them and "babbling" the whole time and then clearly I heard him say "uh oh". I don't know if it was a fluke or not because he hasn't said it since, but it was so crystal clear. "Uh Oh" is something Tom and I say to him all of the time so it's plausible he'd pick up on it this early.

He stood for 8 seconds without holding on to anything the other day.

Last week, he also had his first whole meal of all finger foods.

And right now, his favorite things to do are to take out all of the books on the bookshelf and all of the movies in our DVD baskets and just throw them all over the floor. He also loves to play peek a boo and holds towels, blankets, coats, and hats over his face to play peek a boo with us. I never thought this game could be so fun but I actually love playing it with him too!!!

Hans at 9 1/2 months old.

Superior

2010-11-01T07:26:00.000-07:00

Earlier in October we took off for a few days and headed up north to Superior's South Shore. We spent a couple of days up there, soaking in the serenity, and then headed back home with a quick stop to see Grahamcracker.

This was a much needed break for us. Tom's schedule in the summer is beyond busy so we have been looking forward to this fall when we were able to get about 3 days off to spend time together as a family.

Apparently, the South Shore happened to pretty much close down shop for the season the weekend before our trip, but we enjoyed the peacefulness and had fun feeling like we were all alone up there. Our cell phones didn't work and there was no land line so it was an unheard of vacation away from technology. And so funny because the "mom" in me was slightly worried that something would happen to the baby and we'd be without communication with anyone and have no idea where a hospital was....I don't know how we survived before cell phones, right? =-)

Tom's good childhood friend generously let us stay at their cabin on superior....what a beautiful place it was!! So much wild life and so much natural beauty. Outside their cabin, there is a trail that leads to a boardwalk, that leads to Lake Superior...

Superior...

Just sit, relax, and take it all in...

Unfortunately, we forgot our baby backpack or baby bjorn, so we ended up having to carry a 20lb baby everywhere on our walks....This made a 2 mile hike feel more like 6 miles.

As I said earlier, everything seemed to be shut down so we couldn't get any smoked salmon that Tom had wanted, and we didn't get a chance to look around the local stores around the harbor...

Playing inside at the cabin...

Watching some movies....we popped in Land Before Time....throw back!

Tom and I played some cards and Hans enjoyed playing with the box!

We went to Bayfield for the day...what a beautiful town. We were able to shop around a bit and found a cute Scandinavian shop. Mom....um, I mean HANS, really really wanted this Dala Horse, but we just took a picture instead. I'm thinking I might get it for a Christmas gift but don't tell Hans!!!

In one of our local magazines, I read that Maggie's is a hidden gem in Bayfield so we headed there for lunch. It is a sort of funky place adorned with pink flamingo's all over inside. It's a hit with the locals so even though tourist season is over, the place was still busy!

After we left the South Shore, we headed to Grahamcracker's house!

Like father like son....we get to Grahamcracker's house and what do Tom and Hans do? Head outside to the woods of course!

Tom enjoyed taking Hans on his first four wheeler trip! Next time, he'll have to take Hans out on the tractor!

Tom and Uncle Bruce

Hans found new toys..

...and new friends!

He loved his great uncle Bruce...

and he loves his Grahamcracker!

Whew, what a vacation!!!

HalloWeekend

2010-10-29T12:27:00.000-07:00

We've got a fun filled weekend planned with pumpkins, friends, family, and costumes! We had fun playing with Hans in the backyard during the warmer weather we had last week. Now, the temps have fallen and it's actually feeling like the fall season that it is! Look for more of our weekend pics coming soon.

Another trip to Pumpkin land

2010-10-22T06:19:00.001-07:00

We took another trip to the apple orchard and pumpkin farm, only this time we went to an all time favorite. I think it was my brother and sister-in-law that discovered this place first, but after it had been discovered it was quickly a favorite and host to birthday parties and family trips.

It was a fabulous day (as most of our fall days have turned out to be this year) so we decided to head to the golf course, meet with tom, and cruise on over to the farm for a great afternoon together. It really was an absolute blast. We went on Monday afternoon so there were maybe 4-5 other families there- it felt like we had the place to ourselves! We saw animals, fed animals, went on a wagon ride and picked our own ears of pop corn (we just need to let it dry and then around Christmas time we will be able to take off the kernels, put them in an air popper and we've got pop corn, folks!) and gourds!

Sometime soon I will post pictures of our trip to the South Shore that we took about a week ago, but for some reason Flickr is not allowing me to upload anymore pics....I'll get it figured out!

Hans just LOVED all of the animals there. He laughed every time we saw one. Here we are checking out the friendly cat...

We think it's funny!

Having fun in the corn kernel pits...

Picking our pumpkins...

Our view from the wagon ride...

Hanging out with mommy by the barn...

Family Tractor Ride!

Videos

2010-10-22T05:39:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of videos we took of Hans yesterday. He is absolutely in love with the dishwasher and it usually makes cleaning the kitchen slightly difficult because as soon as that dishwasher door is down, little dude is crawling straight for it....so, really, you can't get much done with him crawling all over in it. But, with Tom and I both home, we allowed him to "help" unload the dishwasher and were able to get a couple cute videos of it as well!

More Fall and....baseball

2010-10-07T08:25:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to share a few recent pictures of our trip to the apple orchard and pumpkin patch with some friends. The day was perfect for it! It was beautiful, sunny, and just the right temperature to enjoy the day outside but still savor the hot apple treats and soup that were available.

Mommy and Hans having some good conversation...and snuggles.

Playing with daddy

Hans and his buddy playing in the pumpkins.

Little stinker...

Hans, striking a pose.

Bye pumpkins and apples! See you again next year! Hans decided to drive the tractor home. =-) Looks like he needs to get a REAL tractor ride in at his grahamcracker's house soon!

Before we go, Hans wanted to let you all know that he did NOT like the outcome of last nights game against the Yankees. We're still hopeful though!!

Awe

2010-09-29T05:30:00.000-07:00

A sugar maple tree by my parents house turned quite early this year and we were able to hold Hans up against the colors one afternoon. In one picture he's not smiling and in the other picture he's smiling, but blurry, however I still love the color's and the object! =-)

His uncle and tia gave Hans a special blessings for baby calendar. This is the verse for today, Sept. 29th:
You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion,
as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.
You saw me before I was born.
Every day of my life was recorded in Your book.
Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.
Psalm 139:15-16 NLT

The fall weather, the colors of the leaves on the trees, the crying of my baby as he is trying to fall asleep right now (oops, maybe not that last one...), these pictures, and this verse are all reminding me today how Awesome our God truly is!

Dedication

2010-09-21T08:37:00.001-07:00

We had a wonderful time this past weekend as we dedicated Hans at our church. We chose to dedicate Hans at our church so we could publicly declare our intention of raising Hans in a christian home and that we will do our best to show and teach Hans the love of our Lord so that he will one day choose to follow Him. We are so thankful for our friends and family and church family that have made this commitment with us. We know that Hans has a lot of people that love him and pray for him every day!

This is the photo we used during the service and the verse we chose for Hans was Ephesians 1:17-18
"I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, May give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints"

This verse is so powerful to me. We pray many different things for Hans but first and foremost we ask the Lord that Hans will one day know Him and walk with Him. This verse explains it all!

Tom and I were pretty rushed as we were heading out the door and of all things, I forgot my camera! I'm hoping some friends and family got some good shots so, for now, I'm only sharing pictures of after the ceremony!

Before we get to that, I need to share some seriously adorable pictures. Tom watched Hans the other day and when I came home, I saw them playing in the backyard wearing matching outfits! As you can probably guess, those boys had some fun together!

On to the dedication day...
We had family over for lunch, chatting, and lounging....it's what I call a perfect day!

The table

I'm in a bit of an apple kick lately (but who isn't in the month of September?) I need to clarify that I did not make this particular pie, but I have been baking apple pies lately....just not sure they have turned out this delicious looking...

Little cousins hanging out.

Hans opening gifts and cards. Thank you to everyone for your wonderful gifts and love!

Getting some love from his Auntie Krystal and GG

Ellie and Hans "smile pretty"

Gathering the kiddos to leave.

Father Daughter

Thank you so much for everyone who had a part of this great day!

blue eyes.

2010-09-15T11:17:00.000-07:00

No editing here. My son has blue eyes. And I need a new camera lens cover. =-)

Recent Happenings

2010-09-14T18:22:00.000-07:00

Here we are on our first day of MOPS. Tom snapped the picture as we were heading out. The first day was "college" themed so we were all sporting our t-shirts and sweatshirts from our alma mater's. We had a lot of fun hanging out with the other babies (in Moppets) and the mommies in MOPS!

I wanted to show you just a glimpse of how Hans is literally into everything. Crawling, Climbing. Standing. The boy is always. on. the. move!

My View.

2010-09-09T17:53:00.000-07:00

This afternoon when I was taking the trash out, I looked up to see this little munchkin crawl to the door and find me outside through the glass. His grin was priceless especially as he proceeded it with standing up and smooshing his chubby cheeks against the glass, banging his hands as he frantically waves at me, and licking all over the place. I had Tom grab my camera inside and quickly went back out to capture this comical picture.

You'll have to excuse his outfit this evening. He just finished dinner and while he is known to spit up quite often, let's just say Sweet Potatoes don't sit well with him. Actually, every time we have given him sweet potatoes (and we have for a couple months now already) he spits up A LOT but doesn't spit up this much with other solids. After tonight we've decided that it's probably best to put aside the sweet potatoes for awhile. I don't like them either so it's fine with me =-)

Meanwhile, we're busy doing some things in our dining room. If you read blogs, this is something that's quite popular and easy "How-to's" are quite accessible on the topic. You'll know what I mean when I reveal our "After" photo.

Hans is checking out what daddy is working on..

Weekend.

2010-09-07T12:28:00.000-07:00

It's weird to think that I'm not going to start school today. Through the years, with being a student and teacher, I think this is my second only time that I haven't been there, bright and cheery, on the "first day" of school. The first time was a year break that I took after I graduated from college and spent the year working at the golf course, traveling, and subbing here and there. And now here I am. Instead of going to bed with butterflies in my stomach as I anxiously anticipate the starting of the new year, I fell asleep reading a 34 cent American Girl book I bought at the thrift store the other day ('Kirsten's Surprise' for those of you who are wondering,..). Instead of waking up early, grabbing my class list and last minute made name tags for my students, and running out the door with my bag lunch; I woke up, had coffee with my man, and crawled around on the floor with my little man, met my mom at the church I grew up in and helped her with some things and headed home to heat up some left over soup and feed Hans. Yes, there are changes, but I love them. I still enjoy this "back to school" time even though I'm not necessarily going "back to school". I'm enjoying the simple nights and simple mornings. Although they are simple, they are so so so very important to me.

(and becki, if your reading this, we accidently took the rattle home!!! will return soon! it'll be a good excuse to see you again!!)

Now, on to the weekend..

We started off the weekend apple picking at daddy's golf course.

And when you go apple picking at the golf course, you do funny things. Like, if you can't reach an apple, pull your golf cart up, and climb on top!

After Tom climbed the tree in his golf clothes, he was surprised to see a grass stain. really? of course you're gonna get a grass stain!....those boys...

Of course, I made apple pie....I used a delicious recipe from my old church cookbook (we use a lot of recipes from that faithful cookbook...) It's apple pie in a bag! I baked it inside of a brown paper bag. I was pretty worried at first and had to call my sister for the first fifteen minutes of baking, asking her what I should do if it turned on fire. It's a good thing I called her too cause it turns out, if I did see a flame, my initial reaction was a little too drastic. I was gonna dump water on it and run out of the house with Hans in hand....but my good sister told me the correct response! =-)
I'm not happy with how I take pictures of food yet. but i'm gonna keep working on it! =-) I'll try and add the recipe later, but for now, here's a picture!

On to the cabin.

We stopped by and said hello to an old friend

Played

I love those last couple of pictures because Hans is playing on our inflatable "fun island" that we took out of the water to put away for the fall/winter months. We have had some sort of fun island since I was little and I always remember this last weekend of summer where we are about to put the fun island away and I can play on it on the grass! It's always so fun and bouncy but we never usually do it because it could get punctured by the sticks and rocks, etc. Those pictures remind me of that little piece of childhood.

And finally, a boat ride to say hello to fall and goodbye to summer.

I hope everyone enjoyed their labor day weekend!

Pastry and Standing Around

2010-09-03T06:26:00.000-07:00

I'm going to start of today's post with a delicious recipe for pain au chocolate. Hmmm, let me tell you, this is delicious with coffee....or just by itself. It's super easy too! I was able to whip up a batch to send off with Tom as he went on a golf outing up north with a couple of friends.

Because Hans went down for a nap and I'm about to as well, I'm just gonna put the link to the recipe here

With the help of Blue Cotton Memory's step by step instructions with pictures, it sure made this recipe easy peasy.

Voila...

I just can't end this post without showing off Hans' latest craze. He is working very hard on his standing. He is a determined little boy and loves, loves, loves, to pull himself up to stand on. every. thing. He is practicing hard everyday which has led his mommy and daddy to place bets on when he'll start standing and walking on his own. Anyone else want in on this {friendly} bet??? =-)

Baby and Blocks

2010-08-30T09:19:00.000-07:00

Old baby blocks from when daddy was little, paired with a 50 cent garage sale wooden tray, makes for a great time with baby and mommy in the backyard...oh and need I mention there were pictures?

Family Fun in Pictures

2010-08-29T18:32:00.000-07:00

***Side note...for some reason, the right side of the photo's are being cut off so poor little David's whole body isn't really in the family pictures...working on it....*****

I was waiting to post these pictures hoping (and wishing and crossing my fingers) that just maybe my sister in law or mom got some pictures where all of the kids were looking at the camera....but, clearly that's asking too much.

We were successful in getting all of the kids together and dressed somewhat similar although that was somewhat questionable (ahem, kim, ahem....) =-) The cousins did have a good time together despite what some of these pictures may depict! And, I think the kids did a pretty darn good job sitting for pictures considering there are EIGHT of them all under the age of SIX!

The best of the best

Silly

Secrets

Sweet Lucy Jane

Emily just loves her baby cousin!

"Can I keep him??"

Crazy "big" girl cousins

The boy cousins

Fire pit dancing...

Break with Papa

The New Looks

2010-08-27T08:29:00.000-07:00

Hans is growing up. There's no doubt about that! These photo's show a couple of ways I'm noticing this change daily.

He loves his sippy cup. He loves to hold it by himself and chew on it. The look of Hans behind a sippy cup like this just pulls on me. He looks like such a big boy and I love it! Of course, I have the my-boy-is growing-up sadness but that just gets eaten up by how cute he is looking when he's "so big!".

They say it's "like taking candy from a baby", meaning, It's Easy. But after you take said "candy" (or toy, or cell phone....) away from baby, you have to deal with this.....

One of the many ways Hans is showing us that he is growing up. He is getting opinions and showing us his wants and displeasure.

We just love it all up though. This boy has got some guts and loves to show his blossoming personality everyday. It helps that the crying lasts all of 7 seconds too! =-)

a true supper meal

2010-08-26T07:22:00.000-07:00

When we begin to have days where it actually dips into the 70's, I must start cooking something warm. I was tempted to go with the ole' vegetable beef soup, but I'm saving that for an even cooler day.

I made homemade chicken pot pie from our church cookbook. Hmmmm, supper.

It smelled and tasted amazing and I cannot wait for leftovers tonight.

Ahhhh...

2010-08-25T10:24:00.000-07:00

Ok, I'm in love with this time of year. I love the smell that is in the air and the crisp feel that is in the air {finally!}. I love the kids getting ready for school, buying school supplies and new backpacks. And, I can almost smell the exhaust from the school busses! Don't get me wrong, I definitely enjoy and eagerly anticipate spring and summer {especially after those cold, long winter months of blah} so I guess I just love-me some season change! =-) Today, the sun is out and it's perfectly mid- 70's. I'm just kicking back with my little boy taking it ALL in. These are the moments that I'll cherish and look back on, the moments I'll never get back and never duplicate. This time with just Hans and I.

By the way, Hans is a little crawler! He is starting to follow me around from room to room now. Granted, he is not fast quite yet, but it's only a matter of time. A couple of days ago, I went into his room after his nap time, and he was standing in his crib! He fell in a matter of seconds, but it was very exciting never the less!!!

Yesterday, Handsome and I went to our nearby amusement park (thanks to my awesome brother, Sam Ryan for giving us the tickets). It was an awesome day spent going on rides, relaxing by the pool, eating junk food, and acting like high school kids all over again! I forgot my camera, but we were able to take a few shots with our camera phone.

It has been a great week so far!

Weekend

2010-08-13T18:13:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to send you off to a great weekend with some recent pictures of the little Bundle....

Gotta love the drool dripping down the chin...

And my personal favorite...

Yummy - ness

2010-08-09T18:55:00.001-07:00

I think Pooh said it best when he said, "Oohhh! There's a rumbly in my tumbly!". I recently bought Hans a 50 cent winnie the pooh toy and it brought to mind a couple of yummy things I wanted to share.

First, let me start with dessert. {Cause let's face it, we ALL want to start with dessert!} I'm obsessed with making this. So simple, easy, and D-licious!

Double Chocolate Mocha Trilfe

Ingredients

1 Package brownie mix
1 3/4 cup of cold milk
2 (3.3ounce) packages of Instant White Chocolate Pudding Mix
4 teaspoons instant coffee granules
2 cups frozen whipped topping (we use fat free cool whip)
Crushed Heath Bars

Directions

Prepare brownies according to the package instructions. Bake and cool completely. Cut into 1 inch cubes. (except ours always fall apart so we just put random pieces of brownies for each layer.)

In a medium bowl, mix together pudding and cold milk until mixture begins to thicken. Dissolve coffee granules in water, mix with pudding. Fold in whipped topping.

Begin layerin' up your masterpiece. 1/3 brownies, 1/3 pudding mixture, 1/3 crushed heath mixture (aka. bits 'o heaven)

Recipe A la www.allrecipes.com

Ok, now on to the main dish. I first discovered this staple meal from Minnesota Mama . Gotta love Mama's from Minnesota! Especially, when they are Mama's from Minnesota that deliver AWESOME recipes!! Let me tell ya, it's scrumptious! Like the Trifle dessert, this meal is so simple and {bonus} it makes your house smell oh-so-wonderful.

Chili Chicken Tacos

2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 cup prepared salsa
1 Tbsp. chopped canned chipotle chiles in adobo
1 (scant) Tbsp. chili powder
salt
ground pepper
*I like to add some corn and black beans to the slow cooker as well! Also, to get a little 'zip', I add a little more chiles!

Combine ingredients in a slow cooker. Cover; cook on high 4 hours (or on low 8 hours).

Shred chicken, moisten with a little of the cooking juices. Serve in warm flour tortillas with a little fresh lime juice, shredded white cheddar cheese, tomatoes, lettuce and sour cream.

This recipe also lends itself to other great left over options: Nachos, Fajitas, and Stuffed Green Peppers. Oh, the possibilities are endless.... =-)

Enjoy!!!

Quick Trip

2010-08-06T13:03:00.000-07:00

We took a quick trip up to the cabin the last couple of days. It ended up to be gorgeous, breezy weather. It was slightly cool so my mom and I used the cool weather as an excuse to go antiquing! I picked up a little work bench for Hans that was a steal!

It needs to be touched up a little bit, but it is solid and sturdy!

With the break from the heat, I was able to put Hans in some jeans and a warm vest and we went for a walk. He looked so cute!

"Can you tell that I'm happy" - Hans

Finance

2010-08-04T06:45:00.000-07:00

We're thinking about starting to follow Crown Financial Ministries . Right now, we're just in the process of learning more about it, but it seems like a great plan for us. We love that they really encourage you to remember that your money is the Lords and has only been given to us so that we can be stewards of it. This really makes us want to be good stewards of our income. It kind of reminds me of when my dad and mom were watching me play soccer or race in track growing up. Knowing they were watching me, really made me want to play my absolute best because I wanted them to be proud of me. This is what I'm encouraged to do now with the way we manage our money. I want to make the Lord proud with what He has given us. Needless to say, I think following and learning more about this program can really give us the tools to do just that!

Anyone try this or know someone that has? What do you know or think about Crown? I would love to hear what others who use this program think. I've heard only good things about it from people so far.

Gettin' Around

2010-08-01T11:00:00.000-07:00

I think Hans has been one of those kids that has never really been super duper calm. He always seemed "on the go" from the very start. In the beginning this manifested itself in kicking, now it's kicking along with every-inch-of-his-body-movement. I like it though because it shows he's already a strong boy. The following pictures are just a glimpse into the past few days. We've already purchased several baby proofing items and will begin to start operation baby proofing soon. We're not going to go crazy into this proofing business, however. We're just going to take care of all of the electrical outlets, some cupboards we don't want him in, some wobbly tables, and the stairs.

Pounding on the wood floor...

Looking into his toy basket...

Well, what do we have here?...

Looking at the bookcase...

While near the bookcase, he got a hold of some paper. Eventually, I had to take it away from him. This is the aftermath...

He found another bookcase, some old photo albums, and some books...

I should add that none of the previous pictures were staged. Like the title of this post says, Hans is "gettin' around"!

Fourth of July...a little late

2010-07-31T05:59:00.000-07:00

Here are some photo's I took of Hans over the Fourth of July this year. It's amazing how it was not even a whole month ago and I already feel like Hans looks a little different now than he does in these pictures. Also note, that I took these pictures myself and Hans couldn't quite sit up by himself yet, so I had to get a little creative! The black and white pics were taken with me laying down on my back and having Hans propped between my knees! And then the colored pictures were taken with me really close by and Hans sitting up for approximately 3.5 seconds before slowly slouching to the left. =-)

It's all about the shoes

2010-07-30T08:14:00.000-07:00

It's amazing how much can be told in a pair of shoes.

After Tom proposed to me, he went to work a golf tournament in Boston. He came back with these shoes, for our baby some day. We kept them safely tucked away until that special time came.

Then one day, I found out that I was pregnant with our little baby! I dug out these little shoes and put them in a little gift bag on Tom's pillow. He came home to find this amazing surprise! We cried, laughed, prayed, and hugged. We were so thrilled that we were going to be parents! We had one and a half years of marriage and the pregnancy was a complete surprise but we were so ready and excited to welcome this little baby into our lives. 9 weeks later, we found out we lost that precious little baby. It was very traumatic, it was very sad, but we had to cling to the fact that this was all in God's perfect plan. For some reason, he wanted to take that little one home to Him early. We grieved and prayed and clung to the hope that God would give us a little one soon.

Nine months later, I looked for those little shoes again. We had put them away because they reminded me of loss. I was so excited to see them because, that day, they only signified hope for I had found out earlier that I was pregnant again! I put them on Tom's pillow again, along with a note I wrote to him with this verse:

I Samuel 1:27 I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him.

We cried, laughed, prayed, and hugged! We couldn't wait to hold baby Hans 9 months later.

Now, 6 months after we had Hans, the little shoes FINALLY fit our little guy.

I like to think Hans is dreaming of playing golf with his daddy someday soon.

Reflections

2010-07-22T17:27:00.000-07:00

Just a little reminiscing over here. I love looking back at Hans' old photos to compare with his current pics. So cute to see how he has grown! Of course, it's sad to think how fast it's all going but we're just relishing every single moment of him!

This photo was taken at just a couple weeks old...

This photo was taken today, at 6 months! Such a big little guy!

Contest

2010-07-19T11:29:00.001-07:00

I entered Hans and his super cute and funny picture in a photo contest for Parents magazine. Now, his picture is in the Photo Faves gallery and if he gets the most votes this week, he wins! Fun stuff, huh?! It's not for the money, it's just something fun that we can chalk up in the ole baby book! Vote for Hans here !!!

MORE Faces of Hans

2010-07-10T10:05:00.001-07:00

Did I say the pictures in the previous post were showing off Hans and his new expressions? Boy, was a I wrong! I have the feeling this is just the beginning of this little boy's crazy antics.

Despite what you might think while looking at the last picture, Hans IS a happy boy!!!

Faces of Hans

2010-07-06T17:49:00.000-07:00

At 5 1/2 months, Hans is full on silliness. Recently, this silliness has been coming out in his facial expressions. This little guy had us rolling with laughter at his most recent expressions. Here are a few he has been practicing.

While making these faces {and many others} he also enjoys practicing his sounds. Today I heard him make kissing noises...so cute!
.

Oh Socks

2010-06-14T12:16:00.000-07:00

I know I'm not the only one out there. Sock sorting anyone? We have collected a large laundry basket full of socks that have been washed and dried without the matching pair. There are definitely pairs in the basket however it just takes sitting down and sorting through to put them together. Adding this "sorting" task to a large list of other "domestic" responsibilities around the house and you can almost guarantee it will take awhile before this gets done.

I'm starting today!

Packing Up

2010-06-10T09:35:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week I saw my old kindergarten class graduate from kindergarten and today I went to the school and collected all of my boxes, folders, books, and everything teaching related.

Soon, I will be starting the process of going through each item and packing it away for storage as we have made the decision that I will stay at home with Hans for awhile and "hold off" on a full time teaching position. I am so so happy about this decision because 100% of me wants to stay home with Hans and I am so incredibly thankful that I have this opportunity.

As I pack up my teaching things, I can't help but reflect on the past 4 years and the fun times I have had and the incredible little children that I have had the blessing to teach. Of course there were rough times/children/classes but who remembers those things when you're reminiscing??

Here are some photo's I came across that bring a smile to my face...

"farmers" shearing their sheep

mud party anyone??? don't worry, they brought extra clothes!

We absolutely loved celebrations and had many of them!

Las posadas and the nativity

La Botella

Our students put on many dances

Entertained by the Mariachi band

Lovely costumes

Wonderful family. I was able to teach each sibling during my four years of teaching.

Here they are in order from oldest to youngest.

Halloween

I was a cat this year and my baby (still in my tummy) was a "kitten". The kids got a kick out of that.

Christmas '08

My last kindergarten class {for awhile at least} '09-'10

Like I said earlier, I am so thankful. Thankful that I am able to stay home with my baby and thankful that I have wonderful years of teaching to look back on. I'm so excited to visit these students in the future and see what great people they will become.

Cabin time

2010-06-07T20:39:00.000-07:00

Oh, how delightful to spend a couple of days lounging at the cabin as a family. We took in a beautiful sunset, read books, played cards, went on a walk, made a bon fire, and were in the search for the years best s'mores.

Couldn't be better!!

Serious talks on the dock...

Fire-like sunset...

Family walks...

Hans likes to play on the exer-saucer near the dock...

Funny faces...

Snuggles by the fire...

S'mores!

Vroom! Vroom!

2010-06-04T17:27:00.000-07:00

Grandpa came over to show Hans his cool ride...a Harley ride!

Memorial Weekend

2010-06-01T19:21:00.001-07:00

This Memorial Weekend we had a blast hanging out with friends and family!

We were able to head up to one of our favorite spots to go hiking with some friends....

We were invited to our friends pool for Memorial Day. Hans was thrilled with his FIRST swim!

Daddy Duty with the babies...

Hans goes swimming!

Back Stroke!

Baby Blog?

2010-06-01T16:25:00.001-07:00

Word on the street is that Hans has started his own blog.

He was busy working on it today.

Sounds of Summer

2010-05-29T18:34:00.000-07:00

Ahhh....the sounds of summer. That sweet lullaby sound you hear coming down the street telling all of the neighborhood children to come running out of their houses and backyards to grab their favorite ice cream treat.

Um....I think not....

*Yes, this is an actual photo I took. And yes, this is an ACTUAL ice cream truck.

New fascination

2010-05-29T05:50:00.000-07:00

Dear electrical outlet maker,

If outlets are so dangerous, please make them so they do not resemble smiley faces.

Thank you.

Every time Hans is near this outlet, he pushes the sugar jar over so that he can start reaching for the outlet! He stares at it and stares at it. I was able to distract him for just a second to take this picture.

PS. We should probably start that whole baby proofing thing, huh?

4 Months

2010-05-26T12:54:00.000-07:00

Last week, Hans turned 4 months! He has continued to explore and discover new things about his world and his self! And of course, he has continued to amaze his parents every day!

This month, Hans loves to grab his feet, laugh (an adorable belly laugh), and he loves to roll over both ways! Hans has also been very good at sleeping in his crib at night and has even learned to nap in there from time to time. He still prefers the swing for naps, but we're working on the crib for naps every day!

Happy 4 months beautiful baby boy! We love you!

The Power of Prayer =)

2010-05-26T08:20:00.000-07:00

Every morning my parents wake up and have coffee, devotions, and prayer together. It was such a wonderful memory for me. We would also always pray together before bed, before we headed out on trips together, and I always remember my mom and dad praying for me when they dropped me off at school. Looking back, it was so nice to have these real examples of a praying family. This is something Tom and I have really tried to model in our own family as well. It is important for our children and each other to have that real relationship with the Lord and to live it every day. We struggle with finding time together to do devotions but every night we pray together or remind each other to pray.

Hans was able to have devotions with my parents the past couple of days while we were hiding out in the air conditioning... Here are some pics grandma took!

"Ok, Today we are going to read from the book of Psalms."

"Oh, I just love this verse!"

"Ok, here is the really good part."

"May the Lord bless you all."

Hans and Papa, enjoying their morning...

"Do we look alike?"

Muggy Days

2010-05-25T16:17:00.000-07:00

It's hot and humid outside, our air conditioning is broken in our house, so Hans and I have been spending the days at my parents house. Grandma and Mommy sure had fun taking pictures of their little Hans.

Hans also had some alone time with Grandma while Mommy played golf with a friend. While I was away, Grandma and Hans had devotions together. Pictures to come...

Lately...

2010-05-19T06:56:00.000-07:00

Hans is 4 months old today! I haven't yet taken his "official" 4 month photo's but I still wanted to share a couple of pictures I took this week.

Hans loves to sit in his high chair now. He likes to play with some toys on there but mainly he just loves to gnaw on the table...

Hans can now roll over from tummy to back and from back to tummy. He does it ALL of the time. Here he is after rolling onto his tummy. Such a cutie!

I will be sure to post his 4 month pictures soon, along with his 4 month "update".

family day

2010-05-04T06:44:00.000-07:00

Hans, you have a little somethin' on your face....

We spent the afternoon together touring the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit at the Science Museum. It was soooo interesting! We had a great time checking out the exhibit and other areas of the museum. Hans had fun too!!

Hi there...

2010-05-02T16:10:00.000-07:00

Hans meets his favorite stackable toy from his Auntie Krystal.

I think he likes it!

Rolling Over

2010-04-28T14:14:00.000-07:00

I have the counting song "Roll Over" in my head. Wanna know why? My baby boy just rolled over today for the first time!!! I was able to catch it the third time around on video camera. Check it out!!!

Thoughts on Earth Day

2010-04-22T12:55:00.000-07:00

Today, people are often thinking about Earth and ways that we can protect it, clean it, and preserve it. While these are great and noble thoughts, it's also important to look to the Bible to see what the Word has to say on the subject. God did call us to be stewards on this world that he created but Hebrews 1:10-12 remind us that this earth will "become old like a garment" but that God's throne will last forever and ever. How encouraging!! Let's celebrate this verse today, Earth Day!!

100% Organic Baby

Happy Earth Day!

And You, Lord, In the beginning laid the foundation of the earth

And the heavens are the works of Your hands;

They will perish, but You remain;

And they all will become old like a garment

And like a mantel You will roll them up;

Like a garment they will also be changed,

But You are the same,

And Your years will not come to an end.

Hebrews 1:10-12

3 months

2010-04-20T14:51:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, our little guy turned 3 months! This month, he loves to coo to everyone (as well as himself in the mirror), smile, kick his legs, sit in his bumbo, lift his head during "tummy time", grab toys on the play gym and car seat, and he loves to look at his hands! It is such a pleasure to be with him everyday. Mom and Dad are definitely smitten with this little guy.

Here is Hans lifting his head and "singing"...

Hans loves to sit in his "Bumbo" seat. This is his 3 month picture...

Our Family Easter

2010-04-05T14:31:00.000-07:00

Here are some photo's we snapped in our backyard after church. It sure was a beautiful day to celebrate our Lord's resurrection!!! We also had such a great day spending time our family!

Spring Weather

2010-04-01T08:33:00.000-07:00

It was so beautiful outside yesterday and we're expecting the same for today. It was a PERFECT evening for our anniversary. We went to Stillwater and had dinner at Lunarossa. Part of the restaurant is built into the caves there in Stillwater. It held a special meaning to us because we ate there the day after our wedding, the day before we left for our honeymoon. We decided to head back there and relive the memories! While we were out celebrating, Hans got to go on a walk with his special cuzzies, lucy and ellen! {Thanks for taking care of our little guy!}

Early yesterday morning, I couldn't resist taking these photo's of Hans.....

Our dear friends, Courtney and Chad, gave Hans this adorable outfit for the spring and I was so excited to put him in it yesterday. It has cute little shorts so I was able to look at and touch his feet all day. Gone are the days he has to be bundled up in layer upon layer (at least for a little while I hope).

He was kicking so much, but I did manage to get a picture with his right foot in focus....

....and then another with his left foot in focus.

So happy it's finally spring!

3 Year Wedding Anniversary

2010-03-31T10:22:00.000-07:00

Today my handsome husband and I are going out to celebrate our 3 year wedding anniversary! I'm so so excited. Sometimes I just have to pinch myself to believe that I'm actually married to this wonderful guy. I'm so blessed to have him in my life, as my husband, my best friend.

Happy 3 Year Anniversary to Us!!

Our Wedding Day

Our Honeymoon in Belize

Our 1 year anniversary in San Diego

Our 2 year anniversary in Mexico

It is so fun looking back at our old photos over the past 3 years. We have gone through so many things together and I just can't wait for our future. I love doing everything with this man!

Spring Centerpiece

2010-03-29T10:56:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to do something using pages from a book since this past Christmas when I saw a wreath made from torn book pages. I had a little extra time while my baby was napping so I decided to give it a whirl.

The original plan was to make an Easter egg wreath by covering plastic Easter eggs with torn book pages....after gluing pages on about 6 eggs, I decided to head in a different direction....one that didn't require me gluing around 25 eggs... =)

The final decision? I made a beautiful spring centerpiece. My table has been sort of neglected ever since the death of the beautiful flowers we received when my son was born. And lately my dining room table has had a mixture of sorted mail and half finished scrap booking pages scattered all over. This centerpiece is a welcome addition to our spring decor.

I had the pedestal bowl and nestled the book-page-covered eggs among moss covered rocks (from the dollar store).

The squirrel is from Home Goods. My mom bought it for me while we were there because I said it reminds me of my baby boy =). He likes to keeps his hands up by his face and look ALL over with his cute little eyes...just like my spring squirrel!

We are expecting beautiful weather this week so Hans and I will be outside a lot. However, I do have some things on the agenda this week.

Last year we grew wheat grass in a clear glass jar. It was so simple and beautiful and grew really fast! I plan on picking up some wheat grass seeds sometime this week. Also, I need to make Hans' Easter basket for his First Easter!!!

Hans likes to talk...

2010-03-28T19:30:00.000-07:00

I just love to hear my little guy coo every day!

All Smiles...

2010-03-26T17:24:00.000-07:00

Baby Hans just LOVES to smile. This picture deserved a special post all of it's own. This picture was taken at 2 months old. Every time I look at it, I smile!!

"I just like to smile. Smiling is my favorite!" - quote from the movie, "Elf"

Growing so Fast

2010-03-22T12:36:00.000-07:00

Our little man is growing so fast. My blogging is definitely NOT keeping up with him! =)

2 months after his birth and 20 million photo's later, I am now ready to show some highlights of our new little addition!

I woke up to this pleasant surprise on Valentine's Day...

Hans at 1 month old!

Mommy and Hans, 2 months old!

Baby Has Arrived!

2010-03-09T13:34:00.000-08:00

This post is long overdue.

We are proud to announce the arrival of our beautiful baby boy. Hans Thomas was born on January 19th 2010 at 9:38am. He weighed 8lbs 7oz and was 21 inches long. We are so happy and in love with our little boy!!

39 week picture...

2010-01-16T13:02:00.000-08:00

This picture was taken last week, when I was 39 weeks pregnant. I thought my 40 week picture would be of me in the hospital, but since I'm still going strong with baby inside, I will most likely be taking a 40 week picture soon..

Let's hope baby comes out to play!!!

Maternity Leave

2009-12-31T14:29:00.001-08:00

It's official. I'm on maternity leave now. I had my doctor's appt. with my orthopedic and have learned that my ankle is healing well but I will continue with crutches until the baby comes. If the baby comes before January 10th, I will still need to use crutches. If the baby comes January 10th or later, I will be able to ditch the crutches and try putting full weight on it!

My hope is that I will actually be able to hold my baby and walk with my baby when he gets here. Continued prayers please!!

Nursery Update

2009-12-27T18:08:00.000-08:00

So here we have some before shots of our nursery. Before this special room became the "nursery", it was...um, not really used. We called it the "office", but really it was a junk room with the doors permanently closed.

With a little {a lot} bit of TLC, Tom was able to whip this room in shape.

Here are the most current pictures of our little one's nursery. We're pretty much finished but we need our precious baby in the crib! Our nursery is a story book/scandinavian/nordic theme. The inspiration came from a old Hansel and Gretel painting that my mom and I found. The painting is currently in a green frame on the blue shelf above the rocking chair.

My mom painted the painting above our changing table. The painting shows two bear cubs playing together in the woods.

Tom made these tie backs for our curtains using antlers from deer that he has shot on past hunting trips...

Antique toy blocks on the shelf...

To create our special "nordic" nursery, we used items from basically all over the place. Thankfully, we took our time creating this room, so we never had to spend a fortune on any one item. We used antiques and things from thrift stores. The blue shelves were found on craigslist for $15. The blue side table was actually picked up on the side of the road, for free. The red crib is from a cute baby boutique near our house but was on super clearance. And the changing table was something we purchased from Ikea (leksvik brand) for a reasonable price.

We're so happy with how everything turned out!