Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day! Especially to my mom, my step mom, and my mother-in-law...we are so lucky to have all of you in our lives!

I have been pretty spoiled this weekend...starting with Jim surprising me with a new phone when we met for lunch Friday. The kids and I had been running errands during the morning and got to the mall at about 11:30. I used my (old) phone to try and call Jim at work to see where and when he wanted to meet and my phone kept telling me, "you have no service" or something like that, which was due to the fact that my phone had been deactivated that morning when Jim purchased the new one. So I was thinking about how we were going to meet up and getting the kiddos out of the car when coincidentally Jim pulled up! I was pretty excited to get a new one as apparently my 3-year-old phone is a "dinosaur."

We spent Friday evening visiting a couple of my college friends, Karen and Mary, and their families. The kids had fun playing and it was fun to see all of them.

Saturday morning we went to the community fire men's pancake breakfast. The kids got to play on the equipment grinning from ear to ear the whole time and we watched a demonstration of a fireman putting his fire equipment on, which took 1 min. 17 sec. (they shoot for 1 min, 30 sec.) and then, with his equipment on, he did a "crawling" obstacle course which looked unbelievably hard. Yay for the firefighters who protect our community!

Jim put the final coat of paint on in our front room and then sent me out to get a pedicure and go shopping...alone! While I was gone, he proceeded to mow the lawn, bake a cake, prepare a breakfast casserole, start dinner, and help the kids make Mother's Day gifts for me...can you say Superman?! Wow...I was so impressed!

Today I slept in (yes 8:40 is sleeping in), had a breakfast of egg casserole, glazed doughnuts, and fruit, and opened gifts from the kids (who were so excited about all of this). Jim had helped them finger paint flower pots and then at school/daycare they had both made hand print gifts for me. So cute! Cade was really into Mother's Day this year because they talked about it a lot at school and worked really hard on their gifts. After church, we just hung out at home until dinner when we met my family for a hibachi feast. I really couldn't ask for a better weekend...a big thank you to my wonderful hubby for that!

30 Days of Thanks

During the month of November, many were posting the things they were thankful for on Facebook. I thought that was a great idea, but since I'm not one to use Facebook much, I am posting mine here...only it's 13 days late! ; ) What can I say? Life is busy!

Nov 1 – thankful for solo shopping trips
Nov 2 - thankful that I am busy at work (leary about this one, I was thankful for my job last year and look where it got me!; ))
Nov 3 - thankful for those who run for office and want to make our communities better
Nov 4 - thankful for keeping in touch with friends - old and new
Nov 5 – thankful for lunch dates with my hubby
Nov 6 – thankful for Survivor nights
Nov 7 – thankful for a good husband who is a great dad
Nov 8 – thankful for seasons
Nov 9 – thankful for good health care and the doctors and nurses that took care of Brecken during her hospital stay for croup
Nov 10 – thankful for our home, feels so, so good to be here after the stay at the hospital
Nov 11 – thankful for all the men and women who have and do protect our country and freedom by serving in the armed forces
Nov 12 – thankful for our little family and our ordinary life, even during the trying times
Nov 13 – thankful that my husband got to visit old football friends in Ames and that he made it home safely
Nov 14 – thankful for a Cyclone win and tailgating with great friends
Nov 15 – thankful for wonderful friends and family that came to help us celebrate Brecken’s 2nd Birthday
Nov 16 – thankful that I was able to use my mother-in-law’s cupcake recipe and make some unbelievably yummy cupcakes for Brecken to take to daycare for her birthday
Nov 17 – thankful that Cade didn’t cry at drop-off today
Nov 18 – thankful for occasional coffee drink stops
Nov 19 – thankful that I work part-time and could be with Brecken when she had a double ear infection and had to get her 2-year shots
Nov 20 – thankful for dinner and drinks with a dear friend who I don’t get to see near as often as I want to
Nov 21 – thankful that we took Cade to the eye doctor when we did
Nov 22 – thankful for emergency vet care so we didn’t lose Wrigley to mice poison
Nov 23 – thankful for reading bedtime books with Cade and falling asleep with him
Nov 24 – thankful for “stretch-your-belly” day at work…delicious breakfast and desserts
Nov 25 – thankful for lunch with Cade at his preschool where the kids helped make the meal, made table decorations, set the table, etc. So cute!
Nov 26 – thankful for my fun family that we spent Thanksgiving Day with!
Nov 27 - thankful that my mom and sister-in-law will go shopping on "Black Friday" with me
Nov 28 - thankful that we got to spend time with Jim's family for a delayed yummy soup Thanksgiving
Nov 29 - thankful that my dad and stepmom come up the first weekend of December every year to celebrate Christmas with us
Nov 30 – thankful that 11 years ago a couple of guys encouraged another guy to approach a girl and that he did! : )

How Do You Measure Your Love?

A fun site: http://iloveyoumorethanblank.com/

Mine would be: I love you more than making lists, white chocolate mochas, and Palmer's brownies.

Jim's would (probably) be: I love you more than Tiger Woods Golf for the Wii, Lost, and my thermos (that keeps my coffee hot for 24+ hrs).

Cade's would be: I love you more than Star Wars, chewing gum, and scissors.

Brecken's would be: I love you more than bath time, my pacifiers, and toilets.

How do you measure your love?

Happy Valentine's Day!!

December

The highlights of our December...

We counted down the days until Christmas!

I attended an Advent by Candlelight at my aunt's church...she invited 10 people and then has to decorate a table and serve dessert. We were entertained by choir, a band (with a clarinet, who knew anyone played after high school?), and bells. It was a nice, relaxing way to begin the holiday season. And the dessert was awesome...Italian wedding cake. How cute is her table?!

We had pictures taken with Julia and Lauren for Christmas gifts for grandparents and Brecken had her 1-Year pictures taken.

We celebrated our niece Julia's sixth birthday at her house and then to Pizza Ranch for dinner...we were babysitting Jim's little cousin Sarah, so she went with and the kids were WILD! Thank goodness for party rooms!

I took a day off to finish up my Christmas shopping...except I didn't finish. Accomplished a lot though and got to meet Jim for lunch at P.F. Chang's. Our first meal without children in quite some time! I lost my list half way through the day...that didn't help!

Jim had a night out with his Investment Club. They went to All Play downtown...it's a Chuck E. Cheese for adults basically.

Listened to lots of Christmas music (yes, I'm one that doesn't mind that it starts playing before Thanksgiving).

I had a "night out" to go watch my cousin Ali perform in the Nutcracker Ballet at the Hoyt Sherman Theater downtown. She was an angel and had a limited part, but she was awesome. Another little girl in her group fell down when she was running out onto the stage...twice! These are second graders, felt so bad for her, she was crying afterwards. Broke my heart! Afterwards we went out to dinner at Spaghetti Works with my mom, aunts, the Cases, Ali, and her friends. Jim and the kids stayed home with Grandpa Clark.

Had an early Christmas with my Dad & Celeste. While they were here, we went and saw Santa at the Winterfest here in town. It was freezing cold, but we waited in line for Santa. Cade told him he wanted a sled and a snowblower. I don't think Santa is going to deliver on the snowblower! Brecken sat on his lap, but was pretty emotionless. I personally, thought he looked a little scary! There was someone carving ice sculptures, cookies and cocoa at the community center, and horse & wagon rides. It's a really cute little celebration, but it was soooo cold.


We also got together with my aunt and her kids for dinner. My aunt made lutefisk (fish) and lefse (like tortillas, but Norwegian I guess?) like my grandparents used to. She went to a lot of work and it brought back memories of holidays spent with my grandparents. The best was taking the leftover lefse or potato cakes and putting butter and sugar on them...yum! My four cousins all live near us, but we really only see them once or twice a year. It's fun to see all of our kids together...the older boys (Steven, Nathan, and Alec) are so good with the younger kids (Cade, Brecken, Julia, Lauren, Olivia, Danika, Cale, and Lola)and Cade had a blast playing rough and doing what little boys do. He kept calling Alec, Alex but thought it was pretty cool that they had the same Puma shoes. Cale had a toy gun so I'm pretty sure Cade thought he was the coolest kid he'd ever met. Brecken was a little overwhelmed, but was happy to wander around exploring their house and take ornaments off their tree. Our contribution to the night was Swedish Meatballs...made mainly by Jim and my dad...they were delish too!


We attempted to get a good family photo...

We celebrated Christmas with my mom and Clark, my brother and family, and Clark's kids and families. We cut back this year, can't you tell?

Thumbs up Jer!

We drove through the Jolly Holiday Lights and stopped at Santa's Village at the end and visited him again...highly recommend this for seeing Santa...not much of a line at all and they have cookies, hot cocoa, etc. Cade asked "if Santa cut his beard because the last time we saw Santa he had a long, curly one."


We spent Christmas Eve at home which was a little weird but nice. Most of the day was spent preparing food. We decided that taking Brecken to church was just not the best idea, so just Jim and Cade went to the 3:30 mass. Cade did pretty good. We had an interesting dinner at home, the food was good, the behavior was not. I think Brecken ate before us and then Cade sat in time-out while we were eating...it was really peaceful and relaxing. ; ) We opened some presents that evening and then got ready for Santa by leaving cookies, milk, and carrots...Cade fell asleep watching "Cars" on our new ipod. I think his favorite gift was the "Star Wars" t-shirt...would wear it 24/7 if we would let him.

Brecken just could not keep her little hands off of the Christmas tree...we found ornaments strung about the house...I think she ended up breaking three and by the end of the season, our tree was only decorated on the upper half because every time she took one off, it got put up a little bit higher.

We woke Christmas morning to find that Santa had visited. It was really iffy there for awhile! He brought a Cabbage Patch Kid (named Nelda), a tent and tunnel (did he think we had room for that?), a sled, a wheelbarrow, and a Wii as a "family gift." : )

After playing for a bit, we headed to my mom and Clark's to celebrate Christmas with my mom's side of the family. We stayed there for a few days which is always fun because Cade loves it there and we can relax and kind of disconnect from everything at home. We ate, played a lot of games, and ate more. Seriously, we were like on the two-hour plan for eating.

My cousin Troy is a Husker fan so every year there is at least one or two "gifts" exchanged...one year it was a mug plastered with pictures of Cade in a Husker hat, this year my mom wrapped up 5 boxes of Cyclone Crunch for him.

Brecken was up to her ornament snatching at Grandma's too...

Cade got to try out his new sled...

We also had a chance to visit our friends, the Wilsons, and have dinner with them. Kaleigh made some delicious Cornish hens and made her famous Creme Brulee. Cade thought "the torch" was pretty cool!
Jim also had a chance to visit his grandparents. Grandma Eileen had knee replacement surgery right after Christmas so Jim took them some meals that we had prepared so they could have some easy dinners while she was recovering.
Our little Rudolphs...Sue helped the kids make these at daycare...such a cute idea! The reindeer antlers are their traced hands.

What a busy month! We loved every minute of it and can't wait 'til next (or this) year!

Merry Christmas...

Technically I'm posting this a little late, but hoping all had a Merry Christmas!



We love displaying holiday cards we receive from our friends and family so we can enjoy them throughout the holiday season. This year I decided to try making a card wreath that I saw on Shutterfly. I just didn't realize how many pictures I would be trying to fit onto the wreath! Because we had so many, I only used the photos we received and not all of the cards. And it's still growing as we received cards in the mail today. Mine really looks nothing like theirs and it's a little crooked, but it's still my favorite way we've displayed them so far.

Laughter & Noise

There are lives I can imagine without children but none of them have the same laughter & noise. ~ Brian Andreas