OldFaced

Found a phone app called OldFaced. We had a good time with it. Schmidty even got in on the mix! :)

Bangs!

I decided it was time for a new look. So back to bangs it is!

Ta Da!

Dog Park

Our new favorite thing to do these days is go to the Battle Creek dog park. We absolutely love it and there! The park is 35 acres with hills, trails and ponds. Schmidty plays so well with the other dogs, especially his buddy Max, and it is so much fun to watch! It's funny how happy it makes me to see him happy. I can only imagine the satisfaction parent's feel when they see their children happy and playing with others. The weather has been absolutely beautiful the past week, too bad I took the pictures when there was still snow on the ground. :p Oh well!

The dog begging from Kristin in the photo on the top right is named Gus. He cracks us up. He can smell those treats from a mile away and he does not leave your side, He could care less about playing with the other dogs. 

March Birthday's

March is a busy time of year in our family. There are a lot of birthday's to celebrate.

First is Bobby's birthday which is on March 4th. I have to mention what Kristin did for him because it was really cool. She does not have a lot of money right now because she has been doing her internship for school for the past 8 months. She was trying to think of something that she could get him that would be meaningful and special without having to spend a lot of money. She decided to write 31 (this is how old he turned) reasons as to why she loves him so much and to put them in little boxes so that he could open them throughout the day and be reminded of how much she loves and cares for him. Too cute!

The next March birthday is Nico's. His birthday is on March 6th. This little guy is such a cutie, I mean seriously look at him!!! I'm not going to lie, I am always a bit saddened on my nephew's birthday's because I don't get to spend it with them but I am so unbelievably proud of the growing young boys that they are becoming. I just found out that Nico is going to be representing his school in a citywide swim contest. That is sooo awesome!! Go Nico and good luck buddy! 

The next March birthday is Tom's. His birthday is on March 19th. Tom has had an incredibly rough year. His cancer came back so he began chemotherapy again, which caused a variety of issues. He became very weak and got to the point where he could barely move at all and was basically paralyzed. He has been working very hard to get his strength back and has made a lot of progress in the past few months. Hopefully he will continue to make great strides and possibly even be able to walk again soon. Rooting for you Tom!

The next March birthday is Amy's. Her birthday is on March 21st. We all got together the following Sunday to celebrate at her new house, which is so beautiful!! I also got to go out for dinner with her and her family at PF Chang's on her actual birthday. I had been there once before but forgot how good it was! Yummo! After dinner I offered to take the girl's back to my house for a slumber party so Amy and Brian could get some alone time together (totally spur of the moment thing but worked out great). The next afternoon we met up with Amy and Jennie and went to Snuffy's, which was also extremely delicious. All in all it was a pretty awesome weekend, full of fun, great food and family! Amy claims I am trying to take over her role in the family as the planner and organizer of family events. Honestly, it would be near IMPOSSIBLE to measure up to the role she plays in this family so I would be crazy to even try :) 

 

The final birthday in March is Joe's, which is March 31st. He turned the big 30 this year! He of course did not want to do anything special to celebrate, as usual (total opposite of me). We spent the weekend laying pretty low. We went out to eat with Kristin and Bobby Saturday night and spent both days at the dog park, which has turned into our favorite thing to do lately. His birthday fell on a Monday so we obviously worked all day and I made him grilled cheese and tomato soup for dinner, his favorite :). He is a pretty easy guy to please and I love this SO much about him. Love you babe!!!

Then

Now

88 years young

On February 17th, 2014 my Grandma turned a whopping 88 years young! She is such an inspiration to all of us so we decided to celebrate this rare occasion by taking her to Cafe Latte for an afternoon tea party. The food was DELICIOUS! I plan to return very soon :).

We also celebrated at my Mom's house a couple of weeks ago and combined the celebration with my Mom's birthday since they are only a week apart. It was a great little get together, followed by a trip to Treasure Island Casino (a must on the madre's birthday). Nobody won but we still had a good time. Until next year ladies! 

2013 in a nutshell

2013 was a HUGE year for both myself and my family! There were so many important milestones and events that happened in people's lives so I really wanted to dedicate a post to compiling all of those memories.

June 2nd, 2013

I got my Master's Degree in Counseling and Psychological Services! I can not express how amazing it felt to get my Master's. There was sooo much work that went into this moment and what made it even more special was that I got to share it with one of my best friends!! I mean how cool is that?!?!

July 21st, 2013

10 year reunion!! Wow, is all I can say about this! Has it really been 10 years since high school? I feel like just yesterday I was cruising the halls at Como. It was actually really a depressing reunion because NOBODY showed up! There were probably 30 people there, out of our class of over 300 people. Not entirely sure why our class felt the need to boycott it but I did get to see a couple of gems that I have not seen in many many years. This is a special picture because it includes our childhood block, which was a very special crew indeed. Kristin was not happy we took the picture when she was in the bathroom. Whoops! :)

August 10th, 2013

This girl finished her first crocheted scarf! I am not entirely sure exactly what day I began learning how to crochet but this is the day that I finished my first product! I was proud of that sucker! I have to admit that I have not made anything since, but just knowing that I know how to make something if I wanted to is good enough for me. A big thanks goes out to my sister Kari for teaching me how to crochet. She was a great teacher, very patient, especially when the kids wanted to learn at the same time. :)

August 17th, 2013

This was the day my twin sister got ENGAGED!!! I still tear up just thinking about it! It was such an awesome proposal! Bobby told everyone that he was throwing a surprise party for her because her classes were ending and he knew how hard she had worked and wanted to celebrate her being able to have some free time again. It sounded like a legit reason to me so I was totally on board. Well, I started to get suspicious when I found out that he had invited all of her friends. Not that I wouldn't expect them to get an invite to her party but because he had kept it a secret from me. Then I found out that he had invited my Dad and Grandma. Now, I am not saying that my Granny can't party her pants off or that my Dad doesn't deserve to be invited but it just kept getting more and more interesting. To top it off Bobby was taking her to go get her nails done, dead give away right!?! Wrong! I am not going to lie, I wasn't 100% sure until it actually happened in front of my eyes (not that I could really see anything anyways because I was crying so hard). I am so happy for them and can not wait until Bobby joins our family this August! 

September 7th, 2013

Jennie's bachelorette party! It was Jennie's last night celebrating her single days so of course that alone is a special moment, but what made it an extra special night is that this is the moment we found out that my sister Kari was going to be coming home for her wedding! Jennie had always wanted a fall wedding. She loves the temperatures, the fall colors, her birthday is in the fall...all of these things make it a special time of year for her so why wouldn't she want to add her wedding anniversary to it?! Well, she faced a lot of difficulties in choosing the date for her wedding. There were problems with Tom's brother not being sure when he would be able to be a part of it because of his crazy hockey schedule and she knew that her sister would not be able to be there because she is not home from Ecuador during this time of year. In the end her and Tom had compromised on September 21st, which seemed to still meet Jennie's fall standards and worked with Tom's brother's schedule. Unfortunately, she knew that Kari, Andy and the boys would not be home for it. Having a sister, a brother-in-law and nephew's that live in Ecuador is not the most ideal situation when trying to plan important dates and events. We miss out on so many of the special moments in their lives and vice versa. I think we have all developed a thick skin with this because we know that it is inevitable, but that doesn't mean it doesn't sting a little harder each and every time it happens. So you can only imagine our excitement when we found out that Kari was going to be able to come home for the wedding! I remember the moment like it was yesterday. We had just sat down to eat dinner and I was cruising facebook on my phone, just passing the time before our food arrived, when I came across a post from Andresee saying "Merry Christmas Jennie and Kari, add another steak dinner to the count please", with a picture of a boarding pass from Quito to Minneapolis attached. I had to read it two or three times before I was able to register it and the tears came INSTANTLY. I immediately told Jennie to look at facebook. She looked so worried and was like "why!?", because she could already see that I was getting emotional. As soon as she saw it she instantly joined me in my tears! I showed Amy and Kristin and they joined the cry fest! It was a really really special moment that we all got to share together (I am sure the rest of the girls thought we were nuts but we didn't care). Way to go Andresee, you seriously saved the day!!! 

September 21st, 2013

My sister got married!!! They had such a beautiful wedding and I was so honored that I got to be a part of it! Jennie did not have the best time planning and preparing for the wedding, but I am sure as soon as she saw it all come together all the sweat, blood and tears were WORTH IT! I don't think they could have asked for a more beautiful day. Everything went great and her pictures turned out FANTASTIC! Congrats you two! Welcome to the family Tommy boy! :)

October 12th, 2013

Schmidty joined the family!!! I never want to forget this moment, EVER. I had been wanting to get a dog for a long long time but there were several things that were keeping me from doing it. I knew that Joe did not want one so I worried about how this decision would affect our relationship. I wondered if I could financially afford one because I knew that dogs were EXPENSIVE. Also, would I have enough time for him? Well, although I never really had an answer to any of these questions I decided to take a leap of faith and boy did it pay off! Meet Schmidty! He is so special to me and I could not imagine my life without him anymore. He is such a sweet boy and adds so much excitement and fun to our household. Oh, and Joe of course loves him... I mean look at that face, how could he not?! ;)

November 8th, 2013

My sister sold her house!!! As excited as I am to see their new house and create new memories, I can't deny that their old house will be missed. I went to visit Amy a couple of days before they had to move out and as soon as I entered the house the water works started. I think Amy was a little surprised to see me get emotional about it, and I surprised myself as well, but we shared a lot of good memories in that house and I knew I was going to miss it. Goodbye Rivere Ln! I hope the new owner's enjoy it as much as we did!

Well, that is 2013 in a

                                         

                                 Can't wait to see what 2014 has in store for me!

Choosing my blog name

So I decided to give in and start a blog. My sister's have been blogging for several years and I absolutely love reading their posts. I am so jealous that they have spent the time to document their lives! Just the other day we were at my Grandma's having lunch with her for her 88th birthday and Amy, Hannah and I sat down and read some of Amy's posts from her 2012 blog book. We had such a good time reminiscing on things Amy had wrote about. Hannah could not stop cracking up at all the stories about her sister Hailey and how she would pronounce certain words when she was younger. Her favorite was "Piney Timey" (Hailey's version of "Once upon a time"). Honestly, would anyone have ever remembered that if Amy hadn't documented it! I figured someday I would begin a blog, but thought I would wait until I had children so I had something to actually blog about. Well this past October we welcomed Schmidty into the family and I decided it is time to start, fur children count right?! ;p

Choosing my blog name was tough! I wanted something that would capture my sense of humor and personality but would also be meaningful. I think Joe Dirt captures all of these things in just five words! Life's a garden. Dig it!