March 2015 - Cabin Weekend with Friends

As you may remember me mentioning in years past, every so often, I get the chance to get together with a great bunch of friends from my college years and we even try to get away together on weekends and we head up to one of our friend's cabins! It's been awhile since we could all make it work, but this winter, we all found a weekend (and I had a quarterly weekend that I could take off, so it was perfect!) and we ventured to northern Wisconsin. Unfortunately, Michael was not able to get off of work, so I ventured with all 3 girls on a 6 hour road trip to the "Waterman Cabin".

 

 

While it sure isn't like it used to be at the cabin (I'll let you search through the archives and see previous posts about how it used to be), our cabin weekends now revolve around naptimes, and bedtimes and eating times and of course play times! Basically, the cabin weekend reflects our lives of all of our friends right now and revolves around kids! - though we did manage to get in an "adult" game or two and of course we always have great and memorable conversations: )

 

 All 4 families were able to make it (except Michael:( boo). And between the 4 families, we were entertained by 7 kids. My friends were AWESOME at helping me out and holding Charlye and taking care of the older girls being that I was flying solo. We even managed to get all the kids outside for a bit each day to enjoy the great outdoors!

 

 

And instead of all us adults getting out to go snowmobiling or engaging in an intense game of broom ball, we did a lot of pulling kids around in sleds (or driving them around as Scott did! They loved it!)

 

 

I'm so very grateful for these friends...Scott, Maggie, Suelynn, Aaron, and Scott and Betty (Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of them!). And I love that our kiddos can play together and we make it a point to continue to get together and grow in our friendships.

 

 

...until we see each other again:)

October 2014: Shout-out to some good friends!

The day after Halloween, we were fortunate enough to get together with some really great friends from College! We have all stayed in touch over the years, but find it more and more difficult to all get together with 3 of the families living in 3 different parts of Minnesota  (Rochester area, up north, and the cities) and one of the families living in Iowa (and before that it was Wisconsin). And with having our children all within a few years of each other, it's so much fun to get them all together and play and catch up right where we left off last time. Here's all our kiddo's:

And it just so happened that it was Blake & Sadie's Birthdays (Scott and Betty's kids) the day we got together and the day before, so we got an added bonus of celebrating an awesome 3 and 1 year old! 

And of course we couldn't pass up all the dads holding the kids and all the moms holding the kids. Classic pictures if I do say so myself :) 

When we get together with these friends, we are continually reminded how blessed we are that we have these people remain true and constant through all the craziness that life brings. We pick up as if we never left off, and can spend the entire day without getting bored or running out of things to talk about! Thank you Junkerts', Miles', and Watermans' for being such great friends! See you all next time (actually in December!). 

July 2014: A June Recap...

Here's a sort of "photo-dump" as to what we've been up to during June. All I can say is we are LOVIN' this summer stuff...

Bonfires and being outside in our bug-free yard (thanks to mosquito squad!! Best investment/splurge ever!!)

Working lots...hanging out with teenagers...getting a twins game in here and there, and helping out at Feed My Starving Children too (day trip to the cities!!) - and I even got to invite my nephew to join us for the day...

My cousin Abbie Graduated!!! We had a great time celebrating her at her grad party...and the kids loved the candy bar!!! I can't believe she's done with high school, and am so excited for her to start her new adventures at Iowa State!

We snuck in a beach day with some great friends for a long over-due playdate with all our babies!! So fun to all be together and be going through this time of life together too!! (Shout-out to SueLynn & Aaron for their super cute baby Eliana and Maggie & Scott for their super cute baby Hailey!!)

On Wednesday nights, my church holds worship outside at our "Maria Chapel" which is a tiny little old church that we still own. It also happens to be located on a gorgeous lake with lots of property, so our church takes advantage of that and we have outdoor worship on Wednesdays around a campfire with a hot dog & brat roast after worship. My girls LOVE sitting on a blanket for worship, and I LOVE the casualness of the time I get to spend with my congregation people! 

And our girls still LOVE going to "school" (aka daycare). Every day, Adelyn asks if she gets to go and is very excited when the answer is yes. They are only in daycare 3 days a week, but we are so blessed to have found a great center for them to be a part of where the staff are incredible with kids' developmental needs, play needs, and creativity needs!! 

(ok, so we may not have accomplished the writing thing at 2 years old...but we are working on it! She at least recognizes her letters!)

The girls made these cards at "school" too, and they pretty much sum up the dad (aka Michael) that he is! Happy Fathers day to Michael this past June also!! We had a very chill, but good day celebrating him!

Both Michael and my schedules are very different from our schedules during the school year, and because of that, we are able to take some days off here and there and enjoy some extra days off with our kiddo's (and not pay for day care those days! Score!!). We are DEFINITELY lovin' this summer stuff....

Hope you had a great June too!! 

April 2014: Happy 1st Birthday Olivya!!!

Well, it's official. Olivya turned 1!!! What a blessed and crazy year it has been.

The night before Olivya's birthday, we headed to the cities in anticipation of our Carmack/Texas family flying into Minneapolis to celebrate. After picking them up from the airport, we checked into a hotel for a long weekend, took a quick swim in the pool, and then headed to my parent's house for a birthday dinner for Olivya, complete with her first experience with an ice cream cake!

(I had to take it away for a second to slice her a piece so the rest of us could enjoy some cake too, and this is the reaction that I got...)

But she calmed down quickly and waiting in anticipation as she got her cake back...

Finally!! My cake!! Yum:) 

The Saturday after Olivya's birthday, we lucked out with a gorgeous day for her birthday party!!! We held her birthday party at Teddy Bear Park (and had a Teddy Bear Picnic)  in Stillwater, and it was a great day celebrating this wonderful girl...we were so blessed by our amazing friends and family who came out to celebrate...

After some great playing and enjoying good food and company, we realized that we forgot the candles at home!!! (You can't have a 1st birthday without the birthday cake experience)! So luckily, we have some pretty amazing friends who went on an adventure downtown Stillwater to find some candles and matches (thanks SueLynn & Aaron!!), so that we could all see how Olivya would react to her 1st birthday cake experience...

Contemplating...

Testing the cake...

...And going for the kill! 

Success!!!! Olivya fell asleep shortly after this cake experience, so of course Dada had to come to the rescue and help her out...

And Adelyn made sure to get her fair share too...

Happy 1st Birthday to this sweet, loving, cuddly, and determined little girl!! We love you Olivya and are so blessed to have you in our lives!!