2010

2010 Best List:
1. We got to see Bryan Adams in concert.
2. We planted grass and had a part of our lot that actually looked like a yard. It was a piece of heaven!
3. We got to spend lots of time kayaking.
4. My little brother got engaged to his soul mate. This makes us beyond happy!
5. We got to spend lots of time with both of our families.
6. We built our garage and have a warm place for our car this winter. We will never take it for granted again.
7. We brought home a stray cat who perfectly completed our furry family members. We love Albus!!
8. We spent our birthdays rocking out to some of our favorite bands.
9. We made our house into a home.
10. We got to spend Thanksgiving with some very special family in California.
11. Our business continues to grow and we couldn't be happier doing it.
12. We got to spend lots of time with friends making awesome memories.
13. We fell even deeper in love.
14. We grew closer to God and grew in our excitement to learn more about him.
Cheers to 2010 and here is wishing all of you the best year yet in 2011!!!

The Advent Calendar

My Grandma made every holiday extra special for us and I have so many amazing memories with her. As my hubby will tell you, I miss her every single day and especially during the holidays. One special tradition was her advent calendar that she made herself, including typing out all of the little cards for everyday that explain how the ornaments relate to our lives as Christians. It means so much to me that I now have this treasured piece of our tradition in my home. We think of Grandma Frances everytime we place an ornament on the tree. And I dream about the day that my children will light up with excitement when we take out the calendar for Christmas!

Christmas Traditions

I have always loved the Christmas Season. It is my favorite time of year and holds a very special place in my heart. I have so many great memories of the holidays. My parents and my Grandma Frances especially made holidays extra special for us. I am thankful for all of the traditions and memories they made with me that I cherish.
Growing up my mom would always make wrapping paper, Christmas cards, and gift tags with us using stamps. This is one tradition I really love and was excited to do again this year. My parents were here for the weekend and we had a great time making wrapping paper, sitting by the fire, and just spending time together.

Here are some pictures of our fun times and wrapping paper.

We hope you are enjoying this Christmas season and enjoying old traditions or making new traditions with the ones you love!!

Thanksgiving California Style

This year we were blessed to be able to travel to California for Thanksgiving with some of Max's side of the family. We got to spend the holiday with the Krug, Swisher, and Chao families and it was the best week. We had some interesting weather and experiences on the drive out that we will never forget and were glad to make it there safe on Tuesday evening. 

We spent the week hanging out, eating delicious food, wearing our awsome matching pjs, seeing Folsom and Sacaramento, exploring a train museum, checking out an apple orchard and christmas tree farm, and even had a family punt, pass, and kick competition. They all made us feel right at home and it was definitely hard to say goodbye on Sunday.

Here are some highlights from our awsome trip!

Fun at the Duck Pond

Rocking the aprons on Thanksgiving!

Another delicious dinner prepared by Aunt Debbie.

Have you ever seen anything cuter??

Punt, Pass, & Kick

Christmas Tree Farm

Folsom Prison

Thankful-Part 3

Today I am thankful for our Veterans and for freedom. I am thankful for the country that I live in and all of the freedoms that I take for granted every day. I am thankful for people like my Grandpas, my Dad, my brother, uncles, friends and way too many others to name who have made sacrafices for us and this country.

Here is a picture of my brother when he was stationed in Iraq in 2006. He was Special Forces and Airborn in the Army and is still in the Reserves. My Dad was in the Navy. My Grandpas were in the Army as well as my Uncle Jim. My other little brother from another mother, Jason is in the Airforce. Max's brother, Kyle was in the Airforce and Max's Grandpa was in the Army. I could go on and on about all of my other family and friends who have served or are currently serving our country. I am so thankful for all of you!

Happpy Veterans Day!!!!!

Happy Halloween

We had an extra fun time on Halloween this year. Randy and Brittany came to Parker for the day and we had a blast on the spookiest day of the year. We watched scary movies (and Hocus Pocus, of course), ate the traditional snake sandwich along with Randy's awsome chilli, carved pumpkins, handed out candy, and ate yummy caramel apples that Brittany made. We love the spookiest day of the year!!

Carving our pumpkins.

Randy working on the "owl" pumpkin.

The "snake"  sandwich. Filled with lots of meat and TONS of cheese!

Our pumpkins all ready for trick-or-treaters.

The amazing caramel apples!

Thankful-Part 2

Today we are so thankful for family. We are so blessed to have two amazing families that love and support us. We are thankful to live close to our parents and get to see them as often as we do. We are thankful that that when we do have children they will grow up near their grandparents and that they will be a huge part of their lives. We are thankful for our brothers and future sister-in-law. We love living so close to Randy and Brittany and having them be such a HUGE part of our lives.
We are thankful for our Grandmas, Aunts, Uncles, and cousins near and far. We are thankful to have every single one of you in our family. We are thankful for the times we get to share with all of you whether it is in person, on the phone, skyping, or catching up on a blog, email, or facebook.
Today we are especially thankful for the opportunity to go to California for Thanksgiving and spend time with some VERY special family members on the west coast. We are counting down the days till we get see all of you and make some very special memories.
We are both so thankful for growing up in and having loving families. We are also excited to adopt someday and give a home to a child who deserves to grow up in a family that is loving and supportive. We know that someday when we adopt all of you (our family) will be a huge part of our child's life and that they will feel so loved and blessed to be part of this family just as we do!

Thankful

We have SOO much to be thankful for and we take it all for granted so often. So we are going to follow the lead of one of our favorite bloggers and cousin, (Thanks Alane) and spend this month blogging about everything we have to be thankful for. We also want to find ways to give back to those around us as we remember all that we have to be thankful for this season.
Today I am so thankful for my husband. He is the an amazing man of God who puts others before himself, loves me unconditionally, and can make me laugh even when I want to cry. I could go on and on about the reasons I have to be thankful for him.
Today we are also so thankful for our home and the food on our table. Just today as we were reading about the local Union Gospel Mission I couldn't help but think of those who would give anything to have somewhere to call home or to know that they would definitely have food to eat that day. We have so much more than we need and I am reminded how thankful I am for this house that we call home and for the memories we have made and will make here. So today we are going to send a donation to the local mission which will provide meals and a place to stay for someone who needs it.
Thanks to Alane and her blog http://reapingaharvest.blogspot.com/ for motivating us to see how much we have to be thankful for. I am thankful for this desire to see how we can bless others while recognizing all the blessings we have in our lives everday!

I've got the Joy

Lately I spend A LOT of time thinking about how when we are finally blessed with children I will soak up every second of them. Every little thing. The way they look, smile, pout, laugh, cry, everything. The good days and the bad. And I know that this journey we have been on has made my heart so ready to be a mom that when we are having those awful days I will be able to stop and just be overly joyful and thankful for the fact that I am blessed to have children to have those days with.
I am just filled with joy at the thought of where this journey has taken us. I can't explain it to you other than that I know that this journey has been incredible so far (the good and the bad) and that I just know that when we see God's plan play out for us it will be so amazing we won't be able to contain our joy. Tonight my joy is extra strong! I don't know why but I guess it is just the thought that big things are ahead for us and the joy of all that we have had to be thankful for over the last 5 years of hoping to be parents. We have been so many places and done so many amazing things together. I couldn't be happier and I just know when we are blessed with children it will be *perfect* timing.
I'm so thankful for this unexplainable joy in my heart in a situation that could easily frustrate and upset us. I am thankful for faith and knowing that God knows the plan even if I don't! I've definitely got the joy!!

It's Done!!

Our garage is completely done. Can you believe it?? It has been done for a few weeks now and it is simply WONDERFUL!! We even got grass planted in the front and on the side of the garage where the grass got ripped up. Things are really coming together...FINALLY!

Max getting ready to plant some grass!

Personal Weakness

Life has been more than stressful lately for more than a few reasons and I had reached a place of deepest exhaustion both mentally and physically. Some of it came back to that same old struggle of me wanting to be able to control things, fix things, or understand things. While trying to relax tonight I decided to re-read  a book I read a couple years ago called "Grace Walk" by Steve McVey. God knew what he was doing when he put the longing to read this book in my heart tonight. There I was feeling exhausted, confused, and just frustrated asking God what his plan for me was in all of this chaos and what "I" needed to be doing. Feeling like I didn't have the strength to deal with anymore stress anymore. As I started to read the first page of the foreword  I was hit by the powerful truth that God's power shows up best in our personal weakness.
The world is desinged to wear down those of us who rely on our own strength instead of letting God work through us. I can not tell you how much relief I felt hearing that reminder. I don't need to be strong, I just need to let God work through me. The book goes on to explain how God will do more "through us" than we could ever do "for him".
Isn't it both amazing and a relief to know that God is perfect in our weakness? There I was dealing with more stress than I could have ever imagined possible and suddenly I felt less burdened than ever. God will work through me when I give up and give him control. And I have no reason to worry because God understands those things that my mind could never grasp and when I trust him and don't give in to stress and worry things always work themselves out in ways I never could have imagined. Sometimes we need these little reminders of things that seem pretty obvious when we step back and take in the word of God.
I am so thankful for the many blessings in my life and for the peace I have knowing that God has plans in the very worst scenarios and things will work out according to HIS plans.
If you are looking for a great book about grace check out Grace Walk by Steve McVey.
Here is a verse that I have been concentrating on tonight.
2 Corinthians 12:9 My grace is enough; it's all you need. My strength comes into its own in your weakness.

Happy Thoughts

It feels like the it has been a million years since we blogged about infertility. Life got so crazy the last year that it felt like everything in our little world stopped while the rest of the world just kept flying by. But there wasn't a single day that went by that we weren't thinking about babies. It seems like the "baby fever" has gotten especially worse lately if that is even possible. We have spent the last year going over IVF or adoption first, how will we afford either option, what is God's plan for us in all of this, and a million other things.
But more than anything my thoughts are mostly centered around things like how amazing it will be to see Max with our babies, how great it will feel to hold our baby for the first time, picturing our family growing in the house we have built, and things like that. The struggles make me realize how wonderful it will be when we do start our family and my mind likes to dwell on those happy thoughts.
We are so thankful for the peace we have in God's plan and so thankful for all of you who have been continually praying for us. We hope to be updating again soon on where this journey is taking us next!

On A Beach

7 years ago on August 16th two people left on a road trip to see the Ocean for the first time!

On August 18th they arrived in the tiny beach town of Netarts Bay, Oregon. And headed straight to the beach!

 And then the boy asked the girl to marry him and made her the happiest girl in the whole wide world....

And they lived happily ever after...

Progress

After a whole lot of flooding...

We are finally making progress...

 

On our garage!

River Vacation

Over the 4th of July we took a week off from work to relax and do nothing by the river. We spent the week, boating, kayaking, swimming, and just relaxing. It was wonderful. My mom's whole side of the family came for the week to so we got to spend time hanging out and catching up! Here are some pics from our week on the river.

My mom makes the best fried fish EVER!

Swimming in the river while boating!

Kayaking with Max in the trees

The boys grilling us dinner

RoCk BaNd!!!

Family Kick Ball

Blue

For our guest bathroom we went with a blue that I thought went perfectly with the shower curtain that I seriously LOVE. So here are some pics of the bathroom that we painted a few months ago. Better late than never right??

In Color

We FINALLY got some color goin on in this house and it is really starting to feel like home. We painted the kitchen and dining room this week and it looks great. I had the color picked out before the house was even built so it is great to finally see it all coming together. Here are some pics of the new color...notice the lovely pink color of the primer before we painted the red on in the heart pic!!

Winter vs. Summer Mollie

Mollie just got a her Spring/Summer haircut. Her long black locks just get to darn hot for her in the summer. So she goes to PetSmart for a day of pampering and comes back happy as can be.
Here is Winter Mollie with her fluff:

And here is the new Summer Mollie cool and ready for the pool:

And of course the grandparents are SURE she is too skinny and needs more treats...which makes for "Spoiled Mollie."

May is Here

May has been one of my favorite months ever since I was little. A lot of it probably has to due with the fact that my birthday is in May. But I have always loved this month for a BUNCH of reasons. Here are just a few of them:

1. My birthday (May 19th)

2. My hubby's birthday (May 14)

3. A whole BUNCH of birthdays. We have SO many special people that share May birthdays with us including one of our fave cousins Kelsey, and many Aunts and friends. So we have many reasons to celebrate.

4. Summer is right around the corner. I always loved May when I was younger because I knew warm weather was already here and hot weather was just around the corner. Meaning bring on the beach days!

6. Thursdays on the Beach. May usually marks the start of Beach Thursdays. In the summer we usually spend our Thursday afternoons on a beach somewhere with Max's mom. We started the tradition last summer and hopefully it will stick!

7. Gardens and Flowers. This is the month that the garden gets planted which means YUMMY food later in the summer and fall. And of course all of the flowers are blooming.

8. May is the month the back in 2002 that my huz brought me a McDonalds cheeseburger and shared it with me on the floor of our friends apartment building and I knew I was head over heels for him. :) And the rest is history...

These are just a few of the reasons I love this wonderful month of May!