CHRISTMAS!

Christmas was FABULOUS! Matthew had sooo much fun and got everything he wanted from Santa (which wasn't much)... he wanted a "REAL HOCKEY STICK"! Santa came through and even added in a pair of REAL HOCKEY GLOVES! He was so sweet... I wish I could have captured it on video but my mom dropped the camera last night and broke it :( I was able to use her camera to get photos this morning, but no video.... such a bummer. Oh well accidents happen! Christmas eve was spent with my family... had a birthday party for Jesus... the kids decorated cupcakes, we sang happy b-day and my mom read the Christmas story. The little ones think it is fun because they get the bring the characters forward when it is time. The older ones complain but deep down they love it too. All 20 of us went to mass which is ALWAYS a production... Matthew and Ava were fighting over her new doll... we were all crammed into one pew and practically sitting on top of each other! These are the things that we will look back on and laugh about. Griffin had the honor of playing Joseph in the Christmas story and Grace played a shepherd... she wasn't too thrilled with that honor! But they both looked adorable! Christmas Day was spent with most of the Schwieger clan.... it was a great day, super relaxing! We ate all day long and watched Mama Mia and just hung out. The kids played pretty well together, except when Matthew gave his sweet cousin Lauren a large welt on the side of her face. Fighting over toys of course! Ben has off for the rest of the week and most of next week too! We are very excited to plan some fun outings! His sister and her family are coming up from Iowa on New Year's Eve... so we will have lots going on next week too!

Hope that you all had a great Christmas and made some good memories! Much love to you all!

Here is Matthew with his REAL hockey stick!

And the gloves...

And his very cool Gopher hockey hat!

Skating again!

Matthew has his 2nd experience on the ice... this went much better than the first time. He was so excited... he didn't want to leave. We took him out last weekend when it was almost 40 degrees, so he wasn't freezing! There is a video clip below with him showing off his skills and poor grammar! :) Don't mind my obnoxious commentary! :) I don't know who was more excited, Ben and I or Matthew! :) I left shortly after taking this video and he and Ben stayed for awhile longer... Ben said by the time they left, he was skating on his own with no chair. So cute!! We were baby-sitting my nephew Lukey for the weekend so he was with us and so much fun... Matthew loved pushing him on the chair! And Lukey loved to ride!

SKATING!!

As most of you know, my 2 year old is OBSESSED with hockey! He wears his skates around the house and is in love with them! So Ben and my dad brought him to try out his skates on the ICE! It was FREEZING last night, so of course he didn't last too long. But he had fun for the 5 minutes he was there. I am so sad that I missed it! :( But I had to laugh because my dad and Ben got all bundled up in their snow pants, jackets, etc and they were there for literally 5 minutes! It took them longer to get ready to go there than it did to actually skate! So cute! :) They skated at the rink across from my brother's house... so my sister in law took the photo! Thanks Mary!!

As you look at the photo those of you who know Ben well will be wondering what he is wearing. My husband is not much of an outdoorsmen... he doesn't do the hunting or fishing thing... he isn't into Nascar or snowmobiling... but the garb he is wearing would say differently, right? Ben's boss is really into snowmobiling... so he asked Ben to go with him on a weekend snowmobiling trip in January to the UP of Michigan! Ben said of course he would like to go. His boss then came back to the office with all the gear that Ben will need! :) He was pretty excited! You should see the helmet he has! Bright red!! Matthew loves to wear it. I will take a picture and post it soon! So that explains Ben in his Ski-Doo gear! I love it!!

You will also notice that my dad is wearing BLAZE orange! That "get-up" is about 30 years old... Gotta love it!

Cookie Baking

Well as you all know, we are shacking up with my parents. This weekend 2 of my nieces spent the night and we did some cookie baking. They enjoyed cutting out the cookies but got bored with decorating, so I ended up doing most of it. Then they talked my mom into giving them pedicures! So funny!! I wonder if I will turn into a push-over when I am a grandma? My mom does whatever they want... it's sweet! We had a super nice relaxing weekend!! On Friday Kristin and I brought the kids to see Santa... PURE COMEDY! Matthew did great at first... we had a little chat with Santa while we waited for the photographer and Matthew told Santa that he wanted a REAL hockey stick and told him about Jesus' manger and that if he was good he got to put hay in it and on and on... So it comes time for the photo when he had to SIT on his lap and he flipped out and was screaming and trying to get down! So funny! Then my sister's kids were next, just the younger 2... Ava is 4 and Luke is 19 mos.... they looked at Santa and started to FREAK! The photos are totally hilarious!! LOVE IT! So after we tortured them with Santa we let them go on the carousel at the mall... they loved it! Then on Friday night, I went out to dinner with Meredith and Sara to celebrate Mer's bday. Then Mer and I braved the bad roads and came here and had a slumber party! It was so much fun! Yesterday we went to a hockey game for my nephew and then the girls came over so we just stayed in. And today, we went to church and then I made chili and some beer bread and even got to nap on the couch for an hour! It truly was the perfect weekend!! Oh, last week at daycare the kids made paper chains to count down the days to Christmas... Matthew has his own tree in the basement so he and MeeMee and Papa put it on his tree... pretty cute! You'll see photos below.

SO proud of his tree...

Here we are on the carousel after the Santa incident...

MeeMee and the girls rolling the dough...

Me and my cookies!

And last but not least... MeeMee's nail salon.. notice Matthew looking on wonderin what the heck is going on!

Thanksgiving 2008

We got up early on Thankgiving morning and were out the door by 6:45am to pick up Ben's mom and head to Des Moines, Iowa to Ben's sister's house for Thanksgiving! We had a great time even though the 3 of us were all sick, yes, sick again!! It was a small group, Ben's youngest sister Ashley and her fam were going to head down but their daughter Kennedy had the stomach flu... poor thing! So it was just us and the Oakes' and Todd's parents. We had an awesome Thanksgiving meal, turkey AND ham, mashed potatoes, Ben's mom's AWESOME stuffing, cranberries, corn casserole, sweet potatoes, broccoli salad and my favorite... rolls with ORANGE butter! It was the best thing I have ever had! And little Suzi homemaker Bridgit, made the best pumpkin swirl cheesecake! I ate myself sick! It was a great day! Then Friday morning we hit the sales! I got some SWEET deals at Kohls, tons of their toys were 50% off! SCORE! We also celebrated Carson's 4th b-day at Chuck E Cheese! It was so much fun as always. I won 80 tickets on the Deal or No Deal game... my case had the highest #! WooHoo!! Not sure who had more fun, the adults or the kids! :) We also played some board games... the game of Life as well as the Horse Racing game which was a blast!! Then we headed home on Saturday afternoon! It was a quick trip but a ton of fun! Hope you all had a fabulous Thanksgiving as well!! I will leave you with some photos of our fun!

Here is the gang at the table!

Todd & Calvin at Chuck E Cheese...

Ben & Matthew shooting hoops!

Bridgit & Carson playing skee ball (my personal favorite!)

Carson's pizza was really hot, so he is blowing on it! So funny! Also, please note the gorgeous sketch of my son & I!

The Schwieger Family!

Happy Birthday Carson!! Check out that SWEET cake!

Matthew on the ride home... eating a cheeseburger, watching Caillou and kicking back!

Ali's Shower

My mom and I threw a baby shower for Ali Cain on Saturday! It was so much fun! Ali and I have been friends since birth and she is one of my favorite people! I love her to pieces! She grew up next door to us but moved to ND when she was 4... our families have remained friends! Ali and I would always spend a week together in the summer and were even penpals! She came back her for college so we got to see each other more often! Now she is married to a great guy and they have a baby on the way. Ali is due on January 14th! We are so excited for her! We always have so much fun when we get together! Here are some pics from the shower!







L to R: Lynda (Ali's mom), Holly (Ali's sister), Me, Ali and my mom!



Me and Ali (aka Oopie!) showing off some cute stuffed animals she got!

Ali posing with her cake...

Mom with Ali and I

Some of the girls chatting as Ali was opening her gifts!

Denver Pics

Here are some pics from our Denver trip, sorry I am delayed in posting! Busy week!!

This is Fraz with her mom and Abby and Sophia! So cute!
And the last 2 are of cute little Sophia! I miss that new little bambino!! :)

Denver

It has been awhile since I have posted! I have been so incredibly busy! I don't think it will slow down until after the holidays! UGH! I had such a fun weekend! I went with Meredith (one of the BFFs) out to Denver to see one of our other BFFs, Amy! She recently had a new baby so we had to go visit! She has a 20 month Abby and a 4 week old, Sophia! They are SOOOO cute! I will add some photos tomorrow. It was so so so good to get some "girl time" in. I don't get that enough and it is amazing how much it "fills up my tank". I met these girls at Bethel (along with our friend Stacy, who completed the foursome), 12 years ago and we have been best friends ever since. Stacy wasn't with us this weekend and we missed her :( But , we were marveling at all that we have been through and how we truly know each other inside and out! We can pick up right where we left off. Of course we had lots of laughs and some tears were definitely shed. It is sad that we don't get to see more of each other. I am so blessed to have such close friend even if we have lots of miles between us. Thank God for cell phones and free long distance calls!!! :)

Being around a newborn has given me major baby fever!!!! I am so ready for #2!! Little Sophia was so sweet and LOVED to be held... I was more than happy to do that! :) I think I spent most of the weekend with her in my arms! there is nothing better than a new baby! And Abby is quite possibly the sweetest little girl! She has got the best personality and is so agreeable!! She is talking a ton. I even taught her a few words... "shut up"... sorry Amy! And to make up for it... "love you". It was so sweet! I miss the girls already, but was so ready to get home to my little monster. I think I missed him more than he missed me! He was pretty sad on Friday and we had some tears on the phone. But he was fine after that. He and Daddy spent the weekend with Grandma Jackie and Ashley and Jordan and their kids... so he had lot of fun people to keep him occupied! It had been awhile since I was away from him for that long. I thought I would love the break but I missed him a ton!! He is my little buddy! He had such a hard time going to daycare today. I felt so bad leaving him! Poor little guy!

My parents have been in Cabo for almost 2 weeks and they get back on Wednesday!! YAY! I miss them a ton and am so ready for them to get home! YAY! My mom and I are having a baby shower for my friend Ali so we will spend the rest of the week getting ready for that! I can't wait! It will be so fun!

Well enough of me rambling! Hope you all are doing well! I will add some photos tomorrow. I don't have my USB to upload my photos :(

Aaahhh...massage...

So earlier in the week Ben asked me if I wanted to have a date night and of course I said yes but told him he had to plan it... I get sick of planning. So he planned the PERFECT date night! He made appts for us at Spalon to get massages! HEAVENLY!! It was an hour of pure and utter bliss. I did not want it to end and would like to go back for another one TODAY! We picked up Matthew at his mom's house after the massage and put him to bed. Ben got some great steaks and we had a late dinner... it was so great! Thanks honey! I appreciate it more than you will ever know! What a great night!

Today we hit up the MOA and thought it would be a quick trip, Matthew could go on a few rides, we'd have lunch and head home. Not so much. It's the holiday shopping season apparently. It was complete chaos there. I vowed I will not go back until after Christmas. It took forever to park and we went on 3 rides in an hour and half... that is how long the lines were. We will be shopping at Southdale from now on!! UGH!

Our Future Olympian!

I am so proud to say that my sweet god-daughter and niece Grace is a star gymnast! We went to her meet today and although she has already qualified for state in a previous meet, she earned the highest honor in today's meet... a blue ribbon! She averaged 9 out of 10 on all her events, which does NOT happen often, only 5 girls out of at least 100 got blue ribbons! It was SOOO fun to watch her kick some butt! She is in the youngest bracket of the level 5 gymnasts and wins her age group every time! I can totally brag about her because he is not my daughter! :) Most of our family was there to cheer her on today! Her mom says that the more people that come to watch her... the better she does! YAY Gracie!

Here she is as they all marched in. She is the shortest, so she is in the front of the line up!
Here she is in action! She was warming up... no flash photography during the actual competition.

Here she is with the trophy. He gymnastics center won 3rd overall, and because she got the high score, they told her to take it home for the weekend! She was so excited!

We went out to lunch after the meet and had to celebrate with ice cream of course!!

Halloween 2008

Needless to say Halloween was a blast! Matthew had so much fun trick or treating and hanging out with his cousins. Here is our little hockey player! He loved every minute of it and I am enjoying all of the candy!! :)


Matthew with his favorite cousin, Kennedy!

The paper...

So Matthew's latest is that he loves the Sports page of the newspaper. Now that we are living with my parents, in the morning when he gets up he has to go and see Papa and read the paper with him to see the hockey players. He is a little bit of a freak! But it is pretty funny. This morning we were rushing so he didn't have time to read with Papa but he still found time to "read" it while eating his breakfast. As you can imagine, Matthew will be a hockey player for Halloween tonight! I will post more pics this weekend! So far things are going well with my parents. They haven't given us the boot yet! I think they are enjoying having Matthew around! They aren't here much, always on the go and so are we. So it is working out quite nice. They leave on Wed. for a 2 week Cabo vacation :( Lucky dogs! So we will be home along. I'm sure they are anxious for the break! :)

Here he is showing me the hockey players, he said that HE was the goalie pictured on the front page of the sports section... maybe someday!?

This was yesterday afternoon, he was sitting there all by himself and I tried to sneak up on him and he got mad at me. So cute! He also thinks that it is fun to ride his scooter when he wakes up. Not for long though. Brrr!

And one more just because! :) Happy Halloween!!

Moving...

So sorry that I have been absent! We are finally moved into my parents and settled. It has been a bit of an adjustment for Matthew. He was sick all weekend with a fever and a little cold. My mom had him all day on Friday and kept him overnight while Ben and I packed and moved stuff over to their house. Matthew was definitely out of sorts and freaked out when my sister and her kids came to my parents on Saturday morning while we were moving the last of our stuff. He was super territorial and was not being nice to his cousins... lots of crying. Then he came down with a fever on Sunday. So it was a LONG stressful weekend. Last night he was up in the middle of the night for an hour and a half. Unfortunately, I think it will just take him some time to get used to all of this change. But Ben and I are settled and are also getting used to having roommates. I'm sure it is a huge adjustment for my parents as well, so much for enjoying retirement! HA! They leave for Mexico in a few weeks and I think they will be happy to have 2 weeks of peace and quiet. My mom has been cooking up a storm and I think that we have all gained at least 5 pounds with her awesome meals and treats! Every night is a great dinner and awesome dessert! We are getting on a schedule where I have to cook on Wed and Thurs and she will cook on Monday and Tuesday and we will wing it for the rest of the week. It truly is weird to be living with my parents again! But it is kid of fun! AND did I mention my DVR withdrawal?? Mom and Dad have 2 big screen TVs, (which is so fun), HD cable and all that good stuff but no DVR. I am sorry to say that I have to choose between Brother & Sister and Army Wives, this week Army Wives lost... I'm sorry girls! It has been tough, but I am doing OK! :) HAHA!It is actually a good thing. I am realizing how addicted to TV I was... SO pathetic! We don't have cable in our room yet either! Now that we are settled here, we have to get back to the condo and do some major cleaning for Ben's mom. That will be our project this weekend! Fun stuff!

Anyway, I have no pictures to post as of now. I will post some later this week. I haven't gotten my laptop hooked up to the internet, another project for me to deal with! :) Hope everyone is well!!

Happy Birthday and Apple Picking!

We had another fun, but very eventful, weekend! Friday night we hit up the apple orchard with the Ehmkes. There is a really small one with a petting zoo in Hastings. It is never super busy but it's really cute! We go there every year! So fun! I added some pics below. Then we spent all day Saturday packing up and moving boxes to storage which was quite challenging with a 2 year old! We finally sent him to MeeMee and Papa's for a nap and got lots done! We took 2 big trips out to the storage place. I feel much better than I did about this move. I think we are pretty organized! This Saturday we will move the rest and be out of the condo and into my parents! UGH! After a long day of moving, we took Ben's mom out for her b-day dinner! Tomorrow is her actual birthday. We went to Macaroni Grill with Ash and Jordan and the kids and then back to have cake! It was a great night!

My mom, Stacy, Kristin, Mary and I used to get together to make apple pies every fall. We haven't done it for awhile but when we were at the orchard on Friday, Kristin and I decided we should do it this year. So we loaded up on apples and made 13 pies today!! It was really fun! We each had a little station and made an assembly line! We had one for dessert and it was quite good! I didn't take any pics though :(

So I am wiped!!! But back to work tomorrow!!

Here is Grandma Jackie with Matthew and Kennedy and the cake! :)
Matthew chowing on an apple... how about the view behind him!!

Here is Matthew chucking apples! Had to take a picture before reprimanding him :) Heehee!

Posing for mommy!

Matthew thinks that he needs to hold Lukey riding in the wagon. He likes to hold him, like he's a baby... Luke actually weighs more than him! HA! :)

Update on living situation...

For those of you that do not know... we will be moving next weekend! I wish I could say that we bought a great new house but that isn't the case. My parents are being nice enough to let us shack up with them for awhile. Ben's mom will be renting our condo and eventually she will buy it from us. In the meantime we will be paying off debt and saving for a house! Thankfully my parents have lots of room, so hopefully we can stay out of their way! So that is the latest from us!

I'm a single mom...

My hubby left me for Vegas! Isn't that terrible? Thankfully Ben RARELY travels for work. Except for today... he went to a glass convention in Las Vegas... sounds like fun, huh? He is only gone until Tuesday, but we miss him already. He left this afternoon and gets home LATE on Tuesday night. So we won't see him until Wednesday. It is so weird, but I can count on one hand (maybe 2) the number of nights we have been apart... I don't like it when he is gone! I do miss him and can't wait for him to come home!

We had a great weekend! Friday night we didn't do a thing, just hung out at home and rented Mad Money, with Diane Keaton, Queen Latifah and Katie Holmes. It was OK, but kind of dumb! Then on Saturday, Matthew and Ben went with my dad to store the boat for the winter... how depressing! UGH! While they were gone, I packed up a bunch of Matthew's toys that he doesn't play with and cleaned the entire house! It is amazing what you can get done with no interruptions! Saturday night we celebrated sweet Charlie's first b-day and of course I forgot my camera! :( The Oakes (Ben's sister and her family) came up from Iowa for the party and stayed with us. It was a quick visit, but always fun to see them! And today, Ash and her fam and Jackie came over and I made brunch for everyone! I love having people over! And then we just enjoyed the dreary day and hung out! I am sick, so it was so nice to not do much! Then Ben left and Matthew and I napped and headed over to MeeMee and Papas for dinner with Michael, Mary and the kids! And here I am, ready to crawl into bed at 8:15!

One more exciting thing!! Grace had another gymnastics meet and this was a qualifier for state and... SHE QUALIFIED!! We are so proud of her! She is a little star!! This was only her 2nd meet EVER! The first one was not a qualifier but her scores would have qualified! So she is going to state in Dec!! YAY Gracie girl!! :) I will take some pics at her next meet and post them... they don't allow flash photography so maybe I will add in a video clip!?

Anyway, hope all of you are well! XOXO
Sarah

Another post!

I know, 2 posts in one day! WOW! I thought that I had already done a post on this but I was dreaming! Anyway, last Sunday my bro in law Kyle turned 40! Kristin had a party for him on Saturday night. We had so much fun! it's always good to see their friends! Below are some pics from a fun night! Ben was with me but I have no pics of him :( Sorry honey!

Here is the b-day boy with GDM DOMA shirt! Gotta love the GDM! Mary made it for him.

Me and my mommy!Me and my sissy!

Mike and Kim

Me, Mary and Kim

The GDM and his pretty wife Krissy!

Good times had by all!