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!