My Favorites of the Week

As you can see and probably guessed, my favorite pictures of the week involved only Elyse and my precious niece, Chloe. Elyse just wanted to do everything with Chloe; such things included, taking baths together, holding her, feeding her, burping her, singing to her, reading to her, and we can't forget the constant monitoring of Chloe's paci. Everyone kept saying how she really is going to be one amazing sister and big helper. So much that I might not be able to leave the room because Elyse will probably pick up her brother and put him somewhere else. With that being said, here are just a few pictures and videos that prove what I mean.

A Full House

For the past four days Nate and I had the opportunity to fill our house with people we love. This included, my brother, sister-in-law, and their beautiful and precious daughter. My uncle and aunt who drove up from Nebraska, my mom, stepdad and my stepbrother. We spent the entire time inside playing games, eating, watching football and playing with the two girls. Even though it got loud and crazy sometimes, I wouldn't trade it for anything. I LOVE having my house full of people, especially over the holidays. Nate, Elyse and I really had a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. Thank you all for coming and spending the holidays with us! We love and miss you already.

Below are just a few good pictures. My favorites are still yet to come!
(picture above really gets me excited for our family pic of four soon)

Thankful For

Thanksgiving is a holiday that tends to be focused on either football, shopping the next day and/or food, instead of thanks. As I am typing that thought, I realized there is so many things I am thankful for, these are just a few...
-Jesus Christ who loves me and sacrificed His life for my sins
-An amazing, patient, leading and handsome husband that I don't ever want to be apart from
-A perfect, beautiful and precious daughter that I love unconditionally
-A little son that will soon be placed in my arms
-A supportive and loving family that's there whenever needed
-Friends that I consider family
-Good health for myself and those around me
-My house that will forever be a home
-Being able to do my dream job everyday
-Laughter, something I just don't do enough of
-Having four seasons, even if the winter season came a little faster than normal this year (coldest Thanksgiving in 21 years)

I could go on and on, but since that perfect, beautiful and precious daughter of mine is calling my name, I am going to go get my everyday morning hugs from her that I am so thankful for.

Wishing you all a HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Boxes of Love

Last night Nate and I joined the rest of our bible study to serve at Boxes of Love in downtown Minneapolis (HLIC). If you have not heard of Boxes of Love, it's a Christian run service project which involves boxing up food in order to provide food for the homeless/needy for the holidays. The goal for us last night was to complete 500 boxes in an hour; but with our group's dedication and determination, plus having a lot of people there, we were done in less than 30 minutes. We all were saying how we almost spent more time in the car, than serving. We really would have enjoyed packing up a few more since we were down there. It's always great to serve, but even more fun when you do it with friends.
Back row: Tom, Nate, Joren, Jill, Angela, Sarah, and Nick
Front row: Natalie, Kristi, Kris, Stephanie and Jeremiah
Not pictured, but did serve: Jenny and Ryan

Well, since we were done early and were childless for the evening, what did us adults do? We all went back to Tom and Jenny's for drinks, desserts, laughter and some game playing. Great way to end our night, that's for sure!

Special thanks to our group for stepping up and serving last night. We had a wonderful time and hope you did too. Also, to my mom for watching Elyse so Nate and I could get out and have some grown up fun.

Proud to Represent

Elyse was super proud and happy tonight running around in her CATERPILLAR sweatshirt. It's not yellow, but she still knows what the CAT logo is and what it represents, her Dada. In her words, "Yeah, Dada makes those!"

Coupon Using

For the last few months I have really been getting into using coupons. I ordered the Sunday paper, I weekly print out coupons and am a devoted Target coupon printer. It's perfect when something is on sale, and then on top of that, you use a Target and Manufacturer coupon! I am learning to get many free things, like deodorant, medicine, lotion and even food. The reason I now have decided to do a post on coupon shopping is because of the picture below...

So all the items in the the picture represents things I would have bought and totals $110.53 if nothing was on sale and no coupon was used. The total I spent today was $32.93, I saved $77.60, 70%!!!! I know people spend $0 or $10 on bills, but for me this was a great buy. In fact, the Buffet Warmer/Serving Tray is normally priced at $49.99 alone.

Anyway, I don't think I will do many if any more posts on using coupons and I am not trying to boast in this post if that is what it appears like. All I am trying to get across is that anyone can coupon shop if I can do it. Even a little saved helps; on average I usually only save between $25-$35 a week.

If you have any suggestions or coupon comments that you think are useful, I would love to hear them.

Enjoying the Snow

Since we never made it outside yesterday we took full advantage of going out this morning. Elyse LOVED it, she was walking all over the place, wrestling with Nate, playing on her slide and of course, eating the snow. Her smiles really did make the 7.7 inches of white stuff on our ground a joyful thing.

White Thanksgiving?

Woke up to this. Weather forecast is estimating 7-9 inches by tonight.


I know it's beautiful, and actually makes me want to go decorate for Christmas, but really, we haven't even had Thanksgiving. Needless to say we have spent our morning inside the house. Elyse has had a smile on her face all morning and keeps saying, "Baby brother here it's winter time". That's because we have told her snow means winter and winter means brother. Oops, should have figured snow would make its appearance early this year. Anyway, hopefully it will stop snowing so we can go out and play after nap.

Not A Typical Thursday Night

A typical Thursday night for Nate and I includes, dinner, playing or reading books with Elyse, tucking her into bed and vegging out on the couch while watching television. Last night involved non of the sorts. That's because, I joined my good friends and headed to the city to enjoy our annual (I know it's just the second year, but I have a feeling this tradition will not die) fondue desserts at The Melting Pot. We spent the night talking, eating wonderful food and laughing a lot. While the men headed over to our house for some good male bonding time. Meaning they spent much of the night interacting with the kiddos or getting in some video game playing. Overall, tonight involved two totally different ways Nate and I spent our evening, but yet, we both went to bed saying, "What a blast tonight was!"

The ladies: Stephanie, Angela, Jill, Kelly, Kristi, Nicole and Jenny
(We did miss you Sarah.)

The gentlemen and kiddos: Nate, Elyse, Tom, Aiden, Joren, Seth, Mariana, Jeremiah and Dieter. Not pictured, but did attend, Nick

We LOVE our friends from church and feel so blessed. Thank you all for a great and perfect Thursday evening.

Boy or Girl?

The 3-D ultrasound of our SON, looking strong and healthy.

Making Her Wish List

Due to time change and Elyse being set in routine (I know, like her Mama) we were up earlier than normal this morning. Therefore, Elyse thought she would take sometime and read her section of the newspaper ads, the toy ads, and lucky for us, there were much more than normal this weekend.


Speaking of toys, I have come up with a list of somethings I think Elyse may really enjoy. Problem is I feel like toys for two year olds are limited. Therefore, if you have any great suggestions, I would love to hear them!

SOS Need More Good Books

Every week Elyse and I go to the library to check out new books. I LOVE that she enjoys being read to so much. I never object spending time sitting together and reading. I often even catch her reading to herself. The book in the video is Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson. I don't know what it is about this book that brings her so much joy, maybe the simple pictures, the creative story line or the book is thick and small, but for this week, it ranks #1.


My friend Jenny posted this once and I thought it was a great idea. To list some of Elyse and my favorite children's books and then have you comment listing some of yours. There are many wonderful books out there that I often have not heard of. So would you please take a moment and let me know some of yours or your child's favorites?!?!

Here are just a few of our favorites:
-Bear's New Friend (and other Bear books) by Karma Wilson
-Maisy Goes to the Library (and other Maisy books)by Lucy Cousins
-Tiny Baby Jesus by Dandi Daley Mackall
-Fancy Nancy books by Jane O'Connor
-Llama Llama Red Pajama by Anna Dewdney
-If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Joffee Numeroff
-I'll Always Love You by Robert Munsch
-In Case You Ever Wonder by Max Lucado
-Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see? by Bill Martin, Jr.
-The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister
-Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn
-Hugs and Kisses by Christophe Loupi
-Corduroy by Don Freeman
-There's An Alligator Under My Bed by Mercer Mayer
-Olivia series by Ian Falconer
-Curious George series by Hans Augusto Rey

Mini Picasso

Elyse received a paint set from her Nana and Papa for Halloween. She has spent many hours painting pictures. She really doesn't ever get tired of drawing, coloring or painting. I don't foreseeing her having any trouble not getting an "A" in art class while in school.