our growing family

Our family is growing.  Come July we will be adding a little person to our family.  We are over the moon excited.

At this same time last year I knew that this would be our last year as a family of two people and two dogs.  I didn't know when (of course) as we had a lot to figure out in regards to getting ready for beginning this journey.  (Always the planner.)  There were lots of conversations to be had on long roadtrips.

At the end of October I did a pregnancy test after work and before going to get a haircut.  And another one a few days later to double check.  But it took a while for me to be certain that this was actually going to happen.  That this baby will stick.  All of our conversations on the topic included "if this baby sticks..." Thus came my current nickname from Dan of Sticky Bake Oven. 

This baby did indeed stick and is estimated to join our family July 7th.

{and if anyone that is friends with me on facebook reads this- please don't mention it there yet!  telling the boss next week!}

Grandma Sebaugh

I feel very fortunate to have known my Grandma Sebaugh.  She was a woman with a lot of spunk; she would say what she thought and giggled every time I saw her.  Grandma had a lot of energy and kept her house spotless.  I have so many memories from Christmas dinners at her house with her and Grandpa... every Christmas for 25+ years we went out there.  I believe she lived her life as she wanted it and I wish I had asked her tell me more stories from her life.  She had a very hard last last eight months of her life after her stroke and I am glad that she is no longer in pain.

Christmas at the Farm

This year we celebrated Christmas at the farm.  We had some of the worst weather in recent years for our drive out there; for a significant portion of the drive we were going 35 miles an hour.  But we made it. 

All of my siblings and their families were at the farm this year so there was a lot of catching up. We didn't take a ton of pictures as we were busy chatting.  My family always takes pictures in front of the tree... and for some reason they are always at the end of the night so everyone is a little wound up.  This wasn't the best picture (there is one that we are all looking at the camera) but this is a bit more true to the experience... someone is always hamming it up, a dog running through, a kid playing on the sidelines...

There was ham and turkey and mashed potatoes... And of course there were presents to be opened...

A couple days after Christmas, at the point where I start to get antsy about not being at my own home, we woke to find everything covered in frost.  After mom's waffles for breakfast it was time to get out of the house and go for a little drive through the country...

The drive gave Dan a chance to test out his new parka which kept him toasty warm... success! 

Ray had told Dan about some work they had done at his place since the last time we were here so Dan put in his request to make a stop at Ray's.

Where I spotted a decendend of Norman...

Norman was an orphan calf that we made something of a pet when kids, named after the City Slickers calf of course.

Dan was amazed at dad's snow blower...

We found our way to Charles City for a little walk. It was only seven degrees so it was definitely a petite walk.

And then we headed home. Taking with us a crummy cold that is basically the plague of colds. Which ended our years long streak of not getting sick.  Boo.

Grandma Irene

My grandma was an amazing woman.  I am very lucky to have had her as part of my life.  I have so many memories from the past thirty-something years that include her and I am so thankful for that.  May she rest in peace.

More time with these crazy kids

I wish we were able to spend more time with this family and their cutie-patootie kids.  But it was awesome to be able to get to hang out with them for the impromptu little visit last week... and to be able to play the aunt that pinches cute nephew cheeks on my birthday.

How can you not pinch these cheeks!?

It is kind of weird to be the type of family that is spread out across states.  It is sometimes a little hard that I won't easily be part of my nephews' birthday parties or able to drop off a batch of cookies for my brother or sisters.  Yeah, that part is kind of lame about the whole spread out family thing.  It makes even short little visits that much more awesome.

Memorial Day 2010

For Memorial Day we headed out Iowa to visit the farm. As always with these trips, we had the best of intentions for getting out immediately after work but hectic last minute to do lists inevitable lead to leaving a little later than is ideal for a six hour drive; at least this timing allows for us to catch the brilliant sunset over the hills in Galena... and then debate about the positioning of the big dipper and Venus.

Saturday was filled with late afternoon naps, those warmed-by-the-sun, several hours long kind of naps.  And a mother daughter walk along the river trail.

While there may not have been a kitchen sink, there was grilled pork burgers, watermelon, potato salad, and a Klondike bar or two. And as the new sink was set to be delivered on Tuesday, I bet my mom is doing a little dance to have a fully functioning kitchen after the many weeks without due to an unexpected backorder.

Dan played chaffeuer for my afternoon photo quest- we drove around in search of interesting material for me to practice photography.  Of course, a little brother with the inside scope lead to the most interesting spots... a house with a tree growing out the middle!? Yes, please.  Thanks, Ray!

The dogs might have had the most fun of all of us.  They had a weekend of being tethered-free... and they soaked it up big time.

 We even got to see a couple little baby calves...

And of course, it was pretty awesome to get to spend time with three of our nephews, it is always fun to see how much they change between the visits.

Valentines Day in the Countryside

It sounds rather romantic to say that we traveled to the countryside for a long weekend rather than just saying we visited family in Iowa.  We decided to take advantage of a three day weekend (thanks Presidents) to get a way from the city and spend some time with a few generations of family... 

It was so much fun to see one of the younger nephews who is just over a year old... he has changed so much and the word of the weekend was "Jeeeeez!"  It was also pretty awesome to get to see my grandparents, visiting with them was much easier without all of the holiday hoopla that is usually present when we visit. 

So our Valentines day celebration this year consided of making orange bowknots, hours of sitting at the kitchen table chatting, making brownies for valentines, family movie nights, and my dad making homemade french fries... it was an awesome weekend.

This was also a chance for Dan to see just how snowy it gets by midwinter in northern Iowa.  There was tons of snow drifts, it was so pretty.