As I always do - here is this years family photo and then those from the previous years. It is crazy to see how different we are and how much the kids grow from year to year.
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| Easter 2011 |
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| 2010 |
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| 2009 |
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| 2008 |
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| 2007 |
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| 2006 |
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Easter Fun
I really do try to stay on top of all my mommy duties, but Easter this year got the better of me. I realized when we were home in Minnesota after seeing decorations out at Dan's parents house that I hadn't even taken any of dug any of mine out yet. What the heck was I doing? I still didn't get to it for a couple of days after we had been home and Easter was coming the next weekend. Finally I dug out the box and found some decorations and the Easter baskets. My daycare ended up being closed most of the week after we got back from our trip so I had to take a day off of work and stay home with the kids. This was truly my live saver that day. I got some of my laundry done, unloaded the rest of our suitcases and attempted to put my house back in order. I took Junior to get his haircut that morning and we stopped at Target to pick up Easter outfits for the kids. Whew - I was starting to worry about when I was going to get this all done. 
Saturday we all went out to get groceries, eggs, a coloring kit and I still needed a dress for church too. Dan wanted me to wear one of my dresses already had and I said no. We always have a family Easter picture taken and I wasn't going to wear a dress I had already worn in one. I said I would be quick in the dress store so the entire family went in. I wanted Dan to help me decide what to get. Unfortunately, him and Junior did not last long in the store and they only had 4 dresses in my size for me to even try on (what the hell?!) I found a dress and then since Dan wasn't in there I grabbed a new necklace and earrings too!
We dyed Easter eggs that afternoon after Junior woke up from his nap. The kids loved it. Katelynn took her time to decorate her eggs and made sure she had one special egg for the Easter bunny. The kids went to bed good that night, but woke up extremely early. The first thing in the morning out of Junior's mouth was - candy?
The Easter bunny hid both kids baskets this year and they had a ton of fun looking for them. Of course they indulged in way too much sugar at 6am, but what the heck, it was a special day. We got ready and headed to meet my aunt and uncle for church. Festivities were fun for Easter and we always love hanging out and visiting.
Here are our pictures from Easter.
April in Minnesota - Day 4 - Last Day
The day after a wedding weekend is usually set aside for resting and re-cooperating, however, when its your last day home and its a short visit this doesn't happen.
Tired and probably not looking to hot to trot after a 2 day binge with my high school friends little did I know that my dad had invited my grandparents, including my great grandma - who is 100 years old, to come out to see me, Dan, and the kids. My mom is busy already in the kitchen preparing a ton of stuff for lunch, the kids are out with grandpa, and I am trying to sleep on the couch (this was not successful). All of the sudden here comes a car pulling up the driveway and it's my grandparents. I had to get up and attempt to compose myself and be sociable, which I did. They visited and got to see the kids which was a good thing. My brother and his family also arrived soon after. We did some visiting and ate lunch and then my grandparents left.
I had planned a few fun things for the day. I had my brother stop and pick up the Wii game, Dance Moves 2 so that we could have some fun. First we played outside with the kids since it was also relatively nice out even though it had snowed just 2 days before. We got out our 4-wheeler and tied a sled to it and the guys gave rides to the kids. It was great to see my kids get to play with their cousins. This is one of the things that I have guilt over for moving so far away. I spent so much time with my cousins they are really more like brothers and sisters to me and I have taken that opportunity away from my children (at least right now). They all played so good together. We rounded up the crew to go inside and start dancing. It was hilarious! I made my dad dance against me first. We put it on random and the first song that came up was "Jump, Jump". This has got to be one of the most tiring songs and most active. To see my dad doing these dance moves cracked us all up. We all needed to take a little break for the dancing, because let's face it - we are all getting old! We headed outside where Dan had set-up a target for us to do some shooting. We brought home my pink 9mm handgun so that I could shoot it a couple more times. Dan shot first and then me and then the rest of us all took a shot. I was trying to have a shoot out with my brother, but I think he probably was a better shot then me. Back into the house we went to eat supper and do a little more dancing. Everyone was heading out and it time for me to start packing bags and getting ready for the morning and the long, unforgiving drive back to Colorado. Before I knew it, it was already 10:30pm and I was just heading to bed. With a little help from a little sleeping pill I finally fell asleep for some much needed rest. I set the alarm for 5:00am. Of course when the alarm started going off and I tried to wake up Dan it was a big no go, snooze, snooze and after multiple times I finally re-set the alarm for 7am. Seven rolled around and we still didn't get out of bed until closer to eight. We finally were on the road for the long 14 hour drive home. Here comes the hard part, always - saying good-bye and leaving. My dad and mom stood in the garage and watched us back out. My dad as usual takes off into the house to have his own time to I assume be sad. My mom tries to hold back tears and it never happens. Katelynn then also starts to get extremely emotional this trip and grandma has to come to her window and say good-bye again and then Katelynn starts to cry and then my mom starts to cry. This breaks my heart more than you can imagine and I have my own regrets and guilts more and more each time we leave, especially when we don't have a scheduled date of when we will see them again. We have gone a year before without going home and its getting to the point where I want to be home at least every 3 months. We didn't end up pulling up to our house until 12:30am. Dan and I were completely wiped out. We unloaded the kids to their beds and unloaded the stuff we needed. Working the next day was not going to be fun.
This was one of the quickest, but most fun trips I have had home. I wanted to turn around and go back and do it all over again. There is something to be said for friends that you haven't seen or talked to for months at a time (and a few of them years) and you pick up just like you never left.
Here are some pictures from our last day home.
Tired and probably not looking to hot to trot after a 2 day binge with my high school friends little did I know that my dad had invited my grandparents, including my great grandma - who is 100 years old, to come out to see me, Dan, and the kids. My mom is busy already in the kitchen preparing a ton of stuff for lunch, the kids are out with grandpa, and I am trying to sleep on the couch (this was not successful). All of the sudden here comes a car pulling up the driveway and it's my grandparents. I had to get up and attempt to compose myself and be sociable, which I did. They visited and got to see the kids which was a good thing. My brother and his family also arrived soon after. We did some visiting and ate lunch and then my grandparents left.
I had planned a few fun things for the day. I had my brother stop and pick up the Wii game, Dance Moves 2 so that we could have some fun. First we played outside with the kids since it was also relatively nice out even though it had snowed just 2 days before. We got out our 4-wheeler and tied a sled to it and the guys gave rides to the kids. It was great to see my kids get to play with their cousins. This is one of the things that I have guilt over for moving so far away. I spent so much time with my cousins they are really more like brothers and sisters to me and I have taken that opportunity away from my children (at least right now). They all played so good together. We rounded up the crew to go inside and start dancing. It was hilarious! I made my dad dance against me first. We put it on random and the first song that came up was "Jump, Jump". This has got to be one of the most tiring songs and most active. To see my dad doing these dance moves cracked us all up. We all needed to take a little break for the dancing, because let's face it - we are all getting old! We headed outside where Dan had set-up a target for us to do some shooting. We brought home my pink 9mm handgun so that I could shoot it a couple more times. Dan shot first and then me and then the rest of us all took a shot. I was trying to have a shoot out with my brother, but I think he probably was a better shot then me. Back into the house we went to eat supper and do a little more dancing. Everyone was heading out and it time for me to start packing bags and getting ready for the morning and the long, unforgiving drive back to Colorado. Before I knew it, it was already 10:30pm and I was just heading to bed. With a little help from a little sleeping pill I finally fell asleep for some much needed rest. I set the alarm for 5:00am. Of course when the alarm started going off and I tried to wake up Dan it was a big no go, snooze, snooze and after multiple times I finally re-set the alarm for 7am. Seven rolled around and we still didn't get out of bed until closer to eight. We finally were on the road for the long 14 hour drive home. Here comes the hard part, always - saying good-bye and leaving. My dad and mom stood in the garage and watched us back out. My dad as usual takes off into the house to have his own time to I assume be sad. My mom tries to hold back tears and it never happens. Katelynn then also starts to get extremely emotional this trip and grandma has to come to her window and say good-bye again and then Katelynn starts to cry and then my mom starts to cry. This breaks my heart more than you can imagine and I have my own regrets and guilts more and more each time we leave, especially when we don't have a scheduled date of when we will see them again. We have gone a year before without going home and its getting to the point where I want to be home at least every 3 months. We didn't end up pulling up to our house until 12:30am. Dan and I were completely wiped out. We unloaded the kids to their beds and unloaded the stuff we needed. Working the next day was not going to be fun.
This was one of the quickest, but most fun trips I have had home. I wanted to turn around and go back and do it all over again. There is something to be said for friends that you haven't seen or talked to for months at a time (and a few of them years) and you pick up just like you never left.
Here are some pictures from our last day home.
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| Junior and Riley |
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| A little Wii dance competition |
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| Nap time for the boys - how sweet. |
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| Katelynn and Junior getting a ride. |
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| My nephew Greyson. |
Thursday, April 28, 2011
April in Minnesota - Day 3 - Wedding Day
The day of the wedding! Let me tell you after staying up late the night before and probably having a few too many drinks it was not easy getting up at 7:30am. It didn't help either that my dad decided to get me back by coming and jumping on me at 7:00am to get me back for the night before. Yes, we are ruthless that way too each other. I had to be at the church by 9am to get my hair done and I was determined not too be the one showing up late. I was definitely slow moving, but made it to the church on time. What do I find - no one?! I see that all of the curling irons where plugged in and hot and ready to go and someone had brought some breakfast in for us, but no one around. I sat there for a little while and then walked around the church and still didn't see anybody. All I could think of was, I could have slept a little bit longer - what the hell - and where are the 6 other bridesmaids and the bride? I sent a text to the bride and she responded that she was on her way, she only lived a block away. Slow but sure the other girls all started to trickle in as well. We were supposed to have 2 people there to do all of hair. One being the personal attendant and a friend of our from high school and the other the bride's niece.
Is any wedding a good wedding without a little stress? Well, here is where ours started. The bride's niece hadn't shown up yet and we gave her a call. She asked what time we thought she needed to be there to do hair and we said that we were told to be there at 9am, it was now 9:45am (keep in mind she lives about 45 minutes away from where the church is). She said okay. The bride gets her hair done and starts on the flower girls hair. At this point it's around 11:00am or so and the rest of us are just kind of sitting around, waiting. The stress is starting to set in - where is she? They give her a call again and she has not left her house yet. At this point there are 7 of us that still need to get our hair done and pictures are at 1pm and we start to freak out a little bit. I felt so bad for Verna, she really didn't need the stress. We start plugging in additional irons and hot rollers where we could find outlets by mirrors and start curling hair. Some of us were also supposed to get our make-up done by her, but definitely no time for that. A mad rush to start our own make-up as well. A couple girls were able to do their own hair and help those of us not as capable (I was one of those). Her niece finally showed up around 12:15 and said she was ready to help out. She ended up curling one bridesmaids hair and the rest of us were ready. Thank goodness we got through that ordeal. Pictures started and we took a bunch of pictures at the church. We then jumped into vehicles and drove around to miscellaneous locations in our old town to take some pictures, which turned out beautifully. I had some dress malfunctions with my dress. I didn't take it in to get fitted because I thought that by buying this miracle bra from Victoria Secret and using some body tape would take care of the upper half situation and it didn't. The top of my dress just didn't fit well and they were strapless. You could see part of my bra from the top if I bent over and it felt like it was falling down. I finally had someone put pins in each side to tighten it up and it worked for the most part, at least good enough. Stupid me, I should have went in and had it altered, lesson learned on strapless dresses!
Here are a few pictures of us getting beautified and before the wedding.
The wedding party jumped into the limo and the champagne bottles were popped! We had such a blast and the excitement was coming out of all of us, let the party begin! We of course love to road trip so we toasted and drank. Because the reception was in another town and we had to go through 2 other towns to get there we stopped at a few bars along the way as well. It was fun to walk into a place all dressed up and especially to see the looks on people's faces when they saw Verna and how beautiful she was in her dress. We eventually did make it to the reception! We walked in when we were announced and proceeded with the normal reception activities. Pictures, toasts, drinks, and speeches and clinking of the glasses.
Of course after the Reception is every Minnesotans favorite part of a wedding - The Dance! The usual dances were done - 1st dance, dollar dance, the garter toss, etc., etc. We had such a fun time. We want to do it all over again. Katelynn wanted only to come to the dance portion of the wedding so my mom was great enough to drive over to the hotel and get her. She was in love with Verna. She was the princess of the night. She stayed and danced with us for about an hour and then went back to the hotel. Any good dance also has to have an after party. We went to the hotel room and I changed out of my dress (remember - malfunction!) and we headed around the hotel listening for the loudest room because that is where my friends would be. We found them of course and soaked up suds until 3:30am and Dan finally said "enough"! and hauled me back to our room for some much needed rest.
Morning of course came quickly and thank goodness there were 3 grandparents around to help take care of kids. We packed up and headed down for some much needed breakfast and ice water and headed back to my parents house. Whew what an adventure. I want to do it all over again. (After I recover for a week).
Is any wedding a good wedding without a little stress? Well, here is where ours started. The bride's niece hadn't shown up yet and we gave her a call. She asked what time we thought she needed to be there to do hair and we said that we were told to be there at 9am, it was now 9:45am (keep in mind she lives about 45 minutes away from where the church is). She said okay. The bride gets her hair done and starts on the flower girls hair. At this point it's around 11:00am or so and the rest of us are just kind of sitting around, waiting. The stress is starting to set in - where is she? They give her a call again and she has not left her house yet. At this point there are 7 of us that still need to get our hair done and pictures are at 1pm and we start to freak out a little bit. I felt so bad for Verna, she really didn't need the stress. We start plugging in additional irons and hot rollers where we could find outlets by mirrors and start curling hair. Some of us were also supposed to get our make-up done by her, but definitely no time for that. A mad rush to start our own make-up as well. A couple girls were able to do their own hair and help those of us not as capable (I was one of those). Her niece finally showed up around 12:15 and said she was ready to help out. She ended up curling one bridesmaids hair and the rest of us were ready. Thank goodness we got through that ordeal. Pictures started and we took a bunch of pictures at the church. We then jumped into vehicles and drove around to miscellaneous locations in our old town to take some pictures, which turned out beautifully. I had some dress malfunctions with my dress. I didn't take it in to get fitted because I thought that by buying this miracle bra from Victoria Secret and using some body tape would take care of the upper half situation and it didn't. The top of my dress just didn't fit well and they were strapless. You could see part of my bra from the top if I bent over and it felt like it was falling down. I finally had someone put pins in each side to tighten it up and it worked for the most part, at least good enough. Stupid me, I should have went in and had it altered, lesson learned on strapless dresses!
Here are a few pictures of us getting beautified and before the wedding.
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| The bride to be! |
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| Verna and her daughter. |
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| Me and Verna |
Whew, we made it through the morning and through pictures. Now it was time to wait for the guests and get ready for the ceremony. Time went by fairly quickly at this point and the ceremony went off without a hitch. The reception was in another town about 30-40 minutes away so they had a limo truck pick up the wedding party and we were off. We took a few pictures after the ceremony.
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| I now pronounce Cory and Verna M. ! |
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| Dan and I |
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| Our ride awaits us |
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| And so do a few beers and the guys. |
The wedding party jumped into the limo and the champagne bottles were popped! We had such a blast and the excitement was coming out of all of us, let the party begin! We of course love to road trip so we toasted and drank. Because the reception was in another town and we had to go through 2 other towns to get there we stopped at a few bars along the way as well. It was fun to walk into a place all dressed up and especially to see the looks on people's faces when they saw Verna and how beautiful she was in her dress. We eventually did make it to the reception! We walked in when we were announced and proceeded with the normal reception activities. Pictures, toasts, drinks, and speeches and clinking of the glasses.
Of course after the Reception is every Minnesotans favorite part of a wedding - The Dance! The usual dances were done - 1st dance, dollar dance, the garter toss, etc., etc. We had such a fun time. We want to do it all over again. Katelynn wanted only to come to the dance portion of the wedding so my mom was great enough to drive over to the hotel and get her. She was in love with Verna. She was the princess of the night. She stayed and danced with us for about an hour and then went back to the hotel. Any good dance also has to have an after party. We went to the hotel room and I changed out of my dress (remember - malfunction!) and we headed around the hotel listening for the loudest room because that is where my friends would be. We found them of course and soaked up suds until 3:30am and Dan finally said "enough"! and hauled me back to our room for some much needed rest.
Morning of course came quickly and thank goodness there were 3 grandparents around to help take care of kids. We packed up and headed down for some much needed breakfast and ice water and headed back to my parents house. Whew what an adventure. I want to do it all over again. (After I recover for a week).
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| My dad and his girls - he was so happy! |
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| Me and my mom |
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| Me and Katelynn on the dance floor. |
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| Verna and my mom. |
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