FAther's Day 2015

My Dad's Name is? Daddy

My Dad is ? years old? 50 1/2

My Dad weights ? pounds? fifty dollars

My Daddy's job is? work and teach people about God

My Daddy laughs when ? when I say funny jokes

My Dad likes to do this in his free time? play with me

My Daddy is really good at? work and making me laugh

My favorite meal my Daddy makes is? chicken and mac n cheese and bagels

My Dad always says? jokes and I love you Svea and Kieran

My favorite thing to do with my Daddy is? play tag with him

I love my Dad because? because he makes jokes and he looks funny when he takes off his glasses and he's smart

My Daddy loves me because? because I make accidents some times and he still loves me and I'm very special

Happy Father's Day Dan.  We love you and are so thankful that you are so good and amazing with our two kids!  They are so lucky to have a Dad like you.

A couple more fun questions!

What is Dad's favorite color? blue

Dad is smart because? he is a big guy

Dad's hair is? shaving

What is your favorite summer thing to do with Dad? go to the park

Mission Trip Complete

 Thunder Bay was a hit!  Dan said it was THE best Youth Works experience on the books and he's been to thirteen of them.  The work was great, the kids were awesome, spending time with his brother was fun, and even the food was the best he's had so far:)

 He had lots of stories to share when he got home and is still pumped up about some of the experiences.  These two pictures just about sums it up how much fun they had!  He said our kids were great, but Stuart's kids from his church were just awesome people and he was so impressed with them all.  I'm so happy it was a great experience!!!  We got to skype with Dad twice while he was away and the first time Svea told him she wanted him to come here.  I think she wanted a hug.  Thank goodness for skype since we couldn't talk on the phone or text. I could text him, but he couldn't text back, but we could facebook message.  Anyway...creative communication.

 I was so thankful we went to Jamestown for the duration of Dad's time away.  We had a great and relaxing time in North Dakota.  My Mom and Step-Dad help me out SO much with the kids and I am able to sneak away and go on a walk here and there with an old friend or run to Wal-mart for supplies alone.  An old classmate of mine, Megan, lives a couple doors down and one night after putting the baby to bed I hopped out the door and we walked the half a block to the park and did the loop twice, which is a mile around one time.  I should have took a picture of the park.  It's my favorite one in Jamestown.

Anyway, we ate WAY too much ice cream, cookies, and snacks, but they all tasted so good.  We swam in the backyard, went on walks to the park to play, visited the buffalo (of course), finger painted in our underwear and diaper (the kids:), and had quality dinners and time together.  In this picture Svea had found a puddle from the sprinkler and said on top of giggles and squeals, "This is so much fun....come in here with me"! 

Thank you to Larry and Darcy (our neighbors) and Jackie/Kayla for taking care of our animals and mowing! Thank you Gaga and Grandpa Ron for having us and putting up with our mess for a whole week.  We loved making memories with you!!!  Thank you for keeping me sane while Dan was away.  I'll never stay home alone when Dan is gone on a long trip ever again.  This was 100% easier than two years ago!

While away Kieran walked for the first time!  He took two steps and was waving bye!  More to come.....

It's Mission Trip Season....

.....and that means Dad is off on an adventure!  This year Dan is headed to Thunder Bay Canada with a group of students and adults from our church. He'll be gone the 18th-26th and so will we.  Two years ago I stayed home on my own with an 8 month old and by the time Dan got home I was talking to the walls...only they didn't talk back.  I am headed back to ND with the kids so we all don't get too lonely without Daddy at home:) It also keeps me sane so I'm not doing everything on my own for that many days in a row.

Dan gets to join up with his brother Stuart again this year.  It's been two years since they've gone somewhere together and I know Dan is excited. We won't have any contact with him for basically the whole time so I'll be sure to take lots of pictures and update him when he gets home.  Praying they all have a great trip!

Bathroom Reno

Dan has developed a new hobby since moving to Minnesota almost four years ago.....it's remodeling projects.  Not only does it help with the value of our house, but it's better than hunting! At least to me it is!  It may cost just as much, but at least he's at home and not playing with guns and gone more than he already has to be.  The most dangerous things have gotten is the time he cut himself with an exacto knife, but only needed a band-aide.  I won't incriminate him and say "where" he needed to get that band-aide from.  Ha!  Anyway, about three months ago I wrote about my Step-Dad, Ron, coming out to help with a closet for our little boy, take a shower stall out of our bathroom, and help Dan fix up our bathroom a bit.  Here are the pictures of the final project!  He may be a perfectionist and it takes him a long time to finish, but it always turns out VERY nice! 

 Tile flooring with in-floor heat!  Thank you come winter time!

 Dan tiled this shower, which used to only be a tub so we can use it exclusively now.  The old disgusting stand-up shower was removed.  You know the one that when you walked around in it you almost felt like you were going to fall through the floor?

New counter top!

We are SO close to finishing the little boy's bedroom.  As soon as we are done I will post pictures of that and how the closet turned out for him! It may be extremely small, but he's finally got his own space!

Daddy's Excursion

 Daddy is going on a trip to the boundary waters for a few days with some men and teenagers from the church. Mommy and Svea are staying home, but since it's so close to when I went into labor with Svea, my Mom is here to help out and be available in the off chance that what happened last time happens again.  If I were to have this little guy when I had Svea it would only be a week and a half from today!  That scares me SO much!  Dan will most likely be off the radar so hopefully he'll arrive home this coming Thursday with our baby boy still in my belly!  Svea has been wanting to wear my hats when I have another one on too.  "Bi-ya's hat", she says, and points to it for us to get it for her.  I think we were on our way to go on a walk when these pictures took place.

We love you Daddy......be safe and don't stand up in any canoes!

Random Moments (Birthday Recap)

My husband is still only 6.5 years older than me, but for some reason he said this birthday it's hit him that he feels old and much older than me.  I think it's just the fact that I'm huge and pregnant and I'm still running circles around him!  Ha! Totally kidding sweetie:)  Father's day night we had a huge storm and the tornado sirens went off right after we'd laid Svea down for the night.  We had the best time, however, snuggling together downstairs on the couch in the pitch dark (Svea stayed sleeping).  We whispered and watched the weather radar on our phones.  With a baby on your shoulder and your husband right next to you, it can't get much better than that!  These pictures are from a few days ago when we tried painting the sidewalk again. She loves this!  Dan's birthday recap below:)

 -We had a great day on Monday for Dan's birthday.  It is the little things such as just being together that make a day special.  I was giving Dan a big hug after he woke up that morning and Svea came over and gave us both a hug too. I love how loving she is...hopefully she gets it from us right?

 -We tried making a gluten free cake with a can of diet cherry coke (yep, that's it) and it turned out REALLY good.  I couldn't tell the difference between that and a cake with eggs, oil, and water.  Less calories...yeah! I will never follow the box again!

-We also had Dan's infamous barbecue chicken pizza (gluten free of course) and it was amazing!  I'm sure it's something to do with those caramelized onions:)  We both had quite a few days of eating like crazy, but we are back on www.myfitnesspal.com  Did I tell you Dan looks so good and his pants are fitting better.  I keep getting bigger though...I don't get it:) Happy Birthday sweetie!  You don't appear any older!  With his birthday money Dan is going to purchase a large tool and organizer type thingy for the garage.  I couldn't be happier that he wants to organize our garage.  I love organizing!

Happy 4th Anniversary (Dec. 28th)

Four years married and five years together have gone by so incredibly fast. I look back at all we've been through in these last years and it makes me proud. Dan asked me the other day what was the highlight of our past year and almost 90% of it involved raising our little girl. That is by far the one thing we are most proud of. It's been an amazing year, bumpy at times, while we figured out our parenting roles and responsibilities, but I fell more in love with my husband watching him as a Dad. Happy anniversary sweetie! We had the best of intentions of heading out to dinner on the exact date and it was even a surprise for me, but I wasn't feeling very well so we didn't make it out. We were disappointed, but plan on making up for it soon!

Daddy's Installation Service

Dan was installed today as Senior Pastor at our church!  Instead of a big thing we just had a low key coffee hour and they served bacon for Dan, which I think they thought it was one of his favorite foods and I thought there must be some inside joke that I was missing.  Turns out, it's one of his favorite foods and I didn't know.  Probably because I never cook for him.  Sorry sweetie:)  Here is Svea in her Sunday dress today. I LOVE this one!  She's also having a good time by the bookshelf where she can now pull out her own books and toys.  Meeko is pretty entertaining as well!

 My mom is here as well.  Dan is leaving today for a conference and will be gone until Wednesday night.  I have parent teacher conferences and have to stay at work until 6:30 each night.  There would be no way for me to get her from daycare to home with a babysitter so thankfully my mom took a few days off of work.  This way she won't go all day without being with someone she knows. We are both going to miss her this week;(  Makes me sad...I hate conferences!

 

Dan and Stuart on a Mission Trip

I got this picture yesterday from Stuart!  Dan and him are on a mission trip with students from both of their churches in South Dakota.  They are doing a couple of "fun" things for the first two days and then they'll be at the Pine Ridge Reservation to do some mission work!  Before Svea I remember Megan always talks about these weeks with Stuart being gone and how she cant' wait until he gets back.  I kind of understood, but now I really do with a baby.  My mom is here to help until tomorrow and then it's on my own until next Friday!  Svea and I will have fun though...just not as much without Daddy:)

Happy Birthday/Happy First Father's Day!

Happy Birthday and Father's Day to my wonderful husband.  I couldn't have asked for a better partner in parenting than you.  You are all hands on, loving, and nurturing to our little girl.  She is absolutely in love with you!  Happy Birthday and Happy First Father's Day!

 Daddy and Svea after church today! 

 Just hanging out with my sippy cup.......but, I can't get any water........

oh, thank you Daddy!

Dad's Bald Head

Dan received this book from a congregation member last week!   Quite fiitting:)

Dan's New Painting

And he's finished with our little girl's painting for her room! I love how abstract and modern it is. It matches her bubble wall, which I'll eventually post pictures on here as well. I love having a husband who is so talented in this area:) Beautiful piece sweetie! Thank you for creating something special for her!

Why I Love My Husband

-when he orders shrimp he gives me his shrimp butts to eat (in my world this is a thoughtful gesture for which my cousin Josh makes endless fun of me)
-when I want to play DDR he'll come down to the extremely cold basement to make sure it's working correctly
-he doesn't complain when I go to bed before he does bringing Meeko with me to snuggle, making him take on the job of putting him in the basement
-he gets fiesty with me when I come home and tell insane stories about work
-he randomly brings noodles and company home for me from st. cloud
-he talks figurative language with me in the middle of the night when I go into my "nerd alert" mode
-he doesn't buy into the woman=domestic slave crap....he splits the housework with me, does his own laundry, and never complains. This has never been a major issue for us
-he plays bananagrams with me even though scrabble is his favorite word game
-he's overly protective of me and my feelings-
-he buys me flowers when we are on vacation because he knows it's the only time I can have them (Meeko destroys them)
-he always kisses me goodbye on the one day of the week (sunday) that he leaves the house before I do
-On the days that I get up first, he stays in bed and leaves me to myself as I cannot even stand to be around myself in the morning

Just a few quirky things on how much I appreciate my Dan:)

Dan's New Nissan Murano

Here it is. Dan's new silvery gray Nissan Murano. We've enjoyed this a ton so far. I think we've already made 3 trips down to the cities in the last two weeks with it, and the consensus is we are keeping it.

On the topic of cars and driving, it has now been just over a year since I've lived here. Dan's one year mark is in a few weeks. I am proud to announce that in 365 + days that I have been a true Minnesotan I have yet to get a speeding ticket. When I worked here in the summers I had at least 1 if not 2. I plan to continue this new tradition!

Summer Weddings

Dan performed a wedding a few weekends back for Kelly and Tyler. Kelly, was one of Dan's old student's at Shepherd of the Hills during his internship year at seminary. Her parents no longer live in the cities or go to SOTH, but that's where Kelly wanted to get married and with her former youth director presiding over the service. It was fun to see the church he worked at for 3 years and meet some of his old students. We didn't get to stay long at the wedding since Dan preached the next day, but it was worth it!

Happy 35th Birthday Dan!

We love you and are so happy that it was such an awesome day.

Hunter Dan

I just had to share these. We've been talking about using the bb gun to start shooting the blackbirds in our yard. We're afraid they are going to start chasing away our beloved Frank and Sally, as well as our other feathered friends. The other night we heard all of the blackbirds squacking like crazy so Dan grabbed his trusty "red rider" and headed outside only to see a HUGE hawk sitting in our yard causing the other birds to stir. The hawk flew away, but Dan and Riker decided to "hold down the fort" for awhile thereafter. He doesn't know I snapped this pictures of the two of them through the screen door. Too funny!




Effort given=100%
Game caught=zero

Update From Honduras

Dan called this afternoon from Honduras! I was expecting an email, but was pleasantly surprised to HEAR from him!!! I was sure my phone was on vibrate so when it rang it was a surprise and then, that it rang AND I wasn't seeing any students was so lucky!

Anyway, I also got an email later, but I wasn't sure if he was able to send out emails to everyone else so I thought I'd let you know how's he's doing here just in case.

He said.....everything is going well. He has a mild cold, and the food is amazing. They are building cement blocks, working on a roof, painting, and they were able to bring some supplies to a school. He said the people are great and the weather is humid, but good. Here's a few more comments from his email.

Love you too, honey! We are having a great time, though I miss you a ton. It has been an awesome time so far. We are currently in a town about 15 minutes from the place we are staying at, checking out the local market and seeing the sights. Honduras is a beautiful place with some very nice and hospitable people. Will update you more when I get home. Know that I love you and miss you, and that I can´t wait to get home! It was amazing to hear your voice today. Talk soon...

I don't expect to hear from him again until they get home, but if I do I'll post any updates here;)

Dan's Installation Service

Laying of the Hands....I think that's the correct term?
Pastor Joyce Piper and Dan
coffee, crocheted table cloth, nametags, and a pastor=a lutheran church
The bag ladies that weren't invited were so hilarious
They think their pastor can be a Packer and a Viking fan all at the same time

Happy Birthday Uncle Dan!