Our 2nd Ultrasound at 12 Weeks

Our First Ultrasound at 8 Weeks

Wiese's, Quinn's, and Gladd's Michigan Weekend Trip

This weekend we took a trip to Michigan with our friends, the Wiese's and the Quinn's. We stayed with my parents' in Rockford and hit the beach in Grand Haven. Here are a few pics from the trip:

Topol and Fiddler on the Roof

I surprised Ben with tickets to see Fiddler on the Roof because it's his favorite movie. To make it even more special, the original cast member, Topol, was performing in it.
His mom traveled up that weekend, so I gave my ticket to her since I've never even seen the movie and I thought she would enjoy a date with her son. They had a great time. In fact, Ben woke up the next morning singing "If I were a rich man...dah dah dah dah dah...!"

Hanging with my Sister in Colorado

I've been in Colorado since Friday visiting my sister. We ate at a restaurant called Casa Bonita the night I arrived, which is an all-you-can-eat Mexican restaurant with a ton of entertainment, including cliff divers, gorillas, arcade games, haunted cave, mariachi band and more! Saturday, we drove around Fort Collins and Loveland to do a little sight seeing, then headed to Colorado Springs to celebrate a friend's birthday. We stayed the night in "the springs" and then woke up the next morning and drove to Estes Park to see the elk. Sunday night we changed into our pj's and ate some Papa John's pizza while watching a chick flick. Today, I rode along with my sister as she worked and did some property adjustments. Best part? We stopped for lunch at Pei Wei. Delish!

Now, we are getting ready to watch another chick flick. Heaven! :) How often can I just be lazy and watch a movie with my sis?

The weather has been chilly and a little rainy, but it's been nice to just relax with my sister. I'm going home tomorrow...when the weather is warming up. But, we'll have part of the day to enjoy some of it.

Meanwhile, Ben is in California for a speaking gig at The Master's College. Maybe I can convince him to blog an update about his trip when he returns. :)

Visiting the Lindsey's

Last weekend we drove to Michigan to visit Chris and Vicki. What a fun weekend!! Vicki and I made an Irish meal for their friends. It was fun getting know them all better.We also spent a day at the outlets (Pottery Barn and Northface) then headed over to Frankenmuth for the biggest Christmas store ever! It's called Bronner's and even though I grew up in Michigan that was my first time there!



I miss living near my best friend, but there is something special and exciting about looking forward to our visits. Can't wait 'til the next!

Sledding 2009

Two weeks ago we got a ton of snow in just one morning. It was perfect sledding weather. I had to call up my friend, Stephanie, because sledding is one of the things on her list that she wants to do before turning 30. So, she and her husband joined us. We headed out to Blackwell Forest Preserve and found a nice little hill right at the frozen pond.I tried pushing Ben down the hill a few times. In this photo, I think Ben and Brian were racing, but I obviously wasn't getting Ben a good start.
A nice man and his sons were also at the hill and let us use their sled and snowboard. So, I tried my hand at snow-boarding, but didn't make it very far.
Next time I think we'll head back to our house and make some homemade sugar donuts like my mom would do for my me and my sister after ice skating on the pond down the road. Ooohh.. the memories...

Glow and Behold!

Stephanie didn't turn 30, she turned 29. But, she had a party anyway because she wanted to start her last year in her 20's with a BANG! She invited a few of her close girlfriends over for a "glowing" dinner and dessert. The formal invitation requested that her guests wear something that makes us feel like we are glowing! So.. I wore my golden bridesmaid dress from my best friend's wedding over 5 years ago! I was holding on to this dress wanting a reason to wear it again. So, how perfect! Yay that I still fit into it!!

The party was so much fun! The theme was "Glow and Behold." We played a Family Feud style game where the subject was Divas. Who knew that a diva's favorite nail color is hot pink!?

Steph made a fantastic pork tenderloin dinner and served up some little pizza appetizers with drinks. She also gave all of us gifts!

Thanks, Steph, for such a wonderful party! I adore our friendship!

Return of Jack Bauer

Hip Hip Hooray!! Jack Bauer is back! Night one of 24's two night premiere just ended and we are pumped!

Knapp Christmas

My parents and little sister drove here last weekend on New Years day and stay for a few days. We celebrated our family Christmas while they were in town. It was fun to see my family and just hang out with each other. We didn't do anything extremely exciting, but just enjoyed being able to relax after the hustle and bustle of Christmas.

We did go see the movie, Bolt, at the cheap seats. What a cute movie!

Christmas in Maryland

[Heather & Nikki]

Merry Christmas! We spent our Christmas weekend in Maryland with Ben's family. We forgot to bring our camera, so the only photo I have is the one above that I stole from Heather off Facebook.

The "boys" went on their annual Gladd hunt with the dogs. The gals stayed behind and shopped. I got to hang out with some of Dana and Heather's friends, then Ben and I had the rare chance to catch up with Ben's long-time friend, Dan, before catching our flight home.

The following week (this weekend) my parents and little sister visited us to celebrate the new year and do the Knapp Christmas (minus Ang... we miss you!!). They actually just left a few hours ago. I'll post pics of our weekend later... It's time for bed!

Now in Print

Ben's dissertation is now published. We found out months ago that it was accepted for publication with a very respectable publisher, Walter de Gruyter. Now, after his hard work of putting all the finishing touches together, the book is in print and available on Amazon. Surprisingly, you can also purchase it on Target's website. Can you tell I'm so very proud of my dear husband?

We Put Our Tree Up Today!

Thankful for New Friends

It took a little while for me to decide what to blog about this year for Thanksgiving.  We're thankful for so much, but I didn't want to bore you with listing it all... from family and friends to Ben's graduation to good health to having food on the table to having an affordable place to live to find a church we love, etc.So, I chose one of these to post about today.  We are so thankful for all of our friends.  I'm thankful how I have become good friends with Ben's friends and Ben has become good friends with my friends.  But, this particular post is about the friends we have made as a couple.   It's about the friends neither one of us brought into the relationship, but the ones we developed together.

When we first got married and lived in Wheaton, it was a struggle to find friends.  We found a few, but not many that we just "meshed" with completely.  We were starving for the type of friendships we had (and still have) in our college friends who live across the country.  

Now, a little over three years later, I can say we have finally filled that void.  We love our new friends!

So, through out this post are photos I've found of our new friends.  Please remember, we love all of our friends from college, too, but this particular post is about our new friends.  And, if you are a "new" friends but there isn't a photo of you on here...it's simply because I don't have one!  :)  

Thank you, friends, for being like family to us.  Thank you, friends, for loving us.  Thank you, friends, for all of the fun.  Thank you, friends.

Of course, I can't talk about friends without posting this fun photo from a couple of years ago:

Sewing Buttons

Shamefully, I can not sew. Not even a button. Someday I'll learn, but I really have no desire to...especially when Ben happily does it on his own. I've got to say, I'm ecstatic.

Ice Skating with Pat & Jessica

Pat and Jessica had us over for some delicious chili. Afterwards, Patrick pretty much begged if we could go ice skating next door to their apartment. He was the only was so enthusiastic about going, so we flipped a coin, heads we would go ice skating, tails we would not. He flipped tails, and was so disappointed that we let him flip it again... but it was tails again!
Because of his disappointment, we decided to go anyway. Glad we went because it was so much fun! Thanks, Pat, for making us go!

Rachelle, Colorguard #3

Rachelle is taking after her two big sisters footsteps. She's in the colorguard. :) Although, Angie and I were in Belding's colorguard, Rachelle is in a much more competitive colorguard, Rockford.

I had the privilege of watching Rachelle's band compete in the state finals this weekend in Detroit at the Ford Field. My parents and I spent the entire day there watching all the bands march. It was fun to see how good these bands are and the types of props they use on the field.

Rachelle is a very good spinner. She did an awesome job, and it's only her first year! I'm proud of you sis!

And, I love being goofy with you.

Surprise Ben!! You're 30!

Ben's birthday weekend was full of excitement. We had our 4th annual BYOP party and later I had a surprise party planned for him that included racing RC cars. I was able to rent a room in our church, then Ben's good friend, Patrick, built a race track out of PVC pipes, including ramps and all. About 15 of our friends were there to surprise him. Even Devin and Marlena were up from Nashville for the weekend and were able to participate!Ben was definitely surprised and grateful for the friends who came. After the party, we headed to our landlord's house to have carrot cake and watch the UFC fight.

BYOP 2008

We held our 4th annual BYOP (Bring Your Own Pumpkin) event again at Kelly Park in Wheaton. This park is right down the road from our house and includes plenty of space for football, carving pumpkins, basketball and even has a really nice children's playground. It's the perfect setup for our party.There was a great turnout this year. Unfortunately, some people already left before I remembered to take a group photo (the one above wasn't the best photo, but I like the candid shot, especially Marlena's face). The weather was polar opposite of last year. Last year we were in short sleeves and shorts. This year, we couldn't bundle ourselves up more! It was COLD! Nonetheless, everyone had a good time and it was fun being able to have it on Ben's 30th birthday. Little did Ben know, though, that I had plans for him later that night with some more friends!

Click here to see more BYOP 2008 photos.

Check out some of the food I served on my food blog here.