Father's Day 2012

I love this picture of Q and the kids. I took this after church...it's a tradition that all the dads get a bottle of Dad's Root Beer on Father's Day. Happy Father's Day to the best daddy and husband in the world so grateful for you, Q.

Mother's Day 2012

What a special Mother's Day. My cup runneth over. I seriously feel so blessed and so complete with these four gifts from God. 

We had Q's family over for brunch to celebrate his Mom too. I made this amazing cake that had been featured on the cover of Martha Stewart Living magazine. I will totally make it again. Whipped cream and strawberries were pretty straightforward but the cake was so special...and it turned out so pretty.

Toothless Brizee

 ...when they go from baby to big

She lost her first tooth on March 29th
The toothfairy brought her a Barbie
(the toothfairy never brought me a Barbie? what's up with that?)

A New Old Kitchen

I had been wanting to do this since before we moved in! Then this spring I could take it no longer and I just started taking off doors and painting like crazy. I spent about two weeks and then Quenton helped me finish the project the day before Easter we worked for 12 hours straight...and then I even stayed up to decorate my cookies for Easter Sunday. Needless to say, I slept zilch that night...and it was worth it.

OLD: This is what it looked like before:

say it with me... WAY. TOO. OAK. !!!!!????!!!!

NEW:

 I did a faux finish on the island to accent the light cabinets and make them look a little more modern and a LOT less "1989" (note: still waiting for the stove and dishwasher to die so we can update those too)

I've always loved open shelves for displaying my "pretties" so we left the doors off of a bunch of the cabinets and then put wainscoting on the back wall to give them a more finished look.

Grandpa and Grandma Time

Baby's First Easter

We went to the 8:00 am service at our church and then hit the road for Wisconsin...and got there in time to have lunch and hunt for Easter eggs with my side of the family

 with Grandpa Bob

 with Great Grandma Bertha



Jude 10 months

I can hardly believe our baby is 10 months old already. He is just as precious as ever. He gave me kisses for the first time the day after he turned 10 months. You know the ones, sloppy and wet with his mouth wide open. I thought I must be the luckiest mommy in the world. Jude has eight teeth now. He has started eating more interesting foods like waffles, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, or grilled cheese. He has yet to spit out something we give him. It's crazy to me that he loves ev.er.y.thing even green vegetables. He still doesn't mind eating his pureed foods and baby oatmeal. This is also crazy to me but I'm fine with it because it's so nutritious.He adores yogurt, and we buy it by the box at Sam's Club! I weaned Jude from nursing just before he turned 9 months. It broke my heart...I still miss it. Our grocery bill has skyrocketed since. I'm hoping it levels off a bit once he starts on cow's milk but we still have a couple months until then. He started crawling early in March. He still hasn't rolled from his back to his tummy EVER. He mostly just pulls himself up to his knees never to standing. He is just way too content and it seems to make him a little behind on these sort of things because he's just completely happy to sit there and play. He will sit in a cart at Target for literally hours while I shop. He is a total angel baby. His hair is getting a little longer...it's still blonde. His eyes are the bluest blue I've ever seen. He is super fair. He's down to two naps a day now. It seems like he might be transitioning out of his morning nap but he's not quite there yet. He LOVES his
 "ba ba" [bottle] he takes it very seriously and he has to hold it himself. It's so cute. I take so much pleasure in holding him while he has his bottle I suppose it's the closest thing to nursing that I have left.  I will be a disaster when he goes to college...I can just already feel it...I've already cried thinking about it. [I know, I know]

I try to snap a picture of the 4 kids together at least once-a-month

Our Birthday

Such good friends and so much fun to share a birthday [2-18]!!! Birthyear...unfortunately for Sue...not shared (wink wink). But it may as well be--look at her! She actually looks YOUNGER than me!?!

The four of us went out to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Chino Latino. And then we went to Comedy Sportz afterwards.

Up

Jude pulls himself up to his knees...

This was February 7th, so he was about 8 1/2 months old

So in Love in SoCal

Q had a work retreat in San Diego for a few days so I met him there on the last day and we stayed for almost a week for a little Valentine's getaway(Feb 9-14).
Just the two of us. No kids. (in case "just the two of us" didn't quite sink in)


It. Was. Amazing.
Neither of us had ever been to California...

this is a picture of the resort where we stayed ...the grounds were beautiful

This is the view from the elliptical machine at the fitness center. We got to exercise together every single day we were there.  That rarely happens at home. It's hard to find time to exercise in general much less together. [equally rare: for the first time in my life I actually LOST weight on vacation]

Our Splurge:  we rented a convertible [we actually convinced the guy at the rental place to give us a third off the price!] Definitely no regrets there! It totally added to the whole experience and we didn't have to feel like we were missing out on anything when we were in the car. It's sort of a dream of mine to own a convertible someday. Q knows that. He loves to make me happy...I love that about him

First time for both of us at the Pacific Ocean. It was beautiful and we got to watch the sunset too.

We happened to be in California the same weekend that Q's brother's friends had planned to have his memorial service. So we drove up the coast to L.A. It was difficult to "say goodbye" all over again, but we truly felt like it was meant to be that we were there and Q got to give a special eulogy for Mikey.

We toured around Beverly Hills and went to Barneys [the department store where Mikey used to work]

It was beautiful. The streets and the buildings and everything in the shops...just like in the movies :)

We always hit a Starbucks at least once everywhere we go.

That evening, we drove outside of L.A. and stayed in a beautiful city called Costa Mesa. While we were at dinner, we learned from Facebook that Whitney Houston had died in Beverly Hills precisely when we were there. SO CRAZY.
Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You" was playing on the radio when Q and I had our first kiss [in 1993] and "The Bodyguard" is one of the first movies we ever saw together.
Heavy.
Rest in peace, Whitney.

The view from our hotel room on the 13th floor was beautiful.

It was a gorgeous Westin.
And of course we hit the fitness center before we checked out.

yeah, did I mention I love convertibles? I love the way Q is looking at me out of the corner of his eye in this picture. He loves me.

Cruisin' the PCH [Pacific Coast Highway]back to San Diego.
G.O.R.G.E.O.U.S.

We stopped at Laguna Beach for awhile and had lunch there...and sat by the water for awhile

I had a caprese pannini. BRILLIANT. YUM.

had to try IN-N-OUT burger while we were there...

Okay, this is post-workout so you gotta cut me some slack. I'm lookin' a little rough in this picture but I just had to include it because we met this girl at breakfast at our resort. She was our server and I noticed her accent...very familiar. So I asked her "where are you from?" and she said, "Poland." I grabbed her and I said, "Oh my word! We lived in Krakow! I'm totally gonna cry!" and then I promptly started crying. I don't think she thought I was serious when I said it because she was really shocked when she saw my tears. She said, "I'm from Krakow" We [mostly me] were FREAKING OUT! Can you even believe it? like what are the chances? We talked for awhile and it turns out she's been in the states for 9 years and before she moved to California she lived in the Twin Cities! Yes! I know!!! and before that? Wisconsin Dells! I know! Hello! I'm from Wisconsin! So that's why I had to get my picture taken with her. Her name is Ola. I love it when stuff like that happens!

Adorable little restaurant where we had lunch. We actually ate out on the patio with a view of the ocean but I thought the inside was so completely charming and cute that I snapped a picture! Love the long bench along the wall with the pillows. And the fireplace. Yes, too cute.
This was in La Jolla (pronounced La Hoya). Which is by the way "thee place to be" in San Diego. It was obvious why too...everything there was perfectand beautiful and expensive.

also in La Jolla...Sprinkles Cupcakes

we picked some up for dessert and even brought home a box so the kids and my parents could have some.

...it was our last day and Q was more than tired of me taking pictures of him and us (about 200--these are just the ones that "made the cut") so when I said, "we have to take a picture with our cupcakes", he was less than thrilled and his response was "you get ONE PICTURE so you better make it a good one" well I accidentally pushed the button as I was lifting the camera and we both started dying of laughter because he said 'ONE' but I freaked and snapped another one quick but it was a lost cause and he was NOT gonna sit there and smile while I over-anylized 20 pictures of us with our cupcakes. But this one is more fun anyways with the story behind it!

...and that was it. This is our last dinner on the last night. We ate at a fabulous Thai restaurant in Rancho Santa Fe and talked about dreams and goals for our future and particularly 2012. After a pretty rough start to the year, this vacation was the perfect opportunity for us to "regroup" and sort of hit the reset button so to speak. We had such a great time. It's truly a gift to be married to your best friend. We are so in love and know that every day we have together is a blessing.