I am blessed with an amazing husband. There is really no better, He is the best! And we have been blessed with the most precious little girl, Halle! It's hard to imagine loving another one like I love these. A women's heart grows and stretches with her belly. I keep learning a deeper and deeper love. Thank you Jesus for the joys you have entrusted and given to me. You are the giver of the best gifts.
Dan and Halle came home yesterday with these beautiful flowers. Halle looked so excited to give them to me, sooo sweet! She kept stressing over and over to me that they needed water.
Then Dan slaved for over an hour in the kitchen on this awesome meal. It was sooooooo good! Yummy! You two are the best!! Thank you for such a memorable day! I love you!
I apologize for not posting in a very long time. Having a toddler run and around and being in my third trimester has me pretty tired lately. I want to post as much as i can before the baby gets here. So here goes a try to do that.
Back in March, we went to South Georgia for Spring Break to visit all my family. We had so much fun. It had been a whole year since we had seen our family. They were definitely ready to see Halle. And Halle ate it up. She LOVED all the attention she got for the week and the presents too.
There were so many pictures taken that I wanted to share so I've put them all in different slideshows. The following one is of the time that we got to spend at my Dad's house. Halle had a blast with "Papa", "Manda", and "Katie!" Halle spent LATE LATE nights up with Papa playing chase, legos, or with her new baby. Aunt Katie showed her video after video of herself (Halle) and let her play with her phone as much as she wanted. She was in the spotlight of Grandma Amanda's camera the whole time. Halle got whatever she wanted with Manda and Papa. She had tons of chocolate, candy, and cookies to dig into at their house. We always feel so welcome and have an amazing time at Daddy's. Halle found a new buddy. Her and Aunt Katie were attached at the hip.
Our time spent at Grandma and Jon's house was so much fun too. We were able to enjoy some great food cooked by Mom and Jon. Halle loved the "farm." She was thrilled by all the animals she got to play with and meet. She never wanted to go to sleep here either. We were so surprised and blessed to have my Uncle Tommy and cousin Angela with her two kids come and visit from Jacksonville as well. Halle got to meet her cousin Maria and they bonded immediately. Halle also got to hang out with Papa and Meme. In some of the pics you'll see Halle playing blocks with Papa. I was amazed at how comfortable Halle was around everyone. She went to almost anyone as long as we were in sight of course. She was very social the whole trip. There is also a picture of two drawings that Jon and Mom surprised us with. This lady that goes to school with mom did them for her. They are amazing and we're completely blown away when we saw them!!! We love them. Our time with them was blessed. Had so much fun!
We were able to take a day to Tybee beach with Daddy, Amanda, and Katie. Halle was everywhere. She ran right into the water, no fear at all. She just kept running and running and running! We got to feed the birds, look for seashells and soak up the sweet sweet smell of the ocean. Oh how I miss the beach...aagghh! Enjoy these beautiful pictures taken by Amanda.
That evening we went to Dan and I's favorite place to eat in Savannah, The Crab Shack. This was the place of our first date. I LOVE the food here. I have missed good seafood. This is definitely the place to go to get it. Halle got to see all the cats, birds, and alligators that live there. She ate 4 pieces of their corn on the cob. Some of our close friends from Atlanta just so happened to be vacationing there at Tybee. We were so happy to get to hook up with them to visit and see there new precious little boy Caden. We sure do miss them alot. A visit to The Crab Shcak will definitely become a family tradition of ours.
Daddy took us to the St. Patty's Day parade. This is a very unique celebration to Savannah. The parade is the third largest St. Patty's parade in the U.S. It turned out being pretty chilly that day but alot of fun! Halle really enjoyed the parade. I really enjoyed the sweet tea. There was this cafe across form where we sat that sold the best sweet tea I have ever had...yummmm! It was alot of fun. I'm so glad we got to go. Savannah truly has it's own culture and city life. I had missed it. Enjoy the pics! That evening Dan was asked to speak at our home church RCOG in my old youth group 24/7. Les and Tressa (my old youth pastors) are HUGE heros of mine. We were honored and blessed to take the opportunity. Dan did a great job. So proud of him.
We really enjoyed our time in South Georgia. We were overwhlemed to get off the plane and see 15 people waiting to greet us and give us lots of hugs! It went way too fast. We were so thankful to beable to go. Thank you fam, we love you and Halle misses all of you alot! She always goes through all the names and animals she met there and just talks and talks about it. She wants to see the pictures over and over again. Thank you, it was such a blessing to spend the week with you. We can't wait to do it again!
Halle and I woke Daddy up EARLY Sunday morning with heart shaped pancakes, a little gift, his favorite cookies, and this Card. Dan had to speak that morning on one of the hardest stories in the Bible. We wanted to encourage him and tell him we sure did love him and he was our valentine. Look closely and Halle did make her remarks as well in crayons.
We took some cute cute photos with our friends for Valentine's. It was so much fun but also challenging. It is definitely getting harder and harder to get our toddlers to remain still to take a photo. I think we were all sweating after this one.
This is our friend Denver, he is only one month older than Halle. He is so adorable and we LOVE hanging out with him and his mommy and daddy. nelsonfamilynest.blogspot.com She's an angel. Here is our friend Zion. Halle is only a few days older than this handsome guy. He loved smiling at the camera but wow...was he active!!! You had to be super quick to capture it. I'd snap the picture and then he would quickly charge me and tackle me. There was truly a distinction between a girl and a boy 18 month old that day. He is a wild man and so much fun!!! We love him and his mommy. She's my porcelain baby doll. Halle has officially been spoiled by everyone who knows her, especially her grandparents! We received a package at the door the other day. Halle saw the brown box as I pulled it through the door and her face immediately lit up as she ran into the living room and proceeded to show me where exactly to place it. She patted her hand on the ground rushing me to put it down so she could open it right away. It was soooo cute! She knows what brown packages are!! Well she got tons of Valentine's gifts from Grandpa and grandma Mock in this little brown box. Thank you guys, she loved all of it soooo much. She would not put that sucker down for two hours. She wears her necklaces everyday and has taken a special liking to that black bear. Her cookie has long since been devoured. It was incredibly sweet to get this for Valentine's Day. Thank you. Happy Valentine's Day to all.
Dan's parents flew us to Orlando Florida for the week of Christmas this year for our Christmas present. It was an incredible week. We stayed in a condo with the back porch opening up to a pond with a constant running fountain. The place was amazing and so comfortable. Unlike we would be able to do at a hotel we sat down at a table to Dan's mom's great cooking all week. We spent the week relaxing, watching movies, eating, sight seeing and just soaking up the nice weather. Dan's parents live in Germany and we are currently of course in snow stricken Iowa. So the 70 degree weather was wonderful, almost indescribable how much we enjoyed the nice weather. We got to spend a couple of days at Disney World. We loved it, especially little Halle! Here are some pics from the week.
Halle found a new bud in Uncle Mike! She loves him! The first day we went to Disney, within minutes of being there, Halle took a BIG fall. We thought oh what a cute picture spot. Although this did end up being a good pic, it was not worth it. Halle lost her balance when trying to touch the frog's nose and fell head first into the concrete. Immediately her head started oozing with tons of blood! Of course this scared Dan and I to death. We were running frantically trying to find help as blood is now all over Dan and Halle and she is screaming. The paramedics came and looked at her very quickly. What we thought was surely a stitches worthy wound ended up being nothing but a couple of "scratches." Deep scratches but still scratches. After all the commotion and frantic mom and dad calmed down Halle was just fine. She enjoyed the rest of the day thoroughly. Thank you Jesus for looking out for little Halle! This is our second day at Disney with Grandma and Grandpa! Having a ball! Halle enjoying her time with Grandpa Friesen! This is Halle riding It's a Small World with Grandma and grandpa. She danced the whole way through, so sweet! Okay she was sooooo cute with Mickey. She wasn't shy at all. She ran right up to him. Halle loves her Minnie. We opened presents on Christmas day at the condo. This was the first time that Halle realized what going on with opening presents. She was thrilled. After our amazing week in Florida, we flew to Kansas City where all of Dan's family lives. We spent a few days there visiting all their family. This is the first I was able to meet them and get to know them. It was such a special time. All of his family were incredibly sweet and enjoyable to be around. Every house we went to had a gift waiting for Halle. And of course she loved everyone of them. This is sweet sweet Aunt Beverly and sweet sweet Grandma Doris who just adored Halle. And I adored them. Too bad we don't live near these two jewels. They are incredible women.
We then came home to Iowa and spent a few days at our place before Dan's parents had to make the trek back to Germany. We really enjoyed our vacation with the Friesen's. Thank you sooooooo much Doug and Karen. The couple weeks spent with you were wonderful. We are so thankful for the awesome Christmas you were able to give us. We love you and will not forget Christmas 09.
This past week we celebrated my 25th Birthday and it just so happened that the worst blizzard the Cedar Valley has seen in over 20 years rolls in the same day. When Dan and I moved here, the one constant thing that comes up in conversation when meeting people are the winters here and how dreadful they are. Everyone around here has been talking about how fortunate we have been because we had not received a snow yet. They say there is usually a good snow in November. Well the snow held off for a BIG one. For a whole week before the storm came people were talking about it. The days leading up to Tuesday, the weather channel was flashing blizzard warning alerts. This of course got Dan and I excited but also a little nervous. We went and purchased a week worth of groceries and rented some movies. They were telling people it was safer to stay inside by Tuesday afternoon. Well when the snow started...it kept coming and coming and coming for hours and hours and even days. The winds reached up to 45 mph and the temperature down to -20 wind chill factor. The snow fall accumulation topped out at 18 inches and plus in some places. There were snow drifts 8 feet high. What a way to have our first Iowa winter snow. We were stuck inside on Wednesday, my birthday. But it was a wonderful, beautiful day spent at home with my two favorite people. Our street was plowed by late Wednesday night and we were able to get out Thursday morning. If this would have happened in Georgia, I think everything would have been shut down for a week or even more. Wow it is way different and something to get used to to drive in the snow. It was a beautiful storm.
Here is a picture of our street late Tuesday afternoon.
One of our awesome friends Jeff surprised us with pizza on Wednesday when everyone else was stuck inside. We were blown away at how kind and thoughtful he was to think of us Georgians. Halle decide it was too cold for her to attempt to walk out the door. This is our back yard on Wednesday. This is the same shot as above of our street just the next day. Yep, that snow is really up to my knees. Here is our driveway after being snow blown. Look how deep that snow is. This is our front yard. And we finally got out in it, Halle actually loves it. She helps us find all her snow gear in the house when we are headed out. We have to hold her back from falling out the door she is sooo excited to go out. Dan had built a ramp or slide for our new sled in the front yard. It is REALLY pretty cool. Halle likes it. Daddy does too! Here is a short video of the flight down the ramp, slide, or trail thingy.
It has really been a beautiful winter wonderland. I'm pretty sure we are going to be getting tired of the snow soon. But as for right now, we are just giddy over going outside to play in it.
Halle loved helping put up the Christmas Tree this year and she also likes taking it apart too...everyday. She's a good little helper.
This picture is of Halle helping us at the church with the Christmas decorations. Here is a short little video of Dan chopping down the Christmas tree for the church. Wasn't quite as easy as he thought it would be.
We were not able to go and visit family this year. But Dan's brother was able to fly up and spend a whole week with us. We REALLY enjoyed Mike's being home with us. It was an awesome week. On Thanksgiving day we drove to Minneapolis and stayed the night in a hotel with the largest indoor water park. We all had a blast that day in the water. The next day we drove across the street to the Mall of America...and on BLACK FRIDAY. This was pretty crazy and bold of of us to do. The mall was packed of crazed inpatient shoppers and the lines were ridiculously long. But it was a great day. It was fun to watch Dan and MIke go at the pranks and competitiveness and bonding all week. Halle loved having Uncle Mike here. She followed him everywhere. And she loved to lift up his shirt and show him where his belly was over and over and over again. We really really loved having Mike here over the break. It was sad having to take him back to catch his flight. Uncle Mike you are welcome to come and see us anytime!!!! We love you.
Then Dan slaved for over an hour in the kitchen on this awesome meal. It was sooooooo good! Yummy! 
You two are the best!! Thank you for such a memorable day! I love you!
