Noodles!

Kiki surprised Aiden this morning for a quick visit-and they made her special home made noodles together. It was pretty cute-Aiden was very excited about helping with the flour :)

Watch the video!

What do you want me to do again?

Hard at work

Dumping was the favorite part

Yup-got it all out!

Let's clap our hands together and make a big mess!!

Proud of his noodle dough

Gotta get more flour

Look how long :)

It was fun Kiki! Thanks for coming :)

Fun times

Here are some pictures over the past couple of weeks...thought I would share :)

Mr. Devin being all suave and cool :)

Since the first of the year, Micah has been eligible to work various sporting events as the "doctor for the day" for some extra money. It's been a lot of fun to go with him to some of the events. He's getting paid to enjoy a game, spend time with family, and get some first hand experience. Here we are at a hockey game. We got to sit right behind the players, and the trainer gave Aiden a puck. As the team came out of the locker room the boys stuck their hands out for "high fives". It was a lot of fun...just too bad our team lost. The trainer told Micah the next game he works and they win, he can take Aiden down to the locker room...how fun!

We got to spend a lot of time with James and Ally these past few days...here the kids are zoned out after a few nights of hard core play time :)

The circus was in town this past weekend, and so we got tickets along with Ben and Laura...unfortunately I got really sick the night before and ended up staying home. But thankfully Hilary was here for a visit and was going to help out. I guess it was too much for Devin!

Aiden looks like a beaver or something with those teeth!

Where are you going James?? :)
I'm assuming flash photography wasn't allowed during the show, but I'm glad these few pictures were taken so I could see that the kids enjoyed themselves.

Almost there!

Devin has been so close to crawling-but isn't there yet. He has been rocking back and forth and will catapult himself forward, especially in his crib...but the actual crawling is yet to come.

rocking back and forth

Downward Dog

I'll get it Mom-sooner or later :)

Intently listening to the speech of now President Obama

Truly a new generation, and a time of change...

Hair cut marithon

My wonderful mom came out to visit with us recently and made us all beauteous! As I've mentioned before, she is the only one I want to touch our hair, and mine was in desperate need of some "mommy love and attention" :) She cut and colored my hair, cut Micah's, Devin's, Aiden's, and then Laura's, and Ally's. My mom is a wonderful mom and has her own way of making the world more beautiful...and not just as a stylist. I love you Mom! Thanks for all you do!

Devin did great...I can't believe this is like his 3rd haircut already!

Aiden has always been difficult during haircuts-even as a baby! But we have finally gotten him to sit still and it's been getting easier.

his favorite thing is the 'tickle brush'

Ally was so cute getting her haircut :)

Laura before...

and Laura after...Vaa Vaa Vaa Voom! :)

Mom doing her happy dance

All the haircuts are done!

Actually she was doing the happy dance with Aiden for being a big boy during his haircut-but hey, she was almost done at that point!

Sunday Brunch with Grammy before she left

We love Grammy!

Maaa Maaa

Ok, I said before that Devin had said Mama...so here is some proof :) He was jibber jabbering all last weekend and it was so fun to hear what he had to say!





He also has some great bubble making skills ;)

Devin's squawking

Most babies at this age are doing a lot of babbling and baby talk. Devin is no exception, but I'm finding his 'talk' more like 'squawk'! A few weeks ago I was in the car with my friend Rachel and Devin was babbling away in the back-and then all of a sudden we heard "mama!" We both turned to each other and said "Did he just say what I think he just said??" I was thrilled, and happy to have a witness :) Although we haven't heard it again since...I'm confident he knew what he was saying...haha :) Anyway, here is what most of my day sounds like when Devin is in a good mood:

Happy 2009!

We had a quiet New Year's Eve and anniversary. Micah and I have a tradition of having fondue on our anniversary, and we don't know of any fondue restaurants where we live, so we made it at home. It was a lot of trial and error...but still pretty yummy. I'm actually going to try and experiment a little more to get better at it and have a few fondue dinner parties here at home. We really enjoy it and I would love to have fondue more often for dinner than just once a year. Plus I bought a new fondue set (in addition to the one we got for our wedding) so I should make use of it!

Another thing I want to do, or I should say be better at this year is being organized. I like to consider myself a fairly organized person, but after Devin was born that went way down hill. I don't think it was too difficult to adjust to having 2 kids, but after looking around my house I can see the impact it has had. Now that Devin is out of his newborn stage and is requiring less 'mommy' time, I want to get my life back to the organized way it was before he was born when I was doing all that nesting. I'm excited to cut our traveling this month to a bare minimum, and have the time to go through my house room by room. I pray that I'll have the strength to purge any excess and have a clean slate/house to start off this new year-and keep it up!

As I'm sure a lot of people are making their resolutions for the new year, probably one of the biggest ones is to lose weight. And I'm among them. I have a lot of weight that I put on when I was pregnant, and I need to lose it all! I was not very motivated to lose all of Aiden's baby weight because I was working and moving. But now I feel there is no excuse. I want to be healthy, and I want to look it too! Micah feels the same way, and we are going to try and push ourselves to lose the weight and look like we did when we were dating. Going through all our pictures when I put our anniversary post up really opened our eyes to how we once were and what has happened over the past 4 years. I have a long way to go to get back to my wedding weight, but it's going to happen!

But of all the resolutions I can make, I just want to live a well rounded life. I want to be the best wife, mom, sister, daughter, and friend that I can be. I want to enrich my life by experiencing new and different things. I want to bring happiness to those I love, and be a support for those who need it. And I want the time I spend with my family to be special-that when we take a look back we will see the love in those memories forever. As much as I want all this for me, I want it all for you too. I'm thankful to have you in my life, and I hope that we can all make 2009 a year to remember!

Happy Anniversary

Today is our 4th Wedding Anniversary. Micah and I were married New Years Eve 2004, and have been together since April of 2000. I really wanted to be married on New Years Eve for many reasons, the main one being that we would be starting a new life together-so why not start it on the new year. It is a time of reflection on the past as well as looking forward to the future...and for me that was our forever together. The other pluses of course were to have a great New Year's party, fireworks always on our anniversary, and the fact that it would be pretty difficult for Micah to forget! Here are some of my reflections on the past 8 1/2 years together...

This was my 18th birthday, and the moment I re-met Micah. Our families happened to be dining at the same restaurant, and we saw each other again for the first time in about 10 years-he sent over a cake when he found out it was my birthday and I had to put on the silly hat and stand on a chair. But hey it got his attention! and the rest is history :)

When we started dating, I was finishing up my senior year of high school and Micah's 1st year of college. This is us tailgaiting at a ND football game my sophomore year of college.

We spent as much time together during college as we could, even though we were 3 hours apart...it was a lot of driving on both of our ends-even his mom came to pick me up a few times so we could spend the weekends together.

Micah's parents had decided to hold their company party on New Years Eve in 2002 instead of earlier in December for their annual Christmas party. It was during this celebration that I decided a New Years Eve wedding was what I really wanted (even though we weren't engaged yet).

Micah and I attended a lot of dances while we were dating, including my senior Prom, pledge dances at his fraternity, and various school formals for both our colleges.

This was Micah's gradation from college

My senior year of college I spent a semester in Washington DC. I was so happy when Micah came out to visit me, and we had a lot of fun the few days he was out there.

When I got back from DC, Micah had this elaborate plan to propose to me using the 12 days of Christmas. (I wasn't aware of it at the time-although I was hoping that he would!) I got little presents each day, some came in small jewlrey boxes (to fool me). Then for the 4th and 5th day I was scheduled to visit him (he was 2 hours away for medical school) but I was feeling so sick I didn't want to go. My mother encouraged me to still make the trip, so I went. The afternoon on the 5th day was when he proposed at his apartment. He had made reservations for dinner that night to celebrate (anticipating that I would say yes) and asked if I still wanted to go...I was too happy to feel sick-so we went out and celebrated!

There was nothing more that I could have wanted for Christmas that year...I had the love of my life and we were engaged! Micah got a stethescope from my parents-and he was checking to see if my heart was beating for him :)

After we got engaged, Micah's parents decided it was time I learned to ski-so we went to Utah. I was terrified, but had a lot of fun in the end.

This was on of our engagement photos

That following May I graduated from college

And then we went to Florida for my cousin's wedding

That August we went to Colorado for my Uncle's funeral, and stayed a week to spend time with my family. Here we are at the Garden of the Gods.

Finally New Year's Eve 2004 had arrived, one of the most wonderful days of my life.
Right after the wedding we went back to Colorado to ski (since I was terrified for anyone to ski before the wedding fearing someone would get hurt) and that's where Aiden happened ;)

We had planned on taking our honeymoon to Hawaii in June after Micah took his Boards-we weren't counting on me being 6 months pregnant! We still had an incredible time-and can't wait to go back and enjoy all the activities we couldn't because of the pregnancy.

This was the weekend before Micah's graduation from Medical School.

This was taken in Texas at my cousin's wedding, and I was 6 weeks pregnant with Devin.

Here we are this past February, one of the few pictures we have together since having kids. It seems that after you start a family, it's hard to find pictures of just the two of you.

Although having a family is also pretty incredible :)
It's been a wild ride and we've been through a lot. So many happy memories, as well as tough times-but every day we have grown closer together and have learned a little more about each other. Each moment has molded us into the couple we are today, and I'm so grateful to have found my soulmate and the love of my life. Happy Anniversary Micah-here's to another incredible year together...I love you!

Here is my anniversary present! My birthstone is amethyst, and my favorite color is green...so what could beat a green amethyst ring? I LOVE it :) Thank you honey!