Blessed

Well, I feel like I should make one final post before the new year.

Looking back at 2010, I realized that I am so BLESSED and I'm sure I don't THANK or PRAISE God enough for everything He has done and given to me in the past year. There are soo many things He's given me and my family, but these are the major ones for 2010:

--Thankful for the gift of Salvation. I am just so thankful and blessed that God called me to repentance and gave me the grace and peace when I turned to Him. He certainly has taught me a lot this year!

--Thankful for the little miracle He gave us, little Bridget Ann. I was not only amazed with what God did when He gave Heidi & Luke this little miracle baby girl, but watching the birth, was like watching a double miracle. I praise God every day for this little girl... I feel as if she is almost my own. :)

--Thankful to have a brother just 14 months older than me who was baptized in August. I love how we do things together all the time, and how we get to go to young group things together. Not sure what Adam's going to do without me while I'm in Florida for 8 days. :)

--Thankful that God shows me where to go, and were to turn on the road of life. School's been tough for me, but He is constantly showing me what I should do, where I should go, and just taking care of every step of the way for me.

I never believed people when they told me this kind of thing... and then when you experience it, it is truly amazing to realize that yeah.... God really DOES do that!

I know this is not Thanksgiving, but looking back on our "big" events that have happened to our family in 2010, it makes me thankful. It also makes me realize that I am soo blessed. And why do I need those new pair of boots... or a new coat... or a laptop... etc... when I am so blessed with my relationships with God, family, and friends.

Love you all, and I hope you have a wonderful new year, and that you all succeed with your new year resolutions. :) But think about your year, and count your blessings too.

** I'll post about Christmas after Florida. I'm leaving Sunday for 8 days. :)

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from Aunt Wendi & Bridget. :)

And my whole family! -- 2010 Christmas Picture

Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas filled with food, family, fun, and most importantly, remembering the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ!!

DONE.

Yes! My finals are done! My 3hr tax final was pretty torturous, but I'm done.

I have successfully completed my first semester of college! But only by the help of Lord. School is very tough for me... I have to work especially hard to get good grades, and I definitely learned to trust the One who is in control of my life. I'll do my studying and He'll give me the grade He wants to give to me.

I was complaining to my mom the day my finals began, that NOBODY I know studies for a test as long as I do, and they still get the same grades as I. Luke standing there listening to me, gave me the advice to "just eat smarties, and not nerds." Thanks for advice Fritz. :)

I think this semester was hard because I'm still trying to learn how to study efficiently. And... I guess part of it is my own fault, because I kind of wait to REALLY understand it until my test comes, and then I have tons to do, because I didn't keep up with my studying. I think this is called procrastination. Although I think I got better as the semester went on.

Anyways... I will stop talking about school now. I hope to post more interesting posts during my break, and then... yes... I think the posts will once again be complaining about school again come January.

Maybe one of these days, I will learn to LOVE school. I sure hope that day will come. Maybe next semester, because I have some pretty fun classes. That tax class was pure torture for me this semester.

Tonight is my 8 piano/violin student's recital, which I'm looking forward to. I'm so proud of every single one of these kids. I just love teaching them and watching them learn and grow musically! I will be sure and post about it. :)

And, just in case I don't get to another post before Christmas... have a wonderful holiday!

Almost there!

In 9 1/2 hours... I will be taking my first final.


In 36 hours.... I will be completely done.


Praise the Lord!!!!

COUNT DOWNS!

7 MORE DAYS TILL FINALS! :(

which means...

8 MORE DAYS TILL BREAK!!!! :)


17 DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS 1 OF 3 :)


26 DAYS UNTIL FLORIDA!!!!! :) :D


It's all getting so close! I can do this! :)

This should make you smile! :)

Was I right? :)
Miss Bridget is finally gaining weight after weighing only 3oz. above her birth weight at 7 wks. She is now getting lots of formula.. and has turned into one happy smiley girl! Heidi caught this smile on camera just the other day. I think it's pretty precious. :)


I cannot believe she is already 8 weeks old!
She loves her bath.. and hates to get out of it. Look at her scrawny arms and huge belly! :) I think all her weight goes to that belly of her's. :)

I have a few more pictures.. but blogger isn't letting me upload them at the moment.


Oh.. and aren't you surprised by all my updates? I think it's because I am majorally cutting down my facebook time... so now this is what I do if I get on the computer and need a break from studying. :)

Stay warm in this freeezing cold weather!

Favorite Verses

Just wanted to share these verses that I recently read. If I had to choose some favorites, these would definitely be included.

These help me while I strive to die to myself:

Galatians 1:10
For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.

Galatians 2:20
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

Thanksgiving Weekend

Oh goodness. My weekend was once again, so enjoyable. How I cannot wait for Christmas break now! :) Only 2 more weeks of school!

Wednesday I didn't do much... slept in, taught piano, took a nap, and then went to my very first Central IL singing in Bloomington with Kendra and Adam.

Thursday we went to my Uncle Rob & Aunt Lily's right after church for our very large lunch. I really don't like Thanksigiving food very much. Turkey is just ok IF I have the dark meat... otherwise it's too dry. I kind of like dressing, I like sweet potatoes, I hate pumpkin pie(actually pie in general), and the cranberry sauce I've never tried, and I plan to never try it. The salad and vegetable I usually like. So... I didn't really eat that much cause it's not really any of my favorites at all.... although I felt like this year was the best in a while.

Haha. So there's my opinion on the food... since food in general is very important to me. :)

Anyways, here's family sitting around the table...

Charlie-- I love his big blue eyes!

Audrey is just tooo cute!

Grandma with Audrey-- her dad taught her this cheesy smile.

Some people relaxed and took naps after lunch...

Bridget finally arrived around dinner time!

Haley & Preston sat by Aunt Ruthie and watched her do her needlework(or whatever she was doing) for the longest time. They were in awe.

Holly & Toby and baby coming in February! :)

We were there for the whole day, like we usually do. Surprisingly, I those days never get long or boring to me. I love just relaxing and hanging out with family around the fire.

I was going to go Black Friday shopping... but I guess sleep is just too precious to me. :) I got some really good deals online though! Instead of shopping, my family put up the tree and all of our Christmas decorations. I just love getting everything out and transforming our house to Christmas! It's just so warm looking with everything up.

That night we had a big Schick Thanksgiving at the Fellowship hall. I left early with Jenna and a whole bunch of girls and hung out at her house for a while. We watched videos of us from when we were younger... even though I didn't do much talking in them, they were still sooo cute! (Thanks for spending a lot of time trying to find them, Aunt Dawn!)

Saturday morning we had my mom's friend and some of her family from Lester for a brunch. After they left, Adam & I went shopping with Jenna and Jamie. :) Even though I had intentions of starting my Christmas shopping... I ended up shopping for myself most of the time. :/ I bought presents for my mom to give to me. Hahaha... So I actually got Christmas shopping done for her. :) We shopped for quite a while... and then met Uncle Scott & Aunt Dawn at Logan's for dinner.

My family actually skipped the festival of lights parade that night. I can't believe we did it... I can only remember doing that once because of rain. But, to tell you the truth, I was kind of relieved I didn't have to go. I guess I'm finally growing up.

When we got back from dinner, Bridget was here(oh yea, Heidi & Luke too :). She is suuuch a sweetie. I cannot get enough of her.

I was holding Bridget today in church, and she was just smiling and cooing at me, even though I wasn't even talking to her very much. She has the cutest smile! If only I could catch it on camera!

So, I can't believe I didn't take any pictures of anything except for on Thanksgiving day. Sorry. :/ I don't know why I always forget. Jenna & I are usually pretty good at taking pictures.. but not this time. Actually, I did take a few of Bridget that I will post later.

I hope you all had a very relaxing and blessed Thanksgiving like I did! Now back to the real world for a couple more weeks. It's gonna be hard to go back... but the end is in sight! :)

relaxing weekend... part 2

Since I wrote my weekend post while I was at school, I couldn't post the pictures I took. So here a go...

The Youth Symphony! So much bigger than when I was in it.
The concertmaster of the Peoria Symphony played a solo

Babysitting Miss Bridget. Check out her eyes... this tends to be a very typical look. :)
Uncle Adam getting some snuggle time.
She looks very concerned....
Kendra loving this.

Michelle wasn't sure what to do with her. :) (and yes... look at those eyes again!)

Ellie was there too, but for some reason I didn't take a picture of her... I guess she's not special enough. ;)

I get to spend the night with Miss Bridget tonight! Let's hope she lets Aunt Wendi get some sleep .. :)

(You can tell someone's a break... you never get this many updates in 2 days. :)

relaxing weekend...

Ahhh. This weekend was marvelous. I did absolutely no homework, except for just a tad on Sunday afternoon.

Friday morning I slept in and did stuff around the house. In the afternoon I went to Lori's scrapbooking workshop.. which I haven't been to in months and months. I only got a few sides done, but it was still worth going to.

I only stayed until dinner because I had to quick rush off to the Youth Symphony concert with miss Holly. I was so glad she decided to go with me... a violin student after my own heart. :)
I just had to go because I miss being in orchestra.
It was good to see all my fellow stand partners, and to listen to all the orchestras again. Some people saw me and were like "awww, it's an alumni!" I guess that should make me feel old...

Anyways, they did wonderful, and it kind of inspired me to pull out my violin again, which I sure haven't done much since school started. :/

After I took Holly home, I went over to Jenna's to hang out....since we never do that anymore... so sad. :( It was good just to hang out and not have anything pressing to do.

Saturday afternoon I cleaned @ congregate living...


In the evening I got to babysit Bridget. I thought I would get her to myself, since my parent's were gone the whole weekend and weren't around. But then my friends came over for our bible study... and I had to share her. She was really perfect the whole time, as usual. She was especially happy after messing her pants for the first time in 4 days and spitting up all over me. :) Surprisingly, I got quite a bit of time with her... even though everyone had to take their turn(s).

For some reason we stayed up way to late talking. It was kind of nice to have my whole family gone... we didn't have to worry about being too loud and all that stuff. :)


Sunday afternoon it was just Adam and I home. I worked on my paper a little bit, while Adam built a fire in the fireplace. Then we both took naps in the living room with the warm fire... it was so great.


I invited myself along with my brothers over to Phil and Jessica's on Sunday night. They ordered pizza.. but I was the only one there to really eat it right away, because Lukerz got a deer! Good job, buddy! He got this one with a shotgun and another one earlier this season with his bow! So Adam had to go help him take it to the locker and such. They came over to the Fritz's later.
We just sat around and talked... but it was fun.

I kind of felt like I was being a bumm the whole day, and really the whole weekend. But it was sooo great. :)


In my usual 3 hour night class tonight, we got out in just 45 minutes. YES! So now I'm in the library waiting on Jenna, who I carpool with on Monday nights. I'm supossed to be writing my paper that is due tomorrow morning.. which I was for a while, but I thought maybe writing this post would get me in the mood for my paper and inspire me.
Let's hope it works.

So just one more late night of homework, and it's Thanksgiving break!

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving! Remember to count your blessings!

FYI

I removed my anonymous comment feature, because I'm tired of getting anonymous comments that I do not know who they are from... and will never tell me.


So... if you have a hotmail or gmail account, there's usually no problem with leaving a comment.

Don't let this stop you from leaving comments, please!!! :)


-Wendi

Crazy Weekend

Wow. What a weekend.

It was awesome, but also very stressful.


Everything with the invite went surprisingly well. Praise God!

We got to the fellowship hall at 10am on Saturday and got busy making 11 large pans of lasagna.. which is equal to 22 9X13 pans. Thank goodness for everyone's talented math skills with figuring out the proportions. :)
We worked all day until the guests started arriving at 2ish. While everyone went to different work projects, I stayed back and helped with the health kits at the Fellowship Hall. After working on those for just a bit, I found myself back in the kitchen helping the mom's out. I don't know what we would have done without them.. they did the things we had no clue how to do...like using the ovens and baking the lasagnas.... so thank you ladies! :)

We ate right on time (actually a little earlier)... and fed approx. 190-200 people!! What a turnout! We were planning on 200....and so we really had the perfect amount of food left.

The singing and the speaker were great.

We left the fellowship hall pretty soon after... because I was slightly shot. Ellie and I kept 8 girls at Ellie's house, which was super fun. I finally got to meet some people!

I loved how a minute after I met Amber she said to me, "yea, I know you.. because I read your blog!" Hahaha. :) I know you're reading this right now Amber! :)
I got to meet a few other really fun girls, too. I just wish I could have had more time to get to know them better!

On Sunday..church was great, singing at the nursing home was good, and dinner/snack went well.

The only downside of the weekend was my tests that I knew were coming up on Tuesday... and and the rest of my friends and I were in the kitchen most of the time, and didn't get to meet many people until Sunday.. or really at all.

So thrilled the weekend went great. Hopefully now we will actually get invited to some places!


I am also SUUUUPPPPEEERRR happy my hard week it over! I don't think I've ever been so stressed out/overwhelmed. Although I only had a couple of hours of sleep two of the nights... I survived. Only with God's grace and COFFEE! :)
Now all I have to do is wait, wait, wait, for my test scores.

SO now I only have one more day of class and a paper due... and it's THANKSGIVING BREAK! And then just finals left, and I have a over a month off for CHRISTMAS BREAK! :)

YAY! I CAN do this! :)

Procrastination

Yep, that's my name. At least it should be. (just ask my mother...)

Why am I writing this post at the moment? ....

You guessed it.. because I'm procrastinating.


This semester has been crazy as far as everything being due on the same day. Every time I just think... ok, I just need to get through two tests and a paper due on this one day. BUT... it's happened every time this semester for 3 of my classes. So frustrating. (If that didn't make sense, basically I'm saying it's crazy)

The bad thing is... since I procrastinate... that when you have everything due on the same day, and you do it last minute... there's A LOT due last minute, and it's impossible to accomplish.

You'd think I'd learn my lesson.... but I haven't really.

Tuesday I have 3 things on the same day, and I've known this for a couple of weeks now. But.. I didn't really start studying until.... today.


But, I guess I have all weekend, right?
um.. actually no.. because our young group is having an invite, and that will take all day Saturday & Sunday, and I also have to babysit most of the day on Friday night, and clean... and make food...

AHHH!! I'm not freaking out or anything.

Ok... well I'm going to go to class now and maybe getting some coffee...

and I am going to FORCE myself to study tonight.



Does anyone know if there is a cure for this disease????

My Niece

Ok, so I have to put a few more recent pictures of Bridget quick, and then in the next few days I'll update with something different.

But seriously... she is the so fun to talk and blog about. :)

Poor Heidi and Luke... I call them several times a week just to see what they're up to and then mention that it's time for some Aunt Wendi time. Then, about 10minutes later I show up at their door step asking to hold the little miss. Hopefully they'll tell me if I really start to drive them nuts..

Today I went over there and just held her for a couple hours while I did my homework. It was wonderful. :)

Visiting her in the hospital.

This is how Bridget made her first appearance at Grandma's/Aunt Wendi's house. Oh, and I rotated this picture, but it didn't really work.
I wish I could claim her as my own.

She looks so grown-up in this picture.... she is just so alert!

Hope you enjoyed the pictures. :) I know I did. :)

-Wendi Jo

Ain't Nothin' Like

There ain't nothin like... snuggling with your little niece after a looong few days of studying and tests.

Thank you, Jesus, for this little sweet pea in my life.

Bridget Ann

Bridget is so precious. Such a little miracle.

Here's my side of the story :) -

I had just gotten back from my early morning walk, and was going to get ready for school when I saw that my mom was dressed and ready for the day and making breakfast. I asked her what in the world she was doing up already, and she said... We're going to the hospital!! I was quite shocked... after all, it was 5 days early from this little girl's due date.

I immediately decided that I of course would skip class for the day. I took the fastest shower I've ever taken, but then we ended up taking our time anyway, because once Heidi got to the hospital she found out she wasn't dilated very far...even though she had been having contractions since 3am.
I was thinking about going to my first class after finding out that it could be a long day.... but I was already in my mode of not going to school, and I was too excited, so I didn't go. It was awesome to see that my morning class was canceled when I checked my email later! :) (If you can't tell, I felt like it was a pretty big deal to skip class because I've never done that before....)

Anyways. Poor Heidi was in labor for 13 long hours, with no epidural. I wasn't really sure what to do... I kind of just sat on the couch and searched the web for the dumbest things. Every once in a while I would feed her ice chips, or fan her, or time contractions. I've never seen anyone in labor... but I think Heidi did amazing! Things moved along very slowly, but then finally things picked up pretty quick. At 4:10pm, little Bridget Ann was born.

Everything went great, except Bridget had myconium fluid from her lungs. So when she was born, after Heidi held her for seriously just a few seconds for a picture, they had to put her on oxygen in the nursery for a couple hours. Thankfully her oxygen levels went way up really fast. We all just stood around in the nursery window watching the little peanut until we got to hold her. :)
After trying to wait patiently for her to get fed, and have a bath, we finally got to hold her at 8pm. Oh.. and sorry to all my friends, she is now my BFF. :)

2 of my favorite girls.
6#10 oz-- The perfect size.


She didn't cry at all when they were putting tubes down her trying to get the myconium out. She's just too perfect.
Finally, Daddy gets to hold her.


Adam is soo smitten by her! I've never seen him like this with a little baby. :)

Grandpa & Grandma Knapp

Grandpa & Grandma Pfaffmann
We decided that sounds super old. Grandma Pfaffmann is my grandma, who was like 94! :)


We're all so thankful for the safe and healthy arrival. This little girl is going to add a little spice to our family.

I can't seem to get enough of her. Every time I see a picture of her I just want to go visit her. :)

I don't have any pictures on here with her eyes open... but she has huge eyes, and they're almost always open. :)

That's all for now.. maybe more picture eventually.

Love,
The Proud Aunt Wendi.

I'm an Aunt!!!

Bridget Ann Knapp was born on Thursday afternoon at 4:10pm.

6 pounds 10 ounces, 19 inches long.

Mom and Baby are doing great!

She is the sweetest thing.... I am absolutely in love!

I will post more pictures and details later. Just thought I'd inform those who didn't know(even though I already feel like everyone knows :).

Baby Showers & My Weekend

The past couple of weeks we've had 3 baby showers for Heidi and little Miss Bridget. (For those who don't know... Bridget is my little niece, arriving hopefully in a couple weeks!)

The first shower was the church shower:

Then Heidi had a family shower.

With all the showers Hyde had, it kind of felt like she was getting married again. Except the gifts were way more fun and cute. :)

The Hostesses

Last Saturday I helped with the last shower. It went good... except that the egg casserole I made took forever to bake and we tried to put off eating as long as possible. It was still kind of runny when we served it though. :/ I told them that's what they get for being in on a shower with an 18 year old. :)

I never wrote about my weekend this week. It consisted of checking my test grades every hour online, going to bible study at Ellie's, hosting Heidi's shower, and the best part... going shopping and out to eat with Jenna and Adam.
We decided to do our shopping first before the malls closed, and then go out to eat. So at 10:00pm, this is what Jenna and I ate at Texas Roadhouse.

So healthy, I know. :) Surprisingly, I still made it to church early the next morning because mom and dad served lunch. :)

This weekend I have so much homework and a test next week... I am not sure why in the world I am sitting here updating my blog.

I get to go on my first Apple River trip with the young group. I think it will be a marvelous time. :)

Have a good weekend!

-Wendi Jo

Pictures!

Well, I'm just on this new computer messing around.. trying to download new pictures.

When I should be going to bed.

But anyways, I decided to put up a few pictures from this weekend, even though I didn't take many.

Lydia, Elise, and I ready to be waitresses for the evening on Saturday

Todd & Kandi

I love Kandi's grin in this one. :)
Little Miss Audrey is just oh, so sweet!

Some family...
Daddy's Girl.
Todd & Kandi telling two of the kiddos goodbye. I love how Hailey is pretty attached to Todd already. So cute.

Yep, that's all I've got for you.

Enjoy!