Noah Frederick

Today Daniel & I got to go meet our new little nephew, Noah Frederick. He was on born on Tues, Nov 26th to Fred & Jodi. Oh how precious he is!! 

Since Daniel works at the hospital and was working when Noah was born, he got to go visit them during his break and when he got off work. He was pretty proud of the fact that he was the first one to hold him besides Fred & Jodi. :) I was slightly jealous, I just love newborns. It has been so long since I've held a little one. I was so excited at work all day. :) 

Us with little Noah

Proud mom & dad

 I'm so excited to watch this little guy grow up. If he's half as cute as his sister, he'll be alright. ;)

 Oh, and holding him at church will be a plus too. ;)

Stuffed Squash

I don't normally post recipes on here... but I recently made a delicious Stuffed Squash I thought I'd share! When you have all those leftover squash from the garden, it's a great and easy way to use them up!

Stuffed Squash

1 cup shredded zucchini

1/2 cup crushed saltine or butter-flavored crackers

1/3 cup ketchup

1 egg

1-1/2 tsp dried minced onion

1/2 tsp garlic salt

1/2 tsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

3/4 pound ground beef

2 large acorn squash

In a medium bowl, combine the first nine ingredients. Add beef; mix well. Cut squash in half; remove and discard the seeds. Fill with meat mixture. Place in a dish. Cover and bake at 400 degrees for 1 hour. Uncover and bake for 10 minutes. 

**Some of my own changes: I did not use acorn squash, I used butternut and it worked just as well. I also didn't put in crackers, and it tasted just fine. 

Believe it or not, Daniel actually loved it! He even ate the leftovers. This meal was so fast, I even had time to make it in the morning before work. 

Joseph, I thought of you while we were eating this. :) 

Carter's Bday & Hunting

This post is a little behind... Carter's birthday was on Oct 17th. His birthday party was the next day, with a little bit of a pirate theme. Mr. Carter is 2 years old, and is so busy that my pictures really aren't the greatest. He doesn't hold still and pose like his sister... :)

I love his face of joy with the sword  he got  :)

Heidi told us to get Carter some tractors... he's around his sister too
 much and needs to learn how to be a boy :) 

Tool Set...

So between a sword, a tractor & wagon, a tool set, and some more trucks, he should be set... all ready for his boy training. :) Poor little boy if Heidi's next one is a girl.. he's doomed! ;) Oh he's so sweet though... we'll love him no matter what :)

Big sister had to keep her distance so Carter could enjoy his presents

That same weekend, Daniel & I went hunting for the first time this year. The stand had me a little freaked out...it's higher than it was last year. After being in it for a few hours I relaxed a little bit. But I did make Daniel buy a safety harness. The stand was actually kind of nice because we got to sit by each other and not in different stands like we had to last year. 

I don't mind going hunting with Daniel every once in a while, but.. for as much as he likes to go, I've told him to go by himself. We never see anything when I'm out there anyway... I must scare them all away. 

Apple Cider Making

Saturday morning, Daniel's family got together to make Apple Cider. It was a cold, windy day, but with several layers on and rice warmers in my coat, I survived. :) I had a pretty easy job... going through the apples to make sure there were no bad spots or rotten ones. 

Gabe & Mary

Dad L & Daniel

 The little boys had fun playing in the leaves.

I'm not sure what the total count of gallons we ended up with... but just us alone took 6 gallons of cider to take home for two of us! Enough to share with others, and enough to put in the freezer! It was a fun thing to do... if it would've been warmer outside it would've been even better! :)

We got home in pretty good time Saturday afternoon from making cider because Daniel had studying to do. I did my housewife duties... laundry, cleaning, and making food. Friday night I went to my mom's and made a whole bunch of food for the freezer. I am so excited about this... I can come home from work and already have dinner made! We did most of it on Friday night, but I wanted to make a few more things, which I did on Saturday night. Since we got an extra hour of sleep that night, after all my duties were done, I was able to relax before going to bed. It felt good to get so much done though. I LOVE my Saturday's at home...catching up before I start another work week!

Sunday my parents served lunch... what a perfect weekend for that! It didn't even feel early. :) I felt like I talked to people more than I helped.. sorry Mom! There was a lot of extra people there because of baptisms, so I couldn't stop talking. :) 

Hannah, Marisa, and Evan & Elisabeth came over after church since they were there for baptisms. Hannah took some pictures of us for our Christmas card. Our trees down our lane are gorgeous right now... but I guess you'll have to wait to see those pictures until you get our Christmas card. :) Zach came over later, and we all went out to eat at Red Robin. They're known for their burgers... but since I am eating gluten free now, I was assuming I would eat a healthy salad. But when I saw that they have gluten free buns... I couldn't resist, I got a burger. And it was delicious. 

It was all Daniel's Knapp cousins his age + Hannah :)

Evan & Elisabeth and Marisa came over afterwards... we played an interesting game of Scattegories. I love that game... I got to see how creative Daniel is...it was hilarious. I've never seen that side of him. Oh, and we were reminded that Elisabeth & Daniel are siblings... so funny. Some things never change. It was a busy, but good weekend as always.

Weekend in Chicago

What a wonderful weekend it was. Friday afternoon I got to leave work at 3:00 because they were cleaning the carpets. What a bummer... ;) It was wonderful, I got to start the weekend early! It worked out perfectly that Schick farms were harvesting the corn right by our house that afternoon. Since Luke runs the auger wagon, I went out and rode with him for a bit. It kind of cracked me up watching him, and I can't believe he's so old already.. 

What a rough job...

He told me he's getting fat just sitting in the tractor all day every day this fall. Ha... yeah right. I don't think there's an ounce of fat on him. :)

After riding with Luke for a while, I went home and quickly packed up my things and Daniel and I headed to Troy & Ellie's for the weekend. Oh what a ride it was there...I drove Daniel's car. It's stick shift, and he's trying to get me to learn it. I really have no desire to, but since we're taking it to Florida in December, I really DO need to learn how to drive it, and Florida is my only motivator at this point. I did just fine on interstate... but when it came to town, I did not do so well... let's just say I got stuck in the middle of an intersection and just kept killing it. I had a minor panic attack... after finally getting out of the intersection before the light turned red, I switched seats with Daniel, and we arrived safely at 8:30. :) Nathan and Michelle came Friday night too. We stayed up fairly late (for us anyway..) talking. 

Saturday morning Seth and Kendra & Aaron joined us. We went and did some shopping at Cabela's and World Market... then headed to Woodfield mall. We went to the Cheesecake factory for lunch. It was a long wait, but it was very much worth it. Sooo delicious.

The group minus me :)

And... the core 4 group... we're all couples now! :)

 We were at the mall until about 4, and then headed back to Troy & Ellie's. Darcy, Charity, Larissa, and Kayla S all came for supper that night too. It was so good to hang out with everybody... let's just say I laughed so hard pretty much the entire night my stomach hurt. I think we were all getting pretty slap happy by the end of the night...I think everyone would agree they had a good time. :)

Only us and Nathan and Michelle stayed at Troy & Ellie's(same with Fri night) but on Sunday morning everyone came back for breakfast. Daniel gave Cyrus a bath on Sunday morning... I thought it was so cute, especially since Cyrus loves his bath!

We all went to church in Belvidere, and got to see Troy's family which I always love being with them. We went and sang at a nursing home after church, and then went to one of the ministers house for pizza afterwards. We headed back home around 6:00 or so. Daniel drove home which was much more relaxing than me trying to figure out stick shift. :)
It was such a wonderful weekend... Daniel and I both talked about on the way home how we are so blessed to have such wonderful couple friends, and how we all get along so well. Can't wait for our next potluck! :)

Oh... and Cyrus had a big brother shirt on when we got there Friday night. :) Baby #2 is on the way for Troy & Ellie! :)

Summer Catch Up

So I recently found an entire folder of pictures from this Summer that I never posted. They aren't incredibly exciting pictures, just random happenings from the summer. 

We had our first out of town potluck at Ryan & Ashley's over Memorial day. Kyle & Heather couldn't make it though! L to R: Ryan & Ashley, Us, and Brooke & Kory.

I surprised Daniel for his birthday with friends at Lin's Buffet. I was thankful that his friends were willing to come! But I wasn't super thrilled with the restaurant... Daniel had been wanting to go there since I knew him... so that's why I chose the place(GAG!). But thankfully, as we were leaving, he said it wasn't as good as he remembered... and that we probably don't need to go back there. Whew, I was glad to hear that. :)

In July we hosted our out of town potluck. On Saturday afternoon we went canoeing on the Mackinaw and then went back to our house for dinner and the evening. We had 2 couples stay at our house overnight, which we had never done before....so glad they were easy and didn't mind that we ALL had to share the one little bathroom that we have. :) We went to church together, but they left after that.

Kory & Brooke

Kyle & Heather

Ryan & Ashley

The same weekend that we hosted the potluck, we had Daniel's family over on Sunday for the afternoon/evening for July birthdays. This was right after Elisabeth was engaged, so we got to do invitations. :)

It was Michael 7th birthday! 

Newly Engaged

One summer evening we babysat for Robert & Mary. It was fun.. playing with the boys. We brought pizza and ice cream cones... which were a hit. I love the pictures I captured with the cones. I hope Mary was able to get the stains out of their clothes. :) 

Shiloh

Gabe

Asher

Precious picture of Asher & Uncle Daniel

On a week night, mom had June/July birthdays at her house. My pictures aren't incredibly good and are sort of similar, but here they are anyway. :)

Adam & Carter

The girls

Adam & his sisters

My siblings...love them all!

Dessert time!

Ok, I can officially feel caught up now from summer. :) We were so busy this summer, I could not keep up with posting everything. So glad life has calmed down a bit this fall!

Yay!!!

Sooo.... my best friend is engaged!!! Kendra got announced today to Aaron Funk! 

Oh how I am so excited and happy for them. It has been so neat to see God work in Kendra's life, and I have loved being there every step of the way. Maybe I should say WE have loved being there, Daniel and I really have been blessed by her as a friend (Daniel also gets to work with her..). Now we get to be blessed by both of them, and I know without a doubt we will be. I know they will be blessed by following God's will for their lives. 
Some things that are super great? She's not moving far away at all, we're going to be in the same stage of life, annddd... I know we're going to love being with them! They came over last night for a little bit, and it was already good. :) {By the way, I did not take this picture... I stole it off facebook, because Kendra did not allow me to take one last night!}
Love and prayers to you both, Kendra, as I've told you a thousand time over! :)

Aunt Again!

As suspected.....I'm going to be an aunt again! :) These t-shirts were a "present" at Bridget's party. So excited to have a baby  to hold  again when I'm with my family. If the baby is as cute as these two... I'm sure it will be deeply loved by this auntie (and the rest of the family, I'm sure! :)!

(and yes, they would not cooperate for a picture...)

After Bridget found out there was a baby in her mommy's tummy.... she asked me if I had one in mine too (she asks that question to me quite often, actually...) Nope, sorry little miss! :) Oh she keeps us smiling!

Congrats Hyde & Luke!

Bridget's 3!

Sunday night was Miss Bridget's 3rd birthday party. Oh how this little girl has grown up so much within the last year! She was quite thrilled about her party, talking about it for weeks. When we got there she opened the door for us and told us "welcome to my party!" Heidi had her favorite meal- pizza, chips, pink lemonade, and cupcakes. All which was her pick. :) Supper didn't last long, as she was quite anxious to open her gifts.

Her cheese for the camera cracks me up.

Every gift she opened was "AWESOME!" She is at the perfect age to enjoy a party like this! 

Bridget is SUCH a girly girl. She got a Cinderella dress from Uncle Adam & Luke, and I gave her the accessories.. a tiara, necklaces, bracelets, pink sparkly princess shoes, a wand... oh she was in her glory! Except the wand, I think she thought it would really work. She was saying "bippity boppity boo".. and trying to turn Heidi into a frog.  Sorry Bridget...it doesn't work like it did in the Cinderella movie. :)

She was so excited she couldn't stand still for a picture!

Cupcake time! 

Carter wanted everything of Bridget's... poor little buddy! Your birthday is in a couple of weeks!

He LOVES eating ice cream with "Papa" as he calls him!

My hubby and I... matching with our stripes. :)

Happy Birthday Miss Bridget... you have brought so much JOY to our family! You are the only 3 year old I know with SO much personality!