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!

Weekend Post- No Pictures!

This weekend was a good one. Honestly, every weekend is, no matter what we do or what our plans are. I try not to wish my life away, but I (actually we both do) live for the weekends.... The weekends are what get me through the week at work. I don't really see Daniel much during the week, but the weekends I get to. I get behind with housework and laundry during the week, and weekends are a time to catch up. Plus weekends always involve family and friends.

Sadly, I don't have any pictures from the weekend so I decided to at least write about it. 

Friday night Daniel was working, so Jenna and I decided to hang out for once! It's terrible how little I've seen her! Jamie & Adam ended up joining us, so it was the 4 of us... just like old times, hanging out at the Schick's house. We went out to eat at La Fiesta, went bike riding(made a stop at Jake & Morgans like we used to..), and hung out and watched a movie. It truly felt like old times; I even stayed up past midnight! :) I always love hanging out there! 

Saturday was work, work, work. I cleaned, organized, and cooked all day because we had rotating potluck on Sunday night. I felt so accomplished when I went to bed. It was nice that we were both home all day, and didn't go anywhere!

Sunday we went to W-ton for church because my Uncle Rob & Aunt Lily served lunch. We went on an extremely empty Sunday, not even my parents were there. So I guess we'll be going again soon since the most important people weren't there to enjoy us. ;) 

Sunday evening we hosted our first rotating potluck. It went well I would say! We had a great group of people, and two of them I had never met before...so it was so good to get to know them. That is why I love rotating potluck...I think most of the people I can actually talk to in church are people I met at potluck. It was fun to use all of my china, goblets, and nice silverware for the first time. I loved making the table look pretty. My only problem was that I didn't have enough oven space and I was making potatoes and baked apples.... so I had to fill the pans to the brim, which made them cook slower. They had a tough time finding our house (surprise, surprise..), so they were all a little late. They apologized, but I was so thankful they were! I think the apples may have been a little crunchy the first time around. I'm not for sure... I didn't eat any. Anyway, I was so glad we decided to marinate and grill chicken, because I never would've been able to fit potatoes, apples, and meat in the oven. Lesson learned... have people bring the stuff that bakes, and I can do the stuff that is done ahead of time like salad and bread! 

So yes, I think I love hosting. LOVE it. I just wish I had more time and energy to do it. What I discovered this weekend is Daniel loves it too. He thought it was great using china and having a nice meal. :) So of course that makes it even more exciting to do it. I'm so glad we got a table that has leaves in it, and it's not a problem to have 10-12 people around the table. 

So that was my weekend... sorry it's a boring post with no pictures. As I was looking through my summer pictures, I found a lot I had never posted about.... so stay tuned...