Valentines Day & Mice

Haha, the title sounds so romantic, doesn't it? :)
I'm sure you are all dying to know what we did for our first Valentines Day. :)

I decided to pick up Chinese on the way home from work because I'm been wanting it SO badly. Apparently Daniel was going to surprise me with that... but I kinda jumped the gun on that one. Whoops! At least he thought of it first!

So I picked up Chinese and we ate dinner, we did a very large stack of dishes that has been piling up, and then we went "trapping" together. :) Haha... we went and checked our mouse traps in the basement. I discovered one behind the dryer(and it was still alive!) while I was doing laundry, and Daniel found another one dead. Gag.... that took our number up to 5 in the basement since we've moved. Ugghhh. I do NOT want mice in the house, but welcome to the country I guess!!

We have been so busy this week, we haven't even sat down in our new living room since we've moved. So we sat and relaxed. Daniel decided not to do any studying or homework. It was soo nice! We don't have an evening like that very often these days!


Speaking of mice.... this morning I was not happy at all. I found mouse droppings by my basket of onions & potatoes in the kitchen. Mice... you can be downstairs, we don't really use it... but STAY AWAY from my kitchen!! Every time I opened the cubboards this morning I jumped back.

So today at lunch I went and bought 12 mouse traps. A lot of them will be going in the garage, hoping we catch them before they make their new home the kitchen.

I don't like cats, but I am VERY tempted to get one to live in the garage/outside. I know my nieces and nephews would love it if I decided not to show it any love. :) Plus Daniel's family has a lot of kittens right now so it'd be simple to just take one home with us.


So the adventures start as we live in our new(but old farm) house...

It's almost here!

Moving day is almost here! Tomorrow morning we get to move to a house! We are very excited. Last night we drove to the house to drop a load of stuff off, and we seriously saw about 40 deer out in the field right by our house. After we saw that, Daniel asked me if we could live there forever. Haha, I don't think I want to be in that house forever, but we can live in the country forever! :)

Anyway, last Saturday was the first day we had the house. Daniel worked a 16 hr shift that day, so Mom, Heidi, Kendra and I all cleaned and scrubbed the place.

 Literally scrubbed. Kendra and I got on our hands and knees on the concrete basement floor. Ugh. Let's just say that it hurt to kneel in church the next day!

 Heidi scrubbed the horrible looking shower/tub. She got it to look a lot better though! Thanks to Shaklee's scrub! :)

 And my mother..was a trooper. She cleaned all the carpets and also helped wipe down walls, base boards, etc.

To say I was tired that night is an understatement. It felt so good to get all the dirt out of that house though! It's probably the cleanest it will ever be!

Since I'm SO excited to post pictures of the new house, especially as I begin to decorate, I thought I better post a few pictures of our apartment. Sorry my apartment wasn't cleaner... I took these when we had already started to move a bit. And the decor is slacking, because I didn't think it was worth it for just a few months.

 Our bedroom- view from the door

 View 2 of our bedroom

 View 3- don't you love the ironing board? :)

 This room is the "office." The place where Daniel studies. It's also sort of our junk room...we put stuff there when we don't know what to do with it! Like I said it's sort of mess, my apologies!

 The living room- looking quite bare.

 Kitchen/living room-- don't judge me by my messy kitchen. :/

The kitchen again-this was taken at a different time when I didn't have as many dishes. :)

And the little tiny bathroom with our pinkish toliet. Something I will not miss. I am so excited for more counter space and a bigger mirror in our new bathroom.

So that's it for now folks! It might be awhile until you see another post. Lots of boxes to sort through, and we don't have internet at our house yet.

Christmas Day

Christmas Eve night we went over to my Mom & Dad's. It's been a tradition that Heidi & Luke spend the night, even with kids, so we spent the night too.

It's so much fun. Especially waking up in the morning with the kiddos and having brunch together.

The kiddos got stockings... I guess we're too old for those now. :) I love Bridget's face in this picture. She got a headband with a mistletoe hanging from it... you will see her with it on in nearly every picture I have of her! She loves the thing!

We all went to church together Christmas day morning, except Dad was sick, so he wasn't able to come. After church we had a late lunch of prime rib.

The whole fam. We ate lunch while the kids were taking naps. :) It was much more enjoyable that way! I'd say Dad looks pretty good in this picture for being sick!

After the 2nd big meal of the day, we opened presents with a fire in the fireplace. Ahhh, my favorite time of the year.

 Bridget with her new doll house that she was QUITE protective of. Especially from Carter. :)

 Mom framed a picture for Luke of his favorite time of the year...harvest time with Uncle Tom.

 Dad's new hat that Luke gave him. :)

 Adam gave me Crate & Barrel bowls that I LOVE! Haha, I also got folding chairs from my parents... oh the things you ask for when you have a house of your own!

 First Christmas together.

 Like I mentioned, she LOVED the hilarious headband.

 Oh this girl brings us so much JOY. She keeps us all smiling!!

It was a very FUN two days with family.

Although, like I mentioned, my Dad was sick with the flu. Unfortunately, he didn't enjoy our family Christmas very much. Almost my whole family got it after Christmas Day. Oh well, it was well worth it I suppose! :)

Leman Christmas

On Christmas Eve we went to Mom & Dad Leman's for lunch. It was such a GOOD lunch. We each brought a Chinese dish, which included several stir frys, crab ragoons, egg rolls, fried rice, all the works.

Like most Christmases, the day was full of eating, talking, games, and gifts. One thing that was different is we reenacted the Christmas story. Grandma Knapp had all the costumes(which is a lot) that she made for her grandkids to do this same thing every Christmas.  

 I had Shiloh's name for Christmas...I gave him a little piggy bank. He loved it so much he sleeps with it quite often. :)

 Here is the Nativity scene. We actually have a Mary & a Joseph, along with a baby! :)

 Fred & Jodi's family. Such a darling picture. Letty truly is a little angel!

 Robert & Mary's family

 Daniel & I in our costumes. I think we mostly dressed up for the pictures. ;)

 Grandpa was reading to the boys. This picture is SO typical!

 Me & Elisabeth. I am so blessed with such a wonderful sister-in-law! Can't wait for her to get married so we can do things together as couples! :)

 All the brothers except for Timothy

 Elisabeth & sweet little Asher

 Eating the great Chinese food!

Jodi crocheted all the boys slippers for Christmas presents. I'm pretty sure they all loved them!

It was of course a wonderful Christmas Eve. So fun to be in a new family and learn their traditions. Makes me excited to make OUR very own traditions when we have a family!

Blessed

Life has been busy and it's just about to get busier.

As most of you know, I work at an accounting firm in the bookkeeping department. Since the 1st of January we all hit the ground running.... and we have been ever since. We get to have all quarterly returns, 1099's and W-2's done by January 31st, and there's three of us in the bookkeeping department. The result of this? LOTS of overtime... more than I've ever worked in my life. We get to work every Saturday (speaking of, I'm on my lunch break right now :) and during the week the days are also very long.
After Christmas I got sick.... and I'm still fighting it. It's been almost 3 weeks and I'm still dealing with a terrible cough and a mild cold. So yeah, I'm still not quite to my energetic-self yet. It's made the over-time situation even more fun. :P
Through this busyness, Daniel has been wonderful... since he's on school break, he has more time than usual and has helped me with laundry, dishes, and everything else. It's sooo great to not feel quite as overwhelmed with the stuff at home. I have a fabulous husband!! So after January 1st it might calm down a little bit, but then tax season starts up! So that still means every Saturday! The biggest advantage to it all is all of the over-time pay. :) But really, I am so blessed to have a full-time job that is needing and wanting me to work more. An answered prayer!!  


This Monday, Daniel (well, sort of us...) starts a new journey. He starts nursing school at OSF. He had new student orientation on Thursday, and he is SOO excited. The nursing program might make us a little busier/stressed-out, I don't know yet. But the part that is so great is that Daniel is so excited to start and to learn. It's going to make him going through school so much easier for the both of us. It has been wonderful to have the first semester of our marriage to be more relaxed, since Daniel only took 1 college class. God truly had a plan for everything when we felt lead to begin our lives together.  


Today is our 5 month anniversary. Wow these last 5 months have FLOWN! It has truly been the best 5 months of my life. I couldn't be more thankful for the husband God gave me and what He has done in our lives. I feel incredibly blessed every single day. There's never a day that I don't feel that way!  


Our other news that I am SO thankful for, is that we are moving in 1 month!! We will no longer be living in the city...it is extremely convenient with school and work, but we are so excited to get to the country. I am SO ready to have a house!!
February 1st we get our rental house that we are renting from my dad and uncle. One week later, we are going to move! We'll be living down a gravel lane, with cows in the backyard. :) Right where Daniel feels at home! Heidi and Luke used to live there, and they did a TON of work to it, so it shouldn't need much paint or updating. Pretty much just the carpets cleaned!  


Like I said, God has truly BLESSED us!

A busy Christmas season

Before I give you a recap of our marathon of Christmases, we had lots of smaller events during this Christmas season. It's such a shame this time of the year is so busy, hardly being able to think of Christ's birth. But I do kinda love the busyness and all the time with friends and family that comes with this time of the year, and I'm always sad when it's over.

The weekend before Christmas was a busy one. Friday night I went to Brittany M's personal shower. It was a lot of fun, and there was lots of great ideas for some of my friends in the future. ;) Brittany is marrying someone from Roanoke which I am extremely excited about... finally one of my good friends will be there! Can't wait to see her twice a week! :)

Saturday was a busy one. I had maybe procrastinated with cleaning/making food for Saturday night when the "Core 4" as we used to call it, came over. So Saturday I got to do a lot of grocery shopping, cooking/baking, and lots of cleaning. Daniel is so good with helping me out though and I'm so thankful. He was the designated dish washer, and he dealt with me running around like crazy. We make a good team. :)

Here we all are in our little tiny kitchen. Our first official potluck, and the first time I had ever hosted an official potluck. :) Troy finally has a guy to keep him company, and now us girls have a little baby to fight over. :) Seth & Adam came over for a bit and crashed the party...which is who got to take this picture for us. :)

Little Cyrus...oh he is getting so big and is so so precious!

Kendra holding Cyrus

Sunday night Daniel & I had our own Christmas. We got some take-out food and ate at home. We just relaxed, opened presents, and watched a Christmas movie. It was wonderful. After church on Sunday's we always go to one of our parents, and we had never had a Sunday at home. So it was super nice to be able to do that for once.

The typical Christmas pose in front of tree. Our first Christmas together. :)

Stay tuned...

Friends

Although we are busy people, I( and Daniel does too, thank goodness!) love my friends and having them over. We don't do as well as we should, but it's always a good time when we do.

In November I had a "bridesmaids night." Although it turned out to be a few more than that, because not everyone could come. So it was just all(or most) of my good friends. We had tacos and just sat around and talked. And laughed a lot.

Some left before this picture was taken, so my apologies for those who didn't make it in the picture!

 Jenna, Kristin S, Elisabeth, Kendra & I

I think Daniel will be excited once some of my friends get married, and he's not the only guy. :)

Last week Katie May was in town and came over for an evening. The other Schick girls couldn't make it, so Adam joined us. I made dinner, chatted, and played "Ticket to Ride."

 Such a fun night, and so good to see my long lost cousin!!

Blessings!

Thanksgiving Weekend

Thanksgiving weekend was once again, a packed weekend. But so wonderful. It was so wonderful to have a 4 day weekend... I could take that all the time! It was so great to get so much done and spend so much time with family.

We went to Roanoke for church on Thanksgiving day. We had lunch with the Leman's, (just Daniel's siblings), and it was great to have the whole gang together. Plus Grandma & Grandpa Knapp.

 Shiloh & Letty. Awhh they are so precious.

 Little Asher, Robert & Mary's little baby. He is soo precious, and I got to hold him a lot. :) Made my day!

Waiting for the feast: Jodi, Mary, Gabe, Robert, & Shiloh 

 After all of the dishes were done, it was game time!

 Daniel with (almost) all of his brothers

 Mom L holding little Asher.

At about 4 we made our way to my parents house to spend time with my immediate family. They were together the entire day, but we only made it for dinner obviously. :)

 Dinner in the dining room. I wonder how long this will last... I think the kids will quickly get put in the kitchen. :)

 Us :)

 We brought the game of Settlers out. I forgot how much that game stresses me out. Actually one of our new favorite games is Ticket to Ride....and I get SO stressed out about that one. I'm not sure why...

I crack up at this picture every time I see it. Carter had pneumonia and RSV, so he had to get breathing treatments and certainly was not a fan. It was a 2 person effort.

 Little dolly, so precious.

 I just absolutely love this photo. So so precious.

So that was our Thanksgiving day. Lots of food and family. So perfect, I wouldn't want to spend it any other way!

Friday Daniel had to work, so I pulled out the Christmas decorations I had, and also went shopping for more. :) I got a Christmas tree, second hand, which I was thrilled about! I'm not sure if Daniel was too thrilled about it however. :) It is a little large for our apartment, I'll just say that. :) I'll have to take a picture. :)

So Friday I spent the day trying to get my house organized and my tree up. But I did make time to go visit Ellie and baby Cyrus. Oh my word. SO precious.

 Cyrus Matthew

 Ellie & Cyrus

It was so good to go hang out with them for the morning. Ah, I think they need visitors! :)

Saturday was spent doing thank you notes. Yes, I'm STILL doing them. I think I have about 100 more to go! They will not end, I'm telling you! I will be so excited when they're done. Maybe my house won't get so neglected!

Saturday night we went hunting. We didn't see any deer, but we did see a beautiful sunset. The picture doesn't do it justice.

 We had a siblings night at Fred & Jodi's that night. We ordered pizza and played games. It was a lot of fun. And of course Letty was as cute as ever, and loved having people over!

Saturday night we stayed all night at my parents, and went to church with them on Sunday. Haha... yeah, that visit was a little belated. We hadn't both been in Washington since our wedding. Whoops. I sure hope we can do better in the future. Once Daniel doesn't have to work any more Sunday's it will be a lot easier to make it there and other places too.

Sunday was spent with my family, more games, and going out to eat in the evening. With Bridget & Carter....never a dull moment at the restaurant with them!

I'm so excited it's the Christmas season. I love it. I love everything about it, specifically listening to Christmas music at work everyday and sitting around at home with all of the greens/lights in our living room. Haha, Daniel told me he feels like he lives in a forest. :) Whoops. Maybe all of these decorations will look better once we're in a house and not an apartment. :)

Hope you all get your Christmas shopping done! I haven't started! :/