Telling Our Families

Telling My Brother, Tia, Gramma Kathy, Aunty Tracy, Mark, Aunty Wendy and cousin, Mikayla

Friday, September 21st

For all of these people we did the same thing..
My mom usually started things off by saying. "We went geocaching today and found this geocache. You aren't suppose to take them but this one was so cool we had to take it and show you."

I didn't catch most of the big moments (would have been too obvious) but I did get Justin and Tia's reaction and Gramma Kathy's.

Yup.. Tia got it! :)

Then they said "We were just talking about this!" 

Apparently they were talking about me getting pregnant. 

Gramma and Addison's turn

Yup... Gramma figured it out! 

Telling the 5K Crew 

Saturday, September 22nd

I had another surprise up my sleeves..

We did a 5K on Saturday, our 2nd annual family 5K.

I told my family and some friends through my outfit..

Here is the only reaction we got on camera, Aunty Jodi's

We were also able to tell Noah's family and some of my high school friends who were also at the race!

Over the course of Saturday and Sunday we told a large portion of my family. We told most of them by showing them the pictures.

It was so fun telling my Great-Grandma she was going to be a Great-Great-Grandma!

Telling Ben's Sisters and our far-away friends and family

Monday, September 24th - Saturday, October 6th

You've probably already seen this one!

For the special people in our life who we couldn't tell in person we sent this silly little video! 

Then after sharing the news with our close family and friends we moved on to sharing our Baby news on Facebook.

Telling Our Parents

Knowing Ben and I you must have guessed we found a fun way to announce Baby H's arrival.

How We Told Ben's Parents

Friday, September 14th

We invited them to dinner. Ben made a geocache using white duct tape and an empty peanut butter jar. I edited a few pictures and Ben stuck them inside. He went to Lowell hours before we were heading there for dinner and hid the geocache across from the restaurant. The plan was to look for the geocache/share our news and then go to dinner where we could really talk about the baby and pregnancy. With a late start I was really getting nervous that it would be dark before we were able to go geocaching. When we got there the guys saw how busy the restaurant was so they wanted to put our names down first. They said it would be a 10-20 minute wait. This was perfect! We walk outside and start talking about geocaching and the hostess comes out and says our table is ready. Ben and I can’t freak out and instead go sit down at our table.

Ben and I tried to have a silent conversation where we decided we need to do this NOW. It will be dark when we leave the restaurant and then we wouldn't have time to discuss the news. So Ben has an awkward conversation with the waitress who awkwardly says it’s okay for us to leave for 10 minutes. We quickly headed out and in the direction of the geocache. Ben was taking the lead and I had to remind him to let his parents do it. They walked around and around until Ben practically pointed at the geocache when dad pulled it out. He opened it as mom looked on. The first picture that was pulled out was of the pregnancy test with the words Baby H due to arrive in April. I don’t think it hit until they pulled out the second picture of my baby bump with the words Week 11 on it. I have a priceless photo of dad’s surprised face. Hugs were exchanged and I think his parents were in shock. Many questions and stories were shared at dinner! It was a nice time to catch up on all things BABY! After we left we stopped at McDonalds for a celebratory whippy dip! 

The geocache

Inside

Ben's parents looking for the geocache.

I love these next few photos!

Processing... 

They figured it out!!! 

Telling My Parents (and cousin Noah)

Friday, September 21st

Ben and I traveled to my hometown for my Aunt and Uncle's surprise 40th wedding anniversary party. This was perfect because I would be 12 weeks pregnant and was comfortable telling my family. This would be the only time until Christmas that I would get to see them and it was important to me to tell them in person. We got into town around 2 but my mom worked until 3 and my dad worked until 5. We spent that precious hour sneaking behind the Fire Station (my dad is a firefighter!) to hide the geocache and mark it in our GPS. From 3-5pm we carefully brought up that we discovered a geocache behind the fire station while looking online and then later mentioning we wanted to find it and even later still mentioning my mom, Ben, myself and cousin, Noah, should meet up with my dad and find it. 

After some convincing we all went to the Fire Station to meet up with my dad. My dad took the lead and he quickly found the geocache and soon my mom found it too. They waited until Noah found it before taking it down. They let Noah open up the geocache. He pulled out the photos and said something like," due to arrive in April?" Then he flipped through the photos. My dad quickly figured it out and got super smiley and stared at my mom. My mom didn't hear Noah and instead saw a picture of a baby bump (but my head was covered by another photo). It took her some time before she saw Baby H on the photo when she squealed and hugged me crying. Lots of tears and lots of hugs continued for awhile. My mom later said that she saw the baby bump and thought it was really cute someone put that in the geocache.. haha little did she know!

Getting ready to look for the geocache.

Ben and Noah preparing to go hunting!

My dad found it right away! 

Do you see it?

He was so surprised no one had noticed it since they park right there.

That's because it was only there for one hour!

Noah found it! 

Noah opening up the geocache. 

I think they figured it out!!! 

Priceless moments caught on camera!

Goofy Little Video

A fun little video Ben and I made. 

Enjoy!

SHMILY Part 2

Remember SHMILY? 

If not read up on SHMILY here. 

Ben and I still take turns hiding our two little penguins in varies locations around our home to surprise one another and to remind each other just "how much I love you."

The penguins hung out in Ben's end table for awhile until I took them out and rehid them. Since then the  penguins have been moving all over!! 

Tonight I was reminded just how awesome my husband is and just how much he loves me!

After a long {not so good} day at work I came home and found this in the fridge...

Ben is too good to me!! He seriously rocks my socks off ALL the time! 

Thanks honey! 

Ben has been BUGGING me because he can't find one of the penguins. It has been almost a week.

To test him to see if he even reads my blog {I think he quickly scans it...} I am giving him a BIG hint! 

Check your pockets Ben.... 

Part 2

Last week I wrote about the closet cleaning/purging that occurred a few weeks ago. Two weeks ago Ben and I made a trip to IKEA. We have a running list of items we want from IKEA and Ben made the decision to start updating our bedroom. I was always in the mindset of... it is the room people don't see so we don't need to do anything to it.. WRONG! It is probably the most important room in our home. It is where you relax in the evening, the last thing you see and the first thing you see in the morning. The bedroom should be a place of relaxation and order. A while back we decided we will eventually turn our bedroom into a sea of greys, purples and white.. but here is the beginning stages of our bedroom redo.

We bought two new night stands for our bedroom. They sat in our office for a good portion of a week until I put them together one night when Ben was working. I rearranged the room, cleaned it and put it all back together before Ben got home!

Just a reminder of what our bedroom looked like..

Before

During

Putting together Ben's surprise! 

I first pulled everything out of the cabinets. There was a lot! Everything found a home except for a pile of Ben's things and our extra comforter. 

We crammed a lot in those cabinets! 

Everything in Ben's drawer. 

My drawer. 

My side is nearing completion! 

Love Love Love! 

Eventually we are getting matching lamps with purple lamp shades for our night stands. 

My tiny little drawer. Fits everything I needed! 

Half way! 

A sneak peak under our bed. Two long totes (filled with guest pillows) and Gregory resides here as well. I think Justin is going to be Gregory's new owner. 

Sneak peak at another bedroom project. Notice anything funny? Any guesses as to what we are doing with our head board? 

Here is a BIG hint! 

Ben's latest woodworking project. 

I got distracted... 

Hours later and here is where I am at with the room.

(pictures taken the next day)

Still trying to find a home for the comforter and cabinet. 

Small changes but that is more than we have done in this room so we are happy! 

It is the start to something great! 

(sorry for the delay in part 2.. school is starting tomorrow and life got crazy!)

Beautiful Soul

Our dear friend, Lauren, has 3 younger siblings. The 2nd oldest Meghan, has been mentioned a couple times on our blog because she is a cancer survivor.

I mentioned her here and here but her battle with cancer took place before I started this blog. I had only met Meghan twice before I found out that she had bone cancer. I took the news quite hard. My friendship with Lauren was growing so I felt extra connected to Meghan and after losing my Uncle, cancer was a sensitive topic for me. 

Meghan is an inspiration - not because she survived cancer but HOW she survived. Her complete trust in God at such a young age inspired me to grow closer to Him. About a week ago Meghan received the surprise of her life when Rob Bliss secretly worked with Meghan's school and others to create a two-story tall volleyball court on Lake Michigan to celebrate her! 

Grab some tissues and check out this beautiful video of a beautiful young woman. If you are interested check out the scholarship page at the bottom to support Meghan's dream of becoming a children's nurse. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiMZiWeSHE8

The college fund has been started here: http://gogetfunding.com/project/meghan-s-scholarship-fundraiser

Thanks for reading! I'm so excited to see what God has in store for Meghan! 

Date Night

I don't cook. I mean I do... just not often. I don't get home until 6:00pm most nights and Ben gets home a few hours earlier. For this reason Ben has taken on the role of family cook! Ben is a great cook! He can look at what is in the kitchen and make some random meal without referring to a recipe. Every time he whips up something it. is. delicious. I on the other hand am not as adventurous. I stick to the same recipes/meals so it really is ideal that Ben cooks. Occasionally Ben gets into a project so I make dinner instead of tearing him away from the project. 

Ben started cooking one night (about a month ago) but got distracted with cleaning his car. I took over and finished the meal and had everything laid out for him. He was surprised to see I took over and was even more surprised when he saw I grabbed a few beers out of the fridge. 

On the menu:

Lake Superior White Fish with Lemon Pepper Seasoning

Red Skinned Potatoes drizzled in EVOO and random spices (pepper, garlic, cumin, etc.)

Beans from our 2011 garden. 

Berry Weiss Beer

I can't forget to mention the beautiful flower we picked up at the Farmer's Market. 

After dinner we got back to our crazy lives but it was nice to just sit and relax for 20 minutes. We've been so busy that if we do get to eat a meal together it is usually a super fast one. 

Belated Anniversary

Remember our Anniversary? Well within the week we got a chance to celebrate our 2nd anniversary! It wasn't the day I imagined because we decided to celebrate our anniversary on a whim. Ben was scheduled to work but at the last minute they had a low amount of kids so he didn't have to. I was suppose to spend the day in Lansing for some one on one training time in the Department of Education but that got cancelled so we decided to celebrate! I planned on pulling out some of the crafts I made last year but no time! Like our honeymoon and our 1st anniversary - Ben planned the day! (Prepare yourself for a long post!)


We started at...

The hospital for Ben to meet the man I spent our anniversary waiting for! 

Okay this is super cute.. I love their little grins!

We then went to John Ball Zoo. We haven't been there in years and Ben hadn't been back since his last day of work. Ben worked there for three summers and built quite a few things that you can see as you wander around in the zoo. 

A lot had changed but many of our favorite animals could still be seen!

Ben is almost as tall as a Kangaroo! 

Me.. not so much... 

I loved these little guys! I just wanted to jump in and cuddle with them. 

We hung out with the birds - and didn't get pooped on!

We took a cute picture under here many years ago...
2007

(pre-beard days)

2012

Lazy bear

Baboon, he wasn't into entertaining that day... 

Reminded me of Puss In Boots - sweet innocent face!

This little guy had ADHD! He was HILARIOUS to watch!

Ben saved the best for last!! PENGUINS!

Our day continued with dinner at The Winchester. 

I had the Chicken Pesto - grilled hormone free chicken breast with sun dried tomato pesto and sliced portabella mushroom on a Nantucket Bakery Vienna roll with a Tiramisu Martini! 


Ben had a Tuna Dish with sesame seed encrusted tuna over wasabi and sushi rice with a local beer!


Both dishes were delicious. 


It was clear during dinner that we didn't want the night to be over quite yet. We debated a few different options.








In the end we decided that we really didn't want to spend the extra money at Buffalo Wild Wings (we talked about getting some wings to share and dessert) so the option we looked into was going to see a movie. We decided nothing sounded appealing. In the end we decided to run to a RedBox and look at movies there. We had never done that before. We picked out a movie and enjoyed the comfort of our own home.


We rented..



We Bought A Zoo!


WE HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS MOVIE! LOVED IT! This movie was the perfect end to our 2nd Anniversary!

This year we moved into our apartment, Ben and I both got new jobs, we furnished a large portion of our apartment, made incredible progress on our banking goals, bought a family ready vehicle, watched all the LOTR and Star Wars movies, fed ourselves throughout the winter with food we grew, and most importantly continued to learn about one another and grow in our relationship. Here's to Year 3!