2009 Memories

2009 was a busy year as I continued my second year teaching second grade, we bought a new home, and Gil began working with a new client out of state.

I took my first trip to New York City to visit a friend in April.

The most exciting part of our year was moving from our apartment in Northville into our first home!

The house definitely kept us a lot busier than I had anticipated with all the little things like buying furniture, unpacking, and settling in. The bigger problems of home ownership kept us busy too, like redoing our entire basement only a couple of weeks after moving in!

But that's all behind us now. Life lessons, right?

We got in as much family time as possible with our busy schedules. Things were a lot easier when we all lived in the same city! This year was so fun watching my nieces get bigger and bigger.

Gil and I celebrated our first anniversary together (well, really almost 8 years but we had to start our count over when we got married) :).

I visited Gil in Seattle during one of his trips for work.
We celebrated the holidays with family in Grand Rapids.
It was hard to get a good picture with both babies. :)

And of course, we got to see our favorite pup in GR.
We finished off the year with a ski trip to Shanty Creek up North.
What will 2010 bring? Can't wait to find out!

Hope You Had a Lovely Christmas...

We did! It was great to see family and spend time in Grand Rapids, as always. I have some great pictures to post, but of course I did not bring the cord for the camera so that will have to wait.

Gil and I headed out to the mall to return some clothes and we were afraid of the crowds and lines but we lucked out and the mall was pretty quiet for a couple of days after Christmas!

After a ski trip up North this week (I think we're heading to Shanty Creek instead of Boyne now) we'll be back to our side of the state. I'm hoping to get a lot done around the house before I head back to school.

Check back in later this week for cute pictures of the babies! :)

Advice Please!

We have hardwood floors throughout most of our house. I like to keep them clean. I vacuum all the time and then once in a while, I steam the floors. That's been working for the most part. Except, how do you clean under the king sized bed?? I just can't reach that strip in the middle underneath the bed and the dust bunnies are taunting me. Feel free to share any tricks that I don't know!!

Kara Turns One!

Today we celebrated Kara turning one! She was such a cutie and cheerful the whole time! She got a lot of presents...including 3 dolls. I didn't get the doll memo and we got her a cute bathtub book/puppet set from Write Impressions in Royal Oak. I love that store. It's great for little gifts!


Grandpa B got her a huge train set, which I bet she'll love.

Kiki spent a lot of the party like this:

but she woke up later and was super cute and running all over the place.

It was a fun family day. Can't wait til Christmas!

Help My Classroom Receive a Leveled Library!

Here's a useful way to spend your Christmas money...help a classroom of second graders get a leveled library! Check out my proposal below at donorschoose.org:

We Can Pick "Just Right" Books!

Christmas Vacation...

starts now! Our Polar Express party day went well at school and now I can finally relax for the next two weeks! My second graders looked so cute in their little pajamas. I love pj day. I can't wait to sleep in for the next two weeks. I love my job!

Babies!

Because I am resting on the couch today, I was playing around with Picasa. Here is my first attempt at making a collage:

101.4...

was the temperature that I had when I got home from work on Friday. It was also the approximate number of body aches that I had. On the up side, it also happens to be the number of nice things that Gil has done for me since I got the worst cold ever. Among that list was making me pancakes in the shape of smiley faces, trekking off to the store after a LONG day of work to buy me Lemon Propel water and pudding, and having a fire lit and the Christmas tree lit up for me when I finally crawled out of bed on Saturday morning after going to bed at 5 pm the night before. I love my husband!

There's Something So Relaxing About Sitting By a Fire...

So glad we finally have this thing going! Now I just wish we had the 14 inches of snow that Grand Rapids got. Sounds crazy, I know, but I sometimes miss getting those Lake Effect snowstorms!