Fun in the country....

We went out to Holloway, MN for Jim's mom's side of the family reunion in August (8/2). While we were out there, we went out to Jim's dad's farm site. Little did I know we were going to do this, much less that I could get some perfect shots of Sydney. I only wish I had brought along my good camera. I still managed to get some great shots, but if only.... :)

Daddy & Sydney

+Shelby & Jeremy
Jeremy, Deb and Shelby

Jeremy, Deb, Shelby and Grandpa
I just love this picture....notice she even has her little tongue sticking out
Cousins - Shelby, Sydney and Jeremy


This was a random photo from a trip to the park...I just thought it was a cute.

Family Reunion July 2008

We went to Cedar Rapids, Iowa for my mom's side of the family reunion. We went down a day early as my mom had a wedding to attend (one of my cousin's kids...that we weren't invited to), so we got to stay at a hotel. But as we all know, Cedar Rapids had a very large flood...we didn't call for a hotel until after the flood....all we could get was a really nice suite at a really nice hotel. This was awesome for us....a room for Sydney to sleep in and a room for us. They also had a pool....when we got there, we quickly changed and headed to the pool. No one was there...perfect! Sydney loved it and was very brave....maybe a little too brave. (reminder to self....we need to get her in swimming lessons). We had a ton of fun in the pool and playing at the hotel. Sunday we had the family reunion. It was really nice to seeing everyone that was there. Unfortunately, the family that had the wedding the day before, none of them was at the reunion...bummer, we missed them. Next year.....

Daddy and Sydney

Can you tell she was having fun?
She even loves going under water.

Snug as a bug..this was after her nap, she snuggled in our bed.
Funny girl, she likes to pose with her shirt on her head.
Snuggling....
This was our jacuzzi tub...I said it was a nice room....she loved this. It was like her own little swimming pool.
Aunt Donna and family - (my mom's brother Lyle's family)
Front L to R - Johnny, Aunt Donna, Steve and Marsha
Middle L to R - Robin, Linda, Steven, Gerald, Austin
Back L to R - Tom, David
Multiple people were missing from this family
Us...my brother and Jessie wasn't able to make it this year
Aunt Joanne and family (only some of her family)
Front L to R - Nicole, Kelsey, Aunt Joanne, Kathy
Back L to R - Michael, Travis, Becky
My Aunt Carol's family - her and her husband was not there, but one of their kids was

Traci, Scott, Mackenzie and Lexi - their son Remington wasn't there

My mom's oldest brother and his wife and one son - Uncle Lawrence, Aunt Ona and Bill
The siblings and in-laws

Mom (she's the baby), Aunt Donna (she was married to my Uncle Lyle, who died a number of years ago), Aunt Ona, Uncle Lawrence (oldest), Aunt Joanne

Missing siblings - Aunt Evelyn (her grandson got married the night before) and Aunt Carol (they were home in AZ), Aunt Jean and Uncle Lyle - deceased

Cabin July 2008

For the third year in a row, we went to the lake home in Sauk Centre with Jim's family and my mom. Although the weather wasn't as great (rained more than usual) as it has been the last couple of years and the pontoon was in the shop, we all still managed to have a great time. Sydney loves the water still (although I have no pictures of her in the water...those pictures are on other people's cameras). She had fun playing in the lake, but even more fun in the pool. She got her toes painted by auntie Deb and thought that was the coolest thing ever (funny, she would never sit still to let me do it prior to this). She LOVED playing with her cousins and just being on vacation with mom and dad (okay, I may have made that up....but she did have fun with us. hee hee).

On our way home we took some back roads and got stuck having to wait for another towns parade to finish....only in small town America would this happen.

Although we all had another great time at the cabin, we did end the trip with a sick little girl. She wasn't right all day (fever, snuggly and crying alot and kept saying her ears hurt), so our first stop in town was at urgent care. She had strep...I thought for sure she had an ear infection (which would have been her first ever), but it ended up being strep. We were not surprised by this, since Caitlin had it earlier in the week. By Monday she was feeling better and slowly getting back to her normal self...but Sunday night was a long night. Poor thing...she was miserable!

Fun fact....we had a showing on our house the Sunday we came home (7/20)...little did we know how much these people liked our house, because three weeks later they put an offer in and a week later we accepted it. Almost 2 months to the date later, the house was theirs. :)

Corn on the cob....the first time. She loved it and did great!

Grandpa Jagow and Uncle Terry
Caitlin & Erin
Caitlin & Uncle Wayne
A fish....no wait, it's uncle Terry
Caitlin, Shelby and Deb
Shelby, Caitlin, Erin and Deb....painting their toes
Shelby, Deb, Me and Sydney
(she was more interested in the bubbles than getting her picture taken)
Cute....
Shelby & Deb

Sydney & Grandma M - for some reason I really like this picture of the two of them
Jeremy
Uncle Brad, Shelby and Deb - this was on Saturday and it rained most of the day :(
The rain cleared up just in time for their annual Sinclair Lewis parade on Saturday night.

We are moved in AND connected!

WooHoo! I am updating this from our new home! An update with all the details and pictures (with boxes :)) to come in the next couple of days! But we love our new home!

Stay tuned! :)

Tomorrow.....

Tomorrow (Monday) is the BIG DAY! The U-Haul is all packed up. We are packing up a few last misc. things and hope to get to bed soon! We had a ton of awesome helpers today! THANK YOU...doesn't say enough! We have just about as many helping us unload tomorrow...I'm told that is the easy part! :)

We won't have internet at home until Thursday, but as soon as we do and I'm up and running I will be sure to post some pictures of the new place. I haven't posted any yet (although I have some) because I didn't want to jinx us. I know, I know...crazy....but that is how I roll sometimes. haha! :)

Off to bed....tomorrow is a BIG DAY!!!

Happy Anniversary!!

Happy Anniversary to us! I can't believe 4 years have already passed since we got married. What a fun day it was....I only wish that the day wouldn't have passed so fast!! I am extrememly lucky to have found Jim...someone who loves me unconditionally and puts up with all of my little quirks! :) I couldn't have asked for anyone better to be married to and share my life with!!

Happy Anniversary honey....I love you dearly and wouldn't trade anything in the world for the journey we have had for the past 4 years (7 years together total). I only look forward to the rest of our lives together and road we have yet to travel! Cheers to us!!

We went to Wildfire for dinner and had their super delicious flourless chocolate cake! And went to the movie Tropic Thunder...funny and weird! :)

The count down has begun.....

We are now 12 days away from closing on our old home and on our new home. The closings are all set for Sept. 22nd. I am so excited! So much has been going on.....we had some fix ups that needed to be done on our house (Jim worked hard and got them all done this morning...yeah! Way to go, honey!), we have been busy packing and will be even busier this weekend, work has been busy with training, our anniversary (wow...4 years!) is tomorrow and the weekend is right around the corner.

We have also interviewed two new daycares...one more to go. What a stressful thing to do. I am so thankful that we have been blessed with such an awesome daycare, since Sydney was 9 weeks old. She has been gracious enough to keep her a little longer than I think was the norm, only because she knew we had our house on the market and we didn't really want to have to move Sydney to a new daycare and then maybe have to move her again. Our last day at our current daycare will be 9/26. That will be a sad day. I know Sydney won't quite understand it, but I know I will. We know we will keep in touch with Georgie though....she is one special lady! The first daycare we interviewed....there was something about them that I just don't think are right for us. The second lady is awesome...I really like her a lot. The only negative is that she is 6 miles in the opposite direction from us....so 12 miles out of the way round trip. We have more lady that I am hopeing to set up and interview with early next week. She has been doing daycare for 30 years and her location is much more on the way and convienent. I know quality daycare is hard to find and if it means driving 6 miles out of our way, we may just consider that. I'll keep you posted on this journey!

That's about it for now....when all the papers have been signed, the keys have exchanged hands and the move is complete, we will be sure to let everyone know. Then the fun begins....unpacking (okay, maybe that isn't that much fun...but finding new places for everything just might be), decorating (I can't wait to see all the stuff I have had in storage for over a year...it will be like I went shopping for all new stuff...it just won't cost me anything!) and having everyone over to see our new home!