Monday, February 2, 2015

January

I'm going to give blogging another try.  I love that I have so many details saved for the years I was blogging and then I only posted once in 2014.  No good.  To start, I'm planning on doing just 1 post per month so that I don't have to do it so often, unless there is an event with too many details/pictures. And in order to blog, I'm going to try to take more pictures again!

Marcel was still on Christmas vacation the first week of January and we spent our time binge-watching Criminal Minds on Netflix.  We also talked through our goals and dreams for the year. Continuing from last year, a big priority for us was to go on at least 1 date per month, out of the house.  We also set a pretty big financial goal in terms of how much debt repayment we'd like to do this year in order to be debt-free on our 10th anniversary.  Yes, we're still that far away, but a huge pile takes a long time to move with a little shovel.  And we're grateful to still be faster than if we didn't work at it at all.

We spent our last day before school started at Cece's 2nd birthday party.  Of course, it had to be Minnie Mouse.  She's been so Minnie obsessed, so it made sense!  And unlike her sister, she seemed to enjoy being sung to.
We had a great 3 day weekend for MLK Jr. Day.  We enjoyed our monthly date on Friday night.  We went to dinner at The Counter.

For Christmas, the adults did a restaurant gift card exchange and this was one of the 2 that we got (one for each of us).  Neither of us had ever been there before and we were excited to get to build our own burgers.


Marcel's hamburger.  I didn't get a picture of mine, but it was WAY better than his :) 
He choose a gross sauce to go on his.

Then we headed back to Nampa to see American Sniper.  It was opening night, which we never do, and will probably never do again!  The first theater we got to was full for the time we wanted to go so instead of waiting in line for an hour for the next screening, we headed to a different theater.  We had to wait in line for just a few minutes before they opened the door and then got great seats. The movie was so good.  Definitely a must-watch.  And after it was over, I said "I couldn't be a military wife" to which Marcel replied, "I couldn't be in the service."  Such a new found appreciation for the troops.


 Marcel had a rare Sunday off from serving at church.  Marcel normally leaves for church around 6:30am, when I get up, so it was nice to have him home in the morning.  And he cooked me breakfast!  We decided to attend service at CFC Caldwell, the campus of our church we moved to in November in 2013 when it launched.  We have been back at main campus since July 2014 and even though I visit Caldwell regularly, this was Marcel's first time back.  Everyone was so surprised to see him there.
We spent most of Monday in Boise.  We wandered around the mall and running into many of Mr. Bailey's students.  I was looking for a Seahawks shirt because they had just won the NFC Championship game and were headed to the Super Bowl.  It has been a long 2 weeks waiting for the game.  We are both just a little excited!  After our shopping we headed to Aspen Leaf frozen yogurt for a yummy treat.  

The past 5 or so days I've been dealing with an infected finger.  I finally went into urgent care last night (1/27) because the redness was spreading and it was not getting any better.  He prescribed me an antibiotic and even though it barely looks better today (he said it will take a few days to see a difference) it is already feeling better.  Thank goodness, because it was rather painful, especially when it got bumped.

sorry to end with such a lovely picture...




Friday, January 31, 2014

Tubing @ Bogus Basin

We love date nights and have committed to having at least 1 date per month out of the house.  We have movie and restaurant gift cards to cover many dates, but we want to do fun activities as well, so we started the year off with a bang. 

Marcel and I both had MLK Jr Day off from work and headed up the mountain for our favorite winter date: tubing!  Love the chain to pull you back up the mountain :)  Also, in Caldwell we were experiencing a nasty inversion and hadn't seen the sun in forever and had constant temperatures of about 25*.  We were so lucky to have a sunny day of 42* at the mountain and were able to leave most of our clothing layers in the car, including Marcel's jacket!

Because no post is complete without pictures:
waiting in line with a million kids
selfie riding the tube back up the mountain
Marcel's selfie
Marcel is always being artistic with a camera.  This may be one of my favorites!
Getting ready for take-off
Just around the corner from the tubing hill
When I have more time I'll watch the videos of us going down the hill and find a few to upload.  Mostly for us to have, because I scream the whole way down and Marcel just thinks it is so hilarious :)

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Anniversary #4

We loved our anniversary celebration so much last year that we decided to recreate it.  The only differences were a different room at The Anniversary Inn and different gifts!

We did continue the tradition of giving traditional gifts.  Year 4 is fruit/flowers.  So hard to get a guy anything fruity or flowers.  I was only successful at it this year because of some lucky google searches.  Marcel received a gift card to the Apple Store.  I let him open it before we headed out for anniversary activities in case he wanted to spend it while we were in Boise.

Marcel had an edible arrangement sent to our room.  He even made sure that one of the fruit pieces could be cut into a flower so he would have given both parts of the gift.


This was not our most favorite room, but still what an oasis it provided for us to escape the stress of everyday life.



We had dinner at Cheesecake Factory, and found humor in the fact that we go there but don't even get cheesecake.  Normally we'd probably splurge for dessert on an anniversary but it comes included in the room :) 

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Marcel's Golden Birthday

Marcel got home from school to discover 26 wonderful presents to celebrate being 26.

Lilli was such a helper and was so proud of all the presents we wrapped



After all the excitement from the presents we took the girls to feed the ducks.  It was more like Lilli took Marcel to feed the ducks, because she had planned it for a fun activity to do on his birthday.



When the day was over, we took the girlies to their mom and headed out for our real fun activity: Wahooz.  Thank goodness for free passes on your birthday!



Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Easter

This year we used kool-aid packets to dye Easter eggs.  It worked really well, except the flavors we had on hand made very similar colors.  Lilli didn't seem to mind, but next year I'll do more research about what flavors to buy






Saturday, February 2, 2013

Playing in the Snow

Lilli started skiing with her dad, so she wouldn't play in the snow without her full ski attire.  Fleece face mask, goggles, and the backpack that keeps her close to dad skiing.  She even wore her helmet on occasion.

Building her own little snowball for her own little snow girl

And Marcel made the big one

Lovely day of snow 
After the snow, we came inside and made peanut butter cookies.  Lilli even did the criss cross fork design


Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Rest of 2012

Here is the randomness that ended our 2012:

We enjoyed another date night at Linder Farms corn maze...

even if we (or just I) ended up freezing

Our church's Mommy & me group went to The Berry Ranch to pick pumpkins and do the kiddie corn maze.  Lilli loved it!

Marcel was BUSY with his second year of helping with Skyview's marching band.

And randomly one day, Lilli decided she was moving to Victor (where Emily lived) so she packed up everything she has at my house.

Lilli decided to start reading books on the potty

She also got a big girl bed from Grandma Wende

Grandma Wende also decided that Lilli needed a gingerbread man as big as she was to decorate....

and eat!

We had Christmas Eve at my mom's after 3 church services at 2 different churches.  Christmas started super late, about 8:30pm

We also tried to take a group shot, but this was as good as it got

A mere 12 hours later, we had Christmas morning with my dad.



































And sadly, that is the extent of our fall and winter photos.