2012 in Review

2012 was one of the best years on record and I know it's only the start of a lifetime of memories.

January
Finished tiling our kitchen and bathroom

February
1st pinterest project successfully completed

Michigan vs. Purdue basketball game

March

Ryan's baptism - a very special and moving moment

The Ewald's and Delaney's meet

More pinterest projects for the wedding

April

Adding cement to the barn for the wedding

May

Becoming Mrs. Delaney and marrying my perfect match

Planting our first garden

June

Ryan picking up his birthday present - a '67 Chevelle

July

Family vacation to Arcadia

Picking up our new puppy - Miller

August
Our family/honeymoon vacation to Alaska

Finding out we were expecting

Starting a new job at Materialise

September
Telling our family the exciting new
Farming with Dad

October
My first trip to Belgium for work

Announcing to all our family and friends that we were expecting

November
Harvesting sugar beets with Dad
Ryan learning how to beet tops and drive the tractor

Thanksgiving fireworks

December
Christmas celebrations
A new barn roof

Starting to put the baby's room together

Here's to another great year as we become three!

Let the partying begin

The Christmas adventure began on Friday, December 21 and finally wrapped up on Saturday, December 29th.  Needless to say, I think we were both partied and traveled out. 

First trip was to Fort Wayne to hang with Ian and Jen and the boys and deliever their large present - a sandbox!  A nice break to the drive to Greenwood which we started Saturday morning.  Then the partying began.  The Greenwood friends all came over to the house for a Christmas celebration and it was great to see everyone.  Great food and friendship.

Sunday, we enjoyed a nice relaxing day with some Colts football and then a big Christmas dinner with Frikadeller, a Danish meatball of sorts, mashed potatoes, sweet corn, rolls, green bean casserole and more.  So yummy and filling.  Dessert was postponed until later when we had room.  We burned off a few calories by dancing around the Christmas tree and opening a few gifts.  I also got my first lesson in making aebleskiver, another Danish recipe that arel like pancakes in ball.

Christmas Eve was filled with breakfast and then more presents!  Ryan and I loaded up and hit the road about 12:30 to come back home for a night, go to church and regroup before the second half of Christmas. 

Ryan and I celebrated our first Christmas as husband and wife with a nice filet dinner and some sparkling cidar.  We opened gifts and enjoyed the quiet for a few moments before heading to candlelight church service.  We realized the Christmas Eve church at 10:00 pm doesn't fill up like St. Paul - we arrived nice and early and then sat in the car and waited for a few more people to show up before heading in. 

Then bright and early... well like 7:30 we work up to load up again and head to Unionville for lunch and Julie and Jason's with all you can each perch.  And man did we eat!  Not sure we ever really got hungry again for the rest of the day, despite eating some more snacks.  Then over to mom's for present opening.  Her and dad outdid themselves again and we felt very blessed.  Baby D did quite well including a crib, a RAD Farms onsie and a Lakke Ewald Farms onsie and much more. 

Day after Christmas was celebrated with Reicks.  Always love seeing them and hanging out.  It's so great that they are back in Michigan (well kind of), but we just hung out and caught up and relaxed.  I also got my first lesson in making donut dough - which will go great since Mom got me a deep fryer!

Day 2 post Christmas, a party at Dad's with the Ewalds.  More yummy food and this time lots of Echre - which I might add the cousins won both games.  We still have it despite not having played all together in quite some time.

The Day 3 post Christmas, we headed home nice and early to take Joey to the vet to get his stiches out and unload.  Day 4 post Christmas, I headed back to Saginaw for Uncle David's Christmas festivities.  Great to see everyone, but my social skills were wearing thin and I was ready to be home for an entire day.

But regardless... we got to see lots of friends and family and celebrate our last Christmas as 2.  Next year will bring a whole new meaning to Christmas.

Dog down

We've had a dog down at the Delaney's.  We think a while back that Miller bit him a bit too hard in the ear and then that got infected.  So to the vet Joey went.  Shaved side of the sides and lots of meds later, he seems to be better.  But then, the smell from his ear was so bad that it made Ryan (who has a rock hard stomach) throw up.  So I knew it was bad.  And off to the vet again we went.  I said this time we are just going to cut his ear off. 

But we didn't.  He had developed these nasty growths on his ears.  So to surgery he went to have them cut out.  And he seems to be doing much better.  The smell is pretty much gone and with the exception of his cone and the stitches... he's healing up really nicely.

Let's bake

Julie suggested that we have a sister day of baking and bonding.  And that is just what we did.  Sugar cookies, peanut butter with reeses, chocolate chip, and peanut butter balls all made and decorated.  The sisters had a great time and had lots of laughs, many at my expense and the size of certain parts of my body.  I still have a little more baking to do so Ryan can take some in for his bosses and we can take some to the Delaney's next weekend.

Check out their new aprons too!  That was in memory of Boo Boo Ma who always had a fancy apron on.

Shopping Complete

After I thought I was doing pretty good on my shopping, I realized that I hadn't bought most of my gifts for Ryan.  So I made it my mission this week to finish everything - buying and wrapping.  And mission accomplished.  I officially finished Christmas shopping on Friday and wrapping on Sunday.  So bring on the holidays!

Full of character and decorated

Sunday was spent decorating our very unique and skinny (according to everyone's standards) tree.  We still put the same number of lights on tree as last year so that's good.  And all our ornaments looks good, especially all the new ones we've added since last year - wedding ones, baby ones, and a big humpback whale one. 

Hunt for the perfect Christmas tree

It was that time of year again and this year we weren't waiting so long that we couldn't find one.  But we find a new place, Braun Tree Farm in Ann Arbor and it was a great place.  We bundled up in our spring best, rain boots and all.  It was 40 degrees and misting.

We got our saw and wagon to pull the tree back and set off on our hunt.  I saw the lights over the most perfect Christmas tree ever.  Only problem.  The tree was about 20 feet tall.  I told Ryan it wasn't going in our front yard, but in our living room.  (A quote from the great Christmas movie).

But he told me it wouldn't work so the search continues.  We found a few along the way but nothing that was the perfect tree.  Then we found this one.  Tall enough - check.  Has character - check.  And I can't feel my feet - check.  Let's take it.  A 10 foot Frasier Fir. 

Tomorrow the decorating begins!

First Christmas Party

My work had it's annual Christmas party yesterday, and contrary to some work party this was quite nice.  Food so so, but Ryan had lots of drink tickets thanks to baby Delaney.  And there was good company and I'm glad Ryan finally got to meet the people I work with so that was fun.

Christmas Carolers

My two favorite Christmas carolers had their concert tonight and they did great.  Could hear both of them so well.  I was a very proud proud aunt.  Hopefully their cousin will enjoy it as much next year because this year he or she was dancing throughout most of it.

You know you are an adult when...

Lately I've been realizing that as much as I want to fight it... I'm getting old and enjoying more adult things.

So I've put together this list of "you know you're an adult when"
1. You get excited for new book shelves
2. Staying up until 10:30 pm is an accomplishment
3. Sleeping in until 8:00 am is an accomplishment
4. You watch the Nightly News just like you did when you were a kid and your parents watched it.
5. You vote.
6. Baby registering is a date night.
7. You get excited when your hubby changes the filters on the furnace and you can see the difference (long story for another post)
8. Grocery shopping is fun.
9. You talk about life insurance with your family.
10. You say things like... I remember when.

Movie Review

I'm not a huge movie person and definitely not a big movie goer.  But Ryan and I decided Lincoln was worth seeing after Dad say it and lots of other poeple gave it rave reviews.  And it did not disappoint.  Loved it! 

Germs have taken over

I'm not sure what it is about this year, but the germs seem to have the upper hand at our house.  Ryan and I both started coming down with something shortly after Thanksgiving, and it's still here.  Germs - you are not welcome here.  Please leave so I can breathe again!

Ewald Thanksgiving

The weather for this Thanksgiving just might have been the best I can remember - sunny and about 60... we even had the door open a little during dinner.  Mom cooked up a feast, Julie and Mary made some desserts and I ate everything.  Haha!  We even got Grandpa to come over and now that I think about it - I should have taken some pictures. 

Thanksgiving evening, Julie, Dad and Scott headed to Caro to do a little Black Friday (well Black Thanksgiving) shopping.  And got everything they wanted at Sears.  And then we all gathered around the TV and watched  Christmas Vacation.  I tried to stay awake but just couldn't.  Oh well I'm sure we'll watch it 10 more times.  We even finished Thanksgiving off with a few fireworks!

Black Friday morning, Ryan and I called on a gun safe that we had seen in the Menards add for sale.  And to our luck they had lots left.  So off to Bay City we went with Dad.  The store wasn't even too bad so we managed to pick up a few other things.  Then off to antiquing as I mentioned in the other post.  Then back home. 

The night Karle read some books to the baby - love that.  She is going to be a great big cousin.  Then Ryan and I went over to Julie and Jason's to hang out.  Julie and I in the house and the boys in the new shed.  A long night for some, but a good Saturday morning. 

Some Michigan football and then some tetris to get all our purchases into the truck.  Didn't happen, but we got close.

But we made it home safe and sound and everything now has a new home!