Top 10 of 2011

With just one more day left in 2011, I can't help but reflect back on all that the year had in store for us:
We took on a lot of projects. We ran and skated and snowshoed in races. We introduced our little girl to the beauty of the outdoors. We organized and decorated our home, finished our basement, and took on landscaping projects. We played and played and played with our little girl. We travelled alot. We visited family and friends and spent a significant amount of time in the car. We took a few amazing vacations. We spent time on the lake. After looking back on my scrapbook from 2011, here are my top 10 favorite memories (in no particular order):

1.  Traveling to Maine as a family.

We flew out (Bundle's first plane ride) and spent a week along the coast. I collected over 70 heart shaped rocks, we scoped out lighthouses, we biked and hiked around Acadia National Park and most imporatantly, we relaxed. It was a simple, low key, beautiful vacation.

2. My little girl's taking her first steps.

3. How excited my little girl was to see me after I got home from a girls weekend in Seattle.

The trip was also a highlight, of course, but seeing her excited to see me after I'd been away, I wish I could bottle that up and save it:

4. Getting all of the barbed wire from our backyard ripped out.  It feels so much safer to be outside now. This was a project two years in the works.

5. Getting our photographs displayed in our home! I love looking around and seeing photos of our family and friends all around us.

6. Spending time with my family, relaxing and doing things we enjoy, with no agenda. I love the simplicity of being with family. I made two trips to see my Grandma. We also had a super fun family wedding thrown in the mix!

7. Boating. It was a beautiful summer to be on the lake.

8. Murder Mystery Weekend. We hosted two of these this year and it was great fun!

9. Running a half marathon. This year, I trained with a friend and even though she was not able to be there to race with me, she and her family came out to cheer me on, along with my husband and daughter.

10. The trip to Michigan with my husband and his parents. We stayed at Sand Hills Lighthouse Bed & Breakfast where Jon proposed to me. It was a road trip that was filled with simple pleasures, like collecting rocks, watching sunsets and piano music.

~Angela

Over the river and through the woods...

...to my grandmother's house we go.

Bundle and I took off during the time between Christmas and New Years to visit Grams. We spent the holidays with my husband's family so I did not get to see Grams at Christmas.

With her special blanket, a book and Marty the Sock Monkey, Bundle was good to go!

Time at Grams' house consisted of SIMPLE things, like nose kisses!

And tickles with Great Aunt Lisa.

And more nose kisses with cousins!

There were games with cousins too!

And of course snacks. Grams always has the best snacks. 
This high chair was used when Bundle's grandma (my mom) was a baby!

There was cookie decorating. A mess, but Grams doesn't care.
It's all about creating memories at her house.
And to create memories, sometimes you need to create a mess too.

My little girl wants to be just like her Grams!

My cousin and Grams getting the bread dough ready for...

Fried bread dough (a family tradition!)

All of us enjoying our fried bread dough together.


It was a SIMPLE, wonderful few days we spent together!!

~Angela

Christmas Celebration #2 of 3 (just the three of us)

This was a rather low key celebration at home, but we have fun no less. Bundle only got three gifts (that is the number the wise men brought to Jesus) and was not near as interested in those as the books she has had for months. My husband and I also exhanged gifts, but it was much less about the gifts this year and much more about being together at our home and enjoying music, food and creating memories together, our little family of three.

Bundle's favorite gift was the toy vacuum. We bought it in hopes that it would help her get over the fear of the real vacuum. She was afraid of it at first, but then went on to vaccum the entire house. She even vacuumed under the furniture (that's my girl!! I hate when people don't do that). Too bad it doesn't really pick up dust!

Every year my husband gets a gift from me that requires a scavenger hunt to find. Usually it is something too difficult to wrap. This year was no different. Except, he had to go pick the gift up from the store because it was too heavy for me to even bring home. (It was a weight set). Bundle just thought it was fun going upstairs then back downstairs again and again as he searched for his clues.

We had a dessert fondue (a tradition we started last year) and had a surprise visit from friends. I love surprise visits (!!!!  They were able to join us for fondue and dropped off the biggest Christmas card I had ever seen!!

It was a simple, yet memorable and very fun evening!

~Angela

Christmas Celebration #3 of 3 (with my husband's family)

Our last Christmas celebration was celebrated over the actualy holiday of Christmas. We drove to see my husband's family.

All settled in for a car ride.

We planned a relaxed car ride there, but there were other plans in store for us. First off, the weather was terrible, so we figured we would take it slow and stop if need be. Then we had a snack in the car and my little girl threw up. We stopped to clean her and our car up then continued on. Then she threw up again. And again. This time I knew we needed to be worried about dehydration and after calling the nurseline, she suggested we get to a hospital. We finished the remaining two hour trip to their house and Bundle was able to keep the food & water down. Hospital visit avoided!

Ah, the simple appreciation that Christmas would be spent with family at home rather than the hospital!!!

We went on to have a wonderful weekend. 

Bundle with her Christmas pajamas (a tradition- we get new ones every year) after she felt better!

We were able to go for a family walk because the weather nice.

And we ate delicious food prepared by my mother-in-law and father-in-law.
After all the holiday season is all about food, right?

Bundle and her Grandpa

There was lots of music. Bundle here with her Nana and Daddy.

There were lots of hugs! Bundle and I on Christmas morning after she scoped out her stocking.

There was also tickling! My little girl and her Great Grandpa.

There were art projects! Nana had all sorts of fun projects for Bundle and her cousins!

~Angela

Winner of the First Annual Christmas Card Contest...

...well, it was a tie. We just could not decide and both cards were vastly different. More about the winners in a bit.

We were excited for the response we got and truly enjoyed every single holiday card we received. It became our little tradition to open the cards together after dinner and read them/look at the photos together.
Here are the winners: 

The Schmidt family
with the largest homemade (which of course I am a sucker for) card I have ever seen!
And it was hand delivered.
Also take note there is edible candy on the card!

My brother
with his photo was taken with Santa- note that Santa is sitting on Santa's lap

We never disclosed what the prize actually was. What if we were planning on sending out broken Christmas lights? After all, I have been saving them for a year. No worries, I kept all those broken Christmas lights for ourselves:)

The prize:

These really awesome certificates and $20 gift card (which will be split between both winners- $10/each).

We will be doing this again next year, so if this was not your lucky year, please know that we enjoyed your card and will be doing this again.

~Angela

Christmas Day at the Playground

Who would have thought it would have been 50 degrees on Christmas day in Minnesota? Not me. But I am grateful for the warm weather, which made holiday travel so much easier on many people, us included. So there may not have been snow this Christmas, but we were still able to be outside! My husband, his mom, and I took our little girl to the playground instead of sledding (as is our usual tradition). And with less time spent outside shoveling, this means more time spent doing things we enjoy!



~Angela

The best gifts are not things...Merry Christmas!

Church has always been a part of my family's Christmas Eve traditions and my husband's family tradition as well. So, of course this year is no different. But what is different is that I have a little girl that is learning about Christmas and Jesus. We have been singing Christmas songs and Happy Birthday to you, Jesus. This is music to my ears! And one of the many highlights of today was hearing her sweet voice on the way home from church, "Merry Christmas, Daddy, Mama." A SIMPLE, yet beautiful Christmas Eve gift from my little girl.

Merry Christmas to you & yours!

~Angela

Christmas Celebration #1 of 3 (Duluth)

We spent time in Duluth with my mom and brother, celebrating Christmas with them. We had the BEST time. An exhaustingly fun day was spent laughing and dancing and sledding and eating and singing and playing!

This just a sweet picture of a Daddy and his special little girl

Bundle and Yaya opening a present together

My mom had just enough snow in her backyard and the perfect sized hill so that Bundle could try sledding downhill for the first time. And boy did she love it!

Uncle Matt carrying Bundle to the top of the hill



Jon helping Uncle Matt & Bundle down the hill

Of course I wasn't going to miss out on the fun!

Jon wasn't going to miss out either!

It is hard to say who had more fun, the adults or the child. This is usually the case when we all get together!

As is our family tradition, we went to Bentleyville in the evening . The amazing thing about this light display (besides the lights and the music and food and size of the display itself!) is that it was started by a gentleman, Nathan Bentley, as a way to give back to the community. It is free and open to the public. It is a magical place. I'll never forget the first year my husband and I were dating and he wanted to take me way out in the country to look at someone's Christmas lights. Well, little did I know then, it was worth the drive as it was, and still is, the most spectacular Christmas light display I have ever walked through. What started out in his yard, then grew so large he had to move to a new house, is now in the Bayfront Park in Duluth.

Yes, we were the annoying people with a tripod, but it was worth it because we have decent pictures from the evening of all 5 of us.

Snowwoman, Bundle, Uncle Matt

Bundle meeting one of Santa's reindeer, Dancer

I love that this picture shows Bundle's dance moves!

Me, roasting a marshmallow over an open fire

My husband took this picture with the lift bridge in the background

I had a few tears on the way home, just thinking how simple, yet how beautiful, the day with my family was. And how blessed I am to have each of them in my life.