The BIG Announcement!

Haven't you all just been SO curious as to what the big announcement was?!  Well, it's official.  Karl & I are parents.  We adopted a puppy!! :)  Because we only had a week to prepare as opposed to 9 months we hurried up and made him a home & picked a name.  He was born on March 19th and we adopted him on May 7th.  Here Karl is preparing for our lil' bundle of joy :)

Made a dog house very quickly!

Yes, if you're thinking what I'm thinking... How did the dog house get new shingles before my house did?  Well, it was a test to make sure the ones I picked out I'd like w/ my siding.... my house is getting them in July :)

Oh wait, 10 points to whoever answers this next question right:  What in the above and below pictures looks VERY familiar?  Answer: THE PLYBOARD!! I was under that impression that my plyboard sidewalk had bit the dust and got burned in our large trash pile... apparently, that is only what my husband told me, not what actually happened.  When he was nailing it to the studs I asked where he got the plyboard from (knowing he didn't get it at the hardware store w/ the other wood) .. he replied "it's your sidewalk!".  When I thought he was burning it, he took it and put it in the machine shed... he has learned that when it comes to some things for me "out of sight, out of mind" :)  I'm so glad my thrifty husband made good use out of it :)  (aka, this stupid plyboard will never leave my house)

We had some leftover siding from doing the house last summer (don't worry, we still have enough to finish the small patch on the front of the house that I stare at every day when I come home from work wondering when it will ever be finished)  ...but we got a good looking doggie house!! :)  

And here he is:  my baby Kipper :)  You can't not go "Awwwwwww" his face is sooo cute! :)

Our little family :)  This was his first night at home and so he slept in the mudroom.  This was and is the only stay he's ever had/will have in the house.  He has an awesome house outside to live in now :)  I love him to pieces but as I've always said "dogs are for the farm, not the house" :)

I love my puppy!!!!  He is yellow lab, black lab, chow & boxer.

Kipper goes a lot of places with me.  We've been to "the shop", we've been to ball games (and gotten kicked out of them...funny story), we've ridden the lawnmower together & gone four wheeling.  Anytime I'm at home & outside he's by my side (I find myself to be outdoors a lot more this spring than usual).  One Saturday we took a drive to Ottumwa to go pick up the four wheeler and Kipper decided to sprawl out and take a little nap on my lap on the way home.  He's so precious :)

Kipper also likes to play w/ Karl when he's at home.  This particular night Karl got home from a loong day of spraying and we were sitting on the deck waiting for him to come home.  After deciding it was too much work to sit up, he laid down and almost fell asleep so Kipper joined him... Like father like son :)

Then Kipper wanted to play....

Fine, if you're going to be a bum and sleep I'm going to lay here and watch you.

Leah & I had a little too much fun at Petco one day.  You could buy these cute name tags and get them engraved right there in the store!  So of course I had to get him one to put on his collar!  Kipper is on one side and our cell phone #'s are on the other.

Some have referred to him as "my child" or "my baby"... well, that about sums it up! I love this little guy :)  He has learned to not jump on the screen door, not try to come in the house, and not to run by vehicles.  He loves having his belly tickled and under his chin.  He's slowing learning his name & to only bite his toys, not hands (of course it doesn't hurt).  He plays catch (kinda) with his squishy bone and loves his chew toys!

Me & my baby.  You can't not love his face :)  He's going to grow up to be a big boy-- look at his paws!!

He's such a good boy.  I hope you all can meet Kipper sometime :) :)

Beautiful

Oh my stars!! I can't hardly believe I'm posting something!  It has been long over a month that I have not been able to log into my blog.  Every time I tried it said "done, with errors on the page".  What a frustrating thing.  I tried everything... and then decided I wasn't smart enough to figure it out and so I asked the IT people at work.  They told me I needed to update my internet explorer to the latest version....did that, no such luck.  Turns out I had to download a completely different internet browser...so I'm now using Google Chrome rather than Internet Explorer.  I'm just thrilled I can log in now :)  I've just had soo much to say and can't believe I held it in this long! :)  

First up, double rainbow over our corn crib.  One morning I was getting ready for work and Karl texted me a picture of a rainbow, I thought it was sweet.  I walked outside to leave for work & saw the double rainbow.  It was on April 18th.  Rowan's 1st Birthday & Natalie's 6 month birthday.  

Then, as I was driving down the gravel I realized it was a FULL double rainbow.  I tried hard to get the whole thing but wasn't far enough away... I think this one was taken when I pulled over on the side of the road by Beacon to try and get the whole double.  If you look hard you can see it :)

Rowan had quite the first birthday extravaganza!  Way more presents than any 1 year old should receive and yummy yummy YUMMY cake! We were supposed to be taking an aunt/uncle picture I think but Rowan just wanted to share some of his cake with me...and who was I to object?! :)

Ahhhh flowers.  I hope that someday I will have a landscape w/ flowers but for this year, we are just working on getting grass on our yard :)  Cassia took me to the greenhouse in Osky for the first time!  I was completely overwhelmed by the amount of different flowers they had so she did my shopping for me.  I showed her a picture and she went and found them for me- it was great!!  So, here are the fruits of our labors.  A beautiful bushel barrel filled with pretty flowers- I was pretty impressed!

Oh wait, why is this picture below different flowers from the two above?! Oh yes, that's because 2 of my flowers got completely eaten/chewed off....and so I had to put new flowers in my barrel.

 Oh, AND I elevated it to higher ground.... no chance getting eaten up here! :)

I had so much fun at the greenhouse that I bought a plant for inside too! (this one happened to catch my eye and I really like yellow) Thanks for all your help Cassia! :)

Tulip Time was a few weeks ago.  I was Bob the Builder in one of the afternoon parades.  Bob walked beside the Vermeer floats and stopped to see some dutchmen alongside the road.  This dutchman happened to be my uncle and he got to pose w/ Bob :)

Karl & I went to a parade one night to watch the parade and see Taylor, my cousin, who was on the court this year.  What a multi-tasker Karl is... watching the parade, getting a baby niece to sleep on his shoulder and still managing to satisfy his sweet tooth & eat a funnel cake.  What an amazing man ;)

Awww... now isn't that cute :)

Great job Taylor! You represented the town well.

Karl's newest ambition-- being a balance beam gymnist.  Just kidding.  One Sunday I was sitting in the living room and I looked out the window and Karl was walking around on our deck railing, arms crossed and it looked like he was thinking hard.  I snuck into the entryway and caught a picture of him through the door window without him noticing.  When I opened the door I think he was slightly embarrased that he got caught.  Apparently he got bored while grilling hamburgers and decided walking on the deck railing sounded enjoyable.  Oh the difference in us.... I don't think I would ever, in a million years, even think about hopping onto the railing and walking.  Maybe I'm just not creative?!  Anyway- it was pretty funny.

What a stud.

Well- that's all I've got to catch you up on the past month or so.  Keep watch for my next post about.. THE BIG ANNOUNCEMENT :) :)

Spring has Sprung!

Spring is here!

Youth Group got over a couple weeks ago.  Below is the picture of the seniors we are saying goodbye to.  I think this will be one of those special classes that you don't forget, because they were the first.  We had a great year with them and will definately miss them.  We still have the Memorial Day Pancake breakfast & our serve trip coming up so we are done with the Wednesday nights but not "done" yet for the year...still lots of planning to do!

Karl field cultivating our field.

If you've seen our "yard" at all in the past few months you could see that it's torn up, rocky, and full of sticks/logs.  I realized that with it being spring I was on my own for picking up all the rocks & logs because Karl wouldn't be around.  So, I took it upon myself to use my head and figure out how I could get this done quickly & efficiently.  Ah! Light bulb went off-- I'd hire my niece/nephews to help me! :)  This job would have taken me a solid week, picking up every single night to even make a dent in it.  So, I took off work early one day, picked up the kiddos from school and had them help me for a couple hours.  We got done WAY more that what I imagined!  I knew there was a lot out there, but didn't know how much until we loaded it up in the trailer.  We had 4 carts full!  (Good thing I had the boys to help me take the hitch pin out and dump the trailer since it wasn't hydraulic)  We even found random things in the back "yard" that were still from when we cleaned out the house- like glass jars or tiny toys.  We got it done and Karl had time to seed it quick before it rained one morning.  So we'll see...hopefully we'll have some grass growing soon!  The thing that impressed me the most was that these 3 kids knew the importance of working to get paid/rewarded.  They are so young but know they have to work if they want to get anywhere-- it's amazing how many adults in America who have no idea what this means...  Back on point, when we were done Jon said "I'd come work for you again"...in response Rachel said "Ya! It was actually fun! I mean, (1) you picked us up from school (2) you paid us (3) and we got pop!" :)  Well, whatever their motivation, it was fantastic help and I was very thankful for their willingness! :)

Now, I would like to introduce you to the newest addition to our yard... this stinkin' coon!  We put our trash can up on the deck so that the grass could grow without it sitting on the ground.  A few nights in a row we've heard this crashing/knocking noise from outside- couldn't ever figure out what it was... until one time I made Karl go look and he said "come here! you're not going to believe this!"  .... much to my dismay the pic below is what we saw.  Yup, the coon is just sitting there chillin' in our trash!  Creating it's own sort of sick, twisted, gourmet buffet!  So what is that knocking noise we hear?  It's the coon taking the lid off of the can and throwing it on the deck!  Which, is complete craziness to me because it takes me 2 hands in order to get the lid off-- it's "Hefty" ...not like it's easy just to rip off like taking a kleenex out of a box... it takes a little wiggling to get it loose, like trying to get the one piece of Twizzler unstuck from the rest of the pack.  Regardless, we need to think of a new way to get rid of him--any ideas? He has "overwelcomed" his stay!  Oh, and he may look small in this picture but it is the BIGGEST coon I've ever seen in my life!

And this is what happens when the coon realizes he's being watched and having his picture taken... he bolts outta there in a big hurry!

Cute "baby" -- Rowan turns 1 next week!

We took a grankid picture w/ Grandpa & Sharon at Easter.  Everyone was able to be there but Jared so we decided we better take one w/ so many of us there!  It was a very beautiful, fun day to hang out with everyone.

Van Wyk Granddaughters -- how many grandpa's/dad's can be so lucky to have such good lookin' girls? :)

(back) Nicole, Karissa, Leah, Brooke, Kristin, Rachel, Taylor, Jordon

(front) Emily, Kelly, Kara, Renee, Courtney

Gifts

Gifts come in all shapes, sizes and forms.  Gifts are fun to give & receive.  Here are a couple that I received for my birthday a few weeks ago.

My friend Joslin sent me flowers to work.  What a wonderful surprise from a wonderful friend! They were beautiful! :)

 Karl asked me what I wanted for my birthday and so, here it is:

 Karl finished the woodwork on the stairs & the den closet doors.  This was the last pieces of woodwork that was missing from the house!  It's now complete.  I love having it finished :)  He got it done while I was gone to FL for work so it was a great surprise when I got home (the stairs were definately time consuming)!!

 Last year we got the yard to the point where it was mowable and could look nice.  This year, we are going to get out all the divots and make it even and resow some seed.  The backyard & "middle" yard needs some help too as that was mowed with the bat-wing last year....I'm hoping that by the end of summer I can mow it all with a regular mower.  No stumps, no sticks, no divots.... I can hope, right? :)  When I got home the other night from work I saw the skidloader parked over by the sheds.... I walked in the house and asked Karl if we had a really big gopher in our yard... :)

 He started to dump some black dirt on the divots to begin evening out the yard.  This trench is where he ran wire from the basement out to the sheds so that we can have barn lights!

 Well, the cement stairs got taken away from the front door and black dirt poured all around the front of the house.  Since Karl did a great job on the deck I asked him to build me stairs out the front door.  I'm thinking that this will be my Christmas present again next year.  With spring/busy season in progress I'm not thinking this will be done ANY time soon.  That's okay though, I've learned I need to work on my patience :)

 I needed a necklace hanger because they didn't fit in my jewerly box very well anymore and it was hard to untangle them all to get one necklace out (usually when I'm in a big hurry for work because I got up late).  So, after looking online & in stores I didn't see anything I liked so I found a DYI one on the internet and got creative with it.  I took a barn board from our corn crib, and then had Karl cut it to the size I wanted  and he put pretty edges on it.  Then, I spray painted it brown w/ sparklies.  I bought decorative drawer knobs at Hobby Lobby and then screwed those into the barn board and Wa-lah!  I was pretty impressed with myself :)  This is the one that I made for my sister- a housewarming/birthday gift.

 I put different knobs on both but really like the way they turned out. Here is mine hanging in my bedroom :)

Although there is no such thing as Spring Break in the working world, I hope to get some stuff done to the yard this coming week with awesome weather on the way and now that it will be light out at night!! 

 I hope you're able to count your gifts/blessings by the multitude! :)

Traveling Adventures

This past week I traveled to Orlando, FL for the True Value Show that Vermeer had a booth at.  Everyone said "oh I bet the weather was wonderful"....well, I didn't get the chance to go out and enjoy it at all (obviously, working) but it was nice to walk around without jackets on to/from the convention center!  Below are a few pics of the outside of the convention center.

 I love palm trees.

 This is a portion of DeWalt's booth at the show... I took this pic for Karl :)

 I made friends with the "Genie" skylift guys and asked if I could ride one of their lifts up in the air to take pictures....they were very nice and let me!  It's hard to try to explain how big these shows are and how much stuff they have but it literally is unreal.  At this show, only True Value members were allowed to be there.  So, anyone who is a vendor for them could have a booth of products to display.  There was everything from rental equipment to nuts/bolts, rubbermaid, carhartt, swiffer, bounce houses, popcorn machies and the list goes on.

 The crazy part is that this much stuff can fit in the building and it's just one hall of the enormous convention center.

 Our booth from above.  This time it was a much smaller booth.  I got home Wednesday night and won't have to travel again until this time next year!

 This weekend we traveled with friends to Kansas City for a weekend away.  We went to lots of little shops & a mall.  We also went to Texas Roadhouse for my birthday supper and went to the spa on saturday.  Well, let me rephrase that.  The GIRLS did all of that... the boys went to Bass Pro & Cabelas.  Below is one of the little shops we went to.  Emily's sister had told her about this store and there happened to be one 2 miles from our hotel.  It was an awesome accessorie store.  They had everything arranged by color.  There was all sorts of jewerly, scarves, hats, handbags, shoes and much more-- it was like a girls dream :) 

 We went window shopping at "The Plaza" while waiting on our dinner reservations.  It was very fun to see!

 The boys had fun go-carting one night.  It was a place where their carts could go up to 40mph.  I didn't get very good pictures because it was dark and they were going very fast.

 Ahhh... the spa!  The boys dropped us off and went to Bass Pro and we endulged ourselves :)  We had plans to go last summer when the boys were on their Montana hunting trip but when that got cut short we never ended up going.  We told ourselves it was a long time coming. :)  Very relaxing!

 And yet, another very exciting thing that happened this weekend..... Rachel & Rowan came over for a visit today.  After Rowans nap he came out with a new shirt on.  Since it had a tractor I immediately was drawn to it and started reading it.....

Yay!!! Another niece or nephew!!  Baby Van Maanen is due next September.  Can't wait! :)

Hope you all had a great week-- I'm happy to be home.