Celebrating 10 Years

(May 1, 1999)

Tomorrow, Eric and I will be celebrating our 10 Year Anniversary- Wow 10 years! I feel very lucky and blessed to be married to such a wonderful man who happens to be my very best friend. I look forward to growing very old with him.

(White water rafting in Colorado)

I feel very fortunate to have such a happy marriage and I would say one of the reasons of our success is because we really work as a great team and communicate often. Eric is the CFO (chief financial officer) of the house. He takes care of anything and everything that has to do with money- bills, retirement, insurance, etc. I am the CEO (chief executor officer) of the house taking care of day to day business- appts, keeping up the house, making plans etc. Our partnership works in away that if one of us is having an off day or busy at work, the other can pick up the slack. I know I am lucky in the fact, that Eric really helps me whenever I need it and he is really a hands on dad and I think he thinks he is lucky because I am a relatively low maintenance women.

(Snorkeling in the Gulf of Mexico)

Another reason for our success, is our personal relationship with God. We both are always trying to become better people and ask God daily for help in our own lives as well as each others.

(this was our first picture taken together- (I think) August 1997)

One of my favorite things about being married to Eric is that when I am with him, I know I am going to have a great time, no matter what! We really just enjoy being together. It's been more challenging to do that since we have become parents (which we wouldn't trade for anything). But thanks to the help of our parents by watching our boys, we do make it a priority to find couple time and value that time very much.

(great memories camping, but we have upgraded from that little red tent to a pop up camper)

We will be celebrating all month- tomorrow night my parents are watching the boys and we plan to go out for supper, next weekend Eric's parents are watching the boys and Memorial Weekend- Las Vegas- here we come!

My neice Sara and prom pictures

Sara and her date Clint

These girls are absolutely beautiful. I am sure glad I grew up in the 90's- I would have had to stay home instead of being around these pretty things.

Ouch!

Poor Eric, he's just not as young as he used to be. Oh, but he tries- he plays volleyball, flag football and basketball. Last night, a basketball injury, I think he is slowly starting to admit he is getting a little older; however, I am fairly confident he won't give any of it up until. . . . I guess I don't know until what, but I am sure it will be awhile. And for me, I will just smile, take as good of care of him as I can and bite my tongue off so I don't tell him, "I told you to be careful"

Happy Birthday Dad!!!!

Happy 71 st Birthday Dad! I am not sure how he rates to get such a nice van for his birthday, but he deserves it. Check out my dad and mom rollar skating 9 years ago!

I sure do love my dad and I think he is pretty special!

Happy 17th Birthday Sara!

It's Sara's 17th Bday today.

I hope to have some prom pictures to post soon.

Gotta luv my boys!

One second wrestling, jumping, fighting and the next minute hugging.

And you can be going for a drive down the road and they can say I got pee and you can just pull over and nature is their urinal :)

Happy Birthday Shelby

Today, after church we headed to Marshalltown to celebrate Shelby's 3rd birthday.




Grandma Dianne and Papa Marvin with their grandkids- Cale, Zach, Shelby and Owen


The kids were entertained for a few minutes with a new hot wheel toy.

Happy Birthday Shelby

Pictures from Easter

All fed and ready to watch the Master's!

Online to check out their new Webkinz!

Happy Easter

Happy Easter to everyone. I hope you had a wonderful day. I had one of the best days- celebrating the resurrection of my Savior, going to a church I feel blessed to belong to and spending the day with people I love very much.





We had 20 some people over today. It was nice to get together with all my family, my parents, sisters and their families, my aunt and uncle Shirley and Larry, Cousin Alli and her family and my friend Kathy. We had a nice meal along with lots of conversation through the afternoon.

Zach and Cale thought Easter was pretty cool since they each got a new Webkinz and a basket full of candy.

Zach and his new pet Kangaroo.

Our family, Easter 2009

Cale couldn't be happier with all his sweet treats.

Easter Festivities

My aunt and uncle, Shirley and Larry

My sister Sherri, her husband Jay and daughters Alexis and Cassie

My sister Sheila and her husband Roger and their kids Adam, Alex and Sara

Zach, Cassie, Cale and Samara getting ready for the Easter egg hunt

Allie and her girls- Samara and Mya

Preparing for Easter

A conversati0n with Zach after prayers last night



Zach: why do we love God anyway?

Me: (Dear God, help me to say the right words to my little concrete thinker) Because God created you and me, all the people and the whole world and He loves us.

Zach: did he create bad guys?

Me: Yep, but they didn't start out as bad guys, they just made a lot of bad choices and that is why your dad and I and God always want you to try and make good choices

Zach: they must have the devil in their heart (bad guys)

Me: you're right, that's why God sent Jesus to help us and to forgive us if we make bad choices and that is why Easter is one of my favorite days, because Jesus died for our sins

Zach: (interrupting me) I know mom and on Easter he is alive again, you have already told me that.





I find it challenging to explain God/Jesus/Christianity to Zach. He likes everything to make sense and to be quite honest - it doesn't always make sense, but I have just had faith and believe it. But, how do you explain it to a 6 year old???



Another story- this happened last year when Zach was in preschool. I went to pick him up and his teacher asked me, "Did Zach have heart surgery of some kind" I was confused and of course asked why and she said, "Zach told me that he had a real heart and a fake heart." Well, I couldn't help but laugh, because a few days earlier when we were talking about having God in our heart- Zach was wondering how he could fit and where did he sit in his heart. Well, because I didn't know how to explain your soul and spirit- I quickly thought (without thinking)- well we have a real heart that beats and pumps blood to our body and a fake heart that is where we want God to be to help us to the right things. Well, in hind sight I should have explained it a little differently.



Does anyone else have any good ways of explaining it all or know of any good resources????

Coloring Easter Eggs

Fun at Adventureland Inn

Once a year we meet up with a group of friends (6 couples and their kids)at a water park. It was a group of guys that Eric worked with at his first accounting job. Before we all had kids, we would hang out monthly or more, but with kids, job changes, moving and general business of life it's tough to get together. This year we had plans on going to Omaha and staying there, but due to several reasons we decided to stay in Des Moines and check out the Adventureland Inn. The motel worked out well. No traveling and the kids got to swim, no exciting water slides like at some of the other water parks we have stayed at, but the kids didn't seem to mind.
I noticed when I got home I didn't have any group pictures or pictures of the 10 kids in our group.- Dang


Zach really seemed to gain a lot of courage this year. He has always loved the water, but didn't care so much for it in his face. Not any more, he would stand under the little buckets and he went under the water without seeming to mind. We are ready for swimming lessons this summer.

I think he went down the slides a 100 times. He was caught by surprise the first couple times he went under, but then did just fine. The life jacket worked great, because he could swim around independently.

Every once in a while you have to see a scary picture of me, but just to make sure there is a picture or two of me around just in case. In hind site, maybe a picture of me with clothes on would have been a better idea. Oh well!

Cale, of course didn't want to be left out and went down the slides also. We caught him at the end and he would say from the top, "You catch me", "Yes, Cale I will catch you," "Promise mom" I may have accidentally not caught him a couple times in the past when we were swimming, but I promised and no accidents this time.

Ankeny Easter Egg Hunt

This was the first time it ever worked out to take the kids to an outside Easter egg hunt. The boys really enjoyed it. Cale couldn't wait to eat his candy, no time for a picture mom!

Zach was thrilled to have his basket filled. All the eggs were filled with candy, but 5 eggs in each age category were empty and with a ticket in it to win a prize. No lucky with a prize, but lucky with candy- Mm mm

For some reason, Cale would only put pink eggs in his baskets. I have no idea what goes through their little minds. He likes things to match, so I guess maybe that is why.

Zach before the hunt starts and notice all the eggs on the ground.

Waiting for the directions and then tackle that Easter bunny oh I mean the eggs. (I am not sure why I can't figure out how to order my pictures on here)