Sunday, December 28, 2008

What a year! 2008

2008 was quite the year for us!! We had many blessings, lots of love, and a few trials along the way to make us stronger. We took a belated honeymoon, built a house, got a new dog, and managed to pack in many fun times and memories with family and good friends! We are so thankful for all of our good friends and family that helped us along the way for yet another year. You guys are the best! We hope 2008 was full of blessings for you as well! And wish you an even better 2009! Here's a recap of just a few of the memories from the year:
2008 started with tons of snow and ice. We were glad to get away in March to Hawaii. We spent a week there on the Pride of America cruise ship. It was fun to get away and enjoy the warm weather!! As soon as we got back home, we started building our house . It was quite the test of strength and wills. In May, we took a short break from the house and went to my cousin, Tracy's, wedding in Oklahoma. It was fun to see everyone!
I was fortunate enough to get to spend some of my summer vacation surrounded by kids I love. Here is a pic of Maddox, Cooper, Jaden, and Isaiah when we went swimming at the Nevada pool. I also got some fun time in with Morgan, Colson, Myah, and Maysen! They are all tons of fun!! We also got our Goldendoodle, Dakota, over the summer. He too is tons of fun!
We spent quite a bit of the summer waiting on trusses to come for the house. We were definitely excited when they came in! The Peasley boys came to hoist them up! It was quite the sight!
Rusty was a groomsmen in Brad Greene's wedding in July. We are thinking this may be the last Northwest Iowa wedding!! It is a long drive up there... but the reception was a blast!

What a year! 2008

We finished July by celebrating Rusty's 30th birthday! August started with me heading to a wedding. We had hoped to be moved into our house by this time but had to move to a temporary apartment instead (one we will not miss!). Rusty stayed home to work at the house while I went to Ottumwa for the wedding. Shortly after, it was back to school time and the hours spent working on the house were crunched... Made for a stressful fall! We missed ALL of the ISU football games this year, although I'm not sure we really "missed" out on too much!
Labor Day weekend was spent painting the house. Mom, Holly, and myself painted the entire house in about a day and a half! They were a HUGE help!!
In September, my cousin Amy, her husband Jeff, and their little boy Drew came up from Oklahoma to put our kitchen cabinets in. We absolutely LOVE our cabinets and we were so fortunate to have them be able to come up and do it for us. We love these guys!
Gabe put in nearly as many hours to the house as Rusty did. Here they are working late into the night. I think they worked on flooring until 4 am this night! Crazy boys!

What a year! 2008

October was busy. We had several house projects to finish up but had several other things on the calendar as we weren't planning to still be building!
Here we are at Rusty's cousin's wedding. It was at Reiman Gardens and was beautiful!Mom, Hillary, Holly, and I took the kiddos to Thomas the Train in Boone.
October also marks Race for the Cure. Holly and I went with Jen and her family to help celebrate Jen's mom! Tosh's family was unable to come but we were celebrating her as well!
October 31st, we got moved into our house! Gabe brought the boys over and he helped Rusty finish up some jobs. Holly brought Maddox up and we took the three boys trick-or-treating. Was tons of fun to have them all there to help get us settled into our new home!
To celebrate moving out of the apartment (finally!) and to thank everyone that helped with the house, we had a builder's party in November. Holly helped cook food and the kids loved the caramel apple bar.
We finished the year with several Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations in November and December. Hope you all were as blessed as we were this year and wishing you a blessed 2009!

Merry Christmas!

Pictures of some of our Christmas celebrations. We didn't make it to everything this year but it was nice not to be AS rushed around the state like normal!
Christmas at home before we started the Holiday Tour..... Dakota got some nice gifts!
Christmas Eve we spent with extended family at mom's then spent the night at Holly's. Maddox didn't quite understand the concept of leaving cookies for Santa and thought he should eat them instead.

Some of us woke up EARLY Christmas morning to watch Maddox open some gifts. Some of us slept.....Christmas day at mom's. Morgan and Maddox got lots of loot! Everything Morgan opened was: "Just what I always wanted!!!" It was cute!That afternoon we drove up to Boone and had Christmas at Rusty's dad's. Colson wasn't into the gift opening but Cooper definitely was! Coop and Rusty finished the night by playing basketball.

Monday, December 22, 2008

Crafty

Last year I started working on my "crafts" as soon as basketball season started. I have no idea where the time went this year but I didn't start feeling crafty until yesterday! I got a few little things done.... not bad for a couple of hours....

Practice run on the magnet board.... little one for Jackson's room because his daddy requested I make Jack something for his room. I love taking requests! :) My version of a Christmas card holder:

And some of the 50 magnets I made to go with it:Scarf I made to go with the new coat/hat Rusty got me for Christmas:

Board for Holly to hang some of her many necklaces from:

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Christmas Cookies




In preparation for Christmas, we made cookie goodies at our house the other night. Hillary and Morgan came up and Gabe & Ang brought the boys over. (Gabe opted to watch the ISU/Iowa game rather than make goodies). Here are some pictures of Jaden, Isaiah, and Morgan working hard on their Christmas cookies.

Functional Family Celebration






Grandma K, Aunt Peggi & Mickey, Amy, Jeff & Drew all came up for Christmas last Saturday. We have yet to be successful at getting a picture of all of the kids looking at the camera at the same time.... but we are getting closer! :) Less tears this time than last...
Dakota loved having all the company and getting lots of "people food!"

Monday, December 15, 2008

Love

Mostly Rusty (ok, and Dakota) posts. And wedding posts from "Show Us Your Life."

INSPIRATION

Amy's blog is so fun. I love seeing the pictures and updates as to what they are doing. She has an amazing talent for capturing life's precious moments on photograph and sharing them with everyone else. I don't promise to have as nice of a blog as she does, but I'll try to keep everyone updated on our sometimes way too busy lives. Stay tuned...

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Fireside

Rusty built our home in 2008. We moved in on Halloween and have been working (ok, meaning to work) on it ever since. Here are posts of projects as well as Kelly's Show Us Where You Live carnival:

Family

Spending time with Family.......

Celebrate Life

Food

Recipe Posts from Hickstionary (please note I'm collecting recipes for my work in progress cook book. Here's a sample page. PLEASE send me your recipes (with pictures!)):

Faith

I believe....

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. --John 3:16

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God. --Ephesians 2:8


I've posted some of my thoughts on the Complacency Challenge (you should join!).

Hickstionary posts on Faith:

Work. In. Progress.

I've Been There

Saviour King (music video)

Part 1 (Part of God's story)

Monday, December 1, 2008

Everything Else

A landing place for other posts that don't quite fit. DIY? Photography? Quotes? Maybe even Dakota will start showing up in here rather than in other random categories....

A Conversation with Rusty

Distraction (Dakota)

Cooking Onesies (applique shirts and RUFFLES)

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