i PICK you valentine

have a happy valentine's day!

another test week under our belts

we love life after test week. don't get me wrong, we still have a great time during those two weeks because we stay busy with our friends. but it really is such a wonderful thing to have tyler back and available again. he is such a great husband and dad, we can't help but miss him when he is gone! plus, it means that we get out and do some fun things together as a family again.

we started off our test week with a delicious brunch. the kiddos played while the women chatted. but isn't it this way everytime? gotta love it. we also had an ice cream gathering one evening and a couple of different play dates throughout the week.

the kids found a prime spot to play. under the kitchen table. it was a perfect hide out. they were all together and none of the moms could see what they were doing.

byrdie was so nice to have everyone over for ice cream. aren't we lucky to have all of these wonderful women around? i'm not sure what i would do during test week without them. these are many, but not all of the of the lds first year wives.

once test week had come and gone we all celebrated the night away at a cinderella birthday party. the company was fun and the food was delicious and the birthday girl was as cute as ever.

the birthday girl, eliza.

this picture doesn't really show much except that she was there at the party.

the next day a bunch of us headed out to tour the sprecher brewery. this is a locally owned brewery that makes both beer and soda. as we were checking in they saw our utah driver's license and made the comment that we wouldn't be charged as much for the tour because we wouldn't be drinking the beer afterwards. i guess they've had some other lds people visit before.

it was a fun little tour and just the right amount of time for katelyn.

if the above picture wasn't big enough, well then here you go.

after the tour you get to drink as much sprecher soda as you want. we even let katelyn have her fair share, which was definitely a mistake. she was on such a sugar high after that!

don't let this little smile deceive you. yes, she was happy while playing in this fun sprecher car, but as soon as we took her out, she threw a HUGE tantrum.

love this little girl

first of all, sorry this is sideways. i guess i was holding the camera like that and didn't realize it. whoops.

second of all, i don't think i'll ever get sick of this reaction. ever. i love that katelyn will scream every single time tyler hides and runs into the room to chase her.

third of all, i love watching tyler play with katelyn when he gets home from school. she gets so happy when he's there. she just says, "it's daddy, it's daddy," over and over again.

fourth of all, i think katelyn is getting sick of me. we've spent way too much time inside lately. so i get so happy when tyler gets home too to take over for a bit too.

fifth of all, okay, there is no fifth of all. i guess i was on a role. i'll stop now. please enjoy.

check out this giveaway

if you go to this website, http://inevergrewup.net/giveaway-25-bumbleride-indie-stroller/ you can sign up to win this sleek looking stroller in this color. hurry though, contest ends january 30th.

adopting

bet that caught your attention, didn't it?

my sister and her husband, erin and thomas, have been working through the process of getting approved to be adoptive parents. they are currently working on a website to help birth parents get to know them a little better. they have already set up an adoptive profile sponsored through the lds family services.

now comes the part where they wait. if any of you know of any birthparents who may be looking to place their child with adoptive parents, please consider recommending this couple. they are truly some of the best people i know. they are so dedicated to each other, the gospel, bettering themselves, having fun. you name it.

feel free to take a look at their adoptive profile by clinking on the link below to get to know them better.

https://beta.itsaboutlove.org/ial/profiles/18573172/ourMessage.jsf

erin and thomas: far right

p.s. happy 30th erin!

what we've been up to since the weather turned cold

since the weather hasn't been very friendly this week, katelyn and i have spent the majority of our time locked up in our apartment. sub-zero temperatures really aren't my thing. neither are beanies for that matter, so we might as well just stay inside.

i did happen to venture out on one of the frigid days. i just couldn't go another day without stopping by the grocery store. let me tell you, it was freezing. i thought people were exaggerating when they said it gets cold here. but no, they weren't. -5 really is cold. i did put on a hat to go out that day and told myself i would take it off once i got inside the store. that didn't happen. it stayed on keeping my head all snuggly and warm. i didn't feel too out of place because apparantly when it's this cold, everyone shops for groceries with their beanies on.

and when we weren't grocery shopping, we just messed around and took pictures of ourselves messing around.

playing in mommy's coat. it really does look better on her.

in preparation for the cold weather, we went out and found a hat and gloves for katelyn. the only hat i could convince her to wear was the doggie hat. not the best looking hat, but she wears it and loves it.

her first reaction to the hat and gloves.

they're a hit. she wants to keep them on all of the time. even when we're playing inside.

i'm not sure what she's expecting to see. the t.v. isn't even on.

now we're looking forward to those warmer temperatures next week. 20's and 30' here we come!

back to real life again and sorry this is so long

after spending two and a half weeks in utah for the Christmas break, we have returned to wisconsin.

our vacation was the perfect amount of fun and relaxation. we loved spending so much time with the hedin family. we returned home feeling recharged and ready to head back to work.

katelyn and i left for utah almost a week earlier than tyler. he was busy slaving away preparing for finals. our departure from wisconsin was anything but boring. we started off our drive to the airport realizing we weren't exactly sure how to get there. but we did manage to get there just in time. good thing too because we sat on the plane for an hour before we finally took off. luckily katelyn is a champ on long days like that.

since we left so late we happened to miss our connecting flight. the next one wasn't leaving for another three hours, so we entertained ourselves with our handy point-and-shoot camera.

taking shoes on and off...what a fun game

staring off into space. bound to happen when lacking sleep.

climbing all over airport chairs. who knew they could be so fun?

were so happy to finally get to utah. it was fun to meet up with the in-laws again. we spent the next couple of days preparing for and attending tyler's sister's wedding. it was a beautiful sealing and, of course, the bride looked beautiful. i wish i could say i had pictures, but i left my charging battery plugged into the wall in the hedin home.

before christmas, i drove down to the provo/orem area to see all of my cute sisters and their husbands before they all headed to their in-laws. we watched it's a wonderful life, had a mock Christmas breakfast together and opened white elephant gifts. we were even instructed to wear our pajamas for the breakfast.

six days later tyler finally joined us in utah! he was so ready for a break, and we were so ready to have him back.

tyler kept the beard to show his family. i made him shave it off before i would kiss him.

we all had such a wonderful Christmas together. it was fun to watch katelyn this year to see how she would react to her presents. it didn't take long before she realized there were toys and clothes all for her in those boxes.
we spent Christmas day talking to tyler's brother who is on a mission, taking naps and playing with Christmas toys. tyler and i finished off the day by reading the Christmas story out of Luke.

Christmas eve dinner. everyone picks one thing they want for the big dinner that night. none of the requests have to coordinate or make a complete meal. it's fun to see what everyone picks and to see what you will end up eating that night.

christmas pajamas.

waiting to open presents.

while in utah, we made sure to squeeze some extra fun things in that we don't get to do in wisconsin. we went out to eat a number of times, played in the snow and made a snowman, went to an actual movie theatre with katelyn, visited deseret book and cafe rio, visited the bodyworld exhibit and visited family and old friends from the provo/orem area.

drinking juice at the restaurant. i think it entertained her all night.

playing in the snow. i warned tyler this was going on the blog, but he kept making funny faces. the little snowman was the one we built for katelyn.

she really did have fun playing outside despite the blank look on her face.

katelyn was completely spoiled with attention the whole break and enjoyed every minute of it.

tyler had a free meal to cafe rio that he forgot to use before we moved to wisconsin. it was a great excuse to visit cafe rio.
the day before we left we visited with my grandma bastian, uncle curtis and aunt marlene. it was fun to see that spunky grandma again.

tyler and i flew out the same day but not on the same flights. he took katelyn with him on his flights because he was supposed to get there at 2:00 and i wasn't going to get in until 6:00. because of a number of delays on both flights, he didn't get to milwaukee until 6:00. they entertained each other and katelyn kept tyler busy. he ended up having some great daddy daughter time with her.