Happy Holidays!

Most of you reading this hopefully received our Christmas card!

Another year over, already! 2009 has been up and down for us, but we have a lot to be thankful for! Aside from our wedding and honeymoon, we did a lot of fun stuff! We saw a lot of concerts, one of our favorite things to do. We saw Phish back on tour for the first time since 2004 this summer. We saw a very over-priced Dave Matthews Band concert here in Des Moines (as our 3rd or 4th show, we could have sat this one out, unfortunately). We went to 80/35, Des Moines' 2nd annual music festival downtown. We saw Umphreys McGee a few times, including two nights Super Bowl weekend where we got to eat free pizza with the band and watch the game on the big screen before the 2nd show of the weekend in downtown Minneapolis. We also saw Ben Folds, Kellar Williams, and some local bands we enjoy checking out from time to time.

We did a small amount of traveling. I went to Kansas with my family for an extremely short trip for my Great Aunt and Uncle Bert and Marilyn Malm's 50th wedding anniversary. Chicago for Phish, Sioux City to see Hannah and Jeremy's new home and for their wedding, and Kansas City for some football. And of course, a LOT of traveling back and forth to Cedar Falls and Kalona area to visit family and friends.

Our wedding is just one of five important weddings that took place this year! Aaron's sister Hannah and Jeremy, Aaron's uncle Jim and new wife Linda, and our good friends Courtney and Tara were all married in 2009! More good friends of ours, Will and Morgan, will be tying the knot this coming weekend!

We both love sports, and I had full access to March Madness on TV being unemployed. There's one positive part about unemployment in the spring! We went to as many Iowa Cubs games as we could. I ran in two races for fun; Iowa Cubs 5 mile fun run (55 minutes flat! Very proud of that) and the Dam to Dam 5K. Aaron and I went to a few football games including traveling to Kansas City with my parents for the Iowa State v K State showdown at Arrowhead Stadium! Now we are excited for UNI basketball!

I have to mention my good friend Kayla serving a tour in Afghanistan right now. I can't wait to see her again in the spring and think of her every day and stay thankful for all of those just like her away from their families over the holidays in order to serve our country. We thank you and love you Kayla!

It may have been a rough year for us otherwise but when we look at all the fun things we were able to do and that we have such wonderful family and friends; I would say we have a lot to be thankful for! It's been a great show of strength for our newly-wed relationship as well. Exactly one year ago we were new home owners with jobs we were proud of and thought to be secure and then life threw us an obstacle! Between the lay-offs, struggling to find new jobs, planning a wedding, and all the stress that goes into being new home owners (in a fixer-upper home) I think we did great together!

Hopefully all of you are ready to enjoy the holidays and the weather will hold off for all of us to travel!

"A very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year! Let's hope it's a good one, without any fear"

-John Lennon (and one of my favorite Christmas tunes)

**Here are some pictures of "blizzard 09" here in Des Moines! YUCK! We were snowed in for one day but had to put up with horrible roads for travel many other days!

Our front door

Looking toward the driveway. There was at least 8" scooped ouf of our sidewalk the evening before. The front of Aaron's car was completely drifted over as well.

These are a few of my favorite things...

The holidays are here! Aaron and I had an absolutely wonderful Thanksgiving! Hope all of you can say the same.


We spent 3 nights in Kalona, Aaron's home town. His whole family and the incredible Quincy dog were back for the entire 4 day break. On Thanksgiving day, we actually went to my Aunt and Uncle Doug and Diane Brenneman's home in Wellman, just a few miles from Kalona, for my side of the family's Thanksgiving.
Oh yeah, that's a deep fat fryer and there's a turkey in it!!!
The kids, minus three of us Let's not tell my dad we posted this one on the blog, okay? He didn't budge as we posed around him for the picture!
That evening we had yet another wonderful, delicious meal with his immediate family and grand parents. The following day Aaron's sisters and I battled the crowds at the mall and then had a fun pizza meal with his extended family. A few members were even in from Virginia and it was great to visit with them!
Sit out on a game at the Swartzendruber house, get smashed with a pumpkin bar by Kayla. In the face. :) Mr. Quincy
On Saturday we headed to Cedar Falls and I and the cousins went to A Christmas Carol in 3D. Pretty cool! Sunday morning we had breakfast at Grandma's and ALL the grandkids were present! Of course, we forgot to get a picture on this rare occasion that we are able to gather at one place at one time, but it was still fun! Got back late Sunday night and put up some Christmas decorations and lights and called it a weekend! Can't wait to do it all again in 3 weeks for Christmas! Except aren't you supposed to sleep in and relax a little on holiday breaks? That didn't happen over Thanksgiving!

My mom and I just decided we are going to see the Trans Siberian Orchestra here in Des Moines on the 22nd. What a way to kick off the holiday break!


My home made wreath. I kinda need to hide the hanger part. Still Charlie Brown-ish, but I love it!



Yes, there are only icicle lights on half the house. Long story but we hope for them to be all the way up after this weekend. :)

Long time, No blog!

HAPPY FALL YA'LL!

Hello all! We haven't updated in close to 5 months! We've been married now close to 5 months!!! Can you beleive it!?!?
Not a whole lot has happened, but first to report: Aaron's job situation.
He took a job for a short while as a sales agent selling life insurance to senior citizens. He realized quickly this wasn't for him, and the money was not great. He stuck it out for a while and then decided to switch gears. He was recently hired through Manpower (go figure) as a temporary Trade Specialist within operations. Sound familiar? Maybe not, but it should! It's very similar, almost the exact same actually, position that he was working at Aviva when he was laid off before our wedding. It is a temporary fill-in for a maternity leave but he was able to hit the ground running with his experience. And we are very excited the position is at Principal Financial Group here in Des Moines. We have to be thankful for whatever we can get in this economy, and it's good experience as well. Definitely some great references and relationships to build here!

I started the nanny position for the twin girls in the end of July! They were born May 8 so they are just about 6 months! They are so much fun and I really enjoy it!

Since the honeymoon, I guess things have been pretty un-eventful. We enjoyed our summer with our usual activities; Iowa Cubs baseball, outdoor music festivals and concerts, and some grilling and camping!
80/35 2nd Annual Outdoor Music Festival in Des Moines!
Our new found favorite band to see live, Umphrey's McGee at Simon Estes in Des Moines! We've seen them 6 times now, 4 of them in 2009! We're hoping to go to a New Years Eve show in their home town, Chicago!

Now it's our favorite time of year- football season! And our UNI Panthers aren't doing so hot. They were ranked 2 in the nation before our first loss at home in 3 years! And on Homecoming weekend! Another loss followed the week after.
On a brighter note- our friends, Laura and Lee, gave us their season ticket seats to the first game of the season; UNI at Iowa! It was an AWESOME game!
Our excellent seats for the Iowa v UNI football game Labor Day weekend!

We are going back for a UNI game this weekend. Some people are still holding on to hopes that we will make the play-offs, but with 3 losses-2 of them conference losses- Aaron and I are not holding out any hope! We are pretty excited about the Iowa Hawkeyes though! And we can say we were at their first game of this awesome season!

This has also been the year for weddings! Aside from ours, Aaron was the best man in a wedding in August for our good friends- Courtney and Tara.
Courtney and Tara Driscol!
Scott, Courtney, and Aaron

Aaron's oldest sister Hannah also got married in October! Hannah and Jeremy were lucky enough to pick the day of the first snowfall in Iowa! Although it cramped the plans for the outdoor ceremony a bit, it was absolutely gorgeous and a great time!
Mr. and Mrs. Meyers' first dance! Beautiful!
The kids at Hannah and Jeremy's wedding reception. Colin, Kayla, Jeremy, Aaron, Hannah, myself

So, as I said, not too much new to report! I'm still working on Aaron to get a dog. We've talked about possibly getting one in the spring!

The holidays are almost here! I am more than excited to put up a tree for the first time in our house! We've only had tiny Charlie Brown trees before. I'm sure our cats will destroy it but it will be fun while it lasts I guess! :)

Hope everyone is having a wonderful fall and looking forward to seeing a lot of you for the holidays!


Our poor cats dressed up for a photo contest! We were hoping to win $500 in cat food, but the photo didn't win. Can you beleive it?! At least the costumes were only $1!

Quick update!

We are back from the honeymoon and still busy putting things away.

The wedding was beautiful and we both said it was the perfect day! Our family and friends who helped out were so wonderful, we can't possibly thank them enough!

I will try to update soon with pictures and details of the honeymoon. Aaron has one possible job lead; we are keeping our fingers crossed.

Have a wonderful 4th of July everyone! Looks like we are going to have awesome weather!

We survived!!

What a fun weekend we all just had!
Friday afternoon I watched my cousin Cassie run in the high school state track meet. She ran in 3 relays and did an awesome job! I'm very proud of her and Eric for qualifying for State this year! That's awesome guys!
Getting ready to start Running first for the 4x4 relay
We started out Friday night celebrating my birthday at the Iowa Cubs game. Aaron's sister Hannah and her fiance Jeremy came to visit along with a few of our friends. It was a blast, and we won!
Go Cubs Go!

Saturday I headed to Cedar Falls with 3 friends. The guys stayed here and went to Embassy Suites in Des Moines for the evening.
The girls started with the bridal shower at Diamond Dave's. My mom and Sofie worked so hard and did such an awesome job! The theme was a luau and the place looked wonderful! Everyone commented on the beautiful decorating they did!
Bridal shower luau Kathy, Sara, Grandma
My bridesmaids
Then the ladies headed to a hotel where we reserved a suite. Sofie planned a wonderful "wine and cheese" hour at the hotel and we played games and got to know everyone. After that, we went go carting. We learned that two of my bridesmaids are terrible drivers, one of them my sister! Trying to give my soon to be mother-in-law whiplash! Then out to eat and out on the town! We had such a blast, and heard the guys had fun too!
Go Carts Mom on the go cart! The pins Alissa made!
With Tara and Val With Sara and Tammy

After winding down a little Sunday with some more friends who stayed in town, I got up this morning and ran the Iowa Cubs 3rd Annual 5 Mile Fun Run!!!!! I ran it in 55 minutes flat! I ran it two years ago in just under 59:00. I was pretty happy!

Aaron and I are headed to one last Iowa Cubs game to finish up our Memorial Day weekend. Should be a fun time!

So we survived yet another busy weekend and had so much fun with our friends and family! Can't wait to do it again June 13 and add even more of you to the mix!

A job!

Some of you know I had a couple interviews for a nanny position recently and found out yesterday I got the job!

It is for twin girls born May 8 and will not start until July. It's nice that it is after the wedding, I was getting nervous about that. Being so close to the big day, I wasn't sure who would hire me needing half of June off!

So I'm very excited and think it will be a great fit for me. I miss working with kids a lot and am really excited to get back into it.

Aaron and I are getting ready for a very busy weekend, as if last weekend wasn't busy enough! Between an appointment with Touch of Class, my hair trial, ordering the cake, 2 open houses, and a meeting with the DJ we hit 7 cities and managed to jog into Wisconsin as we got lost trying to find the DJ in Dubuque! All the appointments went extremely well, then we get home Monday and receive an email from the print shop that only 40 of the 300 programs we gave them turned out. The rest were ruined from a printer malfunction! Thankfully, we found more and hopefully will be reimbursed.

As for this weekend....Eric and Cassie (my cousins) are running here in Des Moines in the high school state track meet today and tomorrow. Eric ran today in the shuttle hurdles (I think that's right!) and they got 2nd in their heet, 10th overall. Not bad! Cassie runs three times tomorrow. I used to babysit these littles ones and tote them around everywhere in the summers, I can't beleive they're running in high school track meets now!
(I was so excited today I missed him in the pictures I tried to take! This one is from a different meet off his facebook :) Hope this isn't too embarassing buddy! I'm proud of you!)

Tomorrow we are celebrating my birthday with some friends and Aaron's oldest sister, Hannah, by going to the IA Cubs game. Then Saturday I'm off with the girls to Cedar Falls for the bridal shower and bachelorette party. Aaron will stay here with some friends for his bachelor party. More baseball Sunday and Monday and I run in the IA Cubs 5 mile fun run on Monday too. I've been "training" really well up until this week when I came down with a lovely cold or something (it's nasty!) so we'll see how Monday turns out. Since I'm off work, I've been trying to rest up but just can't shake it! I may be walking the 5 miles, but at least I'll finish!
I'm signed up for the 5k portion of the Dam to Dam on the 30th as well. Maybe I will redeem myself then!

So just 3 weeks away and we're so excited!!! We've been busy planning the honeymoon and all the fun (and expensive) things we get to do out west!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Memorial Day weekend and enjoy the sun! It's going to be beautiful here in Iowa!

33 days!

The countdown is getting closer!

We've been busy as things wrap up with the wedding planning. Since the weather has been nicer we are getting things done outside and also getting a better look at the job we have ahead of us on the lawn....
BEFORE
front back deck driveway

IN PROGRESS
front back deck driveway


The owners before really didn't do much to the outside of the house; really, they didn't do too much to the inside either :) We have finished all the painting inside and will hold off on anything more until next year. We've added flowers along the driveway, plants in the front yard, potted plants on the deck, and a garden in the back! Aaron tilled a garden for us in the backyard with his new electric tiller! So far, we are waiting for many different vegetables and sunflowers to sprout! Hopefully we have a wonderful salsa and vegetable garden in a few months!
The garden on May 13


We've also been able to fit a tent camping trip in at a local park in Des Moines. We enjoy camping and didn't think we'd get to do much of it this busy summer so we fit it in right away! It was a little cold but definitely worth it!


Holly graduated from UNI last weekend! She double majored in Humanities and English with a minor in History. I think that's right :) She was Cum Laude and also won the Purple and Old Gold award for high merits in the Humanities department.


Saturday night we attended an open house for one of the tumblers I used to coach. She is graduating high school this year and a lot of the kids and their families were there! Although, the "kids" I used to give piggy backs to and comfort while they cried during WTTC sleepovers are no longer kids! It's hard to believe they're going to college! It's so wonderful to still be in touch with everyone after 3 years of not coaching. I wish you all the best of luck!

We also caught up with my cousin Steph over the weekend to wish her good luck on her trip to Poland! She is going with her class at Hawkeye Community College and leaves May 12! She'll be flying in to Cedar Rapids just hours before the wedding to "personally attend" to my every need :) She'll be an awesome Personal Attendant and I'm sure will have an awesome time in Poland!


I am still applying for jobs and have an interview this week I'm very much looking forward to! I will be sure to keep everyone posted!