Addition to the Family!

Before you all get excited, Ed and I are not expecting. With that out of the way, this has been by far the most exciting news of the year!

Train up a child in the way he should go: and 

when he is old, he will not depart from it.

Proverbs 22:6

There is going to be an addition to the Enevoldsen family! Drew and Teran are expecting their first child! That of course means that I am going to be an Aunt!!!! I am proud to say that I was the most excited sibling when Drew and Teran told us. (Some may call me a suck up, I just call myself an amazing sibling!) They found out in June that they would be parents in January. Like my parents, they won't find out the sex of the baby because they want it to be a surprise. We do know that it is adorable, here is a picture of the precious little one.

The very first grandchild and nephew or niece.  

I couldn't be more excited for them, they are going to be amazing parents. They will raise him/her to love and fear the Lord, they will love the child unconditionally, teach him/her to love and respect other and all the little things that only parents can teach their children. Jentz will teach the little one his sense of humor, Hunter will teach him/her all about farming and tractors, Talia will gift the baby with the ability to cry on demand, Donica will set an example of how to be silent yet know exactly when to say something to make it count, Leif will show him/her that he is by far the coolest uncle, and I have yet to decide what I will teach the little one. Any ideas?

We only have little over a month till this bundle of joy enters the world! So the countdown begins. :)
I love you Drew and Teran; you will always have a babysitter only 40 minutes away.

Time Waits for No Man....

The day after my 12th birthday I began counting down the days till I turned 13 and finally be a teenager. A few days after my 17th birthday I complained to my parents that I couldn't wait till I was 18 and finally be an adult. They looked at me, smiled, and said, "Erika, don't rush your youth. Soon enough, days will feel like minutes, months will feel like hours, and a year will feel like on a few days." At the time I looked at them and thought to myself they were crazy. 

Years have past and once again my parents are right. It has been almost a year since my last blog post and I have no inkling of where that time has gone. It is time to start fresh with this blog. My goal is to document the years that pass so that one day when I am old and can't remember the small details, I will have something to look back on and share with my children. 

At least once a week I plan on posting a new blog. I am positive that there will be at least one interesting thing happen to me during a week. 

Wish me luck!

Waking up on the wrong side!

I knew it was going to be a bad day when I woke up late this morning and rushed to get ready for work. I usually wake up by 6 and sleep lightly till I have to get up, but this morning I slept through my alarm and finally woke up to my snooze! After rushing to get ready, I managed to quickly say goodbye to my sleeping husband and make it to work on time. 

I came home and my day got better; Ed had lunch on the table and a smile on his face! That instantly brightened my day. While eating lunch we kept hearing a cat meowing under our feet. We have discovered that there is a cat that keeps finding a way under our house! We have yet to figure out a way to keep it out of the cellar. This afternoon I managed to coax it out and block off where I think the cat is getting in! Cross your fingers!

On my way home from work I had to stop for gas, unfortunately, I didn't make it to the gas station. My car died a few blocks from my house. After walking home, getting the gas can (which was full of gas, thank goodness), walking back and filling the car, I headed home. I should have stayed in the car! My puppies had managed to tear apart the kitchen. Trash was everywhere. While cleaning up the mess I got a call from the jewelry boutique, who informed me it would cost over $200 to fix my ring. Icing on the cake..

Looking back, it wasn't a horrible day but a usual day in my life is pretty amazing! Thanks to my wonderful husband.

Tomorrow I'll make sure to get up on the other side of the bed! :)

First and last snow of 2010

We can now officially call it winter in Colorado! Yesterday morning I went to open the door to let my puppies out and found myself staring at 6-8 inch blanket of white covering the ground! I started jumping up and down and yelled at Ed; I'm sure he was thinking that I was crazy. I never thought I would be so excited to see snow. The only thing I love about Winter is the snow, I couldn't imagine going all winter without snow. 

Miley and Buck hate going outside when the first snow hits but once I finally got them outside they loved it! Miley chased Ed and I back and forth on the path that Ed scooped. 

Poor Miley, every time she jumped out of one snow drift she landed in another! 

Staying on the trail! Two snow walls on both sides. 

Tonight will be the first New Year's Eve I will be spending with Ed. All the previous years he has had to work late or we have been apart. I am excited to spend the evening at home with my beloved husband curled up on the couch, eating appetizers, drinking champagne and watching the ball drop! Happy New Year everyone, may God bless you and yours in the New Year!

Off for the holidays

As 2010 draws near a close I feel that my life should be slowing down instead of speeding up! This past month I started working at Ayres as a Kindergarten Para and I love it. It is the most rewarding job I have ever held. I feel completely grown up having a set schedule from 8-3:30 and the weekends off. Ed likes to tease me that it is the first "real job" I have ever had. I tell him I've had plenty of real jobs! One of the perks of my job is I get all the holidays off; I have the next two weeks off to enjoy all my family and catch up on my blog and more importantly my housework. The staff I work with are amazing and I love all my little ones.

On a less professional note, Ed's siblings are down for the week as well. We have such a great time with them! We had an amazing dinner last night; Joey made Jelly Meatballs (don't knock it till you try them, they are amazing) and I made Chicken and Dumplings. After dinner we played Apples to Apples, if you haven't played it I highly recommend it, it is a fun/funny game.

Today has been a lazy day for everyone. Joey and I spent most of the morning on the couch while the men went hunting, set traps, and shopped around at Cableas. I have become the unofficial dog sitter for everyone. I don't mind at all; our dogs have such different personalities they always make me laugh. Currently in the Revord household we have Buck, the Bullmastif, and Miley, the Poodle, our puppies. Then we have Jane, the Bloodhound, and Bendi, the Mini Aussie, Joey and Cody's dogs. Bugsy, Luke's Teacup Poodle, Maddie the Golden, and Iris the other Poodle for a grand total of seven dogs as well as nine adults! We are one big happy family. 

It is going to be a fun filled week with the Revord clan!

Thanksgiving

My favorite thing about fall is the last Thursday in November, Thanksgiving! There is so much food, family and fun to be had on the wonderful day. It is the one day where no one worries about how much they eat or how little they get done. Thanksgiving is perfect for me because I love to eat and it is the one day out of the year people can't make fun of me for how much I eat and still be the size I am!

This year we spent our Thanksgiving with the Revord family. I missed spending the day with my family but I love my second family. The house was anything but quiet with 9 people and 9 dogs! For those of you that don't know the Revord family they are the country version of the Enevoldsen clan. Everyone is extremely vocal, very family oriented, and laugh all the time. I am thankful to be part of the family! 

My Mother-in-law found out a few days before Thanksgiving that she had staff infection so Joey, Amanda and I took over Thanksgiving dinner this year. Ed had to work Thanksgiving so we planned on eating lunch by 11. We prepared most of the side dishes Wednesday so we wouldn't have to get up so early Thursday morning. We got up at 4:45 to put the Turkey in with some help from Jeff. We went back to bed and woke up at 7:30 with the boys and while they went coyote hunting we started getting everything ready. By 11:01 we had everything on the table and were sitting down to eat. It was the first time the girls made Thanksgiving dinner, and I have to add that we did a rather amazing job! The food was amazing and there was plenty of leftovers for the next couple days. 

After lunch, the boys shocked us by cleaning up from lunch. They cleaned all the dished and put away all the food! We are so blessed to have such wonderful brothers, husbands and father. It was weird sitting on the couch watching them clean up, but I could definitely get used to it!  

After the boys were done cleaning up we all sat down in front of the fire and cuddled up in the blanket and turned on some Thanksgiving day football. A few of us took the classic "turkey coma" nap! The rest of the day was a lazy afternoon while we waited for Ed to get off work. The boys went coyote hunting in the evening and by the time Ed got home from work we were rested and ready to play some Jenga. Luke and Collin became pros by the end of the weekend and reached level 31! Joey on the other hand wouldn't play because she was so anxious just watching everyone else play!             

Friday everyone was out and about visiting friends that were home for the holidays so it was very quiet in the house. Saturday was a different story. We all decided to go out with a bang on Saturday night so the girls took naps during the day to make sure we were well rested by the time Ed got home at 11. When the whole family was finally together we all sat down together with our drink of choice and began playing Catchphrase. Of course it had to be boys vs. girls and the girls were on fire! By 1 a.m. Carmen and Jeff had enough of us tipsy kids and called it a night! After many hours of sibling bonding, Catchphrase, dancing, Jenga, pictures, videos and singing, we called it a night at 4 a.m.

Sister-in-laws :)

There was nothing good about Sunday except Joey's Monkey bread. We were sad to see everyone leave on Sunday but Collin had to go back to school, Luke had work and Cody and Joey had to get back to Wisconsin. We had an amazing Thanksgiving and we already miss all our wonderful siblings! 

Omaha

This past weekend Ed and I headed to Omaha to visit Luke and Collin (Ed's brothers). We left Saturday night after Ed got off work at 11 and we, correction, I drove 6 hours all night while Ed slept the whole way! We took Buck and Miley with us and they helped keep me awake while I was driving. We finally arrived at Luke's house at 7 a.m. 

Buck also slept the whole way down

Ed trying to look noble! 

After a power nap we started our weekend off with a trip to, you guessed it, Bass Pro Shop and Cabela's. We spent over an hour at each which is amazing for the Revord boys and I was very proud of them! I personally think if you've seen one Bass Pro you've seen them all but my husband and brother-in-laws seem to feel differently! We walked around Cabela's talking about how many animals they were going to kill this winter and where they were going to hunt etc. After an hour of that we got to do something I enjoy, food! Then we went to Bas Pro and did the exact same thing, minus eating.
After our excursion of the hunting shops we headed back to Luke's house to relax.








The boys loved these hats and they looked so cute all matching!
Ed and I have found a new favorite game while we were in Jamaica, Jenga! We brought it to Omaha with us and the four of us played Jenga all afternoon!

Jenga!!

A Lube Tube- 10 beers in that tube!

Sunday night we headed to the famous Quaker Steak and Lube. Luke and Collin had been talking about this restaurant for weeks, ever since they ate hot wings there. The thing about these hot wings is that the restaurant requires whoever orders them to sign a waver stating that they won't sue, eat at the customers own risk, etc. Also the boys had to wear gloves while eating the wings....We weren't brave enough to try the extreme wings so we settled with burgers and beer (I  enjoyed a daiquiri). Our favorite part of the restaurant was the cars and motorcycles hanging from the ceiling. The Lube Tube was Ed and Luke's favorite.

On Monday we visited the Omaha Zoo and it is the most amazing zoo I have ever been to. There were so many exhibits and so many animals. The best exhibits were all inside so we didn't venture out into the cold to visit the big animals. The one exhibit that made me feel like a kid as I clung to Ed's hand was the swamp exhibit. It was under the desert dome so it was dark and looked just like a Louisiana swamp. We walked on a bridge over the swamp and the only thing that separated us from the gators, beavers, and other swamp creatures was chicken wire and a rope fence. We caught glimpses of the gators as they splashed into the water, scaring me to death! I really felt like a little girl when Ed went around the corner and I saw a snake and then heard a huge splash; I went running and yelling for Ed. The good husband I have just stood there and laughed at me as I ran to him.

Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures from the swap because it was so dark, but here are some pictures of our other adventures from the day! 

The gorilla wanted a picture with me :)

The Gorilla outlook

We loved all the fish! All the fish that I wanted to see were there; Nemo, Dory, Bruce, Crush and the rest of the characters from Finding Nemo (one of our favorite animated movie). It was a beautiful aquarium. 

It looks like there is nothing between them!

We loved all the cats. The were so close and there were so many different breeds! One of the Tigers had a kitten with her and we decided that the next pet we want is a Tiger kitten! This was Ed's favorite exhibit. 

The Rainforest exhibit, or as we liked to call it Jamaica :)

 Our trip to Omaha was a great experience and we had a blast! November has been a very exciting month for us, we can't wait to see what the rest of the month brings!