Top 12 Moments of 2012

January 12, 2013 By 8 Comments

Last year was such an amazing year. I recently took the time to look through some of the photos I took of our little family last year & in doing so I realized just how much we actually did! In the hopes of keeping this post from getting too ridiculously long, I’ve decided to just showcase one moment from each month of 2012.

January

Last January, Shane, his Nomi {Justin’s mom} & I went to see Disney On Ice: Toy Story 3. I wasn’t sure how he’d do {he was about 28 months old at the time} but he really surprised me by being completely captivated the whole time. He still talks about the show sometimes, a full year later.

February

In February, this photo happened. Shane & I are lucky enough to have an amazing group of friends that we’ve known since he was a tiny tot. We see them almost every week, so the fact that they were hanging out in the photo above isn’t the memorable part- it’s the whole holding hands thing. Totally cute. Also, I’m pretty sure each one of these kids has grown half a foot this year.

IMG_0762

In March, we took Shane to the theater for the first time when we went to see The Lorax. He did great & only got antsy toward the end, but quickly started paying attention again. He didn’t do as well the next month with Chimpanzee, despite his huge love of monkeys, but I think that was because it wasn’t animated. He did really good when we went to see Wreck-It Ralph at the drive-in in November, though!

April

In April, Shane got to take a ride on Thomas the Train. He only vaguely knew who Thomas was at that point, but after riding on him, Shane became totally obsessed with Thomas, who is still a major fixture in our lives.

May

In May, Shane had his very first flight when we all flew out to Nebraska on Justin’s birthday weekend to celebrate his grandma’s {Justin’s grandma/Shane’s great-grandma} 90th birthday!

June

June was a month full of park visits & dirty faces, frozen yogurt &swimming. Nothing huge happened this month, although it was the first full month that I was home with Shane again full-time after quitting my job in mid-May.

July

In July, my sister & her kids came to visit.While they were here, Shane went to Disneyland for the very first time! It’s a 4 hour drive from here, but it’s a lot closer than my sister usually is in Wisconsin.

August

I have a ton of pictures that I could have used from August that don’t include Shane squinting his eyes, including photos of him unwrapping his birthday gifts. But this photo was taken the day before his birthday, just minutes before Justin proposed to me, right on that beach.

September

In September, we learned that Shane is terrified of Chuck E Cheese when we tried to take him to a birthday party there. He climbed up me to my head &screamed like crazy until I got him outside, and then I tried to erase the pain a tiny bit with some froyo.

October

In October, we went to the pumpkin patch where I took this adorable photo of my boys!

November

In November, our Elf on the Shelf brought Shane a special North Pole Breakfast. Our elf got Shane like 7 different types of cookies &donuts & cinnamon rolls, but Shane put nothing but fudge covered Oreos on his plate. {Don’t worry, he only ate like 2 of them.}

excited

December of course brought Christmas along with it, and with that came so many amazing memories. This picture shows his excitement over his gifts, but there was so much more behind it. From his newfound Christmas carol obsession to driving through Glittering Lights to making cookies, this really was a magical holiday season for us.

2012 was a year to remember, and 2013 is already set to beat it with our upcoming wedding {&subsequent honeymoon}!

If you have special moments that you want to remember, YesVideo can help. Whether it’s old memories from your own childhood or recent photos or video, YesVideo can help you make a DVD full of memories that will last a lifetime.

What was your favorite memory of 2012?

Note: This post was created in connection with my appointment as an Ambassador for YesVideo. Visit www.facebook.com/yesvideo to join the conversation.

Filed Under: family, life, photos Tagged With: , , , , ,

Check Your Headlights & Win a $500 Shopping Spree! #GoDaddyCares

October 23, 2012 By

1 in 8 women are diagnosed with breast cancer at some point in their lives. I don’t know about you, but that number scares me. Especially because I have had a relative who had breast cancer.

aunt grandma graduateMy great-aunt, Justin, me & my grandma at my high school graduation

When I was just around three years old {Shane’s current age}, my grandmother was diagnosed with not one but two types of breast cancer. When she had originally gone in for a small lump, they found that while it was cancerous, it wasn’t spreading. It was a carcinoma in situ, an early form of cancer that if left untreated for a long time CAN spread, but may not. Unfortunately, when they found that one, they also found a second type- and this one was spreading. Fast.

My Grandmother had a radical mastectomy, where they removed her breast, underlying chest tissue and lymph nodes. With some amazing luck, they managed to get all of the cancer out and she didn’t have to undergo chemotherapy or radiation. She did, however, have to take a pill every day for the rest of her life. That said, she lived for almost twenty years after that, and it never came back. {Pneumonia took her at age 86.}

sister grandmaMe, my grandma & my sister {ignore the eyeliner.. I was in high school.}

I’m sure my story sounds familiar to most of you- since 1 in 8 women are diagnosed, that means almost all of us know someone who was. Whether it was your grandmother, your aunt, your mom, your friend, or even you, breast cancer has very likely touched your life. &If it hasn’t yet, sadly, it probably will.

Since having a relative with breast cancer puts me at an even higher risk for breast cancer {and even MORE so since my grandmother had it in both breasts}, I need to start being very consistent about doing a self-exam every month. I have only done it a few times in the past because I wasn’t really sure I was doing it right. If you aren’t doing self-exams yet either, I challenge you to start with me! Pick a day that you’ll check every month- something easy to remember. I am going to start checking on the days when I have my asthma medication refilled since that is every 30 days. If you don’t know where to start, check out the handy graphic below for some tips. Hopefully it encourages some of you to start doing self-exams!

Breast Self Exam Tips

I love October because it’s Breast Cancer Awareness month, and lots of companies take a moment to remind us all of how important it is for us to catch this horrible disease early. Go Daddy is one of those wonderful awareness raising companies- they have their race car driver, Danica Patrick, driving a hot pink car this month instead of her usual neon green one! They’re also offering a great deal on domains, websites and more if you use the code "STRENGTH". In addition, they want to encourage you to "check your headlights" by offering up a shopping spree to someone who is taking an active role in their health!

Go Daddy would love to know your tip for reminding yourself to check your headlights and is giving away a $500 shopping spree to one lucky person who also registers for their newsletter!

How to enter:

1) Leave a comment below, sharing how you remind yourself to check your headlights
2) When the contact form appears, complete three short fields to be entered to win the shopping spree
3) That’s it! Don’t forget Go Daddy is giving 20% off domains, websites & more with code STRENGTH

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Go Daddy. The opinions and text are all mine. Official Sweepstakes Rules.

Filed Under: family, health, life Tagged With: , , , , , ,

The Best & Worst Anniversary Gifts I’ve Received

July 16, 2012 By 22 Comments

hope springs logo

Justin & I are coming up on our 8th anniversary, which will be September 6th. The “traditional” gifts for the 8th anniversary are bronze or pottery, and the “modern” gifts are linens or lace. While I can think of something with lace that Justin may want me to get, none of the choices sound like very appealing gifts for me to receive. But then again, they’d be better than the gifts I usually get for our anniversaries!

necklace2

One year, I received a beautiful diamond necklace in the shape of a heart. It had two rows of black diamonds & one of white diamonds, and it was beautiful. It was so exactly my taste, and I actually wear it daily and keep it on day & night. So what’s the problem?

Well, of all of the seven anniversaries we’ve shared, that’s the only one where I received a gift at all! The first few years, I would spend a long time choosing something to give to him on our anniversary, only to get nothing in return. Finally, I gave up.

I promise, I don’t actually care about him buying me things. But what I do care about is the thought that goes into it- it really is “the thought that counts”. He could print me out a picture of something he chose for me & not even really buy it- I just want to know that on our anniversary, he’s thinking of me and wanting to express and celebrate our love for each other.

This is where I need to note that he’s actually quite a fantastic gift giver- he knows exactly what I want &does love to give it to me and make me happy. In the last year alone, I’ve gotten a Clarisonic {my birthday}, KitchenAid Stand Mixer {Christmas}, iPhone {just because/belated Valentine’s Day}, and DSLR camera {Mother’s Day}. All are amazing gifts that are far too generous. But yet, every year, September 6th goes by like any other day.

I’d gladly give up a Valentine’s Day gift {or really ANY of them} to use it for our anniversary. It’s such a special day that signifies another year of our partnership, and I don’t feel that we’ve done a great job reflecting just how important it is.

So, this year, I’m calling him on it. I don’t care if my gift is from the dollar store- we WILL be exchanging gifts this year!

Luckily, I’m not the only one who is less than pleased with their anniversary gift {or lack thereof}. When I saw this trailer for the new movie, Hope Springs, I was laughing so hard! You can view it here- and be sure to check out the Hope Springs Pinterest board too for some more couples humor! You can also follow Hope Springs on Facebook for more updates!

What is the best or worst anniversary gift you ever received?

Sony Pictures Presents “Hope Springs”, A new comedy from the director of “The Devil Wears Prada” starring Meryl Streep, Tommy Lee Jones, and Steve Carell. Watch the trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-s22_Mvikl8

Note: Compensation was provided by SONY via Glam Media. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of SONY

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Getting Kids to Exercise

February 25, 2012 By 3 Comments

I would guess that, sometime around the invention of radio, the first mommy started to fret that her little ones were spending too much on the couch or in their bunk beds laying being passively entertained by some sort of electronic babysitter or other. Indeed, while computers and the Internet may be more intellectually stimulating than the idiot box, at least in some ways, the fact of the matter is that not only children are spending more time on their keisters than ever and less time running around. No wonder most of us are struggling so much with our weight.

It gets worse because you think it would be easy to get a child to go out and play, but the more I talk with other mothers the more I realize that, while a lot of children are natural athletes who love to run amok — which, of course, brings up other issues — a number of other children are all too happy to be sedate slugs and emulate their 80 year-old great-grandparents, even if they are immobilized before Nickelodeon or The Cartoon Network and not Lifetime or Turner Classic Movies. Parents are still working to find ways to motivate kids to get off their bunk beds and out into the world and running around.

The trick is, I think, not to push too hard and remind the kids that play is actually fun. Not only that, when you’re done with it, you tend to feel a whole lot better. Actually, one way to do that is to do something active ourselves, It’s a total cliche but children really do learn by example. If they see us moving around and not immobilized for hours watching whatever godawful new reality show is the rage at any given moment, they’ll be likely to follow our lead, get more active and start running around.

Of course, then the trick is to make sure they do in the yard and not in the house. Too much indoor exercise, I’ve learned, can lead to injuries and destroyed bunk beds.

The preceding is a guest post from Rob- thanks, Rob! Interested in guest posting for {Not Quite} Susie Homemaker? Contact me!

Filed Under: exercising, fitness, guest post, health, kids Tagged With: , , , , ,

Wordless Wednesday: Thanksgiving!

November 29, 2011 By 10 Comments

Well the four day weekend may be over but I’m still on a Thanksgiving rush! This was the first year I hosted so I spent the two weeks prior to it planning extensively- but it all paid off! Nothing burned {seriously!}, everything came out RIGHT at 4pm and it was a very nice evening where for the first time, my parents {and little brother} and Hubby’s parents spent the Holiday together. It was pretty magical.

 

I had some fake leaves & acorns laying around so I added them to the mini pumpkins & candlesticks I got to make up the decorations!

My mom brought the appetizers, &my in-laws brought the ham and Waldorf Salad. It was a great team effort! ;)

A rare shot of Hubby & I together!

It was so nice to join both families together! That’s my Mom & Dad on the far left; Hubby’s Mom on the close left, his dad on the close right & my little brother on the far right.


Shane’s such a ham, always saying “Cheese” for the camera!

boars head holiday turkey
We did a non-traditional turkey: Boar’s Head {the company I work for} Holiday Turkey. It’s precooked & seasoned, and there’s no bone or anything- you just warm it in the oven & eat the whole thing. It was really good! &It was still semi-traditional, as we served it on the turkey platter that I have eaten Thanksgiving turkey off of since before I can remember.

How was YOUR Thanksgiving?


Susie’s Note: I’m discontinuing hosting a linky for Wordless Wednesday. While I’ve enjoyed hosting it, it’s become downright impossible for me to keep up with it on a weekly basis as I now work Tuesdays & Wednesdays & don’t often get online either of those days. But rest assured if you comment I’ll come visit your WW post by this weekend! :)

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