Merry Christmas from Dan & Jordan

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to.....

Today is Dan's Birthday. I am no longer

the older women because today he becomes 27 years old too.

Happy Birthday Babe!

I love you very much and I thank God everyday

for putting you in my life.

I hope you have a wonderful day.

Jordan

We Elfed ourselves!

I came across this last year too. I still think it's funny, especially with Dan in there dancing.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Santa at Silver Lake

Last weekend Santa made his grand appearance Up North at Silver Lake. It's an annual tradition for the area that we have become quite fond of.

Christmas carols, an outdoor fireplace, tasty hot chocolate, and a large variety of cookies to try, all while we waited for Santa.

Santa arrived on a Polar Express float.
After meeting and greeting Santa, they send you on a Christmas light tour. We went around to about 10 houses to see the best in the area.
This was the house we thought deserved to win.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all my fellow bloggers and to my friends and family that visit.
It never seems to fail year after year that this day brings tears to my eyes. I have so much to be thankful for. Here is what I have thought about already today.

1. My husband, Dan. Wow, I guess I really can't explain how lucky I feel to be his wife. He is the most amazing husband. As we approach our 1 year anniversary I really do look forward to many many more.

2. My parents, Jim and Lori. I have so many fond memories as a child. I know I wasn't alway easy on my parents, :) but they showed me such unconditional love through everything. To this day I really love spending time with my parents.

3. My new father and mother in law, Cal and Nancy. They have made me feel like one of their own. I give thanks for the relationship I have with them.

4. My sister, Lindsay, and my brother in law, Jon, and my nephew Bright. Lindsay has always been a great big sister. She always has great words of wisdom and continues to be so helpful with sharing her talents. The bond we share makes me smile. I give thanks for Jon. He is great at making our whole family smile and laugh. He has added so much excitment to our family times. Oh, and Bright! When I think of him I can't stop smiling. He has added so much joy to my life, and continues to remind me how amazing being a mother will be someday.

5. My new siblings and neice and nephews. Bruce, Amy, Hunter, Brooklyne, & Steve, Laura, Bennett, and one on the way. Being a part of a larger family brings a lot of fabulous times together. Becoming an aunt has been a joy. I give thanks for the crazy fun times when I couldn't stop laughing that have come from hanging out with my in laws.

6. All of our Grandparents. Wow! We are so lucky to be able to spend holidays with them. I am so thankful for all the kisses and hugs, and the many prayers that I sure have been offered.

7. Work! I love doing hair. And although working in a salon atmosphere with 20+ other women has its challenges I wouldn't have it any other way. The times of laughter and joy far out way the simple struggles. I am thankful for my job, for the women I work with, and for my bosses and all the work they put in to making Salon Cheveux great.

8. Girlfiends! I give thanks for so many fun times and for growing together from pre-teens to young women. I look forward to more great times as our lives continue to grow.


Well, I think I could keep going and going. This is just a short list of all the things and people I will give thanks for today.

Another great night!

Being a hair stylist means I work some evenings during the week. On Tuesdays I get out a 2pm which allows me to make dinner, and look forward to doing something fun with Dan.
Tonight we decided to carve our pumpkins. Over dinner we thought about what we would carve. I decided to be a little cheesy and carve D + J into my pumpkin, and Dan found a face that he decided to do.
Here are some pictures from our evening.

A must see!

Dan and I went to see the movie Fireproof this evening. After hearing rave reviews from some friends, we decided to catch the 7:10 showing at the Star Theater.
This movie tells us the story about a firefighter and his wife. It shows the challenges they face in their marriage, and it helps understand how a commitment to God can be life changing.
Dan and I agree this is a MUST SEE! We give it the Dankel & Jorbert 2 thumbs up!!!

A little work, and a lot of play!

One of our least favorite weekends has arrived. We went Up North to remove the toys from the water. Winter is around the corner. YIKES!
Jon, Dan, and my Dad worked very hard. The ladies helped a little.

After all that work, the guys were crazy enough to wakebroad. Trust me, it was COLD!

Saturday afternoon we went to Lewis' Farm Market & Petting Farm. It was more fun then any of us were expecting.

Jon, Lindsay, and Brighton

This is my Mom & Dad, talk about good sports.

That is Dan way out there. He was on a mission for the perfect pumkin. I will admit he did really good. His pumkin was HUGE. Little did he know they charge by weight. :-)

Blonde, brunette, or red head?

Some of the crazy girls at my place of employment have been looking forward to today for quite some time. Salon Cheveux had its first WIG DAY. No joke!
When I arrived at work I had a variety of wigs to choose from. Many of us stylists wore severel different wigs through out the night.

I think we brought smiles to many of our clients. I am sure it was the last thing they expected to see.

Blonde? or should I say platinum? YUCK!

Brunette?
Don't those bangs look kinda familiar? Muffin-head!

Red head?
This was my least favorite. I don't think I'll be going red anytime soon.

Race for the Cure!

This morning I participated in a 5k run. This is my first race since I ran the Riverbank in May of 2007. It was and always is a great experience.
My boss, Jen, decided to join me. This is us prior to the race. At that point we were trying to stay warm.

Well I am no speed demon, however I was satisfied with my finish. I even had enough energy to sprint to the finish. That is me with the white visor on.

After the race.

Thanks to my wonderful husband Dan. He was a great cheerleader and photographer.:)

A shower for Baby Kuipers!

Last night we had a shower for Rebecca. So many of us look forward to the birth of this special little boy. Rebecca & Brad are going to be fabulous parents.

My stomach hurt from laughing so hard. We played two games and enjoyed some tasty food. It was a fun night with a great group of women.
We pray for a easy delivery and a healthy baby boy for Brad & Rebecca.

Double the pleasure, double the fun...

And we aren't talking Doublemint Gum.

Labor Day has unfortunately arrived already, so Dan and I

thought we should truly enjoy it. We tried to tackle almost everything.

And the winner is...

After eating dinner, Dan and I were having a discussion on what we should do for the night. Dan had the great idea to go miniture golfing.

It was a beautiful night and we had so much fun.

It also ended up being 2 for 1 Tuesday night at Craig's Cruisers! So both of us were able to golf for the price of one. What a deal!

Oh, and the winner was Dan. The final score was 45 to 51. Bummer!

Monster...

Dan and I decided to make cookies last week, and the deal was that Dan got to pick what kind of cookies we made. He choose Monster Cookies.

We went online to find out how to make these cookies and soon our printer was spitting out the recipe. I took a closer look at it and I could hardly believe what I was seeing. I decided very quickly that we needed to cut this recipe in half and then I headed to the grocery store to select the ingredients. You can take a look at the recipe here and you'll see what I'm talking about. We still ended up with sooo much cookie dough I ended up freezing some.

I wanted to make the cookies "normal" size, but Dan wanted "monster" size. He used and ice cream scooper and placed 2-3 giant balls of dough on the pan. Take a look at the size of these cookies.

Moo School!

Dan and I went back to school this weekend. How fun could that be, you say. A lot of fun, especially with his parents.


Cal, Nancy, Dan and I attended Moo School at the Country Dairy just north of New Era. It was quite interesting. We first watched a short video in the classroom that gave some insight as to what happens daily on the dairy. Then we hopped on the wagon for a short ride see the Heifers and milk cows. We were given a complete tour of the dairy and they showed us how they process everything from 18,000 gallons of milk per day, to cheese, ice cream, and butter. We saw cows from cute baby size to enormous prize milk cows. Our jaws dropped when we found out some of the prize milk cows can fetch over 30 thousand dollars. After the trip was over, we were treated to a glass of their famous chocolate milk and some freshly made moochies. It was great fun. We found it to be very interesting and entertaining. If anyone is in the area of Country Dairy, we highly recommend the tour.

Fractured finger!

After spending part of Sunday afternoon watching women's professional beach volleyball I looked forward to playing it with some friends that evening.
I realized quickly I was no professional, however I was still enjoying myself.
Close to the end of the night I hit the ball just right or maybe I should say just wrong. Dan and I left Helder Park and headed for prime care. I just knew it was broken.


Well...... I realized I can still cut hair with a broken finger, but I cannot do house work!!! Poor Dan!

P.s. That x-ray is not my actual finger!

Bummed after The Bachelorette

Okay, so some of you may be wondering why I would write about such a dumb tv show. Good question?
For the past few Monday nights I was positioned in front of our tv growing more and more excited about ABC's tv show The Bachelorette. I was more into this season then ever before. I really liked DeAnna (the bachelorette), and found myself believing I was watching a real love story unfold between her and a bachelor named Jason. They seemed so perfect.
If your not familiar with the show, let me give you a quick explanation. One bachelorette meets 25 guys and dwindles them down each week until she ends up with one. You never know what will come in the end, sometimes you will see them express their love and commitment or you could even see a marriage proposal.
So, there I was last night on our couch, so excited, because I actually thought this season was different. I just knew Jason and DeAnna were head over heels for each other. Jason didn't have any competition in my mind. He stood out to me and to DeAnna from the very beginning.
I was sooooo wrong. DeAnna let go of Jason, and she accepted a marriage proposal from another bachelor named Jesse.
So, after investing about 17 hours of my life into watching this reality tv show, I wish I never let myself get that excited. I found myself totally disappointed in the end.

Wet and Wild Weekend

Dan and I had a wonderful weekend at the cottage. We had great weather so we ended up doing lots of fun stuff behind the boat. Check out our slideshow below. You will see Dan and I wakesurfing for the first time and shredding the water on our wakeboards.

Have you met Bright?

Our newest nephew!
Brighton James Walcott