HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

More to come this weekend. We are dressing up and going to a party tonight. I don't think Ryan is 100% sure on his costume but I'm going to be a black cat. Pictures to come later.

Have a great weekend!

Uncle Ryan Babysits

Some cute videos from Saturday...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KlHpMg71QY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZoGcByqtoI

Real Simple

I received my first Christmas present today - hooray for stretching out the holiday season! My parents got me a subscription to Real Simple magazine. I am SO excited! It's one that I love to read but have never had a subscription for before. I'm so torn as to what to read on the bus tomorrow...I'm in the middle of a good book and also just got my Better Homes and Gardens magazine and Domino magazine in the mail. What's a girl to do!?

I think a mental health day with my magazines sounds pretty tempting! :)

Sister Weekend. Snowy Weather. Staying Warm.

It was a relaxing weekend at our house. Both of my sisters made the trek to Eden Prairie (from Madison and Des Moines). And Meg brought Quinton so we all got our baby fix!

Friday Meg arrived around 4:30 and we hung out at the house until Kelly got to town at 7. We met her at our favorite pizza place, Detello's. It was an early night since we were all tired.

Saturday was baby time, corn muffins, getting ready and then the manditory Caribou run. :) After a lunch of delicious grilled hot dogs (yep, we're classy!), Kelly and I baked a flourless chocolate cake. YUM! Late that afternoon Uncle Ryan was nice enough to babysit Q-baby while we went to a movie. We saw Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants II. The movie was good and we got our fill of popcorn. Saturday night was low key at home.

Sunday was a lazy morning before another trip to Caribou. This time in the SNOW! Yep, mark your calendars...the first snow of the season. UGGG! We all happily ordered our hot drinks and grabbed a table in the sun (inside of course!)

Tomorrow I'll post some funny videos that Ryan took while he was babysitting...




Sisters...sisters...


Trying to get the perfect shot of Q


Wearing Uncle Ryan's hat...he's not so sure about that!

The good lookin' boys hanging out at home

Q-baby

Mmmm...sweet potatoes!

Are you lookin' at me?!

Cute...need I say more?

Just kickin' it...

Big snowflakes :(

Brenna's Birthday Bash

We spent this weekend in Ames celebrating our niece Brenna's 1st birthday. Ryan's parents and grandma were there as well.

Ryan and I took Friday afternoon off so we made it to Ames by 3. We spent the afternoon catching up and watching Brenna cruise around the living room. For dinner we had pork burgers and brat patties - yum!

Saturday, in Bohlen family tradition, we went to a few garage sales. I think we all found at least one thing. We got to one garage sale that had homemade gluten free cookies! That in itself was worth it for me. I also got some books. And Ryan's grandma got a gorgeous mahogany dresser - I almost wrestled her for it! And Ryan's sister and brother-in-law got a pretty oak hutch for their new house. They'll be closing on the house in a few weeks and we got to take a quick tour. Gladys, the woman that is selling it, has lived there for 50-some years and has accumulated a TON of stuff. She had some amazing antiques and gorgeous furniture - there was just so much it was hard to get around. We're glad we got to see the house because Steph and Jared are planning some major renovations (shhhh...don't tell Gladys!) It'll be especially fun to see the finish product since we'll know what it looked like before.

Saturday night was the Bohlen crew as well as most of Jared's immediate family. We had delicious homemade chili followed by apple pie, apple crisp and apple cake (Friday morning was a baking bonanza!) Brenna got to open all her presents and be the center of attention for a while (as if we don't all stare at her enough!) She's just so darn cute!

Below are some pictures from the weekend...as always, click to enlarge.

Opening presents

Sitting like a big girl in her new chair

Cruising around with her new shopping cart and baby

She LOVES to point at everything (including the camera!)

More new toys

Kissing cousin Easton

Checking out Uncle Ryan's new football

Pulling all the money out of Uncle Ryan's wallet - she must have learned from me! :)

To Our Favorite Niece!

(this shows up much crisper if you click to enlarge)

We love you and can't wait to see you tomorrow!

XOXO, Uncle Ryan & Aunt Dana

Our week...in a nutshell

Monday night we had dinner with some friends, Steve and Sarah. Ryan and Steve have played softball together for 5 or 6 years. And I've gotten to know Sarah as we sit in the bleachers and cheer on the boys. We haven't spent much time with them away from the softball field until this year. It's been so great to get to know them!

We met at their house after work so we could see their house and new fence. We've been hearing about the fence all summer and it was worth the wait - it's one fancy fence! And a gorgeous, homey house! (seeing it has inspired me to finish decorating ours and adding the finishing touches) After the grand tour we headed to Chianti Grill near their house. http://www.chiantigrill.com/ The restaurant has an extensive gluten free menu - it even had multiple pasta options! Ryan had chicken parmesean and I had spicy chicken penne. Amazing reviews from both of us! Thanks for introducing us to a new favorite, S&S!

Tuesday night was pretty low key. I met with Brenda, my next door neighbor from growing up. She and I walked about 4 miles and got all caught up. We were a bit chilly starting off but were toasty once we got going. The fall leaves were so brilliant - wish I'd had my camera!

Tonight was errands - Costco and Target. Success at both places! We're now stocked up on giant hotdogs (just in time for your visit, Meg!), craisins and cheese. And we found some good deals at Target - a lamp for the guest room, a garment bag (for $10 down from $80!), and a cute sweater for me! (in addition to all the usual groceries)

My pilates class (http://www.theintelligentbody.com/) is cancelled for tomorrow night so we'll be packing for our visit to AMES on Friday! Our niece, Brenna, turns one tomorrow and we're going down to celebrate. It's hard to believe it's been a year, yet at the same time it feels like she's been around forever. We can't wait to get there and see all the new things she's doing. And to see her first tooth! Ryan's parents and grandma will be there as well - plenty of pictures to come.

I'm off to wrap Brenna's birthday present and finish my book!

Unless something big and exciting happens between now and then, I'll write after the birthday weekend! Prepare yourselves for CUTE pictures!

Frustrated Blogger

I can't get the paragraph spacing right in my posts. Sometimes the rows have spaces between them, sometimes they don't. I keep going in to edit and update and it never works. Ignore it. And I'm going to search for some tips on how to fix it.

Have a happy week!

Oldies but Goodies!

After putting together our wedding slide show, I have some favorite pictures of Ryan and I when we were younger.

Enjoy!

(click on the pictures to see them enlarged)

Sunday Fun

It was a busy Sunday for us today!

I made plans a few weeks ago to hang out with my close friend Ashley. She and I met for coffee, shopping and a movie. We saw Nights in Rodanthe (based on a Nicholas Sparks book). The movie was decent - definitely not being added to my favorites list though.

Ryan had an exciting day of football! He and his friend Aaron went to the Vikings game and got to sit in a suite and hang out on the field. Aaron's fiance works at the Metrodome and was able to get them into the suite. The Vikings offense didn't play well but the defense did as usual. The Vikes ended up winning with a field goal in the last 10 seconds, beating the Lions 12-10. And the spread in the suite was amazing - spring rolls, pork tenderloin, roast beef, mashed potatoes, fruit, veggies and then the usual hot dog and hamburger options too.

Talk about a lucky guy!

Aaron and Ryan

The view from the suite

Aaron, the Vikings mascot, Ryan

(Kel/Meg - do you recognize Joe?)

Progressive Dinner

Last night, we had a progressive dinner with some friends. The premise of a progressive dinner is that each couple hosts one course before moving on to the next house. We decided that only planning/cooking/hosting one course made it very easy for each of us to prepare.

We had a small group last night (which worked out perfectly!). It was us, Ben and Katie and our friends AJ and Jamie.

We hosted appetizers at our house...

Prepping the appetizers

The spread

Bite size caprese salad

Shrimp and cocktail sauce

Vegetable chips

Drinks

Enjoying our pre-dinner deliciousness!

Ben and Katie served the main course...

We had a roast...it was delicious!

We forgot to take a "before" picture

It was a gorgeous night so we were able to eat out in Ben and Katie's screened-in porch

And AJ and Jamie made dessert...

Amazing flourless chocolate cake (I didn't use a flash and the picture does not do it justice)

Hanging out, enjoying dessert

The whole gang!

Aunt Dana & Uncle RyRy

One of the best things about having siblings is that we get to have a niece and a nephew!

Ryan’s sister, Stephanie has a little girl. Brenna Joy Van Cleave born October 16th, 2007.

My sister, Meg, has a baby boy. Quinton Daniel Rude born March 24th, 2008.

We LOVE visiting and spending time with them. It’s amazing how much Brenna and Quinton change between visits.

Brenna is crawling all over, cruising along furniture, and “talking” up a storm! We’re just waiting to get a phone call about her starting to walk. We will be in Ames next weekend to celebrate her 1st birthday. Plenty of pictures to come, I’m sure!

And Quinton is really changing too! He’s been rolling over, growling, eating real food and just plain being SO CUTE (according to his mom – I’d have to say I agree!)

You can check out their blogs at the links to the left. And some of our favorite pictures below (in no particular order...)


Aunt Dana and Quinton


Brand new baby Brenna


Auntie D, Baby Q, Mama Meg


Napping with the Q-baby


Uncle Ryan and brand new Quinton


Uncle Ryan is a pest!

Just kickin' it...

Yep, those are licorice nibs. Pesky Uncle Ryan (are you noticing a theme?!)

Itty bitty Brenna

Harmony's Birthday

This past weekend our good friend Harmony (our matchmaker) turned the big 2-6! We celebrated with dinner out and then hanging out at their beautiful new condo. There was a crew who drove up from Iowa and some other friends from around here. All in all, a great night!

Camping '08

Our camping trip this year was WET, soggy and cold. Oh wait, that's right...we're calling it MEMORABLE! :)

This was our 4th annual camping trip. We usually go with a big crew ranging from 15-30 people. This year we tried to get a more managable group. Due to busy schedules, it ended up just being us and our close friends Ben and Katie Schmidt.

We camped at an RV park outside of Danbury, WI on Friday night. After a delicious breakfast on Saturday morning we headed to the canoe outfitters. On our drive to the drop point it started to sprinkle. We weren't overly worried, just bagged up all of our gear in garbage bags and pulled on our ponchos.

However, as we started paddling, the rain got harder. We ended up canoeing 12 miles in a downpour. Katie and I had our legs in garbage bags and our canoes had a couple inches of water in the bottoms. We never even stopped for lunch - just paddled hard looking for a campsite with some coverage. We stopped and checked out at least 6 before deciding on ours.

After unloading all of our gear we teamed up and got each of our tents set up in about 4 minutes (yay for new, easy-to-set-up tents!) We then rigged up the extra tarps in some trees in an attempt to get a place to stay dry. Ryan dug us a new fire pit since the existing one was surrounded by water. The rain made it hard to get much of a fire, just smoke. Eventually, we all changed into dry clothes, had some hot chocolate from the camp stove and were starting to feel much better. Our original plan of hobo dinners on the fire was abandoned when we couldn't get the fire going. Luckily, we had the camp stove and were able to brown some ground beef and saute some peppers and onions. A make-shift hobo dinner!

By the time dinner was done the rain had stopped and we were able to move out from under the tarp. We held our chairs around the fire to dry them off and then were able to enjoy a really peaceful evening around a (now) roaring fire!

Sunday morning dawned dry and overcast. We had another great camp breakfast, did a devotion and packed up. About 10 minutes after getting back on the river the rain started up. It wasn't quite as heavy as Saturday but it never let up. We canoed a couple hours and about 7 more miles to our pick-up point. Needless to say, we were all really glad to see the van and to get home to warm showers!

We've all decided that we will never camp again with a chance of rain in the forecast. But we're better friends because of our soggy adventure!


Katie roasting marshmallows (she LOVES s'mores!) And everyone's soggy shoes drying out (or melting!) by the fire.


Our attempt at a lean-to. It was pretty good if you ignored the hole in the middle! And you can see our tents in the background. Yep, they match. Hooray for wedding gifts!

Dinner. Yeah, Ben loves dijonaise sauce :)

Hanging out - if you click on the picture you can zoom in and see Ryan's sad face.

Looking pretty happy - dry clothes, full stomachs, rain stopped.

The Schmidts