Dec 31st: New Year’s eve!

So our new years eve was almost like any other day. I think the kids were up early, Josh had stuff to do in the barn, so late getting in. I did ask Josh if we could go to Platteville as I was on the hunt for some new years eve hats. We decided to go after max had his nap. So Josh went out and talked to the surveyors who had showed up. Then went about getting barn stuff done before he went off to find logs to cut up. By the time he was all done with his stuff, the snow had started, which I was trying to avoid. Oh well, We had lunch with Kim and Jeremy before we headed off to run errands. Bella had been playing with Kim all morning. I think it’s safe to say that Bella is happy that Kim will officially be joining the family in 2014. 

Anyhow we headed to Lancaster first to close out a bank account we haven’t used in a year and return library books. Then it was off to Platteville. We went to Walmart to get some items that we need and can’t get during our normal grocery shopping trips. We also had to stock up on some protein foods for Josh. One would think he would have no problem with a high protien  low carb (no bread, pasta, potatoes) diet, but it’s hard. Thankfully it’s only for 24 hours.   No hats though. I did splurge and got the kids each a 5.00 toy. which is silly I know, but it seem like a nice treat. I guess I probably should have spent 10.00 to buy a movie instead, but these things are toys they can play with on their own   We stopped at the Dollar store to pick up hats,,, not new years eve ones, but just party hats. I also got some glow sticks, a “wine glasses’ and noise makers.  We got home slowly as the snow has made the road kind of slippier, thankfully we have 4 wheel drive and the back roads were empty.

 

Josh has to go out and milk once we got home, so the kids had fun playing with the new toy they each got. I started working on making supper. I got bacon wrapped pork chops. Then we also had baby hashbrowns  and the kids had popcorn chicken. We also had sparkling grape juice. Max was in heaven. bella still complains that it’s “spicy” I think peer pressure of her brother got her to like it though, bc they both had two “glasses”

After supper, we decided to play a board game.. Bella picked Sorry. I was going to play Monoply Jr with her, but she had a different idea. IT worked out ok since the game took until 8:30pm to get over. She kicked both josh and mine butt. Once that was over, we came up to take some New Years’s eve pictures and make some noise. The kids enjoyed it. Then it was off to bed for them. Josh and I made it up until 11pm to watch the ball drop in Time Square and then it was to bed for us.

Happy New Year!

 

2013: What year you have been

 

Wow I can’t believe another year is gone. I swear this year didn’t go fast until November and then in a blink of an eye it’s Dec 31st and soon we will be in a new year,

January started out normal enough for us. We had my sister and family over for sledding and went fishing.  We got to go to a paint your own pottery place to celebrate our friend Noah’s birthday, the kids had a blast with that. Then we celebrated Catholic schools week at school and Bella’s 1/2 birthday

February was a big Month, well at least for us. We celebrated Valentines days both at home and with a party at Bella’s class. This was the first time I was able to go in to help with the holiday party. Then we went off on a little family vacation to Dubuque. As normal, nothing went as planned, but we turned it around  and had a great time. We went arrived back home it was time to attend the benefit for josh.  It was inspiring and moving to see all the people that supported my husband and came out. I don’t think we were ever able to fully thank everyone in the proper way. It was totally something we needed and we hoped that things were turning around now.

Per our Normal we didn’t slow down in March, we celebrated Easter a few time 1 , 2  along with St. Patty’s day and Grandpa’s birthday . We got a new well and celebrated the last of Daddy’s treatments. Per our normal we made a few car trips to visit people and see friends . Max and I got sick with some odd virus which give me a chance to finally get rid of the bottle. It also gave us a chance to slow down for a few days.    

Finally in April we celebrated our last Easter, and a baptism which seemed like an Easter celebration.  Then we threw in my birthday and our anniversary . We made it to the zoo twice, once Milwaukee and once madison  We also added some new “kids” to our family.

I think of any month May was the one that flew buy. We had Mother’s day , followed by school events for Bella including the last day of school. , Max turned 18 month then our big trip to Florida. To which was immediately followed by Tori’s Wedding on June 1st.   You can relive Florida with me if you click here.

It seems the summer we slowed down. Josh spend the time in the fields, Bella started soccer , we had father’s day and a cookout . July came with a few birthday celebrations, the fourth of July , a few fishing trips, Bella’s 5th and Josh's 30th birthdays. We started swimming lessons for both Bella  and Max with Mommy. August brought Bella’s 2nd trip to the Mall of America while Max stayed with his Aunt and Uncle.  We had a few fun days , like to the zoo, fishing and celebrating a friends soon to be baby, All before School Started!

September we started out with a trip to Green bay for labor day weekend, and saw Grandma Della and Nana too. Along with starting school, Bella also started Gymnastics. We went to see Sara cheerleading and helped run Nana’s rummage sale, which included purchasing a big girl bed for Bella. wrapping up the month was our Annual trip to the apple orchards

October was a fun month, we had the harvest parade, where Bella, Max and I all got to be in. Then we went to Carroll’s homecoming and saw some family along the way. Celebrated Halloween a few ways and wrapped up the month with bella first lost baby tooth!

November appeared and it was a bittersweet month for us. We celebrated Thanksgiving with the Jahnke side early, then had big family pictures taken with the Warpinski side. This was great since the family pictures I wanted taken on the farm didn’t happen due to bad weather. We then celebrated Max turning two. It was sad to see my baby become two, but hopefully two won’t be so bad after all. By the end of the month we found out that Josh’s cancer had officially returned. I had spend the month thinking about how I was thankful, which helps to put thing into a different perspective.

December has been a month of family time and reorganizing things. As the holidays approached and we find out more about Josh’s diagnosis , we have been doing more family time things. Not included on this blog are almost daily videos of our silly every day family times. We did do the normal decemeber things, like getting our Christmas tree, the annual friends Christmas party, Christmas with all the families.

As we wrap up this year, I know that 2014 will be big changes in our lives. We don’t know what our lives will be in terms of Josh’s treatments this time around, but we aren’t wasting a minute. Based on the Doctor’s 2013 was a bonus year for us, and while we did have a lot of good times, there were things that we would have done differently had we known. 2014 is a year of us. We are putting our family of four first and no longer spreading ourselves thin to please everyone. There will be changes to our farm and home life, but those choices are not being made hastily.  I hope that everyone will understand and continue to support us. We have no room for negative nellies or downer Dans. 

I hope you enjoy the walk down the 2013 memory lane with me. I quite enjoy seeing what we have all done, as I the days roll together I forget some of the fun stuff too.

Dec 29th Sledding

So the weather started to turn colder and we knew it was going to get much colder soon. Due to the night before late bedtime, the kids slept in which mean nap time got moved back. I really wanted to take the sledding. We haven’t been able to yet, because the snow was so fluffy. After yesterdays warm weather it was nice and packed down and crunchy. With Grandma and TIm here, I knew I could get someone to take pictures for me.  

First we had to go out and help Josh finish up barn chores.

Then we got to have fun

Then we tried to get a couple pictures of Grandma with the kiddos since we don’t have any recent ones…only Max was typical Max

Della got me a remote for my camera..so we had fun playing with it.

this is normally how we are all together.

here’s us posed

Dec 28: Ice Fishing and Grandma

Bella has been asking to go ice fishing for the last couple of weeks. Finally we were able to go. The weather was perfect for us, 40’s and sun. The only problem is the fish weren’t really biting Josh caught two , only one was a keeper, but that fish came just as the time that the kids were getting ready to be done, so it allowed Josh to fish for about 30 mins longer. Bella feel in love with that one fish and brought him home, carrying it to the car where I made her leave him in the back. Eww Fish smell!

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The 2nd fish, I missed a picture of the first

Investigating the fish

Bella is carrying the fish

Once we got home Max went down for a really late nap, so Josh went to milk without my help. We decided to go to 7pm mass again, and thankfully Grandma (Della) and Tim show up just before Josh got done milking. They agreed to watch the kids so Josh and I could go to church alone and out to supper. yeah for Date night. Those only seem to happen these days when either of our Mothers are spending the night. 

Josh and I went out to eat at Castel Rock Inn which is right across the street from church. We had a good supper and arrived back home to two kids who really needed to go to bed. Thankfully they went down without a problem and were great for Grandma and Tim.