Topeka Date Night

Date Night

This past Saturday afternoon Matt and I were just lounging around trying to think of something fun to do in the evening and in a small town sometimes it is hard to think up something.  Well, Matt had the spontaneous idea at 4:45 in the afternoon that we should go to Topeka for a date night.  We hurried and got cute for each other (well, at least I did) and headed off for a fun evening of quality time.  We started off the evening splitting a Red Robin burger and shake and then snuggled up in the theatre and watched a movie.  After that Matt took me somewhere he knew I would love.........Starbucks!  We got some hot tea for the way home.  Topeka is the perfect distance for a date night because we got an hour on the way there and an hour on the way home to chat it up.  What a wonderful evening!     

Matt the Funny Babysitter

Last night Matt and I got to go babysit for some of our friends.  Well, usually when you put Matt with kids something funny is bound to happen.  And of course it did.  Here is what happened......

  "Squirt" had to go to the bathroom and of course went and got Matt to help him.  After that we all went outside to play and almost immediately "Squirt" fell down and scraped his knee.  Thankfully it was only a little scrape and he only murmured a little bit.  I helped him up and noticed that his pants seems to be half way down, so I gave them a good tug but they wouldn't go up very much.  I just thought that they must be a little small on him.  He ran off to play tag with Matt and "Moose", and I thought to myself that he was running really funny and awkward....maybe because he hurt his knee???  I watched him a little longer and realized that both of his legs were threw one pant hole!  I started to roll with laughter and told Matt to really watch "Squirt" and the way he was running.  Matt of course broke out in laughter and we both just had a great laugh.  Little "Squirt" was not going to let the fact that his legs were stuck together stop him from playing tag!  He was a pretty successful waddler, but once we unglued his legs he definitely improved on his speed. 

Here the poor guys is.......looking mighty uncomfortable yet really not noticing anything.  

Waddle Waddle Waddle

Dirt time!

We had a fun evening with them.  We even got to watch part of Cars2 where Matt and I had more fun watching the boys act out the movie and sing more than we enjoyed the actual movie.  =)

Tribute to Cailer

Our nephew Calier rode in our car the other week and had a little fun with our IPad.  

(Kim, show these to Cailer.  He will get a nice kick out of them!)   

Cailer going from double trouble to all ears..........................

So Handsome........

Champaign Shenanigans

For the past 2 months Matt and I have been wanting to go out to champaign, IL to meet our new nieces Kebe and Shena, and we got the opportunity to do that last week.  Matt also needed to go out to Cissna, IL for work, and I wanted to visit my older sister Ash in Champaign while her hubby Mark was out of town on a veterinarian rotation for school.  How perfect that it worked out that we could do all 3 in one week! 

I must say that I got the better end of the deal then Matt.  He got to go to work everyday while I spent my days hanging out with my sister Ash and sister-in-law Kim and my wonderful, beautiful neices and nephews.  One morning we all met up at a play place in a church in town.  Here are some pictures of our morning together. 

Loved getting to meet and spend time with my little nieces Kebe and Shena from Ethiopia, and what a great mommy they have! 

Jaci is such a big girl.  I am so used to her being the baby of the Kim and Neal's family, but she is transitioning to her role as a big sister quite well.  She was so helpful and loved taking care of Reuben at the playground. 

Mommy Ash taking Reuben down the slide.  Zoom zoom.....

The Princess 

(Kim, you can tell her it says this hehe!)

Kebe was a little timid of this frog thing, but everything was ok with mommy there.

Time to get dizzy!

Reuben made sure that Kebe was doing ok on the ride.....how sweet!

Lego Mania!  Reuben looks a little dazed at shock of huge legos.

Grabbing some lunch after all the playing that went on.

Someone is worn out!  Time to go home for a nap.

What a surprise for Reuben!  Nana was there to put him to bed. =)

More play time......

Reuben enjoyed having another guy around in the evenings after spending all day with us gals.  Seems like he is getting a kick out of Uncle Matt about something.

What a helper.  He seriously drove this thing around the living room and vacuumed.  Wow, I hope my children are like this!!!!

Matt and I spend a few evenings over at Kim and Neal's house.  Of course we had tons of fun.  Kim had these sugar scrubs that we used to made our hands smooth and silky!!!!!!!  We just couldn't stop touching our hands all night....haha!

Thankful that we get many opportunities to spend time with family!  We are so blessed!

Double Trouble

Last night we were honored to have some company over.  Dan and Tami came bringing their little munchkins Kaeb and Zoe.  Jason and Maggi also came bringing their little man Kyson.  It was so nice to have a bunch of mouths to help Matt and me finish off the MASSIVE lasagna that I made for valentines day.  Now we have 1 pan down and 1 to go in the freezer.  I guess making all that food was not a waste after all. =) Now the next time we have people over I just have to pull dinner out of the freezer.  Sweet!

We had a relaxing evening of just spending time together.  Matt and I get a kick out of watching our little nieces and nephews whenever we are with them.  They remind us every time what we get to look forward to in becoming parents someday (good and bad things).  Here is a little glimpse of what happens when Kaeb and Kyson get together...................   

I looked over at these 2 stinkers and they were just having a ball unloading our bookshelf.  I thought it was funny at first until right after I took this picture literally the whole next shelf was unloaded on top of the pile! :)

Then the moms stepped in!  Now we have 2 tired, little boys exhausted from having to help pick-up.  Thanks Tami and Maggi for the help! :) 

He is my Valentine

Valentines Day

Some people are not huge fans of Valentines Day, but I must say that I really like it.  Of course, I like anything that enables me to spend special time with Matt, and I guess I will admit that I also kind of like the spoiling that he showered me with.  As fun as the flowers and chocolate and gifts were though nothing meant more to me than spending our whole evening together.  I'm thankful for a husband that I can have fun with and spend a whole evening with and still at the end of the night not get enough of him.  

I'm so thankful that God keeps growing my heart for Matt.  Each little milestone we hit makes me realize more and more why God brought Matt into my life.  As I look back to my life before Matt I think of the different directions my life could of gone in choosing/finding a husband and am amazed at how God so graciously turned my heart to Matt.  God uses Matt to continually expose sin in my life and bring me closer to Him.  What more could a gal want/need than a husband that is helping his wife become more like Christ....?  I am a slow learner with a long way to go, but that doesn't stop me from praising God for Matt! =)

Notice the big package with Christmas paper with an unwrapped portion of it......my husband is so cute!  Haha...It was beautiful to me. 

I made a mexican lasagna off Pioneer Woman for dinner.  As I got all the different things mixed together for the lasagna I realized that I had made a mistake in judging how big of a recipe I was making.  Literally I had enough lasagna ingredients to feed a family reunion.  After I filled a huge casserole dish with as much as I could pack in I still had about half of my ingredients left.  Haha.  I guess we will need to have some company over sometime soon to help us eat it. 

I got Matt a Garmin GPS.  Some of our most tense moments in our marriage stem from getting lost or making a wrong turn.  I thought that this might help out some. :)

Usually we always open the card before the gift, but this time Matt instructed me to open the gift before the card.  I did and it was a lovely lamp to put in a dark corner in our living room.  I then opened the card and it read this.....

"For your main valentine gift, I decided to combine it with an anniversary gift.  I almost planned and decided on my own, but ended up deciding that it would be more fun to choose with you.  Therefore, my final gift to you is......................you have to come get it out of my pocket. :)"

So I reached in to his pocket and pulled out another card that read.....

"A one week honeymoon to celebrate 2 years of marriage and God's faithfulness in our lives! :)"

Whooooot Whoooot!  Like I said he spoiled me and was very romantic at the same time. 

   

I think I will always remember this Valentines Day. :)

Out of Town Again and Again

We have had 2 fun, relaxing, busy, out of town weekends these past 2 weekends.

Weekend #1

We went to Emporia, KS so Matt could attend a men's conference at our aunt and uncle's church.  The theme of the weekend was Iron Men and the theme verse was Proverbs 27:17 "Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another."  As Matt attended the conference I helped the other women with registration, meals, and whatever they needed me to do.  I worked pretty faithfully except for the hour or so that my cousin Shanelle and I snuck out and got pedicures. :) Hehe.  I didn't get to hear many of the speakers, but Matt gave me a good rundown of them.  Maybe I'll have him get on here and share what God taught him.

Big thanks to Shanelle and Dan for keeping us Friday night and my Uncle John and Aunt Maria for keeping us Saturday night.  I am so thankful to have some of my family so close to me.  I never thought I would end up living by my Wernli family, but now that I do I love it!

Weekend #2

This past weekend I had a seminar in Kansas City for work on Saturday.  Matt and I headed to KC on Friday afternoon to do some wedding ring shopping and returns.  I found the ring that I really like!  The problem though is that we are not really comfortable buying it from the place we found it.  Matt's brother Troy took him to the store he bought his wife Amity's ring and they are putting something together for us.  Matt was thrilled with our shopping afternoon on Friday because we actually left gaining money by our returns instead of me spending it! :)  After a fun afternoon together we then headed to Troy and Amity's house where we spent the rest of our weekend.  While I went to my work seminar on Saturday Matt hung out with Troy and his family.  We then had a relaxing evening of good conversation, basketball (poor KU), and lounging.  We then enjoyed Sunday church and lunch with them before heading back to Sabetha to catch the superbowl.  

Big thanks to Troy and Amity, our beautiful little nieces, and grinny Rylen for making this past weekend special.  We love the open, honest relationship that we are building with you guys.  You guys are good marriage counselors for us......hehe. :D