Meet Couper

Couper is our new Boston Terrier puppy.  He arrived this past Monday night and has settled into his new home well.  He is nine weeks old and as cute as can be!  He should grow to be around 15 lbs.  Having Couper is like having a toddler in the house.  He likes to explore and everything is new and exciting!  He also likes to bite and chew:)  He is also very calm and loves to snuggle much of the time which we all love!

This is our first experience with a smaller dog and we are enjoying every minute!  The girls are so happy and taking care of his every need.  Chad and Nicole bought him a bell today which is hung on the door.  If all goes as planned we will train him to ring the bell when he needs to go "potty".  Here are a few pictures of our little guy.

Enjoying life!

As usual it has been quite some time since I have posted.  I do not think I can even begin to catch up so I will just give you some recent highlights of what we have been doing.

School is out so I officially have a 7th and 4th grader...WOW..Where does the time go?  The girls are looking forward to Summer and I am loving the change of routine!  Getting both girls moving in the morning for school was getting more and more difficult as the weather grew nicer.  We have to purchase a new alarm clock for Nicole because her current one is not loud enough.

Nicole started wearing contacts a couple months back and she had a huge growth spurt over the winter. She is only a couple inches shorter than me and is very excited about it!  She is keeping busy with friends, Church, and soccer.  She now volunteers at Church with the first graders and loves it.  She keeps us running to and from soccer most weeks.  Tryouts are tomorrow and her summer soccer league begins Monday.  She   had a great year in school!

Ashley has matured a lot this year and is more and more like Chad every day.  Chad and her love to sit in front of the TV watching sports.  She fell in love with soccer and piano over the winter and just had her first piano recital.  She participated in a program through the schools called, "Girls on the Run" which is a positive self esteem, team building program for girls.  They also run every week and she ran a 5K at the end of the program.  She ran the entire way without stopping on a very hot day!  What a great accomplishment!  Chad ran with her and Nicole and I were there to cheer her on!

Chad and I are both doing well.  Even though we seem to be rushing here and there he is still my best friend and the love of my life!

Enjoy the pics!

Early morning Spring soccer game.

Girls on the Run race

Nicole with Renee Mulensteen
1st Team Coach with Manchester United.  

Ashley with Renee Mulensteen.  The girls were able to train who is known to be the best coach in the world.  What an honor!

Father/Daughter Dance

Father/Daughter Dance

                                                   Action shots of Nicole on the soccer field.

                                                                Ashley's piano recital

Violet Rose is born!!!

My niece was born this week and we are all so excited! My brother sent me a message that read:

A Violet Rose represents love at first sight. It represents Elegance, enchantment, fantasy, and dignity. This rare and beautiful rose is truly an elegant bloom, and would be given to someone who has swept you off your feet emotionally, someone you wish to know a lot better.

This pretty much says it all. She is so beautiful! We will be visiting next week and we are all looking forward to meeting our niece and cousin for the first time in person. Thanks to technology we have been able to Face time a lot. I am not sure I could ever give up my IPhone. It really comes in handy for so many things. I am so blessed to have such a great family to share my life with!

Happy New Year!!

Our family enjoyed the Holidays to the fullest this year! It was nice to take a break from routine and enjoy a less structured schedule. My parents came from Florida over Christmas and my brother moved to a new house over the new year. The girls and I all got Kindles for Christmas and have spent a lot of time figuring them out and reading. I love technology!

We have had a low key weekend which has been nice. Nicole had soccer training this morning at 8am about 1 hour and 40 minutes from home so her and Chad were on the road early. I went back to sleep after they left:) When I woke Nicole up at 4:30am upon her request she bounced right out of bed.

Below are some of my favorite pics from the Holidays. I really did not take enough pics this year.

Cousins are a wonderful thing!

Feeding the reindeer

Christmas morning

Nicole's favorite gift-a kindle

Nicole's reading corner.

Ashley's reaction to her big gift this Christmas.

She loves her piano and headphones!

New slippers

Papa opening his Ipod shuffle

Christmas breakfast. The only pic of my parents that was not blurry. I only had two others which will not happen next next time we are together. My camera will be their worst enemy:)

Snow arrived after Christmas.