Hapy New Year

I have always loved New Years Eve...

Growing up, my family and I would go to a family friends house and go snowmobiling, go on a winter hayride and ring in the New Year with wonderful friends.

2000 was rung in going to see RENT and then I spent the rest of the evening on the bathroom floor with the flu-not the best New Year's Eve but definitely one I remember.

7 years ago tonight, the man of my dreams, bought me a dress, made me dinner and asked me to marry him after we opened our mail!

4 years ago tonight, I peed on a stick and learned that my life would be changing forever.

3 years ago, Joe was in bed writhing with a kidney stone, while I tried to entertain a house full of people and take care of a 3 month old little boy.

Tonight, E and I went and visited agility friends, had dinner with Grandma and Dzia, painted nails, played a little Wii with the cousins and were home by 9pm. Joe has to work tonight, but we got to spend an hour together before he went to dinner.

                                                                                                                                                                          

 

New Year's Eve is still my favorite night, but things are just a little different now.  I guess New Year's Eve isn't the only thing that is different, but if things weren't different, things would be boring!

I hope that you had a memorable New Year's Eve with the ones that you love, I know that I did!

2011 A Year In Review

2011 was another eventful year for us.  Here is a snapshot of what happened with us throughout the year...

January- The year started out with a bang-at least to our HSA account.  A nodule was found on my thyroid, after multiple tests, the nodule was found to be non-cancerous but consistent with thyroiditis.  Nothing a little medication can't fix.

February- Joe and I participated in the Polar Plunge for the third year in a row.  Between the two of us, we raised over $600 for the Special Olympics.  We will be plunging again in February 2012.  You can support us at: https://www.plungemn.org/plunger/heatherhaider or https://www.plungemn.org/plunger/josephhaider
Joe's parents celebrated their 40th Wedding Anniversary this month with many friends and family.

March- My brother and his wife made me an aunt!  Ethan Kyle was born on March 14th.  He is such a wonderful little man!  Ethan and E are already great friends and I LOVE being an aunt. 

April- We had many celebrations this month, my birthday, Joe's birthday, a welcome party for Ethan, Grandma Sophie's birthday, and Easter.

May- After 10 years of waiting, Joe finally had rhinoseptoplasty to repair his broken nose.  His nose is a lot straighter and he can also breathe a lot better.  I really don't know how all those women get nose jobs-the recovery sucks.

June- We benefited from the fruits of our labor, we planted our very first vegetable garden.  We already have plans for a bigger garden next year.

July- We lost a very special woman this month, Joe's Grandma Sophie passed away.  She was such a WONDERFUL woman and we hold onto our memories of her each day.

August- We went on our annual trip to Rainy Lake this month.  Unfortunately, Joe's parents weren't able to join us this year.  E caught his first fish and loved driving the boat.  Factor turned 9 this month.

September- This was a very busy month.  E turned 3 this month!  We celebrated with a MONSTER birthday.  E and I also went to ASCA Nationals in West Bend, WI.  I wrote all about it in a previous post-check it out.  Joe went bear hunting in the Boundary Waters-he didn't come home with a bear, but he came home with some good stories.

October- E was Woody for Halloween this year!

November- We spent our first Thanksgiving together as a family.  Joe usually goes to Montana for the week, but he stayed home this year with a bum knee.  It was great for all of us to be together.  I also worked my last day at St. Joe's hospital.  After almost 10 years, I resigned from my position working 1 weekend a month on the Behavioral Health unit.

December- DISNEY WORLD!!! Need I say more!  We had a MAGICAL time!

Thanks for stopping by and checking out what we have been up to.  We hope that your 2011was as enjoyable as ours.  Stop back often and see what we are up to.

May God bless your 2012!

Heather, Joe and E

"Have a MAGICAL day!"

We spent 9 days in Florida recently and 7 of them were spent at a Disney World park!  My in-laws were celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary this year and invited their three boys, three daughter in-laws and five grandchildren on a trip of a lifetime! All 13 of us went to Disney World for a week.

The Family at Animal Kingdom

We all stayed in 2 condos about 20 minutes away from the Disney property.  We had a pool to swim and relax in, a kitchen to cook our own food, beds to sleep in and lots of space for the cousins to play together.

Sunday was Animal Kingdom.  We have been talking about this trip for the last year, so E was VERY excited to meet the man himself, Mickey Mouse!

E loved meeting the animal characters!  They were playing the "quiet game" and he thought that was pretty cool.  He wasn't too sure about the characters that could talk to him or look human.

Monday we all went to Magic Kingdom together.  Rita, my mother in law, had a great idea that she wanted everyone to wear shirts like they did on the original Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and we would all get our picture taken together for their Christmas card.  So before we left, we made the shirts and this was the final product.

Magic Kingdom is truly a magical place.  From the time you pull into the parking lot, to the time you leave in the evening, everyone tells you to have a magical day and goes above and beyond to make that happen for everyone.  On multiple occasions, I asked myself, "What if everyone everywhere wished everyone a magical day and tried their best to make that happen?"  The world may actually be a happier place!

The Happy Couple

Joe and I went to Disney World for our honeymoon 6 years ago.  He was a great sport and stood in MANY lines with me, while we waited to get our pictures taken with the characters.  Belle was a very elusive princess.  We stood in lines expecting to see her and right before we would get to the front, she would leave.  We were Belle's stalkers for the week and we weren't very good at it.  This trip we were successful and we all got our picture taken with Belle.

Tuesday was a day at Sea World and then Joe, E and I went back to Magic Kingdom for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party.  E got to go on a lot of rides that he missed and also ones that he loved that night and also visit with a few more characters.

Wednesday was a day of rest.  The kids got to swim in the pool and enjoy a relaxing morning and well needed nap before we headed to Epcot.

It was a little wet there, but it actually cleared out a lot of the people, which made it nice for us.

Thursday was spent at Hollywood Studios.  This park was a lot of fun.  Not many rides for E to go on, but a cool car show, Indiana Jones stunt show, and an AWESOME Pixar parade.

Everyone had a GREAT time at this park that we actually all went back there another day.

Friday we went back to Epcot for part of the day, but that was the same plan that a whole bunch of school groups had, so there was a LOT of middle schoolers there.  We didn't stay long, as we were getting a little burnt out and needed an evening of rest.

Saturday the other two families went home and Joe and I went back to Hollywood Studios, so E could see everything that he missed while he was sleeping the first time we were there.

This really was a once in a lifetime trip.  The cousins got to spend extended amounts of time just running around together, brothers enjoyed quality time together, sister in laws developed friendships and two very special people had their whole family together in one place for a whole week!

A special thank you to my wonderful mother and father in law for inviting us on this MAGICAL Vacation!

Wordless Wednesday

E drew this picture of his cousin Ethan!