Winter Fun!

Here are some pictures of how our little adventures went today...

Can you believe it? Arlee's hair can go into a hair clip!!!! It will still fall out in about ten minutes, but hey... it can do it. I put hair spray in her hair to make it stay in a little longer.

Arlee and me posing for the camera

Arlee loved sitting on the kitchen set box (kitchen set still in the box until Christmas) and looking out the window at the snow and ice coming from the gutters

Cute little laughing girl

She is saying "CHEESE" right here. So good at it too.

This is one of the cars in our parking lot that is covered in the snow

Our beautiful christmas tree

Arlee talking for pretend to her Maamaa Wooo (my mom). I have taught Arlee to say grandma wooo, because she is the grandma with the barking dogs. Woo is how Arlee barks when you ask her, "What does the dog say?"

Arlee in her new boots, snow pants, gloves, hat and somewhat new jacket. She looks so cute in it. I loved watching her walk all of it... So funny!

Arlee's first tracks in the snow

She dropped her cup in the snow and was coming to tell me all about it.

Now she is wipping it off. She would wipe it off and put it back in the snow over and over agian. Each time doing this she would start laughing and gabbering away. It would truly be so much fun to play like a child again.

The ice coming off the roof. They look so beautiful, but I have to say that they are so tempting to knock down.

Now she is wipping off the coolers that I hadn't put in the storage closet yet.

Realizing that she now has snow on her gloves

Clapping off the snow

Getting blasted with the snow in the face

After the clapping... Snow is covering her face and she loves it!

Eating the snow off her gloves

Laughing and telling me about the snow tasting good and very cold.

Excitement is over now that her hands are cold, but she still had a lot of fun playing.

This has to be the best time ever!

Chelsey

Thanksgiving and BLACK Friday Shopping

Thanksgiving is by far one of my favorite holidays. This year it was not so... Why, you ask? Two days before Thanksgiving, Arlee got sick with a cold and low and behold I came down with it the day after her; which would be the day before Thanksgiving. Darn it! So not only was I not feeling very good, but Arlee wasn't either. Just a side note, Hans is healthy as can be and I guess you can say we are all thankful for that.

By Thanksgiving Day I was completely sick. My body was aching all over. I didn't want to move, let alone eat anything. What a bummer!

We ate some dinner with my family to begin the day. Hans was able to carve his first turkey! He did a great job. Everyone was commenting that he does it a lot like my dad. Meaning he was being so careful separating the white and dark meat and taking the skin off and setting it aside. My dad normally carves the turkey, but he wasn't able to get into town on time from work and missed that part. No worries though he still made it for dinner.

Hans cutting his first ever... turkey! So exciting ; )

After eating with my family we went over and did Thanksgiving with Hans' family. We were able to get family pictures taken with everyone on the HOGE side (Hans' dad and his brother's side) After we took the big family picture we took some with just our family. We haven't had pictures taken ever! I don't even think that Hans' family has taken any for about ten years. It was good to get them taken and not to worry about them for maybe another ten years... Hopefully sooner, but we'll see.

 

All The Hoges except I think there was one child missing (with his dad).

The Alan Hoge Family 

Black Friday Shopping! Hans and I have to admit we didn't really want to do this, but we had so much fun going out together. We took Arlee to stay at my sister, Abbie's house. Then we were off to start shopping it up. Toys R Us was open at 10 PM so we went there first. We arrived there around 9:30 PM and waited in the freezing cold until they opened the doors.  Hans went straight to an employee and asked them where a kitchen was that we wanted to get Arlee and he said they are at the front. So we went to the front and couldn't find it. Looked for what seemed to be about twenty minutes and nothing so we asked the same guy and same answer. Fed up from looking I asked someone else and they said you have to wait in line and they will get it for you at the front. Seriously! The other guy forgot to mention that it wasn't actually on the shelf!!! Twenty minutes of searching and now a packed store. GGggrrrrr. We could have been done so fast, but now we had to wait in line. It took us a little over an hour to get up to the front, just to see if they had any. Luckily, they did. YESSSS! We got it. Arlee is going to love it. She plays with the one at my parent's house all the time. 

Around 11:45 PM we were leaving Toys R Us' parking lot and headed back to our house to drop stuff off and go to Kohls.  We thought if we were going to be waiting outside again we need to be dressed for the occasion.  Only a smart idea, but not totally necessary if you don't mind freezing in under 20 degree F weather; which by the way the lowest temperature that we saw was 11 degrees F.  We got home unloaded everything and got dressed. Hans and I were in a lot better clothes now. For instance, I got on skiing/snow boarding gear and beanie. Hans and I made hot chocolate and put it in a thermos, grabbed some snacks and we were off.

We arrived at Kohls at 12:30 AM and they opened at 3AM. No one was there as you can imagine so we sat in the car. Hans and I were on a stakeout. We were full of energy and were ready to bolt out of the car as soon as anyone came.  One car came and we ran out to the door and they were apparently just looking at when they opened. So we went back to the car. We waited some more and here comes another car and they are going to stay so we ran to the door again and sat down.  They yelled out from their car that they didn't care to be first in line, but obviously Hans and I did. We sat there the rest of the two hours until they opened the doors. It was great. We were in first in and the first ones out. No waiting in checkout lines for us. : ) I have to note that Toys R Us was soooo much more busy than Kohls, but it was so much fun doing a stakeout with Hans and laughing together as we ran to be first.  Anyway, Kohls opened at 3AM and we were in, out and home by 3:10!!! OH YEAH, we are that good. hahaha.

Once we got home and looked at my phone I realized that we had to go back out and get something at Target, which opened at 4AM. Hans and I were on the move once again.  We got there around 3:30 AM and waited until 4AM to get in. We were in and out by 4:30 AM.

I tell ya when Hans and I get together on something we get it done so fast! It was especially nice to not have Arlee with us while doing this. You might think that I am weird for even mentioning it, but some people brought there kids that were Arlee's age and they were waiting out in the cold. DUMB people!

Our first Black Friday shopping adventure went great and we saved soooooooo much money on presents. Best thing ever was spending some time with Hans, even if it was the middle of the night/morning! : )

P.S. Don't forget I did all that awesomeness with a aching body and running nose. You can just call me MRS. AMAZING!

Chelsey

Discovery Gateway Adventure

Hans' sister-in-law, Amy took me and Arlee with her and her two boys, Brock and Landon to Discovery Gateway. It is always fun to get out of the house and do something a little different and it is even more fun if you have someone to go with to do these things.

Arlee and Brock are playing with a tube that is like the ones in the drive thru at the bank except instead of pushing a button to make it go through the tube you oukk down on a sleve sort of thing. The part that they liked the most on this was when they lifted the sleve up to put the ball in they would get a lot of air in their face. Great entertainment for little kids.

Brock holding some of the balls that are in this beehive like place.

Arlee and Brock riding around in these little cars. Brock liked running into Arlee with his. Arlee didn't like him doing it after awhile.

Arlee and Landon riding around

Arlee in her car. Behind her is a little tree house for the kids and they have little furniture that is just their size.

Landon and Arlee

Arlee loves to play in this water area. There are all kinds of toys for her to play with. It is just like the bath except she isn't all wet thanks to this vest.

Arlee going down the slide that is hooked onto the tree house

Landon trying to go up the stairs to the tree house

Arlee in the tree house. (the little hands that are in the picture are from this little kid that kept standing right next to Arlee whenever I tried to get a picture of her in there. That was the best I could do to keep him out of it. He would come over to me after I took one and asked to see him in it. Hahaha silly little boy.

Thanks Amy for taking us with you. We will have to do it again and again. Next time I am going to bring a lunch for Arlee so they can play longer. Hopefully I won't have such a crazy morning trying to get there. : D

-Chels

Our New Apartment

As promised here are some pictures of our apartment. Sorry that they are kind of mixed up. I forgot I have trouble moving them after, but I didn't want to have to start over.

Our dining area

Laundry room that is off the kitchen

Laundry room/furnace and water heater area

Living room- Can you believe our couch fits?

Here is something that I am pretty proud of. It looks great. All my pottery from high school is unpacked that isn't at my parent's house.  I have 18 more pots behind these doors. : ) I will keep switching them out so they all get used.

Deck area

You can see my car from the deck and every window in the apartment

Stuff in the storage closet that is on the deck

Our bathroom is done in black and green. Loving it right now.

Great idea that I had for the storage. Instead of being able to see all the bathroom items that we have they are in these bins that fit really well on the deep shelves. Works out great and doesn't take that long to find anything either.

Vanity that is in the bathroom. We have one in our closet on the other side of the wall. Great for teeth brushing.

Our closet which for right now is used for food storage and clothes of course.

The view of the bathroom from our closet

Our bedroom (still a work in progress)

Arlee just woke up from her nap

She is so funny. She carries that doll around everywhere. I knew that it was going to happen, but it is just even more funny to me now that it has.

Arlee loves getting her picture taken

Arlee's wall.

all the boxes are out of here now and it looks great and so much bigger than the pictures are allowing. Thought I better get these up though and not waste another couple of weeks before I did. Good idea?

Our one and only hall! So weird to me that we don't have a bunch of stairs (inside that is) and only one hall, not for too long though. : )

Our kitchen and then straight back would be the laundry room.

Arlee's room again.

A different view of our living room

Well I hope you all enjoyed the tour. hahaha I am just kidding there really isn't much to it I know, but it is our home and we love being here. Great place for us right now.

Just a side note... Hans went in and interviewed with Harmons for a pharmacist position yesterday and should be hearing back by the first part of December if he got the job. We are very anxious to hear. Hopefully there will be nothing but good news for him.

-Chelsey