a new addition

Our dresser! Our friends Pat and Becky gave this pine dresser to us as they received 2 from their wedding! The gold is going to go, but we're liking the new addition.

tuckered out after raging about with Drew

This is Maupin's new way of sitting on the hardwood floor b/c her feet don't grip...poor thing.

simple pleasures a dog brings:

1) They are always happy to see you

2) They are always up for a good fight...no matter how tired they are

3) Once in a while a good cuddle comes along

4) They can get you so mad (like get into 2 full bags of leaves, or chew threw a cable, or poop in your house...), but you can never stay mad for longer than 10 minutes.

5) They are super photogenic, even with a permanent sad face!

more of christmas

I realize Christmas pics have already been posted, but wanted to put a couple more pictures up since I am still thinking daily about how cute our nieces and nephews are and how much fun we had at home! The first two were from Julie and I absolutely love them!


This weekend was all about cooking and reading. I finally got through (not because it wasn't a good book) Same Kind of Different As Me which I am highly recommending. I also made for the second time in one week Chili from the "Real Simple" Magazine. My favorite Apple Pie was made too and is already half eaten. oops!


Now, for the pictures:


In't Hout nieces and nephews (thanks julie!)

dad, drew, ryan, kev and uncle henry playing hearts

Livi...best ecpression ever when Ashlyn opened her American Girl Doll...then came Bitty Baby!

Tay and Drew

De Vries Family

Love this picture...Cameron was such a good boy all day long!

Ave, Mookie, Maupin and me

Samuel J.

1 Year Anniversary

We made it! Drew and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary! What a blessing. Yesterday we woke up at 8am (which is now sadly sleeping in for both of us). Drew put on the movie Julie and Julia for me while he made some breakfast. I think it was also an excuse to take some time to make the plans that he sad he was going to do :)
At about 12:30pm, we drove to Breckenridge with the dog of course. We got to the hotel, which was at the base of the mountain, and took the dog for a little walk down the streets lined with foreingers, adorable shops, and pubs galore. We enjoyed dinner at one of the English pubs, enjoyed the hot tub after, took a stroll which landed us outside a bar in front of a massive fireplace. We sat for about 40 minutes, meeting some locals, drinking a brewski and watched the sleigh rides come down the mountain.
This morning we woke up at 7:30 (again, sleeping in) and went to a creperia we had spotted the night before that had been absolutely packed the 3 times we wanted to try our own crepe. We were the first customers of the day and minutes later, they were slammed...only to be that way until 9pm again tonight. Mine was Nutella with Banana and Drew got a Brie-filled crepe. Mmm... We were good about sharing, which really means that I couldn't make up my mind as to which crepe I wanted to devour, so I just kept asking, "shall we trade". And Drew would say willingly, "Yes!"
We caught some fresh powder at 9am and were back to the room, had packed our things, were checked out of the room and on the road by 11am!

New Home and Christmas at "Home"

Drew and I have experienced even more in the last 2 months. Drew started his new job with Shamrock Foods October 1st, we started thinking about getting a new home, we found 2 we really liked November 1st and on the 23rd we closed on 2848 Jackson! We found someone to move in the rental home January 1st and so, before we left for Grand Rapids Dec 18, we were all moved out of the old house. It was nice to have a little time to get things sorted out and fix up some things in the new house inlcuding painting of the bedrooms and a complete remodel of the bathroom.
Drew, Maupin and I drove to Grand Rapids for Christmas. We got to enjoy being in the company of our family and friends for a whole week! We had 2 new nephews to love on and, of course, our nieces were a joy! The trip back was long as I wasn't feeling well and so Drew drove all the way through to Kansas City where we then got a hotel. We made it back in time to put things away and enjoy a night together before work started up again on Monday.
Drew working hard in the bathroom

The Kitchen/Sitting Room

Guest Bedroom

Master Bedroom

Me, Dad DV, Mom DV, Drew, Gpa and Gma

Dad at the farm house with "his girls"

Cameron...need I say more!?

Us with Avery, Makenna and Sam :)

On the way home...Maups took up the entire back seat and slept the whole time!

Just a quick set of photos: a massive pile of leaves, 11 bags of those leaves and then 18" of snow fall throughout the course of 2 days. Take a look.
our front yard




our backyard

Autumnal Outing

Yesterday the De Vries' and Malefyt's decided to have a fall outing. We picked up Joel and Gina at their home at 11am. We went to Breakfast on Broadway and then to Rock Creek Farms. We went to a petting zoo, picked pumpkins, and went through a corn maze!

After that, we went to J & G's house, carved pumpkins, made acorn squash and steak, made carmel apples and Apple Cider Bourbon drinks, and watched 2 scary movies! It was the perfect fall day too with the sun shining and the air was a bit nippy. Here are the photos.

boo hoo hoo

A ticket. My worst nightmare since moving to Denver. I got another ticket today. I was picking up Drew from the airport and, after doing 3 loop-dee-loops, I decided to pull off to the side of the road and wait 5 minutes for Drew to get outside. Sure enough...around the corner comes a police. Don't ask me how, but I got a $30 fine for not having a front liscense plate and another $50 for a "parking violation". He told me that I was lucky I didn't get a "moving violation ticket"...LUCKY! Riiiiiiight. ugh. Another $80 just thrown at the State. boo-hoo. Needless to say the chipper, loving greeting I was going to give my husband turned out to be a slew of obsenities. And yes, there were 2 more in the past 2 months, but I won't get into that.