Welcome to the Family Rosario!

No, we did not add another pet to the mix- we got something to help with them instead!

Rosario, our new Roomba, was added to the family on Saturday in order to help with inbetween floor cleanings. With Kara studying and Nick gearing up for biking season, we decided we needed a little help around the house in order to keep Kara sane. Thus far Rosario has been used almost once a day and she does a great job! She isn't as good as Kara's weekly deep clean, but it works for during the week and is sure to come in handy come spring when the animals start shedding more. The best thing is we can schedule her and she does it all on her own while we are gone, then goes back and recharges herself! Now if we could get her to empty out the dirt container (we can dream).

On a different note- a shout out to a fun Saturday night at the 'German Bar.' And a late Happy Birthday to Megan- way to take part in the boot game.

Same Old, Same Old

We realize we haven’t written much lately, but there really isn’t much going on in our lives right now. It is the same old, same old.

Kara was sick starting New Year’s Day and lasting a week or so. First the flu, then a cold, and then an ear infection. We figure the year can only go up from there. Luckily, Nick managed to avoid all of it- allowing him to wait on Kara while she was under the weather.

Kara started studying for the Level II CFA exam in December, taking up about 15-20 hours each week. Thus far it is going good and she is a week ahead of her study schedule- knock on wood.

Nick is pretty excited about his new cyclocross bike that he put together last week, which is probably about the highlight of 2009 thus far. Kara is glad he has something to do besides snow-blow the driveway. Now that the weather is getting nicer, he is sure to be off on more outside bike rides.

That is about it for us. No current home improvement projects, no trips planned, nothing too exciting. Just hanging in there.

It's Shopping Time!

I feel like we haven’t been writing as much on this thing lately, so I will tell you what I have been thinking about even if it isn’t exciting. And yes, I do remember that we still have some of the redone rooms to show- I just keep forgetting to take pictures of them. I will get to it, someday. Anyway….

It is about that time of year again- Christmas shopping time! But I don’t mean ‘Day after Thanksgiving’ shopping. For the third year in a row, Nick and I have a goal to have all Christmas gifts purchased prior to Thanksgiving (more my goal that he has adopted). Some people may think that is weird (yes we do get odd looks when we start asking for lists in October), but if you think about it, it really makes sense and allows us to enjoy the holiday season MUCH more. After working in retail (at the mall) for three holiday seasons, I see nothing fun about shopping with the crowds. And do you really save that much money to make up for the stress of driving in the city with people who have no idea where they are going, as well as trying finding somewhere to park at the malls and Target?

So, our tradition is to take the day BEFORE Thanksgiving off and hit the stores in search of perfect gifts for everyone. Yes, we are boring and have people make lists so we don’t have to search for ideas of what to get them, but it makes it so much easier to pick up gifts and we know they will use them.

Wednesday it is, I have already started charting out our plan for the day, and with the gifts we have already found we should be on our way to having Christmas shopping done by Wednesday night! I will admit the first year we did this Nick was a little skeptical (basically he hadn’t decided what to get everyone in advance), but now he loves it!

Then on the day after Thanksgiving we can sit down, put in Elf and wrap the presents. The rest of the season we can just enjoy the beautiful decorations and relax. I will admit that we may hit a store or two on the day after Thanksgiving, but more for fun and not because we have to get something (Ace Hardware usually has some really nice deals that day and the store is hardly busy here in Des Moines.)

Off topic a little- I must say I am the luckiest wife around because Nick doesn’t complain about shopping at all! I don’t think it is his favorite thing to do, but he doesn’t complain. It also helps that on this shopping day we always make a trip downtown for lunch at South Union- something we don’t get to do very often since we work in West Des Moines. Thanks for being such a great shopping partner Nick!

How Time Flies!

It hard to believe that we have been married 6 months already! It seems like just yesterday we were having the wedding and going on the honeymoon (although we would be game for another honeymoon any time). We celebrated by cooking up the pheasant Nick caught the previous weekend, cracking open a bottle of champagne and enjoying the strawberries (thanks for the gifts Nick).

Happy Halloween!

We hope everyone has a fun and safe Halloween! Here are a few pictures from our 3rd Annual Pumpkin Carving Night! Thanks Mike and Megan, we had a great time!

Time to work outside!

Having spent so much time working on the inside of the house it was time to start on the outside. Nick’s mom (Linda) and her husband Jeff came up on Saturday with our nephew Hunter (Nick’s brother’s son) and everyone was put to work! Nick and Jeff had the fun task of adjusting the gutter that was slanting down and dripping over the entryway. It didn’t look like a fun project, but hopefully the end result will keep up drier when it rains (looks like we should find out this week). While the two guys worked on the gutter, Linda, Hunter and Kara worked on fixing the mailbox (with Jeff’s help) and made a ‘flower garden’ around it. We planted spring flowers so we will see how we really did next spring (anything to make the house look pretty while Kara is stuck inside studying for most of the spring).

We also got a walk in with the dogs, and boy were they tired that night (Kara really enjoyed that)! Kara’s plan to buy any and all property she landed on during a game of Monopoly didn’t work, as Hunter took home the prize in that game- Kara is still trying to figure out where she went wrong!

Thanks Linda, Jeff and Hunter! The house looks great and we really appreciated the extra hands (ladder and tools).

Jeff and Nick
working on the gutter

Jeff finishing
things up

Nick fixing the

underside problem

Our mailbox
project!

Hunter and

the dogs

Monopoly-
can you tell Hunter is
winning?

Amana Family Weekend

Free samples, wine tasting, fudge, Amana food, a waterpark, a playground and the family- what more could you ask for!

This past weekend we ventured to the Amanas for a mini-vacation with the family. The grown-ups without little ones spent the first part of Saturday driving and walking around the Amanas and the stores, making sure we hit every sample along the way. After that Eric, Jess and the four girls joined us at the hotel. Then it was waterpark time at Wasserbahn! The waterpark was great for all the ages- the little ones stayed in the shallow pool and on smaller slide, while Sammy and some of the grown-ups hit up the big slides, ‘whirl-pool’ and attempted to cross the floating logs (some were more suggessful than others). And yes- even Grandma and Grandpa were going down the big slides! The next day we hit brunch at Ox Yoke Inn, a favorite of the Greving family. Of course we did not forget to stop in Williamsburg for some quick shopping on the way home.

It was a great weekend and we had a blast, although I think we were all very tired by the end!

The family by the park
about ready to head to Ox
Yoke Inn for brunch

Jess and Ally
at the pool

Sammy is great
at this!

Mike struggled
a little more

Nick serving

up the fudge

Grandpa and Izzy
down the slide

Mike and Megan

relaxing in the room

Grandma and Ruby

Eric and Jess
after the girls went
to bed

Some of the girls at
the fudge store