Chicago - Spring Break '12

Friday afternoon, finished with work, loaded the car and headed out of town. What an excitement, a freedom. No work or school for 9 wonderful days.

We headed to the Chicagoland area to visit Kris and Melinda.

We made a short stop at the VR's to drop off Frank. What a wonderful sister, to say she would watch our hpyer puppy for us. He is so not ready to go to the kennel yet!

We took the train into Chicago, and had a wonderful day walking the streets of downtown Chicago. With tired feet, legs, back, everything, we made our way back to the train station. 7 hours of walking, shopping, standing, eating. What a fun day! The train ride was a little quieter on the way home.

We had such a nice time visiting Kris and Melinda. We laughed until our sides ached, visited for hours on end, and got to see their new house all fixed up and see them in their new town.

Back to the VR's.  Got to see Logan's new jeep (very nice, said with accent) shot guns with Travis, and visited with grandma and Kim and Kenny.

Basement Bathroom Update '12

Before - dark, old, very dated basement bathroom.

Demo

Gutted 

New plumbing, drywall, everything.

Painting

Floor and Shower are in!

Vanity and Toilet are in! Almost done!

Finally finished! 

35 Days

5 weeks.
35 days.
Kevin has been in Florida missing out on winter.
It is the longest he has been gone since he was in the Air Force.
I missed him.
Allison missed him.
Brindle and Frank missed him.
Puddy, well maybe not so much. He is a cat after all. I did remember to feed him, so he was fine.

How time flies! (AKA Happy February!)

The days have passed in a blur.
Flu
Frank
Work
Snow

Everything has run together, and I don't know where the time has gone!

Frank now weighs 27 pounds, and he isn't fat, just big! He is only 13 weeks old! Yikes! (look at all these ! can you tell he is big?) And busy? Yes, very busy, he is a 13 week old chocolate lab after all. Sometimes Allison and I wonder what he has in his head? Brains, or Rocks? Did I mention he is a chocolate lab puppy?

Big Footed Frank!

I had the flu, and missed 3 days of school. I'm still coughing, and congested, but hopefully it continues to get better!

Work Work Work what can I say? If I want a pay check, I have to show up. They are funny that way.

Snow, a broken snowblower, two shoves, and an hour and a half of shoveling 7+ inches of the light fluffy snow. A new snowblower, and an additional 3 inches of snow. Thank you God for snowblowers! We would have died if that 7 inches were as heavy and wet as those three! I think we would have died just shoveling those 3. Did I ever tell you we have a really l-o-n-g driveway?


7+ inches of soft blowing snow

 Happy February!

Fresh Apple Cake

Germany, 1993, what a long time ago.
Wonderful, lifelong friends were made in that quaint village of Sippersfeld.
Many meals were shared in each others homes and
Many unforgettable memories were made.

One of my favorite memories was going across the street to the man who sold apples, I bought a huge basket (purchased at the basket factory - yet another great memory) full of tasty apples.

I brought them home and promptly make Fresh Apple Cake.

Kym Thurman came over and we ate most of  the still warm dessert.

Kris, Allison and Baylee played together, and Kym and I visited for hours.

What a sweet memory!

Fresh Apple Cake



4 C diced, peeled raw apples


2 C sugar


½ C oil


2 eggs well beaten


2 t vanilla


2 cups flour


2 t baking soda


2 t cinnamon


1 t salt


1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)






combine apples and sugar. Let stand 10 min. stirring occasionally.


Add oil, eggs, vanilla and nuts.


Mix well. Stir in flour, soda, cinnamon and salt.


Mix well.


Bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes in a 9x13 pan greased and floured. Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar while still warm.

Frank the Small Brown Puppy

I need a better title name for this cyclone of a brown puppy.
Frank the Small Brown Puppy
Frank the Growing Machine
Frank the Monster Puppy
Frank the Cuddly Pup

I don't know, any suggestions?

The small brown puppy name won't last long because he is already 20.4 pounds.

He is doing so well, he will sit, lay down, and we are working on retrieving. Sure he goes and gets his toy, but doesn't always bring it back. I would love to have him stay as well, but he needs a lot more work with that one. How can a 10 week old puppy stay? Let me tell you, not very well!

Brindle is still doing really well with Frank, Puddy on the other hand hates him. He is too hyper for him. They can be in the same room, but if Frank gets near the kitty, off Puddy runs. I can't blame him, I would love to do that at times too. Did I already say Frank is a whirlwind of energy?

A Busy Time

It's been a busy end of the year!

Kris and Melinda moved out of state.

New Years Eve at the Van Rheenens. Making doughnuts.



Cousinly love, and Puppy Time!



Franks first trip.

Puppy Time with Logan.



Have Puppy will travel. What a good traveler!



Before. Remodeling our downstairs tiny bathroom.

Kevin has lots of Puppy help.

Gutted bathroom. It looks so much bigger with nothing in there. 

I haven't had much time to blog, or even get on the computer with all we have been doing. I hope to get back into the swing of things soon.

The puppy is growing every time I look at him. He already weighs 18 pounds. He was 8 1/2 when we got him. He must have some serious growing pains!

A New Addition

December 18th we adopted a new member into the family.

Six week old, Chocolate Lab, Frank, Franklin, Frankus, Frankie, Frank the Tank, our neighbor even calls him Frankfurter.
It took days to finally name this sweet puppy.
Having picked him up graduation weekend, several names were thrown out there. Several ISU related - Cy, Geoffroy, Freddy, some were not - Sheldon, Walter, Buddy (the elf - it was Christmas time!), Leonard, and Moose.
We finally went with the original thought from Allison when we sent her a text photo as we were picking him out, "He looks like a Frank" :-) Coincidentally, Kris had a professor named Dr. Frank, so this name fit the bill of both ISU related, and not really because we didn't think about that till later.
Needless to say, our Christmas has been a lot of fun, running around after a now 8 week old puppy.
I haven't had much time to blog, or read, but I've had a great time playing with this bouncing, biting, chewing, brown cyclone of happiness! :-)

A Monumental Day!

Kristopher Patrick and Allison Kasey

Sitting in the auditorium today, it struck me what a monumental day today was! Kris and Allison were both on the floor, waiting to hear their names be called so they could walk across the stage and become Iowa State University Alumni. (for Kris, this was his second ceremony in a year and a half!)

Kevin and I are so blessed to have such wonderful children, and we are so proud of all their accomplishments, especially this latest endeavor - graduating from ISU!

Kristopher and Dr. Stone - Tebow Style

Kristopher and Melinda Watts

A proud daddy!

Allison walking across the stage.

Hi Allison!

Hi Kris!

Two down, two to go! ISU cousins.

Kris, Melinda and the "rents"

Allison and Juan

A Whirl Wind of a Month!

What have we done since Thanksgiving?
Well, what haven't we done may be an easier question to answer.

Each weekend we have been somewhere other than home, and each weeknight we have been preparing for the next weekend...Whew!

Thanksgiving was great.

Jingle on Main was so much fun with the fireworks, shopping, music, and visiting with friends and family downtown!

The VanRheenens and my mom came for a short visit.

The Watts Family Christmas Bash - 36 of us there this year- babies everywhere!

Move Allison's stuff to the downstairs bedroom, bring the reading chairs upstairs
move Allison's stuff from DesMoines home - she will be here after this weekend!

Oh, our washer finally died, it's been getting louder and louder and sounded like a jet engine - then nothing- let's go shopping in our free time.

We got the tree up (last night - that is like the latest we have had it up in many, many years).

Start Christmas cards.

This weekend, is Allison and Kris's graduation.
Yes, they are both graduating! Allison with her Bachelors, and Kris with his Masters.
What an exciting time in their lives!

Help Kris and Melinda move their things into a storage unit, and then over the new year, get them moved to Illinois so they can begin their next, new chapter in their lives!

Oh, and update blog. :-)

Ready or Not Christmas is less than 2 weeks away!

allison trayton dalton

melinda and kris swinging connor allison holding leah

diana holding leah

moving allison

old dog brin

kevin and allison - moving

kevin and allison loading the truck

allison dina and brin loading the truck :-)

movin' out

following kevin home on the hour and a half drive - i got a little bored and started taking photos, is that legal?

wild turkeys in our back yard - wild!

kevin can park pretty well!

having loads of fun with our new washer and dryer

putting up the tree