Oh my blog you dear friend... I have missed writing! I have taken this whole summer off from writing. It wasn't intentional, but this summer has been just full to the brim with spending time with new friends, connecting with old friends, mini adventures, early mornings, late nights, long walks, and a  flurry of photoshoots. 

This truly has been one of my favorite summers!

We also have 2 other big announcements..................

We are moving from Wisconsin to Texas in the Spring!

 We are more excited than you can imagine and bursting at the seams with excitement  My hubby and I just love it down there and just thrilled that we'll be moving there!

From misc

Also..... We're expecting baby #3!!!!!

Woohooo! So exciting!!!! This was most definitely not planned and quite a surprise, but we are already so ready to meet and hold our new little baby! It's hard for me to imagine another little one apart of our family, my joy feels already complete and brimming over, so I am very eager to meet and snuggle this new baby. :)

Our due date is is May 9th! New baby's birthday will be just about 2 weeks after Diana's birthday and 3 weeks before Ellie's. (Those darn hot summer nights, they always seems to get the best of Daniel... if you know what I mean. hehehe :)

So, despite the amazing summer we have all had, just like all good things, has ended. The warm sun has been replaced with freezing rain and cold winds, our long days outside on walks and at the beach has turned to restless days inside trying to keep 2 toddlers busy and my natural "exercise high" from being out and about and constantly on walks has been replaced with morning sickness, throwing up and migraines. (That's a neat little new pregnancy symptom)

I'm finding myself missing the freedom to vent, talk and general conversation the blogging world has to offer. I miss my blog friends and keeping up with every one's lives and I miss documenting my own.

I also feel more freedom to talk on here and update on life rather than on fb. Blogs are so much more unassuming. I often feel, I don't know, maybe bombarded a little on facebook rather then a blog. Sometimes seeing other people's endless rants, endless pictures and endless updates on their life can either annoy me or cause feelings of jealousy to creep in. Like maybe somehow my life isn't measuring up to how exciting, beautiful and happy other's people's lives are. I sometimes wonder if my posts or photo updates annoy people or if I post too often.

 But here on my blog, people can come on here if they want to know what's going on in my life or are curious. As compared to me popping up on their facebook.

Plus, facebook is addicting and I don't like that! Once I start to get sucked in it's hard to not constantly check it and see what others are doing. Facebook is like seeing someone in the middle of a cross walk on a busy street. You see a moment and hear a sentence or two, and then your gone off to the next thing. 

Blogs are like cozying up with a friend in a sort of way and hearing about their day, their lives, their joys, sorrows and actually catching up. 

Not all people will agree with me on this, but that's just the way I see it.

So hello again blog world! How have you been and what have you been up too?

Newport Resort, Door County, WI

Mini road trip! This was another last mini get away! Daniel and I have talked about getting away again (despite just being away a few weeks ago) but have not had anything planned aside from our upcoming Texas trip later this summer. But wouldn't you know it, the perfect storm of events happened and we found ourselves up in beautiful Door County, WI this weekend! Door County is very special to me because that's where Daniel and I spent the majority of our honeymoon. :) So, lot's of sweet, happy and romantic memories!

Anyways.... hubby was talking to a friend at work who said what great prices there are up there during off season. When he got home we went online, checked out the place a bit and made reservations for the very next weekend! We stayed at the Newport Resort in Egg Harbor and it was perfect!

Everything was beautiful, inside and out!



This is the Lobby. You can't see it from this angle, but they have a whole pile of games and stuff you can borrow and use while you're there!

They sold sweaters and shirts. Rats! I meant to get one. Oh well, I guess we'll have to come back some time. :)

Of course, what else do you do after you check in? Why, rush up to your room (in a quite manner) and have a look around! Everything was a million times looking better than the photos. It was very "resort-ish" looking without being too stiff but comfortable enough where you felt at home.

This was the girl's room...



We rented a two bedroom room, and I'm so thankful we did! Even though I have been wanting to go back up to Door County, I was (all admit, somewhat guiltily) a bit put out we were bringing our two crazy toddlers with us. But, it went better than I imagined because they went to bed early (Score!!!!) They even stayed in their room without fighting or crying or wanting to go home!

We tucked them in, turned on a children's station (they had a tv in their room) and kept their door open a crack so they knew we were right there. They were fast asleep quickly and Daniel and I had all night to ourselves!

This is our room. I wanted to take all the blankets home with me! The sheets were soft cotton and they had a white crisp comforter under the blanket. I got out of bed just so I could get back in it again. Awesomness!

There were two bathrooms, the one off of Daniel's and my room had a huge Jacuzzi jet tub!



This is a picture of a mirror. I wore my Texas dress, it's one of my favorites :)



They had a kitchen stocked with not only an oven, stove, fridge, coffee maker, ect. But all the dishes that you could need to cook! It was so handy and very perfect.

An instant fireplace! This was hand's down a selling point when we made reservations. It was cool. Or hot? ;)

After looking around a bit and testing out all the couch cushions and the bouncy, comfortableness of the beds, we decided we were famished! We actually didn't bring much food to cook (that was my sweet hubby's idea, he wanted me to be able to relax too and not worry about cooking :) We had planned on calling for Pizza but no one delivered to where we were. The Resort is actually in the middle of almost nowhere. The town (Egg Harbor) is filled with quaint little shops and has a strong nature and art presence. Beautiful, but we still needed a place to eat! There were a few restaurants, but we didn't want to take the kids out and hubby and I wanted to hang out in our room. The nearest take out place was over 15 minutes away! Thankfully, we found a tiny little store called the Main Street Market just a stone's throw from where we were staying. We picked up a few things and headed back to our room!









When we got back the sun was setting and the view was breathtaking. We had our own little patio that looked out over the woods and the road in the distance. I would have taken more photos but we were just having to much fun all playing together!

After dinner the kids went to bed quickly (Thank you Lord!) and hubby and I had a good couple of hours to ourselves! We drank some locally made soda, cuddled up on the couch together and watched some tv shows from when were were young. Does anyone remember Tim Allan in Home Improvident? Neither of had seen that show in years. We laughed at the 90's fashion and the slapstick comedy and reveled in the pre-reality primetime.

Then we just talked, spent a ton of time in the hot tub (my poor muscles already miss it!) and then snuggled up in front of the fireplace before going to bed. The whole day went by to quickly!


We woke up early the next day and went down and had some breakfast. They served a variety of juices, coffee, cereal, bagels, and such. I thought that was especially nice considering that your room is set up to be able to cook yourself.

We checked out and were on our way back home! There were so many things Newport Resort had available that we never even got a chance to use. There was an indoor and outdoor pool, an arcade room, and play place for the kids! It was a great place to stay. I highly recommend the Newport Resort to anyone (kids or no kids!) who is planning a trip to Door County, WI!

So, we are back home and unpacked and ready to start another week. (Though I'm still missing that hot tub pretty bad :) Our mini trip was a big blessing and I'm so thankful that we got to go. Now here starts another week back in reality land!

Red River Gorge, KY

Road trip!!! We recently came back from a mini vacation / getaway / road trip to Kentucky. We weren't really planning on a big get away, Daniel and I had originally planned for just him and I to go for a night or two down to Louisville, KY. But, long story short, Daniel's oldest brother and his girlfriend (from Louisville) his older sister and her husband (from Virginia) and his younger brother (from Texas) and us all met up for about a week in Red River Gorge, KY for an almost week getaway in the mountains!

Since I don't have a ton of time, I'll share in pictures instead of words our trip. That's my favorite medium of retelling a story anyway......

Wisconsin Restaurant Expo 2012

Sorry about the sporadic posting everyone, life truly has been crazy! But here I am now, again, to share a little of what goes on in the world around me. I'm stepping out of my normal posts about children/ home life to share something special that my little bro and I got to do. We went to the 2012 Wisconsin Restaurant Expo together!

My little brother, Jacob is currently enrolled in culinary school and let me to you everyone, he is amazing! Growing up my family and I all simultaneously agreed that out of everyone he would be the successful business man. Between his business knowledge and his mad cooking skills, he is a force to be reckoned with! Of course, I too have always been in love with my kitchen and cooking (keep watch on mmmmm my blog for an amazing recipe for homemade Naan bread!) So needless to say, a restaurant expo was right up our ally.

The whole event was great, but one of the most exciting parts was that Duff Goldman was the keynote speaker! He was great and shared a lot of helpful information. He definitely had his own style, not what I was used to as far as presentation style speeches go. He was kind of sporadic and he peppered tons of little funny stories and antidotes throughout his presentation. He veered off track several times too. The whole thing presentation was both entertaining and informative. We both liked it a lot!

Afterwards he was available for book signing for his bestselling book Ace of Cakes: Inside the World of Charm City Cakes. Jake brought something much cooler for him to sign, one of his mega big pastry cookbooks from school. Awesomeness! Apparently Duff thought it was neat too, he wrote: Yes! This book is much more useful than mine! Rock on, Jacob.

Jake was thrilled, as you can imagine. After he signed Jake's book he looked up at me, and kind of looked at my hands like, "Where's her book?" For some reason, even though I knew I was going to book signing, it never occurred to me to bring a book, I just had my camera, of course. I had been snapping pictures the entire time Duff was signing my brother's book, so when he was looking at my bookless hands I commented "Oh, I didn't bring a book because I just wanted a picture, because a picture is worth a thousand words, so by me taking your picture instead of you signing my book, it's like, better than getting a thousand signatures!" ....Um.... Slight pause..... He looked at me like I was an idiot or completely nuts.

Ah well :)

Here are some of the highlights of our day:

This is Corin Beier. She was one of the students that competitively entered the cooking competition! She was super nice and just looked so "chef-ish" I had to get her picture for the blog. :) Her and my brother were on opposing schools. Fortunately, I think she cooks better than she trash talks ;) Like I said, she was super sweet :)

Afterwords, before going home, we stopped at the old out of commission Pabst brewery. I don't know how old the buildings are, but they look to be at least 100. Very cool!

We had a great day and I wish I had time to share more, we took over 200 photos!