Wanted: Christmas Cheer

I just can't seem to get in the Christmas spirit this year. It's probably because we aren't putting up a tree, and our belongings are slowly being packed away.

We made an offer on a house Sunday, September 25. Our offer was accepted that same day, and we're still not living in our new home! We closed on our hosue Nov. 18, which seemed to take forever to arrive because the seller was giving us a hard time about repairs he said he would fix, but then wanted us to take responsibility for at the last minute, which is another story entirely, and he asked for 30 days after closing to move out. He is paying us rent in the mean time, which is nice, I'll admit. But, when we talked to the seller at closing he admitted he had no idea WHERE he was moving or WHEN he'd be moving out. I mean, I knew he had thirty days, but I didn't think he'd take all thirty! It seems if you are selling your house you'd have some idea of where you were going to go. It's been very frustrating, because with his deadline to be out looming, he still has no idea when he'll be out. I'm so frustrated with this guy! Just get out of our house already!

Anyway, we're really excited to get in there and start working on it. We plan on tearing up carpet and having the floors finished before we even move in. And for the first time ever we are hiring movers! Hot dog! But I'm not getting my hopes of being in before Christmas, and I'm just trying to get over that fact that I probably won't have time to bake, or decorate. It stinks! Next year I'm going all out! Don't be offended if you don't get a Christmas card from us this year either. It's not that we don't love you, I just don't see us getting around to it. So, if you have any extra Christmas cheer, or a really organized elf that is good at packing, send it my way.

And now for a couple of Leland pictures.

Leland's preferred method of eating chicken noodle-o's.

Cuddle time with dad while she recovered from croup.

Halloween Fun

Lots of pictures today! We had a really fun Halloween weekend. Spent Friday night, Saturday and Sunday morning and afternoon in Farwell. Then we took Leland to her Wyandotte grandparents for a little trick-or-treating action. She LOVED walking around and looking at everyone in their costumes. It was really fun to watch her.

On the porch and her grandma and grandpa's with her pumpkin.

This one cracks me up.

Carving pumpkins at mimi and papas house.

Leland and Aunt Christina on CMU's campus.

Supermodel Cassie.

Alden and Leland running around.

Uncle Dan took this one!

Looooove this one!

Near the spot where we got engaged!

I even have my very own brick.

Goofing around before Halloween. I glued some more feathers and a beak on these glasses and went as a bird. I got a lot of weird looks.

Labor Day

Woo. Two posts in one week? It's true!

Over Labor Day we went to Mackinaw City with the Nelsons. It was a great weekend! Cold... but great! Campfires, beautiful views of the bridge and lake, good people, ahhh. Here are a few of the pictures from the weekend.

Finally, a new post!

Hi all. We've been busy. I've been feeling guilty about not taking any pictures of Leland or taking pictures and then never doing anything with them. But not tonight! Tonight we went to the park, I brought my camera, took pictures and am now putting them on the blog! Woah. It really doesn't take that long so I don't know why I always slack about it. Anyway. I've been pretty sick since Tuesday with a nasty cold that I can't seem to get rid of. Leland started to get a little sick on Friday, but luckily it didn't last long. We decided to take a walk tonight after dinner since the weather was lovely and we needed to get out of the apartment, which seems to be getting smaller and smaller. Leland just runs in circles all day long from the living, through the kitchen, down the hallway and back again. Poor kid. But I digress.

Lots has been going on. We bought a house! Woot woot! Although, I feel like we will never close on it. I'm pretending like we didn't buy a house... just in case something happens. But hopefully we'll be in it before Christmas. And I guess that's what I mean by lots has been going on because I can't really think of anything else that has been going on.

I know I say this after every post, but I swear I will try to be better. But don't hold your breath!

One of Leland's favorite things to do at the park is play with the mulch.

Pics

I took some pictures of my cousins kids recently. Then I made some fun collages with the pics. Just thought I'd share.

The Big One

It happened. Leland turned one. We had a fun party for her at my parent's house since Stephen and I have no room to have people over. It was a great day! Leland was a total ham as usual. The adorable outfit she is wearing was made by her Aunt Kara. I loved it! Thanks Kara! We opened presents, had lunch, ate cake, and Alden and Cassie ran through the sprinkler for a while. Then it started raining. But it was a really great day. Here are some pictures in no particular order.

Alden and Cassie had fun running through the sprinkler.

She loved her cake, as all kids do.

We opened presents. Leland really loves all her new toys. She especially loves playing with her toy kitchen and feeding her new babies.

The Wuepp's

The T's.

Four generations.

She's one! (I made that sign, by the way. I was really proud of my self cause I thought it was really darned cute, and I had a massive hand cramp the next day from excessive x-acto knife usage.)

Leland @ 11 months

These are just some fun snap shots of Leland over the last month. Her first birthday is right around the corner!

We are so so so bad at this

We are terrible bloggers. It's true. In our defense our summer has been crazy! As you can see a few posts ago, Leland was sick, then I (Linsey) was sick, so sick that I actually went to the doctor, then we just got busy. The month of July was totally crazy. I do have a few cute pictures of Leland which I will hopefully post tomorrow during nap time. But right now I just don't feel like downloading my camera. I'm totally overwhelmed with family pictures from the last year. After this weekend I'm going to tackle it! I really really need to because I hate that all my pictures just sit on my computer. I kind of miss the days when you just took a roll of film to CVS and were done with it. Now I feel like I have to tone and edit every photo I put up on this blog, but I should probably just get over that. No one cares, right?

Ok, so let me give you a run down of the month of July. Or we'll start with the end of June (that feels like ages ago.)

Stephen and I went to see U2 with John and Danielle. It was totally awesome and we stayed out till like 3 am!!! I can't remember the last time I did that. It was a great show, but let me tell you one of the most amazing parts was thinking about the logistics of the entire stage set up. Totally amazing. I've been to LOTS of concerts, more than I can even count, and this was the most amazing set up I have ever seen. Search google images for "U2 360" and you'll see what I mean.

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Then the next weekend was my sister's bachelorette party! Woo woo. We had an awesome time. We stayed at the Atheneum Hotel in Detroit which was really great. I would love to stay there again. We started the night with gifts and a few Summer Shandys in the room. Then we went to dinner at Slows, which if you haven't been there, you should probably go. It's really, really good. Then we headed over to Comerica Park for a Tiger's game. It was so ridiculously hot that we didn't last long. After the 2nd inning we headed into this little air conditioned bar area inside the ball park, then in started pouring rain... for a long time... like a big time storm. We were very happy we made the decision to hang out in the air conditioning for a bit. Then the rain didn't stop, so we went back to the hotel, cleaned ourselves up and had a fun night out on the town.

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Then, the next morning, I headed up to Farwell for the 4th. It was a really fun weekend from what I remember. It just seems like so long ago that I don't really remember much except going on the boat, shooting off some fireworks, then having breakfast at Big Boy in Mt. P with a lot of really fun friends the next morning.

On the boat!

Ok, so the next weekend we just relaxed and I got a facial!

Then Stephen turned 30 on the 17th of July! We had a very fun gathering at another Tiger's game, again on what seemed like the hottest day of the summer. I've been to 4 Tiger's games this year and three of four have been in 90+ degree weather. Ugh. But we had a great, great time celebrating Stephen's milestone. I have a picture of us somewhere. It will probably never see the light of day on this blog. A really fun thing about Comerica Park is they let you bring in your own food. We made sandwiches and had a ton of snacks. It was really fun.

So, the next weekend we apparently rested, oh wait, not really. I actually had to look back at my calender to remember what we did. Stephen took my now brother-in-law, Caleb, to Farwell for the weekend for a little R&R before the big day, while Shelby, Leland and I just lounged around for the weekend. It was fun.

Then it was time for the big show. Shelby and Caleb's Wedding. Let me tell you, it was TOTALLY AMAZING!!! Perfect Perfect Perfect! My sister was probably the most beautiful bride ever. I can't wait to post some better pictures. We stayed at the most amazing hotel, the Royal Park. The wedding was at Meadowbrook Hall. It was so beautiful. I can't even describe it. You just have to see pictures. I loooove weddings. It's so fun just to dance with all my family. Leland was such a good girl. I totally couldn't believe it. And Stephen was an AWESOME dad the whole weekend. He was pretty much on Leland duty the entire time while I tended to my MOH duties. He was so awesome that the pastor who married my sister and Caleb said he was going to use him as an example in a sermon about how dads should be! I'm so grateful that he is so wonderful to me and Leland. Anyway. Then Mary and Hank whisked Leland away when the night started to get late. It was a perfect night!

At the wedding.

So that is what we have been up to.

Oh, and I totally forgot to mention that during all of this madness Stephen and I have been house hunting!

It's been crazy. Really crazy. But sooooo fun. We have so so so much to be thankful for! Even writing this right now I'm getting a little teary thinking about how grateful I am for all the wonderful people in my life.

I realize this is really long, but I just needed to write it all out for some reason.

So, I would like to blog more. I just need to start adding it to my to do list. Cause we all know that gets done... not.

Stephen and Zach

So when Stephen carries Leland around in the baby bjorn, he gets some strange looks. We think it's because people think he's trying to be like Zach Galifianakis. It does't help that he's been wearing my sun glasses because he can't find a pair that he likes.