Thursday, September 29, 2011

27 week baby bump

hubby and i went out for a fun little photo shoot yesterday :)
we are celebrating 27 weeks w/ out little baby bump, and can hardly wait to hold her in our arms!!!
she's the size of a cauliflower this week...










as you can tell, fall has come in full force up here!!! kinda of a shock when i came back lol :)
but absolutely beautiful!!!

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

DONUTS!!!!

This past Saturday, Sue Hochstedler gave me the opportunity to make donuts w/ her and sell them at a bake sale. I was sooooo excited! I love making donuts, but in my small kitchen i could never make enough for a bake sale. Sue designed her kitchen around making donuts, and it was amazing! I had so much fun :)

I somehow convinced my good friend Diana to help out with this whole process...little did she know what she was getting into!!! To begin with, neither her nor i are morning persons, and when I told her that we needed to be over at Sue's house at 4 am to start making donuts, i almost lost her...but after some pleading, and telling her how much i REALLY needed her, she agreed...under the condition that she could spend the night at my house the night before, therefore eliminating the need for her to boat from her island to Red Lake in the middle of the night. :)

We made around 50 dozen donuts that morning...and sold them all in about 2 hrs. :)

mmmmm... :)

Sue, rollling and cutting...she was def. the expert of the bunch...the rest of us had fat donuts and thin donuts and lopsided donuts...her's were pretty much all picture perfect :) i guess that's what comes w/ making hundreds of dozens of donuts in a lifetime!

Diana was our glazer :) and she did an amazing job! couldn't have done it w/out her...though i don't think she will be volunteering again anytime too soon ;)

Sue also invited a friend, Lisa, to help :) She and i did most of the frying.

Sue's husband made these racks for drying the glazed donuts. After glazing them, Diana would put them on dow rods, and then stick them on the racks to dry.




we filled quite a few racks :)

I completely forgot to take pictures of the farmer's market where we sold the donuts :(
Maybe next time!!!!! ;)
Thank you so much Sue for your patience with us as we learned, and for the opportunity to learn! You were a great teacher :)

Friday, September 23, 2011

ohio + virginia

BEFORE going to mexico....

my hubby and i spent some time w/some good friends in columbus, OH. most of us met back in 2004 at rosedale bible college...we've been getting together ever since :)
our little reunion was over labor day weekend. it was a good time of hanging out, catching up, and just relaxing :)

unfortunately, i did a horrible job of taking pictures...thankfully, jess did :) so the following pictures are compliments of her :)

the girls: Jessica Yutzy, Allyah Miller, me :), Melinda Geiser, and Sabrina Kauffman

so fun getting to be pregnant right along side of one of my best friends!!!
she is 32 weeks in this picture, and i'm 24 weeks...only 8 weeks apart :) can't wait for our little munchkins to meet!!!

we rarely go out to eat when we get together...much more fun to make the food ourselves :)

Zach manning the grill :)

the women making pizza in the kitchen...2 of us barefoot and pregnant ;)

delish!!!!

sitting down to enjoy the fruits of our labor...or actually, the fruit of zach and allyah's labor...they made an amazing hot breakfast for us one morning!!! - scrambled eggs, bacon, coffee cake, zucchini bread, fruit, bagels, coffee, etc ;)

thanx to each of you who took the time to make our little group a priority!!! we had such a good weekend w/ you all!!!!


now, AFTER mexico....

hubby and i split ways. he headed back to red lake, and i spent some time in both indiana and virginia :) :) :)

i stayed w/ my friend amber in indiana for a few days, and then 5 of us piled into her husband's truck for the 12 hr. drive to va....a little crammed, but we made it!!!!

the main event was my cousin hannah's wedding. it was gorgeous!!!!

i snapped a few pictures:

cute wedding programs :)

caramel apples on the tables :)

my little 1st and a half cousin, ashton, who kept peeking over his shoulder at me during the wedding

as their unity symbol, mike and hannah lit a hot air balloon and let it go :)

a few more being let go after theirs...

once again, i did not do the best at getting pictures, so the rest of these wedding pictures are from Hope's blog ... a sister-in-law to the bride (and a very good photographer i might add!)

the ceremony and the reception were held outside, down by the river, under a big white tent

guest book - loved the rustic burlap accents!!!

the wedding party

gorgeous bridesmaids!!!! - my lovely sister is 3rd from the right :)

the happy happy happy couple :)

the best part about my week after mexico, was getting to spend time w/ my beyond amazing family!!!! it was so so good to spend time w/ them :) being away from them this past year has really been hard, but has definitely made me appreciate and love them all the more!


all of us spending time together out in the living room after an amazing brunch :) mom is so good at making sure we have good, quality family time :)

everyone was there except my hubby :( - Dad and Mom, me, Christian, Benjamin and his fiance Melissa, Rebecca and her boyfriend Abe, and Autumn and her boyfriend Jesse...o yes, and a cousin and his fiance - Timothy and Diana

such good memories and times!!!!

one morning i got to go out to breakfast with the "fearsome foursome" :)
we've been friends since little up, and every year we try to take a trip together...we weren't able to this year as we are scattered all over the place (canada, indiana, nevada, and virginia), but at least we got to do breakfast!!!!

amber and i

andrea, her sweet little ava, and sheri

i also swung by the Shenandoah Heritage Farmer's Market, where some of my favorite people work :)
my cousin joy, my sister autumn, the best grammy ever!, me, and my aunt brenda - also melissa (my soon to be sister-in-law!) who was taking the picture and is therefore not in it :(

these last few photos are compliments of mom:
me, rebecca, and abe

in order to be a part of the Cline family, you MUST like our Cline apple butter...actually, you must love it ;) -- in this picture we are making sure that melissa, jesse, and abe make the cut!

and, fyi, the best way to eat our amazing apple butter is on a Town House cracker with peanut butter, topped w/ a big spoonful of apple butter :)

and lastly, two pictures from our Cline family get-together on Sunday afternoon:
all of the cousins minus Steven

and the "potentials" ;)

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

babymoon!!!!

I have the sweetest husband :)
September is the last month i can travel before our little "bump" arrives...so my hubby took me on a babymoon!!!
We had so much fun together :) It was awesome getting to spend an entire week w/ my favorite person in the world, no interuptions!

Our destination was the Maya Riviera, Mexico.


We stayed at an all-inclusive resort, and each day the cleaning ladies left funny little towel creatures on our bed...some were cute...some were kind of scary lol






We spent most of our time at the resort...though we did venture out a few times :)
Everything was so pretty :)

spending time out in the sun...



there were several pools as well as the ocean to choose from :)


walking from the main lobby towards the pools/ocean

main lobby at night

a very cool ceiling :)

each night the resort we stayed at put on a show. our favorite was called "cirque del sol" which was an acrobatic performance.


while the buffet food at the resort was nothing spectacular, the nights that we were able to eat a la carte were a blast!


this particular evening we ate at an outdoor restaurant w/ a beautiful view of the beach in the background :)





another restaurant we really enjoyed was called "la creperie." it was a dessert and coffee cafe. they served all different kinds of crepes, ice cream, milkshakes, and coffees. it was open every evening from 5-11.
one of our favorite parts of the trip was just sitting outside at this restaurant, enjoying the warm night air, and chatting while eating dessert and sipping on coffee :)

mmmmm :)

one day we booked and excursion to some ancient ruins known as Tulum and to a natural water park called Xel-Ha.

the day started out kind of rainy...

but that didn't dampen our spirits!!!
and it didn't take long for things to warm right up :)

some of the ancient ruins at Tulum:


Tulum boarders the ocean w/ a beautiful view!!! We took the opportunity to get some baby bump picures :)


24 weeks, 5 days :)

after seeing the ruins, it was time for the water park!!!! the best part was the snorkelling :)


there was a river that you could just float down and see all kinds of colorful fish :) it took about an hour to get down the river.

the rest of the time we checked out the nature trails and the animals :)




and then, before we knew it, the week was over :(

parting shots at the Cancun airport...