Wedding Video

HEY EVERYONE!!!!

Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the new year! Great news! We got our wedding video back from our videographer! Thanks to Mike Neerhof (friend from college) we have a WONDERFUL wedding video! He did a wonderful job and we are very happy with how it turned out!!!! Mike also has one of these BLOGSPOT pages, so he has posted a couple of the sections from the wedding on his page! Check out:

http://mikeneerhof.blogspot.com/

Besides that, this weekend has been calm and relaxing.... quite enjoyable! Some sort of a calm before the storm of a busy upcoming week! Painting the living room and hallway, shooting a wedding on Saturday and Matt being out of town 1/2 of the week again in Rockford!

Rockin' out in Rockford

Well, since Sunday night, Matt has been in Rockford for work. Buckeye has taken over another line and Matt was in charge of going over to the Rockford location to be there for any questions.

Since I usually have Wednesdays off, I decided go up for 1.5 days to see him.... but that was with Matt putting the thought into my head that I could actually go see him and not have to be at home all by myself without him. SOOOOO... Tuesday afternoon, I drove over to Rockford and be with him for the night! And the first thing he shows me are THESE:

These are wonderful OLD SCHOOL (just out of the package) safety glasses he found at the Argo office. I just had to take a picture of him with 'em on. It's just so funny! They actually just look like really old glasses that might have been for a prescription, but they really aren't!!
We went and saw "Four Christmases" with Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn. I didn't hear that great of things about it, but I still really wanted to see it! And actually, I liked it. All the funny parts WEREN'T just in the commercials and I laughed quite a lot! =) After that, we went to the MACHINE SHED restuarant. It is a place that is "dedicated to the American farmer" (or something like that.. i thought that's what i read!). But it was good homecooked type meals with bread and all the fixin's. The bread was so good and my chicken just melted in my mouth! If you are ever in the Rockford area (or Iowa too I think), I think it is a good family resturant to check out! http://www.machineshed.com/. Then today, I was able to actually see Matt again, because when I called him in the morning, he was stuck at the Ford Dealership getting his truck worked on. So I got to spend just a little more time with my hubby before leaving Rockford.
I miss all of my friends. I will say that it is not as easy to get together with all of them as it used to be. Whether it's because I live a little farther away now, or because we are all just getting busier with other things that are coming into our lives. I just pray that we will always have time to see each other and keep those friendships going no matter what happens in our lives.
Matt and I are both realizing that we need to get back on the routine of working out and eating better. With both of us loosing a pretty substantial amount of weight each awhile ago, we know how important it is try to stay healthy and fit. Of course, since we both haven't worked out since the wedding, we are starting to "feel the burn" of working out again!
Hope all of you are doing well!
Jenni

A New Beginning - 2009

HAPPY NEW YEAR 

EVERYONE!

We hope everyone had a safe & good New Years Eve night.

  

I can't believe that 2008 is gone and it's already 2009.  2008 was a great year for us (I'm assuming Matt feels the same way! haha).  We had the greatest day of our lives when we got married and we were able to go on a AMAZING honeymoon to Hawaii and plus many more things! And we just pray that 2009 will be just as exciting, hopefully with many more happy moments! Only the Lord knows what the new year will bring and we just pray that His will be done in our lives and that we will honor and glorify Him in all that we do!

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This past week & weekend have been very busy for us.  For New Years Eve we went to my cousin Katie's reception in Lansing.  It was a nice night and good to see all the family again!  Here are a couple photos from our evening:

About 10:30 we left the reception, we both were pretty tired and I had been/still am fighting a cold, so that just kind of drained me. But what GREAT FOOD! (I definitely want to go back to Benchwarmers to try out their menu food!) And surprise, surprise, Matt was sleeping before midnight even came around.  We got home about 11:15 and he was out by 11:32.....  so, I woke it him up to kiss him at 12:03 and I was sleeping by 12:10ish!  What a fun & memorable way to celebrate our first NEW YEARS together! Haha..... =) 

Then on Thursday we watched the Blackhawks Winter 

Classic game of course!!  Nicholas and Rachele came over to watch it with us.  It was great to watch, but sucks that the Hawks lost though.  Then in the evening we got to watch our nephew Ian for a little while while Rich and Amy went out for their anniversary! (HAPPY ANNIVERSARY GUYS!!) It was great to play with Ian.  He truly is a smart kid and loves to be with his uncle Matt!  We played the game MEMORY, which I absolutely LOVE. I'm so glad we gave that to him for Christmas.  It is a game I actually like to play!   

Then Friday just continued the joy of playing kid games and also added crafts to that!  Friday, we had Cassidy & Madison come and sleep over.  We did crafts, ones that I had given to them for Christmas (Messenger Bag & Stickers) and they also decorated picture frames for not only themselves, but also Mikayla & Lydia!!!  It was the first time we had any nieces or nephews sleep over.  I will say, I was a little nervous (partly had to do with cassidy having a cold and coughing)..... but it was all good... I slept most of the night (due to the fact of not only being nervous, but also, I was coughing myself!)!

Saturday was busy too!  Keith and Trish came to pick up the girls in the morning and were able to see our house for the first time!!!!  But then later on in the afternoon, we did a lot of errands before we met Brett & Amanda for dinner! =)   We went to Sams Club first, which I still think this is funny...... as we were pulling out of Sams Club.... Matt turns to me..... and said something along the lines of "it never ceases to amaze me, we can go into Sams with a list of 4 things we need to get, but we end up coming out of there spending almost $200".... and that is SOOOOO TRUE!!  It's hard to keep a ONE TRACKED MIND in Sams Club!!!  Haha..... but we also bought paint for the living room so that when Matt is out of town next week, my mom and I are able to paint that room and check that off the list of things to decorate! haha!

Sunday we had the pleasure of going over to Nathan and Leah's house for lunch!  It is always a good time when we go over there!  Nathan and Leah together are just a very hospitable couple and their girls are just so cute and loving!  I just love playing with them (and they do love to play with me it seems!).  Then that evening Matt left for Rockford for the week.  I'll miss him, but it seems like I'm staying busy enough to not get caught up in that he is gone!!!!  And the next week, he will be gone too, so hopefully painting and other things will keep me busy next week too!

As for wedding photos... if there are any of you that know that you took a photo in the photobooth and would like to have a digital file of it... just email me.  I have a CD of all the photos and can just email 'em to you!

Matt specifically asked for me to put this picture on our blog! This was one of his Christmas presents. A fathead of the Cubs logo to go in our "cubbie blue" office. He seems pretty excited about it!  And actually, I like it, but I don't love it. It's not exactly what I pictured my head for the office to look like, but it is a shared office, so i can't have my way with all of it! =)

Besides that... we are just winding down the big Christmas weekend. It was a long and fun weekend filled with presents, family, food, food, more food, food and even MORE food... plus a little bit of  work (yes, matt got called into work on Christmas Day/Night). But it was great to have extra time with Matt, bake some cookies and just get some stuff done around the house.

Hope you all had a great Christmas and that you have a wonderful New Year's Eve!

Christmas Gatherings

Just some photos of our Holiday Season so far:

BIG NEWS!

BIG NEWS!!! (again, no we are not pregnant)

but a lot of NEW & EXCITING things have happened in the last week for matt and i. (well,

expensive things really.... but they are still fun!)

we got new furniture last week saturday and it got delivered on Wednesday. we had only gone to one store before we found this one (which i didn't expect at all!). 

We found it at Turk Furniture while they were having moving sale.... so what we saw is what we got and what i saw was exactly what i had been looking for.  Kinda modern, but functional. Matt's only request really when picking out the couches was that one part of it had to recline if he was going to have to get rid of his lazy boy.... so he got his request... actually 4 seats on it recline!  Well, when we got it, we realized that it takes up a lot more space in the living room than we had thought, but once the christmas tree comes down, I think it will feel at least a little more spacious! We will be able to move the tv around hopefully and maybe Matt could make some bookshelves for me! =)  But the next immediate (after Christmas) project is... PAINTING!

and, ANOTHER NEW thing that we bought was a new car!  Yes, the Cadillac is gone.  Sad to say. I did like the car, but it's just not fun to drive in the ice and snow.  So, we said good-bye to the caddy and bought an "as close as you can get to a mini-van vehicle, but not a mini-van" FORD EDGE!  It's a cross-over and it's pretty sweet!  I enjoy driving it a lot!   

* bye bye caddy =( *

hello "LIVING ON THE EDGE!" haha.... 2008 Ford Edge (used)

(sorry it is a stock image.... haven't taken a photo of it in real life yet)

We hope everyone's Christmas season is going well. Last weekend was a little bit busy, and this coming weekend will be even busier!  We have b'day party on Friday night, Saturday night Derks Christmas Party, Sunday our immediate Hoekstra Christmas Party. It's just crazy!

normal life is setting in... and christmas is coming!!

well, normal life is finally setting in...

i have been keeping busy with business stuff til weeeee hours of the night, cleaning/ maintaining/laundry chores are part of the daily/weekly routine, and matt now has church stuff to take care of and is back into his normal routine of falling asleep in his chair at night.  it's what i've always dreamed of and i love everything about it. we are getting into the routine of our days and the schedules that go with them.

and the holidays are coming! (including some b'days!!!)

i can't believe it... thanksgiving has come and gone and christmas is fastly approaching!

for thanksgiving we were at matt's sister amy's house... good food, good company, some games and a small nap made a wonderful day! and now, this weekend we start with a b'day celebration for esther and i and then the next weekend, the craziness of christmas parties start.  we have the extended stouwie party on the 13th and is always a good time with the house filled with loud laughs and children running around.  then the weekend before christmas is the hoekstra b'day party for amy, rich and i, then the derks party, and then the hoekstra christmas. christmas eve is a party at church with the hoekstra extended family and then we end up with christmas day at the derks party at my mom's house. 

and how much shopping have i got done for christmas?? not even a 1/4 of it..... sheesh... i feel really behind! but it will all come together soon... the day that i'm supposed to have off every week to work on business stuff is now filling up with shopping and getting ready for the holiday parties... but oh well.... i'm thankful to have those days off! =)