The last few days

The last few days have been exciting and busy and it's only Christmas Eve! As I write this we are sitting at my parent's, have successfully unwarpped oodles of presents and are watching Mama Mia. Now, for a bit of a recap on the last few days.

Friday, December 19

Last Friday night was my company Christmas party. We had a really good time celebrating at Railside Golf and Country Club in Gibson City. Trever got to meet all of my co-workers and he enjoyed the open bar. We came away with a gift card to Red Lobster! Yummy!

Saturday, December 20

Saturday started out like any relaxing weekend should be. Then, after I got out of the shower and before I got my hair done, the electricity went out. We still headed to Kankakee to pick out my Christmas present. We used our Red Lobster gift card, did a little shopping and then headed home to rig up the generator. We made ourselves look presentable and headed to the Red Door. Little did our friend Nicole know that her life was about to get very interesting. Her boyfriend Kevin had a plan to propose and surprise her with a surprise birthday and engagment party. She was definately surprised and we are excited for their upcoming 2009 wedding.

Sunday, December 21

We headed to LeRoy to celebrate with the Builta's. Since part of the family feels the need to head south for the holidays, this was the only time the majority of the family could get together. For the second year we did a white elephant exchange. I ended up with some soda and beer nuts and Trever came home with a video and some candy.

Monday, December 22

I had my second doctors appointment. It was pretty uneventful, but I got to hear the heartbeat again. It was approximately 160 beats per minute and according to an old wives tale that means this little monster is going to be a girl! We'll wait and see in a few more weeks.

Tuesday, December 23

The last day of work for a few days and I had a little Christmas lunch with my coworkers. It rained and froze most of the day. After work and a quick haircut I headed to the in-laws for another Christmas. It took Kyla, Ron and Caisey about 8 hours to make the typical 5 hour trip back to Illinois. Icy roads and lots of accidents kept them to a creep all the way back. A quick round of showers, some yummy snacks and the unwrapping began. We decided to pass on a slumber party at the Kuipers' and headed back home. The usually routine 25 minute drive took about an hour on the ice covered roads.

Christmas Eve

And now we are at my parent's house. We got here around 11:30, ate some yummy steak and pork chops and unwrapped gifts with my family. Again, lots of goodies for everyone. We're getting ready to head back to Grandma Builta's house for some soup and cheese ball for our annual Christmas Eve dinner. Then, hopefully it's off to Christmas Eve service in Onarga at 11.

Tommorow we're off to Grandma Ficklin's, Friday is a lunch date with Ria, cleaning hous and dinner with Grandpa Kuipers. Then Saturday it's a baby shower for Kyla and Christmas with the extended Ficklin family. It wears me out just thinking about it! :)

*Note...the above pictures are courtesy of my Christmas present from Trever! Yeah for my new Nikon D60 camera! Yup...the same one Ashton Kutcher advertises for!

The word is out!

We're having a baby! We've been anxious to share our news for quite some time but wanted to wait until the time was right to make the announcement.

We actually found out October 12th but had to wait until November 10th to confirm it with the doctor. After a couple of cancelled appointments and playing phone tag with the doctor's office, we finally got to hear a nice strong heartbeat on November 26th. Just in time to share the news with our family on Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving morning we headed toward LeRoy a little early to make the announcement to my parents. We gave them a "Thanksgiving card" that was actually a special invitation to meet us at Gibson Area Hospital on ~June 18, 2009 to meet their new grandbaby.

We shared te news with the rest of the Builta's at lunch that day. However, I don't think it really hit them until after we had left. Then Kirk started text messaging me with lots of off the wall name options.

We made an early exit from Grandma's house so that we could make it to Greg & Kathy's before Trever's grandparent's left. We made it and shared our invitation with them as well.

Today we are at 12 weeks and 5 days. Just a couple of more days and I'll be out of the first tri-mester. Overall I think things have been going fairly well. Trever can't understand how I can sleep for 11-12 hours a night and still be tired the next day. Besides being tired ALL THE TIME, I've felt pretty good. I head back to the doctor's on December 22nd for a routine appointment.

We look forward to more updates as the pregnancy progresses, so stay tuned!

Football!

Once again this year we have season tickets for Illinois football. I'm not so in to the games, but I do enjoy spending time with our friends at the games. Two weeks ago we had a night game against Indiana. I love night games!

Before the game we tailgated with my parents. Here is the core football group...minus Josh and Maggie.

Since there were 2 extra tickets in our group, we invited Nicole, and her boyfriend Kevin, to join us. Nicole and Trever have been great friends since grade school.

This is Kevin with Nicole. They were pretty cool tailgating buddies since they took us to tailgate with Illini football player Michael Hoomanawanui and his family after the game.

These are our regular football friends. Ryan and Amy Rademaker...

and Marla and John Todd.

And of course Trever and me!

One of these days I'll get back in to the swing of using my camera more. But the more pictures I take the farther behind my scrapbook gets!

What's new?

We have been keeping ourselves very busy lately. Harvest is nearly over here in Piper City. I may have to work a little bit this weekend but that is still up in the air.

Rally got his cast off this week. He is doing much better but still tends to favor his bum leg a little bit. He has one more appointment next week with Dr. Haag for a little minor surgery.

Tomorrow we have nearly a full day to sleep in and get work done at home. Then we are heading to Champaign to watch an Illini night game! I love night games! And, it's almost football weather too!

We've got some busy weeks coming up too! We're starting a bible study in a couple of weeks, have a couple of more football games, an At Home America party, progressive dinner and hopefully a little time to keep the house clean!

Another new addition

On Thursday Trever made his weekly trip to the vet for work, but little did he know he was about to fall in love with this adorable young blonde. "Rally" is a stray dog that had been brought to the vet after having gotten his leg injured. We are assuming he is approximately 5-6 months old, and appears to have a lot of lab influence. He is very smart and full of energy. Even though his leg is in a cast, he still plays hard.

We are excited to be able to provide a new home for Rally, although the barn cats are not quite as enthusiastic.
We brought him home tonight (Tuesday) and his Grandparents (Greg and Kathy) got to meet him already. Check back for more updates as Rally transitions into his new home!

Finally!

Hey there faithful readers! Trever has been after me to post for a while, but I couldn't get my pictures off the camera. So, here is a pictoral update of what's going on with us.


The first of the cows finally made their way to rural Chatsworth. We have Queen, Delila and Dori. Queen is the mom to both Delila (2007) and Dori (2008). I'm slowly working on conquering my fear and have spent a few nights working with Dori who was born in June. Trever has been working with Delila and I helped him blow her out the other night. Last night we turned the girls out in the big pasture and they LOVED it! This is Queen checking me out!







We were very excited to get one of our wedding gifts Labor Day weekend. Our stone came all the way from Kansas and looks awesome! We've got it decorated with some mums and pumpkins now so it looks even better!

Friday night I took 3 girls to the Taylor Swift and Rascal Flatts concert at the Peoria Civic Center. It was a great concert! These were my dates, Taylor, Lauren & Kara.

Taylor Swift was awesome!

And Rascal Flatts put on a really good show too!

In other news:

• We watched the first Illini win of the season with some really great friends.
• We traveled to Indy for the wedding of Kae & Nick. It was a blast and I got some great deals at the mall the next day.
• I'm anxiously awaiting harvest and the busy days that I've been warned about all summer. Although a little rain storm just went through so I'm guessing it will be a few more days.
• We refinanced our house for 20 years. We'll be saving ourselves $69,000!!!
• I had a good time yesterd with Marla and Jeremiah at the outlet mall.
• We got to meet another new arrival last night. Delaney Nekolny is the daughter of my sorority sister, and Trever's high school friend, Darcy.

Thank you!

Thank you for coming back to our blog even though the updates are few and far between. Our days have not had a lot of newsworthy excitement in them lately. We have been working around the house, inside and out, gathering with friends and family and simply enjoying each other's company.

The fence is nearly complete! Trever has put lots of hours in to fencing in our yard for his beloved black bovine. He has only two posts to go and about 1000 feet of wire to aquire and we will be ready for the cows to come live at our house.

While he builds fence I've been "landscaping". That means I've been pulling mass quantities of weeds, the occassional shrub and rounduping what's left. We spread some mulch and it's just about ready for some plants. I have 5 mums coming from the Tri-Point FFA any day now!

Our boys, Jaspurr and Jarvik, are still enjoying the adventures of the yard. However, Jaspurr has slowed down a bit. We're not sure what happened to him but he is only walking on 3 legs and cries when Dr. Trever touches his rather swollen fourth leg. We new he was going to learn his lesson about the highway sooner or later!

We can't believe how quickly the summer flew by. We've been married almost 3 months already! We're looking forward to what the fall brings (my favorite season)!

Have you missed us?

We've been keeping ourselves plenty busy since the last post on our blog, but we've been keeping a pretty low profile as well. Since we last talked, I've started a new job, gone camping with friends, built fence, added another cat to our herd, welcomed baby Owen in to the world, and are heading to the State Fair for a couple of days. So, if you care what we've been up to, here is a bit of a recap!

• On July 16, I started me ne job with Precision Soya. So far things are going great and I'm enjoying the people I work with. I spent my first few days inspecting bean fields for flower color, maturity and population. Now I spend most of my time at the computer trying to learn the tricks of the trade before harvest season hits.
• The following weekend we visited the Iroquois County Fair and I had the chance to meet up with my LeRoy friends before they headed off on some life changing journeys. Joey headed off for some very extensive Deep Brain Stimulation surgery in Cleveland and Jessie is getting ready to head to Colorado to begin her work in a church out there.
• We made another trip to the lake...this time with the Voelkers!
• My dad had a little bit of surgery and is well on his way to recovery.
• We spent 3 days with some of Trever's friends on our 2nd float trip. We had a great time with them despite the water in our tents!
• We added another kitten to our barn. This one was ready to make a trip to his new owners when the vet found out he had a heart murmur. So, Trever brought him home and I named him Jarvik (after the maker of the artificial heart).
• We had lunch with Kyla and Ron on their way through Champaign last weekend. We are very excited that they will be making us an aunt and uncle in 2009!
• Last night we got to meet the newest addition to our group of friends. Owen Samuel is the son of Josh and Maggie St. Peters and was born just about a week ago. We enjoyed spending time with them and it was the first time Trever had held a baby that was that little!
• Tomorrow we are off to the Illinois State Fair. This is one of Trever's favorite trips that we take since we get to see many people that we both know! If you're their keep an eye out for us somewhere between the junior cattle ring, the open swine barn and the beer tent!

New Job!

Today is my last day with the Ford County Soil and Water Conservation District. I will be starting tomorrow morning as the Assistant Field Service Manager for Precision Soya in Piper City. I am excited for the change and look forward to the 3 mile drive to work!

Besides changing jobs, we seem to be keeping busy. Last weekend we enjoyed German food with friends, a wedding and a baby shower. The next two weekends are full as well and we hope to have lots of pictures to share soon!

Jaspurr

A week or so ago Trever came home and told me there was a present in the barn for me, I could see it right away, or I could wait until dinner was over. I knew it wasn't a cow because the fence wasn't finished. It could have been more fence posts or something cow related that he passed off as a gift to me. But instead, this is what I found...

His name is Jaspurr Stubby Kuipers. He's a silver F5 Savannah and as playful as can be! Most of the pictures I took of him are closeups since he wants to be in my face ALL THE TIME!

He's extremely playful and loves to climb. And occassionally he enjoys a good bite. He helped us test the fence last week too.

And he's missing his tail (hence the middle name Stubby). He was born without it making him a little less than desireable to those high rollers that are looking for an expensive pet. But so far he is making a darn good barn cat!

up...uP...UP...and down you go

Last Saturday we went to Kenneth & Kathi's lake house at Lake Mattoon. It was our first trip this summer and we hope to squeeze in one more before football season.

Trever is not much of a water person, but he is in to trying new things. So, this weekend he decided he was going to attempt skiing. After some very detailed lessons from the pro skiier (aka Kara) he hopped in the water.

But he couldn't quite keep his skiis in the right place.

And while his time on top of the water was minimal, he did learn a couple of things. Like when we said "when you fall, let go of the rope" we meant let go of the rope!!!

They're back!

The professional pictures are back up and running. Check them out at www.photographybymisty.net click on contacts and then see you photos.

Why every kid should have video games

because when a 26 year old man gets his butt kicked at 3 different Nintendo games... by his WIFE...repeatedly...he gets a bit of a complex!

Share your wedding pictures

It's been a while since I've updated on the wedding festivities. I've been trying to get pictures organized to share. I've decided to give Snapfish a try. You can get prints for just 9 cents each. I've set up a group room where anyone can go to see our wedding/honeymoon/bridal shower pictures as well as add their own. I'm not sure how well it will work, but give this a try!

I think you will need to sign in. If you have problems, let me know.

treverandkristaswedding.snapfish.com/snapfish

Pictures

For those of you who have been waiting so patiently, the wedding pictures are up! However, they haven't been working so well this morning so you may need to be patient a while longer. You can check them out by going to www.photographybymisty.net then clicking on contacts at the bottom of the page. Then click on See your Photos and Trever and Krista.

Enjoy!

A photo recap - up through the wedding

Members of the bridal party start practicing for the reception at the rehearsal dinner.

Trever and Graham try to figure out how to pick on me...thankfully I was wearing a dress so they were nice.

Trever, Graham and Krista.

Emily and Erin

A gift from Amy and Ryan, signed by our wedding party.

Waiting for the wedding to begin.

Kathy helps Grandpa Kuipers get spiffed up!

Trever and Grandma Ficklin

The last sandwhich and it had my name written all over it!

Graysen waiting for her job to begin.

Graham and his pretty pink flower!

Trever and I with the Voelker kids.

Graysen lighting the candles before the ceremony with Uncle Russ watching intently from the choir loft.

Kirk seating mom.

Kara, the maid-of-honor.

Me and my daddy.

Graham passing out whizzers as we exit the church.

The limo ride!

While we were taking pictures at the farm, apparently Amy and Ryan got their picture taken toon!

Have I mentioned that my dressed weighed a ton and it was hot under there!?! The breeze felt GREAT on my legs!

Josh and Maggie St. Peters in the limo.

We made a stop for more Champagne on our way to the reception.