Time to reflect

As I sit outside watching Matt grill pork-chops and Mason stuff his face with Cheerios handfuls at a time. The leaves are slightly blowing and cars are passing by. 

I think about how thankful I am for many things in life that I truly take for granted.

It's disgusting how satan always tries to temp us. This morning in church they talked about how hard Sunday mornings are. Isn't that the truth. This morning we didn't want to get out of bed at 730 when usually I get up at 630. Then off the bat a small fight started. We got to church right at 830(which is late for me). The 2nd song we sang, Lord I Need You. We all need him all the time, every day.

I'm thankful for a relaxing weekend, family time at the orchard, for my husband to cook dinner so I can just relax even more and for the beautiful view of God's creation.

getaway experience

Bundled in sweaters

hands pulled in

ears so cold 

we wished we wore coats.

but...we sure did enjoy our getaway days in Duluth, MN.

Day One: 46 degrees in the rain.mist

we put on smiles.

enjoying the fall colors,

quality time with only 

the man I call "hubby"

Day Two: Beautiful 62 degrees 

 this was our view on our drive in from our hotel

beautiful.

if you're heading up North

stop here

simply delicious

to wrap up our final day.night

what a gorgeous view

Our Duluth experience was simply

beautiful.breathtaking.unforgettable.mesmerizing(hubby's word) 

take.me.back.

Lots of "first"

As many of you know we went to PA to visit family a few weeks ago. Mason had his FIRST plane ride and did amazing! They only time he cried was when we were landing in Atlanta for our 25 min "layover". I quote it because our plane was late getting in, the stroller wasn't ready, and we had to RUN to get to our next gate(down a long hallway, down an elevator, on a tram and to our next gate, our only breathing point was on the tram!)

A little glimpse of what it looked like when we arrived at my parents house. In case you aren't sure what the first picture is, it's a light switch. Yes very old house but it is homey feeling. My parents were so excited they got all these toys out for Mason to play with! 

I have been to PA almost every year since I was born however I wanted to check out some new things! I pinterest some ideas before we left and came across this beautiful park "Ohiopyle State Park" Little did we know that our first point I wanted to see was over a mile hike..if you know PA it's NOT flat! Everyone was drenched with sweat by the time we got done(sorry too much info??) It was well worth it && so beautiful!! 

The next day we went to my cousins pool, and this was Mason's FIRST time swimming! He loved it! It was also great to see my dad in the pool with him having fun! That really put a smile on my face!! 

Mason is ONE! Where has the year gone!!?? Seem's like just yesterday we were going in for our 41 week ultra sound! 

He woke up with balloons(thanks to Auntie Nola for the idea!) We then all had our FIRST train ride to go around Horseshoe Curve! He also had his FIRST piece of cake at Hoss's and then back home for a birthday party at Nana & Papa -- he had his FIRST Gob(I will include the ingredients at the bottom of the blog post!) So grateful to be with our PA family for his birthday! 

We woke up on 4th of July and wanted to take Mason to meet the family that wasn't going to be with us. It was very emotion for myself as I had never seen where my grandpa was laid to rest, I never got closure with my grandma as I didn't get to go to her funeral and my aunt's life was cut short unexpectedly just months before our wedding. But after Mason had got to see them I spent some time alone talking(more like crying) with them. I know they were listening and they are watching down every day on us. Watching our family grow and we will have so many stories to share with Mason(and our future kids) about them! :)

Then we went to the Blough Family Reunion! It was awesome to see a lot of the Blough family! It has been years since I have been to a reunion and Mason sure did enjoy the attention! 

My Grandpa Saylor's birthday is also on the 4th so we celebrated that and then went to the fireworks in Johnstown! It was a great way to end our vacation! :)

Anniversary Weekend

What a weekend! Mason is ONE MONTH OLD!!!

My mom, Matt, Mason and I started the day off by meeting up with Aggie, a family friend, and had lunch at Perkins. After that we did a little bit of shopping until the Gniffke's got to the cities! Once they got there we met up at the Mall of America and went through the Mirror Maze, this was a ton of fun!!

Then we went to Dave and Busters, it was so much fun to see the kids enjoy a new place! They loved all the games, I even got into a basketball contest with Matt, TJ and then Heather, yes I did beat them all! We then took my mom to the bus stop as she went back to Pennsylvania. 

After we met the Gniffke's at the "Hotel" that Heather booked on priceline. This Hotel wasn't a very nice one.  We didn't put our stuff on the floor it was so gross, here are some texts from Heather and  I! 

When we woke up in the morning, Matt and I have been married for ONE YEAR!!! I couldn't have asked for a better year!!! I have one of the most amazing husbands anyone could ask for. I don't think there has been ONE time when he has got MAD at me, he is always doing anything he can to make me happy, and we now have a one month old baby! He is one of the most amazing dads too! You can just see the love he has for Mason by the look in his eyes! 

We went and had breakfast and then us girls got ready, while the boys packed the rooms! 

Then we went shopping a little, made a stop at Chilli's and were quick of to our FIRST twins game at the new Target Center! Not to mention Mason's first twins game!  

 Mason's 1st Game 

We ended the night by going to my favorite restaurant, Olive Garden. What an amazing weekend! I couldn't have asked to spend it any other way! 

Matt's 1st Father's Day

Even though baby Speiser isn't here yet, Matt is already an amazing daddy. However, it's not fun being tight on money when holidays or special occasions come around. Thanks to pinterest I made him two gifts he really likes for under $10 dollars($9.97 to be exact!)

Dollar Store: $5.35 for the blue bucket, glass jar, and 3 packages of reese's pieces.

Treasured Times: $4.62 for the ribbon, paper(for the puzzle pieces and letters) and using their cricut machine.

I thought the idea of "Daddy, we love you to pieces" was super cute and he loves chocolate so it was great! And the Patriots bucket is for drinks this summer for around the campfire or even just sitting outside! 

Even the smallest gifts mean the most to someone!

Gender Reveal Party!

A special thank you to everyone that came to our gender reveal party! Big thank you to Brianna & Megan for throwing the party for us! It was so fun to finally be able to tell everyone what we are having!! 

It's a BOY!! 

Where: Wooden Nickel

When: February 17, 2013

Time: 2pm

Guest: Brianna, Megan, Nicole, Codie, Aubrey, Lory Jo, Ryan, Kristina, Karen, Gary, Jayni, Macey, Aiden, Tiffany, Brett, Ashley, Craig, Julie, Ron, Crystal, Carrie, Anthony, Kathy, Steve, Lowell, Lila, Hannah, Chelsea, Josie, Casen, Heather, TJ

Circle Your Prayers

Yesterday in church, Pastor Grant told us to "Circle your life in prayer for God to Change" - they started to do this at the beginning of the month but I was either at children's church, or at Matt's parents - the goal was to write things down that you wanted God to change in your life and to watch throughout the month God work miracles. So I have wrote a couple down:

~ Cope with wedding - I pray that God can help me cope with how our wedding went and just be happy about it. Not be sad or mad about things that didn't happen. It has been 5 1/2 months and I still cry almost daily about things. This is a big topic at my next therapy session since we are getting the "bigger" things under control now.

~ Figure out daycare - I just pray that God will show me a way and answer about if daycare is my thing to do. In the past week I am believing God is working his ways. Will explain more at the end of the month!

~ Good/Healthy Pregnancy - I pray that my pregnancy will continue to be good and healthy. That our next appointment at the end of the month the baby will be healthy and growing good!

~ Family - Nothing hurts more then being torn in half between your own family, having to make decisions to make everyone happy. I just pray that God can mend our family back together. Matt and I are starting a family of our own and I just want nothing more then having our family back together.

~ Stress Free Month - I just pray God can ease my mind this month. That I not get worked up over little things or worry about money or anything that I just believe in him and trust in him. So far it's going good!

~ Emotions - I pray that I can keep my emotions under control. All my mind does is run run run...I just need a break sometimes. I cry over the littlest things and it's not even stress or fights it's just looking back into the past or little things said to me.

--I am so thankful for my therapist though. She really helps a lot and I am starting to do more things around the house to help Matt out. I really take him for granted some days. He does so much for me and my daycare. I just wish everyone could see how much he brutally does! --

New Years Eve

For New Years Eve we went to Brandon, SD with Tiffany and Brett! It was so much fun! We stayed at the Comfort Inn and then went to the casino. Brett forgot his ID in MN so Matt & I just went for a little bit! .. It was a blast and we walked out $199 ahead! Yahoo!!!

..Little Behind!

I am a little bit behind on updating! So here is *what I can remember* of what we did in December so far! I usually try to make notes in my phone or on Facebook, but sometimes I forget!! :)) I will try to update more often! I have a doctor appointment on Friday so I will update with heart beat and all that.

Dec 5: I met up with the Roesler's because Kaylee had surgery on her legs. It was the first time seeing them in 14 months. It was awesome being able to catch up and talk again! 

  Dec 6: At my last appointment my pap-smear was abnormal so they are doing test on Friday. Also at my last appointment the heart beat was 160! I'm thinking the baby is a girl, Matt is still saying boy! 

Dec 7: We went to Pizza Ranch for Peyton's 2nd Birthday Party! 

Dec 21-25: We went to the Gniffke's in Wood Lake for Christmas, thinking on Christmas Eve we would be going to the Speiser Christmas. We went to Duffy's for supper on Saturday. However, Sunday we woke up and Matt didn't feel good so we went to urgent care. Influenza and Strep came back negative but the doctor still diagnosed Matt with Influenza so here we are both home for 5 days no work. Doctor highly suggested I didn't have daycare open. 

Dec 24: NICOLE AND CODIE GOT ENGAGED!!!! We are so extremely excited for the both of them! We couldn't be any happier for them!!! They are awesome parents are so in love! 

NYC/PA

MATT AND I got to go to NYC for Thanksgiving! I am so thankful that he was able to come with! On our way to Omaha on Wed. night our car broke down in Sioux Falls. Thankfully God was watching over us and Tires Plus was a huge help and helped us out! We flew into Newark on Thursday(11/22) and my dad picked us up and brought us to my cousin Kay's house! We had Thanksgiving Dinner and just relaxed!! Friday we woke up and took the train(LIRR) into the city! We took a taxi to Rockefeller Center since Matt was not feeling the best. We first hit up Rockefeller Center to go to Top of the Rock. It was a beautiful site to see the skyline of NYC! After that we went to Grand Central Station-had to see it! Then we walked to the UN Building, Matt really liked this stop! We then went to Time Square because it was getting dark, it was awesome to see all the shops lite up! So pretty! Then we did the NBC Studios Tour which was a blast! We had an awesome day! Saturday we were going to go to the World Trade Center Memorial but Matt's fever got worse 103.1F. We tried to get him to go to urgent care but when we got there, there was quite a line and he didn't want to wait. So we started our 6hr drive to PA. 

Sunday we went to Grammy for the afternoon to watch football, take naps, and have a nice family dinner. After dinner we play the famous game of Dutch Blitz! It was so nice to be around family again! Monday we started our 6hr journey back to NJ stopping at Rita's in Belfonte and got to see the whole Purnell family! Monday we went to the mall to see dad at work and ate at The Cheesecake Factory after. It was very good. Tuesday we were suppose to fly out but our flight got cancelled so we had breakfast at IHOP then dad went to work so we just hung out and watched tv all day at the hotel! We then took him for supper at Longhorn Stakehouse. We were able to get on our flight on Wednesday morning and make the long drive home! We were in cars a lot! 

All in all it was a great vacation!

 Line up of taxis 

 Radio City at Rockefeller Center

 Matt & I at Top of the Rock

 Empire State Building!

 Ice Rink at Rockefeller Center

Rockefeller Center

Central Park

 Grand Central Station

 He was such a good sport!

 UN Building

 Outside of the UN Building

 The flags at the UN

 Time Square

 He is such an amazing husband!

Where the ball drops!