Happy New Year

Justin and I had lots of fun this last year and I'm really excited to try and top it this year!!! Before I start talking about plans for this upcoming year I want to look back on 2010.

We started off the New year as Newlyweds, how cute haha. We moved into an incredible house and both had fairly new jobs.  

In March I went down to visit my Grandma in Fort Meyers Beach, FL

Mid April was when we got Kaedo and what an adventure that has turned out to be.

A few weeks later we moved to Valentine, and that's exactly how it happened. We went back to Valentine for Easter or something and Rex asked Justin to work for him and then the next week were living in Valentine.

In May Marshall graduated from High School and I started working at the Prairie Club.

 

Then in June Marshall and I had a kick butt Birthday bash out at the ranch.

(THESE PICTURES ARE MISSING, IF YOU'VE SEEN THEM LET ME KNOW!! BECAUSE I CAN'T FIND THEM ANYWHERE!!)








And for Justin's birthday we were on our honeymoon down in Orlando, FL.

 

August was when we finally got to move into our new house in Valentine.

 

Labor Day weekend is when we had our housewarming party and my parents came out for a visit too.

In October we celebrated our 5 year anniversary by dinning out at the Prairie club.

November was when my job at the Prairie club ended (not for good, just for the season) and I went to visit my family in Ohio. Also it was my first time cooking Thanksgiving for my family and it turned out great.

December we got to spend time with pretty much all of our family and had a magical anniversary.

So that pretty much wraps up the year for us and so far 2011 is just as exciting and fun (but you'll have to wait for those stories, what fun would that be if I told you everything in one blog).


Plans for 2011
I asked Justin if he had a New Years resolution and he said it was to get in shape, yeah you and the rest of the world. Haha I know that's mean I just thought it was boring so then he told me his new one was to beat all of his video games. I laughed even harder because I told him he didn't have that much time in one year to do that. So I guess he is going to "tone up" and eat less candy this next year. But as for me my resolution is to take pictures with my new camera every day and keep my blog updated. Sometimes in my life I get so busy or I'm having so much fun that I forget to document it so that's why I made this my resolution. Other than that he is still loving working on the ranch and I'm looking forward to going back to the Prairie Club in the spring.

Hope everyone had a great Holiday Season,
Love Justin and Janelle


(apparently both Justin and I suck a resolutions, he still eats just as much candy and I've taken lots of pictures but no blogging)

Welcome Back

Sorry it has been so long since my last post, I've had a lot going on in my life to either A) distract me or B) prevent me from blogging. But a couple weeks ago Grandpa told me how much he liked reading my blog and then I remembered why I started this blog in the first place, to keep my family up to date in our busy crazy life. Sorry I was being selfish and lazy, it may not be everyday but maybe once a week I will post something.

I will start with some of my posts that I had made in Jan. before the computer stopped working. That is how this whole thing started in the first place, the computer was broken for a couple weeks and by the time Justin fixed it I had lost my routine.

So once again sorry, and hold on tight because Justin and I have a pretty exciting life these past few months!

Wedding Anniversary

Most of you that know Justin wouldn't think that he is very creative or romantic with dates and maybe that's what he wants you think. But I'm going to destroy that rumor because he did the most romantic thing this year for our wedding anniversary. First some back story, last year on the 26th of December we were stuck in Valentine and we were supposed to be in our honeymoon cabin but the power kept going out and we had no heat. So we drove into town around 11pm and got the honeymoon suite at the Dunes.

So flash forward to this year (Dec. 26th), before we left for Lincoln Justin turned off our heat in our house. As you can imagine our house was freezing!! At first I was ready to spend the night in our house because we have a heat mattress pad but when Justin suggested the honeymoon suite at the Dunes I had our bags packed before Justin could unload the car.
We did all of our anniversary stuff there at the hotel, we ate our cake and looked at wedding photos.

 Thank you Justin for a wonderful first year, I love you and I look forward to many more anniversaries to come.

A Very Merry Christmas

Justin and I had wonderful Christmas's this year, we got lots and lots of presents!!! I guess that's expected when you have 4 Christmas, haha. But seriously we had fun and relaxing holiday.




First we had a Christmas party with some of our friends here in Valentine.

 We had a White Elephant gift exchange, Justin got a giant Husker bear and I got sratch tickets and a giant Hershey kiss. We also got Red vs. Blue Season 1-5, Thanks Kris!!!!!!




 The next Christmas was down in Lincoln with mi familia. It was really fun, food was great and we went ice skating. We got lots of great presents as well!! My parents gave me a frog tea pot and this awesome hand painted picture of the Wizard of Oz. Justin got a Star Wars book, Black Opps and a giant Pez dispenser. Then I gave Justin 2 new shirts, another giant Pez dispenser and a new XBOX 360. Justin gave me a brand new awesome camera, I think it's a Canon rebel but I haven't read the instructions yet. I've been too excited!! Then we gave my parents tickets to the OSU vs. Huskers football game here in Lincoln, and hopefully we get to go with them!!!

 After Christmas in Lincoln we drove back to Valentine to have Christmas with Justin's parents. We played Family Feud on the Wii and that was a blast! That might be one to add to our collection, it is a great party game. We got way too many presents to list so I'll list our favorites. Mine was a step stool and Pier 1 gift card and Justin's was a Shield and tools.

Then last but not least we Christmas at Grandma's house, it was awesome because we got to see everyone, well except for Layne. I hope he shows up next year because Justin picked his name for presents. I got this super cool vest that T.J was extremely proud to pick out for me and I got a long sleeved shirt to go underneath of it. A whole new outfit, pretty exciting!!! Justin got a new movie, The Last Airbender and the game Boxers or Briefs. I've heard of the game but have never played it before it should be pretty funny.

The Gingies

A few weeks ago we made ginger bread houses at our Aunt's house and I'm just now getting around to posting the pictures...sorry.


Anyways everyone was competing to have the BEST house so we created categories so everyone could have the best house in their category. So I now present the Gingies Awards!!!


First category is "Most structurally sound"
And the award goes to...............................

Karen

 

Second category is "Fanciest Architecture"

And the winner is.....................................

 Janelle

Next we have 2 awards, "Most houses built and Most creative recovery"
And the winner is............................

Maike

Next category is "Best outside decorations"
And the award goes to...........................

 Gale

 Now we are to the "Most monumental" category
And the winner is..........................................

 Sara with the Washington Monument

 The next category we have is "Most times fixing a roof"
And the award goes to.............................

True

This next award is for "Most Redneck"
And the winner is.................................................

Justin

 The next category is "Tallest"
And the winners are........................................................

 James and Teeyl

 Now we have come to the "Barn yard" award
And the award goes to....................................................

 Marshall for his Chicken coop

 And last but not least we have the "Best inside decorations" award
And the winner is.........................................................................

 Grace

Well that's all the houses we have for today, thanks for joining us and be sure to tune in next year!!!!!!!

Remembering years past

Yesterday morning when I woke up, for some reason I started thinking about what I was doing this time last year. "It was almost wedding time", I thought to myself but then the more I thought on it the more I remembered.

Last year around this time this is what I was doing....

Decorating hundreds of cookies by hand, and yes I piped every single cookie myself

But besides wedding stuff I was quite busy in other areas of my life. I had just started a new job and was going through training classes. Training classes where I had to get certified, I thought a month full of training would be a breeze. Someone forgot to mention about all the state regulations and crap. Justin and I had also just moved into a new house. Now I can't remember why but for some reason or another I unpacked the whole house, before the wedding. Then you can't forget coming up almost every other weekend to Valentine to make sure things were ready up here. But we had the most beautiful wedding day and that's all that matters.

Now flash forward to this year, no training classes, kind of a new house but I didn't have to unpack everything this time and no wedding. I've actually had a wonderful holiday season (from Thanksgiving to New Years is the holiday season for me). I'm on winter vacation so what's not to love. 

Then for Christmas this year, first we are going to my parent's house for Christmas with them, then we'll come back to Valentine and have Christmas/ bday party with our cousin's. On the 30th we will have Ford Family Christmas out at Grandma's, (hopefully) go to Dodson's New Years eve party and then Christmas at Justin's parent's house. I know this seems like a lot, but it's spread out over 2 weeks so it won't be that bad. I'm looking forward to it, I love parties and being with family and so does Justin. I forgot to mention in there that we are celebrating our anniversary, but it's kinda a surprise for me so I'll have to tell you about it after it happens.

I wonder what we will be doing next year for Christmas......................................................

Maybe we'll go to Cali and spend the holiday with Kelsey and then for New Years go to Disneyland, that would be fun. Or spending Christmas at home then going to Florida for New Years in Disney World with my aunt and cousins. Once I'd like to go to one of those towns that is Christmas all year long, but on Christmas. Wait I know we could go to Ohio for Christmas then for New Years drive to New York for the time square thing, it's only about 4 or 5 hours from where my Grandma lives and that's like driving to Lincoln from Valentine. Oh the possibilities are endless, haha.

Online Christmas Shopping

This year because of the move to no where land, haha just kidding, I've had to do all and I mean ALLLL of my Christmas shopping online. I'll have to say it's kinda weird, in some ways good but I guess it's just different. It's one thing buying something online for yourself and if you don't like it return it, but during Christmas time if the gift I picked out wasn't what I thought it was there's no time to return it and get something new. Every site I've been on has warned me about delivery and getting there on time, and this was in November! And it seems to me that they raise prices of shipping around Christmas just because they can. That's why every site I bought from was free shipping.
But it hasn't been all bad, I did get all of my shopping done in one day. I never had to wait in any lines, deal with crazy crowds, fight for parking spaces or travel in traffic. Plus the other thing I love is all the gifts come to my door and I get to open them, so it's been like Christmas at my house for weeks!
It's been fun these past 9 months to realize all the differences about living in the Sandhills. Some things good, some annoying but we always seem to find the good no matter what.