Five on Friday and a Favorite Song {03.13.2015}

This was supposed to go up last Friday, but it ended up being a super busy day at work and that just carried into the evening, so it never got done. So I mixed some of last week's stuff with this week's stuff and called it good!

ONE.

Last weekend, some of my best friends and I met up in Omaha for a little girl time. We all met at the mall and did a little looking/shopping and a lot of talking. Some of us then got our nails done and went out to eat at Roja before retiring for the night at Lauren's. These girls' weekends are usually very late nights, but I don't think many of us made it to midnight... we decided that we need to start our girls' weekend earlier in the day next time!
 

 

TWO.
When Mattie and Millie eat, they usually like to take turns so that they can watch each other. This really makes the whole process take longer than it needs to, but as long as it gets done, I guess... I think it's so cute and funny when Mattie's eating and Millie is watching her because Millie will get as close as she can to Mattie and her bowl of food. This happened, as usual, the other evening when I was feeding them (I usually only feed them in the morning because Trent gets home from work before me), so I had to get a picture of it.

 

THREE.

I have been thinking a lot lately about what it will be like to actually meet our baby. It's crazy to think about them actually being here (on the outside of me) and seeing their little face and hands. When I think about it, I really just feel like I am going to cry every time I see them! I just cannot imagine what it will be like to hold a baby that is all ours and we will be their mom and dad!! August really feels so far away! I love this baby so much already, I just can't fathom what it's going to be like to meet them for the first time!!! Ah!

FOUR.

Last week, I purchased the Eyefi Mobi SD Card for my camera. It basically acts as a wi-fi hotspot so when you take pictures, it can connects and uploads them right to your phone without having to get out my computer and upload them there before uploading them to my blog. Normally waiting to upload them isn't such a bad thing, but I bought it for when I take my weekly pregnancy update photos in the mornings so I can get the pictures and the blog post posted during the day without having to hassle with getting out my computer in the mornings (because I would never have time for that anyway... I like to sleep too much). It's not quite as slick as I was hoping it would be, as it kind of takes a long time to connect at times, but so far it has gotten the job done. I think it will be fun to use when I want to take pictures of our little baby with my good camera and be able to share them without having to find time to get my computer out and all that jazz.

 

FIVE.
This song is on Jeremy Camp's latest album and is, of course, a new favorite. (Is anyone surprised? I didn't think so...) I put some of my favorite lyrics below, but it's definitely worth a listen!

Same Power - Jeremy Camp

The same power that rose Jesus from the grave

The same power that commands the dead to wake

Lives in us, lives in us

The same power that moves mountains when He speaks

The same power that can calm a raging sea

Lives in us, lives in us

He lives in us, lives in us

 

We have hope. That His promises are true

In His strength. There is nothing we can’t do

Yes, we know. There are greater things in store

We will not be overtaken. We will not be overcome

 

Greater is He that is living in me

He’s conquered our enemy

No power of darkness

No weapon prevails

We stand here in victory

Millie and Mattie Monday!

OK, so maybe Millie and Mattie Monday isn't a real thing, but it is today. 

Since I just finally posted yesterday about when we picked Millie up on the last weekend of November, I wanted to post a few of the many random pictures we have of Millie and of Millie and Mattie together from the past two weeks.

ONE.

I had said in the last post about Millie, that Mattie didn't like her so much when we first brought her home. Mattie seemed quite stressed for those first days. Now though, Mattie will play and at least entertain Millie's puppiness! 

This video was taken on the Monday after we brought Millie home. I had taken the day off work, so I spent the day with the dogs. We spent some time in the backyard and this just shows Mattie's aversion to Millie. 

We've made quite a bit of progress since then...

TWO.

Millie loves to hide under our chairs. She crawls under there quite often to nap... She'd better savor it while she can though, because soon enough, she won't be able to fit!

In this instance below, Millie took advantage of being able to fit under the chair to torture Mattie.  At least Mattie is wanting to play now and isn't wanting ignoring Millie completely!

THREE.

 Millie can't get up on the furniture because 1) she's not big enough and can't jump that high yet and 2) we are trying to make it so she doesn't ever think that's okay for her to do (we'll see how that goes since Mattie is allowed on the furniture). So for now, that is Mattie's refuge from Millie. When Mattie's had enough of Millie, she'll jump on the couch or the chair and Millie tries her best to get her until we tell her to get down. Hopefully we can keep up the fight of making her stay off the furniture when she's big enough to make that leap!

FOUR.
My mom's turtle, Bill, was nice enough to send Millie a card welcoming her to the family. I read her the card and then let her see the picture on the card so Millie could see what Bill looked like. I don't think Bill would fare very well if he really was on the floor with Millie.

Here's Millie in action meeting Bill (or a look alike of him)

FIVE.
Trent let Mattie run around outside last weekend and Millie took advantage of that opportunity to dig. So that meant Millie got her first bath at our house.

SIX.

And now there's these pictures which makes it look like we're hosting dog fights at our house - but I promise it's friendly playing, no matter how mean they look.

And then they calm down and just play with their toys next to each other and all is calm for a short while!

SEVEN.
We took advantage of the nice weather yesterday to grill and play with the dogs outside. It was really the first time we were able to let them both run around and play outside and have them both be civil with each other. I'm sure it was just a glimpse of the fun to come!

EIGHT.

I wanted to take a picture of them each week sitting next to each other to gauge Millie's growth... but since Mattie wanted nothing to do with Millie for the first week and because it's just pretty impossible to get a picture of them both sitting still, that's been pretty hopeless... I did get a picture of them kind of sitting by each other on Sunday, though. So I'll take it.

NINE.

I also got them laying by each other... one on the inside of the patio door and one on the outside! :)

A New Member of Our Family!!!

That's right!! We will soon have another member added to our family!! In my last post, I said that our exciting news wasn't about a baby... and that wasn't exactly the truth. We're getting a baby dog!!!
The weekend after Thanksgiving, we will be bringing home a new golden retriever puppy. Mattie is going to be a big sister!

Our puppy was born on the 5th of October. She has 11 other siblings: 7 brothers and 4 sisters.
The breeders we are getting our puppy from send us updates with a few photos and a video or two each week so we can see our puppy as she grows. They actually have pictures of the puppies from before they were even born!

Our puppy and its siblings in their mommy's belly

The puppies on the day they were born

To add to the excitement, Trent's sister's family is also getting a puppy from the same litter, so when we get the puppies together, the two siblings will be reunited!

All the puppies at one week

The female puppies at one week old. Two of these cuties will join our family in a little over a month!

 We are so excited to be adding to our family but we are well aware that getting the new puppy all trained and used to living with us will be quite the adventure! We aren't 100% sure how Mattie is going to handle having to share the house with another dog, but my hope is that they become best friends before long! :) I'm certain Mattie will just need to have her own space away from the puppy a lot of times, especially while the puppy is young and energetic, but I'm sure they will get used to each other as time goes on.

Two week old puppies

We will know after the 10th of November which two will be joining the Fredericksen family. We will get to see pictures and videos of those two and know that one of those two will be coming home with us. Then, the weekend after Thanksgiving, we will go pick her up, and the real adventure will begin!

Below is a picture of our puppy's parents. Her dad, Herky, and mom, Gypsy.

Here is one of the videos and a picture that we got today of the puppies. They all now have their eyes open are are getting a lot better at walking. They're figuring out that they can bark and learning to play with each other. So much cuteness. They're like little drunk dogs!
You can visit the breeder's YouTube page to see other videos back to the day they were born.

And lastly, a close up picture of one of the puppies from today and a picture I took of Mattie modeling out on the deck this afternoon. I can't wait to take picture upon picture of our two little babies together!! 

Five on Friday - {09.19.2014}

ONE.

This past Tuesday was the second week of a Bible study that I started going to at Christ Community Church. It's a Beth Moore study on 1 and 2 Thessalonians. So far I love it. There are around 40-50 women in the study. We sit at the tables in groups of 8 or so and we sit with the same people each time. I am the youngest one at my table, as most of them have children my age and several grandchildren, but I love that. The women I am with have a lot of wisdom and insight and life experiences that I can learn from and the conversations we have during our time together are great. It is so great to have met all these new people and start growing my own church family here in Omaha. It is also so comforting to know that this group of women will be praying for each other throughout the week and that we are all in the Word and studying the same things each day.

TWO. 


Last weekend we celebrated Trent's grandma's birthday along with our brother-in-law, Russ's birthday. We all went out to eat at Zombie Burger to celebrate and watched the Iowa vs. Iowa State game together. We had lots of good food and conversation, and it was a great weekend!

THREE.

Trent and I got the girls some personalized jump ropes and gave them to them last weekend. Jenna is a tad to little yet to effectively use hers, but Taylor did awesome. I even taught her how to do the little double hop in between each bigger jump and she caught on super quick! Us big kids adults even got to give the jump roping a try! We didn't do so bad ourselves! :)

FOUR.

Mattie is adorable and I love her. That's all.

FIVE.

Trent and I are taking off for the weekend to go to St. Louis. We got tickets to the Rams vs. Cowboys game on Sunday, so we're going down for a tiny vacation. This will be the first NFL game that I have been to, so I'm really looking forward to it. 

Above is a picture of the arch that I took the last time Trent and I were in St. Louis together (with other people as well). That was before us being a WE was even a thought! Oh how things change! :)

Happy Friday!!

Five on Friday - {08.22.2014}

ONE.

At the vet yesterday morning - she was a little stressed.

We've had a sick puppy (she's not really a puppy at all, but she is to me) this week. We went to the vet on both Wednesday and Thursday morning and have been up in the night with her as well. I really think that she's getting back to herself now, but I think both Trent and I were scared of what bad news the vet might come up with as they did some x-rays and things. Luckily everything looked fine, it was just an upset stomach and everything that goes along with that! She sure does HATE going to the vet, though! So hopefully we can avoid that place for a long time!

TWO.

Last weekend when we were in Des Moines for the Iowa State Fair, my new friend, Megan, who lives in Wisconsin just happened to be in the area visiting some friends! We met each other for the first time in November of 2012 and then just saw each other for the first time since then in June and Lee and Sara's wedding and realized that we really should be friends! She was only in Iowa for a short time, but we were able to meet up at church on Sunday morning! It was so unexpected that we would be that close geographically that weekend, so it was just awesome that we were able to see each other.

THREE.

Next Monday starts my first ever DietBet, put together by a blogger that I follow, Skinny Meg. Basically, you pay $25 and that money is put into a pool. Then, in four weeks, if you lose 4% of your body weight, you split that pool with all the other winners. I have been slowly gaining weight over the past year, so I think if I have a monetary motivation to get my butt in gear, it might just be the jump start I need! Some things I'm going to implement during these four weeks to get me on track are:

1. No pop

2. Only one drink per day that isn't pure water

3. No fast food

4. Work out at least 30 minutes a day at least 4 days a week

5. Do meal planning
6. No unnecessary unnatural sugar
I don't necessarily have an problem with all the things listed above (like eating fast food) but I figured I'd just write them down as a goal anyway. I have a few more things in mind that I want to implement to stay on track, but I haven't made them into concrete goals yet, so I'll work on that this weekend! I do plan on having a "cheat day" when I can have pop, but I'll get them all figured out and written down for myself by Monday.  :)

FOUR.

I plan on doing this for my feet sometime soon, too! My feet don't look as bad as that person's left foot, but they are a little rougher than I'd like. Since I did the kitchen sink thing, I'm willing to try some of these other little tips that are floating around Facebook and Pinterest!

FIVE.

Tonight I'm going to a Zumba/Stella and Dot party put on by my BFF, Lauren. The party is going to start with a Zumba session and then end with some pretty jewelry. Lauren just recently became a Zumba instructor, so I'm super excited to take a class from her!! Yay!

Have a great weekend!

Tuesday Update

Last weekend, we went to our first Christmas party at Trent's Grandma's. It was such a great day. Not only was the weather freakishly nice, it was just a fun day with great food and great people. My favorite part of the day was when the kids wanted to go outside, but they had to go out with an adult, so the second time they wanted to go outside, I was the adult that was asked to go with them. (I had to ask the other adults to be sure if I was considered an adult first, though :)) When I told my niece, Taylor, that I would go out with them and went out of the room to get my coat on and things, I heard her tell her mom, "I love Aunt Kendra". That made me smile from ear to ear. I love making her happy and I love being called Aunt Kendra. I'm still getting used to that!

A new doll for Taylor

A new 'laptop' for Jenna

In the late afternoon, we made our way home and just relaxed for the evening. Sunday, I went out and finished up our Christmas shopping and we cleaned up the apartment. In the evening I wrapped up all of the presents and got them ready to go with us to our parents' this weekend. I stayed up WAY too late on Sunday night. I just couldn't get myself to stop finding more things to do to keep myself up. I ended up staying up until about 1:20 in the morning, which made 5:15 even earlier than normal to get out of bed and made Monday a very long day! I'm glad that I did get up to get some studying in, though, because I feel like I haven't been going at it like I should be. I have been doing pretty good on the practice tests I've been doing, though, so hopefully that's a good sign at least!

Monday night, we brought Mattie to get her nails clipped at Petsmart and did a little Christmas shopping for her and Trent's parents' dog, Casey. We found a really cute present for them both that I can't wait to give to them! We also got Mattie a new red collar and when she was done with her nails, they put a pretty Christmas bow on her and sprayed her with cookie dough perfume (weird, I know - but it actually smelt nice). She looked great when she was all done!

In her new collar and bow.
She's not liking that we're making her stay in the room by us in this picture :)

 After we got back from the store, we got our Christmas cards ready to be mailed and then I practiced a presentation that I had to do at work today on Trent. I was SO nervous about my presentation that I had to do. It was the first time that I had to do anything like this at work and wanted to do a good job. It was just in front of about 10 of my co workers but I still wanted them to respect me and think that I knew what I was talking about, so I wanted it to go well. I did it this afternoon, and I think it went pretty well. It's not like any of them are going to tell me I did a bad job, though... I'm just glad that it's over. I feel like I can finally get some other work done because I don't have to worry about thinking about the presentation anymore. Also, only FOUR more work days to go in 2011! How crazy is that!! YAY for holidays and vacation!

I hope you are all soaking in the excitement of the holidays and are all ready for Christmas! I just can't wait to spend some time with family and relax for a few days! Only 4 more sleeps until Christmas!!

Moving Day!

We're moving... BACK to the place where we already live! :)

I'm sure you're all glad to hear that the flood has subsided, and after three weeks of living in a hotel or staying other places, we are finally moving our things back to our apartment this afternoon. I'm taking off the afternoon to go home and help. I will probably go to get groceries so we can survive again and then just start organizing as the movers bring our stuff back to our apartment. It is bound to be an interesting afternoon/evening trying to get everything back to the way it needs to be. This will be a good opportunity to go through everything and hopefully find some things that we can get rid of. Trent has said that he'll have some stuff for Goodwill, so I'm hoping we both can find some things that we can weed out and not just have it to take up space anymore.

This weekend has the potential to be epic! But I think that the weather may just ruin that. It is supposed to start snowing this evening and leave about 3-5 inches on the ground, so we'll see what kind of wrench that throws in the plans for the weekend.

Luckily, I think that Trent is going to go out before it starts and get Mattie back from Trent's parents. They have been very generous to let her stay with them while we have been staying away from home. It will be so nice to have her back with us again!

The plan was that I was supposed to meet up with some of my friends from college for a very fun girls' day on Saturday of shopping and hanging out, and to make the weekend even more great, my sister and mom are possibly going to come to town on Sunday. So let's just hope that the weather cooperates and that everyone can travel safely and it all gets to happen!

I really am pretty excited for the snow that is coming, though. I am excited for it to look like winter and for everything to be covered with snow (even though I don't like being cold). Regardless of what happens with my plans for the weekend, I know it will be great because I will get to be sleeping in my own bed in our own apartment with my husband and our dog! Talk about wonderful!

I hope you all have a great weekend and stay safe if you have to be out traveling in the snow!

Let it snow!

Thankful: Day 24 (Thanksgiving) - 28

24. I am thankful for Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is such a great day. It has always been a day where I am surrounded by lots of loving family members. This year I had the joy of meeting some of Trent's family that I had never met before, and that was very special to me. It was great to be there to see his family get to sit and talk with family members that they hadn't seen in a while. You could really tell that it was a very special day to all of them, especially the older generations who loved bringing back the old tradition of getting together on Thanksgiving Day again.

What a wonderful day to stop and be thankful for all the loving family we have!

25. I am thankful for Mattie. One thing that I am very happy that I gained through marriage is the cutest beagle ever. Mattie is the most snuggly, adorable dog ever and I am so glad that she is in my life. Even though her whining is a tad obnoxious at times, it warms my heart when she whines because she can hear me coming home from work and then comes and greets me when I get to the door. And I love it when she crawls into the spare bed in our apartment while I'm studying and keeps me company. Mattie has so much love to give and loves to be loved back. I am so lucky to get to be a 'mother' to such a sweet dog! 

26. I am thankful for dual climate control and socks! More often than not, I am cold. And most of the time, I am more cold than anyone else that I am with, and most of the time that other person is Trent. That is why I am so happy that our new car has dual climate control, so I can have mine set as high as it will go (90 degrees) and he can have his down at a cool 70 degrees. I joke that we're going to cause some sort of weather disaster or hurricane or something because of the drastic temperature changes that we create in the car.

I also love socks - especially my warm fuzzy ones that I wear to bed (which are very attractive! Just ask Trent). I find it almost impossible to sleep when my feet are cold, so those babies warm my feet up right away and allow me to stop thinking about how cold my feet are and go to sleep!

27. I am thankful for having a fun, game playing family. Some of the best memories that I have with  my family are of us all playing games. I love that everyone has such a fun time together doing the same thing and we all just laugh and have tons of fun. I love that we had so much fun this weekend playing Dominos, Trivial Pursuit, Taboo and BananaGrams. I am thankful when even more of our family can get together and play Nuts or other card games and I love that we'll try pretty much any game that sounds fun at least once!

28. I am thankful for Jocelyn Kock. (and I'm not just saying that because she told me to!) I am very lucky to have a cousin that is so close to me in age and to have been able to go through middle school and high school with her. I was lucky to be able to dance with her and play sports with her and really just experience a lot of great things together. Pretty much all of my memories from high school have Jocelyn in them in some way. We were either having a blast at family get togethers or playing sports together or just hanging out together and making a fun time out of anything. Even though we don't see each other that often anymore, we still get to see each other as much as possible and, every time we do, it is a great time. I am looking forward going through all of the exciting events that are to come in our lives as we get older. I am lucky to not only have a great cousin but to have an amazing friend!

October 2011

It has been a busy 3 weeks! I can't believe how fast October is going.

It all started with Kellsey and Wade's wedding. It was an amazing day! It was great weather and the ceremony was beautiful with all of the green and trees around us. The ceremony was beautiful (I may have teared up a little) and the whole day was just so much fun! Not to mention that Kellsey was absolutely beautiful!!





The week after the wedding we started our quarter close at work, so that made for some busy days and late nights. I worked as long as I could on Saturday before I had to take off for Ames for another wedding. My cousin Tricia got married. It was another beautiful day and it was great to see all our family again.

Trent had taken the day off work on Friday to spend some extra time with his parents and then we both spent the evening after the wedding at their house. It was great to get to visit with them for a little on Saturday night. We then had to take off again early on Sunday morning to make it back for church in Westside. We were celebrating my Grandma and Grandpa Jons' 60th wedding anniversary! Sixty years seems like such a long time, and it is such a great thing to have gotten to spend 60 years of your life with someone you love. They are still very much in love and you can tell! It makes me so happy when Grandpa tells us how much he loves Grandma. They are such a great model of what love looks like for all of the newly married and 'oldly' married couples in our family. :)



I love this picture of Grandma and Grandpa at Kellsey's wedding.
They're so cute!



I also love this picture of my Grandma when she was younger.
She looks very beautiful!

 After church, the church members all celebrated with cake and then family members came for a lunch at the church before we headed back to Omaha.

The last week and a a half have then been busy with lots of work, buying a new car, and studying for the CPA exam (only 23 days left until my first test! EEE!). Our earnings release was today here at work and we file our 10Q tomorrow, so things will settle down here and I'll be able to study even more hopefully while also getting to spend some more time just relaxing!

This weekend we're headed to Webster City on Saturday to have lunch with Trent's Grandma. It will be very great to see her again! And then on Sunday we get to go to Taylor's Sunday School program. I can't wait to see that! It is going to be so cute!

Hope you're having a good week. Enjoy the weekend!

Couldn't have the blog post without a cute picture of Mattie!
She's so funny when she uses a pillow like a human!