Painting

Dan's parents came up last weekend. We had a great time celebrating Christmas, my birthday and just hanging out.  We don't get to see them as often as we would like, so it is always cherished time. 

For those of you who don't know... Dan's mom is a great painter! We think she could go pro. Dan and I thought it would be a lot of fun to have his parents paint the nursery. We asked and they gladly did it for us.  When I came home from work on Friday afternoon it was all done! What a great birthday gift! We love how it turned out. Such a special memory to have of them painting the nursery for our little one. Can't wait to tell this little one what Grandpa and Grandma Mach did just for them. 

For those of you wondering why only half the wall is painted. We are putting up Wayne's coat wallpaper on the bottom half. My mom is going to help me with this on Sunday afternoon. Can't wait till it's all done

Just for fun my parents brought Dan over a little something for the baby. 

More pictures to come soon. 

The Nursery

We were told by our social worker that we should start to get the nursery ready.  I will be honest I had a lot of mixed emotions on this. I was excited to get the nursery going because it meant that we were making progress in the adoption process. However, I also had a lot of reservations on doing this because we don't know how long we will be waiting for our child. It is hard for me to think of walking by this empty nursery day after day. To be honest it was really was tearing me up. SO... Dan and I talked about and decided that WE needed to get this ready to help our minds grasp that someday in the near future we were going to be parents. We can use the nursery as a way to start to prepare, plan and let ourselves finally get excited and let this be real!!

Dan and I spent a lot of time researching cribs on line and even spent a day out looking at them. We had originally thought we wanted a white crib, but we couldn't find any that were in our price range that were high quality. Finally, Dan said Kate lets go get the crib at Costco... we can't beat the price and it is much nicer than many of them out there we were looking at! He was right... but it wasn't white! So, I agreed to go look. We decided we had enough white in our house and the crib was too good of a deal to pass up. So, staying true to the joke that Dan's parents think (we only shop at Costco) we bought the crib and changing table.  My dad dropped everything and came with the truck. We loaded it up and headed home.  I would love to say it was magical moment... but it was anything from that. People just say some stupid things!! As Dan and I drove home, we had to agree that this will be just one of the many stupid, hurtful things people say and we better start getting thick skin!! This will be a learning process I am sure.

Thanks to our neighbor Dan for helping carrying the changing table up
this thing is a tank! 

Next up painting...

Room to Grow

Well, the time has come to let you in a little secret....

I am not one to drag things out so I will just say it...

We are adopting!!

We are very excited to be in the process of adoption. We don't know when we will be given the blessing of being parents. We are trusting God with all the details. However, we are very excited to be able to tell you all. We will update the blog as we go through this process and feel free to ask questions along the way.  We will try to post more about why we have chosen adoption and the process in up coming weeks.

We are just excited and wanted to share the news!!



And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me.
- Matthew 18:5

Merry Christmas!!

This year we had a great time celebrating Christmas with my family. It was especially fun because our niece was REALLY into opening gifts!! It was fun to see Christmas through her eyes this year. 

I don't know who enjoyed uncle Jake's gift more Dad or Alaena? 

My parents dog Tucker... as a joke and to get my dad all riled up we (I) like to dress him up in something ridicules!!
This year, he had his own PJ's!! Sad thing is, he really like them!

Alaena the bear scaring  my dad... tucker is not amused! 

This Christmas Dan and I decided we didn't want to go just buy gifts. We wanted to do something special, something that would create lasting memories. Working in hospice I really got to see how precious time is. So.... we decided that we would rent a condo up north over new years and have everyone join us for their Christmas gift!!!! 

A favorite game was hide and seek (meet sleeping bear) 

The wild awake bear

The pool was a hit!
Not sure who enjoyed it more... 

Uncle Jake helping Alaena keep Dan away

The view from our condo 

Lots of games and movies
Alaena loves Beauty and the Beast

We were driving on the island in Duluth and found this home that sets up lights and lets people walk through their yards. It was fun and the view was breath taking

View from their dock

Jess fit right in!! 

After the weekend we decided that this would be a new tradition. 

Looking forward to next year!! 

Something to ponder...

I have lots I would like to share with you... I just need to find the time to sit with a cup of coffee and write and write till I have nothing left to share.

Until then I came across this quote... 

There are two ways to live your life.

One is as though nothing is a miracle.

The other is as though everything is a miracle. 

~ Albert Einstein~

So, how are you choosing to live your life? 

4 years ago

Four years ago I married my best friend.
Since our anniversary landed on Thanksgiving this year we decided to celebrate the following weekend. Dan really out did himself to ensure it was a special weekend!! 

He surprised me with tickets to the WILD (I LOVE hockey) This was a such a sweet thing since he doesn't really care for hockey. We had great seats! Once again we went into over time and then lost in a shoot out.. .it was a fun game! I even saw Dan getting a little excited during the game. 

He also bought tickets to the Nutcracker Ballet. It was so much fun! Dan had never been to a ballet so it was fun to see what the thought. For me, it brought back such great childhood memories of going to this with my family. The theater was absolutely gorgeous! 

We spent the weekend downtown St. Paul at the St. Paul Hotel where we spent our wedding night four years ago. 

St. Paul Hotel
Celebrating 100 years

View from our room
Overlooking Rice Park and Ordway Theater

Dan's parents surprised us with a gift card to the restaurant that were were going to for dinner. 

After a great dinner we ended the night with  a carriage ride around St. Paul and a walk in Rice Park with all the lights and ice skating!

The carriage we rode in

Rice Park

Nutcracker in Rice Park

 It was a great way to celebrate our marriage and all that we have been through and anticipate what the future holds! 

Happy Anniversary Dan. I love you.