January...came and went!!

Consider this you're warning....this will be a marathon post as January was much busier than we had intended it to be. Let's just say 2012 ended with a bang and 2013 began with a boom. We have either been hosting visitors, training a pup, or chasing powder days with our good friends....rough life, huh?? I must say having a busy January was a pleasant surprise as January is my least favorite month of the whole year!!

January began with a visit from my sister in law Jen and my niece Emma. Part of Emma's Christmas present was tickets to Justin Bieber in no other place than DENVER!!!! She was more than thrilled and we had such a fun time. We did mani/pedis, shopped a little, hit up the Denver Zoo, the Denver Aquarium, and we even managed to find shoes for Emma for the wedding (now all we need is her dress!!) Needless to say we crammed a lot in to a few days and Emma had the time of her life at the JB concert. She tried to pull an illness pre concert as she was worried about all the commotion, but we knew she was just coming down with Bieber Fever!!! :)))

emma and jen in cherry creek. so cute!!

our little photographers....capturing the moment at the zoo!!! :)

Our next visitors of the month came with a little addition to our family. Jacki (a.k.a. Fancy) and her son Austin came out for a little Denver time/ski trip, and Ruby came along for the ride!! Ruby was my parent's dog back in Iowa, but she was a little bit of a pistol considering Gehrk's leg injury so we adopted her...more on that later!! So in other news, Jacki and Austin were such a treat to host. Fancy treated us to some fabulous dinners (THANK YOU!! again!) and we were able to spend some 1 on 1 time with them which doesn't always happen when we go home for visits!! We showed Austin around Vail and Keystone and our friend Stephanie was able to join us for a night in Breck where clearly it was time to "get yo robe on!!" Such a good time. Unfortunately towards the end of the weekend Stephanie came down with Influenza A, but luckily she had two fabulous nurses to take care of her and make the definitive diagnosis. And fortunately Austy was introduced to Patagonia and good wine!! :)

get yo robe on!!! with coors light of course!!!

girls + Austin. too funny. we could not stop laughing!

old glory!!!! #hysterical!

rudolph!!! #superfunny! (these people had props in their cupboards....clearly the boys found them!)

loveland pass with Austy and without any fresh pow pow.....if only they came a few weeks later!!!

RUBY!!!!!!! IS!!! HERE!!!! Little miss Ruby came roughly two weeks ago with Fancy and Austin in tow. She did great riding cross country and her only quirk was that she required to ride shot gun.....the whole way!! :) Definitely a habit we may have to break, but this silly dog loves to be in thick of the action. I actually think she thinks she is part human.....not kidding. She acts like a little person and is my shadow when I'm home with her during the day and she is the biggest snuggle bug by night. She hates the vacuum and loves toilet water! ;) She is quite the little runner and has enjoyed playing countless games of fetch with AK. Pretty much, I'm not sure what we ever did without her. She's the first person we talk to in the morning and the last person we say good night to at night. We've only had a few dog parenting spats with me being a wee bit territorial....I mean she was MY parent's dog after all!! :). Either way we love having her and is one of the best friends I've ever had!!

we love Ruby!!!!

AK trying to show Ruby her kennel (ie. her "home") is a good, safe place!!! hahahaha. something is off about this!!!

Powder days are some of the best days in Denver. And this weekend was no different. We had the opportunity to head up to Steamboat Springs, CO just in time as they received 3 feet of fresh snow the day before we got there!!! BOOM!!! The only thing about powder days is you feel obligated to ski the entire day 8a-3p and it was a long day, but the views and powder didn't stop so it was so worth it. I was pretty proud of myself as I skied some stuff I had never skied before and to quote AK "I crushed it this weekend!" I mean, I wouldn't say he fell in love with me for skiing abilities, but perhaps he fell in love with me because I'm willing to try and improve and push myself until I'm better. This weekend it all seemed to come together and we had some of the best ski/snowboard runs (AK boards....we don't hold it against him) we have had in over two years. Not to mention Steamboat is one of the loveliest mountain towns we have visited to date!! If we ever have the funds, maybe our mountain house will reside in Steamboat.....a girl can dream, right!?!? We rounded out our Steamboat weekend with a little snow shoe hike which was amazing and the only thing we were missing was our pup!!! We did watch the Superbowl, but I was say that was the least exciting of all this past weekend.

snow shoe tracks....so much powder and such a hard hike!!!

mid hike....giving AK something to shoot!! :) look at those mountains!!

love this pic....the start of our hike over looking steamboat mountain!!

trekking through pow pow!!!

product of AK's photo abilities!!! the hike was so hard, we were dripping sweat by the top. hence open coat, no hat, no gloves, hair on top of head!!

our tracks!!! :)

our view from the house we stayed in!!

AK ready to ride!!!

atop of the mountain. ready to shred!!! ;). love the white trees.

linds+me....waiting at the lift!

the views wouldn't stop....this picture does not do it justice!

the view from the top of our hike on Sunday!!!! Steamboat is so pretty!!!

For the 100th time we feel blessed to be back in CO and our so happy in our current situation. We felt the love this weekend as all of our friends said it was great to have us back and it felt like we never left. I say it all the time, but we are such lucky people!!! Hope your January came and went with as much excitement as ours. And to think 2013 has so much more to unfold!!!

new year, new ideas and a mustache!?!?

be kind.

be happy.

listen more, talk less.

get married.

love more.

be present.

learn something new (knitting).

perfect something old.

face my fears.

read more books.

bike more, run less.

run two races.

travel.

live healthy.

maintain new and old friendships.

facebook less.

take more pictures.

learn to be a wifey.

celebrate weddings.

bake more.  

write more letters.

When I think of 2013, these are the things that come to mind!! For one reason or another, these thoughts have crossed my mind the past few days. I like to reassess with each new year...new years, my birthday, etc. And this year I decided to make it public via the blog! I realize this is a quite a list, but some of these thoughts are mere suggestions for 2013 and some thoughts will definitely become reality. 2013 has potential to be the best year yet, and whether you are a main character in our life or simply a blog reader, I hope you enjoy the ride!! Cheers to another year full of opportunities and potential.

And I "mustache" ask you a question, how did you spend your NYE??? ;) AK and I hosted a little shindig for some of our friends and rang in the new year with some really great people. We are lucky and enjoy the picture roll below!!!  

wow, i am lucky!!! ;)

so creepy, but so funny!!

love!!!

makes me laugh every time!!!!!

don't worry ladies....he's taken!!!!

the ladies+mustaches!!!! 

Happy  new year!!! 2013 is off to a great start!!!!

the imPERFECT Christmas.....

hello, hello....again!! And Merry Christmas (belated) to all the Beer and Champagne readers. I don't know about the rest of you, but Beer and myself had a wonderful Christmas, almost a perfect Christmas if you will. I keep thinking that one of these years, Santa will get the memo that I usually error on the side of naughty rather than nice, but lucky for me, 2012 was not the year....and Santa was more than good to both of us. And before you criticize the title of my post let me explain our imPERFECT Christmas.....

Now I'm not one to really shove religion down a person's throat, but I was in church quite a bit over the Christmas holiday and heard a really great message on Christmas Day. The summary of the message was that so often we want things to be perfect, or we have visions of the perfect Christmas, birthday, celebration, etc and many times our visions or expectations are not the reality of what actually happens and this is due to our imperfections as people. Our Pastor gave the example of how Mary rode on a donkey all the way to Bethlehem while in Labor to deliver a baby....baby Jesus at that. The thought being, Mary probably didn't envision riding on a donkey while in labor and it certainly was not the perfect scenario but in the end she was granted a wonderful blessing, baby Jesus.....I thought about this lesson a lot and applied it to our Christmas holiday and found some similarities....minus the whole childbirth thing and birthing someone that many people consider a Savior, but similarities nonetheless...just hear me out!!

The Christmas holiday vacation began with a run in with winter storm Draco. This silly storm ended up delaying me a day and a half due to road closures and lots of snow and ice. The blessing being, I made it home safe and was still able to spend 4 great days with family and friends.

This time of year is hectic for my people as their business operates on a calendar year, rather than a fiscal year so their year end of business happens right in the thick of the holiday madness....The blessing being we are so grateful in this economy, that the business continues to thrive and do so well.

Andy I spent much of this holiday season apart as he was finishing up his gig in Chicago and I was busy getting settled at my new gig in Denver, not ideal for either of us....The blessing being, on the Friday before Christmas we found out he could come back to Denver for good. We are both thankful for great jobs and opportunities and for the time to be together again.

Sometimes when you add people to families, you add personalities which can make for more thoughts, opinions, comments, etc, which isn't always bad, but can create tension if you're not careful. I'm proud to report that our family can all be in the same place for multiple days and have fun with each other....The blessing being, we have wonderful families who are filled with love and support. We are thankful for that, especially as we embark on 2013, the year of the wedding(s) (we have 8 weddings this next year including ours....thankful, but CRAZY!!).

This was also the first year AK and I split holidays, meaning we spent Thanksgiving with his family and Christmas with my family. Both holidays were a little hard for both of us respectively as we missed our own families very much....The blessing being, we are so lucky to both have families that want us around and moms who create an environment at home that is so welcoming and inviting!!!  

With the delay in my arrival, I had to cancel some fun holiday plans such as visiting friends, wedding appointments, and shopping (DUH!!), which was a total bummer because this time of year at home is when I get to see a lot of people that I only see once a year.....The blessing being, we are BEYOND thankful and grateful for all our friends and feel so blessed that we have so many wonderful people to keep in touch with. And this is where I get to plug Christmas Cards.....I LOVE receiving holiday mail from all our loved ones all over the country!! Makes my heart happy!!

So anyways, you get the picture. Sometimes things are not always perfect, but there is always a blessing if you look hard enough. Even with all our imperfections, I cannot tell you what a wonderful Christmas this was. I loved every minute of it.....we ate too much good food, we drank a few too many drinks over fine conversation, and we spent quality time with people I love so much. We laughed a ton and even exercised a little. We even found time for a little snowmobiling and sledding. When I sit back and think of the memories created and fun stories told, I am able to smile and giggle to myself, because it really was a PERFECT Christmas!! We are so lucky and so blessed. What a fantastic way to wind down 2012, and welcome 2013.
I hope all the same for everyone else and while I'm at it, I wish you all a happy, healthy and prosperous new year....2013, here we come!!!!

Please enjoy a recap of our Iowa Christmas!!!

we attempted a race. clearly AK is winning.

hysterical....and when he had two working legs!! poor guy broke his ankle a few days later!

ahhhh!!!!

i wanted the "fast" sled!!!

snowmobile ride!! love me some Iowa time!!!

go sledding with us....there is no walking up the hill. takes the fun out of it!! ;)

naughty or nice!?!?

pretty, pretty. post christmas eve service.

dan's family!!! love.

garth's family!! love!!

papa and grandma with the grandkids!!

santa...a.k.a Tommy!! #hysterical!

mr. and mrs. clause (emma and tommy!)

another cyclone jersey....perfect!! ;)

cader hiding how handsome he is....it was an artic cat christmas for this guy!

papa and emma. i love this picture.

boys and their toys!! AK's first run at snowmobiling!!

papa jay and his Iowa Staters.

our little elf on the shelf!!! a.k.a. Jack Spieker!! :) (on of the funniest things i've ever seen).

lovey on christmas day!!

tommy tried to put on his new shorts and put both legs through one pant hole and thought he was so funny!! so silly!!

As you can see, we are lucky people and had such a great time!! #soblessed!!!!

cookies galore!!!

When I was growing up, the Krull/Cordes/VanDeest girls (basically the ladies on my mom's side of the family) would all get together and make cookies. I remember baking in my grandma's huge kitchen and seeing sprinkles and frosting go everywhere. My favorite moments were cracking the eggs, decorating the cookies and then eating as many cookies as my mom would let me...DUH!!!! Anyhow, now that I live a ways away and am not surrounded by nearest and dearest people, I decided to start this tradition with my girlfriends and added a little twist....the twist being we drink copious amounts of wine while we bake, decorate and get caught up!! :) The tradition actually began last year while we were living in Chicago, however I brought it West with me and continued it in Denver this year.

So last Wednesday a houseful of my best girlfriends in Denver came over and we baked, decorated, chatted, drank and kicked off the holiday season with some laughter and cheer!!!

The idea was everyone bring cookie dough and the cookie fixins (frosting, sprinkles, red hots, candy canes, etc) and we baked the cookies in my kitchen and then decorated/frosted together. As I was preparing for the party, I went to my recipe book, given to me by my momma in hopes I would some day honor the art of cooking/baking (it worked...finally!!), and I found my two go-to recipes that remind me of Christmas...Chocolate Drop cookies which are like chocolate cake but in a cookie (YUMM-O!!) and peanut butter star cookies (now known as peanut butter chocolate kiss cookies b/c you can no longer find the chocolate candy stars). At one point, I called my mom (okay lets be honest, at a few points, I called her) and requested her secrets...and she responded with, "well great grandma always used margarine instead of butter because it leavse the cookies softer!" I instantly teared up thinking of my little old Grandma Krull mixing these cookies, rolling them into balls and baking them in her kitchen 30-40 years ago. It was one little moment among many that made my heart happy. And little did I know that evening would bring moments just like that....I heard many 'o times, "ginger bread cookies remind me of Christmas" or "cornflake christmas wreaths make me think of my grandma's on Christmas!" I think for a group of girls who are primarily from the Midwest, the cookie exchange 2012 was a success and a way to bring a little piece of home to Denver!!!

a little dark, but you get the idea!!!

we got wine, cookies, frosting, girlsfriends....boom!!!

pretty ladies!

lots of smiles and wine....where are the cookies???

jen said, give me your biggest smile....i think we all listened!!! ;)

group shot....i love this!!!

one more looking down!!

and then the evening turned late and all of a sudden the disney songs were blaring....and. I. MEAN. BLARING!!! 

Such a fun evening with some of my favorite girls. We missed the ones who could not make it and I obviously missed the ladies that instilled the baking genes in me, but for now the Denver girls did the trick. And on top of that everyone left with a box full of goodies and happy hearts!!!
#lovetheholidays!!