Where has the time gone?

Matthew is almost a year old. We've been married for 2 1/2 years. And we've lived in Texas for a little over 3 years. Holy cow. Where has the time gone? I feel like life is flying by. I want it to slow down. Matthew is growing up so quickly and I wish I could just freeze some moments in time. It's so exciting and rewarding watching him discover the world around him. He claps now, is trying hard to walk, barks at dogs and eats like a lumberjack! Kurt and I are constantly asking each other where our baby went. :( We'll be heading home to Michigan to celebrate his birthday with friends and family and I can't wait! (have I mentioned I can't believe he's almost 1?!)

In other news, we will be staring a "patio garden" soon and I'm super excited! We're really striving to make healthier choices and fresh produce gets really pricey, so we're going to grow some of our own! I'm thinking we'll grow broccoli, lettuce, spinach, peppers and tomatoes...I might even venture into potatoes, we will see. Along with eating healthier I have started exercising recently. I haven't lost any weight yet, but I have lost 3 inches overall. I am quite pleased with these results. It's about time I get in shape, my baby isn't a baby anymore so I'm kind of our of excuses! Kurt and I keep saying 2012 is the year of healthy Bodes!

So here's to health, happiness and babies not being babies anymore!

Love

Happy Valentine's Day! I love this holiday. I know many people feel that it's a Hallmark holiday, and maybe it is, but I think it's fun! It's fun to creatively express your love to others and have a whole day dedicated to it. Kurt and I never go crazy or overboard, but we do try to make it special. This year Matthew and I made Kurt a card and I baked him a cake - it's the little things. :)

Yesterday I was reminded just how important expressing one's love is. Kurt was in a car accident. He's fine and there was very little damage to the car (and it wasn't his fault, so our insurance rates won't be going up!) Kurt called me right after it happened and said "I was in a car accident". My heart dropped. In that second I realized how precious life is. If the other driver had been going a little faster or swerved a little harder, well, I don't even want to think about it. Thank God he's ok. His angels were definitely with him on 114 yesterday. I am so in love with that man for so many reasons and I realized yesterday that it shouldn't take him getting into a car accident or a Hallmark holiday for me to tell him just how important he is to me. So with that, I challenge you to remind your loved ones how important they are to you and why without being prompted by a car accident or a holiday (or birthday, anniversary...you get the picture).

In Matthew news: he got his second tooth today! He loves having his little tooth (now teeth) brushed...so that's great because I've heard that that can be a challenge. I can't believe that in less than 6 weeks he will a year old! Time has gone by so quickly - it's so true when everyone says "don't blink or you'll miss it". We finally got a jogging stroller. Matthew loves to go for walks and get outside, but our stroller was terrible. I'm excited to start running again and I think Matthew will really enjoy it. Here's to finally getting back into shape :)

Update

Well, hello there! It's been a while. Let's see...Kurt and I got married in a beautiful ceremony on a rainy, dark day at GVSU. While enjoying the newlywed stage we were surprised to find out I was pregnant (about 1 1/2 years prior to what we had planned!) and welcomed our little guy, Matthew, on March 25, 2011.
My pregnancy was a breeze, I can't really complain (a little morning sickness here, some back pain there - it definetly could have been worse). The delivery, on the other hand, was terrible. My water broke at home (while I was on the phone with Lisa!) and on our way to the hospital contractions set in. I asked for an epidural as soon as we walked through the doors, but I had to wait a little longer...After being in active labor for 16 hours, I finally started pushing and pushed for 2 hours. After 2 hours of pushing with no progress, my doctor decided it was time for a c-section. The c-section was a little rough - my uterus wouldn't contract after they removed Matthew, so I was given a few different drugs to stop the bleeding and had a compression suture placed around my uturus. I also had to have a blood transfusion because I lost quite a bit of blood. I don't remember most of the first 6 after Matthew was born, but I knew my little man was here and I couldn't wait to get my hands on him! We were very thankful for Matthew's health and know that God had His hand on him and me throughout the whole delivery. The first 2 weeks Kurt stayed home with me. Those were some long days and longer nights, since I couldn't really do anything for myself, Kurt had to do everything for me and for Matthew! He's just the greatest husband and daddy we could ask for.
I did not go back to work after Matthew was born and have been enjoying spending my days at home with my silly little monkey. We play, read, snuggle, explore and just enjoy each other's company.
We've made the treck back to Michigan quite a few times and plan to head home again for Matthew's first birthday. Wow, he's going to be one in 6 weeks?!? That kind of blows my mind!
In other news, Kurt has officially been with Mass Electric for 3 years and we feel so blessed to be with a such a supportive and understanding company and have such job security for Kurt, being a one income family!

My goal is to update once a week, I don't know if that will happen, but it's a great goal, right?! Once I refamiliarize myself with Blogger I'll start posting pictures too!

Recent Adventures

This was a castle we hiked around and through. It was built in the 30's by a professor at Oklahoma State University. He used it as his summer home. I could handle having something like that as my summer home :)

This was the dining room. It was entirely outside, however there was another room they ate in if it was raining.

This is part of the staircase, this guy must have been super tiny because I had a hard time fitting in there.

Kurt checking out the falls.

Sooo pretty.

The soon to be Mr. and Mrs. in front of the falls...I wanted to go swimming, but Kurt said it wouldn't be warm enough for that...too bad it was 82 and not a cloud in the sky!!

Kurt didn't notice what was crawling around inside this cave...so he sat down and had his picture taken.

I wanted my picture taken in the wagon wheel cave, but when I got close I saw that it was FILLED with spiders, so I stood on front of the cave for my picture instead.

Turner Falls...isn't it beautiful?!? I want to go back.

Kurt liked the cactus too! He wanted to know if it was sharp.

This is for Kate...a real cactus with flowers and everything!

This is in Turner Falls in front of the Blue Pool.

Life has been as usual lately. Kurt gets up early and heads to work, I wake up and pick up the mess he made in the morning, then I watch some soaps, workout, and then get some chores done. :)

Last weekend we registered for gifts on Saturday - a project that took about 5 hours...sick. But, it's done, so that's good. Sunday we drove up to Oklahoma and went hiking at Turner Falls. It was beautiful. The pictures above are of our recent adventures.

As promised

This was at Taste of Addison...Foreigner played and they were FANTASTIC! It was in the park right across the street from our apartment, which was great, we didn't have to worry about parking, we just walked right over there! There was great food, lots of beer, and fantastic music. Made for 2 very good nights.
This is us on the Ferris Wheel. I also managed to get Kurt to go on a very intense version of the Tilt-A-Whirl with me, but he did NOT like that at all.
The view of Taste of Addison from the Ferris Wheel.
So much fun on a hot spring day!!
Not sure why this ended up sideways...but this is us at Kurt's cousin Rachelle's wedding. Nice face, Kurt.

Those Bodes, such fabulous dancers...that's Kurt and his oldest brother Brent bustin a move at Rachelle's wedding.
Happy birthday Kurt!! I made him a cake, he was pretty impressed.
We went to Ikea and bought pillow covers and lamps (among other things...having an Ikea only 10 minutes from our apartment is not a good thing...)



This was a storm we had a few weeks ago...it was intense!! 70mph winds, rain, hail, and tornadoes, oh my!!

Well...that's all for now...see, I do post pictures occasionally!! Enjoy...see you in June when I'm home for 3 weeks!!!

I'm so bad at this

Well, for those of you who do check this in order to keep up on our lives, I apologize. I'm terrible at remembering to update this. So...here goes...

Lisa came to visit over Easter weekend and we had a great time catching up, I just love that girl. On Tuesday of that week it was Kurty's birthday and I think he enjoyed the fact that I made him dinner and baked him a fantastic cake! The next day I flew home and was at home for 2 full weeks. I worked to make some money and I got quite a bit done for the wedding...everything's falling into place so nicely. The weekend of the 25th Kurt flew back to Michigan too and we had our engagement pictures and then Rachelle and Tony's wedding! The pictures were so much fun and despite the high winds, they turned out great. If you want to see them go to: www.deimage.dphoto.com the password for our album is 100909. Rachelle and Tony's wedding was beautiful and so much fun. I flew back to Texas on Wednesday the 29th, a few days after Kurt. The following day Katie flew down here with her sister and neice. We had a great time! Kate and I drove Crystal and Olivia to Wichita Falls so they could spend the weekend with Joe at the Airforce base. Katie and I had so much fun going to Ikea, Bass Pro Shop, Cabellas (the last 2 were Kurt's idea :)) among other things. We completed the weekend watching a movie and drinking margaritas...it was great.

Sunday was like back to normal. We went grocery shopping and just hung out. Monday night Kurt had his last softball game and once again I was their only fan. All the guys are great, just not great softball players :) This weekend will be a blast...I can't wait...we're going to go to Taste of Addison, which is literally outside our door...a bunch of restaurants from around town have booths set up with food samples, there's a beer tent, music, and carnival rides...we can't wait! The other part of this weekend that I am very much looking forward to is RENT!! There are only a few performances left in Dallas and we are going to go!! I'm so excited. :)

That's all for now. I promise I'll update after this weekend and I'll even post pictures! For those of you who have been pestering me to get pictures up on our wedding website, I'm doing that right now...so check that soon!
(http://www.theknot.com/ourwedding/NicoleLauniere&KurtBode)

Love you all!

It's been a while

Well, I'm not so good at keeping this up to date. And, all of our pictures are on my computer and Kurt's is the only one that is capable of an internet connection, so, no pictures for a while. We haven't been doing too much since the girls left. Just starting to settle into a nice routine. Every Monday Kurt plays on a softball team and I am their only fan!! So, I do my best to cheer loudly and raise their spirits...because they are just terrible :) On Tuesdays all of the guys from Mass go bowling and I have been invited to join them the last couple of weeks which has been a lot of fun! I feel like I'm starting to make friends, unfortunately they're all guys, which is ok, but I miss hanging out with girls and having girl talk and watching girly movies, but oh well...at least I have friends! Kurt and I seem to have found our niche which is really comforting. I will be heading home in a couple of weeks to work and get some more wedding stuff done and then Kurt will be heading back the last weekend in April for his cousin's wedding. We hope everyone back in Michigan is doing well and we can't wait to get back and see everyone!

Also...once I'm back in Michigan and I can get my computer online I will post some pictures of the things we've been up to lately.