Life in Iowa

2014-01-01T07:48:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas 2013!

We had a busy month of December with a couple Christmas Programs (school and church) and multiple Christmas parties. But what a fun month! Here are some pictures to recap our month.

Church Christmas Program. This captures their personalities so well. Henry with his shirt untucked and a funny face. Jack all put together and posing and Evelyn just along for the ride!

We had fun with a weekend visit from Kim, and we talked her into helping us with decorating cookies.

Kylie helped us with our gingerbread house!

Boys slept out by the Christmas tree.

My favorite picture from Christmas! Love that they are actually looking at the camera.

They each got 3 presents this year, 1 which was a family gift of a trampoline!

Went to Iowa City while Steve went on a High School Youth Retreat. It was perfect weather to be outside (for 1 day!).

Knuckles and Evelyn watching Elmo on someone's phone.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas!

Thanksgiving 2013

2013-11-29T20:09:00.001-08:00

Henry was ready to show us all he learned about the 1st Thanksgiving at preschool!

My dad and brother came down from Minnesota on Wednesday. We started our time off at our church's Thanksgiving Eve service. It was fun to have them there with us.

Thursday morning we had rolls and donuts that my dad brought down from Toby's...yum! Evelyn loves donuts! Every time we say 'what does Bapa bring' she says..donuts!

We had a MN Thanksgiving with Walleye and some side dishes and fresh blueberry pie for dessert! Yum!

We are blessed! Steve, Nels and my dad went to a movie and stopped at Walmart for some shopping and the kids and I stayed home and watched a movie and ate popcorn! And the kids took a bubble bath.

What a great day!

Year in pictures!

2013-11-17T13:05:00.001-08:00

Since I haven't blogged in over a year I thought this would be a quick way to get caught up!

We spent a lot of time swimming...in Lake Vermilion, our local pool, and any other place we could! Henry learned how to swim on his own this summer! (This is a picture of Jack)

Evelyn kept us really busy with all her growing and new tricks! She is a busy one!

Made use of the many boxes we were saving...boys made a combine, tractor and grain cart! Yes, we live in NW Iowa!

We went to the Underground Mine when it was freezing and windy on vacation!

Spent time in Duluth. And yes, this happened.

Had a football player, pirate and ladybug for Halloween.

And most exciting is we bought a new house!!

Blogging from phone?

2013-11-09T03:40:00.001-08:00

This is a test to see how well this really works! I obviously haven't blogged in over a year so maybe I would if it was from my phone? Who knows. But I sure do enjoy going back and seeing what I wrote in years past!

Here's what I woke up to this morning:

Month of June

2012-09-14T05:27:00.001-07:00

Okay, I know this is going backwards but this is the only way I can think of to get the blog back up-to-date! I thought about it and didn't want to skip the summer because we were getting adjusted to a new town, friends, etc. It was hard at times but we're coming through on the other side.

We officially moved to Albert City on June 2nd. I can't explain to you the emotions as our entire house (that we LOVED) was being packed up into the back of a semi. It was hard to leave our first house that we had bought and spent a lot of time fixing up to be just the way we wanted it. We lived in Marshalltown for 8 1/2 years and our house for 8 years. Of course I was experiencing all these emotions while having a 5 week old baby. I still have memories of walking back through the house with all the rooms empty as I reflected in each room the tears were falling and I could hardly face that we then had to say good-bye to our friends, who became more like family to us. Looking back at this time it still brings tears to my eyes. Thank you friends for everything! We love and miss you terribly!

Loading the semi....can't believe how much stuff we had!

We were thankfully able to all ride in the van together, another person that came to help us move from Albert City drove our car. That was such a relief, I was wondering how I was going to drive a van with 3 kids and deal with all the emotions I was having. The church sent a van of people to help us and a semi to haul our things. Once we arrived in Albert City to our "new" house there seemed to be 1/2 the town here to greet us. I seriously think that there were 30 people waiting to unload our things and help us set up our house. We took a break and people had prepared a meal, and then it was back to helping us set up. We arrived in Albert City around 5:00 and went to bed that night with all our beds set up and made and our kitchen unpacked. What a blessing!

Bapa came to help and we took a night off to go to Storm Lake

We spent the rest of the month getting settled and organized. My dad came to help with the big organizing (the garage and basement), Linda came and helped with the kids (just when I was having a break-down) so that was perfect timing, and the Bolands came to help me decorate!

Evelyn at 2 months old

Father's Day picture of Super Dad

2 months old....a great sleeper at night!

Swimming at the local pool, walking to the library and playing with new friends at the church park quickly filled our days. Our neighbor hosted a baby shower for Evelyn and I, which was a great time of getting to know ladies in town. Our goal was to not drive anywhere unless we left town, which I think we accomplished that goal! I was also introduced to Bunco as a ladies night event once a month so that was a nice mom's night out!

Stay tuned for July and August!

Evelyn!

2012-05-15T13:39:00.002-07:00

It's a girl! Evelyn Ann Stepec was born on April 25th at 10:45am. She weighed 8 lbs 1 oz and was 20 inches long. We were so excited that she was a girl! It was a fun surprise and we are blessed.

Here's the story:

I was put on bed rest because I had Pregnancy-Induced Hypertension on April 17th. I was really bummed and it was a lot harder emotionally than I ever thought it would be. After a week I was really starting to lose my patience. I was only 36 weeks when I was placed on bed rest. I had 2 appointments a week for an ultrasound and a non-stress test. It was neat to see a baby at 37 weeks since the only other ultrasounds I had were at 20 weeks. I was finally determined to enjoy the time that I didn't have a newborn in the house and spent time watching movies with Steve and playing games with Jack and Henry. At 1:30am my water broke, when I got up to use the bathroom. We headed to the hospital around 2:00 because I was having contractions.

I was settled into my room with everything set to go around 2:30am, with hopes to get some sleep. Yea right! Steve was snoring away in the chair next to the bed....but I watched all kinds of TV and couldn't shut my mind off knowing we were going to have a baby in a matter of hours.

The doctor came in at 7:00am and I was at a 4, which was a surprise since with the boys I had to be induced once my water broke because my body didn't go into labor on it's own. Before I knew it I was at a 8 and the party was starting! I didn't have to push for too long...and before I knew it they were yelling for the doctor to come (who had to run over from his office at the clinic). I had to wait to push her out. That was by far the worst part of the entire delivery. It seemed like it took him 30 minutes to get there, even though it was probably more like 30 seconds! :)

When they told me it was a girl, I was so shocked! What a gift. I seriously thought I was going to have a boy.

Saylor

2012-04-20T15:08:00.000-07:00

After 9 years, we said good-bye to dear Saylor. She is staying in Marshalltown, and has been adopted by a wonderful family with 6 kids. It was not an easy decision since she was our first "baby" but it was what needed to be done. Jack has had the hardest time with all of it, he cried and cried when she left. He wrote a letter to send with her so she could always remember her. The saddest thing was that he wanted a picture taken with her so he could put it in his room.

This picture just breaks my heart:

It is so weird to have a pet around for 9 years and now have none! No one runs and greets us at the door or cleans up all the food that gets dropped.

She is missed.

Easter 2012

2012-04-18T14:55:00.007-07:00

Easter was a little unique this year because it was at the end of our Spring Break. Not only that but I couldn't travel because of being pregnant and they were watching my blood pressure. So we stayed home for the week and had a lot of fun doing and making different things.
We started our week off with homemade donuts:

Another day we made s'mores with peeps:

We ended the week making homemade ice cream in our new ice cream maker! YUM!

One last thing (not involving eating) we dyed Easter eggs...

My dad and brother came down for Easter weekend. We had our Easter dinner on Saturday since I had to go back to school on Monday and people needed to travel home on Sunday afternoon. It was a great weekend and again we all had fun hanging out around town. I was not very good with the camera when everyone was here! I didn't take any pictures.

The Easter Bunny came on Easter morning and brought exciting things like new makers, toothbrushes and toothpaste! :)

boy or girl?

2012-03-16T17:13:00.003-07:00

Tonight when Jack was writing a birthday card to someone and he was writing our names on it. Then he went on to say, "I better like the new baby's name". I'm thinking he is hoping the name is short and not long. We will see. He has his heart set on a girl, we keep telling him how much fun another brother would be but he has not bought into that yet. I assured him that if it's another brother then he will have someone else to wrestle with, or play superheroes with. We are getting excited around here to meet this new little one. Hopefully at least a couple more weeks left. I am 33 weeks now, and we're hoping to make it to at least 35 weeks. Jack was born at 35 weeks and Henry was born at 36 weeks.

The rest of our life changes are continuing on. Steve is working every other weekend in Albert City, so we have been really busy with that. On the weekends he is home we're trying to get things organized/packed/etc. We spent last weekend at an All Church Retreat with our new church family and we are really looking forward to getting to know them more and be a part of the church and community.

Because I can't seem to post without adding a picture...we are all looking forward to this! Still crazy to think there will be another one added to this picture by the time we're at the lake again.

The 80 degree weather here has sure been nice!

Valentine's Day

2012-02-28T16:26:00.000-08:00

This is a very late post...but I guess February isn't officially over yet! We had a great low-key Valentine's Day. The boys and I along with a friend made and frosted cookies to share with people. The boys picked out a Batman shirt for Steve at Target on a Sunday when Steve was gone for the weekend and as soon as Steve came in the door Henry asked him if he got his new shirt yet. He was too excited! Steve got his present a little early...we gave the boys each a pair of swim goggles since Henry is starting swimming lessons. Steve bought us donuts for the morning and we ended up eating at Jimmy Johns for supper because of a house showing. Hopefully sometime when our lives calm down a bit Steve and I can sneak out for an evening out or something!

Jack also got to celebrate with a party at preschool. Last year he was sick so he wasn't able to go so he was beyond excited to use his box that him and Grammy made last year!

Here's the Valentine's he made:

house sold!

2012-02-26T16:21:00.003-08:00

Our house went on the market on Super Bowl Sunday and on Valentine's Day we were presented with an offer we couldn't refuse! We couldn't believe it. God is amazing! The other really awesome thing about it is we're not closing until June 5th, which means I can stay and finish out the school year should the baby come before his/her due date! Not really looking forward to that part, so hopefully the timing will all work out so I don't have to go back.

So now we've officially started house hunting in Albert City. We will see what happens, in a small town you really don't have too many choices. We both really like 1 house, which is a foreclosure which means more hoops to jump through before we know if we even have a chance. I know it will all work out how it's suppose to but it's hard not to get a little anxious about it.

changes at the Stepec house...

2012-02-11T06:05:00.000-08:00

Albert City here we come!

Over the next couple months are lives are going to be changing a lot! I am due with #3 at the beginning of May (which will probably mean sometime in April)...and Steve got a job in northwestern Iowa! He is working part-time now, which means he is working a couple weekends a month. It's about 3 hours from here to our new town.

We are moving before June since Steve starts full-time June 1st. All the while I am finishing the school year here, hoping the timing of the maternity leave will all work out so I don't have to go back at the end of the year. Oh yes, and we need to sell our house and look for another one! Needless to say, I think the rest of my pregnancy is going to go really fast! :)

The name of the neighboring town is Pocahontas, we stayed here during the interviews, etc. Here's a picture of Pocahontas and Steve! Seriously, I know you all want to come and visit and see this! :)

Henry is 3!

2012-01-28T07:41:00.000-08:00

We have celebrated Henry's 3rd birthday all month it seems like. The 4 of us celebrated on the 10th (his real birthday) and then Grammy watched them for a weekend and they celebrated again, and then just this morning we had his "party" with the Bolands, Knuckles and Bapa. Here are some pictures of all the fun!

Birthday breakfast at the bakery! Yum!

present time...

birthday cupcakes at home...

cake Steve made for his breakfast birthday party this morning...

We love you Henry!

New Stepec!

2012-01-17T14:46:00.000-08:00

In May we're expecting #3! We couldn't be more thrilled to be able to welcome another member into our family. Here's a video I made to tell my students...enjoy!

Christmas 2011

2012-01-15T14:36:00.001-08:00

After many months of not blogging I am finally updating about Christmas. It's been a really weird winter here in Iowa. We have no snow and haven't had any snow all year. The kids are wondering when it's going to come so they can play in the snow. This year we had a quiet, relaxing Christmas here in Marshalltown.

Here are the boys on Christmas Morning: (yes, I still buy them matching pjs)

My dad and brother came down for the weekend, and then on Christmas Day we traveled to Iowa City to spend Christmas with family. We stayed there until Wednesday, and then came home for a night before heading to Missouri to visit my grandparents. The boys had fun staying at a hotel and swimming in the pool, so it was a great overnight!

I apologize for how long it took me to post and how few pictures I have. I keep forgetting to carry around my camera. One more thing to work on I guess...

Fall Fun!

2011-10-10T14:45:00.000-07:00

We went to the Oktemberfest parade:

Jack ran in the Fun Run (1/4 mile):

Trip to Carol's Pumpkin Patch for a preschool field trip:

Oh yes, and a not so fun part....a shelf in the bathroom that was up high that just so happen to have my basket of nail polish on it went crashing to the floor in the bathroom. It will require sanding, priming and repainting part of the bathroom. Did I mention this happened 20 minutes before my in-laws came for the weekend?

Never a dull moment here in Iowa!

Jack's Birthday!

2011-10-08T13:45:00.000-07:00

I still can't believe that Jack is 5 years old! Where does the time go? It makes me sad to think that in a year from now he'll be off to kindergarten. Yikes! He is a sweet boy who loves to play with Henry and look out for him. He is very into anything superhero like and is finally thinking that writing his name is okay. He goes to preschool 3 mornings a week and loves it (and I think Steve does too!). He is transitioning from naps to "rest time" so that's kind of weird for me on the weekend. An hour just goes too fast for my nap! :)

We celebrated his birthday over 3 weekends. The first was at Grammy's house. She made a fruit tort and we ate tacos (one of Jack's favorite meals).

For his birthday party Bapa came down to visit so that was fun! Bapa was here for a few days so that was a special treat. Jack was having asthma issues and Bapa left with bronchitis but hopefully he'll still come back!

Grandma and Grandpa Stepec came down for a weekend and we had fun too! Of course Jack got the flu but at least it was a quick bug and we were still able to have fun. A trip to the apple orchard was also had that weekend.

Jack we love you and are such a blessing to our family!

back to school

2011-09-07T05:04:00.000-07:00

We have been back to school for 2 weeks....

Jack started preschool at Sonshine Preschool here in town and goes 3 mornings a week and LOVES it! After I had him all ready to get a new teacher and not have his best friend, Ava, in his class we get to Open House and he has his amazing teacher from last year AND Ava is in his class.

Henry not too excited to be a part of 1st day pictures

notice how Jack wanted to stand in front of my 1/2 dead plants...nice.

sweet brothers

finally at preschool

our Minnesota summer...

2011-09-05T04:46:00.000-07:00

We spent 6 weeks in Minnesota at the lake! It was amazing. The weather was perfect and we couldn't have asked for a better summer. The boys loved swimming everyday, fishing off the dock, going for boat rides and playing in the woods! You would think they live in Iowa where there are no lakes you would want to swim in and are surrounded by corn fields.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from our time.

We had or annual 4th of July crew there...20 of us total! It was a blast!

Went to Duluth to visit the Stepecs and were able to sneak down to Canal Park. Makes me miss living in Duluth!

The boys both figured out how to jump off the pontoon!

Paddled around the beach in a raft with Jaxin (probably talking about being pirates or something)

Held Laurin (Jack's favorite thing to do when we saw them)

Spent a week with family

Hung out with friends and laughed so hard we cried...

Thank you for a great summer!

Minnesota!

2011-06-30T16:53:00.000-07:00

We're off to Minnesota and will be out of our house for 6 weeks! Yikes. It will be an adventure that's for sure. Looking forward to some time away and being "unplugged" from the world! Sorry you won't get the daily updates like our Montana trip. It will be random when we go to a place with wireless.

If you need us you know where to find us! :)

Sue

2011-06-25T06:53:00.001-07:00

I should have posted this before we even went to Montana. But just wanted to share how we know Sue. She was one of my mom’s many friends and they met when my mom lived in Montana. My mom had gone out and visited Sue for a week just 2 weeks before the accident. Sue then came back to Minnesota for the funeral and we were able to reconnect. Since then we have exchanged Christmas letters, facebook messages and random phone calls.

Her friendship is such a blessing to me. She reminds me so much of my mom…always laughing, very welcoming to anyone, and just a dear. It was seriously like spending a week with my mom! Amazing. A true blessing.

As I am typing this I am so thankful for the time I got to spend with her and get to know her more. I was so glad she finally got to meet Jack and Henry. They loved her, as we all do!

I miss you already, Sue! I can’t wait for our next phone call or facebook chat!

We LOVE you!

Day 11 - Last day in Montana

2011-06-25T06:45:00.000-07:00

Last Day on Flathead Lake

We drank coffee outside on the patio, which was one of my highlights. I never got sick of the amazing view! Seriously…..I was in awe! The boys got to go to their favorite playground one last time on the 4 wheeler with Steve.

They like to play restaurant there. It’s a great playground at a little school in Dayton. Jack did the monkey bars all by himself! He came back and told everyone! He was so proud of himself.

I went to Polson by myself to get some snacks for the trip and shopped a downtown at adorable little shops. Everyone was so nice. I met some new friends! It was a refreshing afternoon!

The boys loved to go with Chris to the dump. They were beyond excited when they got to throw the garbage in. Here’s the view from near the dump. Just like in Iowa....yea right!

We were treated to supper at Fazooli’s. It was this great Italian place on the lake. We all got all you can eat spaghetti and meatballs and it came with a ½ pound meatball.

(notice the huge door!)

We finished our last night in style by having a bonfire and roasting s'mores.

I can’t believe it went so fast! We had an amazing vacation and can’t wait to go back. We all miss them already! Many tears were shed as we pulled out of the driveway yesterday.

Day 10 - Flathead Lake

2011-06-22T16:18:00.002-07:00

Flathead Lake Day!

It has been a fabulous day here in Montana! We have been outside playing in the water and relaxing!

Day 9 - Glacier National Park

2011-06-22T14:57:00.001-07:00

Yesterday we went to Glacier National Park!

Henry was reading the map for us...yes, it was sideways and backwards.

We went on a hike to Avalanche Lake...it was so muddy! Jack walked the 2 miles into the lake, I couldn't believe it! We carried Henry because he would have been in all the mud and loved every moment of it. They both got carried out or we would still be on the trail.

We saw a black bear on the trail. I couldn't believe it stayed that close.

Avalanche Lake. It was incredible views! The waterfalls were coming off the mountains and you could hear them. There was so much snow left.

Avalanche Gorge

We didn't get to go on Going to the Sun Road because it was still closed from all the snow. So I guess we'll just have to come back out sometime.

We went out to eat at Mackenzie River Pizza Company. It was so yummy! What a treat after hiking all day.

In this cute town on Flathead Lake is a town called Lakeside. They have this decoy police car and policeman sitting in it. I couldn't believe it! I laughed so hard I was crying. Check out his mustache and glasses. Not to mention the car says "Lakeside Decoy". They move the car every so often. Can you imagine that job? Slide over the mummy and change locations.

Day 8 - Whitefish Mountain/Hungry Horse Dam

2011-06-22T14:35:00.001-07:00

We drove to Whitefish Mountain to go on the alpine slides and ride the chairlifts. Well, it was raining so no alpine slides but we still got to ride the chairlifts. The boys loved it! I guess that means they are ready for skiing! Maybe this winter?

We also drove to Hungry Horse Dam. It was amazing how far down that goes. Jack and the boys loved the waterfalls. Henry was again wondering if we packed his swimsuit.

Waterfalls at Hungry Horse

View from the top of Hungry Horse Dam.

We finished off the day with Huckleberry Ice Cream at a sweet shop. The boys were so well behaved that the store owner gave them a little stuffed bear. Melt my heart! They have been so good on this vacation I can't believe it!