2012.

(Preface: I recently figured out how to make it so you can comment on the blog via your Facebook account.  We'd love to hear about your 2012 highlights and what you're looking forward to in 2013! Just click comments/post a comment below if the Facebook widget doesn't automatically show up.)

Oh, how life can change in a year!

Here's how Trevor and I rang in 2012:

Flickr

Flickr

And here's how we're going to ring in 2013 this year:

 Flickr

Thinking about the past year, I got a little mushy on the latest pregnancy blog post.  Lately, it seems I am reminded every day how lucky we are to have the friends and family we have.  Honestly, I wasn't a huge fan of 2011, so I had high expectations for 2012 and I sure lucked out as it was an awesome year!  Read below for our year in review.  I am definitely pretty pumped for what 2013 has in store.

As you all know, Trevor began his third deployment journey with the MN Army National Guard in May 2011 and was still deployed to Kuwait for New Year’s. Thankfully, the stars aligned and we were able to ring in the New Year together via Skype (video chat) on Ali’s phone from a New Year’s party. In February, Ali went to visit a good friend, Tosha, in Beryl, Utah. Try to find it on a map; it’s literally in the middle of nowhere, about an hour drive to a grocery store or Wal-Mart. Ali shot a gun for the first time and watched Tosha chop wood to heat the house-it was a great getaway! Trevor made his way to the United States (Camp Shelby,Mississippi) in early April. The homecoming events for other friends on this tour began in April as well, but Trevor still had a month in MS until he would actually be home (just being in the same country was a big relief for us both!). May was probably the biggest month of the year for us. Trevor’s big homecoming was early May-what a relief to have that deployment behind us and get back to real life. We had known about it since before Trevor even came home from his previous tour, so there was essentially no break from the deployment mentality. Anyway, get back to real life we did!  Just a couple weeks later we found out we’d be welcoming our first baby in January 2013 (coming quickly!), we had an awesome welcome home party and Trevor went back to school at Minnesota State University-Mankato. Trevor is pursuing a Biology-Biomedical Sciences bachelor’s degree that will also fulfill the Pre-Dentistry requirements-lots of school ahead! Between Trevor’s two summer courses, we went to visit Ali’s aunt/uncle/cousins near Madison, WI. We always have a good time when we visit them so it was nice to be able to fit in a trip this summer. In July, Ali signed up to be a Scentsy consultant (wickless candles warmed by a light bulb rather than a flame with other home/body fragrance products, too). What started as a hobby to support our own Scentsy use has turned into much more since July. In August, we took a homecoming/baby-on-the-way vacation to Hawaii. It was amazing! We spent most of the trip on Maui, but took a day trip to Oahu to see the Pearl Harbor sights. The included photo was taken on a dinner cruise off Maui. There have been a few changes for Trevor’s military career lately. September was Trevor’s last drill with 2-135 Infantry Battalion and October was his first with a new unit, MN Medical Detachment (Med Det), part of the Office of the State Surgeon. Trevor has spent nearly his entire 13-year National Guard career (and two of his three deployments) with 2-135, an infantry unit, so transferring to a medical unit was a big change. Just one month after his first drill with Med Det, Trevor found out he was selected for a promotion to First Sergeant (E-8) into yet another new unit, C Co 134 BSB, a medical unit out of Cottage Grove. November marked the beginning of many fun gatherings, Thanksgiving and two baby showers. This month, Trevor wrapped up his hectic fall semester at MSU (Pre-Calc, Genetics and General Chemistry) now we're just wrapping up finishing the basement (OK, Trevor is) and baby prep!  Bring it on, 2013!

May you all have an amazing 2013-we're so lucky to have you all in our lives!

-A

Knock Knock.

I imagine it was odd for Ashley and Ryan to knock on the front door when they came over for dinner the other night.  Ashley lived with me for 7 months while Trevor was deployed and, thus, had her own house key.  Since I had been feeling awful and keeping the big pregnancy secret, we'd been procrastinating getting together with them since Trevor got home. 

I knew Ashley from school and mutual friends.  I actually ran into her at the post office when I saw her sending out five flat rate boxes with some confusion on the customs forms.  I assumed they were going to an APO/FPO so I sent her a Facebook message.  It turned out her boyfriend, Ryan, was in Afghanistan and she was also looking for a place to live in town, so that was that.  Ryan was an active duty Marine and just had a short time left to serve after this last deployment.  He moved back to Owatonna in December so I got to know both Ashley and him very well.

So we snacked and talked, then talked and ate.  It was good to see them and catch up, and great for them to finally meet Trevor and for him to meet them.  And just in the nick of time since they're moving to the metro area in a couple weeks.

-A

Weekend of Celebrations.

Wow!  What a busy weekend!

I suppose the weekend started Thursday-Trevor and I went up to Jon and Moe's for their groom's dinner.  Trevor hadn't seen anyone from that group of friends yet, so the timing worked out well.  We had a good time and got to visit with lots of friends and stuff our bellies with some delicious food.  Trevor spent the night because he and Jon had an early tee time Friday morning to get 9 holes in before Jon had to get his wedding on.

After golf, I picked Trevor up and we ran some errands, grabbed lunch and went to our hotel to get ready.

 Best Man & Maid of Honor.

  It's go time!

 Blurry, but cute :)

 Time to party!

After the ceremony, we went to the Varsity for the reception.  

  
It was a very cool venue, they had an awesome band and delicious food, not to mention a great assortment of hosted beverages.  We grabbed a small booth with John and Mari and waited for the festivities to begin.

 A smooch after persistent glass clanking.

Father of the Bride speech.

Best Man speech.

Maid of Honor speech that made all us ladies get teary-eyed.

Bathroom break group photo.

 The Newlyweds!

Quite the set up.

Not only do these guys throw a good party, they're known for their Rockband abilities.  So, naturally, they got up on stage to perform.

Awesome people, awesome celebration. Congrats, you two!

*******

Saturday morning we woke up and headed back home to get ready for our own big bash-the welcome home party!  We had done most of the cleaning already, but hadn't gotten to grocery shopping, getting the keg, or any set up with all our running around.  As soon as we got to town it was time to get to work!  Luckily no one showed up right on time, so we had an extra hour or so to get the food ready.  We had a great turn out of friends and family-and many people brought treats to share, too!  The weather was great and the people just kept coming, we couldn't have asked for a better day!  The party didn't end until about 4am.  Needless to say, we were all pretty worthless on Sunday, and I was pretty glad I had taken today off work.

Rhya and Danny hadn't seen Trevor until the party.

Ping pong was the game of the day.

Guess which one of us just got back from Mexico...

Ashley made friends with Elliot-he's usually fairly shy.

 We had a bubble party.

Logan was a ping pong rock star.

Layne kept finding Alan.

Nick doesn't mess around with his hugs.

Many years ago, Trevor started the tradition of sharing a very special beer with friends when he and/or they returned from a deployment.  Mike, Brian and Michelle deployed with him this time so they all shared it.  Michelle was a trooper since she doesn't like beer and this was some strong stuff.  PS-my BFF and husband are not allowed to deploy together anymore.  Not cool.

And.... we weren't expecting this, but a few people even brought gifts!

Rhya wrapped their gift with the ribbon she had around her tree.

Pretty cool, huh?  It has John 15:13 on it: Greater love hath no math than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

Speaking of pretty cool...my dad had our newspaper photo framed.

I wish I had more pictures, but we were too busy mingling and having fun, so this will have to be enough!  A big thank you to everyone who came to party and to those of you who brought goodies to share.  We have been so blessed to have such awesome friends and family in our lives and we look forward to seeing you all much more over the summer!

-A