Happy Anniversary-A day late

I meant to post this yesterday but Brent had a big anniversary surprise for me that I will write about later this week :)
February 4, 2012

I am truly a lucky lady to call Brent my husband.  I laugh every single day because of him and am truly blessed that I get to spend the rest of my life with him!  Thank you Brent for an amazing year 1!

And to look back some of my favorite pictures from our wedding

Have a good week!

Mindy

Winter Wonderland

This past Saturday we got out to enjoy the beautiful winter day.  Friends of ours told us last year when the pond in the park froze over the restaurant that was right by it had an outdoor stand where they sold hot chocolate and split pea soup.  We decided to check in out and the stand was there!  

Split pea is Brent's favorite and thankfully is a common dutch soup

Don't mind the snowflake in front of my face-great timing for pictures!

One of the fires that the restaurant had set up

Enjoying my hot cocoa and the snow!

The temperature was perfect.  Not too cold, but cold enough that is was still snowing, perfect winter day!  It is a good thing we did this on Saturday.  That night it rained and all of the snow is gone and the pond is no longer frozen!

BabyUpdate-15 weeks

Baby is just over 15 weeks and is the size of an avocado

I can't believe how fast the time has gone since we found out we were pregnant.  We found out at 5 weeks and that seems like it was just yesterday.  Thankfully most of the unappealing side affects of the 1st trimester have gone away and my energy level is starting to increase.  Although, I am thinking some of these food aversions are here to stay!

Brent and I have been very lucky and have been able to see Baby Anderson twice already!  Our most recent ultrasound we could see baby sucking on its fingers, which was so amazing! We are both already looking forward to our next ultrasound at 20 weeks.  We have also decided not to find out what we are having so bring on the guesses :) 

For comparison below is my picture at 13 weeks.  I am going to try and wear the same shirt every picture and hopefully it will make comparisons easier!

The start of a bump... or I just had a big breakfast :) 

Coming soon...

Brent and I are adding another Anderson to the world!!! We are due July 13, 2013!

 I will update periodically about how the pregnancy is going so you can all feel like you are right here with me :) 

Snow Day!!

The past couple days have brought some snow to Utrecht.  Now being Minnesotan, this is hardly any snow, but it makes things shut down here.  Yesterday schools were closed and trains were turning around and returning back to where the came from.  They may not know how to function with the snow but it sure it pretty!

The pond in the park by our house

The trains may not run, but the bikers do!

Bridge in the park

Have a good day!

Mindy

Christmas Market part 2

Our second day in Cologne we explored more of the markets and just took in the city.  

We of course tried more of the food options at markets!

Had to start my day with a fine German pretzel :) It was delicious

Market during the day

Baileys and Coffee for B and a keepsake mug of course! 

 Train that was giving rides in between the markets

Entrance to the market outside of our hotel 

Amazing mushrooms! 

These stars are in a ton of homes in the Netherlands, really wishing we would have bought on at the market! 

Brent loved the way the cooked this fish and could only imagine how amazing it would taste

Some delicious potato cake things- we each couldn't even finish one of them they were so filling!

After walking through Cologne for awhile we drove about an hour to Maastricht(the most southern city in the Netherlands) for the night.  Because the city is so close to the German border it has a ton of German influence and of course had a Christmas market. 

The ice skating rink in the market. I thought this tree was so pretty 

Carolers singing in the rain

The biggest difference between the German markets and the Dutch one, was the people selling the brats in Germany had ketchup and mustard for toppings and in the Netherlands they had ketchup and Mayo. Anyone who has visited knows that they love Mayo here!

The night on our way back to the hotel the was a lights show along the river.  They had Christmas images and music displayed on this huge screen.  The picture isn't the best but it was pretty cool and had a lot of people out watching it.

It was a really nice weekend and look forward to visiting Christmas markets again next year!

Christmas Market Part 1

The weekend before Christmas Brent and I went to Cologne, Germany for the Christmas markets.  It was so much fun! They definitely do Christmas right.  The markets had many homemade gifts for sale and a lot of food and drinks.  We got there Friday night so everything was lit up with Christmas lights, which made it so festive and got us in the Christmas mood.

First thing for Brent was of course getting a brat 

 One of the buildings in the market

One of the markets with the Dom Cologne in the background 

This picture is blurry because this Ferris wheel was going really fast- way faster than any Ferris wheel I would ever ride! 

The drinks(hot chocolate, mulled wine and spiked cider) all came in these mugs and you pay 1 euro more when you order and after your finished you can either keep the mug or return and get your euro back 

So many fresh fruit items dipped in chocolate, we also had the chocolate covered strawberries..Amazing!!

Entrance to one of the markets 

Inside one of the markets

There were a lot of families out ice skating

One of the fun signs

I loved these markets! Everyone was so relaxed and happy and that is not something you always see the Friday before Christmas!

I'll recap the rest of the trip in a separate post this week!

Have a good Monday!

Happy New Year!

Happy 2013 everyone!! Brent and I had a great 2012 and are looking forward to an amazing 2013!! 13 has always been my lucky number :) 

We celebrated with friends at our house

Then we headed over to their place to watch some fireworks.  The fireworks were insane! The were everywhere and went on for over 45 minutes

The windmill made a great backdrop for the fireworks- doesn't get any more Dutch than that :)

Not a great fireworks shot but a good one of the windmill

Sparklers after the fireworks- I love how excited Brent was about this!!

Wishing everyone a healthy and happy 2013!!