Thanksgiving with the Houge Crew

What a fun celebration weekend we had with Paul's fam in Minnesota. We have 11 Houge nieces and nephews and they are all growing up! oh my! I haven't been to Minnesota since last New Year's and in the meantime Austin's (6th grader) voice has changed and he is quite the hockey player. We got to see him play on Friday. The 2 year olds, Greta, Noah & Cole are little talkers. Lauren and John are amazing swimmers and I didn't even recognize Madison...I thought she was her older sister. Needless to say, it was a great trip catching up with everyone. I even met a lot of Paul's cousins. I wish miles didn't keep us so far away. Pictured is Greta, our Goddaughter.

A Weekend to Remember

Wow, what an amazing weekend. We decided to take advantage of our pre-kiddos days and go to a marriage conference this weekend in Estes Park. We thought, we have a great marriage, but let's go check this out anyways. Well, we realized that we have some communication issues, but received tools to enhance that. I think I cried so much this weekend at meaningful stories as well as just how wonderful of a guy I married. Today we listened to a tape recorded by couples married more than 50 years. It made me so joyfully teary-eyed thinking about the many memories Paul and I have to come in our marriage together. We are so excited about bringing our marriage to another level. We would recommend this conference to any couple...it truly is "A Weekend to Remember". Oh, when we woke up this morning there were elk grazing right outside our balcony. That was a sweet God gift.

Dessert with the Steiners

Ramona's parents have been in town and came over last night for dessert and fun. I loved making a gourmet dessert and paul was so excited about making a fire in our pit:) We had a great time catching up with the Steiners.

100%

OK, so we are totally proud of our cousin Lance (Tammy's cousin who is staying with us while he is finishing his training as a United pilot). He had to take a huge test over the systems of the plane and while all of the other pilots are struggling with the test and some are failing...Lance gets a 100% on the thing! I know what pilot I want to fly our plane! We celebrated with brownies.

Wedding and Birthday

My birthday was wonderful...woke up to Paul making toad in the hole breakfast (our birthday breakfast that is french toast with eggs in the middle). I got to celebrate my birthday at Marika and Nate's wedding. It was beautiful and very fun. Wow, Marika, you are married:) But only Marika would think of others at her wedding...after Nate and Marika cut their cake, she asked me to come up and everyone sang Happy Birthday and I got to have the first piece of cake. That was absolutely the most thoughtful thing someone could do at their wedding! It was so fun to celebrate their new life together (and I forgot my camera:( ) ...Happy Honeymoon!

Birthday Week Continues

Paul is making my birthday week rock! This summer Paul has been fixing up my mom's old bike (pictured above) that I use to ride in as a baby. We found a basket at a garage sale and yesterday Paul put a bell on it (with a bonus compass) for my birthday week. I drove around our block so proud of my little bell and vintage bike! After that, Lance, Paul & I headed downtown to watch the Rockies play. They had a 40 foot screen set up downtown Denver and we joined many others to cheer on the Rockies game. They lost by 1, but we have high hopes for them tomorrow at their mile high city.

Birthday Week

At the Houge household we have Birthday Week and have I been enjoying that! Friday night I came home to presents all over the house, thank you Paul. Saturday night we dined at a very special restaurant, Texas de Brazil. What a fun week. I get to spend my birthday at Marika & Nate's wedding and they are serving my favorite cake from Bonzaier's bakery! What a fun birthday...to be a part of new life through marriage (and eating yummy cake:))