Whew! It’s been quite a week!
I’ve been away from the blog because we’ve had a lot going on. Here’s an extensive recap:
Last week my foreigner husband concluded the extensive process of becoming legal. After almost 25 years living in the United States, he finally decided to become a U.S. citizen. It has taken almost a year of paper work and interviewing to get to the final swearing-in ceremony. But he made it, and passed the final interview. I went with him to record history.
Can you spot the only Austrian in the group?
Two things stood out to me when I was watching the whole procedure. The first was when the Master of ceremonies, a career government guy, was asked if certain seats were being saved for the translators. To which he replied:
Translators? Ma’am, this is for your U.S. Citizenship. There will be no translators at this ceremony.
The other was when this guy, the second-in-command Master of Ceremonies began his patriotic speech with this:
I love this country. You wanna know why I love this country so much? Because we don’t take no crap from nobody!
We’re coming to America,
We’re coming to America,
TODAY!
Congratulations Hubby!
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Later that day, for Erik’s birthday, we trekked over to the Discovery Center of Idaho and played with lots of science.
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My sister Jennifer, and her family came out for the weekend to celebrate Erik’s 8th birthday and baptism with us.
It was the perfect way to end our 11 days of Spring Break.
Guess where I took them?
Yep, the same theater. We caught the premiere of Monsters vs. Aliens for $2.50 a piece!
Both of my sisters are fans of Bakerella. Do you know her? She makes incredible desserts, one of which is the cake pop. After a morning of sweating to The 30 Day Shred followed by the Bar Method, we felt we’d earned a treat so we tried our hand at making cake pops. Needless to say, they were a little trickier than they sounded and we ended up with 12 finished pops and 2 trays full of cake balls on sticks. I think I’ll leave the cake pops up to Bakerella from now on.
I’m kind of a little bit obsessed with chicken coops right now. More about that in my next post. So I took Jennifer to the hatchery down the road to check out their selection of farm fowl. They were completely sold out of chicks but they did have these ducks.
Isn’t this little one adorable?
No, we didn’t make any purchases. It’s all part of my research. Soon enough. Soon enough…
The kids had the best time hanging out with their cousins.
We can’t wait to see them again in 2 weeks!
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Yesterday was Erik’s baptism. He looked so handsome in his new suit and tie. His dad baptised and confirmed him. There was such a strong Spirit during the baptism as well as the confirmation. These little kids are so sweet and innocent. The Spirit just emmanates from them. It was a wonderful day that we won’t soon forget.
Per Eriks request, after his baptism we all went to IHOP for a dinner of french toast, pancakes, eggs, bacon, sausages, omelettes, and fried shrimp. YUM! We were stuffed and happy.
Better break out those work-out DVDS again tomorrow.
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And in the midst of all the weekend activities, our little sister Ashley gave birth to her first baby. After a slow and unprogressive day of laboring, she ended up having a c-section. But he’s here and he’s absolutely adorable.
Welcome to the world Hudson
Born March 27 11:57 pm
9 lb. 4 oz. 20 inches
Congratulations Ashley & Nick
Now I can’t wait to get my hands on him! There’s nothing like a new baby.
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So, that was last week in a nutshell. It was jam packed with excitement. We had a great time with my family and missed my mom who was out helping with the new baby. We made lots of memories and shared some milestones. Here’s to back to school and a less eventful week.
Happy Monday!!!
Great pictures! We had a wonderful time. Thanks for all of the memories! Can’t wait to see you in 2 weeks!
XOXO
Jen
So many awesome events! I am glad you told us about the Bakerella pops and how they turned out. I have been wanting to make some, but scared that it would be a flop. They are so cute on the pics on their blog, but maybe it takes magic to make them so perfect.
Hey, I hope that sharing time went ok for you a week ago. Did Judy tell you the funny story about how the papers ended up with her? Sorry there wasn’t much to give you. We have Ryan to thank for that!
Oh that last photo is just beautiful. Little Hudson looks like he is smiling!
Sounds like a week of congrats for …
Your husband
Your son
Your sister
GREAT FAMILY PHOTOS!!!!!!
Good luck with that chicken coop research. We are making plans for an extensive raised vegetable garden. That comes with it’s own research
You weren’t kidding–big week! As the child of a naturalized citizen, I’m excited for your husband. Congrats to him!
big events! I love weeks like that… makes for good blogging fodder.
So interested in your chicken info… (I’m still on my preparedness kick)
I followed the bakerella posts on pioneer woman.. I was to scared to even try… good goin!
p.s… we’ve been to that museum and loved it. One of our favorites.
You are suich a beautiful family! Congrats to your husband being legal now!
Was your weekend only 2 days?! My goodness…you did alot!
Welcome to America!
I think its cool that he became a citizen after living her so many years. We just had a new employee move here from Australia.
Great post!
Congrats to your cutie patootie hubby. I found those 2 points interesting too! Love the one about no translators.
Congrats to your son! That’s such a memorable event. And to finish up with IHop & family?? Great!
Happy birthday to him as well!
Good luck on the chicken coop. We always had one growing up. And every year around this time, we’d go and get little chickies. I LOVED them! We had chickens, roosters, guinea pigs, rabbits, and doves. My grandma had all of these plus goats & ducks. More outside the chicken coop–horses, swans. Great to raise your kids around lotsa animals.
Glad you had a great time with Jen & the fam. SO fun!
ANd that Mr. Hudson is so adorable!
Wow! you were busy. So sorry I missed all the events. Tell Ralf congratulations, I’m so proud of him. The Discovery Museum looks fun (what is with Jack’s hair in the one picture?) and Erik looks so cute and handsome and little in his grown-up suit. Nice pictures of he, Ralf and all three of you. I am proud of all of you! See you in 2 weeks (I hope).
Ralf and I also worked on the new garden planters, but that achievement paled in comparison to the others. Are you going to tell the subterranean story?
WHOA……what an amazing time you’ve had. First…MAJOR CONGRATS to the hubby! It’s so cool when someone does it the RIGHT WAY….and becomes a legal citizen. And I love the bit about the “translators”. Then congrats to your son on his baptism…very cool day! And yay to the sis on her new baby. Dang what a whirlwind time you guys have been having!
Holy smokes you had a very busy week! Congrats to your hubby on being a US Citizen… I love hearing stories about people who do it the right way! That is awesome and good for you guys and your family! Second, Congrats on baby Hudson! What a darling little baby! Third, Congrats on the big baptism day, I bet you guys are so proud! and lastly, after all that fun… I think you deserve a nap!
I’m so glad to see that once in awhile you write a long saga like I do!! Ha ha We’ll have to try that theater sometime.
WHew!!! What a week–and a post–that was! So fun to see Jennifer in the pictures!!!
I loved reading about the citizenship ceremony and seeing the joy in everyone’s faces as your family enjoyed being together.
You made an honest American out of that Austrian of yours