Promotion, Snow grilling, Vickies and Grown Sexy

This past weekend we spent some time with family. On Friday I received amazing news and I was promoted at work!!!

Jumping up and down like I'm a 15 year old girl that just won tickets to Bruno Mars. - Yes that excited!

You know that feeling when you work hard and are honest and dedicated and it all pays off?! That's what I feel like right now. 

So after that amazing news Saturday my sister and niece Catalina came over. We lounged and in the evening -much snow grilling carne asada happened! Here's a shot of the delicious meat!!!

I caught the hubs with his brothers John and Jorge. -It was freezing but so delicious. 

The end of the night we wound down with some wine, good laughs and stories.

Then Sunday was Victoria Secrets special after hours sale. I was invited to attend with my friend Jenn and we had a blast. Great sales, music and raffles! 

The only issue I had was the weekend flew by oh so fast. 

....this weekend is Valentines Day. I secretly love this holiday!!! And yes there's always that one person that is bitter about it and says "I don't need a holiday to remind my loved ones I love them" or the even better statement around how overly commercialized it is. But as Lina would say "I don't care! I love it!!!" I like the idea that there's a day for love because let's face it our lives are busy and we forget. It's a nice reminder to give love, show love and make love. 

Now if only we can get a reservation. I'm thinking something Grown Sexy! Lol

Happy Birthday Baby It's Cold Outside

Last weekend was a blast. Rolf planned my whole birthday weekend - He did a "love bird" theme and organized such an amazing weekend I will never forget. 

Here are a few pics. 

Spoilers: We went to dinner, Corky Canvas, The Holland Center for "Behind the Mask" and Gloss Day Spa. 

Birthday Breakfast - I LOVE CRISPY BACON!!! 😃

Dinner @ The Green Gateau - such a quaint little romantic restaurant 

We tried Lavosh!!

The Corky Canvas (Wine 🍷and Art 🎨) - they even gave me a CROWN!👑 

My delicious custom pink champagne cake!

Then massages and chocolate oil full body treatment. Fun fact when we picked up Em she said the car smelled delicious like tootsie rolls. 

The next day the snow officially arrived and it is so cold. I made some yummy veg rotini with sausage, ground beef and fresh Parmesan with some garlic cheese bread to warm us up!

Then the kiddies had the day off of school "snow day" and Em made very cute "snow sculptures."

She was so happy to show me after work. Such a doll!

...birthday weekend...dance like there's no one watching

Let's try this again....

Learned a good lesson - be careful not to close your blog window because you lose your writing. 

It's my birthday weekend. Yes that means I'm getting older but really that doesn't bother me. I enjoy growing up and gathering wisdom. I look forward to all of the lessons life still has in store for me. I told my sister the they night that I'm aging like a fine wine. 

Thursday night I came home from work. It was a busy chaotic week. It was meeting after meeting and so much change and I was exhausted. I think we often forget that we can slow down in all of the chaotic moments and just meditate. I forgot that and was exhausted. But when I got home I was met with such an amazing display of love. 

Rolf made me a candlelit bubble bath with wine, music, cupcake and my kindle. I am an obsessive reader. I enjoy YA series and have an expansive imagination. I am easily lost in a good series and he knows this. Seeing these things made my heart swell. Not because of the "stuff" but because he cares enough to listen to me and try to help me relax, this being the only way he knew how. I think we often forget, in those moments, that we need to stop and really just let it all in and feel the overwhelming warmth of love. 

Friday I worked half day and decided to surprise Rolf by getting my haircut. Why is that a big deal? I used to go to this girl at Regis Salon. Well she moved away and I no longer had a stylist. - no big deal right?!

Wrong- growing up my mom used to keep my hair cut very short. It made sad because I wanted long hair but she didn't like it long so she chopped it off regularly. So I do not trust people to cut my hair. Rewind to the past- in September I asked for hair stylist recommendations and received many. But one problem-me! I didn't know what to do or who to trust. So Friday I scheduled the appointment with one of my recommendations and caved. Drum roll please...

Rolf loved it. So much he wanted to try this amazing new salon too. Scissori - they are great. I used Bob and Rolf used Dori. Highly recommended. They are personable and honest. Which puts them high in my book. 

So here we are on Saturday. We cut Rolf's hair and picked up my secret cake. I guess  not supposed to see it until tomorrow. :) I am just so happy just to have quality time with my honey no matter what we are doing. But tonight we are off to Lincoln for dinner at Green Gateau and fun at the Corky Canvas. There's something symbolic about the fact that we're going to paint a picture tonight. The picture that starts out a blank canvas and become a beautiful blend of light and dark colors. The picture that we will display in the home we built and will forever remember this day. 

It reminds me of how we built our life and continue to build our life together. I'm blessed beyond words and so tonight we dance like there's no one watching. ❤️

Making plans...have you heard the one about the lotus birth?

The week is halfway through and boy has it been busy. We have so much going on!

Plans are underway for this weekends

Birthday festivities. I'm looking forward to 5 days of quality time with the hubs. We will be dining out and going to Corky Canvas (super excited) ... Plus whatever else my honey has up his sleeves. 

Today we also continued plans for the future by meeting with a potential OB. She was very informative and had great knowledge for all of our questions. 

During the appointment I found myself wondering if many couples actually spend time interviewing the OB...It's important to us that we have our plan and that our OB supports the plan. We do not want someone that does not have the time to spend with us or our best interests in mind. So we were pleasantly surprised to have our time with her for our interview. 

Let me just say I thought I had too many questions but no I had enough...and I was blessed to have a husband with just as many. :) *peas in a pod

After the meeting I am comfortable enough to say that I am pretty sure she's the one. It's great to have that decision made. Now onward. 

I will say from a facilities standpoint, Methodist Women Center really is a beautiful hospital and so that's a huge plus. The decor is calming and modern, the rooms are private and it's so quiet.Patients  get a dedicated nurse and doctor without all of the additional doctors/nurses chaos. 

We are all for a peaceful entry into this world so that definitely earned some brownie points in our book. 

When we had our son it was at St Joseph (a teaching hospital) which means it was heavily obtrusive. There were probably 10 doctors and residents/interns in there at any given time in rotation. It was chaos that I would not want to relive. Then with Em we delivered at Alegent which was a little more private but still a few additional doctors sprinkled around the room. So we are ecstatic about the privacy from a medical staff standpoint.  

Now - classes - I'm so interested in learning more and continuing on this awesome journey. So much has changed and so many studies on different health benefits and processes (Delayed cord cutting, first nursing immediately after, skin on skin contact...in addition to some other interesting things that were not for us i.e. lotus birth - if you do not know what that is look it up). :)

Exciting things to come from the Rasmussens. Happy Wednesday. 

Babies, Food and Fun

Whew what a busy weekend! But we wind down and next weekend is my birthday! Crazy how fast time flies by, we are almost a complete month into the new year. Looking forward to a long weekend and tons of quality time with my love. 

Back to this weekend. We spent lots of time with family. 

Friday night was quality time with our sisters Amanda and Alicia, brother George, Mike and our beautiful little nieces or as I like to call them our squishies Catalina (Lili), Lenyx, Jayden and our awesome nephews Kane and Gavin. 

Quick photo op of me, Annie and Lenyx

Then Saturday the fun continued. Annie, George and Lili had a slumber party at our place.  While they stayed over I reconfirmed my continued belief that my husband is absolutely one of a kind - amazing. He's so wonderful with little ones and it just melts my heart every time I see him being such a gentle man. I captured this picture of him and the girls and it just solidifies in my heart that we are meant to continue to expand our family. I am so blessed to have him. 

Enough of the heavy...I did some delicious cooking this weekend as well. 

Shrimp, Andouille Sausage and Chicken Étouffée - one of Rolf's faves. The dish has shrimp, andouille sausage, chicken, green pepper, celery, onion, garlic in a roux with some additional chicken broth to make it stew-like. Served over rice, it's rico!

Today I also spent the afternoon having a girls day with my squish Em. We went shopping and got super cute pedicures. 

All in all a great weekend of laughs, fun and memories! 

And the countdown begins...

As we sat watching The Bachelor (what I have dubbed revisit the old couples special) the other night my mind started to wander. Our 10 years of marriage is next spring in May and I have literally been thinking about a renewal every day for about the last few years. 

I know that sounds amazing! My planning kicked in already. Small, intimate and outdoors in a garden. 

But before all of that....My thoughts immediately went to vows. I know this will sound mushy but when I daydream it's about my Rolf. So vows come easily to me because he speaks to my soul every day not just one day or on special anniversaries. 

I didn't start into the where it will be and who will be there but instead went to all of the words and ways in the universe that express my unwavering love for him. 

It's probably no surprise that my love language is affirmation. And to me he is the definition of love in my heart, soul, mind and body...

I resolve to...write more and....

I decided that going into this year I wanted to spend more time writing..soo

This week has been great! 

First, I kicked it off with supporting my wonderful sister, Amanda as she brought my little squishy-niece into the world. 

Such a great honor and experience. 

Here's a super adorable picture of her and my Emma. (Name - TBD)... 😃

Then today I had the privilege of going to the O-WIN (Women Influence Network) conference to kick off my day. The conference was focused on self awareness, social awareness, relationship networking and emotional intelligence. 

The five values that mattered most to me were (to no surprise):

- Love

- Encourage 

- Integrity

- Be Spiritual

- Learn

Of the five I chose "encourage" as the key value I wanted to work harder at mastering. I find I can get distracted or focused on opportunity over recognizing the chance to encourage. So definitely something I want to work on to improve. 

Check out this super cute table-scape! 

The rest of the day was pretty packed with meetings and catching up from the long weekend. 

After arriving home I started dinner. 

I made Mexican Potpies using my ramekins that I have had for maybe two years and finally just broke them out today. Delicious!

All in all it was a great day to continue on this wonderful 2014 journey!

The year has been so great thus far! 

I look forward to all of the amazing things yet to come this year. And...Rolf and I are planning some magical things this year too. Spoilers!