Remembering Emily

    When you spend enough time with certain people, like the group of people you grow up with and eventually graduate with, you somehow form a bond.  Even though you aren't close with every single person, you are still bonded with your graduating class for the rest of your life.

    On Thursday, December 27 around 7:30 am, one of the members of my graduating class was murdered.  Emily Weikert's amazing life was cut short at the hands of a man who could not have been mentally stable.  You can read it in the article what he did, but I don't want to remember him in this post. 



    I have been thinking about her and, although we graduated seven years ago I can still remember her in the hallways, sitting in class, being a good person to others.  She is the kind of girl parents pray their children grow up to be.  She would be the one talking to the new kid in school, offering to show them around, introducing them to the other students.  She was on her way to being whatever she wanted, and that's not an exageration.  She was incredibly gorgeous and smart.

    I hate that it took something this awful to make me realize just how important it is to tell those people you care about, what it is that makes them special.  I would do anything to go back and tell her, that her smiling at me everytime I saw her meant so much to me.  She never seemed to have a bad day, she was always smiling and willing to help out anyone in need.  It was amazing seeing all of our classmates posting a special message to Emily on Facebook.  Everyone she ever touched left her a special message, I hope she saw mine.  We live in a big world, but our little bonded group took a heavy blow on Thursday morning, one we wont recover from.

    It is an awful feeling seeing the image and name of someone you know above the title, woman killed in parking garage.  It's eerie, like I am waiting for her to post something new on Facebook about how weird that they mixed her up with another person.

   I know she's in a better place, and I pray that in her final moments she was at peace, and I pray she knows how much she meant to so many people.  She was one of those faces that made high school for me, we had a few interesting conversations in random high school classes, and she always gave things a positive outlook.  I pray she knows how much those conversations meant to me.  She was beautiful, inside and out.


Here is a link to the news story from Thursday.

I used the same picture that has been used on the news, the same from her LinkedIn profile, because she kept her Facebook private and I wanted to make sure her privacy remaind intact.

Church Halloween Party

The kids and I had a blast yesterday at the Windsor Heights Lutheran Church Steak Fry, which is the annual Halloween party.  The costumes were fantastic and the kids had so much fun playing with their friends.  The party was held at Colby Park in their new building, which was gorgeous.

The kids on the pumpkin scavenger hunt!

Show me your pumpkins!

Getting ready to collect prizes!

Serving up some pizza and mac & cheese!

Prayer before eating!

Steaks at the steak fry and yummy breadsticks donated by Olive Garden.  Friends brought food for the potluck also, soooo good!

Faith's friend Bennett!

Decorating pumpkin cookies with frosting, sprinkles and candy!

Handing out prizes in the costume contest.

Friends at the church.  Pastor Chris makes me laugh in this one.  Guess which one he is!

Being silly during the sing along!

With Pastor Chris and his wife, Beth.

Trying to get me to give him my cupcake...yes he got it.

Hard focus on decorating that cookie.

Faith and Bennett all dressed up!  I asked Bennett why he didn't smile.

Showing off those awesome masks!

Faith playing with her glow necklace!  

The boys wand fighting.

   

For more information on Windsor Heights Lutheran Church in Windsor Heights, IA please click here.

Paper Doll Costume

This year I wanted to make my costume and I was looking at princess costumes, sailor costumes and all kinds of cute costumes until I remembered.....I don't know how to sew.  So I decided I would still be something nautical, it just wouldn't be a complex creation.  Thus, the paper doll dress was created!

             

I Used:

• 3 Poster boards
• paint
• Elastic band
• Velcro

I first drew my outfit in pencil onto the poster board.  The tabs that stick out are seperate from the outfit, I taped them on at the end.  After cutting everything out I painted.  Wait to outline everything in black until the end.  The next thing is to wrap the elastic around your waist and your chest, just under your armpits, to measure.  Once you have the length of elastic you can either hot glue the front of the elastic to the back of the skirt and top, or you can staple it.  I think it just depends on the color of your outfit, you don't want the staples showing.  The last thing you need to do is cut the part of the elastic that will be on your backside right in the middle.  Glue or sew the velcro onto the elastic, this will make the costume really easy to put on and take off.  I didn't take it off at the church Halloween party we wore our costumes to, and it was awkward sitting down to dinner.

To make the bow I simple taped the bow to a thin, hard plastic head band.

She wanted to try it on!

Halloween Hand Prints!

We finally made our annual Halloween foot and hand prints!  Look at the difference in Charlie's tiny footprint from last year to this year!  We added more details to the picture this year, note the super scary witch in the moon!  I could barely fit both of their hands and feet on the page!  Anyway, enjoy our creepy cute pictures!  They were a fun and sentimental treat for our family and friends!

2011

2012

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

From the Triana-Moller family!

Keep it Safe!

Pappajohn Sculpture Park

This past summer my family and I went to visit Pappajohn Sculpture Park in Des Moines, IA.  We live right by it, and I can even see it, vaguely, from the windows at the hospital I work at.  The park was a gift to the city, and I can't believe how amazing it turned out.  Pieces are constantly being added and donated by John and Mary Pappajohn.  Whenever we have out of town visitors we always make sure the park is on our list of places to go.  It's a wonderful picnic spot.

My older brother, William, and my sister-in-law, Jessica!

Fun sculpture you're allowed to sit on.

For more information on the Pappajohn Sculpture Park please visit the Des Moines Art Center's website here.

Center Grove Orchard

Yesterday we took the kids to the local pumpkin patch with a friend of mine.  It was a blast, we went to Center Grove Orchard in Cambridge, IA.  It was like the Disney World of pumpkin patches.

Entering into the pumpkin patch!

We hadn't even entered the site and there was a bunch of fun stuff to play on!  Faith thought this was it and she loved it!

My flying baby!

When we first walked in there was a huge spread of pre-picked pumpkins.  The kids played on them for a little bit, made for a great photo opportunity!

I love his hair here! My handsome boy!

My friend, Jennifer's little girl, Josie!  Love her pigtails! 

Charlie's friend Julian!

From there we went to the animals, the little boys went CRAZY, running around looking at all the animals!  It was hilarious, they were in such a rush like the animals would leave!  There was also a little race track and pedal tractors.

She is getting into it!

My friend Jennifer, under a goat!  Potential to be dangerous!

I loved the little obstacle course for the animals!

Meant to lasso, better for riding!

They had a little kid sized town complete with an Alice in Wonderland Mad Hatter tea party and the three little pigs and their homes.

Inside the piggies house!

Next was the corn pool, yes, it's as awesome as it sounds!

Then we took the tractor to the pumpkin patch and corn maze!  We were given a piece of paper on the tractor for the maze hunt.  Throughout the maze there were items we needed to find, match with the image on the paper and use the hole puncher by the item.  It was pretty cool and a great exercise.

At this spot we found a tractor and matched it up with our paper.

Here is a pig we matched up!

Buddies for life!

Tractor waiting place!

When we got back from the corn maze we explored some more after we got some hot apple cider!  The pumpkin patch is also an apple orchard, which makes for some amazing apple cider.

Faith just loved bouncing around on these things!

Charlie enjoyed being a Spiderman, as he said!

Looks awesome, was scary when sitting at the top looking down, again awesome on the way down!

My husband actually loved these more than she did.

Faith showing me her splits on the giant jumping pillow!

If you would like more information on the Center Grove Orchard in Cambridge, IA please visit their website at www.centergroveorchard.com/