Celebrate.

Dear family & friends,

We have returned to St. Louis after a wonderful visit in Wheaton and Indiana. We got in late on the 21st and celebrated with a few gifts, Krista's 21st birthday (on Dec. 20th). On the 22nd, we enjoyed seeing and visiting with friends. We started our morning off by seeing Kelsey and Tim - it's been too long. The visit was too short, but worth every minute to catch up and give Kelsey lots of hugs. We also enjoyed visiting with the Klobucher girls, the Gerry clan, James Grout and Allie Showalter. It was nice to have a day to see people we don't usually get to see on our short trips home.

Our Christmas celebrations started on Christmas Eve morning. We headed over to the Haist's and enjoyed a delicious breakfast  of Eggs Benedict. We had fun visiting, opening gifts and squeezed in one more delicious meal of Rubens for lunch. It was fun to relax and enjoy eachother for the morning. Christmas Eve evening we headed to Blanchard Alliance Church for a beautiful candle lit service with the Dean's and then headed over to Aunt Chrissy & Uncle Len's house for appetizers/dinner and the gift exchange. The house was decorated beautifully, and the food was delicious. We enjoyed visiting with family.

Christmas morning we woke up and excitedly came downstairs to see what Santa brought. He was good to everyone (maybe too good!). We enjoyed opening gifts, and a beautiful breakfast of Egg Casseroles, Laffsa and Mr. Clausen's Danish ring. Delicious! It was fun to have the morning to relax, visit and enjoy each other before heading off to Indiana with the Haist's. Leaving on Christmas Day will probably never get easier for me. However, it was a JOY to spend time with the Sundheimer clan on Christmas evening. We enjoyed visiting and hearing all about little Violet (soon to be born to Molly & Ross). It was fun to celebrate Molly that day too. The Sundheimers are a fun group to be around!

The celebrating didn't stop there! We headed to Warren to Grandma & Grandpa's condo on the 26th to celebrate yet another Christmas with the Haist's. It was wonderful. We had the gift exchange, and enjoyed yummy food and time with family. We were thankful we all got to be there, even Gretchen from London! We missed Peggy and John and their family, but are praying for Jake and a full recovery from a concussion earlier this year.

The night of the 26th we drove back to Wheaton. The next afternoon, Sam and I took a mini getaway downtown Chicago for the night. We decided this year instead of gifts for each other, we would plan a fun trip downtown. We got an awesome deal on Groupon for the Whitehall Hotel and ate at one of our all time favorite restaurants that evening, Rosebud. It was fun to walk around downtown and see the lights, and do a little window shopping. We slept in the next morning and then enjoyed breakfast and a walk to Intelligentsia (of course), where we enjoyed the perfect cappuccino. It was a great way to relax and "debrief" after having five Christmas celebrations in 3 days!

The trip was wonderful. We couldn't have asked for a richer time spent with family, visiting and soaking up the gift of Jesus' birth. We were also overwhelmed with the beautiful gifts we received. We have some great gift-givers on both sides of the family! Every gift was perfect. We are beyond thankful for the gift of family. God is good.

We hope all of you found yourselves enjoying the Christmas season and lavishing in the celebrations of our Savior's birth. C.S. Lewis says it beautifully-

"In the Christian story God descends to reascend. He comes down...down to the very roots and sea-bed of the Nature he has created. But He goes down to come up again and bring the whole ruined world us with Him."

Lots of Love.
Katelyn, Sam & Ethel

1.) Besties reunited. Breakfast w/ Kels & Tim at Egglectic.

2.) Delicious breakfast of Eggs Benedict at w/ the Haist's.

Ethel loved her new Christmas sweater from the Haist's!

3.) Christmas morning, waiting patiently to see what Santa brought!

4.) Yummy Christmas morning breakfast @ the Dean's.

5.) The Whitehall Hotel- A fun getaway with my cute husband.

Ps. - Thank you to everyone who sent us Christmas cards, definitely a highlight of the season for me and I loved opening all of them! Its fun to hear how everyone is doing and see pictures too.

Christmas letter.

Dear family & friends,

Per request of my sweet husband, we are writing a Christmas letter. Sam has always enjoyed the letters people send with their Christmas cards, as I have always enjoyed picture cards. Therefore, we sent out our picture cards and have decided to write our letter via our blog. Great compromise.

Sam is continuing to chug away at seminary. 1 1/2 years down, 2 1/2 to go. He is still enjoying everything he is learning, with the occasional distaste for Hebrew. He is taking a three week Hebrew crash course for J-term, which he seems to be dreading.  He is also still working part time at Shaw's Coffee Ltd. - still loving it. If you talk to his bosses, they will brag and rant about what a wonderful employee Sam is, and a very talented Barista. He has been busy training new employees, as well as making delicious drinks. The "regulars" at Shaw's think Sam is simply the best as well (I would have to agree). On top of school and work, Sam has also stepped up his responsibilities at church, playing drums almost every Sunday and helping with our youth group on Monday nights. Although I don't enjoy the 7:00am departure time on Sunday mornings, he is very gifted musically and adds a lot to our worship at South City. In the few hours of free time he has, he enjoys listening to vinyl records, combing and care-taking of his new beard, and, of course- reading.

As for me, I've been keeping busy. In the past year, I was hired and left a job that was the most challenging  and character- enriching job I've ever had (and that says a lot, seeing that I cleaned toilets for three summers). I was working as a two-year-old teacher for Bright Horizons. Enough said. I stayed at that job for 8 months, before being hired on by Hancock Elementary again to cover maternity leaves in November. Hancock is employing me from November 2011 to May 2012 as a Permanent Substitute. I'm LOVING my first grade class right now and looking forward to covering my next maternity leave in February in 3rd grade. Other then working, I'm babysitting on Saturdays and enjoying being a Nursery Coordinator and teaching Children's Worship once a month at church. In my free time, I'm cleaning, doing laundry and snuggling with my dog.

Speaking of dog, could we have a cuter pup? We love Ethel. She brings us so much joy. Her excitement when we get home, her funny quirks, and the strange things she is terrified of. She has such a funny personality. We rescued her last March from a shelter downtown St. Louis and she has made almost a complete transformation from the scared dog we brought home that day to the dog that won't leave our side. LOVE her.

Sam and I are loving being married. There is nothing sweeter then waking up next to your best friend every morning. I so appreciate the little things my husband does and will probably always see a million more things he could do :) but even the little arguments are well worth it. We are loving St. Louis little by little as we learn more about the city and explore new parts. We especially love our church and feel so blessed and challenged by our church family.

That's about it. We hope all of you have a very Merry Christmas celebrating the birth of Jesus. Considering the fact that God actually came into our world as a real, live, baby, lived a perfect life on our behalf, took our sins on the cross, and rose again to give us new life and the hope of resurrection, it is an understatement to say the birth of Jesus is the most important event in all of history. It deserves a party!

Love,

The Haists

Merry Christmas, 2011! (Photo by Amber Duncan)

Tis' the season.

Christmas decorations have exploded at our apartment. Tis' the season. I love Christmas lights, the smell of Evergreen candles, crazy shopping crowds and the anticipation of Christmas. We are all decked out. Saturday, we put the final touches on the outdoor lights and finished the last of the wrapping. Heading to Wheaton on the 21st and looking forward to a week of visiting with family and celebrating the birth of our Savior. Yay! Here are a few pictures of our apartment!

Christmas wreath.

Christmas tree.

Evergreen candle.

Stockings.

Our sweet pup.

Very thankful.

Sunday, we returned home from a wonderful visit with family. We traveled home to Wheaton last Wednesday and enjoyed a time of feasting, catching up, basketball, and Black Friday deals.

We spent Thanksgiving day with the Dean's this year. Mama J made a delicious feast, enjoyed by everyone. We arrived in town just in time to whip up the Cranberry relish. Other then that, we can't take credit for the beautiful festive tables, decorations and delicious food. Thank you Dean's for making our Thanksgiving so special. We also enjoyed visiting with Grandma Dean who drove in from Decatur and watching the Jess man dominate in WN basketball. And of course- BLACK FRIDAY! We hit Yorktown Mall around 5:30am, Dunkin Donuts coffee in hand. I love this tradition. The only downside is- the rest of mankind loves it too. The crowds were crazy. We also enjoyed getting to hang a few ornaments on the tree Saturday before we headed out.

Saturday we headed over to the Haist's for some Christmas decorating! Listened to Christmas music, drank delicious lattes and ate about a hundred of Gaye's delicious homemade oatmeal cookies. It was fun to jump into the spirit of Christmas. We enjoyed a little family game night of Taboo on Saturday and church at Gary United Methodist on Sunday. It was also fun to see and catch up with Ben, the movie star!

Sunday we headed back to St. Louis. We had fun carpooling on this trip with our new friends, Kyle & Christy! It made the 7 hour drive (1 1/2 hrs spent in traffic), much more bearable. We got back and after finishing my progress reports right around 11pm, we headed to bed. Needless to say, I'm feeling pretty exhausted and looking forward to Friday. Sam is cranking away at his sermon he preaches for class tomorrow- prayers appreciated!

We have so very much to be thankful for. Jesus. Our marriage. Our sweet dog, Ethel. Jobs we enjoy. Friends. South City Church. St. Louis (only October-May!). Our home. Wonderful parents. Fun and supportive siblings. Amazing extended family. Oh the list could go on forever.

Much love,
Sam, Katelyn & Ethel

Thanksgiving 2011

Baby Alex visits St. Louis

On Saturday - Robyn, Justin and baby Alex came to visit! This was our first time meeting baby Alex and let me tell you, he could not be any cuter. I got lots of snuggle time in Saturday night (I was kind of a baby hog) while Sam and I watched Alex as Robyn and Justin hit up the Blues hockey game. We felt honored to babysit little Alex and hope they all come back soon to visit us. It was great visiting and catching up with Robyn and Justin too. We've missed them. I'm having snuggle withdrawals, but look forward to Christmas time when we get more Alex slobber kisses. Until then, baby Alex- you are very loved.  Just look at this face ...

those cheeks!

snuggle time - I was in heaven.

Sam got in some snuggle time at Alex's first trip to Pappy's BBQ! 

We love you little Alex!

Mommy Robyn and Daddy Justin with Alex at Pappy's!

Lots of love,
Katelyn & Sam 

Ethel meets Shyla

On Saturday, Sam and I watched our buddy Shyla again. She is so full of personality. Ethel was VERY unsure of Shyla and in fact, wanted nothing to do with her. Shyla moves way too fast for Ethel and the words "gentle touches" don't really mean a lot to Shyla yet. Here is a hilarious video of Ethel and Shyla interacting on the couch.

We learned 2 things from this video.
1.) Ethel wouldn't hurt a fly.
2.) Children exhaust Ethel, and she feels much more comfortable when they walk away.

Too funny. The rest of the weekend we spent taking it easy. Did a little relaxing, took a nice long nap today, studied some Hebrew, did some laundry, and snuggled with the pup. And of course- Friday we watched the World Series. St. Louis has a redeeming factor- a stellar baseball team. World Series Champs! Sam has committed himself to being a Cardinals fan (I can't go that far). Needless to say, the city is lit up with Cardinals fans, souvenirs, parades, the whole deal. It's neat. 

Happy Halloween everyone!

Love,
Katelyn, Sam & Ethel

Fall break.

This past Friday we traveled home to Wheaton for a long weekend with our families. We enjoyed home cooked meals, throwing the "pigskin" with Jesse, Portillos that has been greatly missed, and so much more. We wanted to give five highlights of our weekend with our family. We love them dearly, and look forward to seeing them again in a few weeks. Thank you families for a wonderful weekend at home.

1.) Friday Night Lights - Watching the WNHS Sophomore and Varsity games. Jesse (#50) suffered a concussion two weeks ago and is still not completely healed. Here he is congratulating his O-line for a great play (talk about an emotional game!). His O-line was asked to move up to Varsity for the playoffs!

Sam and I ready to cheer on the team.

2.) Pumpkin Carving- picking out our pumpkins at Cosley and carving them with the Dean family! Sam carved theologian John Owen and Katelyn carved "Sam". Pretty exciting!

 

3.) The Entertainment - Ethel and her buddies, Daisy & Cody, provided. The ever eager-to-play Daisy with Ethel ignoring her, and the ever eager-to-play Ethel with Cody keeping his distance from Ethel.

4.) The Chicago Architectural Tour - and lunch at Rositys with Mom and Dad Haist! Sam would like to point out that the towers above are featured on Wilco's fourth album, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, and are known as the Marina City Towers downtown Chicago.

On the boat tour!

 5.) Jeopardy on the Wii - boys vs. girls. GIRLS WON!!! Unfortunately, this was not documented via camera- but lets just say, let the best team (or remote) win.

We are so thankful for family. 


Love,
Katelyn, Sam & Ethel

Fall things.

As promised, here we are blogging about fall. Unfortunately, it's 82 degrees out which is not fall in our book, but I guess this is what St. Louis has handed us. Good news is, it might be 82 degrees out but there is no humidity like the 82 degrees we felt this summer. Phew.

Onto our fall blog. The few "fall" days we've had, we have loved being outside and are trying to soak in our favorite, and shortest season. Here are a few of the things we've enjoyed most about fall:

1.) apple crisp.  

2.) pumpkin cinnamon pie.

3.) welcome wreaths.

4.) Autumn Harvest scented candles.

5.) Mums.

6.) family pictures.

We hope you are enjoying the fall weather as much as we are! Sam is off to work on a paper and I am off to babysit. Busy week ahead of us. Much love.

Katelyn, Sam & Ethel


A side note from Sam:

As you all know, I am a ridiculously huge music fan. As Katelyn can attest, it may even get out of hand from time to time... ;) But in the words of The Hold Steady, certain songs get scratched into our souls. Going along with a fall-themed post, I thought I would include a list of some excellent fall records that have provided a soundtrack to this season over the last few years!

In no particular order...

1. Hem - Rabbit Songs
2. Over the Rhine - The Long Surrender
3. Joe Henry - Civilians
4. Ron Sexsmith - Retriever
5. Wilco - A Ghost Is Born
6. John Coltrane - Blue Train
7. The National - Boxer
8. Gillian Welch - Time (The Revelator)
9. Josh Ritter - The Animal Years
10. The Avett Brothers - I and Love and You 

Breakfast FUN bowls.

For those of you that don't know, I have a very creative husband. It's not until these moments...when the pantry, fridge, freezer and everything else is bare, that I remember how creative he is. Frustrated about my lack of time to grocery shop, a frazzled morning and an overall bad work week... Sam brightened my day when he exclaimed from the kitchen Thursday morning, "Get ready for breakfast fun bowls!!!!!!" I walked out to find these...

Does breakfast get much better then the last of the cheerios, raisin bran and granola all mixed together with the last of the two Trader Joes chocolate chip cookie dunkers on top? I think not. I am thankful for a husband that uses his creativity to lighten my bad mood and even more thankful for a husband who always makes breakfast. Thanks hubs.

We are loving this fall weather, and living up every minute. Until next week ...(when we blog about fall!), we love you and miss you all.

Love,
Katelyn, Sam & Ethel

Early risers.

This weekend has been pretty uneventful for us, but for the sake of our devoted blog followers we will bore you with our lives :)

Friday night we were asleep by 8pm. Yay for early bedtimes. Saturday, we were up at 5:15am because Sam has started working the opening shift at Shaw's. That left me (and Ethel) with a very relaxful morning. I cleaned, organized closets, grocery shopped, began the ever growing laundry pile, and made lunch for the hubby and I when he got home around 12:30pm. Saturday afternoon, we took Ethel to get a "pedicure" (her hair grows under her feet and they have to use a special razor to buzz it off) and grabbed a pumpkin spice latte (a small taste of Heaven) on a beautiful fall day. 

Saturday afternoon we headed over to the Rogland's house for a beer brewing lesson (Sam was like a child on Christmas morning), and delicious, authentic, homemade Italian food. Mariah's meatballs are to die for! We also enjoyed a scrumptious rhubarb, strawberry and raspberry pie with homemade whipping cream. We were feasting like kings and queens!

This morning we endured another early wake up, as Sam played the drums at the church and I was the nursery coordinator this week. I missed the sermon this morning, but Sam said it was awesome and what I heard of the service from the nursery sounded great. After church we had our friends, Danielle and Justin over for tacos and have just been vegging since. We just put on a pot of french press and have a delicious looking caramel apple to devour.

We also want to send a special message to Grandpa Nelson today! It's his birthday! We wish we could be celebrating with everyone tonight, but we are looking forward to our trip home to Wheaton in October. Happy Birthday Gramps! Thanks for bringing so much joy, laughter and wisdom into our lives. We are so blessed. We love you!

We hope all of you had a great weekend and are enjoying the beautiful fall weather.

Lots of love.
Sam, Katelyn & Ethel

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

Friends & fondue.

On Saturday, we had some of our new friends, the Duncans and the Garretts over for chocolate fondue. These Southern friends (from Georgia) had never had chocolate fondue before! They had no idea what they were missing out on. We had strawberries, bananas, pretzels, marshmallows and pound cake as dunkers and let me tell you- it was delicious. Great conversation, great new friends, and great dessert. We are beginning to slowly fall in love with this city and the people God has blessed our time with here. Today we had a wonderful service at South City and Katelyn and the pup enjoyed a nice long nap this afternoon on this rainy day. We hope all of you had a restful, enjoyable weekend.

Love to you all.

Sam, Katelyn & the pup

Guitar lessons.

Sam and I had the privilege of watching beautiful Shyla on Friday night. Shyla loves Ethel, so her parents found it fitting to bring her to our place to babysit. Big surprise- Ethel is still very unsure of Shyla. Julie needed to drop Shyla off before I got home from work, so Sam was going to be with Shyla for a half hour all by himself. Sam's initial reaction? "What if she poops!" You change her? No worries, he did great and no poopy diapers for him to change. 

We enjoyed watching some Yo Gabba Gabba, playing with kitchen toys and the most enjoyable part of the night - Sam teaching Shyla how to "play" the guitar. So precious. Shyla was memorized and is now a huge fan of Wilco and Townes Van Zandt. I was thrilled (not).

As much as we loved watching little Shyla (she's an angel baby), it made us realize we really do selfishly enjoy the quiet Friday nights just the two of us. I'm very thankful for all my "baby fixes" here in St. Louis :)


Love, 
Sam, Katelyn & Ethel

look at the face!!!!

 

Second year of Seminary ...

Here we COME!

Today, Sam started his second year of Seminary. Why not kick off the semester with Hebrew? He spent he morning studying the Hebrew alphabet and getting his bag ready for the first day of school. We had cinnamon rolls for breakfast and juicy BLT's for lunch to kick off the start to a great semester and even squeezed in a hair cut this morning. Of course the first day of school would not be complete without the question, "Can I buy the Amazon mp3 $3.99 deal of the day for my first day of school?" Does that surprise anyone?

Sam also got a new watch today as a first day of school present. I figured it was an appropriate gift, so he can always get home in time for dinner :) I don't say it enough, but I am so proud of my hubby. As someone who has no desire to go back to school, homework, tests etc. I am amazed at his dedication to learning and the huge effort he puts forth to challenge himself and dig deeper into what he loves. He was even excited about Hebrew! All to say, he is one heck of a wonderful husband and I am proud to call myself his wife.

Learning the Hebrew alphabet.

Lunch for champions.

Ethel at the door watching Sam pull away ... so sweet!

Michigan bound.

This past weekend Sam, Ethel and I packed up the car, Michigan bound for JJ & Sara's wedding! We made a two day pit stop on our way up to Michigan in Wheaton with the Dean's. We enjoyed delicious flank steak dinner and time spent visiting. We were thankful for Mom and Dad being Ethel's babysitters for the weekend. They took such great care of her. I'm sure she was spoiled with lots of yummy treats.

Friday morning we headed to Michigan to witness the beautiful wedding of JJ & Sara. JJ was Sam's roommate in Grand Rapids, and his wife Sara also went to Calvin with Sam. It was quite the reunion of Calvin graduates! It was fun to see everyone and catch up. We were thrilled to be there and the wedding was a blast. Good friends and a good time.

Saturday morning we headed back to Wheaton for a one night pit stop at the Haist's before heading back to St. Louis! We enjoyed a delicious rib dinner on Saturday and a great outdoor church service and lunch at Naf Naf on Sunday. It was wonderful catching up with Mom and Dad Haist. Daisy LOVED Ethel, and Ethel is still trying to figure out how Daisy has so much playful energy. Other then Ethel showing her teeth and attempted to bite Daisy, they got along great. I think this past weekend was a breakthrough. Next trip home, they will be buddies.

All around, our weekend was very special. We love going home to Wheaton and visiting with our families. It's always such a sweet time. We are looking forward to coming home again soon to see the all star Jesse in a high school football game under the lights!

Love you all.
Katelyn, Sam & Ethel

wedding time!

Calvin graduates reunion. All these guys were good friends with Sam at Calvin!

The happy couple!

Thank you Mama J and Papa J for watching our baby for us!

This series of pictures is too funny. Daisy just loves Ethel :) 

Family fun time.

This weekend Mom, Dad and Jesse came to visit us in St. Louis! We had a blast. They got in on Friday and we enjoyed a yummy dinner at Dewey's Pizza, and discovered one of our new favorite places- Ted Drewes Frozen Custard. YUM. It is good.

Saturday, we woke up and had breakfast and little Jesse got a haircut! Thankfully, I did not forget to put the guard on (like the first time I gave Sam a haircut), Jesse was also relieved that I did an okay job :) Saturday for lunch we made our way to The Hill and ate at a delicious and cute deli called Adriana's, and then walked down to Shaw's Coffee where the Coffee Extraordinaire made us some amazing drinks. He's a pro. After lunch and coffee we made our way to the Science Museum and saw Tornado Alley at the Omnimax Theater. It was really interesting, and we will now book it to the basement when those sirens go off! We came back home and had lots of time spent playing Mario Kart on the Wii and Sam put on a concert!  Saturday night we enjoyed burgers by the grill master and some tasty sides. Headed to bed early for a early wake up this morning to get Jesse back home in time for drivers ed.

It was a wonderful time spent visiting, touring the city of St. Louis, and of course eating delicious food! We love having visitors. Thanks Mom, Dad & Jesse for a fun weekend! We love you!

Katelyn, Sam & Ethel

Little Jesse getting a haircut!

Coffee Extraordinaire!

Sam's workplace :)

My cute Barista husband and I :)

Tornado Alley- the real machine!

Sam- "It's the Sam & Kate family time fun band!"

Sam taught everyone how to play the Djembe!

Mario Kart fun was had by all!

GRILL MASTER!

Love my Mom!

BEST frozen custard @ Ted Drewes!