Greetings From Gavin!

WE'RE ENGAGED!!!!!!!!!!

YIPPEEE!!!!!!!!! I am sooo excited!!
We got engaged on Valentine's Day. K-bear with me..this is quite lengthy! Chris really took it to a whole new level of getting engaged :) I woke up Saturday morning and Taylor decided to make me breakfast in bed for Valentine's Day (eggos cut into hearts) with a little love note..it was so cute! Then she said she was hungry and ended up eating it herself!
Chris told me I needed to be ready by 9:20 am to go. I didn't ask any questions because I figured whatever we were doing was for V Day. So 9:20 rolls around, my mom comes and picks up Taylor and Gavin goes to his mom's house. We drive up to Xcel Energy Center (where the MN Wild hockey team plays, for those of you who don't know) and Chris pulls out our hockey sticks and bag. In the past on V Day we always like to go skating, so I figured we were going skating at some park. (Little did I know?!?) He tells me we are going to watch the Wild practice and then afterwards going out on the ice at Xcel by ourselves to skate around! How cool!! I think only season ticket holders are allowed to watch them practice and I don't think just any one is allowed to go out there by themselves and skate around, so this was really special that he set this all up..it's a 'once in a lifetime' thing! So we get on the ice at about 12:30p and have the ice time til about 1:15..so 1p rolls around and Chris tells me to go out on center ice to take some pics. He goes and gets the camera, we take a couple of pics and then after, he pulls (out of his sleeve) the ring box!!!!! I was in utter shock! I had absolutely NO IDEA this was happening! What I thought was watching the Wild practice and us skating turned into this!!!! So then he skates over to the bench and comes back with two Wild jerseys he had embroidered, his said on the back "Marry Me" with the numbers 09 and mine said "I said yes" with the numbers 09...how creative!! I should mention that there was a local hockey team of 13 year olds that were going to practice after us that were in the stands along with their parents and after they realized what just happened, they were cheering and yelling "Yea he scored"! Then one of the operation guys sounded the air horn that goes off when the Wild get a goal (which by the way is extremely loud!) and all around the Xcel the LED lights went off that say "Goal"! It was unbelievable!
So yea I was just overwhelmed and just so happy and excited! I couldn't believe it had finally happened! I have been waiting for this for quite sometime :)
Afterwards, we headed to dinner around 4, dinner was great! Chris then surprised me with tickets to the Wild game that night! AND told me that some our friends, his dad Dennis and his dad's gf Wendy and Wendy's daughter, Grace, my mom and Taylor were all coming to the game! How fun! I couldn't wait!
So we are driving to what I thought was Xcel for the hockey game (as if there wasn't enough surprises already :) ) Chris decides to pull off at the Embassy Suites..we ended up meeting everyone there AND having a room there for the night! So we go to leave for the game and what I thought we were going to do was figure out who was driving, etc...no a LIMO is sitting there to take all of us to the game!!!!! (Like I said earlier Chris really took it to a whole new level!!)
So we go to the game and have a great time! At the game, we ended up being on the Jumbotron and the camera man got the back of our jerseys and then we turned around and kissed. I think we got a louder cheer from the crowd then the Wild did that night!!! All night everywhere we went at Xcel people recognized us and were saying "There's the Marry Me guy" and about hundred people said to Chris "Where's the I said no jersey"!! It was funny!!
After the game, we went to a couple of bars in the limo before heading back to the hotel for the night. The day could not have been any better! I wish I could rewind and do it all over again, I had so much fun. We got up to our room and Chris' dad and Wendy had decorated the room..it was so nice and thoughtful of them :) THANK YOU TO EVERYONE THAT SHARED THIS SPECIAL DAY WITH US AND EVERYTHING EVERYONE DID FOR US!! THANK YOU TO KIM AND CHAD FOR TAKING GAVIN AND TO MOM FOR TAKING TAYLOR!!! WE LOVE YOU GUYS!!!

Happy Birthday Taylor!!

We celebrated Taylor's 7th Birthday on 2/3/2009! We went out to dinner with family and let Taylor pick the restaurant of her choice...she picked Las Margaritas, which is a really good mexican place in Hastings! Dinner was fun! Then we headed back to our house for cupcakes and present opening! Taylor received many nice things! Not too mention the weekend before, we took her and two of her friends from school to the Mall of America to do rides all day :) I watched Gavin and Chris took them on the rides. Since I don't do rides, he's always stuck with that duty :) He's always a good sport and enjoys it.

I can't believe she is already 7?!?! Man time flies!

Gavin's Baptism

Gavin Rudy Steinke was baptized on Sunday, December 28, 2008. This also happens to be Chris' Birthday so this was an extra special day! We had a wonderful day! We started the day off with service at 9am and followed with a gathering at our house with friends and family for Gavin. We had brunch and cake and opened presents! Gavin has two godfathers! My brother, Michael and Chris' best friend, Chad McCarthy. Gavin wore the gown my dad and brother wore when they were baptized and he was so good the entire time! He didn't even cry when the pastor poured water on his head :) What a good little boy! We are so grateful for everyone that shared this special day with us!

CHRISTMAS DAY!!

That afternoon/night we headed over to Chris' dad, Dennis' house. His grandparents, Chris' uncle Porky and Dennis' girlfriend, Wendy were all there. We had the BEST meal ever!! KING crab legs and Prime rib! It was sooo good! Again...everyone was so generous to us. We got a lot of really nice things. We watched Christmas movies and Taylor ripped opened all her gifts and played with those all night! Taylor and Wendy made a gingerbread house too :) It was just so fun to hang out with family. :)

CHRISTMAS DAY!!

The fun continued on XMas day! In the morning we went to my mom's for brunch and present opening! The food was delicious and we all had a lot of fun opening presents and hanging out :) Every year, we do a Christmas picture that my mom sends out to everyone for New Year's...the theme this year was 'Ugly Sweaters' so we all had on ugly sweaters! I think my brother's was the worst!

CHRISTMAS EVE!!!

We were busy Christmas this year! Christmas Eve was spent cleaning and preparing for XMas Eve night...Chris' mom's side came over for apps and present opening! They always do a gift exchange and I was so excited about the gift I got for the exchange...The CHIA PET...he he he. His Uncle Tony ended up with it and actually sent Chris a pic on New Year's of the Chia Pet he started growing :) We had a lot of fun hanging out with family and of course people were so generous to all of us :) I think Taylor and Gavin made out like bandits between all the families...spoiled kids :)

Playing Catch Up!

Wow it has been awhile since I've last updated! We have been so busy with the holidays! I will catch everyone up...this could be a little lengthy :)

The week of Christmas my brother came home from AZ to spend the week with the family! We had so much fun..but as always the week just flies by and he's back on the plane in no time going home :( I wish he lived up here by us! Michael saw Gavin for the first time...the pic I posted is the first time he held him. Very cute pic! But as soon as he started to fuss Michael was like 'Uh Chris I don't know what to do..here take him back' Something to that effect...it was funny! While Michael was here, we all just basically hung out. He had a couple of appts, etc to go to. Taylor of course just adores Michael and looks forward to the time we can spend with him! It's all she talks about for about a month before he comes home. And the new thing since we got the house is Michael always has to sleep over at least one night on the air mattress downstairs with her!