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Well hello there! This is the place where I share my crafts, recipes, knitting and crochet projects, photos, and moments of family life in the Midwest.
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Thursday, December 18, 2008

First (Non-Crying) Visit to Santa!


So last night we went to Coralridge mall and had a chance to visit Santa Claus! Max was super nervous and excited to tell him everything he wants for Christmas. He asked him for The Death Star Lego set, extra clothes, cartoon movie (Kungfu Panda)and a robot kitty (the white Fur-Real brand kitty).

Sunday, November 30, 2008

First Snow!


Hello!
Originally uploaded by shaunadieter
Happy holidays to everyone! We just got our first snowfall in Iowa, so Max and I had to go and enjoy it. The snow was just perfect for making a snowman - it's the first one he has built. Aren't they cute!?


Same size! He's serious about snow fights
MaxFirstSnow2008 008 MaxFirstSnow2008

Thursday, September 04, 2008

Family Night


It was a free family night at the Children's museum in Coralville. So Max and I went down to check it out. The museum was packed, but Max didn't seem to care. The museum is not that big and doesn't seem half as cool as the one in Minneapolis, but he loved the Lego room none the less. Enjoy the pictures!

Tuesday, September 02, 2008

First Day of school


Ready to go
Originally uploaded by shaunadieter
Max has offically started school! His teacher said he is very good and helpful. He was the "Cup Helper" today at snack time. He also helped feed the animals "their animal food", and he played outside in the sand and inside with his friends. The only tears were the one's shed by his parents. (I posted all the pics on flickr if you want to see the others Jered took!)

Monday, September 01, 2008

Starting school tomorrow...






So Max starts school tomorrow, it's hard to believe our little baby boy is already for preschool. We went to an ice cream social at Kinderfarm on Thursday. There was a lot of people there and I only spoke to a few of them, but I'm sure that we will meet the kids/parents in Max's class at some point.
This will be the first time we have ever left Max with people he doesn't know and more importantly other children his own age. Max is very out going so I'm sure he will do fine. Plus the teachers are very nice and I'm sure everyone is a little shy the first week of school.
The school grounds look like it will be a great place for Max, there are lots of animals and room to run and play. Every parent I have talked to says Kinderfarm is the best place for smart and active kids. I'm glad Jered is the one who is dropping him off tomorrow because I would probably tear-up.

Monday, August 25, 2008

Vacation with the Garmin

So this weekend Max went to stay/see his grandparents and Jered and I went to Michigan - yes Michigan. We programmed it into the Garmin and away we drove. The first place we stopped was St. Joseph, very fun little lake town. This was our first view of Lake Michigan.



We followed the Garmin to Holland next which is a great college town with so much to see and do we really wished we had more time. There is a large Dutch community there (of course) and in May they have a tulip festival. We had our morning coffee fix at lemonjellos - which was awesome coffee and we would have never have found with out our Garmin to tell us it was even there.


The next day we went to Sleeping Sand Dunes NP and did the "Dune Climb". By the picture it doesn't look like much but it is giant hills of sand that stretches for two miles to the Michigan lake shore. It's a tough hike but the views are worth it!


Jered wore his Vibram Five Fingers and they did amazingly well on all of that sand. We made a video of the hike that we will post at a later date.
We also had the Garmin find us lunch at Glen Arbor at a place called "The Boondocks". We wished we had two days to explore that whole area. People were so nice and were amazed that two Iowans found it. It's a secret vacation spot that mostly only locals know about.

On the way home the Garmin found us a local pizza parlor, V.I.Pizza with amazing food. All in all it was a great trip that we are going to have to repeat in the Spring, when we have more time to explore. Here are some pictures of the lake which was beautiful.


Tuesday, August 19, 2008

I really meant to post...


So we have been busy - summer time always seems to be that way, though with Jered working with the county sheriffs dept. and community groups, and me working in Cedar Rapids it seems like we have even less time than before.

I meant to post our pictures from July 4th - but I took them with a disposible camera and they are not developed yet, and the pictures from the pool I meant to post are on the same film. The pic of Max is downtown at the fountain in the Iowa City ped mall that I took with my phone. Max is starting school on September 2nd and so we are going on a mini vacation this weekend to Michigan. I promise to bring the digital camera this time and take some pictures.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

The Flood


So this week(s) have been an adventure. As most of you know I now work in Cedar Rapids and live in Iowa City, which as everyone in the nation should have heard is a disaster area. The Dieter's are fine if your wondering, the water didn't even come close to us. The news stations have been playing non-stop for over a week. Even the president is coming to see the damage. Mostly for me, it's been the challenge getting to and from work. Yesterday I ended up getting suck in Cedar Rapids because they shut down my sneaky back road I was taking because too many people had figured it out and the gravel road was falling apart from the heavy flow of traffic. Thank goodness one of my co-workers let me stay with her so I didn't have to sleep at the office. The picture is of Highway 1 which is the way I normally like to drive to work because I can avoid the interstate traffic. It's going to be awhile before they get around to fixing that... At least now 380 is open again so now if we can just get people to stop staring and stopping to taking pictures and just drive things can start getting back to normal.

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Changes

It's funny how everything changes at once. Change never seems to come at a stead pace.. it's an all or nothing sort of creature. So today was my last day at the job I loved, the javahouse. I think it is the only job that really never had any draw backs for me. Oh - there was the occasional annoyance or irritation but nothing that a cup of joe or a muffin couldn't fix. The folks I worked with are the best. They made me a cute sign, and got me a card that made me cry and my first manager and friend Paul brought me flowers (that's them on the right). My regulars were great too. One couple even got me a present! I was really touched. I'm going to miss them all so much. So why would I leave such bliss? First I must be crazy, but the real reason is opportunity. I had a chance to work for a great company with great benefits and job advancement. So I took the chance and jumped. I bought new clothes and a second new car and I start on Tuesday - ready or not. Max will be going to the sitters on Tuesday and Fridays, and he already loves it. (that makes this a lot easier) And Jered's schedule stays the same except that he can't work Tuesday mornings and he'll be the one taking Max to preschool. So I guess everything is set to go. Now where did I put my courage?

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Pictures of the Party


I finally got around to posting the pictures from Max's party. There are more on Flickr but here is a few cool ones, enjoy!


threeyearsold
Lightsabersdarthmax
thecake


Monday, April 14, 2008

Max's Birthday

Max is three! We had a birthday party at grandma Jo's house. Thank you to everyone who could make it, and thank you to everyone for the presents(Max loved everything!). Aunt Clare and Uncle Damion took all the photos this year so I still I need to get all the photos "fixed" and uploaded to my computer. (I nabbed this picture from Clare's My space.) Isn't he cute!?!


Wednesday, March 26, 2008

The Beginning of Spring Cleaning

So I know it's a bit late but I finally started my spring cleaning at the Dieter house. I was motivated by Max's upcoming birthday to start with his room. As you can see by the photo - he had a lot of toys. I threw away all of the broken toys/missing parts, and washed and donated the toys he out grew. The ones we kept are now organized and zip locked all the little pieces together. It's so nice to see his floor again, and he even has space in his room to fit any new toys and books. Awesome!

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Easter Morning

The Easter bunny stopped by our house this morning and hid eggs all over the house. Max was quite amazed by them and said "I can not believe it! Why he hide all the eggs?" He was even more amazed when he discovered that the eggs had candy inside. He also loved the peeps and chocolate bunny too. "Why a bunny have eggs?" I have no idea.....

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Coloring eggs


easter4
Originally uploaded by shaunadieter
Max and I colored easter eggs for the first time today. He wanted to do all the eggs in the fridge but we only colored nine. And if you look close - yes those are Star Wars easter eggs. He was so cute it was hard posting only one photo - so check out my flickr by clicking on the picture and see the other ones I took!

Max 022

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Signs of Spring

seedlings This year I decided to start my seedlings at home instead of at my friend's house because I needed to learn how to do it. It actually isn't that hard to do. We bought the greenhouse style pods and a grow light. Max "helped" me fill the pods with dirt and plant the seeds. Mostly he got dirt everywhere...but it was great fun and the seeds sprouted anyway. Isn't nature grand? To anyone who cares (not Jered) we are growing three types of zinnias (pictured), basil, chives, morning glories, butterfly flower, Mexican sunflowers, nasturtiums (again), purple cornflower, hollyhocks, dill, and lavender. For bulbs we have hosta, lilies, and peonies. Now the weather just needs to warm up a bit and we can get these babies in the ground. I'm sure Max will want to help me.

Sunday, March 09, 2008

Happy Spring Forward!

Today is the day we all moved our clocks ahead and lost an hour of sleep. For a mom of a almost three year old, this is a bad idea. Things have been off all day. Waking up, breakfast at 9 am, lunch late, napped too long, and I have no idea when we are going to bed. But I do know that a 5 am tomorrow I will be at work. At least there's coffee there.

Here is a cute picture of Max in a sweater his grandma Jo knitted for him. Thanks grandma!

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Growing Up

So I registered Max for preschool today. We are sending Max here : KinderFarm It's a private school just down the road from our house about 3 minutes. I'm happy I registered him today because we got the last spot! Many children that he plays with at Tot Time go to Kinderfarm so we thought it would be a good fit, and they get to plant flowers, play outside, and care for the animals. How fun is that? They also have nice teachers (I make most of them coffee at the Javahouse) and they actually teach the 3 R's as well as social skills and Math. Many preschools today are just glorified daycare facilities, so I'm glad Max is actually going to one that teaches learned skills. The teachers really seemed to like Max and he jumped in a started playing with the others right away. I'm very happy he is registered and another parenting first is over with.

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Snow Snow Snow

Here is a video of all the snow we have here in Iowa City. This all fell in one night.

Friday, February 01, 2008

Star Wars

Max being Darth Vader. He loves him. Max says "Darth Vader saves everyone."

Spring

I'm so tired of the cold and wet Iowa weather. I'm ready for Spring to come and to get out and garden, play at the park, and just be outside for a littler bit of time not freezing my butt off. Max and I have been to every play group we can to try to stop the boredom. Hopefully we will have a better days soon. time to goto the gym. Bye for now.
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