Lots and lots of DCB....

Hello my faithful readers (who now never check this blog since I never seem to write....)! April has been very busy!! Maddie had a wonderful time celebrating being 3 on the 11th! We were able to surprise her with a Dora bike, and she had a great time enjoying the spoils of being cute! :)

The next weekend we went to Houston for the Association of Concert Bands (ACB) convention and to visit the Smiths! The rain was a bit crazy, but Matt braved the elements to get me back and forth for rehearsals and the concert on Saturday. Sunday we were able to drive up to see Cris, Linda, and Goo Goo at their home on a lake. It was beautiful! Lisa even stopped by for a few minutes, so now I just have Heather, and Andy and the kids to complete meeting all of the Smiths. Hazel Claire is just a doll, and we can't wait to see how much she has grown when they visit in July.

And this weekend I had even more band!! We had a performance at the Metro State WindFest on Saturday morning, where we were critiqued by the composer of one of our peices (no pressure!). He encouraged me to really smack the daylights out of the suspended cymbal by (and this *is* a direct quote) "smack(ing) it like an ex-boyfriend. Not one that you dumped, but one that dumped you on a family vacation." The whole band was cracking up, along with the audience. It was hilarious (well, to us...band humor...). After just a couple of hours at home (and Chuck spending a few hours at work), we jetted off for the DCB Young Artist concert. We had dinner first with Mom and Dick at Benny's. The concert went well. It was out last formal concert of the season (next one is in November), so now it is time for our summer season.

Needless to say, I am pretty darn tired and am happy to have tomorrow off from rehearsal! I feel like I'm getting a cold or something (yuck!), so I'm off to bed early to fight it off! Cheers.

Neglecting the Nellis News...

I have been a bad blogger!! I can't believe it has nearly been a month...

My last post said that spring was coming...well, in true Colorado style, winter has made a comeback over the last couple of weeks! It snowed has snowed a bunch, which will hopefully make the lawn be green instead of brown! Ha!

This past few weeks have been busy! We had our monthly Nellis sibling dinner on 3/17 (corned beef - yum!) and celebrated Mom's birthday and St. Pat's (again) the following Saturday! We stayed the night at Mom and Dicks and had some of his famous crepes in the morning. More yum! It is birthday season, as two of the Schwerin kiddos (Erik and Krissy) celebrated their big 0-5 and 1-0 in the last two weeks. :)

The exciting news here is that last weekend we book a trip to Hawaii!! We are going to Maui for 7 days in May - YEAH!!! We are so excited!! Operation Bathing Suit is in full force, so we now have a work out area in the office for me!

Last night I went to the Elton John concert with the Hoppers (well, Kari is a Snyders) in Colorado Springs! He was AMAZING. The drive wasn't all that fun (lots of wind and snow), but I stayed slow and steady. Thank you to Jim, Jan, and Kari for such a fun night!!

I serve my civic duty tomorrow - Jury Duty! I had to reschedule (originally called during our loan review), so I have to appear! We'll see!

We are off to Houston in two weeks for the ACB convention. I get to meet some of Chuck's cousins while we are there, so I am very excited!!

Next week we celebrate Maddie's 3rd birthday! She is growing so fast!! Happy belated birthday to Christine and early (tomorrow) birthday to Erin (told you it was birthday season!!).

Cheers!

Spring is coming....

We have had a great couple of weeks! We celebrated Jeremiah's birthday (a couple of weeks late) with Chuck's family, took in the US Curling Team Trials, had dinner at my brother's, and DCB had a concert. No wonder I haven't been posting! :) I have put a video of Maddie reading to Aunt Darby below for you - she is pretty darn cute!

My next few weeks are really busy work-wise with events, meetings, and preparing for an audit - blah! But, I am really excited to attend a lecture by Jane Goodall next week!!! We'll celebrate St. Pats twice, once with the Nellis siblings, and again with at Mom's with the family. Happy early birthday to Mom! :)

1st Anniversary and Valentines Day!

I can not believe tomorrow will be a year since our wedding. Some days I feel like Chuck has always been by husband, yet I still learn new things about him all the time. I am so lucky to be married to a man that is so supportive, amazingly sweet, and well, I could go on and on. Getting married to him is the best decision I have ever made (well, some would say that the decision was made for us by a greater power). I also remember all of our many of our wonderful family and friends made it to Red Rocks to celebrate with us (and a few that couldn't make it there were there in spirit). We wouldn't be the people we are today without all of you.

We do a scaled down version of Valentine's Day with our anniversary just two days later. We stayed in last night and made Rachel Ray's Pasta Carbonara, and it was YUMMY!! We got some of that "take and bake" bread from Target and had steamed asparagus on the side. We are going out to Sullivan's tonight, so another good meal is in our future! We are staying the night at the Oxford Hotel, where we stayed on our wedding night.

A not so romantic thing this weekend involved our washing machine throwing in the towel, while washing towels. The motor creaked to a halt (and made the house smell icky). Once we got the stuff out, we did get it spinning enough to drain the water, but it is dead. So, I got a wish granted with a new set of front-loaders! The drier is fine, but we wanted to get a set. They deliver the washing machine tomorrow (and take the old one away). We'll have lots of laundry to do tomorrow evening, but since it will supposedly take 1/2 the time, that's good!! :) We did our part to support the economy.

On a lighter note, Eric also did his part to support the economy and put a ring on my cousin Laura's finger! Yeah!! We are thrilled for them. Laura and Eric, enjoy this special time - being engaged is a wonderful feeling. And I know you can't wipe the smiles off your faces...the wedding will be the same way. Best wishes on this new phase of your lives together. Cheers!

I have a DCB concert coming up next weekend. It is our "guest artist" concert and the featured artist this year is an organist. We play in a old, huge church that of course has a pipe organ, so it is fitting. Our next concert will be in Houston at the Association of Concert Bands convention (we have the Saturday night slot!). I have a wicked (and very exposed) mallet part in one of the pieces...already worried!! We are going to stay with Chuck's cousins while we are there and I am so excited to get to know them and there little one, Hazel Claire.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Prepping for the Superbowl

As my turkey stock is cooking, I thought I better post so Aunt Toni doesn't say I never do! :) I am making gumbo for the game tomorrow, as I always do (well, not always, as I didn't make it last year with the wedding and all). We're having a few people over for the game, so it should be fun. Our youngest party guest will be little Anderson! This boy is already a handful as it seems he likes to get all the attention he can get. :) The whole family is waking up at their house today! Yeah!

I met up with a friend of mine from grad school for margaritas last night! We hadn't seen each other in over a year, so it was great to catch up!

Time for chores - I should take some inspiration from Jenna to deep clean. It has been a while and it really is so much easier to keep the house clean once it is "really" clean. We'll see how it goes! :) Our closets need a lot of work...but I can tell you right now that I'm not *that* inspired!

Happy February to everyone! Happy birthday on Tuesday to Robin!

Cheers, and Go Steelers (or Cardinals)....!!

Winter is back and so are we!

I know, I suck at posting.  We just aren't that exciting...but, now that I think about it, January has been busy.  

We officially became Sofia's Godparents on January 4th.  The weather cooperated for Carrie's parents to make the drive our here for the ceremony, and it was great fun.  Sofia of course shined in her christening gown. That next week, Corinne came to visit and we did a whirlwind tour of Denver and family, and braved the cold and wind!  I played with the Lonetree Sympony again for a late holiday concert...I had to play without rehearsing, so I was happy to stop either with or before everyone else (after is bad!). Ha! 

Work has been very busy for both of us.  I am so incredibly happy to be with Northern Trust.  We posted record earnings for 2008 and continue to have a very strong (and clean) balance sheet.  Chuck remains busy as well, despite having his project in a slower period. 

The long await for Anderson Snyders is over! He arrived on Inauguration Day (yet another thing to make 1/20/09 historic!!).  I was lucky to snuggle him just hours after he entered the world.  He is super cute and mom and baby are doing well. Check out his blog (link to the right) for photos and more!! 

Thursday was an event that featured Northern's Director of Economic Research - a timely presentation that made me a little less pessimistic about the economy.  Dad, Suanne, Keith, and Barbara happened to be walking by the bank as the event was ending and I joined them for a late dinner at PF Changs.  Yum! Last night we went to our favorite local restaurant, Armando's, with Diane, Anne, Mom and Dick.  We ate too much per usual...it can't be helped at this place as it is SO good.  Armando himself is from the same region of Italy as Nonnie, and that northern Italian food is just yummy!! We are gearing up for the Super Bowl next weekend after a one year hiatus of our annual Super Bowl party.  We skipped last year with the wedding and all.  

We are quickly approaching our 1 year anniversary.  I can't believe it!! We are celebrating with a night at the historic Oxford Hotel (where we spent our wedding night), a nice dinner, and an Avs game (hey, tickets are paper after all!).  Mostly I just want to celebrate being married to the most amazing person I know.  In fact, that wonderful husband of mine is cooking up some breakfast, so off I go!  

I'll try and post more often!

Happy new year!

We rung in the new year (well, Carrie and I rung in 10:30pm with the boys and went to bed) at Michael and Carrie's.  The guys made it to midnight.  My cold has come back with a vengeance and my voice was completely gone by the morning.  :( I seem to be on the mend again...I have heard ugly rumors of this cold lasting many weekend and let's up that is just not true! We "officially" become Sofia's Godparents on Sunday and Corinne (now a grand-Godmother!) arrives on Monday. 

2008 was a wonderful year for us (getting married and all!) and we wish a wonderful 2009 to all of our blog readers (all 2 of you).