Catch up... ketchup...

Holy smokes, it's been too long and I've got too many photos to share. So far, 2014 has been throwing us a lot of curve balls and luckily, we're knocking them all out of the park. Life is good for the Parkers. Here's the details...

First, we've both grown admirable mustaches...

Okay, we're still working on that. 

Let's go back to the beginning of the year. 

Here's our wall of fame from back in January. Look at all those good-looking folks! Thanks to everyone that sent us some Christmas cheer. It really brightened up our living room. 

February highlights:

We went to the Winter Festival that is held downtown. They covered the street surrounding the capitol in snow so people could cross-country ski (you can see some of the track behind us.) We didn't give it a shot... maybe next year. 

Jordan got me roses for Valentine's Day. What a guy. And we celebrated his birthday. 29! What an old guy.

Pizza and fancy beer. Two of his favorite things.

Chocolate cake forever!

Another exciting thing that happened at the end of January/early February is that we bought our first house! I'm saving that for an entry all by itself, but it was a big moment for us. We settled on a closing date in late April (since we still had our apartment lease) and spent the rest of winter getting ready for our next big move!

In March, I enjoyed my spring break back at home in MN. My mom and I had all sorts of plans for things we wanted to do but mostly we just hung out at home and relaxed. It was actually a really nice way to spend a week. This is my favorite picture from that week. Poor Greta.

At the end of April we finally moved into our house. Here is a sneak peek of Jack sitting at our island in the kitchen. Notice all the natural light- one of the things I love most!

Whyyy do we move all the tiiiiime?

I like this house. 

May has been a super busy month for us. After moving in, Jordan needed to go on a work trip for five days to St. Lake City which he actually really enjoyed (as much as one can enjoy a work trip.) We took a trip to Spring Grove, MN for Syttende Mai festivities where we got to see some of my family. Jordan also got to see where my maternal grandparents are buried. It's really a charming and tiny town.

Two creepy trolls... and me. Love you Jordan! :)

Jordan took Jet on the Fanny Flyer. He wasn't sure
about it at first...

...but Jordan reassured him and we got smiles.
An immediate request afterward- "Again?!"

This weekend we went to Brat Fest in Madison, which is the largest Brat-consumption event in the US or something like that. We figured we're Wisconsinites now. After all, when in Rome...

Om nom.

Double om nom.

And finally, the last big change in our household... we have new (animal) members of the family! 

Jordan had guinea pigs when he was growing up and has always wanted another one but we just never had the space. Now that we have a house, we knew that we'd start looking once we got settled. I found a woman on Craigslist that was fostering two female guinea pigs that needed a forever home. When we picked them up, we noticed that one of them was pretty large but she assured us that she was just fat. Well, we took them to the vet this past Saturday and he confirmed that they are both female, and the black/white one was pregnant (this must have happened when she was with the previous owners? We're not sure.) And just this morning, she had three babies! 

We tossed around names for a few days before settling on Peggy for the black/white one and Waffles for the orange/brown one. I think we're going to try and hold off on naming the babies since we won't be able to keep them and the woman from CL said she would take them. In the meantime, it's been fun to watch them- they're so adorable! 

Well, I think that's mostly it. I have 13 days of school left (not that I'm counting or anything) and have plans to help with the summer ceramics program at school and keep working on house projects. Our two-year wedding anniversary is coming up in late June so we're hoping to get away for a weekend for that.

I know I always say this, but this time I mean it- I will update again soon! :)

In case you want to see guinea pig babies in action!