Our Little Family Of Two Grows with Our babies swimming in the Blue!

We hope you all enjoyed our poll. For those of you wondering, no we were not talking about babies, but about pets (although we loved the comments~)

On Tuesday Mike and I visited two houses that our landlord owns and rents to people. We really loved one of them. It was a two bedroom home in the country with a yard, gargage, but no dishwasher. (That was the my turnoff). We were hoping to love the house and move so we could get a puppy.

We loved the house, but realized that right now in the middle of the school year would be too hard to move. We are keeping our fingers crossed on the house still being available in May when we would have more time to move and then get our puppy.

This week, we were having some technical difficulties with our computers. About two weeks ago, something happened to our desktop monitor - it just stopped turning on. So being the cheapies we are, we just pulled out our laptop. About 1/2 a day into the laptop being out, it contracted a virus!

We were stuck with no computers and even worse - No BLOGGY!

We took them both in and now they are in tip top shape. We got a cheapo monitor for only $10.00 and the virus on the laptop is gone (not so cheap!)

Below I have posted a few pictures of our new babies that we could have in our apartment.

Meet our Pet Shark.

His name is Sharkbait.

He is about 2" long.

He should grow to almost 6" if we don't kill him first.

Meet our pet frog.

His name is toad.

He is about 1" long.

He is albino.

He is a carnivore like sharkbait.
He will grow to be nearly 10" long.

He will probably eat sharkbait when he is bigger.

Meet our pet catfish.

His name is wildcat.

He is very fast like Mike's track stars.

He is 2" long.

He may grow to 6" long if toad doesn't eat him first.

He is so fast I couldn't get a good picture.

He is also a carnivore.

He eats shrimp with his friends.
He is suppossed to be a bottom feeder.

He doesn't like the bottom of the tank.

Here is a pretty good picture of his undercarriage.

Whole tank with our three babies.

As you can see, wildcat is still very fast.

As we approach the end of our semester here at Durant and after seeing the movie Marley and Me, we have been contemplating whether or not we should add a member to our family here in Iowa. We have been given many helpful words of wisdom from our family and friends, but before we make a final decision, we want to know what you all think because we really do value and respect all of your opinions and ideas.

If you choose to vote on the left, please leave a comment on our page as to why you chose this answer and any further advice you have to go with it. We understand that you all have differnt opinions on where we should live and when we should start our family, but before we make any major decisions, we want to know what ya'll are thinking!

We will make our final decision on the matter by January 30th. We will post our answer on the bloggy for ya'll to see.

Hougen Family Christmas Pictures

Go Beaver Track!

Shelby Alison Ann
Mike Becca Craig

Go Durant Track!

What Does Three Snow Days in A Row in Iowa Look Like At The Hougen House?

On Tuesday night, Shelby contracts a temperature.






Next thing she knows, she is throwing up - multiple times!





Finally on Wednesday morning she stops vomiting, but she still feels sick. School was cancelled, so at least she didn't have to call in sick.

She sleeps through most of the day but only with her trusty eye mask.









Thank goodness for her loving husband who waited on her hand and foot.







He brought her red gatorade







And red popsicles - which tasted delicious.






Finally, after a very long Wednesday She was feeling better -







until she looked oustide and saw that the cars they owned were very much covered in snow!









Realizing how late it was and thinking they would just leave thier cars since school for Thursday had already been canceled, they went to bed finally all healthy.





In the morning, feeling quite spontaneous in the -24 degree cold, we ventured outside to scrape cars, and warm them up. Needless to say, neither car started! Our poor Minnesota cars have already become too accustomed to the warm Iowan ways.







We called the auto body shop and they gave us a jump. But only on Shelby's car because Mike's still wouldn't start.









When we went into the auto body shop to pay for the jump, they tested the battery and found it was VERY VERY BAD. They replaced the battery, and over $100 later we were on our way to the Davenports pants store to find Mike new pants for school since he ripped through his other ones.









When we got to the mall, we found good pants at JCPenny, and it only took us two hours to find one pair of pants that fit him. Who knew it would be so hard?






Finally, after the long shopping spree of a whopping one pair of docker pants, we were too tired to see a Marley and Me, so we went home to rest up for our big Friday at school. A couple hours later, we recieved calls that school was cancelled for Friday!



We are suppossed to reach an all time low of -29 degrees tonight which is probably why school is cancelled. Needless to say, we have had a few very rough days of no school. Mike is praying for no more snow days though so he can make his trip to Sioux Narrows in June with the fam!

Back in Iowa

Shelby and I had a great christmas break. which is why we havent updated in a while but since no one else updated thier blog i don't feel to bad. We spent our entier break in MN with our families, and last weekend went to Kearney for Shelby's cousin Katie's hitchin. Our favorate presents from christmas were the two hurdle cross bars that my dad made us. they had our names and some of our acomplishments at BSU writen on them. We are still trying to find a place to hang them in our apartment. Early out again today for Durant, two inches of snow so far, but it is still falling pretty heavily. Hope you have all fallen into your normal routines again after the holiday break, we are still adjusting.

6 More Days until Minnesota

With our Christmas break quickly approaching and all the snow and ice we have had this week, it is hard not to think of Minnesota. Mike and I are very excited to get to spend nearly two weeks in Minnesota over break before rushing into the new semester on January 5th. Life in Iowa has been busy. Neither of us can believe that the school year is half over. Mike is looking forward to next semester when he has some new classes to prep for and a couple old that won't take up so much time (which I like). We really don't have any new pictures to post except for an early Christmas gift that we got at the mall last week for our tree. Kind of blurry, sorry, but you get the drift. I especially like the red toes on the girl!

We got about four inches of snow Tuesday afternoon which got us out of school two hours early! YAY. With another round of ice and snow mixture expected for late tomorrow night into early Friday morning, I would expect more cancellations. Its funny how Iowan's get like 2 or 3 inches of snow and they all freak out! Not us though, we are tough and don't understand why schools are cancelling. I guess we will always be Minnesotans at heart. Thats all from Wilton. Wish we were in Arizona with the Craig, Ann, Becca, Alison, and Uncle John. I know they are having fun soaking up the sun and drinking up the latte's. Can't wait to see you all in about a week!

And The Heat Is On

Last night Mike and I broke down and turned the heat on in our apartment. We have been putting it off for nearly a month now. We even covered our windows in plastic the beginning of November hoping it would help, which it did. Puting up the plastic was a lot harder then I ever remember as a child.

It has been barely 60 degrees in our apartment this past week, which is probably why we both broke down and turned it on. We have been coming home from school each day and putting on our sweats, slippers, warming our rice socks up, and I even wear a hat some days. We couldn't take it any more! Last night was glorious because it was so nice and warm. I literally woke up sweating I was so hot, so I went to check the thermostat, and it was only 68 degrees!

Mike is still a sleepy sloth this morning, so I am making biscuts and gravy! Hope you all have a good weekend. We love you and miss you all very much and can't wait for Christmas~

A White Wilton

Today was a great day! We have gotten about 4 inches of snow so far and it is still falling from the sky. Even better than that, we got to got out of school at 1:00 today. I think I was more excited than the kids were. It kind of feels like we are back in Minnesota! haha

Last night, we put up our Christmas decorations and our tree. We are really starting to feel like Christmas is just around the corner, but we still have some shopping left to do. Here are a few pictures of what the winter storm left us here in Wilton and also a picture of our special little tree and decorations. We even have little baby stockings. I am sure that Santa will come because we have been very good.

And The Winner Is...

Well as promised, we have chosen the winner to our survey. The winner is SHELBY! I have chosen Shelby to be the winner because she wins at everything, just ask her.

We just returned from our trip to Bemidji. It was a short trip, but was really fun to see all of our relatives up there. We are still waiting for some people to come visit us in Iowa. Our favorite part of the trip was probably getting to see the new babies in Bemidji. They are already getting big. We can't wait to see everyone again in a few weeks over our Christams Break.

Since we can't think of anything else to update you with, we are posting an elf dance just like everone else, except ours is the cooolest! We will try to find an original idea to put on our blog in the future. We got snow today!!! And it is sticking. Maybe soon we can go ice fishing. That is all from Wilton.

Christmas Fun!

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