Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Update!

Tomorrow it will be 2 months since Michael and I were married!!!
  My, how the time does fly when you're having fun. :)

This is our home that we're renting from my folks.  I took this picture on a beautiful frosty morning last week.
 One of our wedding presents... :)
 We now have 2 guest bedrooms. The quilt on this bed was handmade by Rachael (Michael's sister) and was her wedding gift to us. Isn't it lovely?
 Our 2nd and smaller guestroom...  

Michael MADE this bed-frame years ago. :)
 The denim quilt was also a wedding present. Our friends were SO generous!!
 One of the largest of the 4 turkeys we "did in". It weighed 30lbs, dressed.
 A gift from my sweetheart...
 The honey we extracted from the honeycomb Michael discovered in SD...
 My beloved installed a new shower in our home! He's so handy...

 "They" sent us the wrong shower door home, so we used just the shower curtain until last night, when Michael brought the correct door home and put it in where it belongs. I love that man!!
He also dropped my rings off to get them bonded and it feels quite strange to be ring-less now.
 Here's picture proof that he even helped me write out some of our many thank yous 
(still a work in progress as there were 193 to write, but the end is drawing near).
And now, our big news!

It's about our new addition....


....to our farm....


Does this give you a hint?


 YES, we bought a milk cow!!!

 It took a while to decide on a name, but the matter is now decided.
Meet IVY...
Date of birth: July 10th 2013
Breed: Brown Swiss
Purchase date: 12/21/15
Bought from: Prairie Diamond Ranch, Steele, ND
Status: Milking for one month
Temperament: Very docile, but she does have the Swiss stubbornness and if you want her to go somewhere, it's best to let her follow you rather than trying to herd her.   
Notes:  She has quickly adjusted to being hand-milked, even without the kicker. Last night, she let Michael and I milk her at the same time, one sitting on either side.  We're highly impressed and pleased. 
We hope she'll be around for many years.
 She likes to eat...but that's no surprise.  She is a cow, afterall.

We are still waiting for wedding pictures to come from our photographer, but have a few to share.

Consider this a sneak-peek of our special day:

I bought my wedding gown on the Internet, as it is hard to find modest gowns locally. I wore my mom's wedding veil which was altered a bit (sequins were added and the front headband part was removed) by Michael's Aunt Joy.  Our colors were Watermelon and Sage. 
The flower girls, Amelia M, Johanna M, and Tracy Jo M looked like little angels. :)
Our ring bearer/wagon puller/wagon-sitter-baby boys were: Michael M, James M, and Vonn M.
My bridesmaids were: Anna U, Heather C, Miranda G, Dorena W, and Lauretta H.
Michael's groomsmen were: James D (his brother), Grant D (his cousin), Andrew B, Jacob B (my brothers), and Nate A (his college friend).

 My groom with our ushers:
Michael's cousins, Garrett and Ethan; our brother-in-law, Nicholas; and my second cousin, Hristiyan
 Michael's Aunt's sister, Katey has a flower shop (Paws Floral) and did all the flowers for our wedding.   She put these flowers in the bows on the chairs in the sanctuary a couple hours before the ceremony began.
That's all for now.

Friday, December 4, 2015

Happily ever after~

Hello everyone!  This is Mrs. Dalquist writing. :)

I've had several inquiries as to when I'd be getting back to posting on my blog and, well, maybe now is the time to start?  Life is by no means slowing down, but I do want to record some of the special moments of my first month+ of married life here so as to remember them better later, so I'll give a quick update.

Michael & I went on a 2 week honeymoon, traveling as far as Arizona to see the Grand Canyon. We had SUCH a great time and saw so many amazing things. My favorite memories are of being at Yellowstone National Park and the Coral Pink Sand Dunes, oh, and driving through snow in the mountains of CO. Michael also took me to see Cora, WY--a very tiny town. :)

The following 2 weeks were mostly spent in SD, helping my dad and brothers tear down 2 buildings which will later be rebuilt on the farm here and up at Andrew's place. We will be going down there to hopefully finish up that project next week. 

On November 22nd, we went to Mandan to celebrate my grandma Marly's 81st birthday and Thanksgiving with my extended family.

Last week, my husband and I went to MN to visit his family and to go to his grandparent's house for Thanksgiving. It was great to see everyone again and to get to know my new family better. Michael did the morning cow-milking for his dad while we were there to give him a little break. He says he doesn't mind not getting up at 5:20am every morning anymore though. 

This last week, Michael & I were finally able to get our house mostly in order and to work on projects that help to make this house our home. :) It's been a delight filling our kitchen and home with such generous wedding presents... 

 Michael has been helping up at Mid Dakota Grain as needed.  I got most of my name-change paperwork finished (social security # changed; new driver's license; credit card companies notified; bank accounts changed; local gas station card changed; etc...). We also did some shopping and spent our wedding money on buying a beautiful new bedroom set. Michael went to pick it up today so it will be very exciting to get our room set up tonight!  He also bought a pickup box so as to fix up his truck and picked that up this morning. We're now pondering buying a milk cow and stopped in at Carrie K's last night to look at what cows she has for sale. Prayers would be appreciated, that we know if we should buy a cow now and which one.

So, you see, I HAVE been busy, but no, I have not forgotten about blogging and do hope to keep writing from time to time in the future. There will be wedding pictures posted here when we get them from our photographer. In the meantime, if you'd like to watch our wedding (and slideshow AND the Kingery's concert), you may do so here:


Have a wonderful December~

PS. YES, I am LOVING being married to Michael David Dalquist!!!