Perfect Fall Day!

Having Jesse over for a few hours on Thursday is always a blast! And today was no different! With it being such a gorgeous day outside, we decided to play in the leaves!! We may have gotten a little dirty, leaves in the hair and I think maybe a little in the diaper... but we had fun!

It was the perfect fall day!!

I'm sorry, he looks like he may be on something!

KJ made a pathway and Jesse loved it!

Yup, the mustache is back ladies and gentleman!!

Best part about it, is that family photos are this Saturday!! YES!

So there is an inflatable ghost that pops out of a pumpkin at the house at the end of the street. Jesse sat there for like 5 minutes just watching it! He loves that thing! It was such a nice afternoon! Sun shining in the clear blue sky with a slight fall chill in the air!

Best day for playing in the leaves, definitely!!

Gotta Love Self Portraits!

Erica and I should never be given a camera!

Although we always end up going nuts and taking far too many photos, some of my favorite times are when we are just being goofy in front of a camera... and I must say, Erica makes the best partner for self portraits!! Hands down!

Our hair looks amazing though, right?! Yup, that's thanks to Erica!! She is amazing! (and a pretty hot blonde!)

Happy 23rd!

What a day! Yesterday I celebrated my 23rd birthday and it had to have been one of the best birthdays I've had in a long time. The day started out with breakfast in bed from my sweetie! Along with a card, flowers and new perfume! It was awesome! Kelly let be relax all day and he even cleaned the kitchen and started wash. 2 things he hates to do!

After a day of just pure relaxation, we headed off to Kalie and Jesse's place for the Pretty in Pink Party! It was a blast! We had some delicious food, drinks and even yummy jello shots! Joe made me a PINK angel food cake and we celebrated with strawberry short cake, my favorite! Joe also surprised me with a PINK Snuggie! I was so excited! I've used it all morning playing the Wii. It's just so convenient and stylish! Thanks Joe!!

After playing some guitar hero Kalie, Erica and I wanted to start a board game, but we needed some good snacks. We took a drive down to the local Harmon's and stocked up! Popcorn, Tortilla chips, suckers, m&m's and fun dip! Lot's of junk and sugar! Although I love me some junk food, I'd have to say the car ride was the best part! Taking crazy pictures, singing our hearts out and dancing like crazy! Us 3 girls should really not be left alone together! When we got back to the house we ended up playing only a few rounds of Apple to Apples and then started a game of LIFE. Erica kicked our trash by like 100k!

Kalie and I at the beginning of the party! We look so good!

Like my crown? It says Princess!! :)

I was SO EXCITED to get this picture! He was so excited for the Pink Party and did a great job helping his Mom with the decorations! I love this little guy!

Erica's here!! A little late, but she got the party started!

Aren't we cute?! Plus, all of our pink shirts were the same shade! Awesome!

Eating Joe's angel food cake that he made! SO GOOD!!

YEA!! Not only is it PINK, but purchasing it you make a donation to the Breast Cancer Association! Way to go JOE!

Must have funny faces!

It wouldn't be Erica and me to take a funny face not knowing the camera was zoomed in, now wouldn't it?

Crazy car ride!

Love it!

Thanks Kelly for everything!! I LOVE YOU!

Sisters are the best!! Thank you ladies for everything!
I love you both so much!

THANK YOU EVERYONE!! It was one of the best nights I've had in awhile and I have my sisters, brother in laws, nephew and husband to thank for it!! I love you guys!

Blackstrom Sleepover!

Last weekend we had all of our nieces and nephews over at our place for some much needed fun! We'd been wanting to get all of the kids together ever since Kelsey came home from the hospital and we were glad we finally made plans!! It was so good to see all of the kids together! Especially Kelsey, seeing her having fun was the best thing all night!

We started the night off with making our own personal pizzas! Lots of fun! However, I didn't even get to eat mine. I got full from just snaking on the pepperonis, so good! But all in all I think the pizzas were a good idea and start to the night. I will tell you one thing, I won't make Kool Aid anymore around kids or Erica for that matter. I don't know how many times Erica spilled that Kool Aid all over my counter. Thank heavens for, what was it? car cleaner? Or I would have never gotten the red spots off of my counter. It was even hilarious walking in on Erica in my kitchen and she had spilled all over the floor and some cabinets and was trying to clean it all "sneaky" like. Good times!

After some yummy homemade pizza, we decided to have the kids do a craft. Erica thought it would be great to do some finger painting and then send home the kids creations in frames to keep. Everyone loved the idea, even Kelsey! Even though she's the oldest, she always has so much fun just being a kid! So we dressed the kids in old camping t-shirts of Erica's and let them go wild with the paint. Kelly even found himself drawing a few creations. Things got pretty messy, but the kids did a great job!

We ended the night with Toy Story 2, popcorn and skittles! Kelsey and Garrett fell asleep first, followed by Lauren. But the two 3 1/2 year olds were still giggling. Finally with the help of Baby Tad Jesse and Caleb fell asleep. What a crazy night with 5 kids running around, but even among all of the chaos... a few whining moments... Kool Aid all over my kitchen (thanks Red!) we had the BEST TIME!!

We've already talked to the kids about a possible September/October camp out! Maybe some fishing, fire complete with smores and then spending the night in tents. We're gonna want to do it soon though, before it starts to get cold. What do you think parents? Can we still your kids for another night?

THANK YOU to the parents for letting us spend some time with the kids! I love seeing them and getting in that quality time! Thanks to the kids for coming!! Uncle Kelly and Aunt Andee love you all!!

*** Collage below are pictures from the sleepover! ***

Happy 4 Years!

Another post about my husband.. I'm sorry!

But it was 4 years ago today that Kelly and I had our first date. You all know how first dates can go.. well ours was definitely awkward. Kelly took me to see the movie Dukes of Hazzards, which was terrible. We talked a little before and after the movie, mostly about Kelly's Grandma..

Then Kelly drove me home and said good bye to me in the car. No, he didn't walk me to the door which I'll never let him live down.. It was just, "Okay, I guess I'll just see you at work on Monday." I didn't know what to think at that point! Who knew that 4 years later we'd be happily married?! After remembering our first date I don't know how it happened.. I'm so glad that both of us thought we were worth a second date!

How Lucky Am I?

Sometimes I forget how lucky I really am... Then I stumble across a picture I took on the way to Pine Valley and am reminded...

I LOVE YOU KELLY!

Thank you for filling my life with smiles and laughter!

The Hellstrom Hole?

So Erica had mentioned to me last night, that I need to come up with a blog title.. not just simply say, Kelly & Andee. Maybe she's right?! I mean.. Erica has one, Kalie has one, Jessica has one..

So I was thinking long and hard and the only one I could really come up with was The Hellstrom Hole, tweaked from the phrase Hell Hole.

What do you think? Kelly really likes it.. I don't know if he just likes the reference or if it's his annoyance of my blogging constantly.

I'm open to any suggestions that you may have, which I pretty sure my sisters will have plenty.

But for now, we stay.. The Hellstrom Hole.

Happy Birthday Rosie!

Happy Birthday Rosie!!

07/03/08

9 months ago, we went to Pet's Smart to pick up some fish food and ended up leaving with a 3 month old pit bull mix, named Miss Piggy. We didn't expect to adopt a puppy that day, but it was love at first sight. We took her home and immediately had to chang her name.. After much help from the Internet dog/baby list and Erica we found the perfect one, Rosie. The first two weeks were hell.. we didn't know what we had gotten ourselves into. With midnight bathroom runs and her getting round worm, it was a little overwhelming. I know understand what having a child must feel like. But we would do it again in a heart beat. Rosie is the fun in our day, maybe a little rambunctious at times, but loves us unconditionally. Okay, well she loves Kelly more.. but I know she has a soft spot for me.

I never realized how small she was when we adopted her, but she was tiny! Here is a then and now picture of Kelly and her on the couch so you can get a general idea..




I'm not going to lie, it's hard to have a dog sometimes. Especially one as big and as energetic as Rosie, but she's one of the Hellstrom's now. She has made a big impact on our life and we love her! Happy Birthday Rosie!

All Wet in Lake Tahoe!

And so the story goes that our spontanteous trip to Lake Tahoe for our 1 year anniversary turned out to be a little damp.. but no worries! That just means you get to be super lazy and watch movies in bed ALL DAY! Which you all know that that is the Andee way to live!

We left really early on Thursday morning and with an 8 hour drive ended up getting to the resort at about 3 pm! After being in the car all day, we didn't do much when we got there. We unpacked and ate dinner at a local pub! Their nachos were excellent!

Friday was probably the worst day as far as weather, so we ended up staying in the room most of the day. But after a little cabin fever, once we noticed a little blue sky, we wanted to walk down to the lake to take some pictures. The lake was amazing! It was so big and very blue! It almost blended right in with the sky and mountains behind it. We walked along the shore line, snapped a few pictures, but before long it started to rain again! We walked back up to the resort in the rain and took a picture along the way. Kelly didn't bring his sweatshirt, so he ended up getting a little wet!

Now, although I love being lazy that wasn't the best part about our trip. While I'm sure that the skiing and water activities are awesome at Lake Tahoe given the time of year, my favorite thing was the food!! We went to a couple of different local places, but my favorite had to be FIRE + ICE and Naked Fish!

FIRE + ICE was awesome! They have 4 stations; Pasta, Veggies, Meat, Sauce. It was like $26 per person for unlimited food! You choose what you want and the cook it right there! Very yummy! I would recommend this place to everyone! Saturday we had lunch at a sushi place called the Naked Fish. I love sushi and this place was awesome! They had Tempura Cheese Cake that I'd never tried before.. it was so yummy! I had to take a picture!

Okay, so besides the great food they also have a lot of shopping and even gambling! Saturday was the best day of the weekend, it didn't rain once! So after Kelly and I had lunch at Naked Fish we walked around, visited some stores and just took in the nice day. At the resort, they have these, I don't know what you would call them.. logs of art? Anyways, they've taken so trees that were surrounding the resort and instead of just chopping them down, they've made artwork with them. They were really stunning and so detailed! It's crazy what some people can do with a saws-all or a chain saw.

Saturday night we decided to go over to the Harrah's casino and gamble a little bit. Now, when it comes to gambling, Kelly and I are actually really responsible about it. Before we go, we decide how much money we are going to play with and we never break that. We may lose it all, but we don't like losing too much. Well this time since we had already spent a lot of money on the trip we each went with $20. I found me a LobsterMania and planted my butt down! I LOVE LobsterMania! I'm a big fan of the penny slots because they are cheap, you can play for a longer time on less money, and the bonus rounds are fun! Well long story short because this blog is already too long.. After about an hour and a half, I walked away with $50! Kelly finally gave up and cashed out with $16. I know it wasn't much, but to be ahead instead of behind.. that's worth it to me! FUN FUN FUN!

Okay, so have I bored you enough yet? Well if you are reading until the very end.. I just have one more thing to go over! THE CAKE TOP! That's right! After unwrapping it for about 20 minutes, we reached the top of our wedding cake! Dad & Nancy did an amazing job wrapping that thing up I never thought we were going to get to it. All in all it wasn't that bad! A little dry, but the taste took us back to our special day and that's what mattered! Thanks Dad & Nancy! Of course we did only take a few bites.. it wasn't that good. :)

So there you have it, Andee and Kelly's 1 Year Anniversary Celebration!! Made you feel like you were there with us, right?! I thought so! So our 1st anniversary wasn't all bells and whistles, to be honest Kelly and I have never had an anniversary where everything goes as planned. That's just how it is with us I guess. But I like it! It's just like us, not perfect!