be thankful, family

for as long as i can remember i've always spent thanksgiving with my schramel side of the family. it is my favorite holiday, and spending it with my schramel side is just the way i want to spend it. with six kids and their spouses, numerous grandchildren and their spouses, and now, a couple of great-grandchildren, it's a full house at grandmas. my dads side of the family is extremely close and has been for quite some time. my grandparents did an amazing job of instilling family values into their children. the four brothers; my dad, uncle brian, uncle dennis and the baby of the family, my favorite uncle mark, are avid hunters and go on many many hunting and fishing trips- actually they are on one right now ;)- and spend so much time together. we've always been close and share an unbreakable bond, thanks in large part to my grandpa and grandma.

when grandpa died a couple years ago it was a huge blow to our family. he was the rock that held the family together. in good times or bad, he was always there for advice and of course an amazing smile. growing up i spent a lot of time with my grandma and grandpa. as a single dad, my dad didn't really know what to do with a little girl who would rather play with dolls than go huting 24/7- don't get me wrong, i went A LOT, but sometimes it's just not so fun. so my dad would sometimes bring me to gran's house to hang out. my grandpa never raised his voice at me, never scolded me and never made me feel like i was a young, immature girl. we definitely had a bond. it was like i was his seventh child and all the memories we shared together were priceless and things i hope my dad will someday share with gavin.

back to thanksgiving, well it's a fabulous time. grandma makes all the delicious goodies expected to be at thanksgiving and we all add in the rest. lots of good mushroom recipes, non-traditional deserts and sometimes a wacky side like grilled salmon or smoked pheasant if my uncles are up to it. we sometimes have to eat in shifts, there's no dinner table that could ever hold us all. so sometimes we eat in shifts and sometimes we eat in the living and dining room. either way we're spending a lot of time together and are sometimes too close for comfort, while eating at least. after dinner our family all gathers into my grandmas beautiful living room and joke or tell stories, there might be a game or two, or as of recently, laugh and watch gavin entertain us. there's booze, and a lot of it- to be honest i bet the family drinks at least two 1.75 bottles of captain morgan and maybe a six pack of beer.... but that's what i've grown up with so its never a shock. letting in a "newbie" in our family is a hard task. it almost seems like there's a "hazing" period, of talking shit and giving shit to see if they can handle it. dan seems to think that just by passing my dads test, he didn't have to follow the hazing with my uncles... i think he's right, my dad's a tough pill to crack. our family could spend the entire night talking, reminiscing, and drinking- sometimes we do just that.

it's a great holiday. no stress with the money or the gifts or pleasing each other. just time to spend together, all about family. i am so thankful to have such a great family, and to raise gavin and this new baby as a part of the schramel family as well. i hope that dan and i can create an amazing bond and instill those family values just like my grandparents did for their children, into ours- just not six kids ;)

wednesday

tomorrow is going to one heck of a day!

gavin is going to be so busy with so many different activities, i am slightly jealous.

we have story hour at 10, followed by a "nontraditional" thanksgiving lunch at daycare. shortly followed by a nap :) then we're making place-mats for a thanksgiving lunch at schroeders on thursday- pretty cool, huh? we're going to make apple cheesecake for thanksgiving too! then, just when you think it doesn't get any better, it does. he gets to spend the night at grandmas house! WOW! gavin loves to spend the night at grandmas, simply because there's no bedtime and he gets to watch movies in bed with grandma... lucky huh?

i am shocked that she volunteered to take gavin so dan and i could go to st cloud for dinner and to get some christmas shopping done. so we're pretty excited. now if only he would go to bed? cause it's a little late- gavin.. once again, go to bed.

crafty

so it was 60 degrees outside last sunday and gavin, my mom and i took full advantage of it. we went to the farm and then ventured to the darwin nature trails. it was absolutely beautiful and i wish we had just a little bit more time to enjoy 60 degree weather. gavin was in heaven and ran up and down the hills screaming in joy!

aww, i simply love this little boy!

so i've been trying to be super-de-duper crafty these days. getting ideas from numerous websites and adding in my own creativity. these projects aren't totally finished because i need to make a st cloud run to crafts direct to get some final touches but you get the drift.

i got all these evergreen branches from the farm and decided to make something i've seen on pinterest, just adding some different things. i need to get a couple bigger gold bulbs, a little bit of gold ribbon and then i think this one might be finished.

my dad is a HUGE hunter. he hunts pheasant, duck (sometimes), deer, moose and bear and goes on numerous hunting trips up north, to the dakotas and montana. i've seen a picture of this wreath and no tutorial on just how to make it. so today i tried my hardest to make this look as good as i can. i think this turned out pretty good. but like i said, i need to add finishing touches. i need to get some burlap, to make a bow, and also an "s" and paint it brown and add it.. then i'll be finished with one of my homemade christmas gifts :)

thanks TONS to heather and jeremy sanden for all the shells that they used at their wedding. TOTALLY greatful for them!

this one is my favorite!

i'm 100% obsessed and in love with grapevine. i'm all about it and would love to find about 50 feet more of it to make more wreathes. it's so easy once you start but the beginning process is well, daunting. it's such a tricky thing to get a hold of and managed. i found the four glittery gold pine cones at walmart and will gladly go back and get a few more to add. simple and kind of rustic. i will make more and more as gifts for others.

but who couldn't love an ornamental wreath?

i love love love these ornaments. i'm really into gold if you haven't noticed. i got about 100 silver and gold bulbs from walmart and made this with nothing more than blubs, a hot glue gun and a wire hanger. i do need to add a ribbon to the top but sadly, cannot find the bronze color that i'm dreaming of.

so there we have it. a few of my crafty projects, that sadly still need to be finished. i think i'll try to go to st cloud early friday morning to get my finishing touches so i can check these off my list. i still need to make the ornamental trees i've been dreaming of and of course, a few more wreathes as gifts.... then, on to start/finish the babys room. i'm going to be a busy little decorator in the upcoming months!

100th post

wow, can you believe that? 100 posts? i feel like i just started this blog.

anyways, i'm ITCHING to start decorating for Christmas. dan, well he thinks i might be slightly delusional. he says, that it's only the beginning of november and i should wait till after thanksgiving. i've slowly taken down the halloween/autumn decor and am ready to start with the full on christmas decor! am i crazy?

today is such a blah day. we're still in our pj's- oops! and as of right now i have no idea when it would be a good time to change into our normal clothes. maybe right before dan gets home from work? tonight we're having a "date night" and going "hunting" at ryan's new house/barn/woods for some grapevine and old wood for a project i've decided to make. which reminds me to go to my moms house to pick up some of her "junk" she's volunteering to give to me for what, yet another crafty project for christmas... bless her!

as soon as i've accomplished the remainder of the wreathes that i want to finish this week i'll upload them to the blog so you can check them out. i'm pretty excited with the end results so far :)

have a great day!!!

new pictures!

we had another fabulous photo session with sarah from sarah pollio photography! and as windy and wild as it was outdoors, and how gavins attention span was cut short, i was shocked that we had 100 amazing photos to choose from. sarah is fabulous and i am always amazed by her talent! she has great ideas and was willing to walk right into the pasture with the horses, including duke, the intimidating draft horse. i am sad that it will be february when the baby arrives cause it'll be too cold for outdoor photos so we'll have to find someone else for an indoor session.

we took this session out at "the farm", or well sue barricks farm, where we board lilly so that she could be a part of this families photos for once. grandma tagged along and got in a couple shots so now she has some professional photos of her and gavin, she's pretty excited! i wish my stomach was a little bit more prego in these pictures, like what it looks like now, cause in some it looks like i'm just extra fat, ha! these are just a few of my favs, with 100 to choose from it wasn't hard to find a few good ones :)

thanks sarah! great job! we love them, xoxo!

a month

it's been quite some time since my last blog. yes, the fact that we're having a boy has totally set in and we are so excited! i've gone through gavin's old clothes and got a lot of things ready for this new babe. but... since gavin was born in june with the heat and humidity, not a whole lot will be working for the new addition. but that's perfectly okay, it gives me a great opportunity to go shopping :)

we've been so busy with little projects here and there. we finally have NEW carpet in the two rooms downstairs (gavin and the new babe) and i love it! omg! we found this amazing man who has been laying carpet in the litchfield area for almost 45 years and he is so cheap and so so so good! we scored on the carpet, and the labor so now we're ready to do the upstairs beast, our bedroom. our bedroom has been by far the most neglected since we've moved in- almost three years ago. we've done nothing to it in the least bit. a new bed and bedding is pretty much it. but enough with home improvement talk!

gavin and i spent the weekend out at the farm finding, cutting and creating new "masterpieces" for our autumn/christmas decor! everything is so fabulous and so incredibly cheap, free! dan's pretty excited that instead of us buying all this crazy evergreen mumbo jumbo from turks i've already gotten it. i made three grapevine wreathes for the doors that i just need to add some finishing touches to and then hang. if you or anyone you know has grapevine i would be more than happy to take the pesky tangled vine off your hands ;) we also went to walmart yesterday and picked up a bunch of gold and silver bulbs for us to make but yes, what else, another wreath for closer to christmas time. pretty excited about it, not going to lie. i can't wait to get all the christmas decor ready and put up, but i think it might be just a tad too early.

this week my plan is to focus on all the DIY baby decor that i've found on my favorite new website. tomorrow while gav's at daycare i plan on going to hutch to get some new fabrics and paint to start the projects.... which might take me quite some time to finish, so i better get started. thankfully, dan's totally on board with these projects as well, and is ready to help out- which is great cause i can't sand or do everything by myself. my goal is to have babes room almost finished by christmas so i can focus my last two months with gavin on solely gavin. i just kind of realized that when i go into labor i'll more than likely be by myself, with gavin, and i have no idea what we'll do. i think i'll have to grandmas and daycare to try to come up with a plan, yikes.

so thats our life, well more like my life in a quick little update. lots and lots of projects and lots of fun things planned for the upcoming weekends. it's thanksgiving and the new breaking dawn movie all in close to one week time span... who's excited!? THIS GIRL!