[PUMPKINS]

Grandma and Grandpa Schroeder have an amazing pumpkin patch patch this year. The boys and I thoroughly enjoyed going out to their house to pick out own pumpkins and gather numerous gourds. The boys couldn't have been more thrilled, and their dad too- he finds the cost of those beautiful orange blobs ridiculous!

The boys's carving pumpkins. They picked them out back in June.

Like previously stated, the boys had an amazing time. I did as well. I had even more fun getting the fall deck up and ready. Happy fall!

My posts are going to be pretty out-of-order. I wanted to get my MT/Glacier post up but I took about 600 photos so it's kind of hard to organize and chose what to put up.

Montana

We'll just start with the highlight of our summer. Montana.

Let me just start out this with a little excerpt from our night before, or well the night we left for Montana. It was one of my best friends wedding. There was Pendleton and our table was the last to be served dinner. There was a lot of dancing and friends from High School.

Dan and I left at midnight and made it to Grove City before I decided to empty my stomach. Gratefully, I passed out until we made it about half way through North Dakota. If you've ever been in the car with me on the home from Kimball you know that this usually doesn't happen. I make the drive home a big production.

Well we made it to Montana. Our first stop was Livingston. This is a place where Dan and I have always wanted to spend more time. Bozeman is truly beautiful but it lacks that "old time" feeling that Livingston has.

Livingston, Montana

Rosa's Pizza. Probably the best pizza to date.

Just wanted to check out some real estate on our 6 mile bike ride. This house was 3.2 mil. Just smidge out of our price range.

New Beer, new night.

So our first night we spent at a KOA outside of Livingston. It was fabulous to sleep in a bed, not the car.

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaack.

Well it's been just about what seems to be a year (May was the last post). Not a whole lot has changed. But I will tell you this blog is going to take a different direction than just posting about those two adorable little men of mine.. I mean who are we kidding, I'm sure I'll still have a great deal of photos of them.. but just snips of info of what we're up to. I'd rather just post photos... so be ready for photos upon photos upon photos. Iphone photos, instagram photos and well, photos from an actual camera... (yep, just charged that bad boy up).

READY?

oh summer, where art thou?

It's been quite a while since my last post, I wish I had something exciting to post about... But, I don't. So here's whats going on.

Our house is on hold. We're not currently working on any big projects- Dan is super busy with overtime and extra hours at 3M and of course the side jobs are picking up.. because it's supposedly  spring, (I don't quite believe it). We are getting closer and closer to the kitchen remodel- just picking out the dates to when it will be taking place. Unfortunately probably not until August, which is a huge bummer for me.. but at least it's happening. Everything is picked out and priced, now just to make that purchase- which is always the downfall. Our room is just about complete. A few of my items from West Elm are on back-order so they won't be here till July. But we are making slow and steady progress. Next up is a quick planking/paint update for Gavin's room- which is SO needed. It's been 5 years since we did much in that room. We spent all last week purging our house. Getting things shipped off to the dump, things priced for a garage sale that my in-laws in New Ulm are hosting.

The boys are just boys. Itching for nicer, warmer weather to spend the countless hours that we should already have spent outside by the beginning of May. Jude is getting his two year old molars (LORD HELP US ALL) and is causing serious havoc around his household. But he's still sweet and cuddly every now and again. Jude is just about potty trained, we still have a few slip ups but he's doing a great job. Gavin will graduate next Thursday from Mighty Dragons Preschool and I couldn't be a prouder mom. He has come so far and I cannot wait to watch him grow into a Kindergartner. He is involved in a few community ed summer classes which I'm sure will keep us busy during the day. My mom and I plan to take the boys to Rapid City this summer to check out Mt. Rushmore and the surrounding hot spots (which will also be the time that the kitchen remodel is happening, hence why Dan isn't joining).

I am, just like the boys, waiting for summer. I am sick of all my winter-style clothes, my pasty skin, I long for going for runs without running tights and long sleeved shirts, and having a beer in my hand outside during the nighttime cool air. I need summer! I thought this summer was going to be easy-breezy but now that I take out my calendar I can tell that it is just as busy, but with about a third of the weddings we had last year. Regardless of what's happening during the summertime or how busy we might be, I need it to be here.

So not much extreme excitement, no baby, no big move, no trips happening soon, I'm not going back to work (yet)... but we're still going strong.

just a little dress up on one of the many rainy spring days.. oh, and our bestie, b.
have you seen a cuter construction worker, cowboy and firefighter? 

downfalls of being a stay-at-homer

Cleaning.

I hate almost everything about cleaning. 

Dusting, toilets, floors, the fridge, stove, ect... I am not a fan.

One thing I do love to do is laundry. And dishes I guess, too. And picking up the boys's room, and my own. 

With two little boys who eat, play, color and make messes at 100 mph my house always seems to be a mess. I try and try my hardest to keep up with the messes but goodness... it's kind of overwhelming.

Last night at 10 pm I decided to spend the final hours of my birthday cleaning the kitchen floors. Like scrubbing on my hands and knees... This morning as of 9:48 am it looks like I did absolutely nothing to make it look better. Crumbs from the leftover pizza Gavin helped himself to this morning and some spilled some milk on the floor. Don't even get me started on the mud by the door. WHERE IS SUMMER? The sink is full of whatever Dan decided to throw in there this morning before heading off to work- he's oh so helpful in this department. 

I washed the walls yesterday. First time in five years that I wiped them down. I didn't know there was such a thing? Cleaning walls? Whatever would you do that for? Well, I did it. Cleaned those bad boys down. I don't think they look any different to be honest, but my mom said they could use a good cleaning. 

The living room seems to stay the cleanest which is mind boggling since that's where we spend the most hours during the day, and even the boys's room is clean. I vacuum it twice a week to rid the hair but other than that the dust seems to be non-existent. And I love to clean the windows and make their beds and have their rooms look tidy. I put away the toys about thirty times a day and really don't mind because those five minutes of it looking like it could be a "cute clean room" are all I need.  But the kitchen. My oh my. I just want it to be clean for an entire day. Even when we're gone it seems like the second we come home it's once again a mess.

So there you have it. My complaint for the day. Cleaning. BAH 

I'm going to happily skip down to the laundry room to gather the clean clothes and put them away :) 

PS- do y'all have a drying rack? We were given one from my grandma (who is giving away almost everything she owns) and I can't imagine why I went 25 years without one. Like Dan says, (hashtag) mom life. 

being a mommy

Today.

Our Sundays are usually pretty lazy and we get a whole-lotta nothing accomplished. Today, well, it really wasn't any different. I brought Gavin to Sunday School, made lunch (lets be honest, it was a combination of yesterdays leftovers), had quiet time/nap time, and took a trip to Buffalo.

We went to Buffalo to sell some snowmobile skis off of the new(er) snowmobile Dan bought while he was in Montana - that my friends, is a long, not necessary for a blog post, story. We also took a lovely drive through the Morries Buffalo Ford dealer, which is where we got my Explorer. Dan has a desire for a new truck and I can't blame him because "the great white" as we call her, has 350,000+ on that old gal.. and her time, well as sad as it will be for Dan.. is ticking. But he refuses to buy himself a new truck before her end because we have no space to store an extra truck.... again, another long story for another post.

I am surely drifting quickly from the point of this post.

We brought the boys with us to Buffalo because, well... they're our children. We bring them almost everywhere we go. We made it special and took them to the McDonalds play place where their hearts filled with joy as they ran around and slid and screamed and wore off the energy that has been held in for countless days because this Minnesota winter is killing every small child, slowly.

Anyways, on the way home Dan and I chatted and the boys chatted among themselves. That was until about Kimball. The entire way home Gavin said, "mommy, mommy, mommy".... and as I didn't respond because I was mid-conversation with Dan it just kept on, "mommy, mommy, mommy".

At one point, and I'm sure it was after Kimball.. but before Watkins, I turned around and in my not so happy to hear your non-stop chatter voice and said, "Gavin! Please be quiet. Let's play the quiet game".

If your a mom or a dad you know that the "quiet game" doesn't work long at all with a four year old. Not long at all.

It was right outside of Watkins by Mies that Gavin once again did the "mommy, mommy, mommy" and I grew more and more frustrated with his talk of John Deere tractors and the desire for him to get his own snowmobile. I asked again if we could be quiet so mommy and daddy could finish their conversation.

Dan started to get frustrated and the rest of the way home chuckled under his breath that he was more than excited to get out of the car.

We got home only to find my moms dog in our garage and if you know my husband at all it was pretty much the same as if she'd put her in our house. Our moods were not all too high and it was late.. and we still had bath time... and get things ready for preschool in the morning.. and go to bed. At 8:15 Gavin came out and said, "hey mom"  ... and all I said was "what?" in a horrible tone that would have even sent myself scurrying back into my bedroom. He trailed off to his bed and quickly fell alseep.

I had fabulous plans to do x, y and z tonight, even go to the gym... but my crummy attitude had me sitting on the couch, browsing the computer and watching the Oscars. And now I'm glad I did.

A preschool mom posted this and had me in immediate tears and feeling even worse.

I feel horrible that I put my little man to bed and was so rude and crabby towards him. I walked into his room with tears in my eyes and rubbed his back in hopes he would wake up so I could apologize. He didn't. But, I still feel awful. It's the small things that seem to mean the most to my four year old. The small things like putting him to bed at night and reading him stories, or doing his prayer with him or giving him the last of whatever I have- it makes him so happy. And here I am, being rude and ungrateful that my sweet little boy has something he wants to share with me.

I love being a mom. I love that my boys love me so much more than any other love I've ever experienced. I love that I am there for them and that they need me to be there for them, and help them and guide them, and keep them safe. Obviously, the list could go on and on.

Every mom should read that blog post and remember it, daily. I know I need to. I need to slow down and remember they are only little for awhile and right now I am (we are) everything to them. Someday they are going to be all that we have. Hug your littles tonight, my friends. Enjoy the silliness and smiles and joy they have in their little bodies. I can't even imagine the feelings I'm going to have when they don't need me as much as they do today.

a thank you

I forgot to post this a week or so ago. It's too sweet not to share.

The story behind this is quite simple. Gavin thinks Steve is SO cool. He will watch this video over and over and over again. If you haven't watched it before, please do, it's a good one. We watch it in the car, dance to it in the living room and even watch it in the bed at bedtime. Last year when Gavin started preschool he was shocked to see that Steve's son is in Gavin's preschool class. This year again the boys are in the same classroom and Gavin says they're besties, (among many others).

A week or two ago at preschool they were talking about the post office and how it all works. One day Gavin came home and told me he sent a letter to Steve. I quickly brushed it off because I doubted that Mrs Julie would send it out. To be honest I have no idea how it was sent or if it went home with Steve's son, but he got it.

A week or two later Gavin was overjoyed to get a letter in the mail and was SO excited when I read him the letter out loud. He was even happier when I told him it was from Steve. It was adorable. Plus, a DQ gift card? Wow, now that's cool. It is still sitting on Gavs bulletin board and he refuses to spend his DQ card. He has shared the story with so many people I'm sure they're sick of hearing about it.

It still makes my day to see my little boy so excited about it. And it was so sweet of Steve.

sweet two

My sweet little baby boy Jude is now two. I guess that means he's not a little baby anymore, huh? We celebrated on Valentines day with Grandpa Gerry (his favorite person in the world) and Grandma Shari, and of course, our little family of four. We had some pizza, cupcakes and gifts. It was pretty perfect. We even let him have his "daddy pop" -aka MT Dew, for dinner. Ironically enough he went to bed early, even with all the sugar.

Daddy left for Montana on his actual birthday- poor kid will probably never have both of his parents together on his birthday- so we got up and had a good breakfast and headed up to Alexandria despite the awful weather to hang with Grandma and go to the water park. Our plans got slightly derailed when we came to find out that Arrowwood Resort didn't have day passes on holiday weekends. It definitely slipped my mind that Monday was Presidents Day. We stayed at my moms house and had another favorite of Judes- spaghetti and to top it off.... a John Deere ice cream cake. He only ate the yummy gel frosting and whipped cream edges.

Sunday we headed to the water park where Jude and I enjoyed going down the water slide... on repeat. I bet we went down about 100 times, and that I am not exaggerating about in the least. It was great. Our hotel room was beautiful and we enjoyed everything about our stay. I will definitely be bringing the boys back to enjoy Arrowwood again this summer with daddy when there's more to do outside for little ones.

Our Monday was a doozy. It took us just about three hours to get home from Alex. The conditions didn't get bad until after Paynesville- the drive I know like the back of my hand- it took FOREVER.

We did a quick session with Renee from Dassel to get a few head-shots of Jude of his two year pictures. We got a few goodies with Sarah, but he wasn't too excited to do any solo ones. The mini session was great! It lasted about 20 minutes and was $30 which is a steal of a deal for a two year old.

I'm pretty sure my heart melted on the first and last ones.

Here's some of Judes favorites/milestones:

-He can obviously walk. It took him just past one to be able to walk. Now he gallops and my heart goes pitter patter every-single-time.

-He's not the greatest talker. His words consist of: ball, book, boots, kitty kitty, Bella, Lilly, blankie, tractor, go, mama, dada, more, baby, no, ya, milk, juice, uh-oh, nack-snack, phone, spoon, cow... I mean we're not adding any sentences together. Jude's always been a little delayed in the speech area. It will come.

-loves anything that moves. Tractors, trucks, buses, dump trucks, ect. You know, the usual boy things. Shrieks with delight when he sees Maddy or Lilly. 

-CANNOT live without his blankie. 

-loves swimming, bath time, playing in the sink.
-bananas, eggs and spaghetti are his fav foods.
- daddy pop is his most desired beverage. He constantly has a sippy full of something- water, milk, juice.
-Papa Gerry can make any day the best day ever.
-Fights tooth and nail with his big bro, Gavin. But then the next second they will be laying in bed reading books together. He follows Gav around more than Gavin really cares for.
-Jude is so even tempered. He gets frustrated when I don't know what he wants, because of the lack of words, but hardly ever slips into the "temper tantrum" mode.
-He helps mama around the house. Listens like a champ. If I say, "Jude, go bring your toys to your room" he will do it.... Immediately! I hope that never changes.
-Sleeps great! He goes to bed around 7:30 and gets up at 8. Takes an hour and a half nap from 1-1:30 to 3. It might be my favorite time of the day :)
-Looks just like mama when mama was little.
-Doesn't care much for tv. He likes Mickey and Jake but will only watch the show for about 10 minutes. He will, however, watch almost an entire John Deere movie.
-He hates to be in the car. Almost immediately he will fuss.
-Spends countless hours destroying my fridge and splashing in the sink.


We are so lucky to have little Jude Andrew. I couldn't imagine life without him. I cannot wait to see him grow.

gap

I don't know where you mamas buy your little ones clothes but for me the one stop shop has always been the Gap. So convenient and super close in St Cloud. There's always an abundant of little boys clothes for Gavin, I mean myslef, to chose from, and quick! Well little did I know that the St Cloud Gap has turned into a factory store and everything for little boys is.. well... junk. I don't really love the St Cloud Gap anymore. To be honest I've been there once since it turned into a factory store and have no intention of going back. I would much rather drive to Ridgedale or spend the afternoon at Southdale (my favorite mall) and even hit up MOA (WITHOUT kids). 

On Thursday I put three different outfits on Gavin. All three were too short. I can only assume Gav gets his height from his Papa Scott because no one around this household is extra tall. Gavin is up to my belly button and he is only FOUR!... what? By the time he's in middle school I'm pretty sure he'll be taller than I am. Which isn't too terribly hard to do because I am only 5' 2"... I lie and say I'm 5' 3" sometimes (shhhhh). Gavin has always worn a larger shirt than his "age" because he torso is SOOOOO long. But now we're going to a 5T in jeans as well. My little growing boy. I love that he's getting so big and growing up so nicely but it is kind of pricey to have this little boy going through so many clothes, so fast. Thank the Lord I have a sweet little boy who gets all of his older bros hand-me-downs that are still in mint condition. 

Anyways enough with the rambling. Today I decided to order some new jeans and a few shirts for Gavin via gap.com. I have no time in the upcoming weeks to head to the cities and Target seems to be pretty limited on little boy clothes in this winter/spring awkward time. Which by the way is probably the only other store I love for my boys, and to be honest... myself. Who doesn't love Target? So I filled up my cart and headed to the checkout. As I was looking for my card I noticed I still had a giftcard from TWO Christmases ago that I assumed had a few extra dollars to take care of the winter hats I ordered for the boys that they don't need (but they were so adorable). I typed in the numbers and pin code and BAM! $100 left on the card. Thanks, mom! Seriously it was a pretty awesome way to start off this Friday. So of course I did what any other person would do... filled up the cart even more and didn't tell Dan I found a giftcard. The boys should be set till spring. 

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!!!!

the potty

I have been dreading this..

Potty training.

I knew it was time to start the never ending process of introducing "the potty" to Jude when he decided to take off his diaper in the middle (or beginning) of the night in his crib. Which means.... A mess when I get up. Not really a mess, just to clarify, but a soaked blanket or three.

He has followed everyone in this house into the bathroom more times than I can count so I knew he would be okay sitting on the potty and washing his hands, ect. But I wasn't too sure how the connection between a little mans pee-pee and the actual potty-ing would go.

Gavin was SO easy to potty train because it was just him and I here. It took just about two weeks to get him to always use the potty and only wear pull ups at night (ps, I forget about potty training at night... ohhh I just got stressed). Easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy.

So we got out the leftover package of Thomas the Train undies that Gavin never wore and put them on last week. Day one, SUCCESS! I thought to myself, "wow, I have an amazingly smart little man". And then day two and three were just about as awful as they could get. Many soaked undies and messes to clean up on the floor. Dan has little to no time to deal with the messes so I'm always the one wiping up that yellow mess on the floor. Thankfully we have very little carpet in our house. I've never been more grateful for our tiny house. Today we are golden. No oppsies thus far. We sit on the potty every 30 minutes and read and hand out smarties left and right and sing as well. It's a beautiful time. Our bathroom can fit two people (one adult and one small child) comfortably, because it's teeny tiny, so when we put two small children and myself in there it's quite cramped. Plus, then Gavin thinks he needs treats for going potty--- ummm I don't think so. I remember a very specific maid of honor speech that was something along the lines of, "I was easy to potty train because I wanted to be just like my older sister" and I went with it. So all three of us hang in the bathroom and clap and scream for everyone who goes potty. It really is wonderful. Whenever I find myself getting annoyed I have to honestly check myself and think Jude wants to be just like his brother- go with it!

Now that we're on day four I'm going to try really hard to stick to our routine of using the potty. And eventually being brave enough to venture out of our house without a diaper or pull up on. But until the next two weeks are over (when my baby turns TWO- OH MY GOSH, REALLY? TWO?) I'll keep up with the potty training and undie wearing at home and pull ups when we're in public.

Crossing my fingers for a great, dry day :)

An annoucement

I really am into my blog these days... have you noticed? I went months and months and months without typing a dang thing and now I'm posting at least once a week. They might not be the most interesting posts but hey, I get about 20 views a day so I guess someone cares whats going on in our life.

I am proud to announce I have the best husband ever... I think?
No seriously. He is good. I am completely astounded by his abilities. He is SO crafty and precise and amazing. I am so grateful for his craftsmanship because I can't imagine how expensive it would've been to hire someone to do this nasty work for us. He is fab! Of course sometimes I do want to smack him silly and put the wrath of Sam on him- what wife doesn't feel this way? haha!

Dan has been so determined to finish our bedroom. A project that ultimately started because I was sick of looking at Jude's changing table and cluttered mess in his room. We are near the end goal. A little later than we had hoped but we ran in to more obstacles than expected. We found an abundance of glue on the natural hardwood that we're assuming has been in the house since it was built (the exact year, I really have no idea but it's old), so we had to scrape it off. Sanding the floors took longer than expected as well because it was a holy disaster having dust all over everything in our room... By the way, I'm still washing clothes and non-stop dusting. We also wanted to bust out a few walls but came to the realization that under all the walls is... nothing- no wood.  I had high hopes to expose the chimney and paint it a beautiful color white, but again.. between the plaster and rock nothing. It's a SERIOUS disaster. So the walls, closets, everything  we have has to stay. It was a huge bummer but I'm okay with it. We won't live here for the rest of our lives. We had also decided to un-popcorn the popcorn ceiling but that was SO messy and I was really growing impatient.


So here is a little snap of what it looks like right now... (excuse the crappy iphone pictures- I have no clue as to where my camera is).

our bed goes right in the center, with the window as it's center point

Again, horrible pictures- I know- I plan on finding my camera tonight while I am cleaning our attic storage and cleaning the massive amounts of sawdust/dust/everything off of the storage area. 

But yes, white floors. Every single person I've spoken to about painting our floors white has looked at me like I am crazy. You should have seen the looks I got when I was in LBC. 

I think at least three or so people have asked me..

"Have you ever seen pictures of painted floors?"

DUH! 

"Where?"

...pinterest. HAHAA!

The looks I received after that varied from person to person. Obviously all the ladies who I said that to were so excited, I mean it was like they were ready to hop on their phones and type it in. And the men, rolled their eyes. Dan did too. And to be honest, until he did the first coat he really wasn't too sure about it. 

I found these images while pinteresting floors for kitchens- which I still haven't found our ideal flooring--- 

pinterest

pinterest

I have a little bit of work to do on the floors to get these cracks more visible so bare with me. The wall color is way off, too. It's an extremely pale grey. Dan is trimming out our windows and closets (we have five, they're all small) tonight so by Friday, or Saturday everything will be finished.

This is the plan for our stairs. Minus the board and batten walls, which could actually be really cute- but not a project I am up for as of now.

So there's a little preview. If I follow through with my plans of finding my camera I might even post some before and afters for ya.

I'm also excited because we might actually finish our stairs before he goes to Montana snowmobiling. I might not be going on a tropical vacay this winter but I am getting a much needed house-lift... I'll take it!

this sh*t is bananas, b-a-n-a-n-a-s

.. thank you Gwen Stefani for teaching me how to correctly spell bananas.


Since day 1 with Jude we knew he was a picky little eater. In the hospital we couldn't get him to drink from a bottle or a boobie. He quickly got the hang of a bottle and went to town, right when we got home. Nothing is different now. He is a picky little thing. He dislikes almost all the same foods that Gavin does and has a love for certain foods- I wonder when he'll get sick of them.

Like bananas. I buy almost two bundles of bananas a week. A WEEK! Jude eats just about every single one of them. It's his favorite breakfast, snack and side. This morning, as we are heading to preschool- and late might I add, he is screaming in his car seat for bananas. "Naaaanaaaaaaaaa's, maaaaa, nnnnnaaaannnnnaaaaas!" It was far past annoying. He then proceeded to scream as I am opening up the door to get Gavin out for preschool for all of the other late moms to hear. He screamed the entire time I was in the preschool.. (yes, I leave him in the car when it's terribly cold outside, call the cops) and the whole way home. Jude isn't much of a temper tantrum little boy. In fact, he almost never has a tantrum; I would say the only time we see that 'throw yourself down on the floor and kick your heels' side of Jude is if Gavin has taken a toy away from him or I don't give him "nanas". Gavin, on the other hand, could schedule a temper tantrum into his day on the hour, and sometimes does.

I made him some eggs (his second favorite breakfast food) and he was almost overjoyed to see the yellow food on his plate. That was until he realized that they were eggs and not "nanas". It's been a long morning and it's only 9:30. I am going to finish my few things here and then head to the store to get those beloved "nanas" that we're having massive temper tantrums over. One month and counting until the terrible twos are scheduled to actually start.

need out

i need to get out of the house. i am using my blog to communicate with everyone........ probably not the best idea.

for those of you who read this (by the way i just typed whore) and didn't realize it.. who+re(ad) haha. opps, delete. here's a little funny for you.

gavin said to me yesterday while we were stamping the abc's into play-doh...

"junk abc's. mom, i'm never going to use these abc's". seriously had me rolling. he struggles with the "l, m, n, o, p" part- says it as one word so we have to point them out and say them individually.

anyways, about an hour after that he looked at me and called me a bastard (his fathers favorite word) so he got a little mouthful of vinegar.

it was a happy friday. enjoy the weekend!

house goals

We are near the end, friends. 

One final floor sand, paint and trim. Oh.... and the stairs. I always forget about the stairs. So I guess we're about half way done then?

I went to LBC to pick out paint and trim colors; very excited about the colors I chose. I got Dan to agree on them, which I never thought would happen. He would prefer a dark color and I, of course, would love something that is just outside of the "white" category. I let Dan chose the living room color and I'm still not exceptionally happy about the outcome. It's a nice color, but about three shades darker than the color I had brought home. It will do. Our living room gets amazing natural sunlight, and with the white trim and light colored decor its beautiful during the day, I'm in love.. but at night I'd like to rip down the walls. It's better than the white with boarder that had up for the first months of moving in. And better than the just plain white walls Dan was happy with (men).

Our house goals for 2014 are:

-(Obviously) to finish the upstairs bedroom. I'm really hoping two more weeks. 

-Finish Jude's room.. which will be easy- just redecorate it, move shelving around, put shelves up. It would basically just take one solid day. Move in the bed. Right now every free hour is dedicated to the bedroom so it will have to be on the back burner. 

-Repaint, putty and move things in Gavin's room. Bring in his new dresser, ect.

-(drum roll please)....... THE KITCHEN. I've been very patient about this kitchen. It won't happen until spring/summer when we can move in with my mom for a week or two. School needs to be out so Gavin won't miss that. Plus, there is no possible way to remodel a kitchen with two little boys running around, needing to be fed.

-Repaint the shutters. They are currently this awful faded maroon color- anything but that will be awesome. It's so easy and so cheap, I can even do it solo as soon as the snow is gone. 

A big house goal for 2015- 

-Basement. Add a bedroom, bathroom and storage area. Something easy to do but very time consuming. Plus, that's where the majority of the toys are so I have no idea where that mess will be relocated. 

-Change all outdoor doors

-All new interior doors as well

-New kitchen appliances

-Windows, all around. So I'm thinking summer 2015 for that. 

If we follow through with these plans there will be NOTHING in our house that is original to when we moved in. We can't really "remodel" and take walls out/move things around because our house is so tiny but a face-lift and new added extras will make our house look a lot better. Plus, something we can do together. I am pretty proud I'm actually taking part in some of the process. I am even getting pretty good at using the sander. 

the fire is lit

This is a real quick entry...
The fire under Dan's ass is lit, my friends. Tonight he has been pulling up the My Little Pony pink carpet that has been a eye sore in our bedroom for the five years we've owned this place. Little did I know that lighting a fire under his ass for Jude's room was going to light a fire for our bedroom. The downer is that some moron put carpet glue??? -if that's a real thing- all over certain spots of the hardwood... so he is currently peeling that with some nasty chemicals.

 All today and yesterday (or my four hours I have of free time-- and I use the term "free time" loosely, because Gavin is right next to me, helping... I mean annoying me) removing rose and green vine style boarder from our bedroom. I've just about destroyed every fingernail that I can use to peel off the boarder and my hands will need a full week to recover from being soaked in fabric softener and water (which by the way, does wonders).

 Jude's room is almost complete. I just need shelves, and I'm real picky about them. Dan was going to build them for me but I think I've found the ones I want and that way he can focus on upstairs. Which is great cause to be honest I thought we would sell the house looking the way we bought it. WHOO HOOO TO 2014!

Olson Family

As I'm sure many of you have heard a great family is suffering after a horrific car accident. Coach Olson as many people know him and his two sweet little boys got into a car accident Friday night coming home from a Minnesota Gopher hockey game. They are all battling many issues and aches and pains and need so much support at this time.

Saturday night Zion Lutheran Church held a prayer service and the church was packed. It was so great to see so many people show support and so quickly. I was humbled to see how many people care for this family and how great it is to live in a small community where everyone comes together to show love and offer prayers and thoughts and everything else.

Right now they are selling t-shirts to support the family. All proceeds from the t-shirts will go to help the Olson family. You can order them through Monica Schreiber and her email (found on facebook) or at Litchfield Floral, starting Friday.

I've known Coach Olson since I was in high school. I took hockey stats for the hockey team he coached and got to know him and his family (it was just Alyssa and Cindy then) so it tugs a little at my heart to see them battle this difficult time. They are members of the same church that we go to so I see those adorable little boys running around everywhere. Or even wheeling around every where- Ty had previously broken his leg so he was already in a cast.

Many people are keeping the Litchfield community updated via facebook. Darcie and Luke Braaten are traveling down almost daily to bring Alyssa to see her family and bringing goodies that many people have dropped off  for the them. Darcie, among others, is updating her facebook daily to keep everyone posted on what's going on.

Keep this family in your prayers and thoughts- you can check out how the family is doing via facebook or their caring bridge website,  here.

Baby it's cold outside

I need school to resume. It's been great sleeping in till 8:30, spending the day in our jammies, not leaving the house- I mean really, it's been great! But I am over it. Today the three of us slept in until 8:15 (thank you Jude) and have done absolutely nothing. We're sipping on coffee, eating pop tarts and lounging in our pj's... wait... that's just me. The boys are now coloring and I've been lucky, zero fights as of now at 10:37 am. We've had about 1000 dance parties, many forts built, played well with the thomas table they got for Christmas, made play doh, I've pushed tractors all over the house... you name it- if you can do it indoors, we've done it.

The only plus to this cold is it keeps us together. No one, to include Dan, wants to go out for any unnecessary outing. We've done a whole lot of nothing. I've only left my house twice since Sunday- once to go eat with my grandma and once to go to the grocery store to get her some more coke and deliver it to her. She's not doing well at all so I want to help her out as much as I can. Today Dan volunteered to go grocery shopping so today will be another day of staying warm and cozy in my toasty house.

It's been great being indoors since Jude has been battling a cold/sinus infection for just about two months. Now getting him to take his medicine has been a chore in itself. The first two trys were a projectile vomit across my teeny tiny kitchen and the third was a blueberry go-gurt thrown into the side of my stove. Now we seem to be getting the hang of taking our medicine in the form of applesauce. Whatever works, right?

Another great thing? I've trashed Jude's room to the point of no return. You want to know why? It lights an extremely hot fire under my husbands ass. His room is TRASHED. Dan cannot handle the clutter of Jude's toys around his room and every time he walks by he grunts. Last night (about three hours after I destroyed it) he was in measuring for the shelves and cubbies and even went as far as to discuss making a headboard/bed frame for that sweet little boy. We are making preparations to move him into the big boy bed, 2 months and counting, and "redecorating" the entire room. All the baby stuff and names all over will be LONG gone. I've ordered the bedding from my favorite store (LON) and now all I need is to take a trip to target for the storage cubbies I've been looking at and I need Dan to build some shelves. Oh, I also need to find a new three drawer dresser... Any one have any they're willing to get rid of? I need one that's in any shape or form. I have some big plans for the dresser and since Jude's room is so tiny (like the theme of our house) I need a smaller one that the gorgeous blue one I got from Little Red Hen.

So that's this family in a nutshell, or a tiny little warm house I guess. I'm going to make some eggs for lunch and crank up my Jason Aldean pandora station. County music seems to go well with the frigid cold.
Stay warm.