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!