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Monday, November 14, 2011
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Weddings and Halloween!
So, I realize my blog posts lately have really just been a million pictures...but really that is all you want to see right?? That is always my favorite part of blog posts. So we start with the most adorable chicken ever to waddle and quack...I love two year olds!! (Most days) Then we have some pictures of my cousin Lora's wedding, which I was honored to be a part of. You will notice the family picture..yeah that was the best one of the night!! Lastly, we end with pics from my sister-in-law's sister's wedding. All of which were a blast!!! For the dance portion of the last wedding the bridal party came out in 80's apparel! Hilarious! How creepy does my brother look?? Also, their wedding was in early October and it was beautiful - notice the short sleeves on Gracelyn and Camden! Now on to thanksgiving and christmas...my two very favorite holidays! I can't wait for sledding, hot cocoa, pumpkin pie, squash, christmas movies and books, my family all snuggled in under a tree, the macy's christmas walk through thing in the cities...anyone know what I am talking about? Oh and black friday, cookie making, snow painting, and so much more!! Love this time of year!!
Saturday, October 1, 2011
October
So, I haven't blogged in forever and my sister keeps reminding me of it! So here we go! I am so happy that is finally fall! Summer is fun while it lasts, but I am much more of a fall/winter girl. Most people tend not to agree with me on this one. My daughter included. The first day it really was chilly out. She walked out to the garage and said, "Ooo, its cold!" And then she insisted on having a blanket on her in the car, along with her coat and boots.
We are having lots of fun with our two year old these days. She says the funniest things and there is never a dull moment. She does not like to go to bed, so that has been a challenge. However, tonight she zonked out at 6:00pm. This has never happened before..really ever...so her father and I decided to let her sleep. She didn't get much of a nap today and since she has been fighting going to bed her bed time has been pushed back for the last 3 weeks. We will see how I am doing at 4:00am when she wakes up! Ha!
Here are a bunch of pics from summer and some more recent ones too!
This is Gracelyn and her good friend Griffin...she used to go to daycare with him.
This is Gracelyn when she first learned how to peddle! She was inside, due to rain, and insisted on no pants and her dress shoes!
She was so proud of herself!
This summer Gracelyn got to be in her first organized "class"...gymnastics! She loved it :-)
Her favorite pastime is still playing with her babies!
We went to the beach a lot this summer...she loves the sand and water! This pic was from our last trip of the summer :-(
Little Miss also loves to dance. This is her dancing with her daddy at Ben's cousin's wedding in September!
She also LOVES to dress up!
On our way to my cousin's wedding shower! Her wedding is coming up in a few weeks! We are going to have soo much fun!!
Lastly, here are some pics from our apple picking trip! I made apple cobbler tonight with our fresh picked apples!
We are having lots of fun with our two year old these days. She says the funniest things and there is never a dull moment. She does not like to go to bed, so that has been a challenge. However, tonight she zonked out at 6:00pm. This has never happened before..really ever...so her father and I decided to let her sleep. She didn't get much of a nap today and since she has been fighting going to bed her bed time has been pushed back for the last 3 weeks. We will see how I am doing at 4:00am when she wakes up! Ha!
Here are a bunch of pics from summer and some more recent ones too!
This is Gracelyn and her good friend Griffin...she used to go to daycare with him.
This is Gracelyn when she first learned how to peddle! She was inside, due to rain, and insisted on no pants and her dress shoes!
She was so proud of herself!
This summer Gracelyn got to be in her first organized "class"...gymnastics! She loved it :-)
Her favorite pastime is still playing with her babies!
We went to the beach a lot this summer...she loves the sand and water! This pic was from our last trip of the summer :-(
Little Miss also loves to dance. This is her dancing with her daddy at Ben's cousin's wedding in September!
She also LOVES to dress up!
On our way to my cousin's wedding shower! Her wedding is coming up in a few weeks! We are going to have soo much fun!!
Lastly, here are some pics from our apple picking trip! I made apple cobbler tonight with our fresh picked apples!
Sunday, August 7, 2011
And 2 months later...
So, we have had a super busy summer! We went up to the cabin for a long weekend, went to Madison a couple of times and went on a mini vacation to Milwaukee...But now things have finally settled down! I wanted to post some pictures of Gracelyn's new big girl room. We are renting so I had to be creative with no paint and no holes in the walls :-)
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I am so relieved that Gracelyn is in her big girl bed and doing well in it! Also, her accidents have been minimal and we have officially not been in diapers for almost 2 months! She currently loves chocolate milk, Tangled, Mickey Mouse Club House, her blankie, and her daddy! She talks constantly and tells me "2 more minutes" after I tell her it is time to go to bed!
She continues to be the very best part of our lives!
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I am so relieved that Gracelyn is in her big girl bed and doing well in it! Also, her accidents have been minimal and we have officially not been in diapers for almost 2 months! She currently loves chocolate milk, Tangled, Mickey Mouse Club House, her blankie, and her daddy! She talks constantly and tells me "2 more minutes" after I tell her it is time to go to bed!
She continues to be the very best part of our lives!
Thursday, June 16, 2011
My Crazy Life
Our lives have been crazy since the move! I haven't had time to do anything! In the post below this one you will find a whole bunch of pics from the last couple of months! My best friend LeAnn got married, we welcomed our new niece Kinsley into the family, and Gracelyn turned 2! Also our 2 year old is going potty on the big girl potty and wearing underwear! Now I just need to get her out of her crib...which I am nervous about! She throws tantrum's at bedtime occasionally, so I am worried for the fight...eventually I will just pull off the band-aid and deal with it! We love our new place in Altoona and I am glad that summer has arrived!
Here are some of Gracelyn's 2 year pics! She is getting soo big!
Here are some of Gracelyn's 2 year pics! She is getting soo big!
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Altoona, I'm back!
We are moving! The past few weeks have been crazy! In one week I found new tenants for our side of our duplex, a new daycare provider, and a new place to live. Ben needs to move to Eau Claire for his job and we thought this might be happening for a little over a year now. We finally got the confirmation and I worked my tush off in order to get everything done in time! We moved in with my parents today and will move into our almost brand new duplex in the one and only -Altoona, WI on May 15th! We needed to find a place on the South side of Eau Claire and after a lot of searching we found the perfect place in my hometown! It is just as close to where Ben needs to be as many of the places we were looking at in Eau Claire. Also it is on a quiet residential street a block away from 10th street park! It will be wonderful!
I am a little nervous about missing our duplex in Osseo. It is where we were living when we got married and it was the place we brought Gracelyn home to, but we still own it. So who knows? We will probably live in Altoona/Eau Claire for the next two years and then we will decide at that point where we want to settle down. It is probably going to be between Osseo and Altoona....our hometowns. My job is in Osseo and his can be in either Osseo or Eau Claire...we will see! I am just excited to be moving! It has been so much work and it will continue to be, but I think it will be fun living in Altoona again.
We have found a wonderful new place for Gracelyn to go to daycare and our new duplex is beautiful! We get to be landlords and renters at the same time! Eventually I would like to sell the duplex in Osseo, just not yet. We have some decisions to make in the next couple of years, but I am totally content to not worry about it all yet. We have time! I will post pictures of our new place once we move in :-)
I am a little nervous about missing our duplex in Osseo. It is where we were living when we got married and it was the place we brought Gracelyn home to, but we still own it. So who knows? We will probably live in Altoona/Eau Claire for the next two years and then we will decide at that point where we want to settle down. It is probably going to be between Osseo and Altoona....our hometowns. My job is in Osseo and his can be in either Osseo or Eau Claire...we will see! I am just excited to be moving! It has been so much work and it will continue to be, but I think it will be fun living in Altoona again.
We have found a wonderful new place for Gracelyn to go to daycare and our new duplex is beautiful! We get to be landlords and renters at the same time! Eventually I would like to sell the duplex in Osseo, just not yet. We have some decisions to make in the next couple of years, but I am totally content to not worry about it all yet. We have time! I will post pictures of our new place once we move in :-)
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Mommy Lessons
I have found that I am constantly learning new things about being a mother. It is an ever changing job. As your child gets older, so many things change. In the beginning you find yourself concentrating so much on meeting their basic daily needs. Your life becomes making sure they take naps, are fed, and their diapers are dry. As they get older, things get a bit less black and white. Do I let her do that or not? Do I allow her to do that herself or help her? Do I stay firm with the decision I just made or do I cave? Is the decision I am about to make going to scar her for the rest of her life? Aaahhhh... the list can go on and on.
Here is a perfect example of one of my dilemmas. Osseo-Fairchild High School put on a production of the "Beauty and the Beast" this weekend. Many people told me I should bring Gracelyn to this play. I thought she might be a little young yet. So I struggled with whether or not I should bring her. I finally decided that if and when she couldn't sit any longer, we could just leave. I knew she would love the singing and the dancing and that might be enough to encourage her to sit and watch. I finally decided to tell her that mommy was going to take her to a "big girl" show. I told her that only big girls got to go to shows with their mommies. She was very excited and kept telling her daddy that ONLY "big girls" got to go.
We show up at the school all ready to go to the show and find out that the show is completely sold out. I never thought about getting tickets ahead of time! I felt horrible! I had totally built the whole thing up and now we couldn't even go! Thank goodness I learned this lesson when she is only 22 months old! She didn't even let it bother her. I told her we would go home and do something else special. She was fine with that! Her daddy told her that they could make strawberry shakes together and she was in heaven! So I learned that I should buy tickets ahead of time before I tell my child we are going to do something! At four, Gracelyn might not have been able to brush it off like she did today.
As the due date of my brother's baby girl gets closer, I would be lying if I didn't say I was thinking about having another baby. I see little babies all around town and it makes me want to get pregnant again. But, then there is the responsible part of me that says now is really not the time. Financially, it is much more responsible to wait another year to try to get pregnant. Also, I want to be in a home where there is enough room for four of us. Our duplex is really not big enough for another baby. We also might be moving to Eau Claire in the next few months. I know that now is just not the time to bring another baby into the fold. Gracelyn must agree. She LOVES babies. Loves them! If we see a baby at a restaurant she will say, "My go see baby" over and over until I take her over to go see the baby that we don't know. We probably freak a few people out, but most people think her interest in babies is cute. So the other day we were chatting and I asked her a few questions. I thought I knew what her answers would be. I was wrong!
Me: Gracelyn, do you want a brother?
G: No
Me: Do you want a sister?
G: No
Me: Do you want mommy to have a baby?
G: No, You are my mommy!
Now, you might look at this convo and say, "yeah this might be a reason why she does need a sibling". And don't worry we will try to give her a sibling eventually. But it actually made me feel better. Even though she LOVES babies, she obviously understood that she wasn't quite ready to share mommy and daddy. Eventually she will have to, but not yet...
I think there are advantages and disadvantages to having your kids spaced apart or vise versa. Clearly there is no right or wrong answer. It is such an individual decision that each family makes. For us, we are in a situation where space makes most sense. I also am familiar with space, since my siblings and I are spaced 5 years apart. Ben is familiar with not much space at all! He is exactly one year younger than his older brother and a little more than a year older than the next in line! Families are such a gift no matter the space! I am feeling the baby ich and eventually it will get scratched...right now I am just enjoying my almost 2 year old!
Below you will find a picture of Gracelyn and I all ready to go to the "big girl" show. Below that you will find pictures of what the real excitement was for the day - making a strawberry milkshake!
Here is a perfect example of one of my dilemmas. Osseo-Fairchild High School put on a production of the "Beauty and the Beast" this weekend. Many people told me I should bring Gracelyn to this play. I thought she might be a little young yet. So I struggled with whether or not I should bring her. I finally decided that if and when she couldn't sit any longer, we could just leave. I knew she would love the singing and the dancing and that might be enough to encourage her to sit and watch. I finally decided to tell her that mommy was going to take her to a "big girl" show. I told her that only big girls got to go to shows with their mommies. She was very excited and kept telling her daddy that ONLY "big girls" got to go.
We show up at the school all ready to go to the show and find out that the show is completely sold out. I never thought about getting tickets ahead of time! I felt horrible! I had totally built the whole thing up and now we couldn't even go! Thank goodness I learned this lesson when she is only 22 months old! She didn't even let it bother her. I told her we would go home and do something else special. She was fine with that! Her daddy told her that they could make strawberry shakes together and she was in heaven! So I learned that I should buy tickets ahead of time before I tell my child we are going to do something! At four, Gracelyn might not have been able to brush it off like she did today.
As the due date of my brother's baby girl gets closer, I would be lying if I didn't say I was thinking about having another baby. I see little babies all around town and it makes me want to get pregnant again. But, then there is the responsible part of me that says now is really not the time. Financially, it is much more responsible to wait another year to try to get pregnant. Also, I want to be in a home where there is enough room for four of us. Our duplex is really not big enough for another baby. We also might be moving to Eau Claire in the next few months. I know that now is just not the time to bring another baby into the fold. Gracelyn must agree. She LOVES babies. Loves them! If we see a baby at a restaurant she will say, "My go see baby" over and over until I take her over to go see the baby that we don't know. We probably freak a few people out, but most people think her interest in babies is cute. So the other day we were chatting and I asked her a few questions. I thought I knew what her answers would be. I was wrong!
Me: Gracelyn, do you want a brother?
G: No
Me: Do you want a sister?
G: No
Me: Do you want mommy to have a baby?
G: No, You are my mommy!
Now, you might look at this convo and say, "yeah this might be a reason why she does need a sibling". And don't worry we will try to give her a sibling eventually. But it actually made me feel better. Even though she LOVES babies, she obviously understood that she wasn't quite ready to share mommy and daddy. Eventually she will have to, but not yet...
I think there are advantages and disadvantages to having your kids spaced apart or vise versa. Clearly there is no right or wrong answer. It is such an individual decision that each family makes. For us, we are in a situation where space makes most sense. I also am familiar with space, since my siblings and I are spaced 5 years apart. Ben is familiar with not much space at all! He is exactly one year younger than his older brother and a little more than a year older than the next in line! Families are such a gift no matter the space! I am feeling the baby ich and eventually it will get scratched...right now I am just enjoying my almost 2 year old!
Below you will find a picture of Gracelyn and I all ready to go to the "big girl" show. Below that you will find pictures of what the real excitement was for the day - making a strawberry milkshake!
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Pudding...Enough Said
And take your daughter to work day...on a Sunday afternoon. Welcome to the life of a Tow Truck Driver!
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