Sunday, November 20, 2011

First Time for Everything

It snowed yesterday! It is way to early for snow in my opinion. But it's Minnesota, and Minnesota doesn't care about my opinion. So me and Joshua took advantage of the decent weather and played in the snow (it was like 25 degrees out, not to bad!). He has never really played in the snow before. Last year he was too little to enjoy it. We had so much fun!
At first he wasn't too sure.. "What is this white stuff flying through the air?"
"Ok Mom, I will help shovel"


"Hmm I wonder what it would taste like..."


"ICE!!"


Have I mentioned that Joshua loves ice? He was in heaven with "ice" falling all around him :)

Love Love ♥

Thursday, November 17, 2011

6 Month old Sammy

Really? My baby is 6 months old today? This little man, that I feel like I waited an eternity to meet has already been in our family for 6 whole months?!


Where in the world does the time go.

My oh my how you  have changed in six months little boy. You are no longer a newborn.



 You are sitting up like a pro, rolling EVERYWHERE imaginable.

 Getting up on your hands and knees, and even doing an army crawl to get places once in a while.


You have the sweetest smile I have ever seen, and you smile all the time. Even if I wake you up from a nap, you will smile at me right away. I love your little dimple.


You have so many people that love you Sam. You brighten my day every day. I am loving you more every day, I love watching you discover new things and try to keep up with Joshua.

I love you Samuel! I can't wait to see what God is going to use you for as you get older.

Love Love ♥

Monday, November 14, 2011

Every Day Adventures

I have always dreamed of being the "fun" Mom. The one who makes every day, ordinary things into adventures! My kids aren't really old enough yet to do a lot of the things I would love to do with them. So I just try to turn a boring thing into something that gets a smile or a laugh.

Last night Joshua got to finger paint. He LOVES paint of any kind, but when I TELL him to put his hands in it his eyes just light up. Being the bad blogger mom I am I forgot to take my camera out and get pictures of the painting. He are the finished products



He loves hanging everything on the fridge lately. Can ya tell?


But I think he almost had more fun washing his hands after we were done painting. Joshua loves the water, so I take advantage of a good mood whenever I can and let him play in the sink or the tub when I know he isn't gonna cause trouble. Last night after painting was a great time! I had to empty the dishwasher and wanted to sweep the kitchen so he spent 20 minutes sitting in the sink playing.




So much fun!! I hope you are all having a great Monday.

GO VIKINGS!!!

Love Love ♥

Friday, November 11, 2011

I love my veteran :)

Happy veterans day!

Being so familiar with the military community I really do appreciate all the sacrifices made by our military members and their families. Ryan and I were apart for about ten months when we was in Japan and that was the hardest ten months of my life! Plus we were both away from our families for three years while we were in Japan, and then another nine months while we were in Texas.

There are so many of our friends who are in for life and have been away from family for years and will be for many more years to come. I couldn't imagine being away with the boys growing up. But I appreciate all of those who make sacrifices every day so we can have the basic freedoms we do.

Here is a picture of me and Ryan right after he graduated from basic, he was 17 and I was 16

Thank you all of our military men and women who have served and are currently serving now. I couldn't even begin to list all of the people I know in the military right now and deployed right now. Thank you thank thank you!!!

Love Love ♥

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Circus of the Heart

November is National adoption month. If you have read my blog much, or know me you know I am passionate about adoption. I have 7 younger brothers and sisters that have been adopted. My parents started adopting when I was about 8 year old, and the most recent one was just about a year ago. So they have been adopting for 14 years. Every year there is a little festival put on by Minnesota Department of Human Services, this year was in Oakdale MN.

Joshua and I went with my family while Sam and Daddy stayed home. Sam still can't get rid of this cough so he hasn't been going out much lately. Joshua had SO much fun though. He loves doing things with his Aunt's Megan and Lily. Well he loves doing things with all his aunts and uncles but him and Megan are best friends!

There were all kinds of games, some icky snakes, and yummy snacks!





Thanks for a fun Day Grandma and Grandpa! Love, Joshua

Love Love ♥

Goodbye Yellow

Our house is yellow. EVERYWHERE. Apparently the people that bought it and fixed it up thought yellow was a neutral color. It's not. I am SO sick of yellow. We are slowly (but surely) getting rid of this icky yellow that has been surrounding me for the last 10 months. We started off in the boys room, it ended up being red, white and blue with a Cars theme. This is changing soon though, its going to just be blue and white and it's changing to Thomas! Joshua has never seen cars, I just thought it was cute. Now that he's a little older, he loves Thomas and trains and its not to much work so its getting changed.

Next we did the bathroom, after the whole thing got torn apart I had the honors of choosing a color (NOT YELLOW) to paint. It ended up a light brownish and I love it!

This last weekend I finally got the paint and painted the entry way/stairway coming in the house. I have been wanting to do it for so long, but life is just to crazy! So Saturday night I taped up, did a couple coats of trim and the first coat of paint. It had to dry for a while so I planned on doing the second coat Sunday. Sunday evening Ryan and Joshua ran to the store while Sam was sleeping so I decided to finish. Worst. Idea. Ever. I had barely started when I was walking down the stairs with a roller full of paint, slipped and fell halfway down the stairs. Seriously, so painful. Ryan happened to pull into the driveway while this was happening so he walked in to me laying on the stairs in much pain.

The results of falling down the stairs:



I almost went to the doctor for my toe, I couldn't walk on for a while and that made me nervous. But since I don't have insurance and they don't do much for broken toes anyways I decided to wait it out. I'm still limping around a little but the swelling has gone down and it's straight again!

At least the entry way got painted though :) that was my goal all along. Ryan ended up finishing it on Tuesday. It took MUCH longer than I had planned on. 

I Love Love Love this color. It is much more neutral than the yellow it was before. Now to paint the rest of the house... After we change the floors and put in a new patio door. YAY!

Love Love ♥

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Halloween 2011

We aren't huge on Halloween around here. Not super crazy decorate the whole house and act like its the best holiday in the world excited about it. But we have fun with it :) We pass out candy to cute little princess's and superheros that come knocking at the door and we go around and collect a few pieces of candy of our own. This year was no different.


We started off the festivities with a quick trip to the pumpkin patch a week before Halloween. We all got pumpkins and couldn't wait to carve them. But we did. Until 2 days before Halloween to be exact. I usually like to do it a few days before, but with Halloween landing on a Monday this year we waited until the weekend. 


Saturday when Sammy laid down for his morning nap (I know, I know I deprived him of the pumpkin carving experience) we got the pumpkins out and carved away! Joshua wasn't quite understanding that it wasn't for eating and ended up with a few bites out of his pumpkin 


And some orange pumpkin all over his face. He said "mmmm" every bite then spit it out and looked disgusted. 


But eventually he caught on and joined us in scraping out the "pumpkin guts" He wasn't to sure about the ooey, gooey, kinda cold pumpkin guts but stuck with it anyways. 


After carving our pumpkins at home Joshua and I went to my parents to help them carve theirs and Joshua got to paint his little pumpkin he picked out at the pumpkin patch. He loves painting (and trying to eat the paint) so he definitely liked the idea! (he was spelling his name in the picture that is why he has the "O" on his lips he says O-S-H, kind of forgets the J but its all good)




Then Monday was Halloween! He (obviously) doesn't remember last year at all and was kind of confused about the whole dressing up thing, but once he realized all the candy he was getting he was happy! Here is cute pirate Joshua




And my sleepy "sweet pea" Sammy
IMAG1372


Apparently I didn't get very good pictures of him, hopefully my dad got a few!


Here is another one where you might be able to see him a little better.

Joshua loved running around my parents neighborhood with his 4 youngest aunts (the under 13 crowd) 

We had a ghost, a couple princesses, a mouse, a pirate and some peas! 

He also wanted to eat EVERY SINGLE piece of candy he got. He didn't understand he was supposed to "save it up and see how much you can get" (in the words of Lily)


I think he had a fun night, and hopefully next year he will be able to say "trick-or-treat" on his own and will have even more fun than this year! I hope you all had a great weekend and Halloween (yes I am aware it's Thursday  this week has just gotten away from me!)


Love Love ♥