April 2014: Spring Fun

Man, I'm just lovin' this spring weather! Here's a few things that we've gotten to do since spring has sprung (other than be outside, which we do as much as possible!)

 

We got to have a play day with our friend Norah...(that would be Katie's daughter) and we got to see their new house too!

 

 

We've already gotten in lots of swinging and park playing this year...

 

And we had a special surprise from Gramma (my mom)...she took us to see Frozen on Ice!! The girls LOVED it! What a special outing!!

 

I'm thinking we are off to a great start this spring. Looking forward to making more memories:)

The Power of the Resurrection on Easter and saying Good-bye [for now] to Gram

Easter was bittersweet for us this year. A week or so before Easter, my Grandma got sick, and on Easter Sunday, she left this world to be with Christ in Heaven.

 

 

As much as I miss her dearly, there is no greater promise than that of Christ, who died and rose again, so that we will be with her again some day for eternity. Gram (or G.G. as she was called) was an incredible woman who lived a life full of faith and love for family. She instilled the importance of family in me and all of us. She lived an incredible life.

 

I can't help but to think of how fitting it was as a testament to her life the moment she left this world. It was on Easter Sunday. The entire family was together celebrating Easter near by, and we had just sat down at her house to eat Easter Dinner.

 

She loved her family and the fact that we were all together couldn't have made her happier. We sure do miss her, but because of Easter, we know that we will see her again someday.

 

 

Love you Gram. That was one hell of a life you lived here on this earth! :) If I can even lead 1/2 the life that you did, I'd be a happy woman. Uff-da!

 

 

Random Kid Pics and Updates

Spring has sprung, and here are some random pics of kids, life, and what we've been up to these past couple of months!

 

Charlye...Growing like a weed! 5 months already...started eating solids, is still pretty laid back, but likes lots of attention! This girl has a giggle that will get anyone laughing! She has started rolling over and can almost sit up on her own. Loves baths and watching her big sisters run around.

 

 

Olivya...our free-spirited, yet stubborn child! This kid knows what she wants and gets into everything! She loves to get messy, loves to paint, play in the sand, and test every possible limit there is to test. Her vocabulary has expanded greatly and she loves to sing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and "ABC's". Of course, she also enjoys instigating trouble and antagonizing her big sister Adelyn.

 

 

Adelyn...loves dresses, dolls, lipgloss (we blame her Aunt Tasha for this one:) ) , and being outside! This girl has grown up so much and says things that floor us every single day! She loves writing and spelling her name on her own. Of course, being the oldest child, she continually pushes her limits as well and has learned how to be a bit sassy too. However, she has the most loving and caring heart and is always trying to "be good" and make people happy. She is also a great peacemaker between her and Olivya (quite the good negotiator also).

 

 

And when the girls all get along, it's pure bliss. Completely melts my heart that they truly love and care for each other.

 

 

 

Every day, we feel so incredibly blessed to be parents to these 3 amazing girls!

 

March 2015: We bought a House!

This past summer, our daycare in Aitkin closed. Since then, Michael has been commuting with the girls 45 minutes each way to bring them to Brainerd to attend Day Care. A few months ago, we realized that we couldn't keep doing this to the girls and we started looking for houses in Brainerd. The rental options are pretty much non-existent for a family of our size, and so we decided that we would be ok with purchasing a house. After looking for quite awhile, we finally found one that we both liked within our price range...and soon after, we made an offer and bought a  house!

 

 

Within the next month, we packed up our things in Aitkin and said goodbye to our neighbors, Murph and Laura, who were also our landlords and so good to us over the past year and a half. We will miss them! We knew eventually they were going to want to sell this rental property, and we also were paying more than we could afford for our heat each winter, as it is an older house with all electric heating. So with all those things combined, it was time to move on...

 

 

During the moving process, we stayed a couple of nights in the new house to avoid traveling with the girls during some winter storms. A couple of air mattresses, blankets, pillows, and a box of cereal is all we needed. We were so excited to just be in the house;)

 

 

My mom was also able to come up during moving time to help out with the girls...we are so thankful for her help!!

 

 

And so far we love it! We love the neighborhood and the house and the projects that we have to come (currently, Michael is working on finishing the basement, and it will be GREAT when we have that done! We are also looking at putting on a deck this summer and fencing in our yard...).

 

We love the space and the feel of the house...sometimes it's just good to have it be your own:)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

March 2015 - Cabin Weekend with Friends

As you may remember me mentioning in years past, every so often, I get the chance to get together with a great bunch of friends from my college years and we even try to get away together on weekends and we head up to one of our friend's cabins! It's been awhile since we could all make it work, but this winter, we all found a weekend (and I had a quarterly weekend that I could take off, so it was perfect!) and we ventured to northern Wisconsin. Unfortunately, Michael was not able to get off of work, so I ventured with all 3 girls on a 6 hour road trip to the "Waterman Cabin".

 

 

While it sure isn't like it used to be at the cabin (I'll let you search through the archives and see previous posts about how it used to be), our cabin weekends now revolve around naptimes, and bedtimes and eating times and of course play times! Basically, the cabin weekend reflects our lives of all of our friends right now and revolves around kids! - though we did manage to get in an "adult" game or two and of course we always have great and memorable conversations: )

 

 All 4 families were able to make it (except Michael:( boo). And between the 4 families, we were entertained by 7 kids. My friends were AWESOME at helping me out and holding Charlye and taking care of the older girls being that I was flying solo. We even managed to get all the kids outside for a bit each day to enjoy the great outdoors!

 

 

And instead of all us adults getting out to go snowmobiling or engaging in an intense game of broom ball, we did a lot of pulling kids around in sleds (or driving them around as Scott did! They loved it!)

 

 

I'm so very grateful for these friends...Scott, Maggie, Suelynn, Aaron, and Scott and Betty (Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of them!). And I love that our kiddos can play together and we make it a point to continue to get together and grow in our friendships.

 

 

...until we see each other again:)