Thanksgiving wknd

Thanksgiving was spent this year at our good friends' house.  I knew the food was going to be yummy as soon as I stepped out of the van in their driveway, I could smell it! Reminded me of being up north at my grandma's and my aunt carol's house.  We brought over jello and I helped with the gravy, they did the rest. What a blessing!

We spent some of the weekend relaxing and some time reorganizing the entry way. For now it's a little less cluttered and makes for more air space making it feel bigger. We'll see how long we keep it like this before we change it again :)

On Friday, we didnt do any black Friday shopping but instead went into 360 cafe for free drinks and free erberts & gerberts subs! I love that place! Even all the kids got their own steamed milk with vanilla :)

We finally figured out what was causing the nasty burning smell when the ceiling fan or lights were turned on. (I noticed it quite awhile ago but had the switch taped down until we could figure it out.) Some part completely melted & cracked open!

We really wanted to watch football today but since we don't have tv, that's kind of s problem. Well we found our bunny ears antenna (that only has one full "ear") and tried to get it to work. No luck. So I had the idea of connecting 2 cords together so the antenna would reach outside. With a little fanageling of the wires, it worked! And we were able to watch the game! Patriots vs Packers & packers won :)

Birthday & office pic

Yesterday was my birthday and I got to hang out w Melissa! My mom had the 2 littles so I was free til school got out! I ran a couple errands, picked up my free coffee from 360 and met up w Melissa and her friend from out of state for some onion rings at the mall (of course!) & then lunch at mecican village! After school we headed out to moms to get the littles and have supper. She so kindly got all the stuff to make reubens! I was going to go to FPU w my dad but it wasn't done until 8pm and since 1) it's a school night and 2) Nathan and I go to bed at like 7:45pm, it was too late!! (4am comes quick!). It was a good day!! :)

The pic is before of the girls' room turned into an office for Nathan. I LOVE it!!! Now our bedroom is freed of all that clutter of the bookshelf, desk, smaller dresser, etc.  It's so nice!!

Girls downstairs

I moved the liytles kids playroom out to the big kid play room and the girls from upstairs to downstairs now that selah mostly sleeps through the night. In their room, we out Nathan's desk and the bookshelves and made a little office. So nice having all that stuff outta our room! When I told ariella that she would be sharing a bed with selah, she jumped up and down and thanked me over and over again, she was so excited.  There are 2 beds in that room buy selah has been sleeping in her pack n play so she is not used to a bed so I figured it would be nice for her to sleep w someone. It's actually the top bunk on the floor so it already has a built in rail, nice! So far so good and we haven't heard a peep!!

Selah has been pretty much running everywhere, it's so adorable to see her walk :) she still loves her bottle tho!

We went on a little date today for my bday coming up. We pretty much went grocery shopping the whole time...ya know.. also, Sam's club, cash wise...fun stuff like that. But it was nice to be able to do it without the kids.

We have recently decided to head down to Arkansas for cmas this year!! We havebt been there since caedmon was a baby and never gotten together with leah's family without other family with, so it'll be a good time that we are looking forward to!

Jaegs

What a silly boy. His smiles & antics are heartwarming. Best 2 yr old ever.
(Although he did cut his shirt again, the little stinker. Everytime he gets a pair of scissors, he cuts a hole in the middle of his shirt.)

Mops

I spoke at mops yesterday morning. My topic was about simplifying your home. Hard to fit all that in just a few mins but I did my best. According to some post I've seen on facebook, it motivated some people to start purging their stuff. So that's good!

Nathan finally went to work yesterday. He was home bc of the snow Mon and tues and then wed when he tried to go in, his car shut off on the interstate. We found our that it was bc it had so much snow packed up in his wheel wells and engine that it shut itself off before it did sny damage, which we were thankful fir. A good car wash solved the problem.

Caedmon brought home curious George for a school project. They had fun with him.

Snow day

Well yesterday it was nice out...no coats, tad windy but a nice fall day. Today...we have about 15 inches of snow and it's still coming down!  First snow of the season and it's a huge 3 day storm! School was canceled and Nathan made it home from show up and the chiropractor just in time to get stuck in our driveway. Once I got him shoveled out (I didn't want him shoveling, he just got adjusted!, but he ended up helping anyway), them I was over at the neighbors helping them with the same problem!

The kids had a blast playing outside, especially Tiernan. I stayed in & made some cinnamon rolls! They finally are knowing our driveway out & school is delayed til 10am start time as of now. Gotta love MN!

Maybe back to HTC?

I'm trying to post s pic to see if this will work. I hope it does as my iPhone is on the brink. Let's see....

Family Fun instead of Halloween

Last night we went met up with a group from church over at a neighboring city's community center.  We hung out, ate pizza, played in the gym and then went swimming!

I didn't plan very well and only had the older boys bring their swim suits with.  I really wasn't thinking anyone would go swimming bc I didn't want to have to deal with suits, wet items, towels, etc etc...plus I had it in my head that there was just a deep pool or something so A & J wouldn't be able to really swim anyway.

With that being said, Ariella was super sad when we decided that the older boys *could go swimming since everyone at the get together was going swimming.  So I was trying to explain to her that she could just watch the boys with me (yeah, real fun mom!).  I told Melissa (yes, her and her family were there too...we do a lot of things together :) that I didn't bring a suit for Ariella and wouldn't ya know that she just happened to bring two suits for Lydia! (her daughter that is Ariella's age).  So she was very happy!

Then there was Jaeg.  Since it was a zero enterence pool, meaning that it was like the beach, just slowing started getting a little deeper...and like 2 feet was the deepest it got, he could have gone in.  Well, I didn't bring his suit either...so I just took off his shoes and rolled up his jeans.  Yeah, that lasted all of 30 seconds and his pants were wet.  Thankfully, another friend had an extra swim diaper that we could use so he happily put it on and in the water to "wade" he went!

Selah on the other hand, HATES the water and cried anytime I tried to get her near it.

Before we left, Ariella really wanted to try to go down the big water slide.  She had a life jacket on and was tall enough so I figured I let her.  She came back down the steps just sobbing bc the rules are that you can't wear a life jacket down the slide, you need to know how to swim.  One life guard saw she crying and asked if she was okay.  I explained the situation and she said that if she's tall enough she can go.  I said she doesn't know how to swim without a life jacket on and her reply was "I'll watch her...if she can't stand up after coming down, I'll jump in and get her!"  She insisted that she go since A really wanted to.  So the lifeguard got all undressed and prepared to jump in after A if need be.  Ariella went down the slide and got her feet planted right away and did great!  So fun she did it again!

Once dressed and ready to go, Jaeger's pants were too wet to put back on...so he left in his shoes, shirt, and jacket.  He tried to pull his coat over his legs once we stepped outside in the cold.  It was so funny :)  I had to take my jeans off in the van once it warmed up in there (good thing it was dark!) bc they had gotten wet up to my thighs...hey, someone had to go in the water with Jaeger! :)

Selah was so zonked once we got home! I think it was stressful for her being around water for that long! First time ever I was able to change, undress and dress again a child and they kept sleeping!

Women's Retreat

Following a weekend of getting away with Nathan, I was able to go on a women's retreat with church!  I was a little reluctant to go because 1) it was another weekend away from Selah especially, 2) I had to figure out getting my parents to watch the kids while Nathan was working Friday and 3) I didn't really know any of the ladies that were going except Melissa.  Well, it turned out that Nathan isn't working Fridays currently so he could watch the kids and take the older ones to school etc so I figured I should do it just because I hadn't done anything like that before.

So we left Thurs evening...Melissa picked me up about 4:30 and we were off!  We stayed in a large rental cottage on a lake north of Alexandria.  There were 21 women total.  Not much planned for the weekend except lots of relaxing and devotions.  It stretched both Melissa and I out of our comfort zone with being with ladies we didn't know, etc. but by the end of the weekend, we were starting to get to know them better.  We got home around 4:30 on Saturday.

Let the wknd begin!

Well, first we had to stock up on snacks... :) 

Beautiful morning sunrise

After our 2.5 mile walk...

And the kids were alive when I returned....although Selah's onesie was on backwards... :)

Day 2

Our weekend away continues...

Day 2

Slept in til 7:15, earlier than I wanted to wake up but I think as parents, it's just a part of you now to get up early. We started the day with a walk, and then went to Park Rapids.  We stopped at Walmart and the dollar store before checking out downtown. Once there, we ate lunch at Good Life (the best battered fries), and had dessert at Minnesota Fountain. (Malts and shakes!)

I said that I didn't really like going to shops and stuff but the first place we stopped at was SO neat and exactly my style!! I was in love!! Such cute stuff!!!

Nathan also picked up an Under Armour shirt before heading back to the cabin.

Once back, we played some Scattergories (much to Nathan's dislike!) and pictionary. (Girls won :).  Then we watched a movie, ate a lot of food and played some more pool, darts & ping pong. 

Checked on the kids. Sounded like they were having fun. (They were making slime before the sun was even up this morning so I'm pretty sure they are doing fine without us!)

 Love this clock!!

Haha :) Yes....

Good reminder to start the day!

Wanted to get these letters for the kids but they didn't have "J" :(