Secrets...

We've been keeping a little secret! (Which--when you only blog like once a month--is shockingly easy to do.)

I've thoroughly enjoyed announcing all of my pregnancies, but this one is definitely my favorite one to go back and look at. Because look at all my sweet boys and their matching outfits!

Photo Every Hour: July 21st

July's "Photo Every Hour" is brought to you by my wonderful parents and our family vacation to the Palmer Gulch Lodge in the Black Hills. It was a long day of travel to get out there on Thursday the 20th, but we made up for it with plenty of fun on the 21st!

 

Because of course my boys wouldn't sleep in on the first day of vacation #momlife

7:00 Although I guess I can't complain too much about being up early when this is my view

8:00 Silly boys

9:00 Second breakfast #myboysarehobbits #yeswearestillinpajamas #vacationlife

10:00 Story time with cousin Rose

11:00 When the big boys are away at a "real" golf course, the little boys will play putt-putt!

12:00 Lunch spread

1:00 Finally. Vacation time for Mommy

2:00 This kid. He spent at least two hours of the drive on Thursday coloring in this book, and before we left on Sunday he had the entire book colored. Suffice to say it was $5 well spent (and yes, he has his tongue out. Coloring requires the utmost concentration)

3:00 Pool Time!

4:00 More putt-putt. Having this (free!) course at the resort within walking distance of our cabin was probably the highlight of the trip for my boys

5:00 Waiting on the Fam Damily to head out for dinner

6:00 Sampling the local food and wine fare at Prairie Berry Winery

7:00 Thankfully there was entertainment for the boys, because apparently wining and dining eight adults and four children is a little bit of a long process

8:00 Story time with Grandma and Grandpa before bed

9:00 Bonfire time in the cool mountain evening? Yes please

10:00 More bonfire because #vacation

Bedtime!

And because I know I won't get around to typing up another post about our trip out to the Black Hills, I have to throw a few pictures on here from our Saturday adventure. We booked a trip on a 1880s train that took us from Hill City to Keystone and back again. It was fun for young and old(er) alike!

Okay, so obviously not a photo of the train ride, but I had to throw this family picture in as well!

Book Collection

When you have a veritable library of children's books in your basement, you might as well put them to good use!

The Curse of the (Clean) Socks

If you have been a Minnesota Vikings fan for anything length of time, all I need to do is mention Gary Anderson and the 1998 season and you know exactly what I'm talking about. But for those of you who aren't familiar, here's a quick backstory: In 1998, the Vikings were having a spectacular season. They became only the third team in NFL history to win 15 games during the regular season, and scored a then-record 556 points. They cruised to the NFC Championship game--with home field advantage--where they faced the Atlanta Falcons. With a seven-point lead and two minutes left in the 4th quarter, the Vikings had a chance to essentially put the game away with a 38-yard field goal. Despite going 35 for 35 on field goals in the regular season, Gary Anderson missed. And that miss gave the Falcons a chance to tie the game and push it into overtime, which they eventually won (by kicking a 38-yard field goal, ironically).

What you may not know and what I previously failed to mention is that it is MY fault Gary Anderson missed that field goal. On that particular Sunday, I wasn't feeling the greatest, so at halftime, I changed out of my church clothes and into something more comfortable (which was only something we were allowed to do when the Vikings were losing at halftime, which in this particular game they weren't). I also spent most of the second half lying on the couch, and during all of the games earlier in the season I had sat upright to watch. So really, it should come as no shocker that Anderson missed that field goal--and clearly, it was all my fault.

Sounds ludicrous, right? Not to my sister. I kid you not, for YEARS I had to deal with her telling me it was my fault the Vikings didn't make it to the Super Bowl that year (and truthfully, she'd probably say the same now, but I just avoid bringing it up). My sister is what you call superstitious--and a little obsessively so. Candidly, my dad is too, but my sister is definitely worse. Which brings me to this year--and the curse of the socks.

The Vikings started this season 5-0--a surprise not just because they are the Vikings, but also because their starting quarterback suffered a season (and possibly career) ending injury in practice just weeks before the start of the season, plus their starting running back suffered a serious knee injury early in the second game of the season and has been out since. Admittedly, it hadn't always been pretty, but the Vikings still managed to find a way to come out ahead in the first five games. And then they had a bye, which by all counts, should have been a good thing. They had extra time to really work with the offense and cater it toward the players who were healthy and playing, not the ones who they had thought would be playing when the season started. Plus they had time to rest a few minor defensive injuries. And statistically, teams have a slightly higher odds of winning coming off a bye week. But for the Vikings this year, none of that was good enough.

You see, what the Vikings hadn't counted on and couldn't prepare for during their bye week, was the fact that my sister's husband WASHED her Vikings socks. So when she sat down for their game against the Eagles, she was wearing the same outfit she'd worn for each of the previous games--but her socks were clean (I'll let you infer what that means for the rest of her outfit). And that, ladies and gentlemen, ruined it for the Vikings. They lost that game--and they haven't won since. All because her socks were washed during a winning streak--and everyone knows you don't mess with the mojo when there is a winning streak going on. I promise you my brother-in-law won't be forgetting that anytime soon after the "spirited discussions" he had with my sister after the sock-washing incident.

In all seriousness, though, I really hope the Vikings manage to find a way to win against the Redskins on Sunday. Because if I have to listen to my sister complain one more time that the Vikings can't win because her socks got washed, I think I might lose it. I may not get into the games quite like some of my family members, but I do enjoy my purple and gold football Sundays with this crazy family.

Beach Weeks

So apparently having two kids and busy summers means I no longer get around to blogging about our beach trips with Darrell's family. And I'm fairly certain 90% of the reason I made a point to blog about our trip in 2014 is that we took some pictures on that trip to use in our announcement of my pregnancy with Garrett. But, rest assured, even though posts haven't happened, the trips (and the fun!) still have. And I decided that instead of racking my brain and trying to recap this year's trip (or, even worse, last year's trip), I'm just going to share a photo from each year I've been there. Darrell's been going since he was a wee one (minus a few years where he was away at college or working at summer camp), but my first trip was in 2007--we haven't missed one since.

A couple of babies in 2007!

No picture together this year, but Darrell did manage to snap this very artistic picture of a seashell

In 2009 we had some fun taking engagement photos on the beach (nothing professional, of course--just Darrell's sister with his camera!)

We were apparently burned out from wedding photos at the beach in 2010, because we didn't take a single picture together. I had to steal this photo with us in the background from Darrell's sister (and let's be honest, our nephew is way cuter than we are anyway)

A selfie off the pier in 2011!

Why take a picture of just the two of us when we can take one with our cute nephews?

First family photo at the beach in 2013

So this is the picture that almost wasn't... Darrell's sister and brother-in-law were helping us get the "perfect" photo to announce our second pregnancy, and I had them snap a family photo as well. What I didn't realize until months later (#pregnancybrain) was that Darrell's brother-in-law had actually taken the family photo on his phone, not our camera. I was in tears (#hormones) because I was convinced they wouldn't still have the photo and our tradition of getting a family photo on the beach was going to be ruined after just one year. But thankfully, here the picture is. In all its glory. (I should note that we do, in fact, have other pictures of the three of us from this year, but this was the only one of us on the actual beach. Which, for the sake of the "tradition" that I had convinced myself we were starting, mattered.)

Family of four in 2015!

LOVE!!

Of course, now that I've gone and done this post, I don't know what I'll do next year for my 10th anniversary of beach trips. Maybe I'll make the post in a timely manner and actually recap our week... But that seems pretty ambitious.

Reality

When you've spent most of June sick and most of July traveling (or preparing to travel), it's only fitting that you decide to go on an impromptu three-hour road trip the first weekend in August. Because life just hasn't been crazy enough. Don't get me wrong--we had really good reason to go--it was just a little crazy. But I'm pretty sure that's just the norm for life these days...

My brother's baseball team, whom we love to support even if we don't get to as many games as we used to (darn 7:30 start times), was playing in the District Tournament for a chance at a berth to the State Tournament. So we decided to go. Spoiler: they didn't advance and we don't actually have any pictures to prove that we watched two baseball games. Moving on...

The city that was hosting the games is also home to the "famed" Storybook Land, home of the roller coaster to ride in South Dakota (at least according to a recent parenting magazine I read). I'm pretty sure it won that distinction because it is the only roller coaster in the state, but whatever. The whole park is very family orientated, including the coaster, so William actually got to ride on it with Grandma.

He was pretty tense the whole time and didn't really seem to enjoy himself, but he didn't scream or cry--and he even smiled when he got off (although that might have been from relief more than excitement). I'm guessing it will be awhile before he agrees to go on a roller coaster again though.

The park also had a really cool swing that allowed parents to swing with their children--we've never seen anything like it before and it makes me wonder why. It was pretty cool.

Now, if you're thinking "a cool park plus a few baseball games doesn't seem like that bad of a way to spend a weekend", you'd mostly be right. Because we definitely had enough fun to justify the six+ hours in the car. But here's what hasn't been mentioned: having all four of us stay in a single hotel room. We get spoiled when we visit Darrell's family because we rarely, if ever, have to stay in a hotel, and outside of those trips we don't do a ton of overnight trips (at least ones where we don't have someone's house to stay at). So when both boys are asleep by 8:30 and all Darrell and I want to do is have a late dinner, drink a few beers, and watch NCIS... We end up in the bathroom.

Candidly, it wasn't awful, as long as you aren't a major germaphobe or something (which we obviously aren't). But it definitely left us strategizing how to make hotel stays more enjoyable, especially if our family continues to grow in size. I'm thinking we should look into getting a suite--or at least making sure to remember to get the key to my parent's hotel room, which was right across the hall. Live and learn, right?

One Heck of Weekend

If you had looked at our weekend schedule on Tuesday, you probably would have thought we were in for a nice, relaxing weekend. But by the time the weekend actually rolled around, that couldn't have been farther from the truth. Don't get me wrong, it was certainly enjoyable and filled with plenty of fun stuff, but it was still filled.

After swim lessons on Saturday, Darrell and I dropped the littlest one at Grandma and Grandpa's house so we could take William to a model train show. Even though it was almost a week after his birthday, we thought this would be the perfect birthday outing for our train-loving three year old. And oh boy, were we right.

We brought the boys home for a quick lunch and naps, and then shipped them back to Grandma and Grandpa's house so we could head out for a much needed date. And, like true parents, our date night started at Hy-Vee and Target--nothing like knocking out some errands sans kiddos. But then we headed out to enjoy some delicious sushi, stopped to pick up a growler of beer, and brought it home to enjoy while playing Scrabble. We're wild, I tell you--but it was just perfect for us.

Sunday started a little rough. William always wakes up super early when he spends the night at Grandma and Grandpa's, and it was very evident in church that morning. Thankfully we managed to get out of there without any major meltdowns, and after a quick lunch, it was naptime for both boys. I then headed out to Costco with my mom to do some price checking; initial impression is that I doubt we'd consider getting a membership for ourselves as I wasn't that blown away by the prices, but I could see myself going out there with my parents a few times to stock up on a few things. After the boys were up from their naps, we took advantage of the nice (albeit slightly windy) day and went for a walk--a walk which started with two boys in a wagon and ended with two boys walking/running and Darrell pulling an empty wagon. Whatever works, right? We ended the night with a family dinner at our place to go over some preliminary blueprints for my parent's new lake cabin, and it is looking pretty awesome. Although as long as it has more than the two bedrooms and one bath that their current cabin I'll be happy. Eight adults and two (for now!) kids do not fit very comfortably in that amount of space. We lounged away the last few hours of the weekend after everyone left, and--not too surprisingly--Monday came a bit too early. But hey--it's pretty much over now, so welcome Tuesday and being one day closer to the next weekend!

Weekending, Birthday Party Style

If it hadn't been for the fact that we celebrated a special boy's third birthday this weekend, I would have a very boring weekend to report. Friday and Saturday were pretty run-of-the-mill, with the small exception that I spent any and all free time I had working on William's cake for his party. Sunday Darrell started the day with pancakes, and we let the birthday boy put some sprinkles in his to make them extra special. Our birthday boy then decided that he didn't need to take a nap after church (despite the fact that he was acting exhausted at church and threw two pretty substantial tantrums before lunch), so we made it over to my parent's house a little early for the party. It was a little hard to explain to him that he had to wait for everyone else to get there before he could open gifts, but thankfully it was nothing that a little Thomas the Train distraction couldn't solve. Once the whole family arrived (no big celebration this year; just my family) we broke out the cake and presents. And let me tell you, William was pretty thrilled to see this in front of him:

It was definitely a labor of love, but I am so glad I did it and am pretty proud of how it turned out. Gift opening was a bit of a slow process because he wanted to play with every toy he opened instead of opening more gifts--but I suppose there are worse problems to have. We then stayed at my parent's house to eat; my sister and her husband were providing dinner because they came in third in our little March Madness bet. Darrell, myself, and William took second (so we had to provide drinks), although the results from this year will forever have a little asterisk by it. You see, Darrell and I have won the past two years, so we decided this year that William's bracket would count toward our family average. Well, as it turns out, Darrell and I would have won if it hadn't been for William's bracket (although the boy deserves some credit--he really didn't drag us down that much and he actually beat my mom. Not bad for a kid who knows nothing about basketball and picked teams solely based on images of the school's logo). So Mike and Macy got to enjoy a victory, even though Darrell and I had brackets that were better than both of theirs. We'll see if we are feeling generous enough next year to let the brackets the boys fill out count toward our team average or not... I'll probably wait to decide that until after they've filled their brackets out ;-)  We put the boys to sleep there so we could stay up and play cards--which resulted in us staying up way later than we probably needed too--but it was a lot of fun and definitely something we don't do often enough any more.

I promise that an updated William post is coming soon--Darrell and I are seriously blown away when we think of how much he has changed in the past year and even though I know I'll never be able to do him justice in a blog post I'm sure going to try!

Weekend Review, Easter Style

Hope you all had a blessed Easter weekend! Ours was nothing if not busy--but we did our best to enjoy every minute of it!

Even though Darrell works for a Catholic hospital system, they don't get any time off on Good Friday (boo!) and since the Good Friday service at our church is too late to take the boys too (double boo!), Friday night was basically just a normal weeknight in this house. Saturday was when the fun started, though. After swim lessons, Darrell took the boys to my parent's house so he and I could have our first (but certainly not last) Date Day. Well, technically, first I went shopping with my sister-in-law for a few hours while Darrell got a few chores done around the house, but then Date Day started! Even though Mother Nature decided to dump snow on us (again!), Darrell and I jumped in the car and headed out for lunch followed by a handful of errands--the liquor store, Menards, Kohls, Target, and the grocery store. Nothing glamorous in the least (welcome to life as a parent!), but it was so.nice. to just go out and run errands without worrying about getting the boys in and out of the car seats (especially in the snow!), without worrying about nap schedules, without worrying about having snacks, without worrying about potential meltdowns, without really worrying about anything at all. We even got done a full hour before we had to go pick the boys up, so we relaxed on the couch with some Netflix and then I got dinner started while Darrell braved the snowy/slushy roads to get the boys. The rest of the night was pretty low-key: dinner, baths, bedtime (for the littles), food prep for Easter, a little more Netflix (we are this.close to finishing "How I Met Your Mother"), and then bedtime for us.

Easter Sunday started with breakfast at church (of course, the boys had round one of breakfast at the house because naturally they were up early and NEEDED to eat as soon as they woke up), followed by church and then lunch with my parents, siblings, and their spouses. The adults attempted to play a few hands of cards while the boys napped, but William decided he only needed a 45-minute nap (probably because Grandpa promised to watch Thomas with him after his nap), so we didn't get much card-playing done. Instead, we sat around and socialized while the boys ran around and kept us entertained. Oh, and the Easter bunny paid a visit to my parent's house, and my boys' reactions to their baskets is so fitting of their personalities. When William found his basket, he immediately grabbed the Thomas the Train toy out of it and left the rest of the basket in its hiding spot. Garrett, however, immediately grabbed one of the food pouches out of his basket and pretty much ignored the toy (and everything else in the basket). And of course, we attempted to take a nice family picture, but, well, things don't always work out the way you plan with two young boys.

At least William is smiling even if his eyes are closed, right? Sigh.

 And even though this next picture is from today, the ordeal that is being documented started on Easter Sunday, so I figured I'd go ahead and share it anyway.

Highlight of the morning for William and Garrett? Watching my car being towed. Lowlight of the weekend for Darrell and me? Discovering Easter morning that my car won't start (after we've already buckled both boys into their car seats). No word yet on what the problem is, but since we were already planning to get a van sometime this calendar year, if it isn't a fairly quick (and cheap) fix, we probably won't bother repairing it. Not sure what that means the interim will look like, though, since we haven't exactly started shopping for vans and I'm not very confident driving Darrell's stick shift... But I guess we'll cross that bridge when/if we get to it!

Birthday Party Fun

I spent the weeks (more like months) leading up to Garrett's birthday trying to figure out a cute "theme" to use for his party. William's first birthday had been easy--because he had been born during the Icepocolypse of 2013, we centered his party around an ice cream sundae theme. Garrett's birthday is close to Valentine's Day--but after--so a Valentine-y theme seemed odd (and--according to Darrell--too girly). I've seen a few "Winter ONE-derland" themes, but by the end of February everyone around here is so done with winter that I didn't want to go down that road. There's lots of cute character themes (I've seen some awesome Mickey parties), but Garrett doesn't have a clue who any of those characters are, so it seemed strange to throw a party centered around character he didn't know. The most promising idea I had was a "Wild ONE" theme, which could have either been jungle wild or "Where the Wild Things Are" wild. And while that theme would have certainly been fitting given Garrett's personality, when it came down to it, I just didn't have the time or energy (or money!) to put into coordinating a theme (#secondchildproblems). In the end, we celebrated his first birthday with a bunch of "ones"--a one-shaped cake, leftover plates and napkins with ones from William's birthday, a fun one-shaped display of photos (also copycatted from William's party), and an awesome "one" shirt handed down from Darrell's sister. And you know what? It was perfect. Lots of fun, lots of friends and family, lots of food, and of course, lots of cake. We even managed to get both boys down for naps after everyone left, despite the fact that they were riding some pretty serious sugar highs.

Lunch time! (Which--by the way--we roasted a turkey that we had been gifted for Christmas and shredded the meat to make turkey salad sandwiches. First time either of us have dealt with a whole turkey!)

Checking out Aunt Amanda--and his new cousin set to arrive in June!

Our ONE year old!

He wasn't sure what to make of everything at first and big brother had to help him blow the candle out...

But once we gave him a spoon he went to town

Seriously. He wouldn't stop eating the cake. Darrell tried taking it away once and he screamed

Let them eat cake!