birthday fits, a trip, and too many to-dos

Another month has flown by and I've no blog posts to show for it. So here we go...

This little missy turned two and apparently crying fits and tantrums are her birthday thing (flashback to last year's party here). It all became significantly better when the presents appeared.

I'm starting to think I had a serious lapse in judgement when I thought having a September baby wouldn't be that bad. I have to wear these horrible compression nylons basically 24/7 and it's about as bad as wearing wool leggings in July. I better see some payoff for this at some point in my life...

We're still spending almost every evening at the park. It hasn't gotten old yet. (Note its not just mommy/daughter matching around here...these two in their aviators is just priceless.)

Last week Travis and I went on a little business trip/getaway to Clearwater, Florida. It was a much needed break.

I walked the beach every day, but I only ventured out into the water once. I was a little nervous some shark would take me for dinner and dessert :)

One rainy night while we were there Travis and I drove up to do a session at the Orlando Temple. It was really lovely and a special experience for both of us.

Now we're home again and I've come to the brutal realization that I only have 8 weeks left to accomplish just under a million tasks. First up was painting a room for the baby. I really liked the color when it was on a card taped to the wall, but now that its finished I'm having trouble liking it. Am I the only one who thinks paint looks drastically different once you get it on the wall? I guess I was just hoping for it to be a little lighter. Oh well. I'm not adding another project to my list.

Findings

This week came with a lot of new findings.

We found this huge snapping turtle out by our mailbox. I've heard they are mean (and will bite you) and I was a little freaked out by it. Its shell was bigger than a dinner plate.

Ethan, of course, had to get super close and right in front where it could charge and bite him. I kept telling him to stay back a little, but  he just thought it was so cool.

Capri made a different sort of discovery-how to watch Frozen on my iPad...this child is out of control. 

We also discovered that you don't have to live out in the country to have fun in puddles. Actually, these ones were awesome because they weren't mud puddles. The clean up was much easier than what we've been accustomed to.

One discovery that hasn't been made yet is how much better you can see if you keep a clip in your hair. Honestly, I don't know how she even gets around. Maybe that's why she's so clumsy.

And the last discovery is the song "If you're happy and you know it." This is Capri's happy face. Doesn't it just exude happiness? :)

I swore I wasn't going to do this...

I swore I would never let my blogging reduce to monthly updates...but here we are and I just can't find the time or motivation to blog these days. So here's what we've been up to lately.

We are having a blast checking out all the parks around these parts. Ethan's bike never got much use living on a dirt road, but he's put quite a few miles on it in the last few weeks. 

 They held a neighborhood garage sale weekend and Ethan, Capri and I walked the streets checking them out. They even passed out maps for easier shopping. We came back home with our stroller loaded down with goodies.

One of the treasures we found was a scooter for Ethan. He's had a lot of fun riding that around.

Along with the many parks, there are a few splash pads we've found. Ethan loves them. Capri...not so much. She wont go near the water. She's content reading adult material in a lawn chair.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that three of the trees in our yard are flowering. It was really beautiful for about a week. Now I think the trees are dying because they don't look very good.

A few weekends ago we went up to Grandpa and Grandmas to play. I think my kids have missed the dirt because they welcomed it with open arms.

While we were there Travis decided to defy death and have me pull him up into a tree so he could hang up a swing for the kids. Luckily there were no broken bones...

Ethan graduated from his first year of preschool and he's excited to start again in the fall. 

Any other spare time we have is mostly spent at the park near our house swinging. Capri asks for it all day long.

Cutie.

our new place

Here's what's been going on with us for the past month...

We bought a house! We closed on April 17th and have spent almost every waking minute since then making repairs, packing, cleaning, moving, unpacking, and doing more cleaning.

Two days before we closed we were informed that there were burst pipes in the house and quoted a large sum of money to have it repaired. Travis decided he was up for the challenge and wanted to fix it himself. We knew the leak was in the living room ceiling so we took our best guess and started cutting away. Travis ended up being a good guesser and we found three burst pipes all within a six foot line of each other. 

Then he decided to conquer a fear and learn how to weld. Its something he had always wanted to learn, but dealing with plumbing is scary. I guess there's nothing like a large plumber's bill knocking on your door to make you want to take a leap of faith. So he did some research and set to work. Thanks to his determination the leaks were fixed and the price was minimal.

After the plumbing ordeal was behind us we set to work on some cosmetic updates-lightswitches and painting the kid's rooms. 

Ethan got a nice shade of light gray

.

Capri got a pretty shade of light pink

The next big thing was repairing the hole in the living room ceiling. We were lucky it was only one.

Travis patched it up and that's as far as we've gotten. The rest of the repair will come eventually, but for now it looks better than the gaping hole. While Travis was doing all this I spent a lot of time cleaning. The house was a rather large mess --dog hair and dirt everywhere. I did quite a bit, but there was still a lot to be done.

At this point we decided it was time to get our stuff in and do the rest of the work as needed. It turned out the cleaning we did beforehand wasn't going to cut it.

I had mopped the kitchen floor before we moved in and got the right side of this picture. It was ridiculous. So Travis ended up having to scrub each square by hand to get all the dirt up out of the cracks. We're talking hours of floor scrubbing. Travis is a saint.

We've made a lot of progress in the two weeks we've been moved in. Boxes are unpacked, bathrooms, kitchen, walls and doors have been scrubbed, and the basements been cleaned up, but there's still a lot of random junk that I need to find a home for. Hopefully, in the next week or two I'll have it all put together and I'll take some more pictures. For now, we'll end on something a little prettier-cute pics of the kids :)

My mother's day gift from Capri was that she let me put pigtails in her hair (and kept them in) for the first time ever. She looked so cute! (She's also obsessed with Frozen)

We're all loving our new place. The kids adjusted a lot better than I was anticipating, which has made the whole process so much easier. We've been really blessed this past month!

quick trip

Last weekend we packed up and headed to John Deere World Headquarters. We've been promising Ethan for about a year now, so we figured it was time to make good on those promises. Days before we left Ethan had the itinerary all laid out: check out tractors and buy a new toy. When I told him the toy was questionable he responded, "Mom, I'm bringing my piggy bank this time..." Apparently this was gonna be a trip worth breaking the bank for.

It took us about six hours to get there and Ethan talked the entire way. Seriously. I'm not exaggerating. I don't think I've ever been so close to a mental breakdown. We got some dinner, swam in the hotel pool, and got a questionable nights rest in before we headed to the JD Pavillion the next morning.

This little boy was in heaven.

They had a variety of their most popular machinery out for the kids to climb in and check out. Ethan couldn't believe how huge Frank the Combine was.

The bulldozer was a pretty big hit. He had to test out how strong it was by trying to push it himself. When it didn't move he decided it was a pretty strong one.

They also had an excavator simulator and he was impressed with that, too.

Capri really wasn't all that thrilled until she found the books. She's quite the bookworm.

It all became real for her, though, when we hit the gift shop. She wasn't leaving that place empty handed- but then again neither was Travis. All in all, it was a pretty good trip, though that's mostly due to the fact that Ethan did not talk the entire six hours home. 

In between

I don't know that I would call it 'warm' here in MN, but it's getting closer. Is there a term for in between cold and warm?? These puddles are a welcome sight and the kids love tromping through them. They come home soaked, shivering, and boots full of water but they don't seem to mind. 

Ethan thought it would be cool to throw snowballs into the middle to see how big the splash would get and, I have to admit, it was extremely satisfying to see the snow melt before my eyes. This winter has been long enough!

drowning my problems

I came home from church with a massive headache and a list of problems. I needed something to drown my sorrows. I figured this pint of Scotchy Scotch Scotch ice cream was better than turning to real scotch :)