Where Have I Been.......?

Oh my! I can't believe I have not written a post since November! What can I say? Life has been insanely busy and crazy! I will begin from about where I left off.

The end of October I was having a lot of stomach pain and it never would really go away. So after 4 months of going to doctors and trying different things they decided I should have a HIDA scan to check my gall bladder! Sure enough my gall bladder was emptying slowly and not completely which was casing my pain. So January 31 I had surgery to remove my gall bladder! Oh how I feel so much better now! But trying to recover with a than 3 year old and 1 year old was a little tricky! Luckily we had Grandma's who helped out most of the week and Brad was amazing at helping out too!

Benjamin turned one on December one! You would think he was 2 already with these little tantrums he enjoys throwing! In fact he is having one right now! Oh the joys!

Abby turned 4 on February 11 and is so excited to go to preschool this fall! I will be sad when she goes but I think we definitely need that time apart! She also started gymnastics on Monday nights and loves it! I also love it because I don't have to cook supper. We just quick grab something and bring it home to eat!
People always joke that maybe it's time for another baby! All I can do is laugh-ahahahaha! If you were a fly in our house I think you might change your mind. Between busy schedules between the 4 of us, daycare, Benjamin being a mischievous little boy and trying to keep up with house stuff we have our hands plenty full!

I am hoping tomorrow to post pictures of my "new" bathroom! I love it and it is the one room in the house that is usually always clean! I try to tell Brad that maybe if the rest of the house was new the whole house would stay clean! Maybe someday!

February was kind of hard month this year. A good friend from Orange City passed away in a skiing accident! You never think anybody close to you will pass away but than it happens and your whole world changes. Her dad is the pastor at my parents church and when they moved to Orange City I tried to make sure she felt welcome! That first year they were here me and her went to Tulip Festival together, she spent the night a few times and the memory that I will never forget is going to Montana with her and her family and a few other members of the church! It was so fun! An inside joke that I don't think Pastor Dave will ever let me live down is when I called him a dork. Who would ever call their pastor a dork? ME!! It was too funny! He was dancing on a table and me and Tina were laughing so hard and I looked at Tina and said "Tina, your dad is such a dork." Oh the memories! I know there are so many of us-friends and family-who miss Tina like crazy but we will get to see her one day and how awesome that will be! At Tulip Festival they have the annual Tulip Festival race and this year they put a team together called Tutu's for Tina. I wanted to run in it but seeing as how I have not run in forever I am going to walk and push my kids in strollers! I am so excited for this event and what a great way to remember an awesome girl!

The weather has been awesome! I feel like we didn't even have winter and this last weekend it felt like we were in the month of July already! Benjamin loves it outside and always wants a 4-wheeler ride! When it is time to come in he gets so mad! We can't wait to get the camper ready and start camping! We also have a vacation planned with my family to go to my mom and dads friends cabin in Minnesota! I am so looking forward to this! We did it a few years ago and it was so fun! I was pregnant with Benjamin so didn't get to ski or anything so I am hoping to do that this year!

Well kids need clothes changed and a snack! Hopefully months wont go by before I post again!

An Update On All That Is Going On

Hey Everyone! I finally found some time this morning to update you on our life lately! We are in the middle of remodeling our bathroom! What a project! Last week Wednesday night me and the kids went to stay at my parents. We stayed there until this week Wednesday! It was nice to be away from some of the chaos! We now still don't have our bathroom but we have a toilet downstairs that we are using and last night me and the kids showered at a friends house! It is so great having people help us out.I especially owe my parents a huge thanks for putting up with us for a week and letting us eat your food! Hopefully by tonight all of the painting will be done and the wiring will be done. Than we will be able to at least use the tub but we still have to use the kitchen sink to brush teeth and wash our faces! I am so excited for the bathroom to be done! It will be so nice!

This last weekend me and a good friend went to Rochester, MN for a Hearts-at-Home conference! It was such a great weekend! I learned a few things to use to help me just manage all of aspects of life better! We left Friday around 1 p.m. When we got to Rochester we went to our hotel ordered pizza and got ready to go the girls night out. The girls night out was great! It was so funny! They had a Christian comedian, Chonda Pierce, and she was so funny! We laughed so hard! We also had some praise time with an awesome singer Katie Eckeberger (sp?)! Saturday we got up at 7:15 got ready and headed over to the Mayo Civic Center for conferences all day! It was great! Conferences ended at 5:30 than me and my friend ate at Outback Steakhouse. So good! We than headed back to the hotel sat in the hot tub and played some games before we were both so tired we just needed to climb in bed and try to watch a movie on TV. We left Sunday to come home. We loved this conference so much that we would recommend all women go! It was just so fun and a good get away! We decided this is going to be a yearly thing to do! If you would love to join us let me know!

Sunday I got home at about 3 p.m. and quick did some laundry so that I could pack again and head back to my parents. We came home Wednesday night so that I could start watching kids on Thursday again! I was a little nervous about watching kids amongst the chaos but it is going very good! I can't wait to post pictures of the bathroom!

There is a long update of the last week! Now we look forward to Thanksgiving, Benjamin's 1st birthday and then Christmas! Always busy!

Oh What a Friday

We had quite the Friday at our house! Abby was playing outside with her friends. I hadn't checked on them in a while because I was busy with the babies so I thought "hmmm I better see what they were up to!" I went outside and saw them playing by the wood pile and all of a sudden I heard Abby just crying and crying and crying. She came walking, not really running like she maybe should have, and she had something running down her face. I just thought maybe she got really dirty until I met her halfway across the yard and saw that her eye was bleeding. My mommy mode took over and I couldn't look at her eye so I quick called Brad to come home. He came and looked at it and took her to the doctor in town. The doctor in town got a piece of wood out of the cut by her eye and sent us to an eye surgeon in Sioux Falls. I was home with all of the daycare kids when Brad sent me a text saying I needed to start getting rid of the kids. So I kind of started to panic because he didn't explain why so I thought something was really wrong with Abby's eye. I started making phone calls and Brad and Abby came home. The doctor just wanted to make sure there wasn't any damage to her eye. So off to Sioux Falls me and Abby went. She ended up sleeping a good part of the drive. We got the Avera emergency room and saw 3 doctors. First we saw a resident doctor. That doctor said "oh I think she will be fine she can move her eye good and can see good. I don't think they will really do much." Than the ER doctor came in and he said pretty much the same thing. Well, than the eye doctor came in and his reaction was a little different "oh wow, that looks pretty bad. They got that piece of wood out of her eye? (we took the piece of wood from her eye with us in a container.) Well we can either just stitch her up down here but I would really like to do surgery so I can examine her eye." So half hour later we were off to the OR and Abby ended up having surger. We did not get home until 11:30 p.m. on Friday night. Quite the day! Her eye didn't look so bad on Saturday but than Sunday and Monday morning she couldn't get it open. I am so thankful that there was serious injury to her eye. Today it looks great! We hope it heals fast! We have to go back to the eye doctor in about 3 weeks! I hope this is the only emergency room visit we have but we have her baby brother coming up yet and he is a little wild so we will just pray our kids stay safe!

No Rain Means Super Busy Husband

Hey Everyone! I finally found time in my busy life to post a little about our life lately. It is very dry and windy here which means field fires! Having a firefighter husband we have not been seeing much of him lately! Between his full-time job, hog chores and being a firefighter he has been so busy! Yesterday I think Brad said they were called out 3 times. He didn't even leave the fire station long before getting called back out! He got home around 7:30 and then went to do hog chores. Luckily he took Abby to help with the pigs so I could have a little break! I told him last night that my mominess is being exhausted! I am so thankful for a husband who can help me out when he is able. There is no way I could do this on my own. If you would come to my house you would see I am falling behind! I am so proud to say that my husband is a firefighter and when he is gone I have to remind myself he is helping people and I can't get crabby. Last night was one of those nights I needed to remind myself of this. Being with my kids 24/7 is a little exhausting! I love my kids and most of the time I love being with them all the time but moms need breaks too! I know I am not the only firefighter wife out there! I am sure we are all a little exhausted!

We were hoping to go camping one last time this weekend but the forecast says it is supposed to rain! Hallejuah! So we are going to go to Sioux Falls and get stuff that we will need for our remodeled bathroom when that is finished! We are debating on taking the kids. I would rather not take them so that me and Brad can reconnect as a couple but him not having seen much of the kids this week would like them to come along. So we will see what happens!

I hope everyone's week has gone well and that you can enjoy the weekend! I am off to get cleaning done so that I can hopefully (depending on the kids) sleep in a little tomorrow and not do a whole lot!

Where Did The Weeks Go?

I last posted a few weeks ago about all of the craziness that was about to come! Well those weeks have come and gone and I still feel busy!

We went camping Labor Day weekend which was lots of fun and I actually got to relax most of the time. Usually when camping I don't get to sit and read much. My in-law's were also camping and my sister-in-law had a friend a long so Abby just played with them the whole time and Benjamin took really good naps in our new camper. It was GREAT!!

My side of the family had our picture taken! It went pretty good. The pictures look great! Now to choose which ones we would like???

Brad and I went to the firefighter convention. It was a lot of fun! We were gone from Thursday-Sunday. I was going to take pictures but a little girl left my camera on and my batteries were dead. I didn't realize this until we were at convention and after we had just stopped at a gas station. UUGGHh!! Oh well! On the Friday of Convention they had co-ed water fights! I did it! Even though me and my partner didn't win it was still a lot of fun!

The Monday we were home Ben had his 9 month appointment! Yes, my baby is 9 months old already. He is standing by furniture and eating big people food! So sad! He weighs a whopping 23 pounds 7 ounces! He sure is a growing boy!

Abby is also growing up! She went to Sunday school for the first time on Sunday! When she was a baby Brad and I would always say "isn't it crazy that in how many years Abby will be in the Christmas program?" Well this year she will get to be in the Christmas program! Tear! She has been on this thing about talking about her wedding and who is she going to marry. Were did this come from?? You are only 3 years old! I told her she had to be way older before she even thinks about getting married. I got married when I was 19! It's been great and I love my husband more than anything but why did we rush??

That has been life the last couple of weeks! Brad starts his hunting trips this weekend and it doesn't end until about Christmas time so I will have to find things for me and the kids to do while he is gone! Oh hunting how I love ya but I hate ya! :)
Have a good week everyone!

Nothing to Exciting

I have been wanting to post for a while but there just isn't a whole lot going on! We did buy a new camper!! I am so excited to use it this weekend! I spent all day Saturday and last night cleaning it and I am still not quite done! I figured I would make it really clean now and than we just have to clean it after we camp! Growing up my family never camped. I would go a couple times with my neighbor's family. Than I started dating Brad and his family's vacations were always camping and I love it!! So now we camp quite a bit! And it is great that our friends got a camper so now we go with them a few times! It is very relaxing! (I should say it WILL be relaxing once my kids are older and I don't have to keep an eye on them all the time.) It is still fun!
We have a busy 2 weeks ahead. We are gong to camp this weekend from Friday night until Monday. Tuesday night we take a big family picture with my whole family and then Thursday we go to firefighter convention in Monticello, IA which is 6 hours away! If your wondering what goes on at the firefighter convention I will explain it a little. All of Iowas firefighters get together, I guess not all of them because some need to be home in case of a fire :). We camp and just hang out. This year at night there will be bands performing and supper both Friday and Saturday night. Friday they have a few competitions. I believe they have the old timers water fight, co-ed, and women's water fights. Saturday is the firefighters competitions which is all day. The guys do all kinds of competitions. It is fun to watch and cheer on the guys! I will have to post pictures when we get back!
Sorry I waited so long to post the exciting news!! No, I am not pregnant but my sister-in-law is!! Woo hoo!!! I get to be an aunt to another niece or nephew! I love it! This will be number 8 for me! I get to babysit this little peanut and I cannot wait!! That is all for now! I will have to update you all in about 2 weeks when we get home and I can share all of the fun stuff we did!! Have a good labor day weekend!

Vacation

We are home from vacation!! The excitement of our vacation began Tuesday night when Brad was going to pop up the camper so that we could start packing! Well, the camper wouldn't so much as pop up! The cable that pops it up is broken. So Brad brought it to a camper fixer guy. Luckily Brad's mom wasn't going to be using her camper so we borrowed it for the weekend. Thursday night Brad got home from work we ate pizza loaded up the van and pickup and headed to Luverne, MN. We got our camp all set up and just relaxed when we got there! It was so hot all weekend! Poor Ben was miserable he just cried all the time except for when we were swimming! We still made the best of it and had a good time as a family! We went to the Luverne Drive-In movie theater Friday night! That was fun! Both kids fell asleep in the van so we stayed and watched both movies! It was an extremely late night but a lot of fun! We went to the zoo on Saturday and Abby loved it! We picked a good time to go because all of the animals were awake and moving around!

Monday morning came and it was time to pack up! This didn't go well at all! Both kids were crying, Brad's pick up tire was shredded so he had to change that, it was hot, then he couldn't get the camper to hook up to the pickup. Than we got home and there was a message on the answering machine from the camper fixer guy saying that as he was beginning to work on our camper he found some issues that were going to be quite expensive to fix. So Brad called him and got the scoop. We spent a good part of Monday afternoon trying to decide what to do. We finally came to a conclusion. Brad is going to fix the part of the camper that he can and then have the fixer man fix the least expensive stuff just to get through to the fall so that we can still use it and then we are going to sale it and buy a new one! If it wasn't for our bathroom remodel we probably would just look for a new one now but we are tied up for the time being! So that was our exciting weekend!
Benjamin is 8 months old! I can't believe how fast these past 8 months have gone by and how much my baby boy has grown! He does the army crawl and if you are laying on the floor he loves to attack you! Especially his big sister!
I hope you all had a great weekend and your week is starting out good! I am in recover mode from vacation trying to get our house in order because it is a disaster!
I also have other exciting news but am not going to share it at this time! I am going to wait for the go ahead! But I am so excited to share it!!! Good-bye for now!