Blackduck.

We had a lovely long family weekend in Minnesota. We went to celebrate both my in-laws turning 60. They didn't know where we were going or that we invited their parents with. Keeping that secret was hard but fun to see their faces!

The two problems were it was too short and the china crew was missing. And Annalee got a fever plus snot. She took it like a champ but she kept us up at night (more than her usual) and not as refreshed as we'd like for vacation. Someday we will get more than enough sleep and miss our kids. Surely.

We had gorgeous weather, summer arrived in all it's glory. Minnesota is truly beautiful. It was great being with family. Plus we had two awesome pontoon rides, pinochle games, hot tub downtime, and fun watching the kiddos. Too cold to go in the lake yet but also too cold for bugs! All around great weekend. 

I took some great shots but my work week is insane so no time to upload. Soon! For now:

We highly recommend White Birch Resort north of Bemidji. It was lavishly awesome! My kind of cabin - ha!

-Heather

Slate Gray.

Our house is being built slowly but surely. I am anxious for it to get done, but I do want to be done right. We are still waiting for them to pour concrete in the basement. But it has been so cold and wet that really only the last week has it had a chance to dry. Once they pour the concrete, things will get rolling fast. We are supposed to close on June 13. We shall see if that actually happens. We think probably a few weeks after that... But for sure by the first week in July. 

I am so excited and mostly peace-filled with our house decision. I think it's going to be a great fit for us for years to come. It will have plenty enough space for us to live now on two floors and then enough space with the two unfinished floors for the future. I'll share more of the floor plan later with photos but the basics of it: it's a multi-level, three bedrooms and two baths on the top (no more storage closet Annalee!), kitchen/dining/living on the main floor. The other two levels unfinished but will plan for two more bedrooms along with another bathroom and a big living area and loads of organized, labeled storage. 

We may be broke for awhile, folks, but we will have our own place that we can truly settle in (this side of heaven). We were not looking to build a brand-new house, this came on suddenly and sort of randomly. We were driving and saw this house, met the guy that was working on the roof who called the builder on his phone. We ended up going over to meet him that night. We also met the next day at the model similar to ours and after some more conversations decided to make an offer and work directly with him. We get along well (he's got a great eye for design) and so far it's been a good experience. I'll let you know in a month if I can still say the same.

I'm picking out colors and interiors. I wish my mom was here but I'm having fun with it and trying to not go overboard. Here's our outside scheme (my goal was not beige): 

Middle gray is the majority. Blue is front. Off white is trim. Bam. 

Photos to come soon. The biggest perk is probably that our kids can walk to Grandma and Grandpa's house. You can see our roof from their windows. We want to move out but not that far! I guess that's a good thing all considering. 

I can't wait to have you over for coffee. 

-Heather

Them Plus A Whisk.

I'm now getting into a more normal work schedule. This week I work two days. Next week it'll be three. I really like my job (I'll share details on that soon) and being challenged in new ways. But I am glad not to do it full time so that I can be with these two cuckoos!

-Heather

Toothers.

Our cutie's first tooth popped out; the bottom front. The other bottom one plus the two top are ready to burst on the scene shortly. Another milestone for our Annalee! She's finally getting into eating baby food now, at least figured out how to get her mouth to do what it needs to get the food past her tongue. I hope to make her some homemade baby food once we get into our house. For now, she's stuck with Gerber. She has gotten into mum-mums lately, too. She has about half-formula these days and seems to take it with the same urgency as breastmilk. If she is hungry you will hear her exclaim loudly until the second that bottle hits her mouth. AAAAAGGGGGHHHH umph nom nom nom. Almost like she is saying "Give me this bottle right this instant!!!! I don't want to wait!!!! Ok!" Annalee also still takes a pacifier but not as often and with not as much vigor.

This girl is also moving so fast. You blink and she's across the room. She's a determined kid. She is really into toys and will work hard to get one. I can't believe how quickly she figured out the crawling thing. Especially since she's so short. She can roll over to her tummy from either side, which she usually will do after being put down. She goes right to tummy-crawling mode and has insanely strong abs. I swear she planks like an aerobics instructor. She sleeps on her stomach as well... rarely do we find her on her back. Annalee can sit up by herself too, at least for a few minutes before tumbling over. And I've also seen her pull up onto the toy box.

I got her to giggle this last week so loudly that it made my mama-heart soar. Those moments have been a little less with Annalee so I treasure them even more. I had her in the Ergo carrier and was bouncing while walking and she thought it was a hoot. If I had to guess, her brother is going to be the one to make her laugh because now he really makes her smile. She lights up when she sees him (and her daddy and grandpa and sometimes now grandma too). This girl is delightful when she smiles at you. She wants to really be IN the know about what's going on, watching the movement and action. She seems to be quite social.

Other Annalee-isms: She's still not a stellar sleeper. She sucks on her lip or her tongue often. And it's normal to see her little tongue out and to the side. Like a puppy out the window. But a cute puppy.

I just compared my daughter to a dog. I better stop before she reads this in fifteen years and gets mad.

-Heather

From our trip to SC... wearing a sweet flower headband my friend Cindy made (you can order them from her, let me know) and Maelee's outfit (we got from Greg's co-worker) that we had displayed on her dresser for a long time. Such redemption for me to put my child in it.

Seven Month Cutie.

Our little sweetheart...

who is harder and harder to photograph:

-Heather

Cereal and Sports.

One week ago Eli turned THREE. Sometime in March I realized we were still going to be living in Greg's parents without the bulk of our stuff by the time Eli's party rolled around. I had a moment of panic (my four (or is it five?!) bins of party stuff tucked snugly in with all our other belongings). What would we do? I then thought of Eli's favorite thing (cereal) and another favorite (sports) and that led me to Wheaties. An hour later, the invite was designed and my theme was set. And as promised after birthday year one and year two, I did scale Eli's party way back this year. Part of that was due to all my party stuff being stored up, partly due to it not being in our own home, partly because I promised, and partly because most of his friends are still in SC. Sigh. We sure missed his friends but glad for the family and the new friends here.

The invite (edited slightly): 

Pretty cute, eh?

 And here are a few details from the cereal/sports themed party:

Rice Krispie "Cake" (we also had a Fruity Pebble football shaped one)

Hee hee.

Favors were box of cereal, sports sucker, and fun paddle thing

I did it for year one and year two... so the Eli shrine is sort of a tradition.

Oh yes, yes we did. There was more than this, too. I made sure to buy sugary kinds. And four kinds of milk.
We did have other breakfast food, too.

Deanna and the sister (eating tablecloth)

Birthday Boy having fun!

It was rainy, groan. We were to play sports outside but that didn't happen. Thankfully our entertainers showed up. Uncle Chris and Lilli. Together, they are all you really need to up the noise level and fun value.
Case in point:

Much fun and games were had! It was insane for a bit there. Eli got super overwhelmed towards the end. In fact, he was a horrible kid the rest of the night. I hope that's not a indication of year three for him. I am certain it was just him being overstimulated though... all the noise and excitement. Oh my!

The whole thing was very low stress which was a gift considering the day before is when we found our house and the day of is when we put money down for it (read: my mind was super distracted). It all went fine though, sans loads of details normal Heather would have done. Example: I didn't get my cute banner background. But at least remembered to take the kiddos-only shot:

Thanks to our few new, few old friends and our family that made it! Eli was so glad to have people come and eat cereal with him. Really this party was right up his alley considering cereal is his absolute favorite food. And most all our attendees (kids and adults alike) liked the cereal "bar" so we may just have to repeat that again next year!

-Heather