What a Beautiful Evening

It was way too nice outside to be indoors tonight! So after dinner Frankie and Colton went outside to mow the grass, Colton loves to help daddy mow. Colton also did some playing on his swingset and spent some time in his sand box. I sat on a chair taking pictures because I slipped a disc in my back again over the weekend so I can barely stand! I am hoping with several visits to my chiropractor I will be back to myself in no time. Here are some pics of our relaxing evening:

What a weekend!

The weather was perfect on Saturday so we decided to go to Afton State Park and do some hiking along the St Croix River. It was awesome. Colton loved throwing walks in the water and I enjoyed soaking up some sun and fresh air. Then when we got home Colton went down for a nap and I decided to give the dog a bath out in the backyard. Well I was out there soaping him up and my cousin and sister came running out saying turn off the water the basement is flooding. WHAT?!?! I came inside to find several inches of water at the bottom of the stairs, it was pouring out through the light fixtures in the ceiling! Apparently something happened to the pipe/hose connection over the winter... and what a way to find out. After cleaning up the mess downstairs I had to go back outside, remember the dog is still covered in soap. I brought Sampson to the front year and rinsed him out and then came back in the house and called my dad! Good thing he is coming home from Texas because we made need some repairs in the basement. At least we don't have carpet down there yet, that would have made things much worse. We got all the water cleaned up by using every towel (and blanket) in the house and now we have fans running constantly trying to dry out the sheet rock. To say the least it was not fun.

This morning we woke up to cold rainy weather. So after breakfast Frankie decided today would be a great day to rearrange several rooms in our house. What a project that was. We decided to combine our computer room and spare bedroom into one. And then the computer room was to be transformed into Coltons Toy Room. Which means our living room is now just a living room. It took about 6 hours and a couple arguments but the job is done and I love it. Colton's toys are all in one organized room and no longer all over the living room!! Also we got rid of a lot of junk, we tend to keep things that we will never use again but today those item found there way to the trash can. Okay I think I have bored you enough here are some pictures of Colton's new Toy Room!

Easter Sunday

We started out Easter Morning by searching for Colton's Easter Basket. I guess he was a pretty good boy this year because the Easter Bunny didn't hide it very hard! He was excited about the toys and candy in his basket but then again what kid wouldn't be! Then we headed to the MN Zoo to spend the morning with Grandma Yvonne and Freddie, Melissa, Isaac and Jaxx. Colton loves the zoo (and I must say it is one of my favorite places to go too). We spent a couple hours at the zoo and then headed back to Freddie and Melissa's for lunch... grilled brats and burgers, YUMMY!Frankie, Colton, Isaac, Jaxx and Melissa
Colton and Grandma checking out the piggies!
Colton and Daddy

Colton loves to feed the goats!
Colton and Mommy

Notice how Colton and the bear are standing the same!!

That night we went to my mom's house to have dinner with her and my sisters. And Colton also got to do an Easter Egg Hunt at Grandma Lori's house. Overall we had a great Easter, spent the entire day with family and ate lots of good food (and we were all in bed early)!Searching for Easter Eggs!

Colton and Auntie MaryBeth - trying to fit all the chocolate basketballs into one plastic Easter egg!

Easter Fun!

Well our Easter Festivities started last weekend. Colton and I went to an Easter Egg Hunt with Grandma Yvonne. And let me tell you about this easter egg hunt. They broke it up into age groups, Colton was in the 0-2 group. So we were thinking this will be great there won't be lots of big kids grabbing up all the eggs from the little ones. The eggs were just laying all over the ground (not hidden) and the limit was 10 per kid. Well when they said go all these crazy ass parents started running at full speeds grabbing eggs by the fists full! It was nuts. I picked up Colton and tried to carry him to some eggs but by the time I would set him down to pick up an egg a parent would come cruising by and grab it! It was the craziest thing I have ever seen. Within about 45 seconds all of the eggs (several hundred) were picked up and most of the kids had only 1 or 2 eggs in their baskets. Colton managed to get two before they were snatched up by the egg seeking adults. I was in shock over the entire experience. But I will say the Rec department made things right by bringing out a huge bag full of eggs and tossing them on the ground for the little ones to pick up... Colton ended up getting his 10 eggs and he thought it was pretty cool! He is too young to understand what happened in the first minute of the hunt! Actually there was one lady who had a plastic Cub bag full... she had 40+ eggs and when someone said to her there is a 10 egg limit she immediatly said "Who is counting?" Well obvisouly not her! I am telling you it was the craziest thing ever!!!!

So tonight we thought we would give the Easter Festivites another try... we decided to Color Eggs! It went awesome. In my mind we were gonna have dye all over everything, broken eggs everywhere and I would running out of the house screaming "What was I thinking, he is only two and a half". But it went great, he was very patient and tried to be very careful. Although of the 10 eggs we colored about 6 of them have cracked shells! Oh well we never eat them anyways, it is all for fun. Colton had so much fun and now he says he is going to hide them for the Easter Bunny. He is confused, I guess he thinks he hides the eggs and the Easter Bunny finds them. Boy is he gonna be surprised when he wakes up Easter Morning and his eggs (and his Basket) are hid and he is gonna have to find them. Here are a few pictures from Coloring Eggs:

We have some fun plans for Easter Day. We are going to the Minnesota Zoo with Grandma Yvonne, Grandma Lori and Freddie, Melissa and the kids. Colton is so lucky to get to spend the day with both of his Grandma's and his cousins! After the zoo we are heading back to grill out for lunch and hang out for a while! Easter Dinner will be at my moms with my sisters. I love Holidays, they always seem to be crazy busy days but it is so much fun to spend time with family! Happy Easter to everyone, hope you have a great weekend.

Time for a Change

We have been looking for new couches for a couple weeks, but spending $2500 on furniture was just to hard to accept. So Frankie started watching Craigs List and we finally found some leather couches like we were looking for and they were a fraction of the price of new ones. Of course they have some wear and tear on them... but we have a 90 pound dog and a 2 1/2 year (and 2 rental cats) living in our house so I am sure they are only gonna get worse! And with the money we saved we will hopefully be able to finally put carpet in our family and move all of Colton's toys down there (our living room is very crowded with all of this toys).

OLD FURNITURE:

NEW TO US FURNITURE:

Sammy also got a new place to sleep and he seems to love his new bed! Hopefully he will stay off the couch now!

Colton has also been giving my constant reminders that he is no longer my baby!! Last night we had grilled chicken, mashed potatoes and corn for dinner. And we always take his chicken off the bone and cut it up for him... well last night he let us know that we don't have to do that anymore. He just grab a chicken leg and started eating! I know this doesn't sound like a big deal.... but for me it is! He is growing up way too fast and is so independent!

He even goes to the bathroom all by himself. He doesn't even tell us half the time he just stops what he is doing and runs to the bathroom... when he is done he usually comes to get us so we can empty it into the toilet and he can flush! Of course if he does more than pee than he yells for us to come wipe for him! And sometimes it can take a while for him to do his business... he is a typical male. Last night he was in there for about 5 minutes so I went to check on him and he was just sitting there waiting patiently. It was so funny I had to get the camera! He is gonna hate me some day!