Fun with the Boys!

Last weekend I was lucky enough to have my nephews spend the weekend with us while their mom and dad moved them to their brand new home (which is beautiful and makes me incredibly jealous especially of the big kitchen)!  I was excited to spend some time hanging with all my favorite boys (well one was missing, Tyce (12 months) spent the night at home with his parents)!  It was complete chaos at most times but with four boys ages 7, 6, 5, and 2.5 I expected nothing less!  Saturday evening we took the boys to local park and let them run for an hour because I was starting to think their energy was endless and they were never planning to sleep.  Well the park workedperfectly as all 4 were sleeping by 10pm.  Sunday morning they woke up with energy and appetites..... seriously, feeding 4 hungry, growing boys is a lot of work!  Frankie and I decided that keeping the boys in the house just wasn't an option as they were pretty much climbing the walls so we packed a picnic lunch and headed to our favorite place, Afton State Park!  We made the boys hike almost a mile in to the picnic area, we enjoyed lunch and played some football, soccer and chased bubbles around the park.  Then it was time for swimming and the boys wasted no time jumping into the river... they had so much fun splashing and riding the waves (some of which were quite large depending on how big the boat was that went by)!! By the time the boys finished swimming and hiked the mile back to the van they were exhausted... MISSION COMPLETE!  I was in the water making sure we didnt lose a child so Frankie was in charge of photos and he did quite well capturing all our fun.  Here are a few pictures from our afternoon!

 

We had so much fun that we took our boys and Sammy back down to the river the next night for some more swimming.  This time I was able to play with my camera a little more and catch these fun photos!  

A Decade Later.... and here we are!

Ten years ago today Frankie and I closed on our first home!  We were young, excited, scared and full of ideas on what we were going to do with this new property of ours.  The house was a 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom rambler built in the late 1960's with extremely drafty windows, crappy siding, a roof that needed to be replaced, a little window air conditioner and outdated furnace and an interior that needed some serious attention. It was in a quiet neighborhood close to our parents and in our price range (and with the market the way it was we didn't have a lot to pick from)!  Over the past decade we have put in a lot of time, energy and money as well endured many remodeling messes and arguments but we are so happy with the home we have created.  Our home is now a 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom house with new siding, windows, roof, insulation in the attic, a fully remodel family room, a fully remodeled kitchen, central air and energy efficient furnace and still sits in a quiet neighborhood close to our parents.  This was the home we lived in when after we got married, this was the home that we brought the boys home to for the first time, this is the home that has held many birthday parties, Christmas mornings, late night snuggles cause of sick kids or nightmares and most of all this is the house that holds a million memories of our us starting our life together.  We are starting to talk about selling this house and "upgrading" to something newer, bigger, more updated and then I think about how hard it will be to leave this first home of ours. 

We made quite the change to this house and it only took 10 years ;)

This is not the most updated picture as we have since updated the concrete drive to go all the way to the house and got gotten rid of that little garden and those stupid red bricks that run all the way along the driveway!  We could not have made the house the way it is today without the help of our family and friends!  I can't say Thank You enough to everyone who has helped us over the years with our endless home remodeling/updating projects and painting (something I really hate doing)!   We are happy to be done with the projects and we are spending our days enjoying our home now that we have it the way we dreamed it would be when we bought it 10 years ago!

Another Season Complete

T-Ball season went so fast this year, probably because we missed the first 2-3 weeks due to snow still being on our fields!!  Colton played much better this year, he was alert and actually made plays which was fun to watch.  He also got very angry when he was called out and he didn't think he was, he would often times yell back to the base coach and say "They lied, I was there first"  or he would come over to me and start to cry.  He is just like his mama and does not take losing very well, we will work on that in the off season!  His favorite positions to play were catcher, 1st base and pitcher (no they didnt pitch but they did a lot of action with all the ground ball that came right to the pitchers mound).  He loved batting as well but I believe the favorite part of the game for all the kids was the snacks afterwards!  Colton is looking forward to next year when he gets to play Pitchball and can really try to hit some home runs!  Here are some pictures of our last game and trophy ceremony.  

Boys at the Lake

Two weekends back the boys and I spent a couple days at the lake with my cousin, her husband and her two boys!  We decided last year to start a tradition of getting together at least one weekend a summer to just hang out, relax, catch up on life and let our boys play together like her and I did all the time when we were growing up!  Well we had a awesome weekend at the lake full of laughs, good food, swimming, boating, napping and just plain having a good time together!  I hope this is a tradition that continues for many years to come.

Splash Pad

One of our new favorite places to unwind is the local Splash Pad!  The City of Cottage Grove opened the splash pad last summer but we never made it there last year and now I am wondering why because it is awesome (and free and close to home)!  I  can take the boys there after work and Frankie has taken them there on his days off (he is home with the boys most Mondays)!  The boys love to just run wild and play in the water and make new friends, neither of my kids are shy! This place is such a great way to get the boys some fresh air and help burn off the endless amount of energy that they have.  Loving Summer!