SNOW!

We woke up to another snow storm this morning!  Heavy snow all morning long (which made for a horrible commute and today just happened to be a day that I had planned to go into the office for some training)!  We got home tonight to a driveway that had been plowed in and there was no way my good old minivan was going to make it!  We parked in the street and trecked through the deep snow to the house, enjoyed dinner and then the boys watched some cartoons while I went out to shovel.  We have a plow guy who does our driveway (Thankfully) however we still have to shovel off the front and back steps, shovel a path on the deck for the dog to get to the yard and clear a path through the yard for the mailman (we still have our mailboxes on our houses so the mailman walks the entire route)!  It took me about 45 minutes to finish my shoveling and then I decided to let Mason come out and play for 10 minutes (Colton decided he wanted to stay inside and play his video game).  Mason loves winter so all this fresh snow had him pretty excited.  He really loved the fact that the snow walls along our front sidewalk were taller than him!  If it keeps snowing like this those snow walls are gonna be taller than me!  This has been another crazy winter with plenty of snow.... now we just need some warm days so we can go outside and enjoy all this freshly fallen snow!

My Own Home Office

So late in 2013 I applied for a work from home opportunity and was offered and accepted the position.  It took almost two months to get everything in order but I am finally working fully remote.  No more commutes, no more filling my gas tank every 5 days, no more eating out every day because I was too lazy to pack a lunch and no more getting dressed up.  I have successfully worked from home for three full weeks and it has gone much better than I imagined it would.  Thankfully we have so much technology available now that it makes staying connected with my peers and manager a lot easier.  I have attended many meetings via phone and we have video capability as well if needed (those days I might want to get up more than 10 minutes before my shift starts so I can at least look a little presentable).  I am still planning to go into the office 1-2 times per month so stay connected with my peers, friends and keep the visibility with senior leadership (I don't want them to forget that I exist and I know that is a big concern of many people who work completely remotely)!  I love working in my slippers and my dog loves having a companion home with him everyday, he has become very spoiled!  

As soon as I accepted the position we decided to turn our spare bedroom into a home office for me!  It took some serious organizing to get the room ready for me and then we painted it because I clearly had a lapse in judgement when we originally painted the room 10 years ago and we even put in new trim and a new closet door (this was the last room in the house that needed to be overhauled for our remodel)!  My office is officially finished and I think this next week at home is going to be just that much better now that I am not working in the chaos of what the room was or in the middle of a construction zone!  

Here are some before pictures of the CHAOS (it is really bad because we had already taken out the spare bed and moved it to Colton's room and I just quickly set up a temporary desk to get me through for the time being): 

My new Home Office: 

The boys love the new space as well, I have caught Mason just hanging out in the office reading books several time in the last couple days! 

Winter Fun

So I think we all know that this winter has been a horrible one. Subzero temps week after week and school cancelling after school cancelling!  So today, on the fourth cancelled school day so far this month I thought it would be appropriate to flash back to last weekend when we briefly had some amazing winter weather and we were able to go out side and play a little!  The boys and I played outside for almost two hours, building our very own snow fort and having a snowball fight.  Then Frankie came home and the boys were ready to go snowmobiling!  Colton asks almost daily to go riding, he is so much like his daddy with his "Need for Speed".  Mason on the other hand hasn't gotten to go yet this year but last weekend he did and loved every second of it.  Looking forward to the day when they boys are big enough to do some long trail riding so we can do some winter snowmobiling trips!  I have to admit that I do enjoy Winter activities however I have said it many time lately that this is the worst winter ever and I want to move south.  We rarely get to go outside because of the subzero temps and wind chills which are -30 to -40 degrees.  Oh well, for some reason we are Minnesotan's at heart and I don't think that will ever change so we will just grin and bear it and make the most of the heatwaves when they happen!!  

Three Years Old

Three years ago today on a cold, snowy January morning we welcome another amazing little boy into our lives.  It was one of those dates that I will never forget and today we were able to celebrate this little guy once again with family.  Mason has grown into such an wonderful, crazy, loving, wild, talkative, outgoing little boy and he has made our family more complete than we could have ever dreamed.  He is a great little brother and of course an amazing son. I am one lucky Mama!

Today we had a birthday party at our house.  We sent out invites a couple weeks ago and we started to get RSVP's that people wouldn't able to make it to the party. At first I didn't think anything of it but as the party got closer I started to feel sad that not many people were able to celebrate the birthday of little guy with us.  Well today was party day and attendance was small (partly due to this horrible winter weather too, seriously this has been the worst winter ever) but I realized that Mason didn't care how many people were here to celebrate with him but that he has so many people that love him.  He knew it was his special day and he was so excited! He loved his Pirate themed snacks, his awesome pirate cake and of course all his presents which were either pirate themed or train themed (trains are his true love)!  I felt very honored to have our family here to celebrate his 3rd Birthday with us.  I can't believe how fast these three years have gone by and Mason is at such a fun stage right now that I wish I could just freeze time for a little while and just soak in these moments a little longer!

We love you Mason and we are looking forward to watching you continue to grow and develop into the amazing little guy that you are becoming!  Happy 3rd Birthday Buddy!

Double Cake Smash

Last month I had the pleasure of doing another photo shoot for my cousin.  This time it was to take 3 yr pics of her daughter and 1 yr pics of her twin boys and then of course we had to do a 1st Birthday Cake Smash session.  I had so much fun taking these pictures and even more fun going through them all and editing (it was very tough to pick my favorites)!  Here is a sneak peek of the fun!

 

 

Happy New Year!

I can't believe another year is in the history books! 2013 was another great year filled with plenty of fun adventures and vacation, good times, love, laughter and many memories!  We spent the last night of 2013 celebrating with my family.  We had a little surprise and my Grandpa and Uncle Wade joined us for New Years Eve this year as they were on their way back to central MN but decided to make a pit stop to hang out with us.  Frankie made us a great feast of smoked New York Strip, bacon wrapped shrimp, butter soaked halibut and baked potatoes.  We all ate until we hurt.  After dinner is was time for several people to change into their feetie pajamas (thanks to my sister for providing them), although my brother in law stole mine so I didn't get any awesome feetie pajama pictures!  We ended the night with a rowdy and hysterical game of Loaded Questions, Adult Version!   It was the perfect way to send out 2013 and welcome in 2014!  We also took plenty of pictures with our party hats so here are a few of my favorites!

 4 Generations under one roof to ring in the New Year, LOVE IT!

 When food tastes this good you don't waste time looking for silverware!

 Auntie and her boys - Pajama Party!!

 Ooooops, Sorry MaryBeth - Didn't mean to drop you on your head!

Look Mom - I can FLY!