My Current Loves

So I did a post like this about a year ago and I thought it might be fun to do my Top 10 Current Loves again ! Here is my list from last year... http://number1vikingfan.blogspot.com/2012/11/current-loves.html.

1.  My boys are of course my biggest love.  They keep me busy (see earlier post if you don't believe me), they drive me nuts, they make me laugh, they make me scream and want to hide in my room and drink myself silly, they show me love, they need me and more than anything I need them!  I can't imagine my life without those two crazy little guys in my life, they are my everything!

2.  My husband.  He also drives me crazy and makes me want to scream some days (must be where the boys learned that quality) but he is my rock and I am pretty lost without him. He has traveled a lot more this year and when he is gone I realize just how much I need him, especially after a long day at work and then crabby sassy boys all night.   

3.  Photography!  I am sure it is no surprise that photography is huge to me.  I rarely do anything without my camera (or camera phone) in my hand! I love to document all the fun that I am having as well as some of the craziness that happens in my everyday life.  I have started to venture out more with my business, doing many photo shoots this year. I have done everything from newborns, 3 month, 6 months, 9 months, 1st birthday cake smash, family, seniors, engagement and even took on the challenge of twin babies (my cousins boys)!!  I have had so much fun with every shoot and hope to continue to do many more in the future.  I am also lucky enough to have a great friend who is just as photography obsessed as I am so we are able to take classes together, be personal photographers for our friends and we will be shooting our first wedding together next May, EEK!

4.  I of course love food, who doesn't?!  Some of my current food loves are Salsa and Chips, Potato Corn Shower Soup, Monkey Bread, White Chicken Cheese Enchilada's and anything and everything with Buffalo Hot Sauce on it!

5.  My Current love TV shows include Big Bang Theory and just about anything on HGTV!  Why have I never watched this channel before?  House Hunters, Love it or List it, Property Brothers... all amazing shows and ones that suck me almost every night when I crawl into bed!

6.  My Bed!  We bought an Adjustable Sleep Number with build in massage this summer and it is wonderful.  The price of the damn thing almost made me pass out and it cause me a lot of heartburn and shaking of my head every time I though I about the price but I have to admit it is so worth it!  Frankie and I both sleep so amazingly well and we never wake up sore anymore.   We have always  been ones to watch some TV in bed at night and now we crawl in, prop up our heads and elevate our feet and we are so comfortable that we rarely make it through an entire show anymore!  Luckily the bed has a sleep timer so it will lay itself flat all on its own while we are fast sleep (and I never wake up when it adjusts to flat which I find rather amazing)! 

7  Candy Crush!  How am I still playing this stupid game?  I swear there are some nights that I will get sucked in for an hour or more - are you kidding me?!  This stupid game is such a waste of time but yet I can't seem to stop playing it!  I spend many of my lunch breaks sitting at my desk eating my lunch and playing this damn game on my phone.  So I am sure you wondering why I don't just delete the game?! Because I can't - that is why - I fear it might actually kill me or will cause something somewhere to blow up... yup the game has that kind of power!! 

8.  Grandmas.  It has been over a month since I said goodbye to my Grandma and I still cry when I think about her, see pictures of her or tell stories about her to my boys. The hardest part is knowing that she won't be here for Christmas this year which was her favorite holiday.  It won't be easy at all.  But I will say that I love that my boys have amazing bonds with both their Grandmas.  Most days they would rather be with one of their Grandma's than me!  It makes me melt to see them snuggle up with their Grandma and create that unbreakable bond and love that I have for my Grandma.  I grew up seeing my Grandma all the time... daily during the summer and several times a week during the school year and I do my best to be sure my boys have that same opportunity with their Grandmas!  Now we don't live next door to any of them like I did with my Grandma but we do live within 10 miles of both my mom and Frankie's mom and we make the trips to their house as often as possible even if it is just for dinner on a week night!  Now we also have a Grandma out in Vegas so it is a little harder to see her all the time but we have made a tradition of taking a trip out there to spend some time with them every winter, just one on one with no other family getting in the way!  The boys really enjoying staying with their Great Grandparents and I know it is something I cherish just as much.  We hope to continue this tradition every year... although we are still holding out hope that they decide to move back to MN so we can see them a lot more often!

9.  House Hunting.... or House Dreaming as it might more appropriately called right now!  We keep talking about "upgrading" our home.... to something newer with an attached garage and an open layout with a real kitchen so my chef of a husband can prepare meals for us and our friends and family!  We spend many nights sitting on the couch with our laptops searching through current home listings for the Southeast Metro!  That's right, we won't be moving very far from our current location (see #8 if you can't figure out why we wouldn't look at other communities in the Twin Cities)!  

10.  Blogging!  I have always had a love of blogging and this year is no different.  I love to be able to document what is going on in our life and it is so much fun to go back and read posts from the past.  There have been nights where I plop on the couch, pick a year and just read through all the posts and relive all the wonderful memories.  I hope I can continue to update this blog for many years to come (even though some weeks I can't find a free moment to blog). I have to admit that right now I am sitting in a school gym writing this post while Colton is learning new Karate moves - which brings me to another love - the ability to use the Hotspot on my cell phone so I have internet where ever I go!  What did we do before all this amazing technologies!?

Okay I think that wraps up my current loves!  

Why can't I just say "No"?

I am a person to always say Yes and sometimes I wonder why!!  This goes for Colton and his sports/activities as well.  We want to him to try everything that he shows an interest in and a few things that I am interested in and I just hope he will like them too!  So for he has tried out Gymnastics, Swimming Lessons, Wrestling, Baseball, Basketball, Football, Cub Scouts, Karate and Sunday School!  And for the most part he has like them all (wrestling was kind of a bust which I was totally okay with)!  So tonight as I am feeling a little under the weather and just want to crawl on my couch and watch the football game I am asking myself... why do I do this to myself.   This year I have agreed to be the Den Leader for Cub Scouts as our den didn't have a leader and of course the boys needed one.  Now, I didn't have to say Yes to doing this but then we might not have had a den for his age group and he loves Scouts so here I am to the rescue.  So I spend my free time figuring out activities we can do during our den meeting and setting up outings to the local Police Station, Fire Department, Library, Local Parks and whatever else I can come up with!   Now, the Troop also needed help with other activities within our pack and of course I said "I can do it"!  So I am also the Wreath Coordinator for our Pack.  I spent my weekend collecting order forms and money and spend several hours on Tuesday night compiling our order and submitting it as well as figuring out how much commission each scout earned from selling wreaths!  Ugg, and it is over, wreaths will be delivered in two weeks... 187 of them and then we will need to sort orders so the scouts can pick them up and deliver them Thanksgiving weekend.  

So I bet you are shaking your head and thinking I am crazy right.  Well that is just one activity, one night a week.  But there is more.... Monday and Wednesday nights are Basketball practice for 1.5 hours  which I of course agreed to help coach.  Now I was strong enough to say that I couldn't be head coach because I have Mason with me some nights but I am assisting coaching as much as possible.   Friday nights we have Karate.  Sundays we have Sunday School and because I can't say no I am also on our Nursery Crew at our church so I am spend a Sunday every 6 weeks playing with the little kids (which is actually a lot of fun)! Sunday evenings we had Swimming Lessons but those just ended last week so at least that is one thing off the busy schedule (for now anyways)!

Yes I am crazy and yes I should probably learn to say "NO" but when I see Colton having so much fun and meeting so many new friends and enjoying all his new adventures I realize that it is all totally worth it!  I will bend over backwards to make sure he is able to do everything he wants (within reason, no I don't buy him everything he asks for and I do say "no" to play dates when he asks for them every single week night - mostly because we already have something planned)!

Maybe is seems so crazy because Frankie works nights so I am doing so many of these activities with Mason in tow but I know our situation when I continue to sign Colton up for all of these crazy sports/activities.  Oh well, I can rest when my boys are away at college right?  So I guess until then it is is no rest or free time for this mama!  Here's to my crazy, busy lifestyle - I do it all for my

beautiful boys!  

Wordless Wednesday

Fun with Fire

So these are some pictures that I never posted from this summer but I had so much fun with them that I just had to share... better late than never!  I love playing with my camera and learning new things that I can do with it so when I learned about using the "Bulb" setting I got all excited!  Check out these fun pictures Frankie and I took one night up at the lake after the boys were fast asleep.

 There also happened to be a meteor shower going on the weekend we were at the lake and I was determined to catch a falling meteor on camera!  Well after about an hour of trying I decided to give up but I did still get some pretty cool pictures of the stars as well as this following picture.... there was an airplane moving across the midnight sky which I was able capture in this photo! I love my camera and having fun with pictures like these!

NaBloPoMo

That's right it is National Blog Posting Month and I have decided to accept the challenge to post everyday.  I love blogging as it is a great way for me to unwind, relax and share stories and pictures from our busy, crazy, fun life! Now I may not always have something exciting to write about (of course that is assuming that you find any of my posts entertaining) and some posts maybe more picture filled than others (as if they all aren't anyways) but none the less I plan to post everyday!  It will be fun for me to go back and read about the craziness that is my life for an entire month.  

Today was a pretty uneventful day - work, dinner, hair cut and color thanks to my sister, dropped off popcorn orders/money for Scouts, did some homework with Colton and then it was off to the couch to watch a couple episodes of Big Bang Theory while I blog.... if you have never watch that show you should cause it is hilarious!   Nights like tonight don't happen that often but when they do I take complete advantage.  It is nice to not be running around to sports/activities and to just be at home hanging with my boys and getting things done around the house.  These days are coming to an end again as basketball starts this week so we will go back to practice on Monday and Wednesday nights, Scouts on Thursday nights (which I am our Den Leader for) and Karate on Friday nights - welcome to my life as a mom who enrolls her son in everything so he doesn't have to miss out but sometimes wonder what the hell I was thinking!  Oh well, like I said nights at home are something I cherish and try to make go as slow as possible because I don't know when the next one will happen.  And I have to admit, I think the boys like these lazy nights at home as well... what do you think?

Patio Time

So we have been in our home for 10 years and have talked about building a deck over our patio since the day we bought the house but of course there were always other more important things that required our attention and money first!  We last month we finally decided to tackle this project.  We removed the crappy patio bricks and had an excavator come in and slope the ground so that all water ran away from our house (we don't want the basement to flood due to a project - that has happened before and we have learned from our mistakes)!  My dad, his assistant and my brother started the deck on a Wednesday morning and by noon on Thursday it was complete!  They did an amazing job.  We are so excited to have this addition to our house which we will be able to use for BBQ's and entertaining.  We put a gate on the deck within the railing so that we can lock the dog off the deck when we are eating... not sure our dog appreciated this whole idea!   Another project completed.... house is finally getting to be exactly what we want it to be and we are still talking about moving to something bigger and newer but it will be so hard to walk away from this house after all this work!

Halloween 2013

Pumpkins, Skeletons, Candy, Fall Temperatures and Colors, Haunted Houses, Costume Parades and fun with friends... yup Halloween is probably my favorite holiday!  We held our annual Pumpkin Carving party last weekend and it was so much fun like always.  We did have a little smaller crowd this year due to the fact that invites went out pretty late but none the less we had a great time.  For the first time this year we help a pumpkin carving contest for the adults and kids (all the kids won cause there was no way to pick just one)!  All it all it was a great party.  The next morning we took the boys to the Halloween Parade in town and they collected way more candy than any small child should consume so I took a bucket of it to work with me and it was gone in no time.  And then of course we went Trick or Treating Halloween night.  To stay with tradition we went to the my parents neighborhood again this year and my sister and her soon-to-be step kids join us as well.  Again the boys collected way more candy than they will ever be able to eat but they are putting forward their best effort!  I love Halloween and I am already counting down to the next year!

 

 

 

Storybook Ball

We attended the Annual Children's Hospital Association Storybook Ball last weekend and had a great time as always.  It is so much fun to get all dressed up and spend a night out enjoying drinks, good food, amazing dessert and good times while witnessing the donations pour in to help take away the pain of children.  Of course I snapped a few pictures (ha, yah just a few), here are couple from our night out without kids.