Mr and Mrs

My little sister got married on Valentine's Day!  I can't believe she is a married woman.... that makes me feel really old.  When I started dating Frankie she was just an annoying little 12 year old and now she is married and a step mom to three amazing kids (two of which are older than mine)!  As her wedding day grew closer things got hectic and the craptastic weather we have been having this winter and the last minute crunch of wedding planning did turn her into a bit of a bridezilla but the wedding day came and everything turned out just as planned.  She was the most beautiful bride ever, seriously stunning. My boys looked handsome as ever and I fit into my bridesmaid dress which I was a little worried I was not going to!  I took just over 500 pictures of my sisters big day, most of them were of us getting ready and then some from the reception as well but I don't have any from the ceremony as I was in it so I couldn't really take any pictures!  Congrats to Tim and MaryBeth!  Here are just a few of my favorites from my sisters big day. 

 

My Little Hoopster

Another Season of Basketball is complete!  Colton really has come along way in this sport in the last year.  At the end of last season he could hardly dribble the ball without the other team stealing it, he never attempted a shot during a game and when on offense he made sure his defender know where he was at all times!  This year he greatly improved his ball handling skills, made many attempts at baskets during games and even made a couple (which I know doesn't sound like a big deal but when your team only makes about 15-20 baskets a game and your kid made two of them that is a pretty big deal) and he is starting to understand the concept of offensive, defense, rebounding and even some plays!  It was fun to watch him this year and at the same time very frustrating as he still got quite distracted some times and other times he appeared that he was in a whole different world when out on he court.  I am hoping the focus and drive will come as he grows older.  Either way we are so proud, he may not be the star of the team but he give his all and played his heart out and most importantly he said he had fun!  Here are some pictures of my little Hoopster this season!

Fort Snelling Clean-up

Colton and I joined our Cub Scout pack at Fort Snelling on a cold Saturday morning for cemetery clean up.  This was our second year in a row participating in this great event and I hope we can continue to do it for many years to come.  This is a great way for the boys to earn some community service hours and such a wonderful way for us to pay back our veterans and their families.  It is humbling just to be in the cemetery and read the names of all of those who gave so much (some their lives) for our freedom.  Thank you Veterans and families of Veterans for all you do, it is very much appreciated by this family that is for sure!

Milestones!

I completed my first milestone photo package.  When friends of ours delivered their baby girl last February they asked me to do some newborn pictures which I was honored to do for them.  We quickly decided to do pictures at 3 months, 6 months and 1 year as well!  I was excited to get to document this beautiful little girl as she grew through each stage of her first year.  Well here we are a year later and milestone photos are all complete!

 

3 Months! 

6 Months!

Look who's 1 already!!

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!