This blog is my "online" journal of my family's life. My husband Hans and I have one son, Jacob who turned 3 in mid April, and another son due in Mid October! Hans works as a system operator for a electrical company, and I work from home. I finished my college degree in December of 09 and couldn't be happier and more proud of myself. Working, having a baby and going to school was hard and some days made me want to pull my hair out. But I stuck with it and completed it!
We moved from Alaska to South Dakota in May 2011 for Hans' new job, and have settled nicely. He finished his degree in December 2010, and is now working in his new field. In June, he decided to go back to school to get his bachelors degree in the same field, and is currently working on that and is scheduled to finish in May 2014! Now that we are here in SD, we took the leap and bought our first house and love it!
To learn more about us click on the about us tab and keep coming back to read about our adventures!
OK so it appears that I have already sort of failed my 52 weeks in pictures....so I am going to catch up with this post and do my best to keep up! It is amazing how everyday life can just get so busy, but with a almost 3 year old I don't find much time to myself. When I do have some down time, I am usually found playing in my craft room creating something new! I actually just celebrated my 1st anniversary of my busy craft blog yesterday! I love being able to share my creativity, and I love to craft, so it is a win win for me!
I guess I will give a little update on all of us:
Jaocb: growing like crazy! He is maturing by leaps and bounds each and every day! He has a pretty extensive vocabulary, and surprises me almost daily with what he can tell me. Just this past weekend, I asked him what he wanted for breakfast and he was so cute...he said "um..."put his fingers on his chin like he was thinking hard, then said "I want waffles!" It was just so darn cute how he thought about it for a minute and then answered me. I can't believe that he will be 3 in just under 3 short months!
Hans: Busy busy busy at work and tackling small projects around the house. He was selected to be part of a leadership team at work, which will require him to travel to 5 meetings spread over the year. Each meeting will be over 4 or 5 days, and will be held here, in Sioux Falls, and in Montana. His first one is next week! He was very honored to be selected for this team, and hopes to get a lot from it. He is also working towards being ready to take the NERC certification test later this year to be certified to control high voltage power.
Me: Busy working for the 2 companies that I currently do contract work for, and keeping up on my crafting. I have made it my goal this year to attend at least one craft fair as a vendor. My craft blog has allowed me to reach lots of people, and also encouraged me to open my Etsy store. I am hoping to expand my items and increase my sales this year.
Cute story about this picture of Jacob....I was in my craft room taking pictures of something I had made and was going to post on my blog. He came to the doorway and notice my camera out. Usually when he sees it, he will run away from me, but this time he said "camera...mom...picture....cheese!" and wanted me to take his picture! He would then move over to where I couldn't see him behind the wall, and then pop back into the door way asking me to take his picture again! He did this maybe 5 times in a row.
I hope everyone had a great NYE! We had a quite night at home. Jacob was in bed at normal time and Hans and I stayed up watching a movie, and then watched the ball drop on TV, and then headed to bed by 10 after midnight!
I don't normally like to make new year resolutions, mainly because I have a hard time keeping them up. However, I am going to make one and that is to try and get through the 52 weeks in pictures this year. I felt like I was doing good the early part of last year, but then we moved and it all fell apart. So I am going to try it again!
Jacob and daddy playing Cars!
This is the face I got when I asked them to look at me and smile. :)
Wow, it has been awhile since I have updated (Sorry Nana!). Lots has happened in the past 2 1/2 months, so I will try to do a quick recap!
Hans and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary by going on a cruise while Jacob spent the week with Hans' parents in Colorado.
Hans surprised me with a trip to North Dakota to go and visit Megan and Mike while they were in Bismark!
November brought the start of the busy holiday season, and with that visitors! My mom and youngest sister (Sara) came to visit us for Thanksgiving.
December came and I went to Minnesota for Megan's baby shower on the 10th. We had a great girls weekend, and I can't wait for baby blueberry to come into the world sometime in late February or early March
The following weekend, Hans had a "boys" weekend in Minneapolis with some friends. They went to the NHL game on Saturday night, and the NFL game on Sunday. This was his first time seeing a NFL gave live, and it was is favorite team playing as visitors (The New Orleans Saints)
This bring us up to Christmas!
Jacob enjoyed coming downstairs this morning to find the family room full of new presents! He has enjoyed playing all day with all his new stuff!
I know that I haven't posted in awhile, but I would first like to pay tribute to the men and women who lost their lives 10 years ago today due to a horrible terrorist attack on our Country.
9-11 is the first large even in my life that someone can ask me "Where were you when it happened?" and I can tell them from my own memory where I was and what I was doing. Because of the time difference between NY and Alaska (4 hours) I first heard about the attack when my alarm went off for me to get up in the morning for school. I have just started my Senior year in high school. I am a avid snoozer when it comes to waking up in the morning, so I didn't even think twice when my alarm when off that morning. After laying in bed thinking to myself, I didn't just hear what I think I heard, no it couldn't be I must have been dreaming it. I waited for my alarm to go back off and sure enough the DJ was still talking about the first plane hitting the tower. At this point, I jumped out of bed, ran and turned on the TV. I then went and woke up my mom and we watched in horror as the second plane hit the second tower. I remember sitting there thinking that my life as I knew it had changed. I remember my mom wondering if she should send me to school and I told her "mom, this is Palmer, Alaska there isn't anything here that anyone would want to blow up, I will be fine." She eventually agreed and I ended up going to school where my classmates and teachers huddled around the computers to listen to the news reports as we all watched the fateful events of that day.
On one hand, it is hard to believe that it has been 10 years, on the other it isn't. Time goes by in the blink of an eye. I still think about that day often, and am most touched by the song Alan Jackson wrote "Where were you when the World Stopped Turning"
OK now that I have said my piece about 9/11/01 onto our update!
First I am sorry I didn't update about this much earlier, but I actually didn't break my ankle! After my fall and ER trip, I went to the doctors for a follow-up that following Monday. They determined that it wasn't actually broken, I just tore the ligaments. This was great news as the healing time would be a lot quicker and I could be move from the big black walking boot cast and crutches to a air cast with no crutches! It has been pretty good and healing very well since then. I have has a few days that I have over done it with the walking (went to the State Fair and walked all day and it was hurting me a lot after that)
Since I did not break my ankle, I was able to go with Hans this weekend to Minneapolis! He had to go for a work conference and Jacob and I went to have fun! On Friday while Hans was busy all day, Jacob and I started our day off by going to the Zoo! We had a great time! The bears were pretty cool and were playing right at the glass so we got some cool pictures of them! Here is one of Jacob and I with the bear behind us!
After we left the Zoo, and Jacob decided that the nap in the van was good enough for him we went to the Mall of America to look around! We had fun looking at all the stores, and Jacob enjoyed being able to pick out some stuff at the Disney store! After the mall we drove out to our friends Megan's parents house to have dinner. Hans was not able to join us as he was still busy with his meetings. We really enjoyed having dinner with Walt and Terry and can't wait to be able to go back to visit them in the future.
On Saturday, Hans had stuff in the morning so Jacob and I just hung out in the hotel room playing on the computer and watching movies. Once Hans was done, we headed back over to the mall to do a little more shopping and looking around. Saturday night, Hans had a banquet to end his conference so he went to that, and Jacob and I went out to eat and then to go and find the craft stores!
Today we got up and packed up. We hit the road to make out 6 hour drive back home. We made a stop at the outlet mall to try and find some new clothes for Jacob as he is about to move up to 3T and we have nothing in that size! We lucked out and were able to get him almost everything he will need (at least for now) for just around a hundred bucks! I thought that was a pretty good deal!
This week I am really looking forward to the mom's group (MOPS) that I have found here in Huron to start up their regular meetings!
Another thing that I am looking forward to is our Anniversary cruise that leaves in 5 weeks from today!! I can't believe that it is only 5 weeks away!
Last week I celebrated my 27th birthday! We had to go to Sioux Falls for a eye appointment for Jacob and after that we headed to the Zoo. We had a great time looking at all the animals. We really enjoyed seeing the baby monkey!
We are getting the house to feel more and more like ours! Since we have the upstairs painting done, we pulled out our art and got some of it hung in the formal living room and dining room. I am planning on getting our family picture wall done this weekend! We plan on painting the downstairs hopefully sometime in the next few weeks and then we will be able to hang up the art we have for down here.
We have decided to have some minor alterations done to our kitchen, and have found a company to do the work! They are going to remove the 18in cabinet next to our fridge, cut the counter, remove the double cabinet on the wall above the counter they are removing. Then we will slide the fridge over into that space, put up a single cabinet on the wall, and then put a pantry cabinet in between the wall and fridge. The main reason we are having this all done is because with our new fridge the french door on the left hits the wall and doesn't open all the way.
I am really excited as I was chosen to be on a design team for another craft blogger to help showcase my crafts (if you want to see them, check out my craft blog!) For this, I will be making specific crafts that will be posted on both my blog and the persons blog who's design team I am on! I have already posted 2 times just this week (my first) for her and have seen a increase in the people visiting my craft blog!
We have been busy! After closing we jumped into some home projects and are still trying to finish some up. Hans' parents came to visit on Friday the 15th and stayed until the following Thursday! They helped us complete so many projects, and we are forever grateful for that!
The projects started with a work bench for Hans' in the 3rd garage space. They were able to complete that in an afternoon and Hans enjoys having an area to keep all his tools.
The next project was to put together Jacob's new playset for the back yard that my mom bought for him when she was here. The directions said that it should take 2 people 4 to 6 hours.....but they lied. With no real issues it took Hans and his dad 16ish hours over 2 days to get it all done! And to make matters worse, they were working outside when we were having record high temps of 100+! But thankfully they got it all together and Jacob LOVES it!
The next project that we tackled was painting the upstairs of the house. When we had made out large trek to Menards to get the wood for Hans' work bench, I checked out the paint they had and we found colors that we liked better than the other stores we had already been checking out. So we decided to go ahead and pick up the paint and supplies so that I could get started with the help of Diane. So over the course of 2 days while Jacob was at daycare, we painted the formal living room, dining room and kitchen! It looks so good, and I am loving the color! I will get some pictures sometime next week once we have all the new curtain rods hung up and maybe even some art! Diane also tackled hemming some of the curtains for the bedrooms that I had bought at Kohls when I was in Colorado.
This week has been a little hectic because Hans' best friend Richard mom passed away last week Friday. He drove down to Omaha, NE on Monday night and then flew down to Dallas, TX and then drove over to West Monroe, LA for the funeral that was today. He was also one of the pallbearers as a request of Richard. He will be flying back on Friday, but this weekend is when we were going to head to Iowa so that I can go to a scrapbooking mini convention. So when he lands in Omaha, he will be driving over to Des Moines, IA and Jacob and I will drive down to meet up with him. We are going to be able to meet up with a friend that Hans' used to work with as she lives in Des Moines now! Then on Saturday, Jacob and Hans will hang out for a bit and then head back towards home while I finish up at the scrapbooking event.
We had a great weekend! On Saturday, we got up and packed up the van to head to Brookings (about 1hr 40 min drive) to go and check out the Brooking's Art Festival! It was AWESOME! I had been told about it by one of the moms in my Mops group, and then read about it online. Over the 2 days that it is set up for, they expect 75 to 80 THOUSAND people! Let me tell you, with the amount of people that were there on Saturday, I am sure they hit that estimated number and maybe even went over it! We had a good time walking around checking out all the booths and only bought a few things. We also ate some really yummy food! At one point Jacob was pretty tired as it was past his nap time, so I put him in the Ergo and he fell right to sleep on my back. That made for a very hot walk as it was in the mid 90's, but when a toddler needs to sleep, I will do what it takes!
One thing that we have started to wonder is come Christmas, where would we hang our stocking from since our new house doesn't have a mantle or fireplace. Well while we were at the arts festival I found a booth that sold Christmas related decor and stumbled upon this...
This sign usually is mounted to a really cute snowman, but it wasn't very tall and Hans was worried that Jacob would just take everything out of the stockings before it was time to do so. So I asked the booth owners if they possibly had any of the signs by themselves and they did!! They even added some hooks to the back so it can be hung on the wall! I am so excited for Christmas now!
Another one of our finds was this sign.....
I just loved it since it is just so true! Even with only one kid for now, he can sure make quite a mess of the house pretty quickly!
After the Arts festival, we made a trip to Home Depot as it is in Brookings and I bought a couple of sample cans of paint to see if I really like the colors for some of the house!
On Sunday, we went to Church and then came home to do house stuff. :) Hans installed a curtain rod in the laundry room so that clothes that need hung up can be right out of the dryer. He also took down the cabinet above our fridge to trim the edge of it so that our new fridge that comes this week will fit! I painted some sample squares on poster board to take around the house to different area to see if we liked the samples that we picked up at Lowe's on Saturday. We decided that the tan color we picked out will be good for the upstairs, but is to dark for the downstairs walls. I picked out a dark red to use as as a focus wall and we are still trying to decide if we like it or not.
Today is going to be a very busy day! We close on the house starting at 3:30! Then at 5:05pm, Jacob starts his swim lessons that are every night this week. :) Each lesson lasts until 5:55pm. It is a tot and parent class, so I get to go with him and be in the water as well. Then after swim lessons we have a newcomer orientation class at our church! So needless to say, today is going to be very busy! On Friday, Hans parents arrive and we are really excited about that!
I will leave you with a picture of Jacob.....I gave him some fruit snacks to try and get him to not walk on the kitchen floor as I was trying to mop it.
We had a great time this past weekend with all our visitors! Megan and Mike arrived very late Thursday night last week and stayed until early Monday morning. They had to head back for Mike to work the night shift (he is a cop.) We enjoyed seeing them again as it had been a while. They are getting very excited as they are also closing on their house next week!
On Friday night, my mom and sister Kim arrived. On Saturday, Megan, Kim and I went to the city pool (where I got nice and sun burn!), while Mike and Hans made a trip to Mitchell to go to Menard's and Cabellas (boy stuff!). Mom stayed here at the house with Jacob so that he could take his much needed nap! After the pool, we stopped and looked at a local store that was advertising their patio furniture at 50% off. I was able to find a really good deal on a table with 6 chairs. This was a house warming gift to us from my mom. She also bought Jacob a play set (swing, slide) for his late birthday / early Christmas gift! That was one of the items that Hans and Mike picked up at Menard's. It will be built once Hans' parents come the weekend of the 15th and Hans has his dad's help.
We really enjoyed having the patio table, and ate a few meals outside since having it. We also enjoy it in the evenings when the sun is going down and it isn't so hot outside. :) On Saturday night, Mom, Megan, Mike, Hans and I all went to watch the fireworks! Kim wasn't feeling well, so she stayed home with Jacob as he was already in bed. We enjoyed the show and did our best to not be eaten alive by all the mosquitoes!
Sunday we just had a lazy day after Church playing games and visiting. Then we had to say goodby to M&M early Monday morning. After they left, we were able to get a few more hours sleep before Jacob was insistent on us being awake (Grandma wasn't keeping him entertained enough I guess). We hung out and then went down to check out the 4th of July celebration festivities going on. Most of the stuff had already ended, but we were able to walk around some booths that were set up in the park down town. We then came home and Jacob had a blast playing with Grandma and Aunt Kim in his play room!
Then after dinner on Monday, Mom got a couple good family pictures for us!
Next week we have some exciting things going on!! On Monday 7/11 we will be signing the papers to officially own our house!!!!! I am so excited! Then on Friday 7/15 Hans parents are coming for a visit!!!
I am also happy to report that Jacob is doing very good with sleeping in his own bed and for most of every night! I was worried that he would regress with the full house, but he did great!
