Happy New Year!

Last night we spent a wonderful night-in with our boys to celebrate New Years Eve!  I found a small 4-pack of champagne (technically sparkling wine), so that I could have a small glass to toast the new year with Matt without wasting a whole bottle of champagne.  We told Jack he didn't have a bedtime last night (he was thrilled!) figuring he would fall asleep on the couch with us.  He chose to watch Cars 2 and then around 11 p.m. he asked to go to bed.  Luckily, I took a few naps with the boys before the clock struck midnight and was able to make it to welcome 2012!

Today is my late cousin's birthday... I will always think of her as we welcome the new year because we used to call her at midnight every year to wish her a happy birthday.  I got so many hand-me-down clothes from Katie when I was younger and always thought they were the coolest clothes.  I was blessed to have her as my Confirmation sponsor and a great role model as I was growing up.  She left this world way too young... Miss you so very much Katie!

This year I am going to try to participate in 52 Weeks to An Organized Home.  I will get an email once a week on the area of focus and then try to implement it at our house.  I know there will be weeks where I simply can't get to it, but I really hope to be able to participate in most of these.  Hopefully I will be able to keep up on a blog post each week I participate.  Having two kids in our house just after Christmas makes me realize how very important organization is, not that I didn't before, I just did not really worry about it!

I have some other little goals of things that I'd like to get better at, but I hope to keep my focus on my wonderful family this year!

I am now less than 2 weeks away from going back to work and it of course makes me very sad to be leaving my boys.  Lots going on in the next few weeks including Christopher's baptism, so blog updates might be sparse.

Wishing everyone a very happy New Year full of health, wealth and many more blessings!

Swinging into Spring!

So, I'm not going to lie... I've been giving Matt a hard time lately. I've REALLY wanted Jack's swing hung on our playset and it has been like pulling teeth. Not because Matt hasn't wanted to do it, but he's been busy because of work, we didn't have the right size drill bit or new bolts with the eye on the end... but I was still impatient! Also, thank you to Uncle Patrick & Uncle Alex for getting Jack's swing for this past Christmas!

Well, finally here is Jack swinging like the little monkey he is!

Daddy hanging the swing!

Enjoying swinging!

Video clip!

Here is Jack's 10 month picture with his bear!

Weekend Recap

Wow... Monday already?! Goo, weekends go by WAY too fast for me!

Let's see, last weekend we went to Indianapolis to walk in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure with my mom's side of the family's team. The team was started about 7 years ago by my Aunt Mary Ellen, a year before she lost her 2 year battle with cancer at 37 years young. Here are a few pictures from this weekend!

Me pushing Jack in the stroller... around the first half mile!

Wearing my pink ribbon visor... and playing peek-a-book!

Sunday, Matt let me sleep in and after I woke up I mowed the grass and put out some Weed-B-Gon to kill all those dandelions we have/had in yard! Can't wait to post pictures once it is in better condition! It isn't necessarily in bad shape as far as pictures go but has a lot of weeds and we haven't put any annuals in the landscaping... still a lot on the to-do list!

Happy Homeowners and Lots of Other Happenings!

Well, we're all moved in (and with internet access no less!) and loving our little home! We officially moved last Saturday, but it was such a busy day. We had carpet being put in that morning throughout the living room, bedrooms & hallway... then the guys (our amazing friends) showed up with a full truck at 11:30 a.m., had it all unloaded by 1:30 p.m. (after they had to wait for the carpet guys to finish up).

That afternoon we had the dryer hooked-up to remedy a fiasco from Friday. Friday was a busy day as well, we had multiple contractors at the house to do work.. including delivery & set-up of appliances. My mom was coming by to help me finish painting and just to help out with Jack, but wasn't there yet when the guys came to deliver the washer/dryer & range. Needless to say, my first experience with these delivery guys was miserable! I had my fussy 5 month old in one arm as I let them in. The older gentleman immediately started into how things were wrong, not going to work, etc. First "problem" was that the washer & dryer hook-ups were on the opposite side, which I suggested we simply put them on the side of the hook-ups. It appeared as though he did not like my ability to problem solve so quickly, but heck, we'd paid for them already & knew they'd fit (measuring tapes are very handy)! Well, the dryer vent that was left from the previous owners was a stiff material (not like the flexible kind I am most familiar with). It was simple enough to untape from the point where it was attached to the vent going outside. All this one-handed because Jack was in my other arm. Then he talks about how he can't bring the range in through the back door.... well, fancy that we've got a front door! That was a very small issue and again, easily solved. The washer was brought in and set-up to be working just fine. Then, the first part where we made a mistake came in... we didn't measure the baseboard molding when we measured for the washer & dryer. Okay, well its a tiny bit of molding only needed to be popped off to solve this problem. Well, that's something I couldn't do one-handed... I tried to hand a guy a crowbar and a flat-head screwdriver from Matt's toolbox. Nope, wasn't gonna help us out. I was trying to figure out what he was going to do... he decided all he could do for us was to put the dryer in the garage. So he did... and then he left. It took me a while, but after much "firing-up" by Matt & my parents, I called our sales guy and told him what had happened and explained that (after my mom was there to hold Jack) I went ahead and took the baseboard off. Long story short, he was able to get someone to come out the next day (moving day) to bring it in and set it up for us. I requested that it not be the same guy who came Friday, I simply didn't want to deal with such a debbie-downer. Needless to say, it was EXTREMELY frustrating, but it worked out okay.

I'll be posting some pictures of the house soon, I promise! It is just getting so dark by time I get home from work, that the pictures aren't that great... not to mention interior pictures would show more of boxes then of the actual house!

Other things happening on our busy front include: getting ready for Jack's first road-trip (18 hours to Texas!) next week for Thanksgiving and Tiffany & Steven's wedding, as well as Christmas being right around the corner! We're so excited for Jack's first Christmas (in fact we've already bought his first gift) and decided to spend his first Christmas at home, just us! I am so excited to start our own family traditions for our children... things like getting to open gifts from Santa in our pjs sound so relaxing and wonderful!

Official Homeowners!

Well, its official folks! We're homeowners... and now officially poor! Haha! We closed on our house yesterday and it was quite the experience. I had been to one house closing before with my mom when my parents bought their house for this last move. It is of course completely different when it was our house and our money! Quite a shock to see the actual amortization schedule and how much we'd pay if we were to stay there for 30 years and pay off the house. Oh well, we are so excited!

I got off early today, which is always a good deal, and got to come home to my boys! My mom came by a little bit today, even though Matt was off, just to help watch Jack so Matt could crank out some packing/cleaning. This evening we went to Lowe's to check out paint, carpet, and a few other odds and ends that we may be needing soon! I can't wait to get started on a bit of home improvement with first painting and then getting the carpet replaced. We have a few other things we'll eventually want to do (i.e. replacing some not-so-attractive light fixtures) but other than that not too much longer til we are in our house!!!

We're planning on painting our bedroom a lighter blue/grey shade to coordinate with our bedding that we got when we were newly married! Jack's room will be a yellow/khaki color that coordinates with our crib bedding but will hopefully stay pretty neutral when he gets to a big boy bed. The only other room we're planning on painting right away is the kitchen. I am thinking one of 2 colors... one is kind of a toffee brown and the other is a toned down brick red. There is not a ton of wall space that will need to be painted because of the tile backsplash. That's why I'm thinking the bolder/darker color will be ok in a smaller space.

I'm so excited to get started! I will be posting the pictures over the next few weeks as we make our new house a place that is our home!