Rain Rain

Look what I woke up to this morning!

And no we don't live on river front property.  This is the north side of our apartment building, next to the marsh.  The grass should go down all the way down to the reeds.  This is the highest I've ever seen the water.

It rained 6 inches last night and it is flooded all over town.  I'm watching the news and roads are washed out, basements are flooded and there's a "no travel" advisory in Lincoln country (that's our county!)  It came all the way up into our parking lot.

Yep, that's my van too.  Looks like we're gonna get wet.  I had plans of taking the boys swimming today .... looks we dont' have to go far for that.  Ha!  It's days like this I'm glad we don't own a house in a flood zone.  (sorry mom and dad)

.........

on another note, Chris and I spent the evening cleaning, organzing and throwing stuff away. We are moving at the end of August (hooray) to a little house in Sioux Falls - in the center part of town.  We've been looking for the last 5/6 months as the quality of neighbors has gone waaaaaay downhill.  I know we're supposed to love our neighbors, but when their cigarette smoke, mixed with their explitive four letter words, comes wafting into our windows every day, it's time to move.  So we're cleaning out stuff.   The less I have to move .... the better!

But for whatever reason, the mess seems to get bigger before it gets smaller.  Funny how that works.  Here's what our office looked like last night .....

Yikes!  I was amazed at all the STUFF we had and what I thought was important to keep.  I mean, who really needs 50 baby themed gift bags and every receipt from every purchase dating back to 2007??  Yeah, we threw A LOT of stuff away!  So by the end of the night, our room looked a little better.

We finally found the floor three hours later - which was at about 10:30pm ..... waaaaay past this mama's bedtime.  Let's just say I slept hard last night.  But I'll be thankful when it comes time to move and the load is that much smaller!!

busy summer

I can't believe there's less than one month of summer before school starts!  I mean, for Brooks and I it doesn't really matter, but the big boys go back to school in less than 4 weeks.  The nice thing is that since they go to SF Christian school they start a whole week later than the public schools.  But the bummer thing is that all the fun FREE stuff to do (library story time, park & rec activities, etc) ends the beginning of August, in prep for the school year.  So we'll have to get a bit creative the next few weeks in finding things to do.  But these boys are pretty creative, so that hopefully won't be too hard.  Yesterday we explored the Museum of Visual Materials and they both played with a ball of string for 1/2 an hour.  Yep, a ball of string!  Gotta love creative minds.

We've also ridden the trolley a few times.  They love doing that!

Falls Park also provides entertainment with lots of rocks to climb.

Today, since it's kinda rainy outside we decided to make play-doh.

Not only is it fun for them, but it gives me a chance to get my laundry done :)

Next weekend Chris, Brooks and I are flying to Montana to visit Chris' parents one more time before they move.  His dad took a Sr. Pastor position in Sidney, MT and will be there Sept 1.  And if you know anything about Montana, the eastern part of the state looks just like North Dakota ..... flat and boring (sorry for those of you who live there)  So we wanted to see the mountains and Chris' childhood home one last time.  This will also be Brooks' first time flying.  We'll see how that goes. 

And because I should include a picture of the baby, here's Brooks eating a salad for supper.  He makes this awful face when trying new foods! 

To his credit, he actually will try new foods, but it almost looks painful, doesn't it?  Goofy kiddo.

an update

whew!  these past few weeks have gone by so fast I haven't had time (or energy, creativity, etc) to sit down and write about it.  We've been busy busy busy!!  Here's the condensed version of what's been going on around here.

On July 2nd Chris and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary.  Wow, 5 years!  It seems like it has gone by so fast and at the same time I feel like we've been married forever (which is a good thing).  To celebrate we took a weekend trip to the twin cities. We stayed with our fabulous friends, the Blanchards. 

We spent one afternoon on their boat - it was Brooks' first time on the water and he loved it, of course ... my little water bug.

On Saturday night Kellie watched Brooks while Chris and I hit the town.  We spent the evening on Grand Ave in St. Paul, our old stomping grounds.  It was fun to reminisce and enjoy an evening to ourselves.

And Brooks LOVED their dogs.  He loves all animals, but he had soooooo much fun playing with Cassie (above) and Dallcye.

The following weekend (July 9) was my birthday.  I took the boys out for ice cream during the day to celebrate.  They didn't argue :)  I tried to teach Cole how to "lick" the ice cream cone instead of smashing his face into it ... I wasn't so successful as you can see.

The bummer part about my day was that Brooks was crabby crabby crabby.  Ugh.  Didn't he know it was my birthday??  We braved going out to eat (a poor decision on our part) and well .... let's just say we'll be finding a babysitter next year.  But I did end the evening ona  high note with homemade apple pie.  My dear husband (who does NOT bake) made me a pie for my birthday - isn't he great!

We learned a few years ago that it's not smart to put a wax candle in a warm apple pie.  So this year we wrapped it in tinfoil first.  Happy birthday to me!!

Then on Monday July 12, Brooks and I hit the road to Green Bay.  We traveled with a friend and her two boys who also has family in Green Bay.  We were there a whole week - the longest time I've been away from Chris and Brooks from his daddy.  'll post more pictures from our trip later, but here's a few of my favorites.

cooling off on a hot day

Riding with Grandpa Dave at the wildlife sanctuary

4 generations

Snuggle time with Grandma Marty. 

We had a fantastic time and it was hard to say good-bye.  Brooks loved spending so much time with Grandma and Grandpa - and I think they enjoyed it too :)  I just wish we didn't live 9 hours away from them.  But it was good to come home and see Chris.  I sure missed him.

And in case you didn't hear ......

.... we now own a mini-van.  Yep, we did it.  Remember all those things I said I'd never do?  Yeah, owning a minivan is one of them and I'm eating my words, once again.  So tease all you want, but it is very comfortable to drive and it's much easier getting my 3 boys around.

crazy storm

On Saturday night we had some CRAZY storms come through the sioux falls area - in fact they stretched all the way up to Brookings and down to Iowa.  Chris loves thunderstorms, so he was out on our covered deck during most of it.  He even had Brooks out with him.  The little guy liked the rain and didn't seem bothered by the thousands of lightning flashes across the sky.  Then the wind picked up to like ... oh, 70 mph.  It was NUTS!! 

This was our garage door after the storm.  We live in an apartment and the way the wind was whipping around the building it happened to catch our door just right.  Super.  Good thing was that it didn't really damage the car like I feared.  Just a tiny scratch in the back spoiler.  The guy came out yesterday and fixed the panels, but the opener is still broke.  Hopefully that should be repaired by the end of the week.

This was a worst of it.  Lightning struck our neighbor's house (actually two neighbors since it was a twin home) and it caught on fire.  We watched the whole thing!  My heart was (and still is) so sad for those families.  But I'm so thankful for our volunteer fire department in Tea.  They did a great job responding and making sure everyone was safe.  They were putting out that fire for hours - it was so bad.  It was a little too close for comfort for me, but I'm glad everyone was safe.

Breakfast Muffins

So I've given this new muffin recipe a few test spins and I think it's a keeper.  It's a pretty basic muffin recipe and the best part is that you can add ANY fresh fruit you have.  The first time I made it all I had was apples, so I made apple muffins.  And they were great!!  Then I made them with blueberries.  And today I got really creative and made ........... wait for it ............ apple blueberry muffins.  Ok, that's not creative at all, but they were really good.  So here's the recipe - hopefully they'll make their way into your kitchen for breakfast.

1  3/4 c. flour
1/3 c. sugar
1  1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 c. milk
1 egg
1/3 c. butter, melted
1/4 c. applesauce
1 c. fresh fruit

In a large bowl mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.  Add milk, egg, butter & applesauce; mix until ingredients are moistened - Do not overbeat.   Stir in fresh fruit.  Spoon batter in 12 greased muffin cups (or use paper liners - my preference)  Bake at 400 for 20 min or until muffin tops spring back when touched.

The original recipe did not call for applesauce, but they were a touch too dry for me.  So I added just a little all natural unsweetened applesauce and they turned out perfect!!  Happy baking :)

A Birthday Celebration - part 2

Brooks' birthday was on Wednesday, June 16th.  But because it was in the middle of the week, we decided to have his party the following weekend.  And boy did we party :)

We decided to do a puppy themed party since Brooks loves Charlie so much.  So I made him a puppy dog cake!  This is how it started .....

Here's the finished product ......

Chris said my inner "cake boss" came out.  haha.  I don't think it's that good, but it turned out pretty cute!  We reserved a shelter at a local park here in Sioux Falls for his party.  Lots of friends and even family were able to make it!  Chris' brother JD and his wife Pamela drove from the cities for the weekend to visit & celebrate with us.  We are so blessed to have such wonderful people in our lives. 

(Note: the following pictures were taken by my wonderful and very talented sister in law Pamela.)

There were balloons ....

and party hats....

and presents ....

and of course cake!!! 

At first he wasn't so sure about it.

But with a little help from dad ...

he discovered that he LOVED it!

And boy did he EAT!

This kiddo loves cake!

Yep, you see correctly.  He ate almost the WHOLE thing.  And beleive it or not, he didn't get sick.  My kid  can eat like a horse.  Why he's so skinny is still beyond me!  It's hard to believe that my baby is one year old.  It has gone so fast.  And although sometimes I'm sad that he's growing up, it makes me happy too.  He is learning, and discovering and maturing each day.  And it's fun to see the world through his eyes .... big and wonderful and full of new suprises! Happy Birthday Little Bird .... I love you!!

A birthday celebration - part 1

Yesterday was my little ... ahem, I mean, BIG boy's first birthday.  And boy did we celebrate!!

We started the day with french toast and scrambled eggs for breakfast that Dad made.  Then Brooks and I headed over to Drew and Cole's house for the morning.  That afternoon we had a picnic in the park (Dad met us for lunch) and then swimming!

Okay, okay I know the hat looks goofy!  But he has too much hair to put sunscreen on his head and not quite enough to block out the sun.  And he was already a little pink on top from playing at the park the day before.  So therefore, we have the hat!

It was a perfect day for swimming.  Clear blue skies, 85 degree weather and just enough breeze to keep you cool.  The pool was actually full to capacity.  So it was a little nuts with all the people there, but we had a blast!  Plus, Brooks LOVES swimming!  I think he would live in the water if he could.

When Dad got home from work, Brooks opened his present from Grandma Lue and Grandpa Les.  What a fun new toy!  Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!!

Then we went out for supper at Dairy Queen.  We decided that since this boy loves food so much, that we would order him his own burger for supper (instead of just sharing some of mine with him.)  And he chowed it down!!

Dad fed him his first french fry!  His entire meal contained NO fruits or veggies - something I had a hard time with.  But I think I can handle it only one day a year.

We also reached another milestone in Brooks' life.  His first taste of ice cream.  At first he wasn't so sure about it.  It was pretty cold.

But after a few bites .... oh man!  He was squealing with excitement.  We couldn't get that spoon to his mouth fast enough.  It was pretty cute!

We ended the night with a family bike ride with the new (used) bike cart we received from Edith Ellen.  Thanks Grandma Gale.  Brooks loves it!!

Brooks is my little outdoorsman.  It doesn't matter what we're doing ... a picnic, swinging at the park, playing in the pool, going for a walk .... this boy LOVES to be outside.  So naturally he would enjoy bike rides.  It was a beautiful evening and a perfect end to a perfect day.