My Almost 2 and Almost 1 year-olds

A few notes about my almost 2 year-old and my almost 1 year-old...

They are trouble!! They instigate little tiffs between one another.

If T is ready for a toy, he makes his move in a quick swift motion to grab whatever his sister has in her possession. He may even pull her hair at times, not in a malicous way, just a "Hey! Sissy, gimme that toy! Please!"

If B wants a certain toy, she uses her voice and now her body to get what she wants. She will make a wall with her back, hoping that her brother will not be able to see her play with a certain toy. More times than not, I am peeling T off his sister's back and trying to get him to play with something else.

And with T being only 4 pounds lighter than his sister, and only a few inches shorter... I am sure things will continue to be exciting in our home!

Father's Day

During the craziness of moving into our first home, we also celebrated Father's Day! Since I LOVE celebrating holidays AND giving surprises, I LOVED this day!

Super Hubby didn't have a clue that he'd be getting a present either! Especially since I was able to hide it from him, and he moved the boxes! So on Father's Day, he opened his wonderful cards the kids got him, and then the BIG RED PRESENT (in pic)... In the box, I threw a bunch of the kid's toys and blankets, to make him think that he wasn't getting anything... WELL, he fell for it, and beneath the blankets and toys, he picked out this AMAZING blender!

Practical, yes. Fun, you betcha! He loves his new blender and he uses almost every day...since it is dishwasher safe, it's the perfect blender for our family, and especially for the Smoothie King in our life!

We love you hunny!

A (little over) Week with Great Grandma Ellie

So now that I have my internet back, I feel like there is so much to catch up on! First, would be to go back to pre-house move-in day! I was thoroughly swamped with things to do; between painting, scrubbing cabinets, vaccumming, tearing out laminate (which by the dirt on it, it was more like plastered mud on the fake tiles), and overall packing boxes, there was no way I could do these things with two babies on hips.

Thankfully, we are blessed with an amazing Great-Grandmother ( *disclaimer: we are actually blessed with two AMAZING Great Grandmothers, but this one is focused on G.G. Ellie). G.G. Ellie was willing to drive down 8 hours to come and help me for a little over a week with the babies and packing stuff in our apartment. And let me tell you, without her, I'm pretty sure we'd still be in that cramped apartment...

Super Hubby and I were able to work long hours during the night to get this house all cleaned up and ready. Meanwhile, G.G. Ellie surprised us with an amazing gift: an oven/stovetop! This is a HUGE blessing, because we were going to fanagle without one for a few weeks until after our sister's wedding in mid-July.

The babies LOVE spending time with "Elwie", as B can't really say her "L's" yet. And I think T loved each feeding time with G.G. Ellie because he would get to eat all these great little meals that she had brought for the kiddos! It was so cute to see them with her each morning, just cuddling, or trying to climb on her...

Thank you so much Great-Grandma Ellie for the great week, and all the special times and gifts for our home! We love you and we hope to see you back really soon!

Too long

Well we have finally moved in... granted I have two boxes left to unpack, but since they are photos to be hung up, I feel very good about the move! More on that soon, I promise...


Side note:

I'm already starting the pre-planning stages of my two cuties birthdays... this being said, I have a little over a month and a half to make personalized invitations and a sweet design for a cake! However, first I need to come up with the perfect birthday theme! So weigh in on some thoughts here:

1. Since the babes are still smaller-ish (ok they are giants compared to other babies...but...), would it be so horrible to have a joint birthday party for both T and B? With one turning 1 and the other turning 2, I think it might be really cute!

2. Any fun birthday theme ideas you've seen? Super Hubby and I want to keep it faith-based...so my mind floats straight to Veggie Tales (which my kiddos LOVE) or maybe a rosary themed bday party (think of how many cupcakes I would get to bake!)? Any other great ideas? Weigh in now...before I get my heart set on one! Or hey help me set my mind to something else awesome!

Baby Video!!

Now... it's the 21 week mark in this pregnancy...wanna see what Baby Blessing does in the womb? Well here ya go... we found out the sex,but we want to personally tell some family members before the world knows.... sorry ;)

Hectic, Crazy... House Party!

Ok, so maybe this title isn't exactly what my week has been about...but it is how I've felt recently. Last Tuesday, Super Hubby and I closed on our first home! I know right, here I am all of 20-something year's old (shush I can't say my age due to some youth follow this blog :) and I bought my first house!! God is good all the time, Aw I love it!!

But on Tuesday, we went to close on the house and my lovely "Minnesota Mom" Karen came and watched the kiddos so that Hubby and I could close without them crying... since it can take HOURS to sign all those documents that say "This land is my land, this land ain't your land..." But it was very time-consuming, and my hand cramped up, then fell asleep somewhere in the first half an hour of signing. However, after we signed away, we left with a set of beautiful keys to our lovely first home!

Then came the work. And boy do I mean work.. that night we went to Menards and stocked up on lots of supplies to pull off wall paper, clean the rooms/bathrooms, paint walls, and tear out old stinky carpets. Altogether: a LOTTA work! Thankfully, we have some amazing friends who were willing to come and help us on the first days of demolition! For more news on the house, I figured I should make a seperate blog since there is SOOOO much to do.

climbingtheequityladder.blogspot.com

This week's top priorities: painting (not done by me since I gots to carry baby #3), cleaning/regrouting the bathtub, and getting the carpets cleaned.

I've got only 20 days to pack, clean and get outta this apartment since we are moving soon!!! YAY!

God Bless

Weekend Finds

*Quick fact: I LOVE Garage Sale Hunting. I doubt it has to do with going to so many with my grandmother when I was a little kid... but in all cases, I don't buy "junk", I look for "Finds", you know the GREAT gems out there that are just waiting for a new home! Yeah....that's a hobby of mine, but in MN it's only garage sale season in May-August-ish.

So last week, I needed motivation, motivation to do the laundry (the story of a mother's life, haha)... after talking to Super Hubby, we decided to make an "incentive" program for me to feel more inspired to get 'er done and get through all the laundry by a certain day and then I'd get to go Garage Sale Hunting! I was super excited to say the least that I had an end to look forward to if I completed my task!

So I got to work; and 2 days later, I saw the light as I was almost done with all the loads in the small apartment's community laundry machine (only one machine since the other one died, yet again). With full determination, Saturday rolled around with a clean house with lots of beautiful clean clothes put away, and Super Hubby, Bumble Bee, and T-man ready to take down some garage sale huntin' grandmas for some great deals!
Did we succeed? Oh yes! Not only did we get some great "Finds", but they are AMAZINGLY in great shape!
Our Finds for this past week include: Fischer Price's Laugh and Learn: Musical Learning Chair (valued on Amazon for $190 new), we got ours for $5! Woohoo! And T-man and Bumble Bee LOVE it! The beautiful mirror for $1, a TON of beanie Babie animals which Bumble Bee loves for super cheap; two pairs of cutie shoes for Bumble Bee for less than $1.50 for both; two awesome white shelves for our new kitchen for $1 each; blue candle sticks for $1; the Blue Satin fabric for our May decorated Family Alter (blue is for Mary) for $6; and some AMAZING 1960's still-totally-useable books like Treasure Island, Andersen's Fairy Tales, Black Beauty, etc for a steal too!! Oh and Super Hubby picked out a beautiful milk-glass bowl perfect for fruit or serving (Hubby then put the beanie babies in it for carrying purposes).

Then there was the super Find! We got a solid-wood desk, in perfect condition, for $20! Unfortunately, we didn't have the space in our car to bring it home, but thankfully the owner/seller was listening in on a conversation I was having with a friend who I was telling about how we are buying our first home and now in search of new furniture. This being overheard, the sweet lady seller said that she would be more than happy to sell it to us AND drive it to our apartment that day! I was thrilled!! It's a beautiful table, and I'll try to take a pic soon!