'Tis the Season

Hello my long lost blog,  how are you lately?  We've been good - and busy.  That's what I always say, but it's true, and I'm enjoying it.  We've slowed our traveling down a bit but we keep pretty busy around this area.  Babygirl is so not a baby anymore but a toddler!  She's walking and she talks a lot and she is so fun!  We have made some new friends and we spend lots of time with them and I LOVE it!  I'm so sad they are leaving in 6 months because they will be done with residency.  The hubby is crazy busy at work and I don't feel like I get to see him very often but I was expecting that.  This weekend I'm hosting a cookie exchange at my house and I couldn't be more excited!  Tomorrow an old friend is coming to visit and I'm also super excited about that!  And then next week will be filled with last minute Christmas shopping and finishing projects before we celebrate Christmas at the Watson's and then we travel to Alexandria to spend the 28th with my family.  I made a trip to the mall yesterday and got Miss G's Christmas Dress and I'm so in love with her in it, but I may be a little biased :) Here are some pictures!!

Oh, and we got a puppy, named Reggie.  They love each other! They really do - she seems like she's apprehensive here, but she is giggling up a storm.  And in other pictures she has him in a headlock, lol.

Life Lately

We had a busy week leading up to Labor Day.  So busy that I can't really remember what we did.  Then came Labor Day Weekend, which was actually filled with labor, which kind of sucked.  Don't get me wrong, I love the family cabin, but Labor Day Weekend is all about dock take out and boat winterizing and basically a lot of work for my hubby and not a lot of rest - it sucks.  The baby and I got to hang with the family, which was nice and good food was served, but it would have been nicer if we could have just all relaxed - well, more so have Ryan relax. He works so hard and he deserves more breaks than he gets - and I feel like it's a little bit my fault because I encourage a lot of "extended" family time - meaning, his parents, my parents, his siblings, my siblings, grandparents, etc - and quite frankly, he doesn't have the time or the energy for that right now and it's sad.  He does a great job of doing it, but I get to hear a little complaining about it.  The main problem is that we live too far away.  I love La Crosse, but I want to transplant it closer to family.

The past two weeks have been good - Babygirl started swim lessons and loves them!  I got a bit of scrapbooking in :)  Grandma W got to see Gwen lots.  I wish my mom got to see her more too.

This weekend we head out to a camp out that we do every year with all of our college buddies.  I'm so excited!  It will be so fun to see them all again - together!!  We have a busy week leading up to it, so wish me luck.

I absolutely, positively, without a doubt, can't stop thinking about, how much I love FALL!

That was probably a weird non-realistic sentence, but that's okay.  My point is - Fall is upon us - shortly - and I can't wait!!  It's hard to think about fall, when it's literally 104 degrees outside, but I have faith that it will cool down very soon.  This weekend is Labor Day weekend (my unofficial start date of the Autumnal Equinox - I know, it's actually September 22) the first day of Fall!   For me Fall starts on Tuesday, September 3, the first day of school for Minnesota high schools. My whole school career that is what signified the start of Fall for me and I think I'm just going to keep thinking about it that way.  I cannot wait for cooler days.  It's been even too hot for walks outside, so I'm looking forward to doing that.  Fall makes my life a little busier, but I'm not complaining.  Tuesday starts swimming lessons for my little girl and Wednesday night they do baby story time at the local library so we might try that.  My weekends are already pretty much packed until November, and even November is busy but I'm not thinking about that too much yet.  Anyway, I can't wait to pull out my canner and get the fruit that is in my freezer done and get my tomatoes turned into yummy salsa.  I've been on Pinterest a little today while babygirl naps and I found some awesome pictures of fall and little sayings that remind me again how much I love the season, so I will leave you with this:

Oh and this picture, I think I have to find it for Gwen: 

Oh and one more thing: I have a mom date tonight and I am so excited!  It's Endless Pasta at Olive Garden right now and 4 other moms and I are leaving the kids with dad and heading there tonight - can't wait!! We never get to visit sans kids so it will be nice :) We love our kiddos but one of us is always running off to fix the latest crisis.  

And so it goes...

Well hello again dear Blog,

I've neglected you once again.  This time it's been for very good reason.  We've been a traveling...for some fun reasons - and some not so fun reasons.  First of all, we took a much needed mini family vaca to the cabin for a whole weekend.  That sounds crazy, I know, but the hubby had a Saturday and Sunday off so we took off late Friday night and did it.  It was fabulous!  

Then, we received devastating news on Tuesday morning the 13th that hubby's 19  year old cousin died in a car accident the night before.  It was a terrible week.  We ended it with going to the funeral and paying our respects.  No mother should have to bury a child and that's all I will say about that.  It is truly tragic.

The weekend brought some fun when my BFF and her little girl came to visit and we went blueberry picking and to the pool.  It's tough when you have littles that have a schedule and need naps and go to bed early because you can't squeeze that much in, but it was a wonderful weekend visit and I can't wait to see them again.

This week I've been cleaning up.  And going to a birthday party. And going to a new book club meeting to get signed up.  And tomorrow I'm babysitting. And Saturday we have a wedding.  And then it's already a new week! EEK!  Time is flying.

Well, in about 84 minutes I have a lady from the "La Crosse Welcome Committee" coming to give me a welcome packet full of gift cards and brochures, etc, so I feel like I need to clean up my mess a bit.

Until next time, Mr. Blog.

Feeling Too Plugged In

I find myself too plugged in these days - not so much via my blog (obviously!) but with facebook and texting...it's very time consuming.  And I don't like it one bit!  This weekend I'm making a promise to myself and my family that I'm unplugging.  Admittedly, I'm starting small....I'm just putting my phone on silent and checking it once or twice a day....and I'm not checking facebook!  And then once I get a handle on that, I plan on shutting off the phone for a whole weekend at a time.

Oh, I forgot to tell you about what we've been up to - we had a house full of people for about 5 days.  We celebrated a Baptism and had multiple cookouts!  It was a great time, but I'm exhausted and we still aren't cleaned up from last weekend's fun!

Whew!  Better get back to it!

Another Week Flies By

Whew, is all I can say about our last week!!  We took off last Wednesday for my hometown to partake in a family reunion.  It was a blast!  But I'm exhausted (and it was last weekend!)  We had over 200 people show up.  The food was awesome, the visiting phenomenal and overall, it went off without a hitch - which is great, because my mom was one of the primary organizers and so it was a bit hectic and stressful leading up to it.  The county fair was also going on during the weekend we were home and I was able to take babygirl there to visit all the farm animals!  She loved it!  I have pictures, but they are on my camera and that's in the other room and I'm too lazy to go get it right now.   We drove back on Monday and it took us 14 1/2 hours!  So, needless to say, Tuesday we did nothing.  Literally, we napped, ate, and watched TV.  Wednesday we had a playdate and then did more napping.  Thursday, my little peanut woke up with a temperature and was crabby ALL day :(  She's teething and was not a happy girl.  Friday was more of the same, but she did a bit better towards the evening so we went on a family walk and to the Farmer's Market to pick up some peas and rhubarb - yum! That leads us to today, which we spent going to an Art Fair, doing some yard work and cleaning.  I still have a lot of cleaning to do to make up for my lack of everything this past week, but I think it can wait until tomorrow and I can go to bed...cuz I'm tired!

Weekend Run-Down

So Friday babygirl and I had a visit from Grandma Karyn (Ryan's mom).  We had a blast!  We hit up Caribou (an obsession for both of us) and the Harley shop.  We got a little lost on the way to the Harley shop but it was quite an adventure.  Turns out we just went the wrong way on the highway and had to do a big loop to get back.  Then, we hit up the pool for 2 hours!  Gwen had a blast!  I didn't get any pics cuz I accidentally left my phone at home :-/  I think Grandma snapped a couple so I will have to get those from her sometime.  

Friday night we went on a family cruise (old school car style) South of town to check out some of the smaller towns along the river.  We grabbed some DQ (minus some for babygirl - she was out like a light!) and just drove.  I love going on drives, so it was perfect.  

Saturday we dilly dallied all day long about what we were going to do (even though I felt like there were PLENTY of options) and ended up attempting to go on a walk through a place called Goose Island that we discovered before.  It was super buggy though and we ended up cutting out walk pretty short and heading down to the riverfront for Crazy Days.  Crazy Days weren't as exciting as I thought they'd be, but then I learned that we hit it up on the very last day....so I'm thinking that Thursday and Friday were probably more hopping - plus it was like 90+ degrees!  Yuck!  Saturday night we rented a movie - Identity Theft (I've heard mixed reviews, but we liked it).  

Sunday we hit up church in the morning and came home and babygirl and I both took naps while Daddy did some reading.  Then we went to SAMS club and got a membership and loaded up on groceries (lots of produce!!!)  I am thrilled!  We then came home and grilled out and this evening I have a wild hair to clean, clean, clean - although it's like 11pm and I should go to bed!  We have a super busy and exciting week - I can't wait to share it with you!  

Goodnight!