Let's Catch Up

So, last week we left Thursday to head to Western KS to visit Ryan's family because his cousin was graduating.  It was a long drive (about 6 hours) but it was a wonderful, relaxing weekend that was very much needed!  Ryan's family is always so accommodating and I love staying with them. Thanks again Russell & Michelle for an amazing visit :)

This was Brennen the first hour of the trip, so it was a great start!

Then he looked like this for awhile...such a rough life this boy has ;)

He actually did really, really well on both the trips there and back.  He got very antsy around the 4th hour in and then just kept saying "let me out, Mommy" and "I done being in car, Mommy" the last hour. But other than that he did amazing!  We were all happy to be there and get out of the car so I know how he felt!

Ryan's family lives in a very small town and being the city girl I am, I really do love getting away from everything! I always learn a lot and ask a lot of stupid questions because I know nothing about farming or anything like that. 

I stole this picture from Ryan's cousin Mallory's Instagram. This is pulling up to their property. You actually can't see their house. It is just off the left of the picture. It is so beautiful!

Daddy & B having fun on the 4-wheeler!

B played hard all day and went to bed very quickly every night!

B enjoying some of Russell's amazing pancakes. He made him a special one shaped like Mickey and with sprinkles in it!

We had such a fun trip and getting away from all the stress with the house was exactly what I needed.  And speaking of the house, it has officially been on the market  for exactly one week yesterday. We haven't had one showing, so we think we may be priced just a little too high :(  We are having an open house on Sunday and then an agent open house on Tuesday, then we will discuss lowering the price. Hopefully things will get moving soon!

This week has felt like Summer. It has been in the upper 80's or 90's most days. 

My brother sent me these pictures on Monday of Grandma spoiling Brennen!

I ended up taking off Tuesday and my mom, Chris, Brennen and I went to the zoo. It was so beautiful out and we made sure to get there right when it opened to beat the heat!

Last night we had dinner with my parents and even though this picture is pretty dark, I still love it.  It shows how much B loves his Granpda!



TGIF! I can't wait to relax this weekend. We don't have much planned, so that always makes me happy! 

Ryan's Birthday Weekend

I had this post done but never posted it before we left out of town last week, so I am posting it now.

The Friday of Ryan's birthday (May 3) I took a long lunch so I could meet my mom and take Brennen to surprise Ryan with lunch. We were going to dinner that night with Ryan's family so B was staying with my parents and Ryan wasn't going to see Brennen on his birthday.  We couldn't let that happen!

We went to dinner at Rudy's and had a blast! Ryan's family has been going here for as long as I've been around and we love it!

Ryan's Dad had one of the waitresses pie Ryan in the face for his birthday!

Ryan ended up not feeling very well on Saturday so we just took it easy and stayed home most of the day.

Sunday we had Crystal, Tristan & Landen over to play in the morning and Uncle Dustin and Meg stopped by to give B his gift that came in the mail! 

Landen helping Brennen open his gift!





B trying out the 4-wheeler at my parent's house!

I made BLT pizza for dinner and it was delicious!

Monday night Landon & Julia invited us over for dinner so instead of getting the house ready to be up on the market Thursday, we decided dinner with friends sounded better!

Racing Caitlin & Daddy down the hill!

Landon & Caitlin getting some curls in!

Julia's turn with B!

Since we'll be out of town this weekend Ryan & Brennen brought me home flowers for Mother's Day!

We are heading out of town for the weekend to Western KS to see some of Ryan's family.  I am so excited to get away even though it is a 6 hour drive :)

Mother's Day 2013

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there!

Celebrating my third Mother’s Day this year, my appreciation for my mom has grown so much and I respect what an amazing job she did raising my brothers and I.  You never fully understand the job of a mother until you experience it for yourself.   So many people told me this before I had Brennen and now I understand the truth in it.

1984 - Pregnant with me

1988

My mom lost her own mother when she was 7 years old. She didn't have a mom to learn from, but all the motherly qualities come so natural to her that it always amazes me.  Many people have said my mom is so much like my Grandma and I just wish I could have had the pleasure of meeting her.

1992 - Florida vacation

Christmas 1996

My mom is my best friend and the most caring, loving and incredible person I know.   She is always giving to others and never expects anything in return.  She has taught me so much and I strive everyday to be more like her.

Florida trip in 2004.

We took a cruise by ourselves on our visit to Florida in 2006.

She is not only the most amazing mom to me, but she is the best Grandma to Brennen.  It makes me so happy to see how wonderful she treats my baby and I know he will learn so much from her!  We are so blessed to have her help and there aren’t words to express how much I appreciate her. 

I love you so much Mom! 

Not only do I have an amazing mom of my own, I have the best mother-in-law as well.  I am so lucky to love the family that I married into.  They welcomed me with open arms from the beginning and our relationship has only grown stronger and closer over the past 12 years.  She raised an amazing son and I thank her for that.  She is always there for us no matter what we need and I want her to know how much I appreciate and love her!

2012 Mother's Day with Ryan & Sarah

I love being surrounded by such wonderful women and I am thankful for them making me the person and mother I am today.  I love you both very much!  

Chaos

I feel like that is the word to describe our week.  Everything has been so crazy and I am trying to relax and not stress about the house, but I just can't seem to slow my mind down. All I think about lately is what needs to be done around the house, how the laundry seems to never end and all the other everyday household chores.  Then I start thinking about if we actually do sell this house and packing everything up and I get even more overwhelmed. I know I am getting ahead of myself and I need to just worry about right now, but it is so hard.  I am exhausted from doing things all day but when I get in bed all I can do is think about what still needs to be done.

Luckily, none of this seems to be bothering Brennen...he can relax for the both of us!

B opening his birthday card from my Aunt Sarah in Florida!

Ryan took off Monday and checked almost everything off of his to do list, so that was a nice start to the week!  We scheduled our roof to be replaced on Tuesday, so I took the day off. The roofers showed up around 8am and my Mom and I quickly loaded the dogs and Brennen up and headed over to Ryan's parent's house.  We let B play outside and made sure the dogs were going to do okay outside and then headed to have lunch with my Dad and brothers.  It was a nice break, but on the way home around 1pm we stopped by the house to see the progress. Most of the old roof was off, but they hadn't even started any of the new roof yet and were gone to lunch.  We had been told that they should be done around 2pm. I was hoping to be able to go get the dogs and bring them home to put B down for his nap and get ready because we were heading to the Royals game that night. 



Well, that didn't happen at all. B fell asleep right before we got back to Ryan's parent's house and when I carried him in and put him in bed he woke right up and it took us about an hour to get him to fall back asleep.

He finally fell asleep around 2:30pm so we waited until 3:45pm to wake him up and head home.  The roofers were still there and everyone was meeting at our house to head to the game. I had about 15 minutes to get myself changed and ready, pack a bag for B and get out the door, but we did it. The rest of the evening was AMAZING!  We had a blast and the weather could not have been more perfect.  It was so nice to have such a wonderful evening after such a crazy day!  

My Mom with Brennen and Shane

Happy Birthday Kevin!

Meg & Dustin

Catching a ride with Grandpa!

The weather was gorgeous through Wednesday, so at least that helped make the madness seem a little more bearable!  I ran errands all day Wednesday and we ended the day with some ice cream before the cold front came through.

Here is what it looked like when I got off work yesterday :(  It is May, right?

I think next week should be in the 70's, so we just have to get through the next few days! We are meeting with the realtor on Saturday and our house should be on the market by Tuesday!  Looking ahead to the next few weeks of having our house on the market, I am going to try to calm down and realize that what is supposed to happen will happen. Yay for the weekend!

The BIG 3-0

No, not me :) Happy Birthday to my amazing husband who turns 30 today! 

I can't believe that he is 30 and next year I will be joining him :(  I remember when 30 seemed so far away and I thought we would probably have 2 or 3 kids by now. Crazy how things change and how fast time flies!

It is hard to believe that we have been together almost half our lives...pretty crazy when you think about it that way.  We started dating in 1999!  Here we are in July of 2000...

We have come a long way and I look forward to what our lives have in store for us! 

Ryan is a wonderful husband, an amazing father and such a caring person.

I love you Ryan and hope you have a wonderful birthday and year ahead!!

Changes

I cannot believe that Wednesday is May 1st!  I guess with Brennen's birthday and the crazy last week we have had, I have completely lost track of time.  I feel like Brennen's birthday was a month ago with all that has happened since.  I realized I haven't updated the blog since then so I figured it was time to catch up!

Last Sunday after B's party, I decided it was time to clean out his old toys to make room for all his new gifts.  We had the bounce house until Monday, so my parents took B for the day while Ryan and I cleaned and organized the entire house. It was a busy, exhausting day, but it was so nice to get done!

That day we also made the decision to put our house on the market with a realtor. We just haven't had any luck For Sale by Owner and the house was now in great shape!  Well, long story short we met with a realtor on Tuesday who we absolutely LOVE and we are now in the processing of getting the house all ready to put on the market.  She said our house looked great but there were just a few things she would suggest for us to do to make it sell much quicker. 

We have known for quite awhile that we need to replace our roof, but we haven't had any problems with it, so we have put it off in order to save that money.  Well, there are already three layers on the roof and if a potential buyer tries to get insured, no insurance company with insure them. So we decided to save us the hassle of trying to get around this, and hopefully recouping the money spent in the price we sell the house for, we would go ahead and replace the roof.  Last week was spent setting up estimates and trying to get a good price.  We will hopefully be getting a new roof tomorrow if everything goes as planned! 

We were also considering painting the exterior of our house.  We have vinyl siding that is light blue and we had dark blue shutters on top of that.  We had never really paid much attention, but the realtor pointed out that this made the house look even more blue than it was.  So this past weekend we painted the shutters and the front door to see if that would be enough of a change before painting the whole house.  I think it looks much better and hopefully will be enough to get it sold!  We also have to replace our front window, which should be done on Friday. 

Other than that, I have just been trying to clear out as much as possible. Now the house just needs another good cleaning. This past weekend is really a blur to me. We went non-stop all weekend with projects around the house and by the beginning of next week hope to have the house on the market!!

Also, last Wednesday Brennen had his 2 year checkup.  Everything looked great and he jumped up to the 10th percentile for weight at 24.5 lbs and 25th percentile for height at 33.5 inches.  He had to get one last shot and now he is done until he is 5. Yay!  This shot really got to him and luckily I had Thursday off because he was up at 5:30am.  He then napped from 10am-12pm and again from 4pm-6pm when he spiked a 101 fever.  Poor baby was wiped out. Luckily, I gave him some medicine after his second nap and the fever broke and he was able to play outside and was tired and ready for bed by 9pm.  We have been so lucky that Brennen has been such a healthy boy!  It is so hard to see your baby not feeling well :(  I was so glad he was back to his normal self by Friday afternoon!

Here are a few pictures from the past week and weekend.

Grandma bought him a plasma car!

Poor boy not feeling too well after his shots :(

Daddy was painting, so B wanted to paint too

Playing with Daddy in his new toy from Auntie Kay! (This is why we need a new house...it takes up the whole living room!)

Making cookies with his play-doh maker!

Landon taking B for a ride :)

Just watching some TV...silly boy!

I absolutely love this age.  Brennen is so much fun and makes us laugh constantly! He is so smart and amazes me with the things he says.  My current favorite is when I say "I love you" he will reply with "I love you too"!  Melts my heart everytime.  He will also just randomly give me hugs or grab my hand when we are watching TV and I can't help but smile. Those are the little things I never want to forget!!

Hopefully we will have some good news in the next few weeks and we can look forward to starting a new chapter for our family!