The Calm after the storm!

Wow! Christmas got here quick this year and went by just as quickly! There was so much preparation, shopping, baking, hype, Christmas plays, Christmas play rehearsal....I could go on! But, I won't.

This year, Christmas felt different. I am unable to say what it was exactly, but it was different. Not bad, by any means! Actually, different in a good way. Maybe this had something to do with it.

My little guy is only 3 years old. He is just starting to understand the very basics. He knows about baby Jesus and Mary and Josephs stay in the stable. He knows that Christmas trees are great and pretty. He knows that this is a birthday. He gets confused on who's birthday it is and probably is confused on why the guest of honor is not attending his party.

I worked on Tuesday night and got home and in bed around 11:45pm and had to get up at 3:45am to go to work. Not much sleep. I got home at 2:30 and decided to keep my idea of starting a new tradition. To bake a batch of Christmas cookies with my little guy to put out for Santa Claus. Here is our special plate for Santa....isn't it cute?

Here are the cookies that we made. My son proudly made the cookie on the left. Santa ate it all gone. :)

Grandma and Grandpa came over and ate with us and opened gifts with us.

My little Stinker made a nice haul. He is having fun playing all day today. He has been quiet and busy. Peace! I love it!

Every year my sisters and mom and some neices get together and do a cookie exchange. I have envied this tradition, because I cannot be a part of it. I received a package in the mail the other day and assumed it was a Christmas gift and didn't open it right away. I waited until Christmas eve. When I opened it this is what I saw.

How thoughtful! I cried. My husband asked me why I was crying....I said, "they included me." It felt really good! They sent me a box of their cookies. They did this for all of us who live away. How nice. It caught me off guard. It was the best suprise of all!

Merry Christmas! and thank you!

My Vacation

For the first time in over 5 years I took two and a half weeks off from my job. Now, I am not saying I never take vacations....but this last September, I actually went somewhere for more than a week. Doesn't happen very often. I didn't know what to expect. Would I get bored? Would I be homesick? How would my son do at his young age? Hmmmmmm..

I had a great time! So did my husband and son. I live way over 1000 miles from my four sisters and my mom. I get really homesick sometimes. I am almost 40, and I still get homesick. And that is ok. :)

My son did really well on the drive out and back! That was a concern. His highlight during the drive was to get to the hotel. Man! That kid loves hotels! He still asks if he can go to the hotel on occassion. No....not the pools, just the hotel for itself. He fell in love with a naked Cabbage Patch doll while we were there, he named him Pete.

Here he is dangling Pete upside down so he can see the blood rush to his head. Just kidding, dolls don't have blood and my baby is not that mean. :)

He got some of his first memories of my family. Uncle Chuck....."the bear" still gets talked about.

So does Kaitlin and Mikayla and Miah. I got a picture of each of my family with my boy and made an album for him to look at and remember. He loves that book. I knew he would. He knows everyones name and tell me a memory when he looks at the pictures.

My husband got to go on an Elk hunt in the mountains. He loved it. It was hard on my "home body" to be in a tent for so long. But he loves to hunt and realized a dream that week. He loved the beauty that surrounded him.

I got to do whatever I wanted. I didn't think about work. I got to run life at my own pace.....no one elses. I rested. I have four sisters, two of whom are very close to my age. I got to visit....a lot. It was nice. I got to see my mom. My son got to know his grandma. It meant a lot to me.

Everytime I leave my family, I bawl like a baby. I cry for at least 30-40 miles. My husband looks at me, puts his hand on my knee and calls me a tenderheart. I wasn't ready to leave when I did. I had a very, very nice time. I want another vacation just like this one.

The Hunt is over already

My husband and I go hunting every fall in eastern North Dakota. He began hunting long before I did, as a matter of fact, he is the one who has taught me (or teaching me rather) how to hunt. I love what we do. We go to a beautiful location....that can never be disclosed because of the Hunter's Code of Ethics, and we just sit there and soak in the beauty around us. Its a great way to clear the mind and just enjoy the moment.

Last night, we watch a little brown mink run across a frozen creek and dive into and under the ice. We watched the little air bubbles come up under the ice to show us the progress he had made. The little mink would come near us and bare his little teeth, just to keep us in line so we wouldn't try any funny stuff. :) It was fun.

Then about 15 minutes before our hunt would have to end, a buck peeked his head up from the grass and stared at us. Its always like that. Right when we are about to pack it in, the action gets going. My husband got it all on tape. We have watched it about 5 or more times now. We laugh at ourselves and at each other. Its fun. He wasn't the biggest one around....but I am grateful anyways. :) No, I am not just like Sarah Palin, I haven't field dressed one yet, my husband does that for me.

I have many posts to catch up on....I will do my best to do as many as I can.

Milestones and tears

Well.....I sent my little boy to his first day of preschool this morning. Yesterday, for the first time in my life I went school shopping for someone other than me. We had to get him a backpack.....he picked out Spiderman. For some reason, he likes Spiderman. He has never seen the cartoon or the movies, but he knows he likes him.

We loaded it full of spare clothes, immunization reports, a check for his milk ticket, and two snacks for his first day.

When we pulled up to the outside of the school, Daniel was more interested in what was behind the school, the playground.....and the fact that it was loaded with kids. But I could see there was some curiosity towards what was in the doors too.

He looks so little next to the school. We found his classroom. It was my second grade classroom with Mrs. Kvamme. The smell of the school and everything else whipped me back to when I was a little girl starting school. I got a little choked up. (No tears though, not yet)

I know that he will have a lot of fun with preschool. It will help to prepare him for kindergarden. This will greatly help his social skills. I didn't cry until I was almost home.

Yesterday while preparing to get him ready for school, I had to run to the clinic to get a copy of his immunizations. He had to go potty. I went into a bathroom and he did his business. Someone else walked in and Daniel dropped to all fours immediatly. His head went under the stall and he yelled...."Look Mama, that grandmas going potty too!" I just started laughing and couldn't stop. I ran out of the bathroom with him, laughing the whole way. Its one of the great memories I will keep with me as he grows.

Just a sidenote, today is my fourth anniversary!

For everything else.....there's mastercard

Come and Play....everythings a-ok. Can you tell me where the skies are blue? Can you tell me how to get.....how to get to Sesame Street?

I took my son to see Sesame Street Live yesterday. On Friday I told him that we were going to go and see Elmo and Cookie Monster sing and dance after church on Sunday. He took it to mean that on Friday we would go to church and then go meet Elmo and Cookie Monster......you can see

what happened, right?

I went through a few days trying to explain and cheer up a 3 year old that only wanted to go to church to "meet Helmo and Cookie Monter". I thought Sunday would never get here.

Church is usually a highlight for my baby. He loves it. He likes all of the babies there. So, during the confession of faith, during the Apostles creed.....he talked about "Helmo".

Then....finally 3:30 came. We went and picked up Grandma and left to go meet Elmo.....er...I mean Helmo. They charged $5.00 to park my car.

$22.00 a ticket.

Here we goooooooooo..........this should be great! Right? ......

We got there and immediatly we saw these little whirley light up Elmo toys.....I had to get it for my boy.....a lot of the kids had them!

Spinny thing

$15.00

The popcorn was 4.50, cotton candy 10.00, and coke was 2.00. Stay with me.

Then the show started......

and my baby cried and screamed. Why? Because he wanted to go on to the stage to "meet Helmo!" I went through about 20 minutes of fighting a wiggly and squirmy screaming three year old! Finally, I had had enough! Mommy wasn't going to stand for this awful behavior anymore! I took him to the lobby......intending to have a "talk" with him. Then I saw something and had a great idea. I would buy him his own Elmo to sit with him and then he would be happy. I thought of the Supernanny and how much she would disapprove of this action. Was I bribing my son to behave. Was I rewarding his horrible behavior and letting him know that he would gain from this type of action?

Yep. I may as well be honest about it.

Elmo doll

$25.00

Oh, I am not done yet. When we got back to the show....my mother in law just stared at me....her mouth was open. I was informed that I was spoiling him. I stated...."He is my only child!" Then I got to thinking of all the times my mom brought me and my siblings to the Shrine Circus and all I got was a Kitty balloon! Man....that sucked! Ready?...............

Really big kitty balloon....er, I mean Elmo balloon

$8.00

Talk about buyers remorse.

Well folks....I found Sesame Street! It costs a pretty penny to get there. But it was worth it....and it created a memory. and I learned that maybe I need to work on controlling my spending too!

Our newist additions to our family

Our family started with Jason, me, Daniel and a member of the family I don't talk much about......Zelda, our dog. I got her when I lived in Texas in 2003. She looks like this.

She is a really good dog. She doesn't do much. She is quiet. She keeps to herself. She likes to be pet. That is about it.

On Monday, we found these little guys on our doorstep....literally. They were very matted and dirty and had many, many woodticks on them. I took them the a groomer.

I had to keep them....you see, they are Shih Tzu's, my mom and dad used to raise Shih Tzu's and we kept them as pets for many years. Our little boy has fallen head over heels for the little one....he named him Gizmo. The older one is called Sparkey. Sparkey came to us potty trained....Gizmo needs work....but he is probably only about six months old.

They are cute! Zelda loves them too!

Before and After

I took some pictures awhile ago to be able to do before and after photos of our backyard. I took the "befores" in the early spring, right after the snow melted. The "afters" I was finally able to take yesterday. I wish I would have been able to take the "afters" when my lilacs were in full bloom....they were beautiful! But, here we go. My husband's and my life just got soooooo much easier. My husband installed a FENCE!!!!!! He actually did this over a period of two weeks, and didn't even let the downpour of rain stop him! Here we go......






Before After




Before After



Before After




We have cleaned out the trees, cut down trees, raked, sprayed weeds, trimmed back trees, taken down an old antenna, had stumps ground and installed a swing set. All for this......












Now our next before picture will be this......our home. Lets see what we can do with this?



You can kind of see my new car in the driveway.....my plates say "Xpresso". Thats right.....I am that cool!!!!

Let's go to the Circus!

We brought Daniel to the Circus for the first time ever last night. We didn't know what to expect from him. Would he be good? Would he be bad?

Here is Daddy and Daniel going to the Ralph Englested Arena....Home of the UND Fighting Sioux Hockey team.

I tried to prepare Daniel for the clowns. I know that sometimes kids are afraid of clowns. We looked up pictures of clowns on the internet. He just giggled and repeated the word "clown".

When we walked into the arena, clowns were there to greet all of the kids. Daniel was very excited and had a kind of frozen smile on his face. He didn't run and hide. He liked them. His bottom jaw shook. But he was brave!

Next, he got to go on a pony ride. His ponys name was Fat Joe.

He enoyed that! While we waited for the show to start I made the mistake of bringing him into the bathroom to change his pull ups. It became about the toilets after that. All the way until the lights went down. Once the show started, Daniel LOVED it! His big, blue eyes sparkled as he watched the show. He cheered and clapped. It was so cute. He got a green, glowing sword and you could tell by the look on his face that he thought he was pretty special as he waved his sword around in the dark.....you know what? He was!

Just a side note. I am enrolled in college at UND. I start with American Government this May. Wish me luck!

Happy Easter! Happy Birthday

We had a fun Easter at our house. Daniel, Grandma Bakke and I went to sunrise service at church. It was a good service! I have found a church I really enjoy. I get so excited about it! In a way its odd because its a Free Lutheran Church. Nothing against the Lutheran church, its just different than what I was used to. But the Free Lutheran Church is like a bridge between the Nazarene and the Lutheran. I really enjoy it and really like the pastors way of thought. Which is also suprising, he is very conservative. :) Daniel got up extra early and was suprised and delighted by his Easter basket that the Easter bunny left him. The night before, he wouldn't go to sleep so I told him that if he would just fall asleep, the Easter bunny would come into our house at night time and leave him candy. Daniel then said, "oooo, I cared" (it means, I am scared.) That made me laugh pretty good.

To join us for Easter and the "hunt' was his cousin Trace from Minneapolis, Uncle Vance and Aunt Kelly. Daniel loved to play with Trace.

The following week was Daniel's THIRD birthday! Wow, time is going to fast! He had a fun and very special birthday. He shares his birthday with two of his cousins, Jesse and Billy. Well, Billy came to our house to celebrate his tenth birthday all the way from Spokane! Along with Billy came Aunt Lisa, cousins Amanda, Sayde and Morgan. Great Grandma and Grandpa came over too! Daniel has taken a special liking to Morgan. Yesterday, we were on our way to Grandma's house and Daniel said "Is Morgan there?" I laughed. That is the most complex sentence Daniel has said yet! Here are some pictures:

Daniels favorite cartoon is Mickey Mouse. So, I found a Mickey Mouse cake. He LOVES cake. He LOVES Mickey Mouse.....He had a good day. He got a Tonka Dump truck, a John Deer Tractor and finger paints. Wish you all could have been there.

Happy Easter, Happy Birthday etc

So, its been a bit since my last blog. I fell from the face of the Earth. Not really, I just got busy. Christmas and New Years have come and gone. We have been dealing with the cold and depressing winter. Winter in North Dakota isn't bad until January, then its sub zero time. Not fun! The extreme weather wouldn't be so bad if it came in shorter bursts. Does it really need to last for TWO months? I guess that it makes Spring that much better. Spring seems to be here. Our weather is finally in the 30's! Its almost feels like summer.

In January I took a week off to fix up my son's room. I had never painted it since we had moved into our house. I determined the theme would be bears and camping. Here are the before picture:

Just a plain and ordinary light blue.

Now look at what I did!

It was fun. I still need to get the new curtain rods and paint a mural of a pine tree underneath his red lantern night light. He likes his tent. Its a lot of fun. He also loves "big bear".

Next came Daddy's birthday. Jason turned 38 this past March fifth.

.

I wish I could say I made his cake. It turned out really nice and very fitting.

We had a good time. He got a new watch, broadheads and a release for his bow. All gifts centered around his upcoming Elk hunt in Idaho that he is going to this September.

Today, we colored Easter eggs. Wow! Daniel loved it. You always know if Daniel had done something he has enjoyed. Afterwards, when he walks, he will throw in what I call a random "scissor" kick. Its hilarious! He is very proud of his eggs and is insisting on carrying them all around the house with him.

Daniel also loves to go to church. Usually around Wednesday, he is asking to go to "Chich" as he calls it. Next Sunday, he will wear a new suit I bought him. I am more excited than he is.

Happy Easter Everyone!