I haven’t been very good at keeping up with the blog, I guess I can blame that on the craziness of our schedules between the demands of work, keeping up with the girls, trying to finish the basement, and just overall keeping up with the house all while trying to balance time with friends and family. Our days, weeks, months seem to fly by, but we try to savoir every minute possible.
I took on a second “job” in July when I signed up as a Rodan + Fields Consultant. Rodan + Fields is an anti-aging skin care line created by the same doctors who created ProActive. I had been watching the business for over two years and finally decided to take the leap of faith. I love that I can work this gig around my busy schedule and pretty much do it anywhere or anytime. The products are seriously awesome; I really cannot believe the change in my skin. It is crazy that you can get dermatologist results right in the comfort of your own home. Prior to being an R+F consultant, I’m embarrassed to say I barely washed my face on a regular basis. Now I cannot imagine going a day without. I love that I get to help people get great skin and the extra money is just an added bonus!
Basement Update
Work on the basement was going really well this past fall, Bob made HUGE progress, which was then pretty much halted and nonexistent once the holidays hit. Post holidays, we had Everly’s second birthday and are now focused on getting ready for our vacation. The plan is to hit it hard and finish when we get back. That said, this past summer and fall, Bob finished drywall, we contracted out the plastering, painted the entire basement, Bob sanded, stained, and hung all the doors and trim, bought and installed the rest of the lighting…the list goes on. The basement is looking AWESOME and all we have left is to the tile the bathroom and bar area, build the bar, and then have someone come in and lay the carpet. We purchased the carpet well over three years ago, so it is nice we don’t have that expense ahead of us. We are hoping to have enough carpet left over to re-carpet the girl’s bedrooms, but we will see, if not, that is the next house project. It is so nice to see us getting so close to completion and I love that we can say with the exception of the plaster, Bob did it all! I got the crazy idea to build the bar downstairs out of old barn wood. I am not sure that Bob was completely amused by this decision, but once he saw my vision he was totally on board. We got our barn wood from our good friends Kelly and Will. Will’s parents had torn down an old barn and were looking to get rid of it. It is awesome! I am so excited I pushed for this and I think it is going to look fabulous. Unfortunately, the wood has to be scrubbed down pretty good as it has been outside for quite some time now, and the drying process takes a bit of time, but we are both very excited to see the finished product. Bob’s focus when we get back is to finish cleaning the wood and start building the bar.
Thanksgiving and Christmas
We are blessed to say we once again had a wonderful and family filled Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday. Michele, Mike and Teddy came to town for Thanksgiving. It was great to have them here and we took advantage of our time together. We did some Black Friday shopping, had a girls day in Appleton with Mom and Elizabeth, enjoyed a lot of family time together and finished the weekend at Lambeau to cheer on the Packers against the Patriots.
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| Celebrating Christmas at Grandma's over Thanksgiving |
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| Alot of Ring Around the Rosie was played this weekend! |
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| True Artists! |
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| Girls lunch at Carmella's in Appleton! |
Our Christmas was pretty low key which Bob and I really treasured. We spent Christmas Eve at Bob’s parents’ house, woke up Christmas morning to find out that Santa had visited, and enjoyed watching the girls open their gifts. My parents came over around 10 in the morning, I made a breakfast bake dish and we enjoyed each other’s company while the girls played with all their new toys. Later that day we packed up and headed back out to Paul and Lois’s for dinner and more Christmas fun. The next two days we spent at home playing with all the girls’ new toys, cleaning and organizing, and overall just enjoying some quality family time. Anna got a couple of fun games that all 4 of us can play together. It was so fun to do things we all can enjoy. We had such a blast with the girls.
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| Anna Christmas concert 2014 |
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| She was the star and loved to tell people she was "The Star" of the show:) |
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| Making Christmas cookies! |
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| Christmas Eve 2014 |
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| Evie and Grandpa on Christmas Eve. He is smitten :) |
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| Family selfie before heading out on Christmas Eve |
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| Santa Came! |
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| Christmas breakfast with Grandma and Grandpa |
Everly’s 2nd Birthday
Everly rang in her second birthday with quite a bang this year, staying up well past her bedtime. That girl can go and go until you actually make her go to sleep. We celebrated New Year’s Eve at our neighbor’s house and I think we got the girls home and in bed around 1 am! They did really well though and had such a fun time. The next day was a little brutal as they were obviously completely worn out and exhausted. We managed to get them back on schedule within a day or so. Then on Saturday, January 3rd, we celebrated her birthday again with a big party at Sir Bounce A-Lots. Party was a success, we had 14 kiddos and another 32 adults I think. It was massive! Bigger than we had anticipated, but that was totally ok by us. We were so thankful for all of our friends and family that came out to help us celebrate! I cannot believe she is 2 already? How those first two years fly by so fast. I sure do miss those baby cuddles. I think she had a great time at her party and loved playing with all of her new toys and presents the next day.
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| New Years Eve 2014 |
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| Birthday Girl |
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| Evie and neighbor Macy going strong! |
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| Happy New Year! |
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| She loves her minnie! |
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| Evie's birthday party |
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| Birthday Girl! |
Everly 2 Year Update
Evie, Evie, Evie, where to begin?!?!?
Evie is such a character and seriously cracks us up every day. Her personality is really starting to emerge. She is very loving and thoughtful and also has a very strong willed side to her. She talks all the time, but yet can be very shy and quiet. She reminds me a lot of myself already at such a young age. She is also very timid in certain situations and around loud noises. A few of her faves….
-Everly loves to play on her own. When Anna isn’t around she will play for hours on end without any issues. A few of her favorite toys include her babies, books, our play kitchen and toy food and any sort of art type stuff like paints, crayons, markers, etc.
-That said, when Anna isn’t around, she asks for her constantly.
-Never has been and really isn’t much of a sleeper, she has and continues to go to bed really easy, but it isn’t uncommon for us to end up with the whole family in our bed. When Anna was this young we NEVER would have tolerated her in our bed. But I think due to the fact that she is child #2, and honestly, we are just downright too exhausted most nights we let it slide. And I know this won’t be this way forever. Although there are some nights when I contemplate climbing into their bed to have some space to myself! Anna is also in the habit of climbing into our bed in the middle of the night, but most nights as of late she has either stayed in her bad or camped out on our floor. Evie is always up first in the house…typically no later than 6 and sometimes earlier. Anna has started to sleep in until 7:30/8 which is really nice.
-When you take off her clothes to change her, she loves to jump around naked and sing “shake your booty”
-She is quite attached to one of her daycare teachers, Miss Nancy. Asks for her a lot.
-Is 100% by far a “Daddy’s Girl” and Bob loves every minute of it
-LOVES her blankees….takes one everywhere with her and if not just one, two, three, four, you get the idea…
-Loves her Minnie Mouse – often refers to her as “Da Mouse”
- We have a Pete and Re-Pete situation on our hands…anything Anna does, you can be certain Evie is going to do as well.
-Neither of the girls are big eaters, but they seem both like a lot of the same stuff. The only thing I can think of that one likes and the other doesn’t is eggs. Evie loves to eat her eggs and Anna never eats them. Evie also likes bread more than Anna does. Anna went from hating to loving all kinds of candy at some point in the past two years. Evie doesn’t really like a lot of candy, although at Christmas time we caught her sneaking many, many Hershey kisses when she thought no one was watching. Both girls love the eat the following – spaghetti (often referred to as “slurpin’ spaghetti”), tacos, mac and cheese, toast with cinnamon, cottage cheese, raspberries, grapes, bananas, apples, pears, cheese, yogurt, milk, apple juice. Neither is real crazy about crackers. Evie will eat most casseroles without inspecting it, Anna seems to inspect everything and if she finds anything green in her food she won’t touch it. Every Saturday without fail the girls ask for pancakes, we make them and they don’t eat them. You would think we would learn our lesson eventually!
I started going to a few Wildtree parties that my neighbor does and I actually have really enjoyed that process of prepping the food, adding the spices and having meals frozen and ready to go. I realize I could probably do it myself and it would be cheaper, but then I would never do it without a scheduled time set aside. So far, we have pretty much liked everything we have made, I get to select the protein to ensure we will eat it, and it is nice to know there are prepared meals downstairs in the freezer if need be. Plus the options are healthy and I know all the ingredients that go into the meals. Totally works for us - It’s great!
Bob and I are anxiously getting ready to go on our first trip without the girls. We leave next Saturday for a 6 night 7 day Caribbean cruise. We are so ready for some warm weather, the beach and some relaxation. My parents and Michele, Mike and Teddy are coming along as well. The girls will be staying with Paul and Lois for the week. We are looking forward to some adult time, but will miss them terribly at the same time. I look forward to bringing them along on these trips as they get older.
Go Pack Go!
