Bunkbeds....the home made kind.

A couple weeks ago, David was able to take a long weekend off from work. The project: BUNKBEDS!!!!! David's dad built bunkbeds when he was little, so he's always wanted to build them for our kids too. Personally, I think that's incredible. Not to mention MUCH cheaper than store bought! Specifically....about 1/2 the price!!!

Caleb got to help out where he could! Here he's marking the wood.

We were at my brother-in-laws house for the weekend using their garage!

Let the work begin!!!

And David had an audience!

Apparently he stayed up until 3am working on the bunkbeds! (he got a late start....8pm) So the next morning when I went into the garage this is what I saw!!! He's amazing!

Here's Miss Erika. Making a "puzzle" out of leftover wood pieces!

And "helping" Daddy!

I didn't get any pictures, but our nephew Tim was a huge help loading all the pieces up and carrying them into our apartment!

And here's the almost finished product!!! He still needs to add a couple of supports to the top rail and then sand & stain it all. For now, we'll just enjoy them as they are!

The kids LOVE their new beds!

I am still amazed that we can go from this:


To this:


In just a matter of three days!!!!

Day #2

That's what today is. Day #2. I have decided that it's time to get serious. I am going all out. It's all or nothing now. So today, for the second day in a row I got up earlier than the crack of dawn and headed to our local Y. Early morning workout. It was GREAT!!!! I don't have a ton of time in the morning, but I know I am burning way more calories the rest of the day because I have boatloads of energy! Yesterday I accomplished more in a day than I could ever hope to! I have long wanted to change, I just haven't. Now's the time. Why now and not six months ago? Because now I am ready to do it. I am sick of being the fat mom, the fat wife, the fat family member, the fat friend. I am ready for change.

Lilli Putt

Earlier this week we took the kids to Lilli Putt. If you live in our area you know what Lilli Putt is. If you live in our area and you don't know what Lilli Putt is you must live a very sheltered life,

or in a hole.

Here's Erika, our star mini golf student.

She followed every rule her daddy told her and would NEVER pick her ball up and place it right by the hole so she could hit it straight in.

And she most certainly wouldn't purposely hit her ball into the water.

Simply because it's funny to watch daddy fetch the balls out of the water.

On every.single.hole.

Caleb on the other hand started to "get it" about half way through and really wanted to do it right.



Here's the clan soaking wet after the bumper boats. No pictures on the boats for obvious reasons.


Here's our future race car driver. For now he gets to ride with a great teacher who now has the desire to buy a go-cart....

(and just look at that smile on Caleb's face!!!! priceless!)

What a great fun filled afternoon!!

Do you see what I see?

We found this little guy in our deck box the other day.

It's rare that we find an actual frog and not a toad!

Here's a closer look! I LOVE frogs so this was really fun for me! :)

Rain, Rain, Go Away!!!

We have had a few rainy days!

Thankfully it's all cleared up and we've had a beautiful afternoon!

Which is good. I was about to go crazy. Two solid days of rain means A LOT of pent up energy!
Last night before bed the kids were WOUND up! What better way to wear off some energy than to go play in said rain.

As you can see, they had a blast! This was something we had done quite a bit when we lived in Texas, but we hadn't since we'd been back here (mostly b/c there hasn't been all that much rain).

Now we are ready for snow! :)

Busy busy busy!!!!

That is what we have been!!!! We've had family in town, church picnics, swimming lessons, birthday celebrations, young married picnic and all kinds of summer fun that has been keeping me away from the computer!!! Trying to squeeze in as much summer fun as we can before my baby starts Kindergarten in a few weeks!!!!
So please forgive me for being a slacker in the virtual world!

Stickers

123 of them to be exact.

Thank you Aunt Wendy.

From the bottom of my heart....thank you.

Our MckWeekend!

This past weekend was a MckWeekend!!! We spent the day on Saturday at the MckPicnic and I was able to go to the MckBrunch on Sunday. And none of it involved McDonalds! (although I do believe daddy wimped out on making lunch on Sunday and grabbed McD's after church)

If you have never "met" MckMama, click on over to her blog and get to know her! She's as wonderful in real life as you would think she is from reading her blog. My hubby can't say enough good things about her husband. And her kids? Adorable. They truly are a wonderful MckFamily!!

Me, MckMama & Stellan (who is so darn cute! and he looked straight at the camera just about everytime someone wanted to take a picture of him!)

Caleb chatting with Big Mac! He had a blast playing with him & Sam while we were at the park!

MckMama's Prince Charming and my prince charming! :)

This was the only picture I snapped at the MckBrunch.

Jolene, MckMama & Me

If you are confused by all the Mck's and the code names, then you really should click on over to MckMama's blog! You just might get hooked and have a fun MckFamily to read about and keep up with!

Overall, the weekend was fantastic! It was a little weird/hard to explain to friends & family that we were spending the weekend with people we had never met before! Some would think it's too risky to meet people off the internet, but I didn't have any reservations. And it was well worth the risk! We met a fantastic group of people, and I'm so glad I went!!

The new do

Caleb had been begging me for a while to cut his hair into a mohawk so a couple weeks ago we finally did it! He loves his new look and he loves that so many people say something about his hair when we are out and about!!

The end result!

Three Already!!!!

My baby girl is three today! Hard to believe how fast the time has gone!

Erika is about 6 weeks old in this picture!

Erika's 1st Birthday!

Erika's 2nd Birthday!

Erika's 3rd Birthday!

Happy Birthday to my sweet princess! You are a true blessing and you bring joy to our lives.

Our lives wouldn't be the same without you!

We love you!

Erika's hair

If you know my daughter or if you have ever seen pictures of her, you know her hair is cuuuurrrrlllyyyy. Ringlets most of the time. The other day, she was in the bath and I was rinsing her hair when I realized how long her hair is! I always think her hair isn't growing and it's still so short, but in reality it's just THAT curly.

In the bath:

Out of the bath, just a little dry:

Here's all the way dry:

Compatability View....

Compatability View: websites designed for older browsers will often look better, and problems such as out of place menus, images, or text will be corrected.

I have been going crazy trying to figure out why my blog didn't look right to me today. I did all the required updates on our computer this morning and then checked my blog and it was out.of.whack!!!! I have no clue how my blog looks on other peoples computers, but if you are here and thinking "wow, she made some changes and now her blog is totally lined up differently and it doesn't look right" (b/c trust me, I would have thought the same thing seeing my blog!) check to see if you have a button next to the address box that looks like a ripped piece of paper and click it. I found that just a few minutes shy of going crazy!!! :)

I didn't believe him!

Texas Blue Bonnets. They are beautiful.

Apparently so beautiful that people will pull off on the side of the highway when there is a bunch of them to take pictures of their kids with them.

Seriously? Who does that? Texans.

David warned me of this when we were in Texas.

I didn't believe him.

He was right. I have proof.

These are actually our friends. I told them I had to take a picture of them because I thought it was so funny!

Since I was stopped with them while they took pictures of their daughter I snapped a few of my kids!

After this day (which was back in March I believe) I saw all kinds of people pulled over on the side of the road taking photos of their kids with the blue bonnets. I wish I could have taken pics of them, but well since I was driving I thought that would be a little dangerous.

So there you have it. Texas Blue Bonnets.

I think I'm going to have to seek out some of the MN state flower and get some pictures of my kids with them.