New Year's Resolution

   This year, I am going to focus on money. Ways to save and stick to it. There is one thing that my family rarely did while I was growing up and that was going out to eat. Going out to eat was a special treat. It was maybe once a month. I don't think we even went out to eat much for my birthday. I remember my mom always asking what I wanted her to make for my birthday. It was usually sloppy joes. I couldn't get enough of those things! That was special enough for me. I am so grateful that is how they taught me because it is a HUGE waste of money. When I go out to eat now, I think about each item I am eating. A burger, that cost me $10 would normally cost $3.00 for a pound of hamburger in a store. And that is for a whole pound. A beverage that usually costs around $2.79 at a restaurant would cost me $0.99 for a 2 liter that I could use for a month. ( I don't drink pop so it would last longer than that). When we do go out to eat, I get water. I can not justify spending that much on something that I will only drink half of. And drinking pop at a restaurant is wasted calories so that's why I stick to the good ole H2O. So this year, my New Year's Resolution for our family is to only go out to eat once a month. That includes fast food restaurants as well. If I can teach my kids to learn to eat what we have, I will be grateful. They don't need to assume I am going to just give them my debit card anytime they want a pop and candy up town. That adds up!

   My next New Year's resolution is going to be save for things we want. And I mean that in change.

 

  I found this cute little box at Tj Maxx in Fargo. It holds our change and random extra bills from our pockets in it. We are saving for a door going upstairs so we can keep the heat from rising up there. It is just storage upstairs that will maybe be rooms one day, but for now, they are going to stay junk rooms. But it is not a big project we have to cross off. It is something that we would like, not want. So for that reason, I am saving until we have $100 for a new door. The reason I have picked saving money is because I so badly want an addition onto our house. Our plans are to move Aaron and myself upstairs into a master bedroom while keeping the boy's rooms on the same floor. And currently, you have to walk through our bathroom to get into Hudson's room. It's stupid and I can't not wait to fix it all and get a bigger bathroom! Of Course we will have other resolutions and such. Like eating better and working out. We have slowly been doing that now. It doesn't need to be a resolution. I have vowed to make everything by hand. I do not want to buy frozen meals. So we are working on getting rid of all those and learning new recipes. Can not wait!!!

 

   What are your New Year's Resolutions? Do you eat out more often than you wish you did? I love hearing from you so please comment and let me know!!! And by the way, Brady the elf decided he wanted to make a zip line from our living room into our dining room last night. Carson loved it, as usual! Until tomorrow....

 



 



Santa Clause!!!

  I ended up getting a little busy the other day to write another post. And yesterday I was just stressing with life. But today is fresh. Today is a new day and also my husband's 26th birthday! So, if you get the chance to tell him, I am sure he would appreciate it!

  On to Santa! So, Saturday Santa came to town! Carson was so excited all day long. We practiced over and over again. "Carson, what would you like for Christmas?" Carson replies, "Presents." All morning long. I wanted to cram it into his head so he wouldn't forget. He wasn't going to forget. Anyone and everyone that asked him what he wanted, he always said presents. He knew it. He was ready for the big guy. When Aaron pulled into the driveway, I looked at Carson and he looked right back at me with a little twinkle in his eye. He knew it was time. It was finally time to meet this man that he had to be so good for. This man that Brady the Elf had been keeping notes for. We piled on all of our winter clothes because it was FREEZING outside. We walked out to the car and rehearsed what we were going to say to Santa. It was stuck in his head. He was ready. We pull up to Tubby's where Santa was at. As we hustled into the building and ran through the doors, Carson peeked his little head around the corner and there he was.....

   It was Santa! He looked at me and said in his precious little voice, "Santa Clause." The time has come. We took off all of our winter gear and slowly walked over to the short little line. He was nervous. One step after another. Closer and closer we got to this bearded man in a red suit. So close that we were next. As the baby in front of us was leaving Santa's lap, Carson looked at me. He was still nervous. But we practiced. we practiced over and over and over again. He knew it. He was ready. We slowly walked up each step. I picked Carson up and sat him on Santa's lap. He looked at me and slowly, very slowly turned his head towards Santa. Looked at his grey beard and red suit. Santa asks Carson, "What would you like for Christmas? Do you like trucks or cars or tractors?" Carson froze. Nothing. He was the little boy on the Christmas story all over again. I told him to say he wanted presents and he nodded. He was so nervous. But he did it. He didn't cry or refuse to sit on Santa's lap. He was my big boy and he took his picture and waved Bubye. I was very proud of him.

 

 

  As for Hudson. Anyone that knows this sweet little boy of mine knows that he is a people person. He is always happy and will smile at anyone. He is just to sweet and always seems to warm the heart of any single soul willing to smile at him. So we placed him on Santa's lap and he looked at him for a minute like, who are you? And what is that thing on your face? But we got him to quit staring and look at us to snap this beauty!

 

 

  So, Santa was a hit. And we can not wait for Christmas Eve to get here to finally put out cookies and milk for him. Although, it may take some negotiating with Carson to not eat them himself. Until tomorrow.....

 

Had to show you the naughty trick that Brady the Elf pulled the other morning.







Chevron.

   For everyone that knows me, they know I have a little bit of an obsession. I LOVE chevron. I do not care if it is going to go out of style one day. Right now, it's in and I will run around my house and scream it, "I LOVE CHEVRON". Okay, it isn't that bad. But it is slowly taking over Carson's bedroom. I tried to sew him a grey chevron blanket for his bed. Well, when you try and sew fleece, it mats all the thread. So, I tried to hand sew the blanket and made it approximately 7 inches down and really got sick of pulling and knotting and pulling and knotting. So I put the blanket on his bed unfinished. But, I also have an obsession for new comforters. My husband can tell you all about this. It annoys him. I like to mix up our décor and I like to rearrange our furniture often. As well as change our comforters. I have probably gone through at least 10 in the last 3 years. A little crazy, I know. Currently, we are sporting a chevron comforter that my husband bought for me for my birthday. Here is a little collage of what our bedroom looked like when we moved in, after we painted and after our remodel. We still are working on it but it is livable!

I can not believe that we picked brown for our room originally. When we first moved in, it was pink with little bear wallpaper trim. The wood paneling on the lower half of the wall was the original brown wood. Not pretty. There was a ledge around the whole room and when we demoed the whole room, we found out why. The original owner hand dug this room out of the ground so inside that ledge was actually dirt from the ground along with some plastic and concrete just poured  down there. So we covered up the ledge with a wall and insulation of course. We kept the ledge under the window because that would have been major reconstruction with the window there. We also got rid of the nasty ceiling tiles. I complained every single night about how disgusting they were and how I felt little spiders were always coming out of the holes and biting me in my sleep. The carpet that was downstairs was reused from the living room once we ripped it out of there. Now, we have fresh new carpet and its wonderful. We also ran into a few mold issues that I couldn't be happier about getting rid of. This room will be our guest room as soon as we start the add on to our house. So, we are making it relaxing for guests but not up to our standards for what we would want in our bedroom.

 

This is just a shot of what our carpet looks like in the room. Our closet is currently being sheet rocked and mudded so that is why I have a pile of clothes on the dresser. We also need trim and some décor on the walls! As for my chevron purchase of the week!! It would be this beauty!!

 

Carson's new chevron comforter! Ohh, I love it. I love it so much, I almost wish it were mine! It's great and he loved the orange so much! It goes with the chevron curtains I made him and also the orange chevron runner I have on his cubby stand that you cant see here. I also made that blue chevron pillow case behind his orange pillow! Oh, so crafty! Ha ha. I will follow up a post about the Santa visit shortly! Until then...

 

  



 

 

Struggles

 When I was in hair school, I had a teacher tell me about her struggles in life. It hit a lot of us hard. We were crying and hugging and really realizing that our lives were not that bad. Sometimes, I start to think about what God's plan is for me. And really, I don't want to know. I like to take day by day by day. I watched something in May, shortly after I had Hudson. It was about Zach Sobiech and his life with osteosarcoma. I cried. And when I say I cried, I didn't have a couple drops of tears fall down my face. I was hysterical. I felt like I knew this boy my whole life. He was an amazing person. He wrote a song called "Clouds" and I would encourage everyone to watch his story and listen to the song after. I will post his story here . He changed my life. He changed my way of viewing my friends and family. The way I treat them and myself. He was incredible. He really helped give me hope and helped grow my faith. Please, take a second (actually 20 minutes), to watch his story. He may change your life as well.

  With that being said, I sometimes wonder God's way of helping us. There are those days where I pray. I pray so hard I have tears rolling down my chapped cheeks. Asking him to be there for me. Asking him to help me through the struggles I am dealing with in that point of my life. When all of a sudden, it back fires. Everything I had just prayed for didn't happen. Like I was expecting miracles and needed him so bad at that very moment. I start to question myself. Why wasn't he there? Why didn't he answer me prayers? I prayed so hard and needed him so bad but he wasn't there. That's when I realize God didn't intend for me to make it out easy. We are not a family who wants the easy way out. We struggle. We fight hard. That is the kind of family we are. We love until the end and help in any way that was handed to us. That's how he answers my prayers. He helps me figure out a solution. Not just a quick answer to get me out of a bind. And I truly believe in miracles. I have two of them I get to watch run around and play every day. Every night, I hold my boys while they fall asleep. I watch them as they lay in my arms. I watch them breathe, I feel their heartbeat and sometimes cry when they feel for my hand to hold. I pray to God and thank him for the wonderful gifts he has given to me. I don't pray and ask him for money. I don't pray and ask him for a chance to win the power ball. I pray to him to continue to give my family good health and to love each other with all we have. So, when you start to give up on him, maybe start to really think what his plan is. And then thank him for making you just a little bit stronger. God will grant all those who serve him in miraculous ways. It will happen, one day.

   So on a different note, Santa is coming TO TOWN! Tomorrow. And I am so excited!! Carson is stoked to see this Jolly Man!!! So I hope that everyone has a wonderful weekend!! Until tomorrow...

Tis the Season.

  To be Jolly, Falalalalalalalalalaaa. Right? Any who. It is just about Friday. Woohoo! Does anyone else think that the days drag on but the weeks fly by? What do we have, 3 weeks until Christmas? Speaking of that, Santa is coming to town this weekend! Carson is Thrilled. So Thrilled to see this jolly man that we speak of every day. We play Elf on the Shelf who hides every morning and Carson gets to go find him. It brightens his day as soon as he finds him. And it brightens mine to think that my little man believes. He believes Santa is coming to our house and Christmas Eve. He believes that Brady (our elf) is watching him to tell Santa if he has been a naughty boy. I love this. I can not wait for the day he wakes up on Christmas morning and runs out into the living room to see what Santa has brought for him. Can. Not. Wait. And this year is also Hudson's first Christmas! I'm pretty sure he will be more then willing to get into the presents and tear them apart! Here is Brady this morning.

 

He is sleeping on marshmallows on the microwave. Carson LOVED this. All morning, he has come up to me saying, "Shh, Brady sleeping". Oh that boy. I was running out of random hiding spots for him so now we get to do fun things. But I thought I would share a little of our Holiday decorating. I called my mom the other day to tell her that we really don't have many decorations. We lived in an apartment for awhile and only had a tree so now with a house, we need more stuff! Aaron and I always go to Target a week or two after Christmas and get the best deals on Christmas décor. I think we got our table cloth for $5.00 down from $30.00 and all of our garland was no more than $5.00 as well. I hope to find a new Christmas tree this year. Ours isn't as full as I would like and I want it as tall as I can. I love decorating trees and if I could, I would have them up all year!

 

 

This isn't a very great shot of the tree because it is daylight out and I couldn't get the whole light effect. But, I use the same decorations every year but maybe add some here and there. I love the natural feel of the tree and sprayed some of that fake snow on the branches to lighten them up a bit. The original color of the tree was so fake looking. It was a pretty bright green and of course the needles of the tree looked fake. Added a few pine cones and my bulbs. I love it!

 

 

So, I have always wanted a fire place. Oh how I would give my left leg for a real one (well, probably not) but, this is our electric one. It was found at an auction for, drum roll please...................$25! Talk about a deal! It works great! The heater is awesome but we try not to use it much because it is electric and I don't need a $300 bill! I have had a few people now ask where we had gotten our stockings from. They are from http://www.ronswarehouse.com/ . It is where my mom works and I would suggest everyone go take a look there at some point in their lives. They have amazing deals on furniture, appliances, clothes, food and so much more! We bought our brand new, stainless steal, Whirlpool stove there for $300. Love it!

 

 

Here are a few, well most of my Christmas Décor. Ha ha. I told you, we don't have much. I think it's something that you just add here and there as you get older. And when we are in our 60's, we may have a whole decorated house! Those are the rules, so we stick to them. And deals.

 

 

 

And this was just a little Pinterest project that I spotted the other day. I whipped it together in 10 minutes this morning. You can tell. I just ripped out pieces of paper from an old book, cut it and wrote the letters on there. Easy project for someone with nicer handwriting than myself. So that pretty much sums up my Christmas décor. Any suggestions for DIY ideas, shoot them my way! I love doing little projects at home!! Until tomorrow...

 

 

Tackle Tackle Tackle Tack Tack Tack...

  Just a little Replacements movie quote. I have decided to tackle my house. And I don't mean that in football terms. I mean that in organizing terms. We have all been there, when someone enters our house and we quickly try and pick up little things (or a lot of things) that are laying all over the house. Or knowing someone will be over in 5 minutes and we do the best cleaning job of our lives. Well, I have decided that I don't want to live like that. I want random guests to drop by for a visit and not have to worry about the mess our house has created. I have been teaching my 2 year old how to pick up and put away his toys when he is done with them. I scrounged up a bunch of bins and labeled them "balls" "blocks" "trucks" "puzzles" etc.. I have been teaching him to put them in the correct bins. I will eventually have a better more organized way of this but for now, it keeps the toys out of the living room.

   But I have been trying to follow a plan to organize my whole house. And I have started with my kitchen. Yesterday, I began the "plan".  And here it goes;

1. Put away everything on your counter that you do not use on a daily basis.
Oh man, this did wonders. My kitchen looks bigger and makes me want to spread all my baking ingredients on the kitchen counter and bake until my Kitchenaid won't spin anymore. I love it. And I have also decided that I will use my dishwasher less and wash each dish as they have been used. Keeps my sink clean and I won't have to worry if someone comes over, to try and keep them away from the kitchen so they don't seem my pile of nasty dirty dishes sitting in the sink. And they start to smell bad after awhile, so it really should be done. Here are a few pictures of my kitchen after deep cleaning the counters off yesterday.

 

Clear everything off of your fridge. It looks more presentable and clean.

 

 

 

 

I like to keep my Kitchenaid out though, because, well, it's pretty!

 

 

I keep my dish soap under the sink and just keep out my Honest hand soap and lotion.

 

 

 

I hope to get some organizing bins this weekend to clean out the cupboards next. I will post as soon as I get my equipment! On to the next project. Until tomorrow...

 

Oh, hello eyelids...

  Terrible night of sleep last night. My eyes finally met my heavy eyelids around 6:00 this morning. Which my alarm goes off at 7:00. Needless to say, I didn't want to get up. Every morning, my alarm goes off and I roll over, think about hitting snooze, but don't. I feel the urge to just shut my eyes for 5 more minutes but resist because I know that 5 minutes would turn into an hour and then I would have a few upset parents knocking on my door to watch their kids and I would just be catching up on some much needed Zzz's. But most of us are all very tired until we get up, brush our teeth, shower and get moving. Then are 7 hours of well deserved rest starts to catch up to us and we are fine. Which is why I have decided to get up with my husband. He gets up around 4:15 everyday to go to work. That would give me 3 extra hours everyday to get things done. I could have all of our laundry done by the time the children woke up. And hopefully I can get in some good work out time.

  We are supposed to be getting a pretty bad storm tonight. Things like this scare me because my husband drives to and from Fargo everyday and I worry a lot about him getting into an accident. It's just part of me. I worry about a lot of things. Many things that most people do not know about me. I will sit up until wee hours of the morning worrying that I have cancer. Any little ache I have in my body, I start to think about kind of cancer it might be. It literally takes over my life. I have seen a doctor about it and their suggestion was anti-depressant medicine. Well, if you know one thing about me it's probably that I hate taking medicine. Especially if I can control it myself, like a headache, it will go away. Rest and a neck massage do wonders. Stomach ache can be taken care of with crackers and some sprite. I just don't like to add things to my body that should not be there. That is one of them. So I have been trying really hard to not worry anymore. It's working!

  But finally, I have ordered my Christmas cards!! If anyone would like to get a seasons greeting from our family, just let me know and I will be sure to get one out to you!! I also am going to attach a picture I took today of my two nephews. They are pretty cute (: Until Tomorrow....

This is Joe and Jensen. They are pretty awesome

 

Being Thankful

   I have been doing a lot of thinking these past few days.  I have also been watching around me and noticing the amount of time people spend on social media sites. Myself included. I found my son coming up with me almost irritated just trying to get any little bit of my attention. And there I was, just scrolling through Facebook saying, "Just one second, Carson." Wait, What? That shouldn't be happening. This little young boy should not be trying so hard just for me to listen to him tell me something. So, that was the day I decided I need to leave these social media sites alone for awhile. Here my blog comes into play. I can post on here once a day and for all that love to keep up with our little family, you can come on here. That way, I get my time with my kids and won't be missing anything.

   These last 4 days have been awesome! I got to spend all 4 of them with my family. I love when Aaron is home and wrestling around with the boys. I love when he gets to witness Carson playing with Hudson. I am so thankful that our boys truly love each other. On the way home from Fargo on Saturday, Hudson started crying in the back of papa's pickup (we borrowed it so we could get supplies to finally finish our closet) and Carson turns to him and says, "Oh Hudson", and grabs his hand and just holds it. Hudson stopped crying. I turned back and wanted to cry. He had to have learned this from us. He is watching the way Aaron and I react to each other and our children. This is how I have dreamt that my children would be. and for this, I am thankful.

   But I have been doing some thinking about our house, too. And I know my husband will hate to hear this. I have been thinking about living here forever. Or plan on living here for a long time. So why not start making it our dream home. The home that our children will be excited to bring their friends over to. The home that we wake up on the weekends and run to the table and eat breakfast as a family together. The home that is, well, a home. Not a house. A warm, comfortable home. So I was looking up ideas for paneling. We have paneling in our kitchen and living room. I do not want to remove it because that would be a pain. So I want to go with gray. Like this http://www.pinterest.com/pin/417145984205371690/ .  And white trim. I would love to slowly put up crown molding. It is expensive, so I was thinking one room at a time. I have a lot more ideas for the house along with an addition of two more bedrooms. Those will be discussed later. But, little Hudson has woken up from his nap so I must attend to his needs now! Until tomorrow....

pss... Here is a picture I took of Carson today to try and get a good one for our Christmas cards (:
http://instagram.com/p/hbL-_9gCCM/

Well, Here it is.

   So, is has been a really long time since I have last posted. I have been very busy with life. Very busy cleaning, cooking, wiping dirty butts. Yes, I stay at home now with my boys. And not just my boys. My two boys, my two nephews and our dearest friend's little girl Marley. I am blessed. I am blessed to watch these crazy, loud, eating, pooping machines. I get to stay at home and watch my children grow. I will no longer miss those first moments of life that we all cherish so much.

  But lately, I have been doing a lot of thinking. I think about how blessed we really are. To have two healthy children. These two babies of ours, rely on us for everything. They rely on us to breathe. To eat. To sleep. To live. We are here to teach them the ways of life. How to love and be loved back. How to live healthy and learn as we go. We make mistakes. We screw up from time to time. This is a huge job and it is on top of every other job we have. Sometimes I start to think about everyone who wants that job and can not have it. It makes me cringe inside that these two children came from something that people do every day. Two people loving each other or simply having a little more fun that night. Either way, we should all feel a little more blessed with the simple things in life that others may wish they could have.

  We struggle. Well, we all struggle a lot. Aaron and I were talking about money one night. He went to the gas station to pick up milk and probably Oreos (we have an obsession with these), and there was a nice fella standing in line to pay for his little treats he had. He was probably in his late thirties, early forties and was wearing some sweats and had a stocking cap on because it was chilly outside.   He had a special k bar, some chips and a couple other things. He went to pay for it and came up $1.35 to short. He started scrounging through his pockets to gather every piece of change that he could find. There wasn't enough. He put the special K bar back. Aaron dug in his pocket and threw a couple bucks on the counter. The guy looked over at Aaron and with pure excitement said Thanks! The man then proceeded to walk out of the gas station and instead of jumping into a car to go home, walked. Walked in the bitter cold weather all the way home. Aaron came home and told me this story. Of course, I began to tear up a bit but it then hit me. There are so many more people worst off than what we are. What do we have to complain about. We own a house, and keep it heated. We provide food for ourselves and children. We have two nice vehicles and a big back yard. The last thing we ever need to be doing is worrying about not having the new pair of Nike's that they just released. We should be thanking God for the life he has allowed us to live. And than thank him everyday for giving us one more day to live it.

  I have a lot of issues that I need to address. We are not perfect nor should be ever try to be. I wanted to start writing. I thought maybe this could help relieve some of the stress in my life and help me appreciate some of the little things a lot more. So, until next time.....