The Wait is Over… {Adoption}

After 5 long years of waiting, we made a big decision. With heavy hearts, we let our adoption home study expire yesterday and closed the door on waiting to adopt an infant. We don’t know if we will consider other options for expanding our family in the future, but for now, we know this is the right decision for our family.

We want to extend a big thank you to our friends and family for keeping us in your thoughts. This process has been so much easier knowing that we have others supporting us.

Rather than thinking about what could have been, we are going to focus on what we do have – we have a fantastic son that we love more than anything. We will celebrate our little family.

Our Newest Family Member {a Puppy!}

So it’s been months since I have posted on my blog. Really, it’s been more than months. Seasons have passed! Basically life happened. Then a new computer. Then a second new computer. Too many issues… It’s time to (attempt) to make a comeback. 

Our family has expanded since I last posted! We brought home a morkie (Maltese and Yorkie) puppy on September 1st and she has rocked our world ever since! Roxie has a crazy amount of energy, but we are used to that in our house :) 

Be prepared for photo overload… She’s the cutest puppy ever (we may be biased)!

Here’s ROXIE! 

Anthony’s first time holding Roxie. It was love at first sight! 

Trying to convince Dad that we should bring this sweet little puppy home!

Roxie’s first night at home. The boys picked out some toys and they were bigger than she was! 

 
She was so darn cute! I just love her brown and black colors here! See? Cutest puppy ever! 

Mini tennis balls – they are the size of a golf ball! 

It’s hard to take a phone pic of a puppy running towards you! She went to the groomer for the first time for a good bath and some trimming up on her face. That bow… It didn’t last long, but it sure was cute! 

Roxie’s first camping trip – she was given a dollar to play with. It definitely shows how teeny she was! 

Attempting to fit into an extra small harness. No such luck. 

Yes, that is a frisbee. That’s where she chose to curl up and take a nap! The bell is definitely necessary – she was so tiny that we kept losing her in the house. Thanks to the bell, we can hear her sneaking all over the place :) 

Roxie easily fit in her toy box… 

Watching for the bus quickly became an afternoon thing. She gets so excited!! 

Roxie also quickly discovered beer. She seems to like going after hubby’s Surly! 

Right before the holidays in all her shaggy glory. It’s amazing how fast she became a part of our family. She’s a ton of work, but totally worth it for the joy she brings to our home. 

Stay tuned, pretty sure Roxie will make semi-regular appearances around here.

A Month in Photos {February 2014}

February brought more snow and more cold. This has been the winter that will not end!

School Carnival
Blue and Gold Banquet for Cub Scouts
Hubby’s Half-Marathon
Friends over to play
Lego’s!
Polar Cub Camp
Snow days
Birthday Parties for Friends

Want to see more pictures? You can find me on Instagram here.

He’s still running! {half-marathon}

A couple years ago handy hubby started running. Initially it was for exercise and to drop a few pounds, but as it turns out, he actually seems to enjoy running!  His last big race was Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth last June, but he has continued to run and has maintained his ability to run pretty solid distances. Since he is able to head out each week on approx 10 mile runs, it didn’t seem to take much training for him to run another half-marathon. I know, I know, easy for me to say – I typically sleep in while he runs! In any case, I’m super proud of him for his dedication to running and continuing to push himself to stay in such great shape!

It was a SUPER cold day (maybe a high of 8 degrees?) so there was no way I was going to take Anthony, find a place to park, walk to the finish line and stand around waiting with him. Sorry, hubby, we didn't see the race finale, but we did our best to support you! Before the race I had checked out the route and figured out a few good locations to be waiting to cheer him on. The first stop was in a park, about 1.5 miles into the race. We were able to cheer for him and we didn’t even have to get out of the car! Perfect!

He’s the guy in the neon yellow jacket with the black pants with a white stripe – near the center of the picture below.




We were cheering as loud as the two of us could – he obviously heard us!


Hubby knew we were planning to be at two locations, so we surprised him with a 3rd location in-between when he was expecting us. I believe this location was 3-4 miles into the race. Anthony thought the swing would be a good spot to wait, but then he decided the swing was too cold. It was FREEZING cold!!


Here he comes!


There were a few other people watching the race by us and everyone clapped and cheered for every runner. Of course that got Anthony cheering too! 






High fives for dad!


Anthony really wanted to join him, but hubby was running too fast at this point!


There he goes!


This was taken at our last stop – Anthony was able to run along with him for a little bit!








Definitely a blurry pic, but I had to include it to show hubby’s eye-lashes and the ear-cycle hanging by his left ear - BRRR!!!


Almost to the finish line - about 1.5 miles to go!


At this point, the next big race he’s registered for is the Tough Mudder this summer. Until then, he is continuing to run during this freezing cold winter we have been experiencing. Run hubby run!

A Month in Photos {January 2014}

At the beginning of January we escaped to the Florida Keys for a few days and then boarded a cruise ship in Miami and headed to the Bahamas. We were hoping for a week of beautiful weather, but that proved to be extremely hard to find. We had some warm days (70’s), but lots of rain and rough seas on the ship. We even had to skip one of the islands because the weather was so poor. Boo! If you look at the ground in the picture above with the cruise ship, you’ll notice that it’s all wet thanks to the rain we had on our day in Key West, Florida. It was RAINING when I took the photo in the bottom center (of hubby and Anthony) – we were the only ones really out walking around in Nassau, Bahamas. We had to though, because Anthony’s godparents were just on a cruise and in Nassau the week before us, and they had created a scavenger hunt for Anthony! They had written a note on a playing card and hidden it, and then they put together directions (with pictures) to use to find the card. It was tricky with the rain, but we found it! During our few days in Key Largo, we decided to visit an alligator farm in the Everglades (on our ONLY sunny day!). We had a blast! The crazy ear protection was to protect our ears from the loud engine on the airboat during our tour looking for alligators through the swamp. The water level was pretty low and we actually ended up getting stuck and needing another airboat to come out and rescue us. It was an adventure that we will always remember! I’m not sure if our day in the Everglades was the highlight of our trip because we had so much fun, or if it’s because it was the only day when the sun was shining!

The month of January was full of….

Florida Keys
Pokemon Cards
COLD days (4 days of school canceled due to the cold)
Piano Lessons
Karate
Nassau, Bahamas
Polar Cub Camp

Want to see more pictures? You can find me on Instagram here.

A Month in Photos {December 2013}

December… How did December pass so quickly?!? It was a chaotic fun-filled month with family and friends!

Our Elf on the Shelf returned for some mischievous fun
Count down to Christmas
School Talent Show
We celebrated Christmas with family in MN, WI and IA
A skateboard - EEK!!
We got together with college friends for our annual Holiday party

A Month in Photos {November 2013}

I’m a little behind… Better late than never, right?!?

November came and went without much recognition.
Here’s a snapshot of what we were up to in November!

Thanksgiving in Iowa with cousins
Cub Scout Building night at our house (blog post coming soon!)
Barbershop with Dad – faux-hawk anyone?
School musical
School field Trip
Basketball

The Last Few Weeks {InstaFriday}

Here’s what we have been up to the past few weeks – I’m MomsGonnaSnap on Instagram if you want to follow along!

It has been tricky finding time to put this post together each week, but I do enjoy having our day-to-day lives documented, so I’m gonna try my best to share IG photos at least monthly.

Playing in the backyard. Life is good!

Have you tried any of the flavored Oreos?  I had to buy them! The birthday cake ones are much better than the banana split ones.  I definitely prefer the original version best though!

It’s officially fall in Minnseota!  Loving all the colors! (This was the middle of September before this tree turned RED)

The tire swing gets some great use by the neighbor kids.  Apparently rollerblades also work great in the grass…??  Shoes are over-rated.

It took some time, but I finally finished up these nightstands for the basement. Lesson learned, when using white chalk paint, you should still use primer. It was a never ending paint project!!!

On a family movie night (most Friday nights) we introduced Anthony to Goonie’s. We had forgotten so much of this movie and it was fun to watch it again.  As I mentioned yesterday, the basement is usable, even though it’s not finished yet…

We went to a traditional shrimp boil at a friends. This meal was AMAZING!!  Shrimp, Andouille sausage, potatoes, onions and lots of spices with Louisiana hot sauce. Seriously, it was crazy good!  Then we introduced them to Cards Against Humanity. It was a fun night!

Again, this is fall. Our neighbor’s have the perfect tree.

We parked our camper in Grandpa’s shed a few weeks ago. It’s always an adventure to explore Grandpa’s shed. He has been collecting things over the years and he stores a lot of things in his shed. Including several old tractors. Anthony likes them!

The boys on Grandpa’s tractor – aren’t the cute?!?

I thought they were both gonna kill me when I suggested we stop for a few pictures by a corn field. I think hubby was worried that someone he knew would drive by and think he was crazy. We were surrounded by corn fields, so it just seemed like something we needed to do.

Here’s a better picture of the trunk/coffee table I mentioned yesterday. It was a flea market find and we just spray painted some casters to match the finish. They raised it up off the floor to the perfect height for the couch.

My computer… So with all of my playing in Photoshop and all of the pictures I take, my computer became extremely low on memory and space. The first upgrade is complete (doubled the RAM) but now I’m waiting on a new hard drive (to double the storage). I’m not in the market for a new laptop yet. We are saving our money for vacation, not a new computer. (Beautiful sunny beaches, here we come!)

We had some good friends visit this past weekend. Their son is 2, and he loves to play with all of Anthony’s old toys. His love for cars is adorable. Anthony did a great job playing with him!

While working on some projects, hubby found a walking stick on one of our windows!

Oh Jimmy John’s… Anthony LOVES JJ’s and can eat an entire sandwich!  He and I have a nearly weekly dinner date night on Wednesday’s before piano lessons. We often end up at Jimmy John’s. The #5 unwich (lettuce wrap – no bread) with hot peppers is my favorite!

That’s a quick snapshot of what we have been up to. 

What did you do this week?


Linking to: Life Rearranged and Lauren Elizabeth