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

Basement Update

It’s been awhile since I have shared about the work we are doing in our basement. Why? Well, because summer took over and life happens. The last update I shared was in July, so it’s been awhile!

It really hasn’t felt like we have accomplished much, but when I look back through the pictures, I can actually see a few updates! I had to use our point and shoot camera since we are having issues with our DSLR. Hoping to get that resolved soon!

What’s that? A couch? Yes, yes it is. It has some great texture – and a fun little herringbone pattern. Pretty sure that once the couch arrived, all basement progress ceased for at least a month. The basement officially became usable. If only we had TiVo in the basement… Netflix and Hulu will have to do for now. The coffee table is an antique trunk I found, and then we added some castors to raise it up a bit. It really should be a little bigger, but it will do for now.  Better pictures coming soon (maybe!). Oh, and ignore the lack of decorating. I pretty much just carried down a few things that have been pulled off display upstairs, and then set them in the vacant spots downstairs. Still waiting on the doors, shelves and crown molding for these cabinets…


I found this cabinet at Nadeau in Minneapolis. Fun fact: it was full of little Buddha’s in the store. They even gave us one to bring home! The little bench with the W pillow was made by an Amish carpenter about 12 years ago. It fit well in our first home, not so much in this one. Thinking a coat of paint might help…? It has great storage, and I’m not ready to let it go yet.


I am super excited about this table! I found it at a local flea market. It has a cast iron drafting table base with a solid wood top. The crank actually works, so the table height is adjustable. Our plan is to use this as a family game table, and then as a high top bar table when we have company. I just haven’t decided what to do about stools yet. The cardboard underneath is because the base is cast iron. We plan to put some kind of finish coat on the underside of the feet so that the table legs do not leave rust spots on the carpet (assuming there is ever moisture in the basement). It will eventually move over, invading the treadmill space. Not sure what to do about that beast. I use it too much to let it go, but we just don’t have a great spot to put it.


The trim around the patio door is newly finished. In the last month I painted the patio door (one coat of primer, 2 coats of paint) and then last week hubby put the trim up around the door. It’s amazing how finished it makes that corner look! Now I just need to prime/paint the screen door. Also going to try painting the little pieces for the alarm system (the little brown rectangular piece in the upper left corner of the door).


This is my absolute favorite part of the basement. If only there were doors, shelves and molding. Patience…??  What’s that?!?


The wall color looks crazy blue in this next photo, and not at all accurate, but I wanted to try and capture how the lights spotlight the fireplace. The painting over the fireplace is too small, but I had to fill the space with something I already had. What better to use than an oil painted that was hand painted by my Grandma! She also made the vase that is sitting on the hearth. She was very artistic and I miss her a ton.


Some other basement progress not shown in these pictures:
1. We found a bedframe for the bed in the spare room – no more mattress and boxspring on the floor. Our guests have appreciated the upgrade!
2. I painted a set of nightstands that I found on Craigslist. Right now they are extremely poorly styled (like most of the basement) with teeny tiny cast-off lamps that used to live in our master bedroom (10 years ago). If I’m honest, one of the lamps still needs a lightbulb. Maybe I will take care of that tonight…?
3. Construction on the bathroom vanity has begun! Slow and steady. I should probably start looking for the perfect paint color…
4. We have been researching surfaces for the bar counter-top. My choice would be granite. Pretty sure hubby is happy with whatever we choose, as long as it is cheap. Ugh. That means that granite is out. At this moment, I think we are going to try pouring a concrete countertop. This could get interesting!
5. A decision was made about part of the trim that still needs to happen on the stairs. It’s just waiting for paint and installation.
6. We picked up some rugs for the bathroom. The shower and toilet work, so it’s usable, but you just can’t wash your hands yet… We have hand sanitizer on the shelf :)

The weather here in Minnesota will soon be taking a severe turn for the worse (remind me why I live here?!?), which means we need to prioritize some of the painting that needs to happen. Last winter I had a painting station set up where the couch is sitting, and it seems like I was completing some phase of trim painting several times a week. This year I need to do all of the painting in our garage, and it’s not heated… yet… Guess I will be working on painting as much as possible over the next month…

I am hopeful that I will have more exciting basement updates to come soon. Updates would come faster if we had some volunteers to help us make progress.  Anyone interested??

Jedi Training {Digital Scrapbook}

I have been dabbling in digital scrapbooking over the past few months and had a little fun tonight with these photos. Using some Project Life templates that I purchased online, I was able to quickly put together these 2 pages.  I also used a few word bits from the Project Mouse collection by Sahlin Studio and Brittish Designs, but mostly I just wanted to include a ton of pictures.  Anthony had SO MUCH FUN with this!!!





I have been using our Disney pictures to learn digital scrapbooking, and I really like the quickness of the Project Life templates. 

Here are a few more pages I have created!

I wrote about this one here,


and this one here.


More photos yet to come!

Here are some more posts about our trip to Florida in March (Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Universal Studios Islands of Adventure, Downtown Disney, and more posts not yet written…).  Eventually I will finish writing about the other days to get them documented!

The Simple Things

I don’t remember what he was laughing at, but his joy is evident! Love you Anthony!


This was taken on a camping trip in northern Minnesota.  You can read more about our camping trip here and here.

Labor Day Weekend {Northern Minnesota}

If you follow on Instagram, you know that we were in northern MN for Labor Day weekend. I also mentioned it here. For years we used to go “up north” several times during the summer, but in the last few years we just haven’t made it happen. The drive is long – it takes about 5 hours of driving when we are pulling our camper, and that’s if we can avoid rush hour traffic through the Twin Cities.  We always love being there though!

Hubby’s grandparents bought two lots on a remote lake years and years ago. Over the years they have gradually made changes to the property – from adding an outhouse to electricity to running water and a sewer system.  There have been various trailers, multiple sheds, etc.  Now there is a permanent camper, a deck, gas grill, etc. that always stays there, ready for any of us to use.

We have never been “at the lake” without hubby’s family.  It just wouldn’t be the same if we didn’t have some of them there.

Here’s a few highlights from our trip!

Hanging out on the deck, playing a few games.  (There’s those teeth again…or lack there of!!!)


All set to go kayaking.  Is he cool, or what?!?



This little kayak has worked great for Anthony.  He loves being in control of his own “boat”. The only bummer is that he definitely gets wet. Not soaked, but wet. We don’t usually get very wet all all with our kayaks – just a few drips off the paddles.


Father-son time – these two make such a great team!


There they go! Headed to the “sandbar” for some swimming.


Can you see Anthony?  He’s standing on the sandbar in the middle of the lily-pads!


This is one of Anthony’s favorite things to do with his kayak – surf!


Fishing with the big boys.  It was fun to see them fishing near the dock.



I know I already shared both of these on Instagram, but I just love them. Besides, they were part of this trip, so they belong in this post too!



The boys went out for one last fishing trip the last morning we were up north. Anthony was a little chilly, so Grandpa shared his coat with him! Oh, and pretty sure handy hubby is to blame for the crooked pic. It wasn't me - I didn't even go out on the boat once this trip!

 Such a proud fisherman!

Here we are all set to leave with our truck, camper and kayaks in the background.  The others were staying one more day, but we had to get home for work and school the next day.

Northern Minnesota is truly a beautiful place. It’s calm, quiet and peaceful. I am so thankful that we made it work to spend a long weekend up at the lake with hubby’s family.

This Week… {Insta-Friday}

Here’s what we were up to this past week (and the two weeks before that) – I’m MomsGonnaSnap on Instagram if you want to follow along!

Once again I missed a couple weeks, so there are lots of iPhone photos to share!

One Friday evening we were going to have sweet corn. When I stopped to buy some from a local farmer, I convinced myself that it we could quickly and easily cook and freeze all of this corn. And still have time for other things. A couple hours and 75 ears of corn later, this was all in our freezer! And it was Anthony's bedtime. So much for family time!


Riding bike through the sprinkler – that’s what all dad’s do, right?!?


Different day… out for a family walk/bike ride. We walk and Anthony does circles around/through us.


We spent Labor Day weekend camping on some family land in northern Minnesota. It’s a beautiful place!  So quiet and peaceful. We took our kayaks too!


Hubby is pointing over to the “sandbar” – if you look near the top right part of the water you can see the lily-pads that stretch across the lake. They headed over there and did a little swimming.


Hubby’s dad has a fishing boat (they were there too!) and the boys spent a TON of time out on the lake fishing. Over the 4 days we were there, between the 4 people fishing, they caught over 60 bass! Crazy!


Another big bass! Grandpa set Anthony up with the same lures the big guys were using, so Anthony brought in some big bass with his kiddie pole!


The boys out fishing – like they did all weekend!  One morning while making breakfast with hubby’s step-mom, they were close to the dock and we got to watch Anthony bring in a fish. We could hear him yelling, “Fish! Fish! Net! Net!” He was giving orders like a boss.

My favorite quote from the weekend up north was when Anthony had trouble casting his line out and hubby said, "It happens to the best of us" and Anthony said, “Don't you mean the REST of us?”  HA!


Last week I went for a walk with my neighbor. There are trails throughout our city, and we walked from our neighborhood down to the trails and just kept on walking. When we reached this bridge, I had to take a photo to text to hubby – he used to run this trail all the time! We walked five miles that morning!


We went camping at a local county park last weekend. The weather was crazy hot – in the 90’s in September! We spent a few hours at the beach. Yes, that water is green, but it seems like I’m the only one who really cared.


Anthony had a blast digging in the sand!


We decided to hit up a small town restaurant for some pizza. On the way through town we drove by these chairs. Free. I was holding back, when hubby said something like, “Did you see those? Looks like something you’d want” and we went back and got them. They are my next project, waiting patiently in the garage for the last one to be completed.


Our camping season has come to a close – yes, we could still camp over the next month or so, but our schedule is too full. We had to savor this fire last weekend!


Yes, that says 0 MILES TO E, FUEL LEVEL LOW. No, I was not driving! We have no idea how this happened. Both of us had driven our truck the previous day, and neither of us noticed the gas light on. Luckily we were only a few miles from home, and we had no trouble hauling our camper home!


Bedtime reading! It’s part of our (almost) daily routine!


Again with the Superdad. Look how serious he looks! This cracks me up!! The boys were having a water balloon fight – making the most of the crazy September heat we experienced earlier this week!

Several times during the summer we heard, “When is Cub Scouts going to start again?”  The wait is over. As of this week, Cub Scouts is back up and running!

This photo was shared on Instagram on 9/11 by Persnickety Prints. I requested permission to re-post, although I’m not sure who took the actual photo. This week America remembered 9/11. I was student teaching at a high school in Rochester, Minnesota. Where were you that day?



What did you do this week?



Linking to: Lauren Elizabeth, Life Rearranged

A Month in Photos {August}

Wow, it’s amazing how much our family gets back into routine after school starts.  July was way too hectic, so even with all kind of plans in August, life felt much more calm in August.

Camping with family at Clear Lake State Park in Iowa
Friends visiting
End of Anthony’s baseball season
Trip to WI to see Shawna’s family
Putting up the tire swing
Cub Scout camp
Camping in northern MN