HOUSE!!!!

Before I left for Texas, we were fairly certain we would be getting this house! I took tons of pictures for your virtual tour. While I was in Texas we got the final word, the house would be ours!!!! I can not tell you what a HUGE blessing this is. We could not have done it if it wasn't God's will. Many things fell into place at the perfect time. We DEFINITELY know God blessed us with this house, it could not have been ours otherwise. I am truly humbled that Heavenly Father thought I deserved such a blessing, I just hope and pray I can continue to deserve it.

-It's at least 100 years old, but we are only the 3rd owners and it was been VERY well taken care of. AND we live in THE BEST neighborhood! They get together and do fun things, are so nice, have kids, came over and met us...the list goes on and on! I LOVE it here!

Here are the pictures of our BEAUTIFUL house!
When you come in the front, here's the beautiful stairs on the right.



On the left is the tv room (and Jace's room, he's here until October), here's standing inside looking towards the stairs



Looking forward when you come in the front door



If you go through that door it leads into the family room. I also like to call it the sun room cause there are TONS of windows, it's my favorite room. Somehow I don't have a picture of it though.

On the right is our bedroom (right after Jace's/tv room) Our bed BARELY fits in there! but there is a nice closet.



And strait back is the dinning room. There is a second (how cool is that!) set of stairs behind the dinning room. If you turn right there's the kitchen. Gotta love the color scheme in here!



and the laundry room right next to the kitchen (it's between the kitchen and our bedroom) there is also a small bathroom in this area (no photo)



If you go back to the dinning room this is the second staircase from the top



that room (the playroom)




if you go through the open door your in the upstairs hall way. On the left is the HUGE and WONDERFUL upstairs bathroom! I can actually bathe the children with out having a heart attack! It's great! It has TONS of closet space too!






Down the hall a little and on the right is the girls bedroom




And on the left is Logan's room




And then your back at the front stairs. There is also a screened in back porch, an attached (big deal in the winter!) garage, a swing set, and rhubarb! It is beautiful and there are lots of little details and nice wood work. Also it is WAY bigger than our last place, so we have lots of room to run! YEA! Ryan and I are so excited and love it here! It'll be fun to decorate and put our own touch on it.

Logan's first time standing up!

This was in May. He was SO proud of himself!





A couple days later, looking super cute in his Sunday suit.




This shows his true glee in being able to stand up- and more importantly to be able to get into things!





He still loves to get into the recycling bin- lots of treasures inside!

Randomness

Here are a bunch of fun pictures from May:

Grandma sent some fun bathroom crayons and Logan thinks they are delicious! We thought this was really funny. He's so cute!



Logan's first time falling asleep in the highchair. Too cute. This has been happening more and more lately- It's pretty tiring trying to keep up with 2 big sisters!



One day Kaitlyn was actually sitting still enough to let Daddy hold her!





Eating popsicles. Even Logan got a purple tongue.

Dentist

In May I FINALLY went to the Dentist. I have a fear of new dentists. Once I have been it's not so scary, but going to a new one- yeah it took me 4 years and a REALLY bad tooth ache to finally go! Plus our dental insurance was about to end so it really was a now or never thing. At the time we lived right across the street from a dentist, and I knew the dentists wife. I just kept telling myself that he (the dentist) couldn't be SO bad if he had such a nice wife and cute kids!

So the big day came and Ryan stayed home and watched the kids for me. The dentist and the assistants were so nice! And because my parents are AWESOME and took me to the dentist all the time before I was married, I needed a lot less work then I thought. I thought for sure he was going to tell me I had to have all my teeth pulled, I even had a nightmare about it! I did have to have 3 or 4 fillings though. After I had gone to the dentist once a week for 3 weeks, I decided I should get Kaitlyn's teeth checked too! So for the 4th week in a row, we went to the dentist. (They were really starting to know me by this point!)

For the kids first appointment the dentist, just kinda warms them up to the idea. They get to ride in the chair a couple of times, watch a short video about a dog going to the dentist and then the dentist comes in and checks the teeth. Kaitlyn did very well and Em helped her by riding in the chair with her!

Here's some photo's:



Still a little nervous


This is fun!


They asked for lots of extra rides on the chair and the dentist was very sweet about it!

I think all in all they had a good visit.


About a week later I couldn't sleep all night because of another tooth ache. So off to the dentist again. -At this point I felt like I had seen the Dentist more than my husband! I ended up having one of my wisdom teeth pulled. This was just a few days before I was leaving Wisconsin for a MONTH! And I was supposed be driving the kids and I down to Texas. Luckily for me my mother in law was coming to help anyway. She ended up doing most of the driving, and I was VERY grateful for it!

One of the mornings I was at the dentist Ryan came home for lunch and found us like this! I was pretty worn out!

A piano!!

So I've been wanting a Piano since... probably since my friend Lisa got one. Haha. That sounds childish. -The reason is Emily (not my Em but a friend) found one for her for FREE! I thought that was so cool. I didn't know that a piano was an option until then. I didn't start looking for one until we moved to Wisconsin (since I knew we'd be here and not have to move it across country), and then I really started WANTING one the past year. I searched the paper that comes once a week for any free piano's, and I found 2! But both times someone beat me to it :( I started looking at just the little ones on a stand, but even on clearance they were $60. So Ryan had seen me hunting and heard me wishing for the past two years and ONE DAY decided to look online. And he found one! He told me a few days later and was like, I wasn't sure if you wanted it or not, it's far away, but it's free. OF COARSE I want it!
So the day came and I got a new (well new to me!) piano! For free! (well except for the trailer Ryan had to rent to haul it over here.)

6 men helped move it and they BARELY got it up the porch steps! That thing is HEAVY! I felt so bad for those men. I'm glad no one got hurt, I was worried there for a while.

Andy and the missionaries resting after getting it in



One of the guys making sure it worked ok



The kids (and I!) thought it was so cool to wake up in the morning and have a piano!




So the piano front is off because Ryan had to get a peg so the top would stay on. Also there were A LOT of keys that were sticking.
A few days later Ryan decided to take the piano apart and see if he could fix it. He pulls it apart and under the keys is REALLY messy, so he starts cleaning it out. I was disgusted, so I left the room. After a lot of cleaning Ryan comes and says hey hun look what I found in the piano and shoves something in my face. So I'm thinking some one leaned over and dropped something in the piano and guess a shark tooth? maybe?
Ryan says No, a mouse SKULL!! yes you read that right a mouse skull! EWWWWW, GROSSS! I made him get it away from me pretty quick! It makes me shutter just to think about it. Apparently under the keys was a whole mouse nest! I'm so glad they weren't still living there! But I didn't appreciate the mouse skull either. Euugh, gross.
Ryan got it all cleaned out and put it back together and guess what it works much better now! (it's still out of tune and has a few keys that stick but all in all MUCH better!)
We love our piano!

Here's a cute video of Logan and Kaitlyn playing on it.

http://www.blogger.com/video-play.mp4?contentId=46ad45170a4f08f9&type=video%2Fmp4

Em's 2 part 2

So on Sunday was Em's actual birthday so I made a cake for her. The previous week I had been getting Em excited for her birthday. On Tuesday we took rice crispies to play group and sang to her and on Thursday we brought a treat to Little Prints and sang to her. Ryan and I sang to her all day Saturday and Sunday so by the time the Midtovne's came over for cake, she had had ENOUGH of the birthday attention!





By the end she decided it wasn't so bad!




Getting ready to blow out the candle




All she wanted of her birthday cake

Em is 2!

On April 19th Emily turned 2! I had a big internal debate about whether or not to have a birthday party for her, after talking to Ryan and a few others I decided Ryan was right (he loves it when I do that!) and we did the family thing. We decided to drive up to Madison and go to the Zoo. The girls love it there and it's free! We had a great time as a family and Em enjoyed her special day. A little before we got there we stopped and got a few treats and some lunch to pack for later. I happened across some powdered donuts and thought it would be a fun birthday treat. Everyone loved them. We ate them while we finished driving up to the Zoo. When we got there I turned around and this is what I saw:



That just made me laugh, too cute.
And this:



I knew Logan had fallen asleep while we were driving, but I just loved that Kaitlyn had given him a baby to hold. Poor boy already has TONS of pictures of him with "girl" toys. Hehehe.

You can't tell by the glower, but she really had a good time.




Mine and Ryan's favorite part was the TIGER! Usually he is really hard to find, he has a big enclosure (yea! I'm glad he's got lots of room to roam). In fact, I think this might be the first time we were able to see him at all. Anyway. He was prowling right next to the window! It was SOOO cool! We were there watching him for a good 10 minutes, and he was prowling before and after we left. Here's a shot I got. Man Tigers are cool, but I would NEVER want to meet one outside of the zoo!



So Emily wasn't paying attention,she was halfway turned around when the Tiger stopped prowling and looked DIRECTLY at her! It was so cool! So Ryan and I got her attention and told her to look. She was really close to the window, and his part of the enclosure was higher so she turned around and looked up strait into a Tigers face! It freaked her out quite a bit! It was funny. Poor girl though, she wouldn't go anywhere near the window after that!

We all had a great time at the zoo and were pretty worn out afterward.





That was Saturday the day before Em's b-day, and then on Sunday we made a cake and had her best friend and his family come over to help eat the cake.