Sneak Peek...

Meet Sophie!

 On Saturday we picked up Sophie.  She is a Boston Terrier and is just 6 weeks old.  Tiny does not even begin to describe her...she is SO LITTLE!!!  The kids are IN LOVE!!!  Sophie was excited for the kids to go to school today so she could rest and relax :)

 Last night Sophie snuggled up and fell asleep on Conley.  She likes to sleep a lot which is great for the kids to be able to hold her easier.

 This is actually rare for Conley to have her...Shay has staked her claim!  She is completely smitten and rarely lets Sophie out of her sight.  

 We took the following pics this morning so I could print them today for the kids to take and show their friends tomorrow.  Conley was of course on the couch (he is not our morning person) and Sophie was just chillin.

 Not too great of a picture but we were running late as usual.  Sophie spends her days with Nate while he is working.  So getting 2 kids ready and a dog and out the door by 8am is Nate's new challenge :)

 Nate is responsible for getting up at night with Sophie.  She needs to go out 3 times each night...needless to say Nate got a glimpse of my life with a newborn.  I was slightly loving that Sunday morning when he was exhausted and had to be hands on with our life all day because I'm sick.

For those who haven't heard Sampson got bloat and we had to put him down about 2 months ago.  It was very hard and everyone still talks about him :)  Sophie will be completely different experience being an inside dog and CONSIDERABLY smaller.  We miss Sampson and are excited to have Sophie in our lives.

More pics to come.  I've had a horrible cold, so picture taking is not at the top of my mind :)

Minnesota ski adventure

 We went to Minnesota skiing the middle of February.  We wanted to teach the kids to ski and it was a great family fun weekend.  Here is Shay ready for her 1 hour private lesson.  After 45 minutes she told her instructor that she had enough and was done.  She spent the rest of the weekend in the lodge with me and tubing at night with everyone.

 Conley and Aunt Jill.  Conley had a great 1 hour private lesson and spent the rest of the first day getting the feel for skiing.  The second day he was out on the mountain all day with Nate, Jill, Jamie and Stu.  He went down every run they did.  He loves skiing.  This will have to be our winter activity for sure!

 The ski resort had a tubing area.  They LOVED tubing each night.  The first day we went skiing and tubing was VERY cold.  Here is the crew bundled up and ready to go!

 Here is Conley!  He could not get enough...he would get to the bottom and jump on the track that took him back to the top.  The rest of the crew could never catch up to him!

 Conley doing a couple runs down the bunny hill before they took the chair lift to the top of the mountain.  Jill took tons of pics on Jamie's camera of the second day on the mountain.  They are on Facebook.

 Jill and Con getting on the chair lift.

 Coming down to see us!

 The whole gang.  Shay, my parents, Aunt Rose and myself held down the fort in the lodge.  We enjoyed people watching, Shay watched movies, we ate lots of food and watched the skiers.

 Shay's area.  She snacked, watched movies and played games all day.  Maybe next year she will have more interest.

 Jamie's boyfriend Stu and Shay at lunch on day 2.

 Twins in their North Face shirts they got for Christmas.

Con and Nate during lunch.  Conley would barely eat, he just wanted to get back out on the slopes.  This will definitely be a yearly trip with hopes of getting to Colorado soon!!!

So far behind!

 We celebrated Shay's birthday with 3 parties this year.  Her friends celebrated with her at the Children's Museum.  They had a great time playing in many rooms, crafting, dressing up and eating cake!

 Shay and some buddies both old and new.  We stay in touch with a girl from daycare, some girls from preschool and now friends from Pre-K at Heritage.

 Birthday girl with her cake at the museum.

 We had Nate's family over to our house for another birthday celebration.  She picked out her cake with Nana earlier in the week...tinkerbell.  She had a blast playing with her cousins and opening gifts.

 She got a pink golf club set!  She is ready to join Aunt Jill, grandpa Wayne and Conley on the course.

 For her actual birthday we were in Minnesota skiing for the weekend.  I will post skiing pictures tomorrow.  She had a blast (not so much skiing)  We went to Jamie & Stu's for her birthday brunch, cake and presents.

 Her strawberry shortcake cake.  Thanks Aunt Jamie!!!

 Opening gifts.  I'm sure is giving quite the story/explanation on something to my mom and sister.

She got lots of new clothes, games, books & dollars from Aunt Rose.  It was a fun weekend with the family!!!

In...yes - Organized...NO!

 Our closets are pretty well organized.  Nate still needs to build the drawers for the middle section, so for now baskets are holding socks and other things!

 I was able to knock this pile down today!  I took care of at least 2 dozen boxes!!!  All that is left is paperwork for Nate's business that are too heavy for me to carry to the storage room!

 This room never was cleaned before we moved in.  It quickly became out of control.  I organized it today and hope to get it cleaned soon!  Walls are dusted but the woodwork is still very dusty.

 This entry has been great!  We lacked this area in the old set up.  The front door is on the left with the 2 side panels.  The door open with the light leads to the mudroom and then to the garage.  Most boxes end up in this area until opened and then sorted out from there.

 This is my favorite room...or will be my favorite room.  The toy room.  It is a DISASTER right now.  I have bought some pieces and have ideas on how this will get organized.  I need a full day with no kids to organize and PURGE!  The kids have tried to help on several occasions and this is what it looks like!

 Shay's room is set up and needing more decorations!  Once the toy room is set up and we rearrange a little in her room, we will figure out some decorations.

 Conley's room is also done, just needing the final touches.  Both kids also need the drawers built for the center section of their closets.

 This is my score for the toy room.  This amazing local artist painted this table for me.  I have admired her work for a long time and personally know her family.  I found the table at Stuff Etc and she painted the alphabet for me.  LOVE IT!!!

 The kitchen is completely put away!  The bar stools arrive Tuesday!!!  Lots of items are landing on the island or the desk area on the left until I deal with them or figure out where they will go.  I have not organized my desk or rental business yet.  Working on clearing out the garage and then will tackle these drawers.

 Nate wants a bigger dining room rug...so the rug rolled up in the background is going back.  Hopefully I will find a new one soon!  For now the rug pad is down and we deal.  We also need window treatments...imagine that :)  Our trim guy will be back later this month to finish up the windows and the crown molding in the kitchen.  You notice it on the big windows below more than this pic above.

 We have 2 chairs coming Tuesday and a sofa and end table that will almost complete this room.  Of course window treatments are in the works and I'm still on the hunt for a coffee table or ottoman.  Still up for debate which one we want.  You will notice the carpet extractor...we had a sick kid this morning on the new couch...not good!

Our bedroom...always a bachelor pad looking room!!!  We have never owned bedroom furniture since we have been married...yes almost 10 years!  We are going to figure it out...soon!  We have a HUGE mattress...very tall.  We are on the hunt for a platform bed with nightstands that we like.  We do have a cute comforter...wadded up in a ball in the middle of the bed and an awesome sitting chair and ottoman in the corner of this pic.  I do have a couple of items picked out to buy to complete this room, just trying to tackle the bed and nightstands first.  Hoping a trip to Homemakers is in our future!  Ignore the paper blinds on the windows and doors (they are in the bedrooms right now), our real blinds should arrive tomorrow...we hope!

Getting Excited!!!

 We now have appliances!!!  This is the corner oven and the microwave.

 Bannister almost complete.  We ran out of spindles (frustrating) so this project came to a halt, but hopefully will be finished soon.  We have the most talented carpenter (behind Tom and Nate) helping with the finish work.  He is awesome!  He built the posts for this railing.  Nate could not find anything he liked, so he designed them and Darin built them.  

 I had 3 non-negotiable for the house:  the wood floors (in the main area), my laundry room and MY CLOSET!  This is almost done.  The middle section will have drawers (Nate is custom building them).  Nate designed and built this closet.  The side you can see is my side.  Nate's side is on the left.

 Mudroom built by my father-in-law.  He built the upper cabinet for the baskets of winter gear.  The wooden strip will have hooks all around.  And he built the bench below...in a picture below.

 Laundry room.  I will no longer spend a weekend day off doing laundry.  Hoping to not use precious free time to keep our clothing clean.  This was 1 of 3 non-negotiable on my list that I worked the budget hard to get.

 The bench in the mud room.  Everything is covered with cardboard to keep it protected.  All wood, appliances, flooring, walls is etc is also covered with dust.  This is a work zone and it shows!  All clean freaks with free time are more than welcome to come clean in a week...hehe!

Stairway up to the play room.  Nate really likes the molding around the doors.  Darin did a fabulous job making Nate's visions a reality.  We are excited to have this room above the garage finished off and dedicated to toys and lots of fun!!!  The kids are excited as well!  My dad and Nate are working on the floor/room to make it awesome!

Huge thanks to Nate's dad and my dad for their support and help.  They have great talents and we appreciate their help.  Both have huge experience in home building and much more!!!