Shay, Shay, Shay

So I stumbled upon some pics of Shay when I was printing off my camera. She is growing so fast, and learning new tricks each day. She is truly a "mama's girl". The minute I pick her up she will stop crying, no matter the circumstance. She still has the mohawk chunk of hair. More hair is coming in, but there is no denying the "hawk". I picked her up from daycare about 2 weeks ago and they had her hair up in a sweet mohawk. My eyes must have gone wide when I saw her because they immediately responded with "we just couldn't resist". I just laughed and took some pics!!!

Marnee (a family friend) gave Kinzie and Shay warm winter pjs. We had a wedding in Minnesota 2 weeks ago and Mindy and I brought the pjs for the girls to wear without knowing the other had brought the same pair. Shay just loves Kinzie, although sometimes a little to aggressively. We can't wait for Kinzie to start sitting up and fighting back!! :)

It is tradition to take pics of my kids sitting in the spider basket. Conley cried the entire time we tried to get a picture. Shay, however, did awesome. It's our Longaberger candy basket, which Conley can't keep his hands out of!

My aunts took my kids to a Halloween party at my Grandma's assisted living complex. They had a great time. Conley loved handing out candy to all the people who lived there. He is Spiderman for Halloween and loving every minute of it. Luckily his costume is just a pair of pjs, so we will get lots of use out of it. Shay is a butterfly and was completely exhausted from her first Halloween party. Here is a pic of her passed out on my aunt's couch. Poor thing!!!

Fun with friends...

Conley and I have been in a play group for about 2 years and yesterday I was off work and we were able to join our friends for some fun! Conley loves playing with kids his age and I love the opportunity to talk and get advice from mom's going through the same things I am. Here are some pics from our fun day! We were also able to talk to our friend Emily Malone who called us during our time at the Kampman's. Emily moved to Scotland and we miss her lots!!!

Conley and Carter wrestling and playing football.

Another group photo was attempted. Always a difficult task with this bunch!

Carter wearing Delaney's birthday hat. It was Delaney's 1st birthday Friday!!!

Delaney and Shay giving hugs. Delaney was so sweet to Shay. They start the 2nd generation of play group buddies.

5 things I hate to admit....

I was tagged by Mindy, so here is goes...

1. I love to clean. I love a clean house, and I love order!!! I find cleaning my house is my way of blowing off steam and relieving stress. I have shipped my kids off to my parent's and my aunt's house many Saturdays so that I can clean my house from top to bottom. I am often made fun of because of this. I wasn't always this way, ask my parents! When I clean I go all out! I can't just clean the surface, I "spring clean" each time I go at it. I have decided with my crazy work schedule and 2 small children, that I must divide my house and do something each day so that it all gets done each week!!! Seriously, I love it!

2. I hate to admit that I love sorting people's stuff! Nate and I always poke fun at sorting dirty underwear. Seriously, it is NOT like that, we just have fun with it. It amazes me the things people get rid of or even buy in the first place. I am not making fun of what I do, I seriously love my job, but when you really think about it, it is kind of a weird concept to sort through other people's things all day long! I usually don't get to be in that area of the store all that much, but I sneak up there whenever I can because I just love the "hunt".

3. I love designer clothing. I have a weakness for brand name designer clothing. I understand it is a waste of money, but I love quality made, American made stuff!!! My aunt is a firm believer in items made in America, and I share some of that thinking. I would blow all my money shopping if I was not as smart with money as I am. This is a funny thing about me considering my own mother hates to shop. She also likes good stuff, but knows what she needs and she will go in, buy it, and come right out. I could shop all day! Luckily my love of consignment shopping saves me money on these designer goods!

4. I secretly love daytime tv. When I was home on maternity leave, or home sick, I could watch talk shows and soap operas all day. With this same admission, I love being lazy. I work hard 50hrs a week, but love sitting on the couch watching tv whenever I get the chance.

5. I hate to cook! I would hire it out 7 days a week if I could. I have no desire to cook at all!!! I love ordering take-out and I love when we get invited to family dinners, so I don't have to lift a finger in the kitchen. On that same note, I hate cleaning dishes!!! I do it because I love to clean, and want a clean kitchen. But, oh my, I would pay someone to empty my dishwasher and wash my dishes!!!

Okay so there are my 5 things I hate to admit! Now everyone knows a little more about me!

I'm alive...barely!

I was thinking that it had been awhile since I last posted. I thought I would let everyone know we are still here! It has been a horrible week!!! I have been sick for a week, I even went home early from work yesterday (this is rare for me, I never miss work because I'm sick). We have been crazy busy with family in town last week, my sister moving back to Florida, my granny in the hospital, Nate working like crazy, and now me with this cold that had caused my voice to disappear! I missed some fun stuff when I was sick. Sorry to Jen for missing the trunk show and to the Lybecks who invited us to an awesome speaker at Grace! I had to rest up for this weekend, we are going out of town for a wedding! Yeah, another hotel room experience with my 2 year old and 8 month old. I'm sure next week I will be even sicker from the lack of sleep yet to come!!! I have some awesome pics and stories from the last two weeks, hopefully Sunday I will have free time, haha!

Can we build it.....Yes we can!!!!

Yes we are fans of Bob The Builder at this house! Conley doesn't care for tv, but will watch Bob The Builder movies all day! At this house we have Nate the Builder. I love my husband and his handy skills, but oh my word! When he gets an idea in his head, there is no stopping him.

Idea #1: Add on to the shop. Of course, it isn't big enough already (sarcasm). Here is an idea, sell something (Mindy is giving me a high five right now)!!! So I guess I thought this would be a no big deal, easy project. How soon I forget, my husband is a perfectionist and he goes all out. I now have not seen him for the past 3 weekends. He works sun up to sun down, stopping only briefly last Saturday because it was our 5 yr anniversary and he thought maybe we should go for dinner. Side note....after dinner we went to Menards and I was forced to load sheets of steel in my designer jeans and high heels! There are no pics of this event! So below are pics of this first project. Conley is loving it, as my dad has brought the bobcat over 2 separate weekends!

Nate and our friend Luke (thanks Luke) are digging holes in the background for the posts. You can see Conley riding his powerwheels just beyond the trailer. He always was out supervising the guys work ;)

Nate is putting the steel sheets on for the roof. That horse would happen to be our dog Sampson. I'm sure Conley is riding away from him when this pic was taken.

My dad, Nate and Conley are cleaning up the rocks that were dumped by a dump truck (highlight of Conley's weekend, that weekend). Conley did more tossing of rocks with his shovel, than helping!

Idea #2: Build an apple press. We have an apple tree growing in our backyard. Until this year we have never picked the apples. Conley and Nate (together) climbed the 12ft. ladder (don't turn me into DHS) and picked apples one night. The apples are quite good and Nate decided we were going to make apple cider. Why buy an apple press when you can make one, right???? So I have included the pics of the apple press because I figured no one would believe me unless they saw it. I wasn't happy with the mess it created (typical Sara response), but the cider actually was awesome. It took 70 apples to make a little over a gallon. We all find this fact hilarious! Our apples are quite small, but now that he has the system down it should go faster. Plus, he is in his glory knowing he made the press and how awesome the cider turns out!