everyone visits

This past weekend we celebrated Audrey getting dedicated to the lord, jesus christ. With that happening Sunday all of the Rues, Hayden's, and Greenwoods made the trip to Roseau for the weekend. Friday night Ruth/Dan & Heidi arrived and came to the basketball game. The night ended with card games. Saturday the boys went fishing and the Rues arrived in Roseau about 5pm. Saturday evening we had a Fish Fry with my parents, Heidi, the Hayden's, and the Rues. Uncle Mike couldn't make it to Roseau until Sunday morning as his band was playing at a gig in Grand Forks, Saturday night. It was a pleasure to have everyone in our house. Our house proved to be able to fit and hold a lot of people. More games played Saturday night. Sunday was spend to celebrate Audrey's Dedication. Someone forgot to pack Mitch's suitcase so he was able to shop in Ken's Closet for the weekend. We had monkey bread and doughnuts for breakfast, went to church, came home for lunch and celebration. I made BBQ's for lunch, I found a very basic recipe online, which were good.

BBQ:

1 pound of hamburger
3/4 cup of ketchup
1 1/2 teaspoon of brown sugar

After lunch we opened a few gifts, visited, played and hung out. It was a fabulous weekend to hang out with everyone, as we have not all been together since Christmas. It's always such a blessing to be able to be together, mostly because we all general get along so well. By 5pm our house was empty. Audrey went to the computer and asked if Becca could get out again. Whenever we skype with the Rues she always asks Mitch Out? Becca Out? Hayden Out? Braylee Out? She wants them out of the computer...so she was thrilled the last time she asked if they could get out...they did get out of the computer.
 
The three little children played so great together the whole weekend, even in church. :)

glad to the week is over

as you can see, i'm so glad last week is over. last week was a rough week, emotionally.

monday- my uncle dennis (his wife is audrey, below) had knee replacement (no big deal, right?), a friend here in roseau (she's married to a classmate of mine, neighbors of my parents,) went into labor at 20 weeks, contracts where 2 minutes apart. was air flighted to sioux falls, sd where they got the contractions down to 20 minutes apart.

tuesday- audrey starting to get sick, did go to daycare. my aunt audrey was released from the hospital, she had been in there for 50 days with a bed sore.

wednesday-home with audrey

thursday- i went to work for a while, learned that a friend/co-worker (my age) her dad was up visting and had a heart attack and passed away. in the evening, learned that my friend was starting intensive labor.

friday- my dad called in the morning with news of my uncle who had the knee replacement had a heart attack thursday night. thank the good lord he was in the hospital when it happened, had 3 stints put in. learned that at 8:13 my friend gave birth to their son, Christopher David Guy. They were blessed to spend a full hour with Christopher before he went to heaven.

glad.the.week.is.over.

day 6

today we are entering day 6 of audrey being under the weather. we brought her into the dr on thursday. they tested her influenza a and b, both negative, and ears/throat all looked great. the dr ordered us to come back if she wasn't getting better in the next day or two. on saturday we brought her into the er as  she wasn't showing any signs of getting better. her fever was hovering around 99-101, had not eaten a meal since wednesday morning, not sleeping good, cough, snot and crabby. they did a chest x-ray, tested her for strep and rsv. chest x-ray looked good, except a very small amount of fluid on one lung, early pneumonia (but dr wasn't worryed about it). strep, negative. rsv, positive. it was a releif that we got answers of what was wrong, because i honestly felt like we were going to be leaving with no answers for why our daughter was so not her self. oh yeah, she also developed a double ear infection! with rsv, you can't take any medication to help it. antibiotics were prescribed for the earn infection...which seemed to immediately help her after taking the first dose. she literally was wanting snacks and to eat dinner within 3 hours of taking the medication. the cough has pretty much gone away. she still has a snotty nose, but what kid doesn't have that this time of year? the last night three nights she has gone to bed by 8pm and slept tell either 9 or 10 am. she is still waking up at night, wanting to be held, snuggled or find her nuki. at about 5 am each morning, she sleeps sound until she wakes up for the morning. that is the only part of the night where she sleeps 4 plus hours at one stretch! hopefully she continues to get healthier!

what to treat myself with....

I have had a few real good sentsy parties latlely and I'm saving up my money to get something I want. Here are my top 3 things I'm deciding between.

~ipad

~new camerea nikon/canon?

~use the money towards our house projects....

 

any suggestions?

summer project list

As I sit here in my house this morning, I've been thinking of all the things I "want" to do with the house. Therefore I thought it would be logical to start a summer list. I think I already started one before, but can't recall...so I'll start again.

fence the back yard, white please

build a laundry basket holder

build a playhouse for audrey in the backyard

expand our garden

paint the living rom

paint audreys room

keep deocrating the house

paint the hutch in the kitchen

make a memory wall in the kitchen

new kitchen table

maybe next winter, we can do redo the basement (carpet & walls)

new windows?

rain gutters?

New siding?

Redo upstairs bathroom/new vanity top/new tub..

 

Oh my...who has some money I can barrow!

the calm after the storm

The storm is releavent to christmas. We had such a busy christmas, I feel life has finally slowed down a little. Audrey contiunes to change everyday! I was looking through old pictures, and my gosh...she has changed so much since her 1st birthday! The other day was an ah-ha moment as we were looking at pictures and I asked Audrey, who is this? She said "audrey!" Normally she says baby, but never relates it to herself.

I'm really nervous about taking away her nuki. At daycare she doesn't need it, but loves it for her comfort. I can already tell you the day we do take it away is going to be on nasty night! Today I'm home with Audrey as she has developed a nasty cough and runny nose. As I laid on the couch with her last night, it reminded me of when she first joined us in the world. Sleeping on the couch with Audrey on my chest. PEACEFUL. I probally got about 4 hours of sleep last night and I truly didn't even care. I just kept thinking, well I can stay home with tomorrow and drink coffee. :) It's been a pleasant day at home with Audrey. We had a few visitors stop by for lunch, papa sam & dad.

Favorite Christmas Decoration

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I think it's safe to say everday since we put out this "tree," Audrey danced with it. We finally put it away a week ago! Enjoy

christmas 2011

Our season of 2011 christmas has  been on going. We started celebrating the holiday on Christmas eve at my parents house and we will have our last celebration of Christmas tonight, new years eve. In total we had five Christmas celebrations! Audrey actually opened presents this year compared to last year where she just tried to eat the paper. She obviously doesn’t get to the concept of what Christmas is all about, but the skill I’m working on this year is waiting while other people open presents and that it’s not all about “her” getting presents. The holiday is always such a wonderful time to reflect on the past year, more so that the new year will be here tomorrow. Our family is so thankful for a healthy and happy year. We’ve had many changes in our life this past year, but I would say they have all been great changes. We left the city life to a more rural slower life. Kenneth and I both started new jobs. Audrey is living and loving being in the same town as her grandparents evans. We have started a family ritual of having Sunday night dinner with my parents.

As I’m sitting here on the couch at Dan & Ruth’s, I’m thinking how lucky I am. I was laying on the couch reading a book (Hot Sweaty Mama), Audrey is napping and I looked out the window and I see my husband going crazy on the four wheeler. He’s like a little kid…going up and down on the street and going in circles. I’m guessing he is having so much fun because we finally have SNOW to enjoy! Audrey played outside for an hour and a half with her grandma this morning! They have a good 5-6 inches here…we had none in Roseau when we left yesterday. I feel even more blessed as I look over at the Christmas tree and see soo many gifts under the tree still. We truly are blessed with an amazing family. Now I just say Grandma Dan cruising on the four wheeler…he’s acting like a little kid out there now tooJ

Last night I took in a good movie with Ruth, New Years Eve. It was a great movie to reflect on what new years is all about. Reflecting on the past year and setting goals for the upcoming year. Here is the start of my new year goals.

-complete the insanity series

-run a 10k (fargo) or DL ½ marathon

-be blessed every day.

-try to always make someone else’s day better

-do an outing with Audrey at least once a week (park/swimming/games…etc)

-always find the positive in every situation

-become stronger…physically, mentally, emotional, and spiritually

-save my money from surveys & scentsy to buy an iphone with internet and or ipad

 

Beyond these goals I have set for myself on the upcoming year I also want to continue to raise a healthy, disciplined and happy girl. We feel blessed that she has been relatively healthy. I do believe that her health is partially a reflection of being structured with a routine (eating, napping, sleeping).  I want to her to become herself, but at the same time help guide and give her guidance of being a respectful child.

 

18 months

Audrey 18 months

Audrey, where has time gone? It amazes me that you are a year and half years old. There are many ladies I know, that who had baby’s the same time Audrey arrived. It amazes me how these women function with a child the same age as Audrey and another peanut on the way or already arrived. Audrey you keep me so busy. Maybe it’s because I don’t know how to multitask with a beautiful baby/toddler in my presences.  J This age, 18 months, is such a fun time to watch you develop. It amazes me how well you can comprehend questions I ask or commands I tell you. You are becoming a smart girl who loves to dsicover things. You already try to test your parents. Most recently if your dad says “no,” you come crying to me saying, mommmmmy. At night when you wake up you call…mommmmy? Mommmmy! On a typical night if I find your nuki for you, you go right back to bed. We have removed your bumper from your bed….therefore your nuki falls out of your crib.

You are still a good eater, but have been finicky the past few days. You prefer milk or water over juice. Recently you have had an obsession with crackers and pickles. You love baby dolls, working on puzzles, watching baby Einstein movies, laying on the couch with dad before bed, lying in bed with mom, going to papa and mama’s hosue, turning on the Christmas lights and saying “ooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhh” with big big eyes. If I ask you what Santa says…your response is “ho ho ho.” You are such a delightful little girl! 18d.jpg (image/jpeg) 1,336K18month.jpg (image/jpeg) 1,036K DSC03615.JPG (image/jpeg) 2,410K

First Basketball Game

Kenneth had his first basketball game as a head coach in Roseau. It was a very exciting game...between both teams the biggest margin of points was 3 the whole game. It was exciting from the start to the end! Roseau scored with 6 seconds left to go up by 1 point. Within those last 6 seconds, Lake of the Woods took the ball from one end of the court to the other end and ALMOST scored. Thankfully they didn't. :) Here is a picture of Audrey after we got home from the game, of course I forgot to bring my camera with to the game. A girl named Ellie, gave Audrey a ring pop and oh my...did Audrey love it! We even got to see Grandma/Grandpa Hayden. They made the trip up for the game and we enjoyed watching it with them!!!!