Quiet Book Project

One year ago, I had this "grand" idea to make a quiet book for Tristen for church. We try to keep our kids in church with us (doesn't always happen, mind you, in which case I'm thankful for the nursery!) but it's always a bit of a challenge to come up with things to keep them occupied. I started this quiet book last year and it was a HUGE undertaking. I got discouraged, busy, and didn't want to cut out any more felt pieces ever!!!

However, 3 weeks ago, I was out of ideas in church and really desired to have a new set of tricks for my kids. I remembered the quiet book. Reluctantly, I took it out and started cutting and took some shortcuts along the way (hot glue does wonders!) Well, a week later, I finished this monster project but couldn't be happier. Tristen LOVED it during church and it held his attention. Mission accomplished!

So, I present.....a couple pages from the quiet book. Now to make Aubrey one? Oh boy.....umm, we'll see :)

Tree with "season changes" on it. Barn with finger puppets inside

Mailbox to put his notes in. Paintbrush and palette. He LOVES to paint the entire book :)

 

In case you have the CRAZY idea like I did to do a quiet book for someone, here is the inspiration and templates I used:

http://www.serving-pink-lemonade.com/2011/01/quiet-book.html

 

And, some fun pics to show the kiddos :)

Happy Weekend All!

The Answer to Many Prayers

We have our answer:

 

Aaron has a job!!!!

And, it's in our lovely city which is even better!!! We actually haven't been waiting since the last time I wrote but it is OFFICIAL today since Aaron passed his boards! So, it's a for sure thing now which is why we waited to make an announcement :)

About a week after I wrote, Aaron had an interview with the hospital in Mankato. The opening was in a department right next to his internship so they knew his name and had seen him around. With much persistence and a lot of people praying for the position, he got a call a week later that he got the job. We were absolutely ecstatic and it seriously felt too good to be true. It's in a department he really wanted to be in (ED) and it allowed us to stay put. However, it depended on if he passed the boards or not so we held our breath, knowing that this job was in our grasp but waiting to see if this was indeed "the job".

On Friday, Aaron took his boards. Absolute hardest thing he's ever taken and he came away thinking he failed. Well, today we found out he passed and the job is official now :)

*Whew* Again, I've learned so much about waiting. It feels like a giant burden has been lifted off our shoulders but I don't want to forget this waiting/uncertain time in life. May I never forget these life-changing 3 1/2 years!! :)

While We're Waiting

We might as well enjoy time outside!

 

Aaron had 2 job interviews last week. We don't hear back until next week sometime. SO, we have 2 choices.....we could either 1) Stress our little minds out OR  2) Enjoy the present and see the good in the present!

We're choosing Option 2 (most of the time!) so we've spent the last few days enjoying time outside and being together. It's been fantastic! Over the last month, we've also had fun doing "summer things":

Tristen's first (free!) horse ride. He loved it!

 

Parades with family members!

First train ride....he's obsessed with trains so this was a highlight :)

Ice cream with daddy? So great :)

3 1/2 Years Later

WE'RE DONE!!!!!

(Tristen didn't quite make it through the ceremony) :)

 

3 1/2 years. Unbelievable. This has definitely been one of the most intense, exhausting, hard, but rewarding things we've ever done. This past week, we said multiple times that if we knew everything we would encounter, we probably would have run in fear and never given Nursing School a shot. But, as we sit here, renewed and passionate about our calling in life, we know the intensity was well worth it. The financial burdens, the separation every week, the never ending homework, the pressures weighing on our shoulders as we tried to raise children throughout it all.....it's all worth it because we've never been closer to the Lord and have learned SO much in the last 3 1/2 years.

We've never been so humbled in our lives.

 

Just a timeline to put it all into perspective:

Jan. 2010: Moved to Mankato on a whim. Aaron had to take prerequisite classes to even apply for the Nursing program. He was going to apply for an Accelerated Program that would have been 18 months.

 

March 2010: Found out the Accelerated Program that we were banking on was cut. We then learned how competitive the regular Nursing Program was at MSU. (Only 48 students each semester)

 

April 2010-Jan 2011: Continued with the prerequisite classes and prayed Aaron's grades would be good enough to get accepted! Tristen was born, I quit my job to stay at home, Aaron's job got cut

 

February 2011: A terrifying month financially since we had no jobs and a newborn in tow. We also found out the competitive Nursing program was even more competitive with only 24 students being accepted for the next semester.

 

March 2011: Tax refunds are awesome :) We forgot we filed in January and our money came through the day before our mortgage was due. Aaron got a job AND by the grace of God, he was accepted into the very competitive Nursing Program. I mean, seriously, it was only through the Lord that it all worked out!

 

September 2011-July 2013: Clinicals in Minneapolis every week and holding down the fort at home with our 2 kiddos. We got used to the time away from each other but I now know what we were missing out on since we've had the last month together. Wow....time is SO important for marriage. I've just loved having my husband home every night! There was so much that happened during this time....just super intense, constant changes, instability, etc. We're still trying to catch our breath from last summer.

 

*Whew* I would do every part of this journey over again though. In a heartbeat....even the really hard times and incredibly scary times (even the uneasy, unknown phase we're in at the moment). I've learned so much. Maybe even more than my husband with his BSN :)

 

Thanks for reading all these years. In the future, I'm hoping to have more things to write about (our desire is to get a house with lots of land and character-meaning it's probably going to be a fixer-upper which we are excited to do again!), the lessons learned through this experience (things that were too close to home to write about at the time-i.e. money and the interesting things I've learned about it, struggles, etc.), and some preschool lesson plans (my hope is to start home preschool with Tristen this fall/winter)

 

What's next for us? Good question :) We're making a Plan A, B, C, and D. We're hoping that once Aaron passes his boards, he'll get a job that will help us know what to do next. Until then, we're staying put and taking one day at a time.....it's been interesting to not be able to commit to anything since we don't know where we'll be. It's been a good lesson of how to give up control. I've thought of any and all options of what to do if we're unemployed for a good deal of time and am planning on subbing if need be. Thank goodness for that Education degree that I stuck with. :)

 

And, yes, before you say it, I'll say it for you, "But, aren't there nursing jobs EVERYWHERE!?!" Yes, for experienced nurses. We just need to get our foot in the door to get that experience. Don't always believe the media.....they have glorified the "Nursing Shortage". But, something will pop up and we're confident of that. We'll let you know when that something pops up. Thanks again for all the support in this time of life! We so appreciate it :)

Happy Birthday, Aubrey!!

Happy Birthday to my sweet daughter, Aubrey!! :)

You are such a joy and such a sweet addition to our family. We love you, baby girl!


Pink Lemonade Party

Aubrey is going to be ONE year old on Tuesday!! I can't believe it!!! Today we celebrated her birthday with friends and family with a Pink Lemonade Party! Here's a little taste of the party:

 

 

 

 

 

 

She loved LOVED her cake :) It was hilarious the way she was diving right in :)

 

Someone else liked his cake :) Or, at least the frosting! Ha!

 

 

 

What a FUN day :) Happy almost birthday, Aubrey Beth!

One Month Left!!!

I looked at the date today. June 26th. WHAT!?! Well, that came quick.....Aaron has ONE month of Nursing School left. We're excited but getting a bit nervous about the job situation! Funny how the nursing shortage that the media talks about fails to mention that most places want to hire applicants with at least 1-3 years of experience. Getting the "first nursing job" is the hard part.

We're praying Aaron's internship turns into a job because he LOVES it. He's discovered that he likes surgery (and he's married to me, who HATES the sight of blood! Opposites attract!) so he would love to pursue that avenue of Nursing but we're willing to take ANY job right about now :)

Just a warning: the next month might be completely consumed with "end of Nursing school" and job searching posts. It's hard to think of anything else right now since we don't know what we'll be doing in a month! So, you've been warned :)

And with that, I'm off to prepare for Aubrey's first birthday party this weekend! I can't believe she's going to be a year!

Our park

We have a number of fantastic parks just minutes from our house. It is wonderful because 1)Parks are free! 2)We LOVE to go on walks. The day doesn't feel complete if we don't get a walk in  3)After 6+ months of being cooped up in the house, my kids love the change of scenery (and slides!) that parks provide. As Tristen puts it, "Mama, I'm all done being home". Yep, Tristen, I get it :) So, we go to "our parks" quite frequently (daily in fact!)

So, you can imagine our shock when we promised our kids we were going to go to the "goose park" (the one with the geese and the pond) only to see this:

 

A huge tree was uprooted!

 

 

Sad!!!

We had a significant thunderstorm the night before but we didn't even think about the damage it would do to the park! It looks like we'll need to visit another one for a little while :(

We are VERY grateful that our house didn't receive any damage. Some of our neighbors had significant damage-trees falling on garages, in their backyards, and one had a tree go through their roof. Yikes. I love storms but am thankful we were all safe during this one :)

Father's Day

We headed to Aaron's parents' house this past weekend to soak up the sun and celebrate Father's Day with them. Aaron's sister and her family were there as well so we had four kids that kept us entertained and laughing for hours :) This is mostly a picture post so, here it goes:

All 4 grandkids after church on Father's Day

 

Happy Father's Day to my hubby! He is a wonderful father to our children!

 

Aubrey enjoyed climbing over everything :) We have to watch this one every second! Today she ate dirt in the split second I turned my head!

 

Jack is such a happy baby....it was so fun to see his smiles and hear his giggles :)

 

The grandparents with their granddaughters

 

Evie and Tristen are hilarious together :) They played in the water every day and loved it!

Ahhh, it was a refreshing weekend but it will feel good to be home this weekend! We have a free symphony concert in the park that we always attend so that will keep us entertained. And, maybe we can find a parade around here....oh, I love summer parades :) Happy Wednesday all!



Our Weekends

We've had a couple great weekends with family. 2 weeks ago, my cousin got married in Northern Minnesota. The rain held off so they could have their outdoor ceremony and it was SO fun to see so many family members. Aubrey and I hitched a ride with my parents since Aaron is so swamped with school right now. Tristen stayed back with him for a little father/son weekend :)

My cousin, Kerry, and I

I don't get to see her much since we're many miles apart but everytime we're together, it seems like we're right back at my grandparents' house in South Dakota, playing basketball in the park or trying to beat our brothers in a game of Risk :)

 

The reception was in an old, refurbished barn. A-MAZING! It was beautiful and I think my parents absolutely need to turn their barn into something crazy cool like this :)

 

 

My little ray of sunshine :)

My niece Iylah was there and she's just about the funniest little thing I've ever known :) So spunky and funny! My cheeks hurt from laughing at her funny mannerisms the whole weekend :) What a girl :)

The happy couple!

For my 500th post

A few days ago, I started writing an "inspirational 500th" post (I had like one sentence to it and couldn't come up with much more :) Ha!) so I just kept putting off my 500th post because I didn't have the time or energy to write something inspirational. Today, I decided to ditch the inspirational stuff and just write a post :)

Umm, I can't believe I've been blogging for this long. I can't believe how much has happened in 5 1/2 years! Back then I was an assistant preschool teacher, Aaron was a youth pastor, we were new homeowners and trying to train our very naughty puppy :)

If I could tell myself something back then, it would be to get ready for 5 years of change and the challenge to persevere through it all.

I would encourage myself to find my stability in God and not in my family, house, job, etc.

I would tell myself that living very simply is actually pretty fun and money sure doesn't buy happiness.

I would tell myself that I would learn how to cook (I hated cooking back then!).

I would shock myself by saying that my husband would go back to school to become a nurse....something that was absolutely NOT on the horizon or even a thought back then.

I would smile and tell myself that becoming a mother will be one of the greatest joys I will ever experience.

I'm so glad I didn't know all this back then, however, because it has made the surprises that much better. I am so grateful for the past 5 years and I hope to keep blogging in the coming years. Thank goodness I don't know what's in store.....makes the journey all that more exciting and makes me absolutely trust in God's leading.

Speaking of unknowns, we are currently still waiting to see what the next step in our journey will be. Aaron is job searching but we don't have any news to report. We'll keep ya'll updated :) GREAT news though is that his internship is in Mankato! Yay!! Meaning, after this week, he'll be home every night. Oh.my.goodness......we are excited to have Daddy home and enjoy some of the summer with us!

Because I haven't posted any pics of the kiddos in a LONG time, here are a few!! We FINALLY had some sunshine yesterday!

We go to the park daily when Aaron is gone and Tristen loves to play in the sand. Ahhhh, I love summer play :)

What a Month

Wowzers! It's almost June already!?! This month of May has been CRAZY busy....this semester is kickin' us in the rear with it's busyness. Oh, Nursing School, please be over soon! Only 9 more weeks....I know we can do it!

SO....we went to Disneyworld last week! It was SOOO fun....I must say though, I don't know how people take little kids to Disneyworld. We ran around like little kids, trying to take in everything and we were EXHAUSTED by 9 at night! I can't imagine taking strollers and hauling tired kids around on top of it! Those of you that have done it with little kids, kudos to you! Maybe when my kids are older than 2 1/2 and 10 months, I would have the energy to take them there :)

We actually left the parks early the last 2 days to enjoy our resort in the evening. Ahhh, I didn't realize how long it had been since we sat by a pool and just READ.....it was incredibly relaxing and so refreshing/energizing. So, it was a fantastic vacation: lots of fun, exciting things to do (we like to stay busy on vacation!) yet we had some downtime to read and relax as well.

So, a few pics of our trip. As much as I know you would all love to see the 550 pics we took, I'll resist the urge to post a ton :) We picked last week to go because it was Aaron's week between his spring and summer semesters and also because it was one of the best times to go for small crowds. I would totally recommend going in May because the crowds were really not bad at all! We got to see everything we wanted to see and the wait time for rides was between 5-20 minutes. SO not bad at all! The only day that was crazy was Friday which happened to be Star Wars weekend at Hollywood Studios. If you don't want crowds, don't go on Star Wars weekend! It was pretty entertaining to see people dressed in head to toe in Star Wars gear though.....crazy people!

I could get used to waking up to this every morning :) The view outside our room :) 

                                                                                                       

First stop: Magic Kingdom....we had SO much fun seeing everything!

 

Second stop: Animal Kingdom. My fave ride? Expedition Everest

Because the park wasn't super busy, we went on it 5 times!! So great :)

 

Third stop: Epcot. My husband is going to LOVE that I put this pic up :) Haha! Showing off our Norwegian roots!

 

Fourth stop: Hollywood Studios. (complete with the Star Wars weekend craziness!)

 

Oh, in case you were wondering, our kids did great at grandma's house! It was a sweet moment when we were reunited with them though!! And, my dear sweet baby girl decided to hold off on taking her first steps :) She is standing on her own now and is close to walking (I still give it a month though since she just enjoys standing for a few seconds and moving her arms to music!) but I was just sure something would click and she would all of a sudden take her first steps while I was gone! *whew* I liked seeing her still using furniture to walk when I picked her up on Saturday.

 

Okay, I need to finish up.....I guess this is what I get when I don't blog much anymore. LONG, drawn out posts :)

 

Happy Memorial Day weekend (woah, for real? Is it really Memorial Day weekend?)



Checking In

I'm still here. I know it's been a while but words just haven't been coming to me as of late. In the past week, my kiddos decided to completely rock my world and start taking a 2 hour nap AT THE SAME time. Oh.my.goodness. It has been amazing that I don't even know what to do with myself sometimes. Today I watched a movie....like an ENTIRE movie without interruptions (I can't remember the last time I did that!).

We've been busy with normal everyday things and short weekend trips here and there. We're pretty much staying put in Minnesota for the next few months (besides our vacation in a mere 2 weeks!!! Ahhh!) so it was nice to get all the traveling done and really buckle down for the busy summer.

In 2 weeks, we start applying for jobs. Wow. It's already to that point. We're so ready and anxious to see where and WHAT kind of job Aaron will get. It's hard not to dwell on it CONSTANTLY. It's a constant battle to live in the here and now.

And with that, I hear my kids talking in their room. Happy Tuesday, all. Hopefully more updates (and pictures) to come :)

Oh the Fun

I like an escape from our schedule. This week was all about getting away from our schedule and it was SO great.....we came back MUCH more tired but it was worth it!

Aubrey LOVED the waterpark....Tristen did too but he's more cautious than she is so he needed extra prodding from his daddy to go down any slides. It was great fun though and Aaron and I took advantage of the waterslides too!!

 

We met our nephew, Jack, on Sunday. He's super cute and oh so tiny still. Here are a few pics of our visit with him:

 

My sister-in-law, Sarah, and I threw Lindsay a baby shower. I love throwing parties and had a BLAST with this theme! We went with an outdoors/wood theme and enjoyed some yummy "woods" theme food (complete with my fave s'mores dip EVER!!)

Oh.So.Fun.

 

 

My other highlight of the weekend was time with my cousin, Amber and her family! I just realized that I forgot to take pics while there but we loved catching up with them and playing with her kiddos!!

 

And with that, I need to catch up on laundry and get back to my schedule....we have a few more days of spring break and then 2 busy months leading up to our vacation to Disneyworld (which is Aaron's next break in between spring and summer sessions). Aaron starts a clinical rotation next week that will enable him to be home every night. We are SO excited to say the least :) Hope you're all having a great week!