During "The Long Winter"

I like winter, I really do. I love snow and don't mind the cold for a few days/weeks....but once it hits February, I'm ready for temps to be in the 20's at least! So, this very VERY cold stretch in Minnesota is not fun at the moment! It's almost March for goodness sake!

Here are a few things we've done to make this incredibly long winter go fast:

LOTS of coloring! Aubrey especially loves to sit and color.

There have only been a few days that we've ventured outside sadly. It's just been SO cold but at least we've had a few good snow days!

Aubrey likes to bury herself in the snow :)

Tristen loves pulling his sister! It's fun to see him initiate play with her.

We've found some great places around town that offer indoor play! Tristen is pretending to buy groceries at the pretend grocery store in the Children's Museum.

I guess Aubrey only wanted to buy eggs :)

 

Baking cookies! I wish I could say we've done this more. I thought I would be the mom that wouldn't care if flour and sugar was all over the floor as long as my kids are having fun. Only a few days have I felt up to "creating a huge mess" all for the sake of baking a few good cookies :) Maybe when my kids are better at cleaning up, we'll make more cookies together!

A quick trip to the Zoo! We're only an hour from the Zoo and when you're cooped up for 5'ish months, that hour drive is well worth it!

Building Legos. Tristen is WAY into legos now! He loves to build and create structures (and play with the ones his dad makes!)

Aubrey gets in on the Lego action as well

We had a Color Week and I showed Tristen how to mix primary colors. This entertained him for almost an entire morning! Maybe I should pull out the food coloring and water again tomorrow!

Ahhhh, music. We LOVE music around these parts! Aaron currently gives a neighbor boy drum lessons and it always leads our kids into wanting to play with drums and take out their instruments! It brings out the fun (and craziness!) when we can't go outside!

My personal favorite :) Tristen sees Aaron and I reading our Bibles as we eat in the morning so he has asked to "read" his Bible while he eats his breakfast as well. Warms our hearts :)

The mall playplace and carousel. I know it's a germfest but sometimes, you just have to get out and let your kids run around! So far we haven't gotten sick (Cross our fingers we will stay well!)

 

We've had some fun moments......but I absolutely cannot WAIT for walks to the park and feeling the sunshine hitting my face!! Come on, Spring!!!

5 months later....

Oh where to even begin.....

5 months is a long time!

We've been busy.....we've been tired.....I just haven't had the desire to blog.

However, today while talking with a friend, the subject of blogging came up and I thought, "Hmmm, maybe it's time to put together that much needed blog post. Time to get caught up."

So, here I am....getting caught up. I'll put it into categories so you can breeze over what you don't want to read :)

JOBS
Aaron is LOVING his job. He has told me numerous times that he is in his dream job. He works in the Emergency Dept. but focuses more on heart related issues-a passion of his since he started Nursing School. He gets the craziness of the ER but also gets a break from it when he gets a patient with heart related issues. It's a perfect fit for him.

On top of him working at the hospital, he has also picked up an on call position at an Assisted Living place to fill in the gaps when he doesn't get overtime at the hospital. He's in training right now so he's been working quite a few hours! We'll be happy when the training is done and it's very part time!

I've been using my teaching degree again! In December, I decided to do very part time substitute teaching on the days that Aaron is at home. It is usually only once a week and many weeks, he is working so much that it's not possible. The last few jobs have been SO fun (and only 4 hours long! Even better!) and it's been nice to get out of the home, meet new people, and think on my feet as a sub. Sometimes I questioned being a teacher but looking back, this was the perfect degree for me. I can stay at home with my kids but pick up hours as a sub at any time! It works out great!

SOOO, can you see how we've been busy!?! Umm, yeah....well, on top of that....

KIDS

Baby #3 is due July 19th!! We're jumping on the three kid bandwagon!! We even bought a minivan recently so we're REALLY jumping on it :) We're excited to welcome another babe into our household! Aubrey and the baby will be 2 years apart and Tristen will be 3 1/2 when it's born! Bring on the craziness! :)

Aubrey has grown so much since September. She's a running, spunky, very adventurous little girl who has started talking a mile a minute. (well, I can understand her...maybe no one else can!) :) She seems to want to play with Tristen's toys but still has a bit of girl in her since she LOVES her babies and pushing them in strollers. She's going to be a great big sister!

Tristen turned 3 in December. We were all sick around his birthday and into the New Year. Poor guy didn't get much of a celebration this year because of that! He is growing up even in the things he likes to play with now. He's all into Superheroes and Star Wars and is perfectly content building Legos with Aaron. He phrases many sentences with, "I think.....it's over there. "I think Aubrey wants to play with me. I think it's time for TV" Pretty funny :) We do a very loose home preschool with him....sometimes I'm on top of having a theme and activities ready for him and other weeks (like this week) are more playing with other friends and just getting out of the house!

LIFE IN GENERAL

It really is amazing how fast life can go. Aaron commented to me last night that life is going so fast and our kids are growing up WAY too fast. It helps remind me not to rush the present. Since it's FREEZING cold outside in MN these days, I've been wishing for summer, wishing for our third baby to arrive, wishing for life to slow down just a bit. But, seeing our kids and how fast life is going, I just want to stay in the present and live fully in the present. Always a hard thing for me to do :)

Since finding out Aaron got a job here, we have been getting really involved in our church! It has been a huge blessing and we both love helping with youth group on Wednesday nights and getting to know families from church. We are becoming members in the very near future and are excited about that!

Ummm, what else.....buying a different house is on the back burner at the moment so we're finding new and creative ways to fit 3 kiddos, 2 adults, 1 dog, and 9 fish into a 1,095 square foot house. Seriously, it's doable! We just have to be even more creative!

I think that's about it....thanks for reading my incredibly long, 5 month update!