Our New Purchase

This morning has been very laid back.  I had a conference call this morning with my graduate school adviser, which went amazingly well!  I feel almost relieved since talking with her.  I have been stressing over how I will manage my time with work, school, and family and my adviser really put me at ease on how well the professors really are at understanding life commitments.  I'm sure my fears are of the "unknown" but the call this morning really helped to calm the nerves a bit! After my call, I attempted to be creative and make "octopus" for the kids for lunch as I had seen on Pinterest several weeks ago.

Well my attempt was a fail and the kids did not find the hot dogs more interesting to eat. But at least I can say that I tried, right?

Yesterday was quite chaotic as I usually have Friday's off but I had a work conference and Bryan was helping our friends move. So the kids spent the day with the great grandparents and Bryan was able to get a lot accomplished. INCLUDING... finishing up the details on our new purchase....a 2005 Jayco 29 Foot Travel Trailer.  We are so thrilled!  After several years of camper shopping, we have finally made the big purchase!  We will be doing lots of camping this summer.

 Unfortunately I do not have any pictures because it was so chaotic yesterday with having to inspect the camper, negotiate the price, go to the bank, and sign all the papers. But we got it all done and now they will clean it all up, replace a seal, and we will pick it up in a couple of weeks.  I'm sure I'll go over there soon to take another walk though since I have only seen it once.  We had stopped by on Thursday evening since it was the Spring Open House and checked out several trailers but they were either 1)not what we wanted or 2)out of our price range.  So we were about to head out when we checked out the last one and it was the best one we had seen in years.  It feels so "homey" and it has only had 1 owner who kept it immaculate!The kids will finally have the bunk beds that we have been trying to find!

Pictures will be sure to follow soon but in the meantime, here are some pictures I pulled from online of the same layout as ours...

 The main living area...

If you walk up the steps in the above picture and turn to the left, there are 2 bunk beds (below) which will work great for the kids!  Bryleigh will even be able to sleep in the bottom bunk as it is floor level!

The "Master" Suite.... (Okay, that's a  little exaggerated!)

The bathroom is between the "Master" Suite and the main living area...

So there you have it,  a little tour! Now I will not have to be so picky when we go camping.  My campground necessity checklist will not longer have to include: a flushable toilet and clean showers :)

Under the weather..

The weather has been a bit chilly the last couple of days but the sun is still shining. Unfortunately for the past several days, this momma has been feeling icky.  I'm tired from morning til night (And I mean really tired like drink 4 cups of coffee and still take a nap), nausea, and just all over blah. So besides a little bit of getting outside for a while, its been laying on the couch for me with tons of help from the hubby.

We were able to make it to our friends house for a cookout last night but I just sat down really because I just wanted to sleep.  But the kids had fun playing with trains...

 And Bryleigh went on the potty and wore undies for a couple hours while keeping them dry!  We are slowly but surely getting the potty concept!

Now off to a conference in Wausau for the day.  Of course, I have to do a work function on the one time a year that I am really feeling icky.

Hi Ho to the doctor we go

I feel like in the past couple months,  we have either been at the doctor, at the walk in clinic, or calling the doctor for either one of the kids or for myself.  So today was no exception when I decided to take Bryleigh back to the doctor after she was diagnosed with a yeast infection at the walk in clinic about 3 weeks ago that has never gone away. Her poor butt will just not get any better so I decided it was time.  So we have yet another cream to try for her, since she is apparently resistant or immune to the other 2 creams we have tried.

The poor thing has the most sensitive skin than anyone I have every met. Since she was a newborn, she always had some type of rash.  If it wasn't baby acne, then it was eczema, or baby measles.  Geesh, this girl will definitely help us to reach our cost share cap for insurance this year! Each time we take her in, she gets prescribed another cream which is at least $20 each cream.  So today, we walked away with another cream for her yeast infection and an antibiotic for the sinus infection that I believe developed from the allergies and pink eye that she had last week.  We have quite the pharmacy going for this girl...

She has so many creams that I have started to mark what they are for so hopefully we can re use them for rashes in the future.  I took a bag to the doctor today in hopes that one of them could be reused but no such luck :( Hopefully we have the right fix this time and she can get all better.  Both sets of her cheeks need some serious treatment right now, the poor girl! 

It takes a lot to keep this pretty little thing looking and feeling good!

As you can tell, her new favorite past time is playing in the bathroom sink "washing hands."

And to end with a bit of inappropriate humor from our drive home over the weekend...

How can you not laugh at our little miss priss but yet so tom boy at the same time.  Is that even possible?  Well I guess anything is possible with our little munchkin.  Just to clarify,  I do encourage "Say excuse me!" after her inappropriate "I farted" comments :)

Back to the real world

Today has been a day of getting back into the normal routine.  Bryleigh took an extra long nap that she desperately needed but I, on the other hand, was tired all day.  So after cooking dinner, we relaxed and built some castles..

And watched some shows and cartoons! 

I'm one tired girl so its off to bed for me!  Happy Monday!

Mall of America

This weekend we had a mini getaway and went to the Mall of America.  The last time we went was a miserable experience as Bryleigh was about 9 months old and was right on the verge of learning to walk and did NOT want to sit in a stroller.  This weekend was much better!  We had our moments considering we have two children under 5 in a huge mall for hours at time, but nothing that couldn't be easily managed.  Bryleigh did amazing sleeping in her pack n play.  She would lay down, talk and play for about a 1/2 hour and then fall asleep and wake up around 8am.  We were dreading the sleeping situation since she usually does not fall asleep easily anywhere but in her own crib but she was an angel when it came to sleeping.  We were even able to get her to nap at the mall.

The kids (especially Bryleigh) had a blast just looking out our hotel room window to see the airplanes landing and taking off about every 30 seconds. It was definitely a way to entertain the kids for a bit! 

 In between finding summer clothes for the kids and several things for myself and Bryan, we made a few stops along the way!  We stopped at the Peep store and had tons of free candy samples. 

Christian helped me mix together some Mike and Ike flavors.  I wish we had one of these closer!  I LOVE Mike and Ike's but only the pink, red, blue, and watermelon flavors! 

 Here is our little miss priss who does not like any type of bug, critter, or anything that appears to resemble a moving insect, holding a hermit crab.  We sat here for about 5 minutes just holding crabs.  But this little stinker will scream, cry,  and try to exit the bathtub if she sees a piece of fuzz because she thinks its a bug.  Uh sigh, what am I going to do with her :)

We made a stop at Lego Land since last time we were at MOA it was under renovations and were unable to play.  

The Disney Store turned out to be renovated also and was a bit hit.  A little playhouse and a big screen TV playing cartoons, I swear these stores do not want us to leave!

All of the action tired this girl right out!  But Christian did amazing the whole weekend.  

 The hotel was packed but we braved the crowd and made it down to the swimming pool for some water action!  Christian was a little fishy and Bryleigh was a little too daring jumping into the water!  But they kept going over the hot tub.  Cold blooded, just like their mom, I guess!

The hotel has an amazing continental breakfast with eggs, sausage, and all so each morning we filled the kids up before heading out for the day!

 So if God doesn't work in miraculous ways...When I was a teenager, every year for my birthday, I wanted to go Mall of America. So my parents would let me take my best friend, Audrey, and we would spend the weekend at a hotel and shop. Every time, we go to MOA, it brings back so many memories of the fun things that me and my bestie used to do. As soon as we got there on Friday, I was reminiscing about this place that Audrey and I ate or shopped, and about an hour into being there, guess who we miraculously ran into, Audrey and her boyfriend, Kyle.  What a small world!  We are still best friends, but we each have our own crazy, busy lives so we don't get to catch up as much as I would like since she lives an hour or so away. But it happened to be her birthday weekend and she decided to spend it at MOA.  It was just so funny to meet her there.  We had planned to meet for lunch but in between tending to the kids and shopping, it didn't happen. But we will definitely be meeting up this summer to get up to speed on each other's lives :)

Overall, we had a great weekend but we are happy to be home.  I need the confined environment of our own home after a long weekend of letting the kids run wild. Christian even was able to take Dad into putting together his lego set that he bought!

Bows and Bedtime

Its been very low key here the past few days.  Not much to update on.  I've been working late as it must be a full moon month or something because all of my patients have been giving me a run for my money and by the time I get home, I am exhausted! 

We are getting ready for a little weekend getaway and although I really should be packing, I decided to throw a few bows together for Bryleigh.  A girl has to have new bows for a fun trip :)

I also made a new recipe for dinner tonight! Baked Cream Cheese Spaghetti Casserole from I'm sure you can guess...Pinterest! 

The picture is not mine but it looks just like this!  It was very good.  It was a hit with the kids and they even had seconds.  Of course this earned them some Dairy Queen Blizzards for dessert ;) 

We just finished reading our bed time story and now I really need to get the packing done.  You would think that we are going to be gone for 2 weeks for as much stuff as we need to bring.  And I thought having a baby required a lot of stuff, apparently, a toddler requires just as much stuff! 

Good night all!

Tagged,I'm It

I was tagged by one of my sweet blog friends, Tesha.  I thought it would fun to share some random facts about myself so here it goes...

Game Rules:

1. Post these rules.

2.Post a photo of yourself and 11 random things.

3. Answer the questions set for you in the original post.

4. Create 11 new questions and tage poeple to answer the.

5. Go to their blog and tell them you've tagged them.

Although I'm going to skip #4 and #5 since the majority of my readers are my family/friends who do not have blog accounts. 

Me at 2 years old

 

11 Random Things about Me

1. I am addicted to caffeine.... I live on coffee and energy drinks.

2. I was born and raised in Wisconsin Rapids, WI. I lived in the same house my entire life. And I will probably always remain here as I love being by my family.

3. I have always hated cooking probably because I'm not good at it.  I have started to test out more recipes and I'm getting better.

4. I graduated high school early and started college and then graduated college in 3.5 years.

5. My sister and I were married on the same day!  We had a double wedding and it was amazing.  (Although her marriage ended in divorce, it was still amazingly right for us at the time.)

6. My all time favorite movie is Sweet Home Alabama.

7.I love every movie with Denzel Washington and now Channing Tatum in it.

8. I make and sell little girls tutus, tutu dresses, hair bows and hair clips at Bryleigh's Bowtique

9. My husband has a brain tumor and he uses this excuse for everything!  (You think I'm kidding! Ha Ha)

10. Bryan and I were good friends in high school but didn't start dating until after graduation.  We just celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary.

11. We names our daugher, Bryleigh, by combining mine and my husband's names...Bryan and Kallie.

Questions from Tesha:

1.What is your greatest achievement?
 Graduating from college and now my recent acceptance into the Master's of Social Work Program at UW Madision which I start in the fall.

2. If you could give the world a message what would it be?

Cherish every day here on Earth because you never know when it you will meet our maker!

3. What is your DREAM day?

Bryan and I want to renew our vows on our 10 year anniversary on Coronado Island in San Diego, CA where we were engaged with our kiddos present this time!

4.Describe what you think heaven will be like in a few words?

Unimaginably Perfect

5.If you could ask God a question what would you ask?

I know that all the answers in the Bible but I still always wonder why little children must suffer from poverty, abuse, and pain.

6. How would you describe yourself in a few words?

Impatient, Compassionate, undeservingly  blessed

7.When you were a little girl how many kids did you want to have?

I have always wanted 2 children but now that I have 2, I would like 1 more.

8. If you could have picked your name ....what would it be?

I've always liked my name, but my middle name is Amber and I have never liked it.  As a child, I always wanted a middle name like Marie or Ann (the more common names at the time.)

9.When do you pray?

I pray at night but I have short prayers throughout the day.

10.If you could be anybody for one day, who would you be?

I actually do not know.  I'm very much enjoying my life so I don't think I would want to be any one else :)

11. What is your most prized material possession?

I would have to say my house since I love coming home to our own cozy home where I share my life with my wonderful family! And our family pictures, I love looking at our memories that we have made!

Compassion

Over the past year or so of being in this blogging community, I have found so many great people who have shared so many stories of their lives. One such blog that I have been following is Kelly's Korner. She is such a Godly woman, and such an inspiration in how she uses her family blog to share her Faith and experiences with others.  She has shared many times about her mission trips through Compassion and her joy in sponsoring a child through Compassion International.  I loved hearing about her journey.  Kelly also has a "Show Us Your Life Fridays" in which bloggers link up to her post in regards to that week's topic. Several weeks ago, the Friday's topic was "Ministry Wives."  I love finding new blogs to read so I was reading through several of the Ministry Wives blogs when I came across this blog...Story of My Life.  In Mary's blog, she also discussed her mission trip through Compassion in which she was able to meet the child that she sponsors.  And if God doesn't work in great ways, one of my daily reads and also a friend I worked with in college, Jenna, also sponsored a little boy several weekends ago through a Compassion church event.  What a life changing experience!

I thought this was just amazing and decided to research further into this organization. And the more I read about the history and purpose of Compassion, I knew this was something that I wanted to do...Sponsor a child.  I was so excited so Bryan and I sat down and talked about this.  Bryan was all for this idea as he has wanted to do this also. Bryan informed me that he did not want to "pick" a child as how do you just pick 1 child out of all the children that need a sponsor.  But after I "accidentally" clicked on a little boy, I couldn't help but fall in love, and I also felt the need to sponsor little Manuel when we read that his birthday is August 19, 2007, which is also the day that we welcomed Christian into God's family with his baptism.  How special is it that Christian and little Manuel would share something so special!  We knew that God wanted us to sponsor this little boy! 

Here is our little Manuel:

Bryan and I are thrilled to be part of Compassion mission of "releasing children from poverty in Jesus' name."  Not only are we able to provide financially for a child, but we are also able to write letters and send pictures to our child, as well as receive letters and pictures. We received our sponsorship packet in the mail today!  Maybe one day, we too, can visit the child that we are sponsoring.

Maybe you will consider sponsoring a child today also! What a great way to contribute to the life and faith of a little child that needs uplifting!  I have added a link on my sidebar for anyone that interested in learning more about Compassion!

Sunny Sunday

I just want to start off by adding that so many of our friends wished us well on our 5 year anniversary yesterday and we really appreciate it!  We had our cousin, Lindsey, babysit last night while we went to Tokyo Steakhouse for Dinner!  And Mmmmm was it good, I just love Hibachi Grills. Although I became the target for laughter because apparently its not usual for customers to ask for A-1 Steak sauce.  I was so embarrassed after I realized that this was probably a "dis" to the chef.  Mental note taken for next time :)  And just for the record, the steak didn't even need the steak sauce, I should have just tasted the steak before asking for sauce :)  After dinner, we went to the theater and we saw  "21 Jumpstreet"  with my eye candy Channing Tatum!  It was so funny!  I'm glad Bryan and I went out for a date night! 

Today was another 80 degree day!  We packed up the kids bikes this morning and went over to our friend's house to let the kids play.  The kids just love playing together, and they can learn from each other.

Landon learned to ride his bike without training wheels this weekend and we were hoping to spark Christian's interest in learning but he wanted nothing to do with this.  Christian has never really shown an interest in his bike and it is so frustrating because we really want to teach him so we can go for bike rides more often since the kids fight if we put them in the bike trailer together.  So after many attempts at trying to convince him to learn (and a lot of whining), we gave up. So we did the next best thing...we loosened up the training wheels so he can at least learn balance until he shows more interest.  Maybe in another 2 years we will finally have an independent bike rider :)  

Now on the other hand, Bryleigh already wants to learn to ride a bike.  I think its time we buy a trike or small bicycle for Bryleigh because she was loving this little trike! She was peddling all over the driveway!

And with the weather being so nice, we decided to let Bryleigh run around without a diaper on for a while since she has a horrible rash that just won't go away.  We took her in about a week ago and the Dr. said it was a yeast infection but I think we are going to have to make a second trip back to the doctor because its not getting any better.  On the plus side, we brought the potty outside and Bryleigh went in it 3 times so far today.  I hope this might be a another start to an interest in potty training (if the M&M's aren't reward enough, I don't know what it!) We will have to see, since we had  false hope about a month or so ago and since then, she has had no interest. 

Our friends live right along Lake Camelot so we took a little nature hike!

Now the kids are relaxing for a bit before we head to dinner with the family!

Our 5th Anniversary

Today, Bryan and I celebrate our 5 year anniversary!  I can't believe we have been married for this long already.  I can still so clearly remember our wedding night, a St. Patrick's Day that I will never forget! 

It's amazing to think at how far we have come in the past 5 year! Marriage has been a mix of ups and downs, but I love that Bryan and I have learned to work so well together as a couple, as well as a team, to parent our 2 beautiful kids!  Marriage has been one of compromise, understanding, and commitment!  In no way has it been easy, and to say that we were "overjoyed newlyweds" would be false.  We started our marriage with many stressors within the first year including:  Coping with Bryan's Illness, buying our first home, and welcoming our first child, Christian.  It was a lot of changes and it took a lot of working together and understanding to keep our marriage strong!  I feel extremely blessed with our current relationship and I can honestly say that I feel like a "newlywed" now more than I did 5 years ago.  We know each others quirks and pet peeves and now we can just work on being a family!

As we said our "I do's" 5 years ago today, I did not truly know the extent of what our life would soon entail and now looking back.  we have truly made the most of our vows!

I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad...(We have definitely experienced both good and bad.)

  In sickness and in health... (Bryan's sickness has been a struggle.)

 For richer or for poorer... (We have been poor at times.)

 And I will love you and honor you all the days of my life. 

I'm so blessed with what we have overcome and have still made it through!  Though hard at times, I vow to never stop trying to be the best wife and mother that I can be! 

And as I remember our first dance to "This I Swear" by Nick Lachey...the lyrics ring true.

You're there by my side
Everywhere
I know that you will not forsake me
I give you my life
Would not think twice
Your love is all I need, believe me

I may not say it quite as much as I should
But when I say I love you darlin' that means for good
So open up your heart and let me in

And I will love you, till forever
Until death do us part we'll be together
So take my hand, and hold on tight
And we'll get there
And this I swear

I'm wonderin' how
I ever got by
Without you in my life to guide me
Wherever I go
The one thing that's true
Is everything I do I do for you

I may not say it half as much as I should
When I say I love you darlin' that means for good
So open up your heart and let me in

And I will love you, till forever
Until death do us part we'll be together
So take my hand, and hold on tight
And we'll get there
This I swear

So whenever you get free
Just reach out for me
I'll never let you down, my love

And I will love you, until forever
Until death do us part we'll be together
So take my hand, and hold on tight
We'll get there

And I will love you, until forever
Until death do us part we'll be together
So take my hand, and hold on tight
And we'll get there, ooh we'll get there
This I swear

I have a wonderful husband that even loves me when I do selfish things :) (Like feed myself cake at our reception....but on my behalf, I had a hungry baby growing inside of me!)

I look forward to what the rest of our life together may bring!