The parade fell short...

St. Clair days came and went without much excitement. Ben's parents, his sister (Jennifer), and nephew (Ian) all came over to join us in watching the parade on Sunday afternoon. The kids got lots of candy - and we had a hot dog lunch afterwards.
Saturday afternoon my parents stopped by and Rex cooked us some of his notorious ribs on the grill. Ben and Rex spent some time talking "guy stuff" around the grill, while my mom and I clucked around the house (which is still coming together, bit by bit). Before our ribs were even done a nasty storm hit. The weather went from calm and quiet to extremely strong wind, in just a matter of seconds. The wind got so strong and violent, in fact, that we considered all going down to the basement. Luckily, it only lasted a few minutes and the dinner plans continued.
The presentation Ben gave at the Tech Conference for Taylor went really well. He's glad it's all over with nonetheless. It's nice to have our evenings and weekends to ourselves again.
We have decided to take the back bedroom, and give the baby the bedroom in the front of the house. Because there was paneling on two of the walls in the back bedroom we tore it down and put up sheet rock instead. The sheet rock/taping job in there isn't very quality either, so the rest of the walls and ceiling will be getting some touch ups as well.
Once we have that done, we will move into that bedroom and begin painting the baby's room.
There are a lot of other little things we would like to do (such as paint the living and dining rooms, etc.), but we are trying to pace ourselves.
In the mean time, we are preparing for our new family member's arrival. The carseat/stroller were purchased and the cradle was ordered last week. I even purchased some Dreft already, so that I can get everything washed before the big day. We have talked about packing the hospital bag, but haven't really gotten around to that yet.
Just think, the year is half over already. Wow, time does go by so fast. It's going to be Christmas again before we know it!
If I don't post again before then, have a fun 4th of July holiday!

And a funny link from Kelly

This is a pretty funny video of a guy doing the "evolution of dance". It's six minutes long, but wasn't a problem for us, and we are using DSL speed.
This is a pretty good laugh - thanks Kelly!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMH0bHeiRNg

Things are still going well here. Ben gave his presentation at the Taylor Tech Conference today and it went really well. Not that I expected anything less, of course. My husband is a very smart, capable man. Maddie is enjoying her summer so far. She and Ben just left to go to the park and play basketball. I had another checkup and the baby is head down and "in the right position" according to my doctor. Now it's just a matter of time. :)

It's St. Clair days this week/weekend. I think a couple of you will be joining us to watch the parade, or to check out the city wide garage sales this weekend. I am looking forward to the Belgian waffle breakfast on Sunday morning too. Give us a call if you would like to join us for any of the festivities!

I hope everyone is happy and doing well!

We're still here

Well, we have lived in our new house for over half a month. We still like it so far.
Now that we are done with the move, and done with vacation, things are calming down a little bit.
The unpacking is coming along pretty well. It hasn't been a frantic pace, yet we are getting there pretty quickly. Our house looks a lot less like a storage shed and is becoming much more comfortable.
Colt has adjusted quite well to the change in scenery. He seems to like having more room to run around the house. Sometimes, I can hear him making his rounds in the middle of the night. When we went on vacation he got to stay at my mom's and play with her dog, Daisy Doodles. They are the best of friends, and they have always played so well together. I think it was a nice treat for him after the stress of the move, to be able to play with Daisy for a few days.
Maddie has been pretty busy arranging and decorating her bedroom - over and over again. I think she is really enjoying the extra space she has gained. She has picked up a few things to customize her room (such as wall decals, a canopy for her bed, etc.), and plans to paint the room pink and lavender. Now that things are settling down it won't be long before the painting gets done.
We need to paint the baby's room and purchase a cradle and carseat in the next few weeks. I think we are going to go shopping for the carseat/stroller combo tonight, actually. That will be exciting, since we haven't really bought anything for the baby yet.

Baby is still doing very well. It feels like he is really growing right now, as my belly is getting bigger by the minute. He enjoys playing footsie with my ribs/lungs and he's stretching a lot. I am at the point now, where I have to see my OB every two weeks. This seems to make the weeks go by even faster. Which is good, because we are all looking forward to the big day.

Maddie and I have gotten the chance to see my friend Sherri, and her little Tayla the last couple days. Coincidentally, we were both having work done on our vehicles Wednesday and Thursday - so we had coffee both days. Maddie is smitten with Tayla, and understandably so. She is such a sweet little angel! Of course, this has made Maddie all the more anxious for her little brother to arrive. :)
She is hovering over my belly pretty tightly these days. She doesn't want to miss a kick or a hiccup lately.

Maddie also got a tour of her new school this past Tuesday. It's such a nice school, and luckily, her new teacher was around. She's pretty scared about being the new kid, but I think she's equally excited. I am really excited for her! There are so many opportunities at this school that she wasn't offered in Mankato. She can be in any sport she wishes, they don't do "try outs" so it's simply up to her. She can choose an instrument if she wants to be in band this year, and in the fall they have what they call "Cheerleading Camp". When that was mentioned I saw her eyes light up. Apparently, it's the high school cheerleaders teaching the girls her age some of the school cheers. I think Maddie just likes the opportunity to jump around and yell in a coordinated outfit - but don't we all? :-P

St. Clair days start on the 19th of June. We got a flyer and it looks like there will be some fun activities during that week. Maybe Maddie will meet some friends to play with this summer.

I hope everyone is enjoying their spring/summer. I'm sure we will see a lot of you very soon.
Take care, be safe, and have fun!

The March Family Move

We are officially moved!
We packed everything up from the house on Broad Street on Tuesday, the 30th. We stayed in Mapleton Tuesday night, then Wednesday morning we stopped by the Broad Street house one last time (so I could give the kitchen and bathroom the last once over with some cleanser). I wanted it to sparkle and smell clean for the buyer's walk through at 8:15. Our walk through was at 8:30 in St. Clair, and afterwards we headed over to the closing on the sale of our home on Broad Street. The closing was at 9:00, but we didn't get in to sign our share of the paperwork until 9:50. This was cutting it pretty close for us, since we had to close on the house in St. Clair at 10:00 the same morning. Fortunately for us (unfortunately for the seller), there were some slight complications on his end. This delayed things by about 20 minutes, so we weren't late after all. Luckily, everything went really well for both our closings, and we were able to get everyone rounded up right away after the last closing so we could start the move-in process.
We are very fortunate to have a lot of family to have helped us. Thank you again for all your help!!

Colt was pretty nervous and wound up most of the month of May, with all the packing. It (of course) only got worse when we loaded the truck on Tuesday. But once we were in the new house he started to settle in pretty quickly. Within a day or two he seemed to be pretty well adjusted already - with the exception of some lingering separation anxiety. He has had a pretty hard time being away from us (as in, more than a foot or two away). The first few days he would whine and bark if we even got out of his reach while we has tied up. Even in the house, he started to bark at us for attention, from time to time. It hasn't been even a week yet, but he's already getting better about that. I think he's a pretty resilient dog.
He is still extremely clingy with me though. He has been pretty protective and watchful over me while Ben and Maddie were gone during the weekdays. I'm so glad we got such a sweet dog. I know he can been a buffoon sometimes when company comes, but really is one of the most loving dogs I know.

I have already started considerations for the paint color in the baby's room, and I think Maddie has decided on just the right colors for her room as well. Our living room and dining room are currently a...green color. Not sure how to describe it, I guess we have a shade of "evergreen" and a lighter shade that is something of a lime/olive/evergreen as well. Really looked fine with the previous owner's setup, but it clashes with our furniture and the beautiful Jack Vettriano print Ben gave me for Christmas. So I think it is going to have to go. I don't think we will have time to paint over those greens any time soon though. The kids' rooms are going to be taken care of first.
My mom bought me an orange lily when I moved into my house on Broad Street, and it has grown to be such a big, healthy plant - and I LOVE lilies. I brought it with to our new home and so far it's doing quite well. Looks like we will have our first blooms within a week! My mom also brought us some tomato and pepper plants today, so we have a little garden started now too. We LOVE our new back yard! We have already spent a decent amount of time on our deck with various family members who have visited. We have already grilled twice as well. The central air is nice too.

I guess this only applies to anyone local, but I wanted to mention that should anyone around here need a realtor we highly recommend Angie Jenkins at Homestead Realty in Mapleton. She was wonderful to work with and ran her behind off for us! We really wish we would have sold our house through her as well - she would have deserved that commission.

Maddie's last day of school was this past Friday, so she will be here to keep me company for the next few months. Ben will be doing a presentation at this year's Tech Conference for Taylor Corporation, which is held during the month of June. We will also be heading to Lake Koronis this Friday for the March family vacation. Maddie still hasn't gotten to see my friend's new little girl, so we are planning on getting together with her yet this week. We also have to get Maddie a tour of the school here in St. Clair, and I have dentist and OB appointments. Throw the vacation packing and shopping into the mix and we have a pretty crazy schedule for the immediate future!

This entry is a long one, but there has been so much going on in our lives! We hope everyone is having a wonderful summer, and we send you all our love. I will try to get a family photo in front of the new house or something - we'll see. :)