Kitty's

Luke named all the kitty's last night. My kid has quite the sense of humor! Dorito, Cheeto, Chimichanga, Lasagna, & Pizza. LMBO! Here are some pictures the boys & I took last night.

Here is Dorito. LOL

Taco had her babies!!

When I got home this afternoon from work Ben told me to check out how skinny Taco was again. I was so excited to hear that she finally had her babies! Now we had to try to find them...that isn't so easy on 5 acres of land! First we checked the stove shed, I thought she would be there for sure. Nope, not there. We looked everywhere, the garage, under the front deck, in the boat, in the wood pile. Nowhere to be found. I was really wishing Taco could talk right now. Ben then looked in his workbench. Yep, that's where she had them....in a cabinet in Ben's workbench. Funny! So, Taco had 5 of the cutest little babies. They are all black like she is & she is taking really good care of them. I'll take pictures as soon as Taco will let us take them out of the cabinet.
Luke & Kurt are over the moon. :)

Its been awhile...Preschool Graduation...etc

It has been to long since I wrote here. We have been so busy lately that I don't have time to get anything done it seems. Here are a few things we've been up to.

First I'll start with Luke's Graduation from Preschool. I can't believe my "baby" is going to be starting Kindergarten in the fall!!! At school they had a little program for the kids to show the parents some of the songs they had learned over the year. It was pretty cute. One of the songs was "Down on Grandpa's Farm", I'm sure Gramps would have loved that one! Here are some pictures from the program.

Another thing that has been going on here is that Luke & Kurt have a babysitter come to the house 2 times a week for the summer. Her name is Kayla & she is a wonderful girl. The boys LOVE her & she loves them too. She brings her brother Wyatt along 1 day a week too. The boys love to play farm with him. Ben has know Kayla's family since he was a boy so we feel totally comfortable with Kayla being with the boys all day. We couldn't ask for a better babysitter. :) I'll have to get pictures of her & the boys so I can post them here.

We have also been busy taking Luke to Kinderball this summer. It is 2 nights a week for a hour. He is loving it!! They are actually starting to learn the fundimentals of the game & not just goofing around. It is fun to meet the parents of the kids too. Luke will be switching from HLWW school district to the Maple Lake district this year so it is nice to meet people in the district.

Kurt has been busy too. It hasn't all been about Luke...though it seems to be sometimes. Kurt is learning so much everyday. The vocabulary on this kid is amazing. His favorite words are Spongebob & SUCKER! The kid loves suckers & Spongebob. I don't know what it is about Spongebob but he certainly has my kids under his spell! Kurt is so much different then Luke was at this age. I tell you, he is STUBBORN...big time! If he doesn't get what he wants or if we say no to something, he has a FIT! The kind where he throughs himself down on the ground & screams. UGH! But then he is also sweet as can be. The kisses he gives & his smile just melts my heart.

Luke has also been busy having friends over. He had his first sleepover at Kade's (our neighbor) house & had Kade sleepover at our house one night too. He's had his buddy Jace over a couple times too. They love to play on the trampoline.
It is nice to see both of the boys having a great summer. Oh & Taco (our cat) is going to be having babies any day now. We are so excited to see them!!

Memorial Weekend Craziness

What a weekend we had!! On Saturday morning we started our trip out to Ben's parents lake house in Western Minnesota. It is about 2 1/2 hours from our house so I wasn't really looking forward to the trip with the kiddo's, thank goodness we have a portable DVD player. We just had to listen to Spongebob talk the whole way. ugh! So the trip there was pretty uneventful & we go there around 1 p.m. We pretty much lounged around the rest of the day...laying in the sun & relaxing. Let me tell you we all needed the relaxation...we all work to hard!!

One of the reasons for the weekend was that it was Gramps' birthday. We had a great dinner & Granny made a REALLY good cake for us. YUM! It was a Boston Cream Cake, I'll have to find out how she makes it...or I could just let her continue to make it for us.

Here are some pictures of the weekend. The kids had great fun playing with Erik & Natasha. Jim, Dawn, myself, Ben, Jim, & Mary all enjoyed talking. Even though we live 2 houses away from each other, we don't really see each other that much. It was nice to get caught up with each others lives.

One bad thing that happen was Kurt got a sliver or something under his fingernail. We just thought it was dirt from all the playing he had been doing & didn't think much of it. But as Sunday wore on his mood just got worse & worse. After trying to figure what was wrong with him, I looked at his fingernail more closely & saw that it was puffy & black under the nail. I talked to my MIL & FIL to see what we should do. We all decided to try to get whatever it was out from under the nail. Guess who got to use the tweezers??? Yep, mommy! It took 3 of us to hold onto Kurt & try not to let his finger move so I could get under it. You should have seen the puss & blood that whooshed out of it! OMG, it was SO gross! I'm surprised I didn't barf! You wouldn't have believed how Kurt's mood changed after that! We have ended up having to do that 3 or 4 times now & he lost 1/2 of his nail on that finger, but it seems to be getting better now. Whew!

Cati

I knew this would happen but I didn't know it would happen so soon. Luke has a little girlfriend!! Her name is Cati & she is my friend Maureen's daughter. Maureen & I have fun talking about the wedding that is going to be in our future. :) Cati had her 5th Birthday recently & Luke was invited to Adventure Park for her party. He was so excited to pick her something special out for her gift (he ended up getting her a cute camo shirt that says "you can't see me" & a Transformer). So, Luke really likes Cati. He is always saying that she is his girlfriend & that he is going to marry her someday. Oh & the funniest thing happened a couple days before her party. He was "working out" on our weight machine one day & Ben asked him what the heck he was doing..."I'm doing it for Cati's party, Dad!" LMBO! Too funny!

Here are a couple pictures from the party. Oh & Cati, you can marry my boy if you want...I give my blessing!!

Luke, Mom, & Dierks

Today Luke & I went downtown Minneapolis to meet with Dierks Bentley. Luke is a big Dierks fan & was really excited to get a autograph. Here are some pictures we took today. Luke did get his autograph on his Mtn Dew Racing hat & we got our picture taken with Dierks. It was a fun Luke & Momma day. :)

KA RA TAY!

At least that is what Spongebob calls it. Luke started Karate lessons this afternoon. I am a terrible mommy & didn't take the camera with so I could blog about it. DUH! So, we decided to put Luke into Karate class after we talked to his Pre-school teacher a few weeks ago. She told us that Luke needs help with his confidence & to be able to stick up for himself. She said that there was a classmate that was picking at him...Luke just took it & didn't say anything. Now Ben & I have discussed our thoughts about school many, many times. I really didn't like anything about school. I wasn't picked on but I was so painfully shy that I didn't make many friends & had a really hard time in class...not wanting to be called on, etc. Ben was pretty much the same way. So, we really don't want Luke to have to go through what we both did. I did a little bit of research on the Internet & asked a few people their opinions. Everything pointed to Karate. It isn't a team sport, it helps with self confidence, self defence, discipline, etc.

In his class tonight, he wore his cute little white Karate uniform *I'll get a picture, I promise! He is in a class called the Mighty Dragons, there are 15 or so 4 & 5 year olds in the class. They were all so darn cute. They learned some kicks, chops, & how to bow to their teachers. I think this is going to be so wonderful for Luke. He is already really enjoying it & I am SO happy we did this for him.

Kurt had fun watching his "brobber" through the glass. He looked very proud of him. It is funny, Kurt doesn't call Luke by his name but he calls him "brobber" for brother. Too cute.

I have such wonderful boys. I am one lucky girl.

What a fun day!

Today started out kind of rainy looking. We were expecting to have a 70 degree day so waking up to clouds & cold wasn't what we wanted to see. But around 1 p.m. the sun came out & we headed outside to explore. Ben was working so he missed our fun but I took plenty of pictures to document the day for him.

First we went down to Luke & Kurt's "secret" hideout. I was told that since I'm mommy I can know where it is. Awwww how sweet! I wasn't expecting it to be Gramps' plowed field though! LOL...how funny!

I got some really cute pictures of the boys. They are the classic boys being boys pictures. You can tell that they both love dirt. Their faces were pretty dirty by the time we got done with this day.

So we spent some time in the "secret" hideout. The boys had so much fun maneuvering through the big clumps of soil. Kurt had an extra tough time with it since he is Mr. Shorty. Next the boys decided they wanted to go see Gramps' Big Red Tractor. Let me tell you, I'm in REALLY bad shape! I was huffing & puffin' by the time we walked up that big hill! I need to start walking again.

Granny & Gramps weren't home so we took it upon ourselves to do a little "farmin" without them. Kurt really loves to ride in the tractor. Gramps has taken him for a few rides already this spring & he is always so excited. Luke is the same way. I'm wondering if they are going to be farmers when they grow up? Anyway, Kurt & Luke played farmer in the tractor for a little while. After 10 minutes or more, I decided enough of that. I was getting bored standing outside the tractor, smelling the poo from the cows. BARF!! Well, Kurt was NOT having me telling him it was time to get out of the tractor. He had a full blown temper tantrum! Can you say NO NAP? He was screaming & kicking...I've never seen him this bad before. I'm thinking about how I supposed to bring a kicking & screaming kid back to our house?!?! I know it is only about 1/2 mile but with a kid having a tantrum it might as well be 10 miles! I then spotted the 4-wheeler of Gramps. WHEW! I jumped on it with the boys & roared up to the house. I guess Kurt might just be a farmer...

For the rest of the day we played some more outside in the sandbox, then Luke went over to his best buddy Kade's house to play for a little while. Now Kurt is sleeping soundly (5:45 p.m.), Luke is outside putting rocks in his wheelbarrow, & I'm blogging about this wonderful day. Even with the temper tantrum. :o)

AMAZING!!!

Last night Luke & I watched the movie Transformers. He was transfixed with this movie...I mean the way he is while watching Spongebob on Nick...yes, that transfixed! The movie wasn't done when American Idol started so I went to watch that in the bedroom & left Luke to watch the rest of Transformers by himself. It only had about 20 minutes left. So when it was over he comes into the bedroom & says to me. "Mommy, That....was....AMAZING!!!" He was over the moon. Too funny!

After that I asked him if he likes Transformers more then he likes Spongebob now? He looks straight face at me & says, "Mom, things change you know!" I guess that mean yes. LOL

I love the things that comes out of that boys mouth. He has his Daddy's sense of humor, that's for sure!!!

Spring has FINALLY Sprung!

And the boys couldn't be more excited!!. As you have noticed by my previous posts about the MN weather, we have had a crappy time of it this winter. We had another major winter storm this past weekend. It was so bad that I couldn't even get into work. Okay, so I guess I probably could have at least tried but I just stayed home & worked on my laptop. Anyway, Luke & Kurt are so happy to have spring...today was in the 60s! WOOHOO! Ben & the boys played outside all day today. Luke rode his 4-wheeler, Kurt rode his trike, & Ben watched. They have needed this nice weather so badly. Both of them have had cabin fever since January...let me tell you...they have been CRABBY! I noticed a big change in both of them today...especially Kurt. He was so happy. We are all really looking forward to this spring/summer. This year Kurt can walk so he can do so many more things. We are planning on putting on our deck & then putting a huge sandbox under the deck for the boys. We also have a couple trips in the works, which will be so fun for us all.

On another note...today we took Kurt to see his allergist, Dr. Helm. Kurt has had really bad eczema since he was around 6 months old. We first took Kurt to Dr. Helm over 1 year ago & found that he had a little bit of an egg allergy. So for the past year we have been keeping Kurt away from eggs, putting tons & tons of lotions on him, & watching him scratch his poor little hands, legs, & ankles. Today Dr. Helm told us he had a couple more things for us to try on Kurt & that we just have to keep doing what we are doing with him. He didn't think that the eggs were the cause of his eczema, it is just that he has really sensitive skin. I am so proud of my little guy. Let me tell you, he has been a champ through all of this. You wouldn't know that he itches all the time, he is so mellow about it. It is only when you see him scratch until he bleeds, that you know that he is hurting. It makes me so sad that he has this, but also makes me thankful that he only has this...it could be much worse.

I'm going to have to download some pictures for next time.

WHY oh WHY do we live in Minnesota??

We are getting MORE snow today...they say 8-10 inches. WTH? I am sick to death of it...the kids are sick to death of it. Why do we live here?

Luke still had school today but they say that 115 schools in the area were closed or were closing early.

I think the only reason we live here is because both of our families live here...if they didn't I'd be in Maui for sure!!! :)

Mommy's Weekend Away...

It seems like forever since I've blogged. Oops! I'm trying!
This past weekend I went away on a Scrapbooking retreat. Ohhhh was it wonderful to get away. Don't get me wrong I LOVE being with my boys....but every now & then it is fun to have some "me" time. I have been scrapbooking for about 2 years now. I've done a scrapbook on kurt's birth - 1 year, a book for Luke (the ABC's), & the one I worked on this weekend was a family one. Now scrapping isn't the only fun thing about the weekend. There are about 23 women that come along & spend 2 nights in a hotel. I was excited about this one because it was only 15 minutes from my house...just right. :) My sister was along for the ride & finished her very first book. My sister also had some of her work buddies along, what fun they are! If we didn't want to scrap we would do a little shopping, or eating, talking, or drinking. I think my sister & I did more shopping & eating then scrapping. Sorry honey!

Ben & I are pretty good about letting each other get away for weekends once in awhile. Ben goes away for fishing & duck hunting openers. I get scrapbooking weekends. We both think that it is good for us to get away from the kids & each other every now & then...it makes us appreciate what we have & know how happy we are. After hearing about other peoples lives, we are pretty tame.
So, next is a Daddy's weekend in May.... Hope you have as much fun as I did Benny!!!!!

Kindergarten

Last night Luke had Kindergarten Round-up. I can't even tell you how sad I am to even think about him going off to school! I know I shouldn't be because he has been in Pre-School for 2 years now & even rides the school bus. But I am so sad. My "baby" is going off into the BIG BAD WORLD. I mean the past 5 years have gone so fast, how quick are another 5 years going to go? Woosh...just like that he will be 10! He'll start liking girls!! NOOO!!! Okay, so I am making it sound horrible. It isn't. He is going to start learning...not that he hasn't been learning for 5 years but he is going to start learning to write & read. then he's going to start learning math! He is already so darn smart, I really hope that he has it easy in school. Ben & I are so proud of him...he has been such a good kid. I just hope that going to Kindergarten doesn't change him...or I hope that it changes him for the better.

I have 5 more months to think about this. that first day of school is going to be a big ol cry fest.

Don't even get me started on Kurt....3 more years....

Coolie

This weekend we went car shopping! WOOT! I needed to get rid of the van SO badly. The gas prices are going through the roof & with the 40 mile drive to work each day, it is KILLING me! We needed a car that would get 30-35 mpg. After much discussion & a lot of searching we finally found the car we wanted. It isn't new but it is new to us.... 2005 Ford Focus. It is supposed to get 35 mpg & only cost me $30 to fill it up! YAY! My van was $70 a pop!

I love it! Luke is loving having the car also. We were cleaning it out on Saturday night & he was saying how cool it was. I asked him if we should name her (yes, my boys are rednecks...they name their cars)? Luke thought "Coolie" was a great name. So, now I have a car named Coolie.

Guess what I'm doing tomorrow night??!?!?

Happy Anniversary Ben!!

Hey hunny! I just wanted to write about how much I love you & how thankful I have you in my life. I can't imagine have a more thoughtful, perfect guy. You have brought such joy & happiness to me, I hope I give you at least half of it. Thank you for being such a wonderful father to our 2 boys. I knew you would be a good Dad, but I didn't know you would be as good as you are. I couldn't ask for more. I know I've told you this over & over again but it doesn't hurt to do it again. :)

As you said in your card to me, only 50+ more to go. I love you!!

P.S. thanks for the car!!! hehe

Here are the pictures from last week that wouldn't post....

Hopefully this will be the last of the snow!?!? PLEASE?!

We got more snow last night. Thankfully it was only 2 inches. Since today it was a beautiful sunny 25-30 degree day, we bundled the kiddos up & went outside to play. Let me tell you...we are ALL having cabin fever. It seems like it has been cold, snowing, etc for way to long. But now that it is March we know it won't be long & it will be warm in MN again. Here are a few pictures of our adventures today. Kurt & Luke riding on the sled. I even tried but since I had the camera we didn't get a pic of that...whew! They also played on their swingset & went down the slide...I think that was kurt's favorite part.
Here is a video of Kurt getting pushed down the hill by Daddy.

okay, for some reason I can't post video or pictures. I will finish this post tomorrow.

Kurt's 2nd Birthday Party

I know I'm almost a week late in getting this up. I swear, I don't have time to do anything somedays. We had a great party for Kurt this year. Gramps (Jim), Granny (Mary), Jim, Dawn, Erik, & Natasha, came from Ben's side & Papa (Jim), Grammy (Diane), Janelle, Shane, Kyle, Ryan, & Drew came from my side. The kids played while I got lunch ready for everyone. We had chicken nuggets, french fries, baked beans, chips, & juice boxes for this kids (the chicken nuggest didn't even have eggs in them!!) For the adults we had Brats. Yum.


After we ate we dug into the cake. I found this recipe for chocolate cake without eggs. It was a hit! I am going to start making up some cupcakes for when we have other b-day parties. Don't want Kurt to feel left out!



Next we opened gifts. Most of the pictures didn't turn out but Kurt got lots of Spongebob things...a t-ball set, movie, pj's, hat, shirts, shorts for summer. Lots & lots of fun stuff!





Kurt is one lucky kid. He has his 4 awesome grandparents , 4 wonderful aunts & uncles, 5 great cousins, 1 fabulous brother, & 2 parents that love him to the ends of the earth. Happy Birthday little bubba.

Kurt Benjamin 3/2/06

Our smiley boy
Luke being a great big brother
help, my head is too big
Natasha helping give a bath
Mommy favorite picture



I can't believe it has been 2 full years since I had Kurt. Why is time going by at a record pace these days? It feels like yesterday I was at work & my water broke! Here's the tale of Kurty McWurty...the little guy that is constantly testing us.





First off, Kurt was a HUGE surprise to us. Remember the tale of Luke? How difficult it was to get preggo with him? Yeah, that didn't happen this time around. I guess Luke shook up my insides because Kurt was a wonderful oops. I shouldn't say that it was really "easy" to get preggo with Kurt, I mean we tried & tried for quite a few months with nothing happening. Ben & I had just decided to be happy just having one amazing little guy. We also decided it was time to start building our dream house. We put our Winsted house up for sale & started digging the hole for our new basement. It was going great. We sold the Winsted house pretty quickly & ended up having to live with both sets of parents for awhile. ie...no whoopie for us. I mean it was happening very few & far between. That is why we were SO surprised when I was 3 weeks late with Aunt Flow. I just figured it was stress of building a house, I mean everyone tells you how stressful it is to build...right?? Umm yeah right! I took a test just in case. HOLY TOLEDO...it was POSITIVE! I've never been so flabbergasted in my life. I mean don't you have to "do it" for this to happen? I mean, I can tell you the exact place & time. Okay, enough about that. I don't need to go into detail. We were delighted to say the least.





Ben & I both hoped we would have another boy. I know that most would think that a boy & girl would be perfect, but not us. We wanted another one just like Luke. My whole pregnancy went pretty smoothly. We knew that I would have another C-section since I had one with Luke. It made everything so easy. What I didn't plan on was having my water break 3 weeks early while I was at work! How could that happen? I was in Eden Prairie & had to drive all the way to Buffalo...50 minutes away....by myself!!! CRAP! I called Ben right away & told him I was on my way to the hospital....then called my mom, sister, & dad. I couldn't call Jim & Mary because they were having fun in the sun in Hawaii. Oh & because they were in Hawaii, Ben had to go feed the cows before he went to the hospital!!! Can you imagine?? Knowing your wife is in labor & having to feed cows?? Ben, Luke, & my Mom all met me at the hospital (I was there first). I checked in & went to a room to get ready to have this little guy or girl. Once I was all ready they wheeled me into the OR. 5 or so minutes later, they showed me this beautiful little boy. I was SO happy to have another boy. I knew that Kurt & Luke would be the best of friends. So far I've been right.





Tomorrow we will have the families over for Kurt's birthday party. I'll post pictures of that tomorrow.

Just some pictures.

Ben & the boys.
Luke & Kurt...best buddies
Pretending to be like Daddy.
Luke & Kurt's snowman

Luke James born 11/22/02

My blog today is going to be about my first born...Luke James. I'll start at the beginning.

Once Ben & I got married we started to try to get preggo. I thought it was going to be a very easy process. HA, was I ever wrong. We tried, unsuccessful, for 6 months. It was the hardest time of my life. Everyone around me was having babies & everyone was telling me how easy it was for them to get preggo. I felt like I wasn't doing what I was put on this planet to do...have babies. So I went into my regular dr & asked what I needed to do. She referred me to Dr. Minke at the Buffalo clinic. We went into see Dr. Minke & he checked me out to make sure there wasn't anything blocked that was preventing us to conceive. Ben was checked at that time also...must to his protests! hehe. Since there wasn't much that Dr. Minke could do for us, he referred us to a reproductive specialist. There they did a lot more tests & more test after that. They found that I wasn't ovulating at all! Well, that's a big problem! So they gave me a pill called Clomid. It didn't work the first month & boy was I disappointed. I thought it was going to work right away...I was SO heartbroken. At this time I also found out a friend of mine just found out that she was preggo...knowing that they weren't even trying. The next month we tried again....that time it took! WOOHOO we were having a BABY! YES! What a wonderful blessing!

I was feeling like there was something different about my body so I picked up a test on my way home from work. I think the pharmacist knew me by name since I had bought so many tests! So, I did the test & there was ever so slightly 2 lines. I freaked out! I called my sister-in-law, Dawn, to see if I could bring the test to her to check out for me. She was a pro at having kids by the time this was happening! lol Anyway, I brought it over to her work & she said "Yep, your preggo!" YEEHAW! I had to tell Ben asap but he was over at the farm milking for his Dad that night. I couldn't wait so I took the test & drove over to the farm. I walked into the barn to find him & found him feeding hay to the cows. He was wondering what the heck I was doing there...I normally didn't help when he helped his Dad out. I told him I had something in my pocket that he needed to see. He went into my pocket & pulled out the test. He couldn't believe it! He picked me up & hug me. It was wonderful. He was SO excited.

The 9 months went by pretty uneventful. I gained A LOT of weight...40 something lbs. I ate like there was no tomorrow. We went to all of our checkups & everything was alway going the way it was supposed to. I started getting VERY uncomfortable the last month or so...I ended up sleeping on the couch most nights because that was the only place I could get any sleep. I think I was being prepared for the sleepless nights ahead. At our last visit with Dr. Minke we found that I hadn't progressed at all & that we should pick a date to be induced. We went into the hospital on November 21, 2002. They started an IV of pitocian & we waited...& waited...& waited some more. I slept most of the night waiting for something to happen. I never progressed past 3 cm. After 13 hours we decided to have a C-section. I tell you, it was like a movie or something. Once it was decided it only took about 1/2 hour to get everything set up & bring me to the OR. Ben got all dressed up in his scrubs & was brought into the OR after they had me all ready to go. I was able to see but not feel anything. It was a weird thing. Next they cut me open & out came the most beautiful baby boy....Luke James born at 3:00 p.m. on November 22, 2002. I've never seen anything more beautiful then when both of my boys were born. I was in love the moment I saw them.

I'm going to end there for right now. I will have more tomorrow.