Our adorable, strong-willed daughter and the story of the scissors

Still adorable, even without bangs. They will grow back and her escapade with scissors only broke her mother's heart slightly. She said she wanted to look like Sophie (a beautiful, older friend who has no bangs, only long hair).

 If she does it again, though, I may be tempted to cut it all off. I do believe that is what my mom would have done!

Jack is almost 6!

I brought Jack in to the doctor the other day, as his coughing and runny nose were just not going away. I asked, as it is so close to his birthday, if we could kill two birds with one stone and just get his well child visit out of the way while we were there. At age 6, they don't have much in the way of vaccinations, so we went ahead and booked him in for both things. The kid came home with drugs for allergies and the knowledge that he is the same size as most seven year olds! Jack measures at 42" high and weighs 55.6 lbs, which are both in the 91st percentile for age 6. Along with his 20x20 vision, Jack is riding the same line he has been since birth. That is to say, big for his age, but just right for his size.

Jack's personality is growing with him and is just as big as ever. He loves to help and his teachers told us that, while at school, the kid does not have a mean bone in his body (this is a bit different than at home, but we will take it!). He is reading at a pretty high level and is super smart. He likes to play with all the kids in the class and they said he does well wherever he is seated. That is not to say we haven't gotten emails home about his behavior. Turns out Jack likes to talk a lot in class and can be a bit disruptive. I attribute that currently to his age. Here's hoping I am right!

Mudroom remodel

The first project of this new house has begun. It all started on Ryan's birthday, when I gave the kids hammers and let them go to town on a closet that had been annoying me! They did fine work of the initial job and Ryan quickly took over gutting the room and the bathroom (not pictured, never pictured.) when he came home and saw what we were up to!

I will try to bring us up to date here on what has happened with this project thus far in the reno. The room that you see was filled with all the junk that we couldn't find a spot for when we moved in. Doors are great when spaces are big and empty! Once the closet was down, Ryan made quick work of moving all my junk and hiding it all over the house. I am still looking for a few boxes!

The floor was brought down to the concrete and then I spent an afternoon peeling wallpaper. Adam and Emily may make fun of me for bragging, but I kick wallpaper's butt every time! I am believed to be one of the best wallpaper removers in the country. Don't believe me? The walls have never been so smooth!

Anyhow! The wallpaper came down nicely and has been re-purposed into frames to hang at my unassuming siblings houses and we were ready for the next steps. Ryan spent an afternoon taking down shelves and paneling and pulling all the random nails out of boards. Some of the ceiling tiles in the shelved areas were glued, so that will be an interesting thing to work around when the time comes.

We had a pal of mine come in to look at the duct work, as it is an add-on from a different project. Unfortunately, he told us that with the width of the duct that is needed for the addition above the garage, there was no way to hide it in the joists. So, Ryan and Rob have built around it and put up drywall in the hopes that, although it is low, by painting it the same color as the ceiling and giving the whole thing a consistent look, it won't end up being too much of a bother.

Ryan spent another evening taping up the room with plastic to take down the popcorn ceiling. It is smooth as a baby's bottom now! Nice work, Ry!

After the popcorn, we had to tackle was the wiring! Boy, oh boy, was that a doosey! That one little switch that is hanging from the middle of the ceiling controls the light on the opposite side of the ducts. In order to get to it, Ryan ended up having to cut into the ceiling and pull new co-ax. After an eight hour battle with one switch, we ended up hiring out the electrical and the professionals installed five can lights and straightened out one of the issues we ran in to. We are still trying to figure out the other one!!

That leads us to this past weekend. Three months after the initial ripping out of the closet, Ryan took to tiling and got nearly the entire mudroom laid. Fantastic!!

Please note that in all of the above sentences, I loosely used the term "we". All that means is that I am going to have a fantastic mudroom put together by one fantastic guy!

More will come after the guy comes out to mud and tape. Everyone has told us that muding/taping is a job to hire out and we are not people who shy away from taking good advice. Especially when it means we don't have to try to do something we have no idea on how to do.

Stay tuned!

Happy 4th Birthday Anna!

Our baby girl turned 4 this past week. Her daddy turned 39 a couple days later! I always look forward to this week in October. Birthday cake, presents, happy faces, surprise visits, friends. You name it, it is just a great week. Coupled together with it being Fall, and I don't think we can ask for anything better! 

birthday party

Annalee asked for a costume/Vikings/Pokemon birthday party, so last weekend, we indulged her many dreams and had a handful of family and friends over to celebrate. The new house is a great spot to gather, as there is so much more space than we previously had. It was a beautiful day for a party, so the kids spent a bunch of time outdoors, playing. Annalee now has to think about getting her thank you letters in the mail! 

Fulton cousins

We headed to the doctor to see Dr. Berry for the last time, as he is retiring in December. Annalee is 3' 4.12" tall and keeping on with the 60th percentile in height. Her eyes are top notch and her hearing passed with flying colors. She is so smart that the Dr. asked if she might get to early enroll in Kindergarten next year. We will have to think on that one. I am not sure what the rules are in Bloomington or if we would even consider having her be the youngest in her class. We shall see. 

Friends! 

Oleson cousins and Cadence

This little girl is 4!

Birthday morning, pancakes by daddy

Ryan's birthday was a great day, full of ripping out a closet in the entry-way from the garage. Now comes the decisions about what we are going to do on that floor. A mudroom is the idea, but we are not sure if the bathroom will remain a 3/4 or become a powder room. It would be nice to keep a shower in, but the plumbing is such that we may have some issues. We have plenty of time to figure all of that out, I guess! After demolition, our friends Jessica and Matt took the kids for the night and we headed out to Betty Danger's Supper Club, complete with a ferris wheel ride. It was a great night and we were home early because we are getting older and just wanted to sleep! 

A trip to an apple orchard with Rob and Jamie rounded out the weekend in a nice way. It was chilly, but beautiful day outside and the kids got out some energy. Fall is seriously such a fun time of year! And having friends in Red Wing is sure a nice perk! Thanks for moving away from us, guys! 

An accident waiting to happen or these jokers just having fun?
Depends on my mood.

This is the only good photo Jack took where is tongue was in his mouth. 

We spent this weekend at the farm, visiting Grandma Joan & Grandpa John. We visited Grandma's work and then spent time with G&G and Adam, Sarah, Henry and James. Photos below, as I love photos but don't feel much like putting them on Facebook! 

Bike riding

Over the past month, a big thing has happened at our house. Both kids are now riding bikes without the use of training wheels! This huge feat is made possible by balance bikes and the patience of one amazing dad (and credit to his sister Abbie for getting Anna to try biking without trainers in the first place). Ryan has been taking the kids to a lot close to our house to practice biking and, though she was skeptical at the beginning of the summer, Annalee is now getting the concepts of stopping, starting and biking in a straight line with her head held high! I am simply amazed. Now, I realize that biking is not a hugely difficult thing to learn and that most kids have it down at an early age, but these are my kids and I think they are pretty darn amazing, so this is a big deal to us! And, it means that we will be able to go on bike trips easily in the next couple years as a family. I am pretty sure family bike trips are one of the best things in the world! Jack has been riding for a long time now (read, a year) so is teaching himself all sorts of tricks, like sliding stops, riding with one hand and racing as fast as possible. So, without further ado, here are some photos of our biking superstars.

It seems we have been going many Sundays, as they are wearing their current Sunday apparel. I assure you (do you need to be assured, though?) that we have partaken in biking at the lot close to home quite a bit more than just on Sundays!

Have a wonderful week, whoever you are that reads this!

Summer time fun time

Happy August! We have been spending a lot of time at different cabins this summer, enjoying being around water and being around each other. We spent the Forth of July at The Lambert cabin on Whitefish with Adam's family; we spent nearly a week in Brainerd with Ryan's dad and Bea; we have done a handful of day trips north, most recently catching fish on Pokegama during the Fulton Fisherama. All these trips North leave me feeling that life might be more fun if we just moved up there and lived on a lake. But then reality hits and I realize that working down here offers us the ability to live the life we are both used to while affording us the opportunity to spend time with all those who we love.

Jack and Annalee are little fish, with Anna really wishing to be a mermaid. Their confidence in the water is absolutely terrifying, but they are learning to float on their backs and do flips with ease and, hopefully, learning to kick and swim and keep themselves safe. I hope that if we can foster a love for water and swimming early that they might be interested in participating in swim clubs as they grow up. It seems so much less dangerous than football and hockey!

I have also tried to get the kids into fishing this year! So far, I am the only one who is willing to bait the hooks for our family (Ryan has gotten a bit better, but still won't touch fish). We caught tons of croppies at the cabin in Brainerd and the kids all caught some perch at the fisherama. I, the only one with a fishing license out of the bunch, have not had much time to catch anything, but I hope that as they get older, J & A will become a bit more self sufficient and I will be able to cast out more often. It would also be nice to relearn how to clean fish so we can do a bit more than catch and release! I suppose, though, that one must catch large enough fish to justify that!

As the summer is quickly grinding to a halt, we are busy making plans for this Fall. Jack starts Kindergarten and Annalee will begin 5-day Preschool. Both of the kids will be at the same school this year and we are excited to find a few more weekends at home to start working on some projects on the new house.