Easter Weekend

This Easter started out much the same as last Easter...

We had some friends plan an Easter egg hunt at a park for Saturday, and just like the same event last year, it was FREEZING! Fortunately, Miley didn't seem to care and still had fun decorating an egg carton, eating some yummy treats, and hunting for eggs to put in her bucket.

Landon had the best seat in the place...all bundled up in his stroller! I wish I had the same setup for me! :)

Easter Sunday was nice and laid back. Miley woke up and immediately realized that the Easter Bunny had been there, and she found all the eggs he left behind, narrating everything by saying "Wow!" or "Awesome!" After finding all the eggs, she proclaimed that the Easter Bunny had "Made mess". I guess that is a way of looking at it...

Unfortunately, I was having too much fun watching her find her eggs that I didn't take any pictures, but I got a picture of her with both kid's baskets after everything had been opened.

The Easter Bunny brought Miley "Tangled" (her favorite movie at the moment!), some princess puzzles, a cute little apron, a little horse, a couple books, and of course, lots of candy!

Landon got a book, a little dog rattle, an elephant toy, a seahorse that glows and plays soothing music, and a blue hooded towel (the Easter bunny must have known that he had been using his sister's old pink towels...how embarrassing!).

Miley has been going through an anti-picture phase lately, hence the not-so-excited expression in this photo...trust me, she was much happier than she appears. :)

We went to church...
...and after church we spent the evening with Don and Cindy and fam celebrating Easter and Don's birthday (the last one for a while, as they are ditching us to go to INDIA for two years!).

We had a great weekend relaxing and having fun with family and friends, and crossour fingers that next year the weather will be a little nicer for egg hunting!

The 70's Called...

...and they would like their hair back.  :)

Landon's Two-Month Stats

On Thursday, I took Landon to the doctor for his two-month well child visit, as well as his first round of shots.  Here are his stats at two months:

Height - 24 inches - 75th-90th percentile

Weight - 11 pounds, 15 ounces - 50th-75th percentile

Head - 15 3/4 inches - 75th percentile

For comparison's sake, at FOUR months, Miley was 23 inches, 11 pounds 11 ounces, and her head was the same size as Landon's at two months.  I guess that is the difference between girls and boys, huh?  We are OK with that...we hope our little guy is a bit bigger than his sister someday...shouldn't be too hard.  :)

Needless to say, Landon was not thrilled with his shots.  The poor kid has had a little fever, and a big round hard spot where one of his shots was for the last couple of days, and has been extremely fussy which is very rare for Landon.  He seems to be doing much better today though, thank goodness!

Waiting for the doc to come in...

After he got his shots...not very happy, and going to town on his pacifier!

House - Day 19

Windows are in, shingles are getting ready to be put on...

It seems at this point we MAY be a little ahead of schedule, however we know there are lots of things that can set us back as well (weather, etc.).  Keeping our fingers crossed that it continues to go so well!

House - Day 15

I know a lot of you are probably sick of the house updates already, but we gotta keep our families updated!  :)  Please bear with us...

It is crazy how fast this thing is going up!  Today we took a little peek INSIDE (no pictures...it's not too exciting yet!) and it is so fun to see where all our rooms are going to be!

Too Cute At Two Months!

Landon is two months old today.  I can't believe this sweet little fella has already been here that long.

Here is what is going on with him now:

• He is one laid-back, mellow kid.  Seriously.  He is so content.  He only gets a little fussy if he is hungry or tired, and even then he is very easy to soothe (Cameron tells me to quit saying this, because he is afraid I will jinx it...but I gotta give the little guy some serious props!).
• He is eating about every 3 hours on average during the day, and will give me a 5-6 hour stretch at night, then go back to sleep for about another 3. 
• He is wearing size 1 diapers, and is starting to outgrow some of his 0-3 month clothes, but is not quite fitting into his 3-6 month clothes.
• He is smiling and cooing all the time.  If you just smile at the kid, he will break out into a huge smile that will melt your heart. 
• He is not a fan of tummy-time, and therefore has not gotten nearly as much as he should.  I need to work on that.
• He loves his big sister.  Miley loves to just lie by him and look at and talk to him, and he is always just staring at her and is happy the whole time.
• Landon will take a pacifier occasionally, but will spit it out a lot of the time when we try to give it to him.  He is starting to find his hands, and starting to suck on his right hand/thumb every now and then.  He still has a hard time getting it to his mouth, but we are wondering if we are going to have another little finger/thumb sucker on our hands. 

We have his two-month appointment on Thursday, and will know his length and weight then, along with getting his shots.  Poor little guy.

House - Day 9

Framing started today!  It is so exciting to see it actually start looking like a HOUSE!  We also had quite the hill in our backyard, and it has been graded to a much more level surface. 

I have had some requests for more details about the house, so here they are...

• It is a two-level house, with a basement.
• It is about 2,750 finished square feet (our basement will be unfinished).
• There are 4 bedrooms upstairs, plus a master and main bath, a laundry room, and a loft (I LOVE the loft!  Can't wait to have a place out of the way for all the toys!).
• The main floor has an office/flex room, a great room, kitchen with a dining nook, and a mud room and powder room.

We are getting more and more excited to finally have a place of our own, even though it may be a WHILE before we completely get it decorated the way we want.  :)

Now for the pictures of the day...

I am pretty sure these two little munchkins are getting excited as well...

Short but Sweet

This past weekend Cameron's dad was in town.  He had some work stuff to do up here this week, so he came in on Saturday to spend a couple days with all of us before he had to head to St. Cloud to do his work.  It was a VERY short visit, but we loved having him here!

Miley loves it when her grandparents come to visit.  She doesn't leave them alone the whole time they are here, wanting them to do everything for her, and wanting them to play with her 24/7.  She even asked if Grandpa could take her potty everytime she needed to go...Grandpa settled for just reading her lots of books instead.  :)

This was also the first time that Grandpa got to meet Landon - his 29th grandchild!  Landon made sure to put on quite the show for Grandpa, cooing and "talking" with him and giving him lots of smiles!

We only got one night and a couple of days with Grandpa, but we are glad he got to spend a little bit of time with us!  We are already excited to have him and Grandma, and Grammy and Papa (hopefully?) back in three weeks!

House - Day 4

Day 4 - April 7, 2011:

The foundation is going in!  Looks like we may be on track for framing to start on Monday?

Squeal!  So excited!

Please excuse my lounge pants and overall dishevled appearance...didn't realize I was going to be in a picture when we left our apartment!  Well, let's be honest.  This is just kind of how I look these days being stuck at home with a new baby and a potty-training toddler.  :) 

Signs of Spring

When you see your two boys doing this at night...

...watching this...

...it is a sure sign that spring is here!  We start them young, right?  :)

And the weather outside is finally starting to match!  60's for the first time since NOVEMBER!!  That's 5 months, people! 

Ahhh...I feel the end of our hibernation is in sight.

**Post Edit - And in the words of my sister "HELLLLLO JOE MAUER."  I love spring.  :)

Happy Little Man

Despite having a nasty cold for the past couple of days...

...and a gunked up eye due to a clogged tear duct...

...Landon still is giving us his sweet little smiles. 

This is what makes all the sleep deprivation worth it. 

House - Day 1

Here we are!  Week of April 4th, and the digging has begun!

Hopefully it looks MUCH prettier soon!

House Deets

OK...so here it it.  I am ready to spill the beans on the house thing.

We are building a house!  It is scheduled to begin on Monday, the 4th, and they are guessing a closing date by July 15th.  So how did we get to here?

Many of you know that I REALLY was not crazy about the idea of staying in Minnesota long term.  It is just too far away from my family.  However, Cameron is also going to begin grad school here soon.  As we were looking into all of our options, and places where he could go to get his MBA, part-time vs. full-time, etc. we came to the conclusion that right now, in our lives, the option we are most comfortable with is Cameron going part time at the University of Minnesota.  General Mills pays for him to get his MBA here, and it is really hard to turn that down.  Plus add that on top of his regular salary, and we would be so much further ahead at the end of it then if we were to go somewhere and go full-time.  With this part-time route, Cameron will probably take around three years to complete his MBA, and then as part of the deal, he would owe General Mills three years.  So we were looking at a minimum of 6 more years.   

During my pregnancy with Landon, I really started feeling the NEED to have somewhere to call "home."  We have been renting for 4 years now...ever since we have been married.  While we have liked the flexibility that has offered us, with a soon to be 3-year-old, and a new baby, I just need space - a yard, a garage, etc.  Plus, I am ready to nest.  It is not easy to be going through that nesting phase of pregnancy while you are in such a temporary housing situation.  And there is NO WAY I would want to be renting for 6 more years.

So basically, between the financial aspects, and the mental/emotional aspects, we were just ready for this next stage, even if it is here in Minnesota.  We really do love it here.  Like I said, I wish I could just switch the geographical location.  :)

So why did we decide to build rather than buy?  After looking at a LOT of options, we discovered that we could build exactly what we want for not significantly more than the houses that are out there.  We wanted something that was a reasonable price, but something that we could also see ourselves in long term.  While we will always leave the door open to other opportunities and career moves for Cameron, General Mills is a FANTASTIC company, and if we were to stay here indefinitely, we wanted a home that we could see ourselves in for a long time.

All that being said, we are thrilled with our decision, and are so excited to have a place that is going to be OURS.  We are building on about a quarter of an acre, and I am so excited to have all the extra space for our little family!

I will keep our blog updated with the progress of our home as it is being built.  We have spent the last week making all kinds of selections for the inside - hardwood floors, carpet, vinyl floors, paint colors, countertops for the kitchen and bathrooms, cabinets, appliances, etc.  It has been so much fun picking out what the inside of our house is going to look like.  Hopefully is all comes together how we envision it!  We also picked out the exterior colors and stone.  We have been dragging poor Miley and Landon around with us to all these appointments, and I think all the excitement is wearing them out...

Landon was conked out as well at this same time, I just couldn't get a picture of him since he was facing backwards.  :)

Can't wait until July 15th (our estimated closing date!)!

Here it is...our lot is staked!