Fall Walks, Ethan's Room, and John Deere John Deere!

The weather has been absolutely gorgeous lately and we have been spending as much time as possible outside!  This weekend Ethan and I went for walks around the yard with the dogs and looked at all the pretty colors of the leaves.  Ethan loved shouting out the names of all of the colors. 

Ethan giving Oscar loves: 

 Finding the tall grass and yellow leaves:

 Showing mommy a leaf (oops... his eyes were closed...):

 Enjoying the beautiful day:

Another thing we did this weekend was re-build Ethan's bed (again).  For those of you that don't know the entire story... Ethan's full bed used to be his crib which converted to a toddler bed and then a full size bed.  I bought the fancy conversion rails and we tried them out for a couple months but constantly had to reinforce them!  It was extremely frustrating and didn't feel safe at all.  This past weekend I went to Menards and bought a metal bed frame for $30 and Cory and I attached Ethan's headboard to it.  His bed is extremely sturdy now and we love that he no longer has a foot board!  Definitely a great buy! 

I had to put Ethan on his changing table in order to get a picture of his room while it was clean:

 I removed Ethan 'AKA the tornado' from the changing table and seconds later....

 Such a happy little guy :-)

Now for Ethan's favorite project that Cory and I have been working on (mainly Cory)... Ethan's John Deere tractor Halloween costume!  This thing is going to be awesome!!! It's about half finished, but it's already looking cool!  Ethan absolutely loves it.  :-)

Cory and Ethan taping the boxes together:

  Ethan eyeing up the green tape and wondering what daddy plans to do with it:

 Ethan realizing that daddy's building him a John Deere tractor... "I Love You DAD": 

 Cory adding the yellow stripes:

and... the WORKING headlights!!  (how cool is that?!)

Way to go Cory!!!  Ethan will remember this forever. :-)

Another Wonderful Weekend

This weekend was pretty busy.  On Friday night I had a Pampered Chef party at my mom's house.  Since it was at my mom's I brought Cory and the kids with me.  We had a really nice time, ate some excellent food, and had some great sales! 

Every year our neighbors have a huge Octoberfest Party in their back yard.  They rent bounce houses, hire a DJ, have lots of foods and drinks, a bon fire, and hay rides.  We had a ton of fun at their party on Saturday. 

On Sunday evening we made homemade pizzas.  The kids made their own personal pizzas and Cory and I made a big deluxe pizza with lots of fresh toppings! 

 We also closed the pool this weekend with the help of my brother-in-law.  :-(  Very sad to see the pool closed and am definitely looking forward to next May already. 

I don't do well in this cold weather... and speaking of cold weather... their was frost on the ground this morning... BURRRRRRRRR

 

Snuggles :-)

My happy and lovey little Ethan is back!  Last night when I got home from work Ethan gave me tons of snuggles and kisses.  So nice to have my happy little man back.  Guess we won't be missing nap time anymore.... it turns him in to a monster! 

Oh and here is a picture from the Bears v Packers Game last night.  :-) Go Bears! 

Stinker

Ethan is going through a phase of loving daddy more than mommy.  Geesh is that heartbreaking!  :-(  Normally he loves us both and is super snuggly, but lately he is daddy's little man 100%...

Sweet Baby Boy

This morning Cory had to drive up to Green Bay for work.  He left the house really early so I had morning kid duty.  This is not the norm for us, Cory usually has morning kid duty and I get afternoon kid duty. :-) 

I had a lot of fun getting Ethan ready this morning.  He was extra snuggly and lovey which made the start of my day extra special. 

The Chalkboard Wall is BACK!

Remember the chalk board wall in our old home?!  Well I've missed that wall dearly and had been searching for a place to put a chalkboard wall in our new home.  I finally found the perfect spot and complete the project!!

How we did it: 

I bought a piece of wood that was about 1/4" thick, 8' long, and 2' wide.  I measured the side of our existing cabinet and had Cory cut the sheet down to size.  Cory used a small nail gun to tack the sheet on to the cabinet.  Then he sanded the sheet down and cleaned it so that I could begin painting.  

I bought two cans of paint.  One is a magnetic primer and the other is a black chalkboard paint.  I applied three coats of magnetic primer and two coats of chalkboard paint.  Soon Cory will put the trim up around the new magnetic chalkboard and I will add a little bucket for chalk and erasers. 

Tada... project (almost) complete!

I absolutely love the results!!

To be a snow bird...

The air is getting cooler, we haven't gone in our pool in weeks, the days are getting shorter... winter weather is coming. :-(  Time to move to Florida!  I wish...

Olive Oil

Olive oil is an oil obtained from the olive (Olea europaea; family Oleaceae), a traditional tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin. It is commonly used in cooking, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and soaps and as a fuel for traditional oil lamps. (Wikipedia online)

Last night I used olive oil on my hair!  After all of the fancy and expensive salon hot oils and treatments... I will have to say that I got the best results with OLIVE OIL!  Just another great reason to always keep olive oil in the house. :-) 

Here is my hair before.  It was very dry on the ends and frizzy.  Definitely too much processing and chlorine...

Here is my hair after.  Still a bit dry, but tons better than it was!

8th grade!!!

My mind starting taking me all over the place last night as I was trying to fall asleep.  I couldn't stop thinking about all of the years that I've watched Mariah get on to the school bus for her first day of school.  I wasn't about to let this year be any different.  But... this year is a little different... it's 8th grade!  My baby girl is growing up and today she started 8th grade!  Last year of being a kid, last year of elementary school...

little posing for the camera...

Ethan wanted in on the fun...

the kids waiting for the bus...

Me and my baby girl. :-) Love you Mariah!

Still waiting for the bus...

Cory and Mariah

Cory with the kids

Mariah walking towards the bus.  My cousin and their kids are across the street.

Good luck Mariah!  Have a great 1st day of 8th grade!

Oh no... Ethan just realized that he didn't get to go with Mariah.  He wanted so badly to get on the school bus and join her at school.  Heartbroken little man... :-(

Dishwasher - Part Two...

Yup, have owned our new super quiet dishwasher for 5 days now.... and you guessed it... first service call being phoned in this morning.....

UPDATE 9/1/10:  Dishwasher is fixed.  Sounds like we pulled a wire when we pushed the dishwasher in to place and that triggered an error message on the sensor board.... Geesh, anyways, we should be good now!  (fingers crossed)

Priceless

Dishwasher

Cory and I have a history of buying lemon appliances... or maybe appliances are made to be disposable after a couple years?!  Either way, our dishwasher finally died last week and we replaced it last night.  Shockingly we ended up buying the exact same dishwasher as our current one that broke!  We were very hesitant to go with this brand again, but we really loved the layout of the model.  Also, everyone raves about the Kitchenaid dishwashers.  They are supposed to be very good and we are convinced that our first one truly was a lemon.  So, this time we bought the extended 5 year warranty!  Plus we have a 30 day satisfaction guarantee... you better believe I will be running this dishwasher daily for the first 30 days.  I want to make sure that it is worth the money!

* We got our dishwasher and installed it last night.  I am AMAZED at how quiet it is!  The only thing we can here is a tiny sound of running water from time to time.  The motor is completely quiet!  WOW!!!*

Zoo Day with Grandma Sandy

My mom took the kids to the zoo today.  I asked her to take a couple pictures... which she sure did! 

Thanks mom!  :-)

Click here to see more pictures.

Our Family

Ethan and I were playing with potato heads and decided to create "our family"...

Here are a couple more pictures of other fun things:

...shopping at Bass Pro Shop:

...and Ethan playing with his new fishing pole at Uncle Glenn's house.

8th Grade Registration

Yesterday Ethan and I took Mariah to register for 8TH GRADE!!!  She is very excited about 8th grade... and I am a bit nervous!  This will be her last year of Junior High... last year of Elementary School... last year of being a KID... gulp!

Well, at school registration they also take pics of the kids for the yearbook/school pictures.  I think this is really nice instead of squeezing picture taking into the middle of a school day after the kids have eaten lunch and had gym... remember those days?!  Anyways, here is a sneak-peak of Mariah's 8th Grade School Pics.  She had me take a picture of her before we left the house so she could make sure she looked okay.  

Yup, she's my daughter... hee hee!

iphone cool

I am officially iphone-cool. ;-)  My new iphone 4 arrived yesterday!!  We got everything set up last night and even figured out how to download apps, record videos, take awesome pictures, grab wireless internet when it's available, and tons of other cool things!  I am LOVIN' it already! 

Here is the first picture that Cory took of me with my cool new iphone.  The camera was facing the sun, but the pic still turned out pretty good. 

Here are a couple more pictures that I took with it last night.  These are pics from a car show by Georgie Porgie's.  We met our friends Miranda, Kevin, and Lucas for dinner last night at Georgie Porgie's and ate in a tree house!  It was really neat... don't know why I didn't take pics of that?!  Afterwards we went outside and walked around the parking lot because there was a DJ playing music and a nice little car show! 

I also added new pics to July and August on Flickr. 

Have a great week! 

What a Weekend!!

This past weekend was loaded with fun, family, friends and food!  :-) 

On Wednesday night we went to the fair and watched the truck and tractor pull and the combine derby.  Ethan had so much fun watching all the action and Mariah had a blast ditching us to hang out with her friends... ahhh teenagers...  We made her stay with us from 7pm on... too protective... I don't think so! ~wink~

Thursday was another full day.  Mariah had her last day of Dance Camp at the high school.  We went to watch her skit and then went on to the fair.   When we got to the fair, Mariah and her friend rode on rides all day and ate lots of fried foods.  Cory and Ethan walked around and played on the tractors, watched pig races, and tiger shows, and stoped by to visit me from time to time.  I worked at a Pampered Chef booth from 2-6pm and had some awesome sales and met great new contacts.  Afterwards we hung around the fair and ate dinner.  It was another late night. 

Friday we did some things around the house and then went right back to the fair.  Some family members were in town from Tennessee and we heard they were going to the fair.  We didn't want to miss them... and if you ask my cousin Amy she'd tell you that we definitely didn't miss them.... ;-) They let their adopted son from Haiti join us on a couple rides... Well JM had a lot of fun and even ventured on to an upside down ride for the first time.  Mariah helped buckle him in his seat and away they went.  He was all smiles at first... but as the ride went on his smile turned to a look of fear!  He seemed alright after the ride, but told us he wasn't a fan.  We walked around for a little while, stopped at the rest rooms, and then headed to the 4H food stand.  JM told us he was hungry so I bought him a burger.  He had a couple bites and then his parents arrived.  He still seemed fine at this point, but I guess he wasn't feeling as well as he looked.  We were told that he threw up a couple times on the way home from the fair.... guess that's a moment that will never be forgotten.  Love you guys!  :-) 

Saturday was another action packed day.  We went to my sisters house for the 2nd annual Voge family reunion (Christmas in July).  There were 93 people at the party!  It was so nice seeing family that we haven't seen in years!  Family joined us from Minnesota, Illinois, Tennessee, and of course WI.  It was so nice to all be together in one place. 

We also went to our friend's son's 1 year birthday party on Saturday.  Happy Birthday LIAM!  Liam had a great time and his parents threw him an awesome baseball themed birthday party.  So glad we could be a part of it.  Also, while we were there I learned that Ethan knows how to play t-ball.  He walked over to the T, put the ball on it, grabbed the bat, and hit the ball about 10 feet!  Very exciting!  I think our lives will be filled with many sports in the years to come.  (in addition to active Mariah)

Sunday, day of relaxation, ummm nope not this weekend.  We went back over to my sister's to celebrate Leah's 9th birthday!  We spent the afternoon swimming and relaxing.  It was very nice. 

By 7pm on Sunday night we were all sitting and watching a movie (Remember Me).  Ethan was eating popcorn and his little head started nodding forward.  He'd pick up his head, chew his popcorn a little, and then his head would roll forward again.  He was exhausted!  Bed time came early for all of us. 

Here are a couple pictures.  I will post more later.