New Truck Day!

Last Tuesday, we decided to 'window shop' for a new F-150.  Well; by the end of the day... we had purchased a new truck.  So, with the anticipation of picking up the new girl on Friday... we cleaned up the old one for a trade in, took a few quick pictures and whispered sweet nothings to her about how good she has been to us for 12 years (yup - she was a 2001) and 200,000 miles (200,480 to be exact).

Out with the old...

Every day from Tuesday night until Friday afternoon, Kasey would ask when we were picking up Daddy's New, Blue Truck.  We were all pretty jazzed to pick up the new addition to our family.  It has a lot of neat perks.  The biggest for us is 6 seats!  That means we can have our family of four and gma & gpa join us in one car when we head out to dinner!  Perfect!  Kris also likes his new blue tooth, the fancy garage door openers, the usb jack, the navigation system, the sirius... I could go on!  The kids love all the additional leg room.  You think they enjoy it now ~ just wait ~ they keep growing.  This car will be with us for a decade so we had to make sure it would fit growing boys!

...In with the new.

Look at all this kicking room!

Whoo - Hoo! a convertible arm rest/6th seat

Of course, we had to take the boat for a ride too.  Kris said he could hardly tell the boat was behind him with all that power!  The truck is a V-6, but has an EcoBoost engine.  Supposedly, this will save us on gas, but still have the same power.  Amy just loves that the boat matches the new truck perfectly (Such a Girl!)

Beautiful Sight!

Wordless Wednesday

What?!?! You DON'T mow the lawn in sandals and a pull up?  How else are you getting your tan on?  Kris was out mowing while Amy was inside vacuuming.  As Amy moved the toy mower, Karsten came running exclaiming he HAD to Help Dad Mow!  We quickly found sandals and headed outside.  Karsten got to help finish up the backyard and then moved to our front yard.  Quite a sight it was!

"You ready, Daddy?"

Karsten is getting to where he wants to choose his shirt for the day.  This started about 2 months ago and some days he is pickier than others.  This past Saturday - it was his CSU jersey.  Now; I realize if you have glanced down at the pics he is not wearing CSU.... Let me continue.  Karsten put on his CSU jersey and went to the bathroom to brush his teeth.  He kept shouting "Go Broncos!" (yes, he still gets the two teams confused).  Kasey saw him and Immediately wanted to change his boring old shirt to be a jersey too.  His favorite right now is the Vikings Jersey (and why wouldn't it be his fav? It is an Adrian Peterson jersey)!  Kasey came into the bathroom shouting "Go Vikings!"  Karsten looked up, checked out his own shirt and ran to his room to change his jersey to match his brothers.  Here is proud mamma trying to take a pic of her kids in their jersey.

Look how cute Karsten is!
(are those toes in the sink?)

"Um, Mom... who's foot is that!?"

I still am not sure, but it makes me giggle!

"Oh, Karsten!  It was ME!"
(Karsten is still a giggle monster over the toes)

Yep, we are a diverse household.  We Love the Proud Rammies, The Challenging Broncos and even the MN Vikings.  Maybe this fall; one of our teams will give us something to cheer for! 

Adoption Pot Luck

Every quarter, we have an adoption event that we attend and the kids look forward to every one.  Sometimes it is a potluck, sometimes a summer BBQ complete with jumpy castles and other times Santa comes to visit!

We met an Amazing woman, Rebecca (who is currently the adoption liaison at Parker Adventist Hospital) when we were going through the process of adopting Kasey.  Rebecca introduced us to 4 other families and we all connected immediately.  Rebecca's trained eye noticed the need for adoptive parents to get to know other adoptive families.  It is not only great to get to know the parents and discuss concerns/successes, but also allows the kids to 'grow up' with other adopted children that they can identify with!  Awesome idea!



The potluck we attended was lots of fun.  We got to catch up with Rebecca and Jacque (both work for Parker Hospital), but also catch up with long time friends.  The family below is one of the first families we met.  Hannah will be 4 next week and Ava is just over 2.

Ava, Jacque, Shannon, Hannah and Ava's birth mother, Vikki

Kids Crafts are always a big win!  The boys loved picking out their frame color and putting together their frame (ok, they had 'some' help).  I cracked up when they came up with the idea of looking through the frame for a picture to show them off!  That is totally something I would've staged, but... these kids know me!  They beat me to it!

Kasey, Hannah, Ava and Vikki

SAY CHEESE!!!

Ps: notice my kids current phase.. Kasey Loves Sully and Karsten is Obsessed with Mike Wazowski.  I see these shirts no less than once per week.  And, even if the first kid is dressed... when the other one picks out the Monster's Inc shirt... the other kid MUST change Immediately! 

Pinterest Has Taken Over My Life

Yup, It is True.  In fact, Kris has threatened an intervention, but he can't find any of my girlfriends who would support the intervention ('Cause they are busy doing craft projects With Me)!

It all started with a pin from Erika.  She wanted to make bleach pen shirts.  So, we planned a one time craft day.  Seriously, I'm going to just try it out once.

The Pinterest Party Crew

The finished shirts (Sarah had to leave early, but her shirt made the pic!)

Then, Erika came up with an awesome idea by taking a few different pinterest pins and combining them into a sweet Personalized Lazy Susan idea! ... I swear ... I can stop doing crafts anytime.

Alisa's, Amy's and Erika's finished projects
Amy's Wine bottles are "Ram's Point Winery" and "Cannode's Concoction"

This past weekend, we decided to celebrate summer by making the most beautiful flip flops based on a pinterest idea Sarah found.  We only finished one shoe; so ... we decided our next craft day will entail finishing the 2nd flip flop and getting a pedicure ~ I mean really - How can we have cute flip flops if our toes aren't as fancy as the flip flops?

We are also taking about a day etching glass, sewing some cute clutch purses and maybe some new pins that we find over the next couple of months.  OK, I can't quit, but... Look at all the Wonderful items and fun memories we have created together! Who would Want to quit?!?!  Too Much Fun!

Happy Mother's Day!

How does Amy like to spend Mother's Day?  Well; sleeping in is the first key (although you can see in the pics that we had munchkins in the bed before 7am).  She also really enjoys breakfast in bed and of course some yummy COFFEEEE!  As soon as the boys crept in our room at 6am; Kris grabbed them and asked them to help make waffles for mommy.  They were thrilled.  Amy never really fell back asleep, but it was nice to listen to the hard work downstairs as she stayed cuddled up in bed.  She then heard the boys walking up the stairs practicing their "happy mother's day" shouts.  Cutest thing Ever!

Next thing she knew; they silently (ok, Not-so-silently) crept up to her bed and shouted Loudly "Happy Mudder's Day!" to wake her up.  We enjoyed some waffles and coffee before opening presents.

Some of us were still sleepy
(or just being lazy - ha)

 Present time! The boys worked SO Hard on their presents at school.  Karsten made a flower with hand print petals, a painted wooden frame with him on the telephone and a cute coffee card.  Kasey made a flowerpot pic with the stems as his fingers, a beautiful card and a painted wood flower picture frame.  So spoiled!

"Look Mom, I Say Hello!"

We told the kids we had to start getting ready.  That meant putting on our swim trunks, finding our hats and shoes and getting in the car.  What? You Don't go out on the boat in a Pirate shirt, swim trunks, a backwards cowboy hat and your mommy's high heals?  Yup; getting ready for boat day was a little challenging, but sure was Fun!

As Karsten says currently:  "Knee-Ha!"

Our boat was having a sleep over at Chatfield; which allowed us to stop by for a big Happy Mother's day hug!  Kasey picked out some Lovely flowers for Grandma and the boys were more than excited to give them to her.

Then it was time to go out on the boat.  I'm not sure why, but... we ended up with only ONE Picture on the boat even though we were out there for 6 hours.  Oh well; guess we were having too much fun tooling around on the water to be bothered to take the camera out!

Mother's Day was especially important for us this year and it landed on the same day as Kasey's Birth mother's Birthday!  What better way to celebrate than with CAKE!  Kasey picked out the cake and told me she Loves Spider Man (hmm... Wonder if she really does~ha). 

Happy Birthday to the Amazing Woman who carried my Son and honored me with the title of Mom for his lifetime, a gift that allows me to celebrate Mother's Day with him.



Rugged Maniac 5K

If you were to have asked me a couple months ago whether I would be interested in a Muddy, 5K, Obstacle course; I am pretty certain I would have said "No, Thank You".  However, recently a good friend approached me with an idea.  She had a race she could no longer participate in due to scheduling conflicts and she wondered if I wanted to take her place.  Um... Zero Training and it is Two Weeks Away... Umm... O... K...?....

Before the race - showing off 3 of the obstacles and the Big Hills.
That's a nice white t-shirt.

So, I jumped in full force and was ready for my race.  I learned after I said yes that it was to be held at the Thunder Valley Motocross Park.  I have never watched motocross; however, I can now tell you ... those bikes Love HILLS!  This race was pure torture ~ AND ~ So Much Fun!

Amy making her way to the first obstacle

You can spot me in all the pics as I am apparently the only one who didn't get the memo about Not wearing White to a Mud Race.

"Made it to the top, one obstacle down... Many more to come..."

"Up and over the wall, when do the hard obstacles start?"

"Finally breaking a sweat on the downhill"

The race was 3.1 miles in length with over 20 obstacles and trust me when I say more hills than I could count.  The obstacles included log jumps, a tire pit, a cargo net, crawling in a mud pit under barb wire (3 Times!), Eight A-frame wall climbs, crawling through a 25 foot long winding tunnel (can you say Claustrophobia!?!?), a 100 foot water slide, rock climbing, a rope pull, a balance beam, jumping through fire (not kidding!), and don't forget numerous mud pits to weigh down your shoes a bit while you charge up those countless hills.  Wait - What part about this is fun again?!?!

"OK, this wall is a little tougher"

"Whee, a water slide"

"I think I got mud up my shorts - Yuck!"

"Whew - Got it! Still having Fun!"

"This is ridiculous, who puts this many mud pits in a race"
ps: Hated the barb wire crawls (did I mention there were 3 of them?)

"Finally through the mud, wanna hug?"

"The finish line" PS still smiling

Yes, it was incredibly tough - Yes, given advance notice I would train next time - Yes, I think this race Needs to be done with a friend - Yes, I had a great time and in fact signed up for one with My Sister in June!  Number one thing I learned?  Bring knee pads to the next one and remind yourself that it is ok to "run" 25 minute miles (completed in 1 Hr and 16 Min).  Don't tell Melissa, but the obstacles definitely take longer than a minute to complete.

"I AM a Rugged Maniac"

After the race.  Not so much a white t-shirt anymore, but still smiling!