good ol' DEMOLITION

Our friends Schoonvelds have officially started into their addition! Actually, they've been tearin out the insides of their house for a few weeks...but Saturday they had their big DEMO day and down it came! We stopped by there tonight to peek at the final work Ryan and Heather's dad did today...HOLY SMOKES! And we wanted to see what the boys would say when they saw it...


There were some gasps, they said "it's broken!", and told uncle ryan "you better pick up this mess!" hahaaaaa. Yes, get to work man! You tell em G!

Lansing here we come!

Change of plans today....Ryan had a CE course in Grand Rapids, it's been on the schedule for a while now and I was planning on meeting my girlfriend Kara and her two kids up there for a good chunk of the day to hangout and catch up. As the day came closer though, weather and teething children and the risk of being somewhere with no where to retreat all caused our change of plans. We decided to just drive to Lansing to see them and hangout at her house with snacks and toys and movies and a park down the road. Just a better idea all around. Only got a few pictures in though, as usual....dang.

here we are all ready for the park!!


Look at this little muffin. Kyler turned 1 in Feb!! what a little mini!!

tearin up the park......



a trip to their delicious restaurant....only eating picture- obviously meal time is busy. ha. AHHH he's so cute!!

and then a quick hangout back at their house before getting back on the road


And for the ride home, this teething beauty had a heck of a time falling asleep. We left a bit after nap time, but she slept almost the whole way there in the morning. She's been eating practically nothing the last few days, had nothing for lunch....poor lil lady. And while I was driving I put the camera over my shoulder and took these next few of her misery.






Can you tell its her teeth!?! HA! not that it's funny, but the pictures are kinda funny. It must be painful, good thing we all go thru this when we're little and don't remember it. =) Then she finds her blanky and paci....

and OUT COLD. these pictures were all in like a 4 minute time span. hahaa

only she didn't sleep very well cause she kept waking up to cough....then she cried for the last like 45 minutes. SO, I put her to bed at 5 when we got home and she's still sleeping!! Guess she's not gonna eat dinner either today!! we shall see if I wake up tonight at 2 with a wide awake baby. =) I do like all the hugs she's in the mood for now though. And last night she fell asleep during dinner on Ryan's chest, so we're tryin to save up those moments for when she's better and running away from us again. haa! Anyhoo, aside from teeth, it's always great seeing Kara and her boys...we were dreaming of the day when we can actually go to the park and sit on a bench and talk...and parent from the bench. hahahaa!! soon enough im sure!

Hhahaa

one more project!

So here you have our stairs down to the basement.... BEFORE = empty and white and boring. AFTER: behold!


Stole this idea from Jenny conklin's house, they have a sweet more decrative version in their kitchen and totally fun. Erin suggested putting it down here...genious. I have been wanting a place besides our side of the fridge to hang up their ..."artwork" cause they always ask for it to be put up, so this is perfect. $3.50 package of green plastic coated wire and a couple of extra screws we had here at home....WHHHAAAAAA-LA! They got really excited when I showed them this morning. obviously it will be ever-changing, which is the beauty of it. Let the art begin!

Some Weekend Fun

So here's what we've been working on this weekend....

First, in our basement we're trying to get a little work out corner goin so we can maybe get to it with our P90 again. Before we came back to NE, I was searching for different ideas on how to put up a pull up bar since we dont' have any door frames down there. Found a couple good ones, ran them by my dad and he put together the frame part for us and I brought it back home from NE a few weeks back. Then Erin and I put em up one night, but we still had the problem with the bar rotating thru the hole, so last night ryan put some construction adhesive in all the holes and taped up the bar so it's easier to hold on to. Check out the results....

And a couple weeks ago we found a super cheap set of dumbbells online so now i think we're set! Now pray that we have enough energy after the kids go to bed for a workout..... hahaaaa Thanks dad! Looks great!

Secondly....The fort has been making us nervous with those big windows. We have had many a friend with little kids come over, and with Sydney being so small....even the boys. I admit, we have climbers, so I'm sure it's only a matter of time before they think they can just be-bop their way out the window and scale down to the ground. NOT GOOD. And it's not really that safe to have kids over and then just let them go downstairs with out us. freak me out! SOOOO, we did a little doctoring last night and......


...made a jail!!! Hahaha, just kiddin. but at least they can't fall out now. They can still shoot nerf guns through those windows. =) And you might have noticed the drywall mud, one sand away from being ready to paint! WOOP! I'm ready to be done working on it, so better get a move on and get it done.

And lastly, probably the most work, on Saturday afternoon we rented a thatch machine for $40...TOTALLY WORTH IT. Last year we just raked....and raked, and raked, and raked, and didn't even TOUCH the amount of dead grass we came up with using this hog. We had it for 4 hours and it was on the whole time. Joe helped us too, here's what they were doing....

HA! Apparently g kept getting mad at him cause he was falling asleep while he was reading. soooo funny. But soon after this it was nap time for the kids and then he was outside helping us. =) Now feast your eyes on THIS yard!!


Look at the heaps of dead grass. unbelievable. And pretty nasty. we couldn't rake it up fast enough....then Ry would go back over it again and rake up some more piles. Seriously....SO WORTH $40! that would have taken us WEEKS of raking to get that much out (3 packed dumpsters full) and probably sore arms for a month. haa ANNNDDD notice the color of our yard compared to everyone elses. oh ya, totally brown! one might think it's because of the dead grass laying on top, buuuuttt it's really that color underneath. not embarassing at all. Hurry up spring!! Altogether great weekend and the weather is gradually getting warmer. can't wait to spend some more time outside (even though it's raining today) doing yard work and getting the garden ready! Woop!

WOOWWWW. March 6th is a looonng time ago...

Well people, sitting here with my book (not reading obviously) and a spinach/fruit smoothie thinking about what to write..... actually I've been thinking about what to write for a few days now since we did a TON of stuff in the last 3 weeks. Ry went in to work to finish up some stuff from today so I will try to knock this one down in the time he's gone. GO

Can I just say that I love this song on Pandora right now. Sara bareilles, Many the Miles. awesome.

Back to the story, first of all we had our lovely friends Todd and Liz here visiting from Kansas City. We have been living in this house for a little over 2 years and they still hadn't been here....but they FINALLY made it! Too bad they didn't come in the summer as their cool getaway to the beach since it's in the 100s and humid most days there. BLEH The time went really fast, that was the weekend of the time change, so all the kids needed some adjusting, especially Olivia (2 years old) since that made us a 2 hour time difference from what they were used to. She went to bed at 3 the first night. WOWZA. hahaaaaaa AAAND Liz is 1/2 pregnant with their #2- so there was lots of talk about kids and such which is always fun. They actually just found out that it's another girl-woooooooo!!!!!!! But we did the ring test while they were here so we weren't surprised. So this post doesn't get ridiculously long, I will highlight in list form:

In no particular order.........
1. Dinner out at Silver Beach Pizza
2. Olivia enjoying EVERY BITE of food that went into her mouth...EVERY
3. Watching Ryan and Todd get excited about NCAA...laughing like school kids. And Liz and I laughing at them...a lot. This was so good for ryan cause obviously my sports brain didn't make it out of the womb with me. He needs time with people who think like him.
4. Bounceland in Holland! Too bad ry couldn't come with us, we all loved it, the kids had a blast and it was fun to get out for a day. We will totally be going back there sometime soon.
5. Dairy Queen indoor play area for lunch one day, we were there for 2 hours. haa
6. Watching the movie 'The Fighter'. Thought it was great, could have used a few less F's, but whatev
7. Some long overdue time with great friends after the kids went to bed catching up on life and hanging out. SOOO SOO glad they came. =)



On to the next.....Dallas and Caleb get married!!
So we had about a day and a half in between when Arasmiths left and we took off for NEB, so I had some crazy running around last minute snack shopping and packing to get done before Friday when Ry came home from work. but we finally got on the road and headed out for the plains. (haaaa. just kiddin NE people.) We stayed at Steph and Brad's house, which worked out great since it was opening weekend of March Madness =). Anyhoo, got in late Friday night, were jam packed with things to do and people to see as usual. Dal's wedding was Sunday night, so Ryan flew home after the wedding to avoid missing work Monday morning. Josh flew out Monday afternoon, then Erin and I stayed together for our trip back to MI, and she and Renae and BoyBarricklow hung out here in Mich with us until Sunday....but I'll get to that later. Back to the highlights, here's how much fun we had:

Order of events:
1. Coffee with the sisters, such a great time together since we all live so far apart.
2. ZOOOOOO!!! That was a first timer for the boys! They loved it!
3. Dinner with long lost friends Brian and Jenny Conklin. Haven't seen them....maybe since I was pregnant with the boys....waaay too long! Didn't miss a beat though, it was a blast!
4. ROCKED MY SOCKS OFF doing wedding hair. Dall looked like a million bucks. not to toot my own horn, buuuuttt....
5. Havin someone to borrow a smokin outfit from- top to bottom = Steph Plouzek. Too bad we don't live closer maybe I would be more stylin. hehe
6. Deb and Bill to hang out with kids during ceremony = PRICELESS.
7. Speaking of ceremony= I HAVE A NEW BROTHER!!!!!!!!!! It really was great seeing their own personal touches thoughout the evening, which is the same to going to any wedding...but I feel like their style really was shown in the decorations and the atmosphere....so much fun. Two VERY creative people. =)
8. Ryan went to airport (boooooo)
9. Dinner out with the fam and got to sit with Grandpa Schweitz. I love him.
10. Reception of the Year!!! BOO YAAAAAAA but we had to leave early for bedtimes.... dang
11. FINALLY got to go see Briana's house after the kids went to bed. Deb stayed with them and Steph and I ran over there quick before B had to get to bed, you know, school night. Her house is super cute!
*BREATHE*
12. breakfast at Deb's, totally thrown on her last minute which she of course acquiesced (yessss good word) because that's what Deb does, she hosts and cooks for small villages like it's nothin. GREAT food and GREAT time with Cale and Meg, Ev and K, Josh and Erin, and dad and beth stopped by too....before we all headed our seperate ways.
13. Erin and I head to Lincoln with the boys, girls stay with Deb. Hair cut appoint for me with Courtney at Envy salon (or used to be 'A Formal Affair') on 48th and Normal, totally recommend her for anyone in the area...that was great to see her again and catch up.
14. meeting LUCY
15. holding LUCY
16. boys holding LUCY. loved every minute with her. too bad there werent' that many minutes we could stay....she. is. beautiful.
17. LUCY's mom. =) there is so much I could say here about Heather and her sweet babe, that I can't come up with anything. They mean the world to me. What I would give to live next door to the Eigsti's and do life with them.
18. SIIIIGHHH, moving on.....back to Omaha to pick up the girls and hang out at dad's for the evening (first time since we got there on Friday-didn't even see them until the wedding!)
19. Pack up the van-digity for another road trip, this time with 4 kids....head out to the Children's Museum with Dad and Beth for a last attempt to wipe out the kids before nap time in the car. What a great place! Everyone should go there....and pretty sure everyone was there, cause it was crowded. but so fun! Good thing the adult to kid ratio was 1:1. hahaa
and lastly....20. saying goodbye to bedtimes and consistent naps for 5 days and NOT looking forward to our 'recovery time' here at home again...... haaa. but it was worth it. =)
(bonus #21. Rufus didn't eat my kids!) hahaaaa

Reason for the visit and the thing that was the greatest of all= watching Dall and Caleb get married and thinking thru the vows they said to each other and that Ryan and I said to one another 4.5 years ago....I'm hoping every wedding that we go to will always make me remember our own special day and seeing the happy couple and thinking back to how special ours was to us. What a neat thing to do with your spouse!! ...Caleb and Dal, God has blessed you SO MUCH! I love you guys!!



OKKKK, and on to the last 5 days of the trip, back in the MICH! So good to be home and the kids sleeping in their own beds! One last list, but much shorter:

1. Preschool enrollment!! woop! (find out next week if they're in-more on that later)
2. Erin's sis-in-law and mother-in-law came for a visit for a few hours
3. Catie came to hang out for a while, we've known each other since birth, all the way back to Oakland! NICE. she and her hus live in Detroit. Don't get to see them often enough!
4. Ashley's variety show, which she was the emcee, wore my junior year purple prom dress and looked better in it than I did! Did her hair for it, she looked amazing. But besides the way she looked, she was fabulous and I would encourage everyone to consider her for your next event.
5. GREAT 2 hours in the car Sunday night, allllll byyyyyyy myyyyyyselffff after dropping Erin and Big R off at the airport. Totally great time to regroup and not listen to any noise. Just what I needed.

ANNNNNND if you're still reading this you get bonus points cause this was longer than the Twilight series. Ry just walked in from the office, so we are going to bed!

G goes under

So I better finally write about this before I forget what happened. HA!

SOOOOO, on tuesday this last week we scheduled Garrett for his surgery to fix his circumcision. He wasn't in any pain from it before, part of it had just healed back in a weird way and we finally decided to have them check into it. They agreed that if we were going to have the urologist fix it then earlier was better than later, so he was less likely to remember the process.

Had to be at the hospital at 6 in the morning, left our house at 5:30. Ry carried him down to the car in his pj's and with his blanky. I was so anxious (just about getting up in time-haa) the night before and (still) sick that I got probably like 3 hours of sleep, looked like I got hit by a truck, and G's talking on the way there about how dark it is, 'where is the sun mommy?' and 'i still have my jammies!' and acting like it's no big deal we're up at THE CRACK.

Check him in, he's telling stories to another older couple also in the admissions room. We go up to the surgery room, changes into his 'tiger jammies' and wait....for like 45 minutes. Nurses were coming in and out messin with stuff asking him questions....here's a few pictures of our waiting. =)








So when it got to be closer to the time of his surgery, they came and gave him versed, liquid stuff that he just drank, then explained some few things to me. I asked to take him potty before they took him back and they told me I had to carry him cause he could fall over from that stuff. OH YA, he was already loopy after like 5 minutes. Had to hold him the whole time in the bathroom, couldn't even lift his leg to get his foot out of his undies. HAHA! he kept sayin 'what's dat noise?'....uhhhh I dont' hear anything G, we're in the bathroom. HA! and he kept sayin he had to go poopy, but wasn't even making an effort to do so, sooooo bathroom time was ended and I carried him back pretty much dead weight to the room. They had the bed all ready to be wheeled away for the operating room, so I quick got another picture before they took him away. he was making everyone laugh and they all thought he was cute. He could tell that there was something 'funny' about him, like his body was heavy...he had this little smirk on his face and his eyes were looking EVERYWHERE without his head moving. hahahahahahaaaaa. so funny.


Then I went out to the car to get the balloons, got myself a yummy coffee and waited....and waited...in the waiting room....ugh. Took forever. And I was texting Ry to keep him up dated. Brought my bible study stuff but my brain can't concentrate on anything if there's noise. The doc came out half way to give me an update, which was nice. and then again when they were done and said I could go back to the room to wait for him, they would bring him back in as soon as he opened his eyes.

Actually I should back up....for anyone who's wondering, after they took him to the operating room, he was already pretty loopy, they give him an oxygen mask to put him under and then do the iv after he's already out, so he wouldn't be awake for the needle part. AWESOME!!!! SO, I really wasn't worried about any of that, so while I was waiting I was just wanting to see him getting really antsy, you know. Susie came up there too for the last 15 minutes of waiting so that made it go a little faster having someone to talk to.

We came back into the room and the bed was obviously still gone (the one they wheeled him away on) and there was a recliner and a folding chair along the wall. We set down all our crap and I heard him crying from down the hall. They were bringing him back! looked out the door and it was one of the nurses just carrying him to me and his little iv pack. what? so she sets him in my lap in the chair, he's naked, crying getting more hysterical as time goes by, Susie and I try to calm him down, he's flailing his arms and legs, didn't want to sit, stand, look this way, that way, hold onto that, pulling on his iv, pulled off his finger monitor, he was beside himself, which I was warned would happen after he comes out of anesthesia.... really we ended up sitting on the floor together, since there was no bed in the room. I was not impressed. I actually felt pretty much helpless....I couldn't 'help' him, but he seemed like he wanted my help, but he also made it seem like I was doing it wrong. hahaaaa. WHAT THE HECK!!!?! Anyhoo, we weren't there very long, long enough for him to chug 3 glasses of juice and water....and then throw it all up on the floor, take out his iv, and finally get settled for a few minutes watching Dora while I got some take-home instructions and his prescription. He sat on Susie's lap on the wheel chair while I carried all our loot and then ran to pull up the van. GOING HOME!!!

So we get back, Heather stayed with Ethan and Syd for the few hours that Ry was at work. Syd had pigtails!! so cute! Anyhoo-back to the story...we picked up some movies from the library, G got settled into his little spot on the couch...still hasn't had anything to eat or drink since the night before, it's like 11am. get him some more drink, and he throws up again....ugh. Thought this might be a really long day, but that was the last time! After about an hour he kept asking for more food....he had crackers, jello, and a popsicle. Here he is just takin it easy.

about an hour later he asked me if he could go back to the doctor again. He was ok. HAHAHA! Good thing cause we have a checkup on Wednesday. HA! Recovery has really been hard for ....ME, cause he forgets he has an owie. Keeping him settled was the hardest part tuesday, wednesday and thursday. He and Ethan are always wrestling and climbing and jumping....AHHH sit still dude!! he's been telling everyone this week about it too, that he can and can't do certain things cause it hurts his....like jump out of the van, do the crotch buckle on his carseat, climb into his bed over the guard rail, wear jeans, put on his medicine, take a bath, eat his vegetables...hahaha no just kidding. He's pretty much back to normal spirits though, that came back quickly. you can tell he's still a little sensitive, but that's to be expected. ALL in ALL, still glad we got that behind us now and were really happy with Dr. Terhune. Thanks everyone who was praying, it was a pretty long day. So glad God was watching over little Garrett!