I just realized that I haven't posted in a while. Things have been super busy here. I started a new job at work ( I still work for Gates from home and have been doing it for 2 years now. I am, along with two other ladies that were in my training group have been at Gates the longest. Wahoo!!!) I just love it. I have recommend three people now and they are all still working here. They must love it too :) I am taking on two new huge projects which allows me to work in the morning before the kids get up, which is wonderful. I get in about 6 hours a day. Awesome!!!
The kids are great. Nolan is now walking officially. He doesnt crawl too much anymore. He reminds us of a penguin waddling. Way too cute. Lily is great. She is growing up so fast. She is such the joke teller. It is getting to be cooler outside so we are finding ourselves inside more. I did take the kids to the pumpkin patch,Eugsters farm market, the other day to pick our flowers and see the animals. We took loads of pictures, not with the digital camera because we think that it was stolen, but with our film camera. Be waiting for our fall card in the mail. We plan on taking another fall ride to Pecks in spring green. We did that every year, except the year that we were gone in Iowa, and are excited to get back to our family tradition. The house is almost done. Yah!!! Just a few minor details and kitchen counter tops and we are set. It looks wonderful and I am so excited to call this new place home. We are getting aquainted very well with our neighbors and I am enjoying mommies Bunco dice game every month. Chris has wonderful hours and we are so happy to be back "home".
It was homecoming here this past week, although we arent in school anymore, it is still fun to celebrate. Mom VV, Grandma Jane, Aunt Kay and I took the kids to the parade and we had a blast. We are so excited to have the kids get to know everyone better and to be able to get together with family so often. We are all enjoying it.
So today was busy. We went to lunch with Great Grandma Jane, Then to the farmers market, then tonight we are going to dad and mom VV's for pizza. Yum!!! Maybe Chris will learn how to play Wii. Then I wont feel as silly playing. (Mom and Dad VV have Wii)

This weekend...

So.. Still can't find the camera so no new pics again today. I think that I am starting to realize that I probably won't ever find it and it is time for a new one.
The kids are doing great. Nolan is now walking. He started last night. He takes about four steps then sits down. He just turned 10 months yesterday so I think that this is early to start. And that means he will be getting into more things, especially his sisters toys. He is talking a bit more. He says dada, mama, ni-ni (for goodnight) and he also says more in sign language.
Lily is growing up so fast. It is hard to believe. Weds. she starts preschool one day a week and she starts dance class. We all are really excited. She loves our new neighborhood and looks out the window everyday for the neighborhood girls to come home from school then runs down to their house. They all love playing with each other. We just love this neighborhood and have made some wonderful friends. Lily has a sticker chart for good behavior and has earned lots of money(she gets 5 cents a star) so far so we have to take her shopping this week for her special treats.

We had a great weekend. Busy but good.Friday we went to the shop and visited with everyone. Lily had a class in the morning so Nolan had some grammy time while Lily and I went. Courtney and Bubba came up to visit us so we went downtown to the Nitty gritty for some chow in the evening when Chris got home from work. Saturday was filled with fun. Nolan and I went to my work picnic and Lily had some grammy and papa time. Which she absolutely loved. She came home with some pretty sparkly dancing shoes so she was in her glory. Chris had to work for a bit in the afternoon. Then we all went to a goodbye party for Angie, Chris's cousin. She is moving to Hawaii.(poor thing :)) There were so many kids there and they all had a great time. Lily was the only girl so the boys taught her how to wrestle in the sand volley ball court and play tag. They also built sand castles and we later found three of them playing with the beer keg. :) We didn't end up going to another party that we had planned with our neighbors because we were tired. We ended up eating at Rocky Rocco's,which we love and missed while in Iowa, and we ended up meeting Lainie, Ben, and Levin there. Levin and Lily played so great. She just loves him. Levins birthday party was on Sunday and we all went to that. He has a new power wheel truck that all the kids wanted to go in. They had fun riding in that and playing on the trampoline and swingset. Lily learned how to do a flip on the tramp. from a girl that was there who was in gymnastics. Little dare devil :)

So.. busy week ahead. Chris is off today, golfing now, then back to painting and pulling up carpet. I am taking Lily shopping for some things. Tonight we are going to Mom E's house for the Packer game and dinner with some others. Tuesday Lily is going to spend the whole day with her great grandma Jane (Mom E's mom) and they are going to have a special day watching movies and eating popcorn. She has been waiting for this for a long time. Weds we finally get carpet and Cabinets are shipped. Lily also starts school and it is our day to volunteer. (It is a parent share school). So Chris is volunteering for us because I have a meeting downtown in Madison. Uncle Denny and Grandma Erfurth are babysitting him at the shop. Thursday we need a relaxing day and Friday we are on the go again.

Update on the Erfurth's..............

So.. I temporarily misplaced my camera/lost it in the move so no pictures today....

Things are going well with us. We have moved in after staying with Mom Erfurth for a week, and are still redoing the house. We get carpet next week and we have ordered our whole new kitchen last week and that should be coming in a couple of weeks. Then the counter tops come about 3 weeks after that. Our new appliances are all here. Yeah!! I can finally do some laundry :)
It is a long process but it will be worth it in the end. The house looks great so far. Most of the painting is done.. Thanks to everyone who has helped us with the house, and for Chris's hard work.
We are adjusting very well here. Family and friends stop by almost everyday.We love that and the really really enjoy seeing everyone. And we are meeting tons of people in our neighborhood. I am actually going out with about 10 other ladies from the neighborhood tomorrow night to play games(Bonko), eat dinner, and chat. It should be so much fun. The kids and I have some playdates scheduled at neighbors houses during the next and we have enrolled Lily in a Preschool class on Weds. It is called Moms day out. She will love it. We are looking into dance and Gymastics classes for Lily as well. She loved watching gymnastics this year during the Olympics and says that she wants to do that.. so we will give it a shot. We also are going to be going to Parent share that the elementary school and open gym which should be great for both of the kids. You just stop in and play with other kids/adults have conversations with other parents. We are totally excited for this. They have a classroom set up with toys for Parent share and Open gym is for little ones to get energy out. This should be great in the Winter time. We got a Children's museum membership so we will also spend lots of time there. I was worried that we wouldn't have much to do here, since there was tons to do in Iowa for kids. Boy am I wrong. We might be overloaded with things to do and people to do things with. But that is good.

Our neighbors have been just great. Everyday since we have lived here, they have been coming over and bringing us goodies to welcome us to the neighborhood. They are probably so glad to have someone living at this house. It has been vacant for a while.

About the kids.. Nolan can now stand up by himself and he just stands in the middle of the floor. He wants to take steps by himself but after the first step, he usually slows down.He waves bye bye, Hi, says hi, mama, dada..... Lily is such a big helper with Nolan. She is adjusting to moving, yet again but is doing very well. She has really calmed down in the past week. She is playing with the neighborhood girls great. We took the kids to see the races in Sun Prairie last night and they had a blast. They were great and although it got late, were so so good. We went to see Auntie Coco's boyfriend Bubba race (his real name is Gary). He did a great job and got 5th over all, which is great. Lily sat in his race car and they took many pictures of us all together. Bubba even signed an autograph for Lily and she keeps it with her all the time. She loves Bubba so much. It is really cute. She made him a picture and a poster to hold up while he raced. Too fun!!
Nolan stayed awake the whole time and watched the races too. He would not keep his eyes off of the cars. The Corn was good too :) We love that every year.

Chris is liking his new position. He is home more, which he really enjoys. And has Sunday's and Monday's off to spend with us and other family.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband... We just wanted to wish our number one Daddy and husband a happy birthday.

Love,
Lily, Nolan, and Kristin



Pictures of his birthday to follow.

We're moving.......Bye Bye IOWA..

Ok.. so this has been a big secret that we have been keeping from many people. I have secretly been searching for homes back in Madison WI for the past few weeks. I made a trip down there and stayed for a week. I hooked up with a great realtor and we began our home searching process. Chris met me for a couple of days to help make the final decision. Two handfuls of people know but that is it. We wanted to make sure everything was a go ahead, with Chris at work and everything, before we told people. He gave his two weeks today. Chris has been really unhappy for a while with work and it just felt like the right time to move.

We put our house up for sale by owner, thinking that the market was bad and it would take months and months to sell. We knew that we wanted to get back to Madison to be by family in the near future, we just didn't expect it to be this soon and all of a sudden. Well, it only took 2 weeks from the time we put the sign in our yard to the time that we got an offer on it. Not bad. So, with the offer, we had to in return find a house. So we have to be out of here by August 4 because the buyers needed to close that day.

We found a very nice house in Oregon, kinda by bergamont golf course. You can see the back of it from the park down the road. It needs a bit of work, outside upkeep and inside painting, recarpeting, oh and a new kitchen. ( The kitchen in this place is just weird) But we are enjoying picking out our own things. We decided that we wanted to purchase this house and do a minor fix up job to make it our own. And in the end, if we wanted to sell it in a couple of years and upgrade, we can make tons of money on it. Hopefully we wont be moving again for a while, though :) This will be our new home. So... so long Iowa, and hello Oregon.. Now grammy, papa, grandma kim, auntie coco, uncle David, auntie jenna, and Gavin can see the kids and us all the time :)

Here are some pictures of our house in Iowa that we are going to miss. We put a lot of work into the house but it was worth it in the end.

Little Birdy

The kids and I went to Starbuck's today for a treat. Lily likes the kids chocolate milk with Whip Cream that they make and I get the caramel apple cider. Yummm! I was holding Nolan and the lady behind the counter making the drinks commented that he is just so so cute. She said " He is so so cute. How adorable is he. He looks like a little bird with his hair." So.. whats a mom to think.. compliment or beat down!!! Never heard someone call my child a birdy. Hehe. So.. here is our little birdy. For those of you that haven't seen Nolan in a while. He does have hair now. Quite a bit of hair. It is just really really blond and it stands up on top of his head like a mohawk.

Smores.. Mmmmmm!

Today we had smores. It was so much fun and the kids loved it. Lily always like to do this and Nolan got into it this time too. After smores, they washed off in the kiddy pool on our deck.

Our little love bugs...

They had a long hard day of playing.. can't you tell. We hit the aquatic center and they had a blast splashing, sliding, going on the lazy river, playing in the fountains and sprayers. They both just loved it. They are chilling on the floor all tuckered out. Oh yeah.. and Nolan has a piece of pretzel in his mouth that he must have found on the floor or that his big sister thought she would share. I didnt notice it until after I took his picture.

Have A Happy 4th of July !!

From the Erfurth's.......... They had our city fireworks here last Saturday night. It was really neat. No waiting around, no waiting to get out with parking, no sitting there all day long to "hold our spot". We are not used to this. In Madison at Rhythm and Booms, you must head out in the late morning, park and find somewhere that is even within a couple of miles, walk, and stake your spot out to make sure nobody else "gets a better view than you". We pulled our vehicle in a parking lot of a bank, put a blanket on the hill and sat right outside our vehicle. When the show was over, we loaded the kids in the car and went right home. No traffic, no sitting in lines. AHHHh!! It was so great.

For the fourth of July, Kim is coming down to visit. She will get here on Weds and then leave on Sunday. It will be nice. Little does she know.. we may have to ask her to babysit while Chris and I go out for a much needed night out together. It will be nice not to have to shovel food down and request they put a rush on it just so we get it before the kids get fussy and it is time to go. We have had a lot "take home dinners" from restaurants lately. They have another parade here on Friday and a big fireworks show on the fourth so we might do that. Saturday is farmers market so I may take Kim to that to check it out. Des Moines is pretty much back to normal with the flooding so we can check out Farmers market again. We are so tired of all this rain and hail. Our SUV is so beat up from Hail that we dont report it anymore because we are afraid our insurance will drop us.

To all of you.. Have a safe and happy fourth of July. We wish we could be there, but know we will have a good time with the kids here.

Have A Happy 4th of July !!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Nolan can now...

Climb up things. He really likes to climb up legs and then stands up. He also loves to dig in baskets. He sits on his knees, then stands up to dig in baskets of toys. He is offically on the move, and getting to be such a big boy. He also says "mama" when he is crying. AHHHHHH!! I love it!

Meet the newest members of our family...

CHARLIE AND LOLA!!!

We now are pet owners. Yes, I never thought this would happen but it did. Lily, Nolan , and I went shopping today at our favorite store. We walked in and they had a cage with Guinea pigs. Lily ran right over and started playing with them. I was making small talk with the women who works there and said that the only pet we would get right now was a gold fish. I mentioned that the guinea pigs were cute and She said " well they are yours". So, we took home the cage, two guinea pigs, food, bedding, toys, etc. All for free. Can't go wrong with this. If they don't work out in our home, I am sure that a teacher would love them in their classroom. ( Alex:) ) But.. They have a life span of only 5-8 years and we think that they are about 4-5 years old already. So.. we may have to have the heaven talk.

Right now, they are doing good and Lily loves them. Not sure where they will go, as we are afraid they will stink up our house. They are kinda ugly to me.. they look like big rats but Lily loves them already.

They are both girls. Charlie is the black one,and Lola is the white one. Lily got to choose the names and they are named after a cartoon that she likes.

Lily's Real Birthday!!

Lily had such a great Birthday. We went to Build a bear and she got to build her first teddy bear by herself. She even picked out a pair of red dancing shoes. For those of you that know her really well, she is obsessed with dancing shoes, and really really obsessed with red dancing shoes. She puts those suckers on and dances like you would not believe. It is almost like she has her own song in her head. Totally Cute!!!
We played in her pool in the afternoon, went to the park like always, and then at night we went out to dinner at one of her favorite kid friendly, ( Kid friendly because it is loud and we don't have to worry about keeping the kids too quiet) restaurants. They came out and sang happy birthday to her and she immediately ducked under the table until they were gone. ( see in picture) Now that was soooo funny to see. Then she ate her huge ice cream sunday and even shared with us. What a good little sharer(is that a word??) Oh and for breakfast, we went and picked out her favorite donuts. Lily loves donuts for breakfast. Those are big treats for her.

Auntie Courtney's graduation/ Fathers day

Auntie Courtney graduated from High School on Sunday so her party was on Saturday. It was a nice day,except for the late afternoon showers, but we had fun and Lily enjoyed dancing in the rain. Nolan was flying around in the walker outside and enjoying being held by everyone. Chris and I went to the ceremony on Sunday, although there were not enough tickets for both of us so we sat in the auditorium and watched it on a tv. I tried to pop into the gym to sneak a picture but the lady to me to leave and go to my seat. Oh well!! Grammy and PaPa got the kids and the kids enjoyed spending time with them. Lily spent Saturday night with them, which she has never spent the night at their house before without me or Chris. And this is the second time that she has been overnight without us. The other time was for David and Jenna's wedding.

It was fathers day as well so in the morning we went by dad and mom's house and they made us breakfast. We brought over doughnuts but they cooked us a really huge breakfast. Dad shouldn't be cooking on fathers day, but he insisted. Chris was off of work over this past weekend so it was nice that we got to spend fathers day with him. The kids enjoyed spending time with him and so did I. We intended on going to another grad party on our way back to Iowa but the kids fell asleep so we kept driving knowing that they were exhausted from a long weekend.

Lily Is Three

Lily turned three last week and we celebrated her birthday while we were in Madison last weekend with some family. We had it at Chuck E Cheese. Lily loves that place so we had it there.

The family was there so Lily was really happy about that. She danced with Chuck E. and he/his friend sang to her. Now.. that was a little weird, but Lily had some fun with that and so did the adults.

Underwater

So.... Des Moines is under water. The whole downtown is flooded and everything is closed today. They are sandbagging around here and shopping to get bottles of water and food. Grocery stores are packed. I think that our house will be safe because it is about 15 minutes to downtown and not near the river or lake so we should be good. (hopefully :) ) We are glad that we will get the heck out of here tonight and head to Madison. But.. we are scared to what we will come home too. We have had rain for the past few weeks and thunderstorms/tornados like you would not believe. Boats are floating on the streets instead of cars driving down the road. Crazy scene. We will be driving back to Madison/Oregon this evening when Chris is done with work for Courtney's graduation party and we thought that since we were there, we would have Lily's birthday party at Chuck E Cheese in Madison so nobody had to drive all the way to Iowa. It should be fun tomorrow. We haven't told her yet, though. When she gets excited or knows that she is going to do something fun, she refuses to take naps or go down at night to bed because she is so excited. She will find out where we are going this weekend, when we are on our way. And tomorrow on our way to Chuck E Cheese, she will find out that it is her party. Her real birthday isnt until Tuesday so she is a lucky girl who will celebrate a couple of times. Yesterday we went to Toys r us to get her a pool, I know, who needs a pool when it is raining all the time, but for a while yesterday afternoon, it got so hot that we bought her a pool with her Toys r us gift cert. When you register for geoffery's club, they send you a card for your birthday so she got three dollars because she is three. So.. when you walk in the door, and use the card, they know it is your birthday and announce it to everyone on the loud speaker. She also got a neat balloon and a crown. She had so much fun.

So.. off we go to Madison for the weekend. And pray that our house wont be flooded when we come home.

Lily is turning three.. Mommy reflection

As Lily’s third birthday is approaching, it makes me realize that time flys by so fast and how much being a mom means to me. I go to bed often thinking, what could I have done better today. We had a good day but what could I have done to make it a perfect day. Maybe I shouldn’t have put Lily on a time out, Did I play with her enough?, Maybe I should have made a healthier lunch, instead of doing bills I should have taken two minutes and played barbies with Lily like she asked. How about with Nolan… Can I let him cry when I put him down instead of holding him, I really have stuff to do but he is only little for a short amount of time so is it ok if I put him down and not rock him while he takes his naps.
The answer is easy.. I realized that there are no perfect days. Take each day as it is and take it in strides. Each day is a learning experience for me, and for the kids. I can only be one person and as long as they are loved and taken care of, they are good and will turn out good. It is such a empowering job of being a mom, but it is scary as well. I am responsible to these little beings and am responsible for what and who they become. I want the best for them and I want to have no regrets on raising my children, when they are older.
I have learned to be patient, which is a quality that I had lacked. I never thought that I would have the patience needed to care for these two children.
These kids are not me. They are their own person and I have to realize that they are very dependent upon me as well as independent. Many people say that Lily is “just like her mother was”, and that seems to be true in a sense but she is her own person with a big personality.
I have learned to love these two children like nothing else. They are a part of me and it is amazing to believe. I can’t get enough kisses, although they might be slobbery or food filled.
As I watch them play together, I get a tingly feeling. I love the bond that they already share and when they giggle at me or each other, it is an amazing feeling.
It is great to be wanted and needed so much by two little people.
So as Lily turns one more year old, and Nolan is growing up to be such a wonderful little boy, I realize something that Jill Churchill said “there’s no way to be a perfect mom, but a million ways to be a good one. And one that Sophia Loren said “When you are a mother, you are never really alone in your thoughts. A mother always has to think twice, once for herself and once for her child.”
I love my children and my husband so much and they mean the world to me. I hope that everyone can have the opportunity to experience some sort of "family" someday. It makes each day worth living.

Happy Birthday Lily!!

Each week

So.. Now that Lily is getting older, she is so hilarious. Her little sayings, the words that she pops out of her mouth, are just so funny. I have decided that each week, I will jot down the funny sayings that she has said to make us laugh, shake our heads, or just plain couldn't believe it.


1. "Mommy.. I want to talk with Grammy", I say Grammy is busy.. She said what kind of grammy is busy, I said what do you mean what kind of grammy is busy, she said" the white haired kind of grammy is busy?"

2. Mommy... Put my Dricken underwear on (Lily now says fricken but can't say her f's and instead uses a D.)

3. My damn shirt wont come off.. Get it off now. (yes, she says damn as well.. Thanks daddy)

Our last stop

The last stop on our trip was St. Louis. That is about 5 hours from Des Moines but we just couldnt finish driving all day and we knew that it would be a longer trip for the kids, so we stayed in a hotel downtown over looking the Arch. That was neat for us. We also took a tour of Busch/Budweiser brewery. We got free drinks at the end so that was neat. We both tried Peppermint Bacardi, something new that they are coming out with. We saw the budweiser clydesdales. They were beautiful. We definately could have spent more time in St. Louis but we just wanted to get home and enjoy the evening together because Chris went back to work.

BE ORIGINAL

My inspiration for the day..... Be ORIGINAL.. Be your own person and have your own thoughts and ideas. Nobody wants 2 copies of one person. A little thing that I have learned that many people deal with, from talking with many of my mommy friends.

Here are some good quotes that I found regarding originality.

"It is said that everyone is born an original and dies a copy. "
Myron Augsburger

"Don't be a blueprint. Be an original. "
Roy Acuff


"Be yourself. The world worships the original."
Ingrid Bergman

"The human mind prefers to be spoon-fed with the thoughts of others, but deprived of such nourishment it will, reluctantly, begin to think for itself - and such thinking, remember, is original thinking and may have valuable results. "
Agatha Christie

"To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting." ~e.e. cummings, 1955

"Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else." ~Judy Garland

Picasa- Photo website

Look at the last post.. If you see a multicolor symbol at the bottom of the pictures, after the westin picture, click on it. It will allow you to download picasa which is what I use to sort all of our pictures. You will be able to view our entire vacation album if you would like to see more pictures. It is free to download and does not contain viruses. I promise :)