Spring is here (I think!!?!?)

So the first picture is at an Easter Egg Hunt the Saturday before Easter. It snowed on and off that day and into the night. Like I said before we woke up on Easter morning to the sound of a snowplow! Then it warmed slightly and most of the snow melted. Could it be, could Spring actually be coming?!?! Then April Fools! The second picture; the one with Murphy wading through the snow is on April 1st! The snow started on March 31st and came down quite hard at times. It was pretty watching it fall and seeing it stuck to all the bare trees......but pretty for December or January NOT MARCH/APRIL!!!!! At this point all I can do is laugh!

Well today it finally happened, we pulled out the spring jackets. I even got a little warm in mine! Oh please let it be so! I can honestly say I have no idea what the weather is supposed to be like for tomorrow or the rest of the week, I am too afraid to look! But I will be adding my hope for the weather to keep improving in my prayers tonight!

Such a good big brother

I have wondered why God gave me the boys in the order that He did!?

Brayden was the 'easy' child, I baby proofed but really didn't have to. Brayden never messed with buttons on the tv, he never paid any attention to cords, he never played in the dog dishes and they were in a place he crawled by a few times/day, he never ate my lipstick....not that he didn't get into any trouble but overall he was just a very well behaved baby. Then came Camden and he is to put it mildly; my handful. I just wasn't prepared for a child that would get into so much AND think it was funny. Camden has this smile that is VERY devilish; it announces he is up to no good but it is a smile that makes you want to laugh too! He will pull himself up to the tv and push the buttons (I have tested the tv for a tipping hazard, it passed, but still makes me nervous), but as he's aiming with his index finger at a button he is looking over his shoulder giving his award winning smile and shaking his little booty. HOW CAN A PERSON NOT LAUGH?!!?!? So why wasn't he my first????? I think the answer to that can be summed up with the above picture.

This toy crate was in the corner of the room, that's where I put it but it kept being moved over about 3 feet!?!? So for about a week I kept moving it back wondering why on earth Brayden kept moving the darn thing. Then one day it hit me; he was moving it to keep Camden from playing with the carbon monoxide detector that has buttons and will let out a loud screech when the button is pushed (we know this thanks to Camden). You can see the crate covers the buttons perfectly. So I ask Brayden if this is why he keeps moving it to which he replies very simply, "yes, Camden kept pushing the buttons Mom"

This is why God gave me Brayden first, without him Camden might not have survived with only me watching over him.

Pretty......but not on a boy!

So I don't have a picture to go along with this post, wish I did but my panic mode took over a little. This could also be titled 'My 1st call to poison control' (Debbie I thought of you when I was calling). My first call and it wasn't about the child that's been in my care for 3 years!

So this is what happened; I needed to get in the shower and Camden woke up from his nap. Normally this is no big deal, Brayden plays with him in my room (which is baby proofed or so I thought). Well Brayden decided that he wanted to stay on the main floor while I took my shower so that left Camden upstairs with me. I brought in plenty of toys, books, etc.....and I didn't have plans to shave my legs (sorry Jared!) so I would be in and out of the shower in 10 minutes tops. I used to shower all the time with Brayden playing outside the door and NEVER did I have ANY problem/issue. I got in the shower looking at Cam and there he was playing with his activity table (which keeps his attention the longest), I take a quick shower and then as I'm getting out I just get this feeling as I look and don't see Camden. No biggie, he's probably playing with the stuffed animals in the corner of the room. But I quick wrap a towel around me and look out into the room to see my 1 year old little boy holding a lipstick cap with berry color all around his mouth and on his teeth! My makeup that I use is locked up in my bathroom, I had forgotten in my vanity there was a couple tubes of lipsticks that I don't wear anymore and really don't know why I hadn't thrown out (they are in the garbage now!). I scream NO, to which he starts crying and drops the lipstick (which he had obviously done before because there are a few berry spots on the off white carpeting!!!!). How much did he eat....is he going to be sick.....WHY!?!!??! I'm thinking this as I'm wiping out his mouth. Turns out he only ate a little and I think most was probably stuck to his teeth. But I called poison control anyway just to be safe; I think the woman was trying not to laugh but she was very reassuring to a mom who was on the brink of bawling. He was fine, not even a tummy ache....but after I got off the phone with poison control I gave him a sippy with water (to help dilute the lipstick I guess) and he left berry colored lipstick on the mouth of the sippy, what a girl!?!?

Family Vacation

So I have posted a countdown (got the idea from my cousin, thank you!) to our first official Gehle Family Vacation! We have the airline tickets and will be leaving for the Jersey Shore on Thursday, July 31st for nine days. My most super wonderful friend Sadie has offered us their family bungalow to stay in.

Our reasons to take this trip are so we can:
1-see friends (we lived there for 8 years);
2-Jared can take Brayden to a Yankees game (last year playing in the old stadium);
3-visit N.Y.C
4-so we can get some decent Chinese take out (Jared also wants his deli)!

I have to admit at first I was hesitant (who, me?!!?!). I just didn't know about spending the money on plane tickets, etc....since now we need to buy 3 tickets! But we found a great price on tickets, my super wonderful friend offered us the bungalow, and Jared got a great price on the Yankees tickets. So I guess it was just meant to be!!! I am getting pretty excited about going, since I realized today is exactly 4 months from when we leave! Obviously since there is still 4 months to go I haven't thought about the dreaded part.....packing!!!!!!

Explanation

So I've posted a couple of times and was going to try to explain why it had been so long since I had posted any pics in one of those postings but it didn't seem to fit with the topic. So I am going to just post an explanation all by itself.


As you can see I didn't post one thing in the month of February. If I would have posted it would have gone something like this........


Posting option #1: It is so freakin' cold in the d--- state. Why did my husband move us here. I am going INSANE sitting in this house because the high today is -10 degrees!


Posting option #2: Well they are sick AGAIN! That makes it almost 3 straight weeks of runny noses, ear infections, inhalation treatments, etc..... I don't leave the house except in the evening after Jared is home and we've put the kids to bed. Does anyone have a guess to what the temp is AFTER the sun goes down when the high for the day was 1 degree??!?!? It's the kind of cold that makes your jeans feel like they might shatter if you hit them with a grocery bag hard enough! Yes, I unloaded plenty of groceries many different times during these frigid nights! One thing I learned about myself, when I've been shut in with 2 sick whiney kids all day, I have no problem being outside in
-20 degrees loading groceries in my car. I even take the time to return the cart to the store or coral just so I can spend a few extra minutes away from my house! The following is the ONLY picture I took the WHOLE month of February! Note: he is smiling!

Posting option #3: I was sitting in my living room on one of the first nights where the temps were going way down and I hear a really loud bang. The kind of bang that makes you jump and freeze up at the same time. I look over at Jared who's asleep on the couch thinking he had to wake up with that noise; he didn't! So I woke him up and said "I think a deer just ran into the back of our house". I know it sounds silly, but I couldn't think of any other explanation (besides I was exhausted from the sick kids). He finds nothing but announces how cold it is outside! I didn't hear the noise every night but when the temps really dropped I would hear it. Turns out when it gets that cold out, houses will 'pop'. Again, where the h--- did my husband move me to where house 'complain' because it is so cold!!!!! The scientific reason; the wood contracts and the water in the wood expands and where two pieces of wood meet they will move and pop. Doesn't do any damage but it is unnerving to hear. On one of the record days/nights for cold (-40 degrees) I had to turn the radio up just to cover all the noise so my poor dog would stop hiding! By the way on that record cold night Jared was out of town (probably in Texas!!!) and I had to take the dog out. Yes -40 degrees does feel A LOT colder than -20 degrees, even though Minnesotans say it doesn't.

So as you can see if I would have posted it wouldn't have been very pleasant. I can look back and laugh and make jokes but at the time I really was just plain fed up!!!!! So for future reference, I hear Minnesota is brutal in February (this was the worse it had been in 7 years) so don't plan on hearing much from me during that month. Or if you do just remember I'm going through a BAD case of cabin fever and don't hold it against me!

Watch out for the 2 year old!!!

So we made our first snowman of the season (on March 9th), it finally got warm enough (above 0 degrees) so the snow would stick. As I was working on the head of my sons snowman he was standing beside me and asked if I would make him a snowball. Of course, not a problem! Never did I imagine that he would take the snowball and proceed to throw it at ME!!!!! He thought it was hilarious! This is a picture of him throwing one at me.

Here is a picture of Brayden with his snowman; just his size! This snowman has melted and we could even see grass and the start of the tulips last week. However, Easter weekend we got a new 'dusting' of 10 inches of the white stuff! We woke up Easter morning to the sound of the snowplow!

1st Birthday!

Just wanted to share a picture of Camden at his 1st birthday party! It was a really nice day spent with friends and family. Camden didn't dive into his cake but he still managed to get messy which is all I wanted! The bigger kids helped to show him what to do. And believe it or not, after all that sugar they still took great naps!