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!

My Boys are Growing Up

We have had some big changes in the Gehle house in the past two weeks. Starting with Camden, as you can see from the picture he is feeding himself. I was telling a friend how I didn't think he would ever give up baby food one day and then the next day he shut his mouth and turned his head every time it was offered to him. Of course I had just stocked up with about 20 jars the day before!!!!! Now he doesn't even want me to feed him! If I put food on a fork and try to give it to him he turns his head and then gets another piece from his tray and feeds it to himself. So now I can actually maybe eat while my food is still hot?!??!?! The other big change for Camden is that he is crawling and pulling himself up to standing. He started with a military crawl and I liked this, he wasn't too fast. Well he graduated up to traditional crawling and has been VERY busy!!! His first day crawling he made it into the laundry room with the dog bowl. Next thing I know Brayden is asking for a paper towel to which I ask why and he replies, "to clean up my brother". He was wet up to his elbows and having a great time!

The next BIG change here is that Brayden is using the big boy potty!!!!!!!! He is very excited about the stickers that he gets to stick to a chart; 1 for just trying, 2 for going pee and 3 for going poopy. He anounced today that he is going for 3 stickers but will be happy with 2!!! I am trying to make this as positive for him as possible. He asked for a Diego potty seat to go on the big potty, not a potty chair he has one of those but he wanted just the small seat. First off I can't believe he remembered, I showed him that months ago! Well I went to find it and didn't remember where I saw it so 4 stores later we found it, thank goodness!!! He also got race car underwear but he only wants to wear them for the walk down the hall to his potty and then for the walk back to his room after he uses the potty. He still finds comfort in his diaper, and I have to admit so do I!!!!!

Finally an Update!!!

So I can't believe it has been a month since I updated this! It hasn't been because I wasn't thinking about it. I've taken plenty of pictures with the idea that I am going to post it, but then something happens. For starters we were in Michigan for a week and a half the beginning of January. It was great being back and seeing everyone! My cousin Debbie, Bob and my Aunt Dee made the trip down to Jackson to see us, thank you again! I missed seeing my cousin Kristin and her family but have definite plans to see them this summer. It is stressful being away from home but it is also stressful coming back home. The first week or so after we get back from Michigan; lets just say I'm moody! This is something I have come to terms with since I've felt this way since the very first visit back after moving away. It's very hard wanting to be back home with our own routine but not wanting to leave family. That is the first reason I neglected this blog, the second is that I got sick. We left Michigan and it was 62 degrees we get back to Minnesota where it is not bad at 32 degrees until a few days later when IT HIT!!! IT being the typical MN winter cold, we dropped down to -4 degrees on a sunny Saturday afternoon. Now that is -4 WITHOUT factoring windchill, add that it and that brings us to a wonderful -20 or so degrees. Lets just say they warned us that more than 9 minutes out in the elements, exposed skin would start to freeze. And it got worse!!!!! This past Thursday morning it was -18 again without wind chill. My sinuses HATED this! So now I am on the better side and of course we warmed up to +30 degrees; it's amazing how warm 30 degrees can feel!!! Of course we are expecting a high of -1 by Wednesday??!?!?!?!? Where in the heck did my husband move me to?!?!?!?! So enough with excuses, I will be posting some pictures to this blog this week, we have had many big changes that I am very excited to share (NO I'M NOT PREGNANT!!!!)

Santa Babies

Brayden wouldn't put the Santa hat on his head until now. I tried many times before Christmas but then the day after Christmas he put it on himself. Then my little Cam, this has to be one of my favorite pictures of him.
We all had a wonderful Christmas here in Minnesota. It was a white Christmas with 10 inches still on the ground (had compacted to about 6 inches) from a snow fall early December. Snow does not melt here!!! Then on Christmas Day Jared took Brayden sledding and it started to snow, talk about postcard moments. Well it didn't stop snowing until the next morning so we now have another 4-5 inches of the white stuff. Good thing I like snow!
It was just the four of us for Christmas, the first one without my mom. We went to church on Christmas Eve, bummed that our church doesn't have a candlelight service. But with two small children it was probably a good thing! Then Jared and I started getting ready for Christmas morning. It was his idea to wait to wrap gifts, put toys together until that night. We were up until 2am, but it was so worth it. We got video of Brayden coming downstairs and the boys opening their gifts (Camden just wanted to eat the paper). It was a very peaceful/lazy day. I missed my mom but truely LOVED having my boys wake up in their own beds and walk down their stairs on Christmas morning. So now we just have to convince grandparents to come to us for Christmas!!!!!