Dylan's graduation!

Well another school year in the books for Dylan! One more year left of pre-school and he will be off to Kindergarten! Can't believe by next year I will have 2 kids in school full time! Scary thought!
Here Dylan is with his class getting ready to sing some songs!


Proud big brother with the graduate!

Dylan and his best friend Nora. They have been together since birth almost! Started daycare together when they were each about 8 weeks old. Little sad as Nora is moving on to Kindergarten this year, she is a few months older than Dylan.

Great grandma Lois with the newly graduate, well almost anyway!

Danica, Dylan and Nora! Jeepers, I am going to have to watch these girls as he gets a bit older! Just call me Hef is what I think his response would be!

One more year to go and we are done with Pre-school for good! Sad to see some of his friends move on, but he will make many new ones next year as well!

My birthday and girls trip!

Well another year goes by, another year older! However, I am going to be 29 and holding for as long as I can be! My boys even went along with the 29 candles on my cake! hahah!
They helped me blow them out!


My boys made my cake this year with very little help from anyone! They were so proud of it! They wanted a pink cake, with pink frosting and red writing. That's exactly what I got! Grant wrote the Happy Birthday and Dylan filled the Mom in the middle! Love my boys!

After my birthday, we had a girls fun trip to the cities to celebrate all of our birthday's! We had a blast! Here we are at the hotel heading out to the game! Kirstin, Karlye, Stacey and myself!

Stacey, Karlye and myself in my famous self portraits! hahah!

Girls at Hrbek's before the game having a few beers and apps!

Here the 4 of us are standing under the heat lamps as it was freezing out that day! We never did sit in our seats the entire game! We stood with the heat and a beer in hand!


We had so much fun, we are going to make this an annual trip as well! Hit a Twins game and of course shopping was done! Thanks ladies for a great trip!

Vegas baby!

Well another March came and went and another year at the Vegas racetrack! This was our 9th year now! Can't believe the 7 of us have been going that long! Something I look forward to every year with my family! Here are my cousins Jill and Jami at saturday's race! Great day at the track!

My cousin Jodi, my mom and aunt Sharie enjoying the race on Saturday!

This was taken during Sunday's race! Another gorgeous day out there. Only thing is it gets a bit windy from our seats! We sit about 8 rows up from the racetrack!

6 of us during the race! Ready to go! Still early though!

Jeff Gordon and Front Row Joe during driver introductions!


Had to get an up close and personal look at Junior's car before the race!


Tailgaiting after the race! It's about 5pm out there and clouds had just moved it, but we didn't care! Enjoying our beer!

Us again minus me!

Next year is the big 10! Not sure yet, but we are going to do it big. Maybe a big show or 2 or pit passes!!!!! Can't wait ladies!

Christmas 2011!

Well Christmas is always a whirlwind for us! We have since we got married split Christmas Eve. One year it's with my family and the next it's with Brad's family. We have no choice as both our families celebrate on Christmas Eve! This year it was spent with Brad's family.
Here are all 4 grandkids on his side of the family, trying to get a good picture is near impossible with kids at these ages! Grant is 6, Dylan and Brady are 4 and Samantha was almost 18 months old here.


This has to be one of my favorite pictures and I can't wait to pull this one out for her graduation! She found our cooler which had obviously beer in it and she continued to take them out 1 by 1. If you asked her to bring you one, she would gladly do it! What a sweetie!

Now, my family decided this year to push our family Christmas until the following weekend which was New Years weekend! The boys got these blow up cars for their Wii games from their Uncles Marc and Matt. Here they are racing with my cousin's little girl Grace and my dad. Love the look of concentration on Grant's face!


Here is a family picture with my 92 year old Grandma Lois! She looks amazing for her age and acts like she is 50!

Grandma's lap is always full of grandkids! Here Dylan and Grace are holding down the fort!


Dylan loves Toy Story anything! His bedroom is also Toy story themed! He got a snuggie for Christmas from my aunt and uncle and he just loves it!

Dylan racing down the hall with his new car!



See how dramatic boys can be when it comes to games and cars! hahah! They have a blast with this cars!

The bigger boys had to take their turns as well! My brother Marc and my cousin Eric decided it was their turn with the cars! Just a tad too long for them! Oh well, it worked! Although Grant and Dylan beat them both at the race! hahah!




We had a fantastic time over Christmas and we took off a much needed week in between to enjoy it with the boys!

Long Time!

Okay, so I know it's been a really long time since I have posted anything, almost 9 months to be exact, but we have been sooo busy! So I will try and recap as best as I can! So hang in there!

Every Halloween the school takes a bus out to the pumpkin patch for pre-schoolers. This year Dylan was able to go all by himself as Grant's class went together during the day! He loved every second of it, just hanging out with us!

Of course we have to see how tall he is every time we are there!


He had so much fun running on the hay bales with this friends Alex and Mia!

I also was crazy and hosted a Halloween party for some of the kids' friends. Here is the group all together in their costumes! They had so much fun and we can't wait to make it an annual party!

My spidey decorating his carmel apple!

Here are the kiddos at the table doing crafts! We kept them busy!!!

Here are some of them playing in the toy room after all the crafts and candy were done! I love this room as it has a door! hahah


So that's a recap of Halloween. Onto Christmas!

2nd Annual Pray for Gray event

This event is so special to me and my family. My cousin Julie as pictured below with myself and my mom was diagnosed with brain cancer back in 2007. She has had surgery to remove the tumor followed by chemo and radiation. As of today, it's still inactive! It was stage 4 so it's still in the brain but for the most part, it was all removed except for the feet. She is an amazing, inspiring and giving woman! She is my hero! She started this event after attending a fundraiser for Brain cancer in Minneapolis. She found out that ND did not have a chapter for Brain cancer so she decided to start her own. She has been extremely successful with this event and we hope it continues forever!

My cousins Brittany and Ryan! Love them but holy crap can you believe how much taller they are then me!!! and how much younger they are than me!!!

My wonderful friend Stefanie joined me this year in this wonderful cause! I was so thankful she was able to come with me to wintess this great event!!! I hope you can come every year from now on with me and hope to get some more of my friends to join us!

Mi familia! My cousin Jodi and her sister Jami! They are both sisters of Julie! Notice the height differerence again! Apparently I should have been in their family! hahha! Love these 2 like they were my sisters!

My mom, Stef and myself. Self portrait of course, can't go an entire night without one of those! Not sure what I would do without these two wonderful women in my life! In fact, all of them!

My momma's big sister and Julie's mom Big Red aka "Sharie". Love her like she was my own momma! She is one strong and supportive mom to all of her children and family! We love you big red!

2nd child first day ...

Well the youngest child didn't get shut out, he did get to start his school as well. Just had to wait a week before it was his turn!~ For his birthday he got a new Toy Story backpack which he is very proud of as well! Dylan goes 2 days a week to preschool and actually his classroom happens to be right next door to Grant's, so he gets to see his big brother on those days! Dylan will have 2 years of preschool to go before starting Kindergarten as well...those summer birthday's will do that to you! But seeing how much the 2nd year helped Grant we didn't even question it with Dylan. So he is halfway through his first year and will have just next year left! He can't wait until summer when Grant is back at daycare full time again either!

Both boys showing off their backpacks and ready for the day of school! Dylan has to head to daycare in the mornings still as his school doesn't start until 12:30. His grandpa picks him up every Monday and Wednesday and takes him to school and his best friend Nora's mom picks him up from school every afternoon to take him back to daycare and he waits patiently for Grant to get off the bus!

Momma and her boys! They are growing up way too fast!

Dylan and his best friend Nora at their table at school ready to start their day. We are so lucky he has her around! They are such good buds! She tells him they are going to get married when they are old enough though, i will have to keep an eye on her when they are in their teens! haha

Dylan standing proudly by his cubby at school ready for his big day to begin. We have come to find as the boys get older how much the 2nd born feels he is left out of everything that his big brother gets to do and trying to explain to a 4 year old you just have to wait until you are that age to do things doesn't always go as planned. Dylan, you are never 2nd in our minds and have a way of making a room light up with your smile and expressions. Your personality is full of life and you are the best little brother anyone could ask for. We love you lots!!!

First day of Kindergarten....ugh...

Yes we are still here, just been super busy over the last 2 months or so! I will try and catch up on things as much as I can and hopefully get up to date and then start blogging more often again!
Well here goes nothin.... First day of Kindergarten. I think the first day of actual school for your first born is a bitter sweet day. You have looked forward to the big day since they started talking, but then at the same time, wish they would still be in diapers! Grant was so ready to start school and we are so thankful we gave him the extra year in preschool to grow and mature into the 6 year old he is now. He had no problems going to school, meeting new friends or riding a bus for the first time. However, I don't think mom had such a good go with it as he did! Oh well, that's part of growing up right! Dylan wanted to go right with him however, so we struggled with that a bit as they have been so used to being with each other every day for the last 4 years. He has now since adjusted but that first month was awful dropping him off at daycare and Grant at school that I had to have Brad start the drop offs with Dylan! We are thankful that some friends of ours has a daughter in Grant's class and they stop by our house every morning to pick up Grant for school! They just love this time together!

Eating breakfast before heading out the door! Dylan at this point thinks he is going with Grant still, notice the big smile on his face. This soon will change!

Grant's table at school, he found his spot and nametag and was ready to get started!

The happy and excited Kindergartner!

Dylan's smile isn't so big anymore as he is realizing that Grant is actually staying here and he is leaving without him.

Starting school is such a big step in growing up. It's hard to let go of your once newborn baby and see them walk through those school doors for the first time or get off that bus for the first time. I made it through dropping him off until I got to my car to shed the tears. I didn't want him to see me do that and think they weren't happy tears! Grant, you are one special boy, you are kind, loving and respectful of others. We love you so much and couldn't be more proud of you in your first year of Kindergarten!!!