Things are changing...

As I stand in the shower; it looks unfamiliar to me; there is no longer a hanging basket filled with rubber duckies, boats, squirt bottles, or buckets... The basketball hoop that once hung at eye level, is no longer hanging. I throw open the curtain and reach for the towel that once hung on the towel hooks to my right, with each child's "bath" picture displayed above the hooks; there is no towel, there are no hooks. I look to my left and see the folded towel sitting on the seat of the toilet. There are no pictures displayed in the bathroom, there are no longer pictures on any walls in the house. I feel like a stranger in my own home; a strange feeling, one that comes with mixed emotions. I walk through an empty house until I reach the master bedroom, where the reminents of a late night lay scattered around the perimeter of the room; decisions about which clothes can get toted and which need to stay, are stacked in piles.
Oh the joys of moving...
Moving is such a whirlwind with three young children; the boys are adjusting magnificently, they did such a great job helping pack up their toys, each could have one backpack that holds their nearest and dearest toys. Mommy packed Adalyn's backpack of toys, she isn't that impressed with what I picked for her, she is having a difficult time adjusting to an empty house, no couches and only a tv in the basement, her only saving grace is Lumpy. That darn Heffalump can plaster a smile right back on her once always smiling face and she sings and dances and sits on the floor and soaks up every second of lumpy that she can; and as a desperate Mommy for my smiling always happy little girl back, I let her watch Lumpy over and over again; sometimes I even sit next to her and enjoy the show that she puts on while watching her favorite friend from the 100 acre woods!
We all have our own emotions and feelings with this upcoming move, 10 days can not go by fast enough! Ben is ready for it to be done; he lucks out though, because he leaves on Sunday to DC and gets to worry far less about getting house cleaned and closing then I do; when he returns on Friday evening most of the things will be moved into our new garage. The kids and I will be swimming at the Holiday Inn (we are staying there Friday night, because although we close on Friday we don't get full possession of our new home until Saturday morning). He gets the easy part!
The boys are SO very excited to have a park in their "front" yard; they are already plotting how they are going to make sure to always watch for cars and be very careful crossing the road! They have not been to the house, they have only driven past it and I think they were focused on the park more than the house, I am sure that they will be so impressed with the huge yard and all the trees they can climb, helping Mom garden and pick weeds (we have a lot of flowers and plants to keep up). They have picked out their room themes for their very own bedrooms, that are on the same floor as Mommy & Daddy, and Adalyn; Porter wants a construction room, Braylon wants either a fishing room with boats or an airplane room, he is still working on the details.
Adalyn will be excited once we are moved in and things are put away and she realises that this is now her home. She is a girl of a different mind set; our boys were always so flexible, schedules didn't mean anything to them and change never bothered them, Adalyn is not that way, she is most comfortable at home, with her own toys and her own surroundings. Adjustment will be difficult; especially with us staying at Grandma Pammy's and Papa Todd's most of next week, with three dogs in a house, three kids, and 4 adults it will be a big adjustment for our little princess.
Reesey, Ressey, Reesey... Oh our 4 legged friend, will not know what do all of the land he will  have to run, he will be on high alert I suspect for the better part of a week; but once he feels at home, I am sure I will find him sleeping in the three season porch most days allowing the sun to warm him from the outside in.
Like I stated earlier in this growing post, for me it is a bittersweet moment, mixed with different emotions. I have never been a huge fan of our current house, never thought it felt overly homey, never felt like I was "home". However seeing it now, without any of the pictures on the walls, no decorations around the house, no toys scattered from room to room; I miss the way it looked before. It is the house that I learned how to be a Mommy! I walked all three of our kids through that back door as newborns. I watched in amazement as Reese figured out they were not leaving, and he learned to love them like they were his own. I listed to first words, watched first moments of sitting up, crawling, and those precious first steps under that very roof. I learned to love someone so much that it made my heart ache; so much that I tear up thinking up our children and the love that I hold for them. I learned how to become a wife in that house; although Ben and I have only been married for a short while, I was a wife to him long before we were actually married! Ben and I have been through a lot in that house, but I have watched my love for him grow, change and develop every single day in that house. We went through our first major renovation in that house and we both lived to talk about it! Although it makes me sad leave the house I have built so many memories in, it also makes me so excited to think of all of the memories we will make in our new home! Our old house was used to raise newborns into toddlers even two pre-schoolers, our new house will be to grow toddlers and pre-schoolers into young adults! I am over the moon to watch the people they become, to watch as they walk down the stairs dressed up for their first day of school, and as they walk down those same stairs dressed in their cap and gown and leave to become a high school graduate. I will welcome the day that Ben and I are sitting on our maintenance free deck (I am so excited not to have to paint three decks any longer); enjoying a drink and conversation as empty nester's... I look forward so very much to the Jensen's moving!

May these next 10 days fly by and may you have a safe and happy 4th of July Holiday! I will be finishing packing as my husband and two boys are enjoying fishing/jet skiing/ and fireworks!

Mommy - Boy date!

On Friday the boys and I joined Auntie Nicole and Cousin Candon for a movie theater date at Monster's University. It was a hilarious movie and so cute! The boys enjoyed it, once it started, we thought there would be a long line, so we arrived extra early... Turns out there was not a line and we ended up having to kill time in the theater instead. Once the movie started it went great. It was Porter's first time at the movie theater and he is already plotting his next go around, he doesn't care what movie we see, he is plotting the snacks he wants! We will be putting this on our calendar's to do more often, it was a great evening... Thanks again for joining us Coley and Candon!

Looking very cool in their shades!

 

I blinked and 18 months flew by...

I went shopping for some more summer jammies for Adalyn today, and I found myself in the "toddler" section of Herberger's searching for 2T pajama's!!!! Yes 2T, my baby is less then a baby and more of independent, career chasing, boy crazy women! She is filled with so much life; she is surely our easiest child yet, but she has so much spunk (Ben calls it drama and usually refers to her as the DIVA)... Lately it is blowing my mind as she starts to repeat everything and talks our ears off. She will say every single word that we say, except Porter... She calls Porter Bray, we correct her every time, but she still insists on Bray. She calls Braylon, just that Braylon. I think she is a little confused, especially because 90% of the time we call Porter, Maxie. We have heard her say Porter 3 times, but everything else she says and she says it very clearly. I wish I could rewind the time, because I miss my chubby check, rolly polly little girl! I have captured these few pictures over the weekend and thought they were worth sharing :)

 

She didn't want to sit with Mommy and Grandma at the Softball game last Tuesday night... She wanted to sit all by herself!

She really loves her Giraffe and sippy cup! Walking around the yard enjoying being left alone.

She looks 15 years old in this picture... No longer my baby, she sure is adorable though! One of my favorite pictures.

She even insists on sitting at the table, she kneels at the table the entire time we eat and she does such a good job. Ben said he isn't ready for this yet, but I can't keep her sitting nice in her highchair, so it might be the perfect time!

 

I am so excited for the women this little girl is going to become, but I would be okay if time just slowed down a lot first.

 

Life Happenings...

Well life has been extremely busy for the past month in a half! It is hard to believe that it is the last week of June already... I feel like it should be the last week of May, I feel a little cheated out of Summer this year! The reason for us being so busy, is because we are MOVING!!!! We have been searching for a home that suited or needs... and wants, there are always wants, for over a year now. We finally found the perfect home; it has every need and a lot of our wants all wrapped into one fabulous location! There were a lot of steps to get this house, and everything feel perfectly (not really perfectly, nothing happens perfectly; but I am going to pretend) into place. We will be moving in less then 3 weeks, 17 days to be exact! We will be closing the week that Ben is in DC, we close on a Friday and he gets back late that Friday; which translates to me having to pack everything and move everything with three children by myself (not really by myself, our families would be more than willing to help; but I don't want to burden them with our move), so Ben and I have been busy moving what we can to our rental property garage (which just so happened to open up last weekend, see perfect...), before he is gone for a week. We spent the weekend moving things, lots of things, out of the house, I want as little in the house as we can manage to get by with. The less I have to move alone the better; because although I have 17 days before we actually are out of our house, with Ben gone for 5 days, it is like we have 12 days.
We are so excited about the new house and all of the wonderfulness it is going to bring to us and our family! I already dream of Christmas, Prom's, and Graduation's in this house. Along with the few minor things to make it our own (Ben made me promise NO projects until Winter)... :)

First load to the Duplex Garage...

Dreaming of Paint colors... This is when Ben told me NO projects, not even paint until Winter...

Sold Sign at our new house.... This was a VERY exciting day!

Sold sign at our house! Adalyn loves to walk to the front yard and touch my picture and say MOMMY!

Our empty Living room!

Hauling the guest bed to the garage.

Daddy even hauled the Four Wheeler to the Garage. I told him all of our spare time was for packing and moving, not riding the 4 wheeler...

 

Stay tuned, we will definitely be posting pictures as soon as we have the keys!!!

The end of a School year

Braylon took his "last day" of school picture this morning. It is quite different then his "first day" of school picture. It is hard to believe that my little boy is "graduating" from preschool today! Next year will be the year that I have dreaded since the moment he was born, he will be in Kindergarten! I laid in bed last night asking myself how it happens so quickly, how the time flies by without my control. I don't have an answer for those questions, all I can do is grab a camera and hold on for dear life!

He has come so far this year, I know that this little boy is destined for greatness, in whatever form that might be, he will succeed and be grand! My love for him grows and grows each and everyday and as I watched him proudly get dressed, in "dressy" clothes (yes the below picture is dressy for him, he is usually in basketball shorts and a tee with some sort of construction vehicle, sports team, or sport of some sort displayed across the front of it) and stand infront of the door and smile so nicely, made my love for him blossom a gazillion times more!

 

Braylon on his last day of Pre-School!

We are so proud of you Bubbies! We love you to the moon and back!

 

Spring Program

Braylon did a Christmas Program for school and today he had his Spring program! He did such a good job and was so excited to have such a big "fan" section! He has been singing his program songs for the past 2 weeks, and every time I ask if it is for his program, he tells me that I am not suppose to be listening to him, that it is a surprise!

 

 

Braylon's entire Pre-School class and Ms. Meyer. It is hard to believe that he is almost done with Pre-school and will be moving on to Kindergarten next year!

A little more puppy love!

Porter was so sweetly snuggling with Reese this morning when I got out of the shower! He can be the sweetest little boy when he wants to be!

 

Porter and his "best" doggy! 

 

Piggytails!

I was a bald child, I didn't get hair until I was nearly two and I knew that all of my children would be the same, and they have been. But we had a VERY exciting event occur at our house this weekend...

Adalyn got to have her first set of pigtails in! She looked so adorable, Ben said she looks even more like me with them in, not sure how that can be possible, since I think she is a spitting image of me as a baby. She was so proud of her pigtails, she sat and watched in the mirror as I put them in; saying pwetty (pretty) and flipping the little curl that hung out of the hair tie. She sure is growing up fast!

 

Adalyn's pigtails from behind, she still has strays on the bottom and top of her head! But are they not the cutest thing?!?!?!?

This picture.... I am just IN LOVE with, seriously IN LOVE with it! She was so sweet reading to Reese. He really is her best friend, she loves sitting by him, on top of him, laying next to him, kissing him, giving him treats, etc. I am very certain that he loves her a lot too :)

 

 

 

As if we are not busy enough!

DISCLAIMER:

 

This post is about me, skip to the next if you are already bored ;)

I have decided that I am going to pursue a life long dream of mine and dive into the Real Estate business. It is something that I have wanted to do for a long long time, I have waited for the right moment and went through the 90 hour courses 2 years ago, took my test, got so close to getting my license and found out we were expecting baby #3. All of my dreams and hopes came to a screeching halt and I quickly filed them away, focusing on baby #3 and how it would change our lives. Ben was THRILLED that I had stopped talking about it; not that he wasn't supportive of my dreams and goals, but he thought and still does think that one parent/spouse in the retail business is enough. Well for the past two years it has been eating at me that, I let it go so easily, so I decided that it was my decision to make and I was going to make the choice to re-take my test and achieve my life long dream. I contacted the Realtor that I was going to work with 2 years ago and he was thrilled to have me back on board! I have been preparing myself for a few weeks now to take and pass my Real Estate Salesperson exam, which is on Thursday of this week. I went last Thursday and got my picture taken for business cards, advertisement material and various other things that we will need pictures for. It seems so surreal, but I am so excited and more than ready to take on this next step of life! It is my dream and goal to one day sell full-time, but right now I am excited to be doing it at all. Now if only I could get my husband to be as excited as me :)

 

Nothing better then studying at 9 o'clock at night after working, being mom and wife, and tackling bedtime! Busy is life and I love busy and life :)

 

A glass or two of wine always helps studying :)

Business card picture selected!

 

Cheers to new adventures, achieving goals and crossing things off my bucket list!

 

Soccer

Braylon is at that age when sports come flying at him, he is DEFINITELY a football kid, he asks all of the time when he can play football, well unfortunately for him it is a few years before that can happen, so instead we gave him the option to play soccer. He said he wanted to play soccer and has been SO excited to start. His first day of practice on Tuesday and he has been counting down the days to start since Friday! We went to the store to pick out his shin guards and his soccer ball and he was over the moon to show is little brother his new soccer gear. He wore his shin guards for the majority of the evening on Friday and then again most of Saturday. We have spent hours practicing soccer "dribbling" in the basement this weekend and he has it down. He wants to learn how to bounce the ball off of his head next... I told him I would let his coaches teach him that move ;)

I can't wait to capture a few pictures of him on his first day of soccer on Tuesday!

 

 

Braylon snuggling his soccer ball while watching Toy Story on Friday night!

 

What a difference a year makes!

I got a new phone, due to my other one no longer functioning. I wanted to make sure that all 3,500 photos from my old phone were uploaded to Google+ (thank goodness for Google+). In doing so I started reminiscing the past year of our life. With three young children, work, and all the other things we have going on, sometimes I forget to stop and "smell the roses", I have added this to my midyear resolution list, make sure I enjoy the crazy fun moments. I am thankful that I make sure to take a lot of pictures of the kids, even if it is only with a phone camera. A glimpse into the "past"... What a difference!

 

Everyone in this picture look so young! Braylon looks so little compared to his big boy look these days!

Porter looks so little and young here, I love this picture by the way!

Adalyn and her chubby arms :)

Baby face Porter

Okay this is the one thing that hasn't changed in the past year, Porter wearing his undies backwards! Cracks me up every time!

She has no hair and looks SOOOO much like a little baby! I miss that baby.

Braylon and Adalyn in August of last year. Braylon is beginning to look more big boy'ish

This is a picture of Porter a few days ago. No longer baby faced, and getting much better at dressing himself ;)

Adalyn a few days ago. She too has lost all baby look, and did I mention she is a talker! We will need to get this girl unlimited minutes on her cell phone, she talks, talks, talks, talks, talks!

BIG boys, from last weekend! They look so old, and Braylon is nothing but skin and bones!

Adalyn last weekend, look at all that hair :) Blonde, blonde hair!

 

 

So all in all I just can't believe that they have changed so much in just a short 12 months. I am not ready for all of my babies to look less baby like. It is a constant reminder that I can't stop time!

 

 

Cousin Sleepover!

Last Saturday the Briggs' came to New Ulm so that they could sign papers on their house, yup they are moving to New Ulm; next weekend actually! We are A LITTLE excited to have them closer to us; although Porter will miss going to the fire truck in LaCrosse (the children's museum). Anyway, Candon got to do a sleepover at our house on Saturday night; the boys had a BLAST!

We went to pick Candon up from Grandma Joan's on Saturday and drop Adayln off for a little play date with Kenna and we then headed to Happy Joe's for supper!

 

The boys watching their Pizza and Bread sticks being made

Sunday Morning we took full advantage of the beautiful weather and we went sledding and played outside for 6 hours! 

Braylon, Ben and Porter sledding together

Ben and Porter ENJOYING themselves!

Braylon whipped out; that smile says it all!

Bray and Candon trying different sledding techniques!

LLLLLAAAAAAAAMMMMMMAAAAAAAANNNNNNNDDDDDDDAAAAAA!!!!!

Candon and Porter; Porter forgot to put his foot in the sled!

Your turn to carry the sled up the hill, my arms are tired...

Porter enjoyed going down the slop of our driveway on his big wheel

Adalyn's first time sledding...

Candon

Braylon

Braylon on his scooter

Candon on his scooter

BIKER GANG

Mommy's turn to pull Pix up the HUGE hill; that is a workout in itself.

One more of Daddy and Porter

Adalyn LOVED every minute of sledding; constantly saying MORE, MORE

The little hill one more time

Braylon tried out the little hill too; he said it was good for babies, but not him.

Candon enjoyed himself.

Adalyn loved watching the boys bike/scooter down the driveway.

Porter got stuck on an ice patch; slow moving :)

 

It was such a fun weekend with all three of the boys and Adalyn. We can not wait for many more sleepovers and for these three boys to see each other more.

Candon told Braylon that when they move to their farm, Braylon could sleep there every day; Braylon was a little disappointed when I told him that he could have a sleepover every once in a while but not everyday.

 

Thanks Briggs' for letting us borrow Candon!