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Sunday, September 30, 2012

Weekends

The past couple of weekends have been full of fun people and fun stuff.  2 weekends ago Chad's dad stopped by for a night on his way to a conference.  Unfortunately I took zippo pics...sorry dad.  He was awesome...playing everything with Brielle and Bryce...from playing soccer and baseball to "making pizzas" to dancing to playing cards.  Dad...can we get some of your endless energy please?!

The following weekend Jeff, Shawna, Peyton, and "the baby inside Aunt Shawna's belly" (affectionately named Jesus by Brielle) paid a visit.  The kids had a great time.  Peyton showed Bryce how to really play with his tractors and big trucks.  Brielle showed Peyton some dance moves at the volleyball game and we all had a great time taking in an evening football game.  Thanks for making the trip Jeff, Shawna, Peyton, and Jesus!





 And this weekend the Carlson clan ventured north to Champaign to watch our mighty Nittany Lions beat up on the Fighting Illini.  The weather was beautiful, the stadium was nice, and the atmosphere was great.


Thursday, September 20, 2012

Just a Pic

We went to an Eastern Illinois men's soccer game yesterday and one of the photographers snagged a pic of this. 

Monday, September 17, 2012

Thank you...

Thank you Mr. Skidsteer man for working in our neighbors yard.  My son has never sat that still for that long in his ENTIRE LIFE!  Feel free to come back anytime you'd like...please!


Thursday, September 6, 2012

I'm That Mom

who left the house to get groceries completely oblivious of the fact that her daughter was wearing no pants.  Nice, huh?

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Home Sweet Home

A few people have asked for pics of our house, so here ya go!
The front of the house...what this pic does not show is the gigantic pine tree that chills out right smack dab in front of it (don't worry...you won't be able to miss it in future pics.)
The first weekend we were here was spent trimming (aka chain sawing) up the overgrown pine trees in our front, side, and back yard.  My parents had volunteered to drop the kids off after Chad and I had a couple of free days to get settled in after the move.  What they didn't realize was that they had also signed themselves up for a yard clearing day! :) 
This is the huge pile of yard waste that we had gathered (notice there was already a truck load being taken away) 
Can you see the pine tree in the front yard?  I know...its kind of hard to miss...but look really closely! :)   We took a chainsaw to the branches to its bottom half.  (I wish I had a before pic...it was a huge difference)  It was so nice to be able to look out our living room window and see the house across the street! (I ask the question...who would plant a pine tree in the front yard?!) Ah well...its our tree now! :)

And this is the pine tree in the backyard that got a nice little trim job as well.  Chad was so mad about this pine tree because it lands smack dab in the middle of his "soccer field"
This is a pic of the back porch area.  Again, we cleared out the entire side of it.  When we moved in... so completely overgrown that we couldn't see the neighbors. 

And now for the inside.  About 2 weeks before we moved, Chad's parents and my parents so graciously offered to have a "work weekend" to get a start on painting the bedrooms.  Not only did they paint the bedrooms (ceilings, walls, closet doors, AND trim!) but they also managed to put up a swing set, strip some wallpaper in the kitchen, and do some weeding.  Our four parents truly have a servants heart and we were blown away by all they did for us.  It was SO nice to have the kids rooms painted (not to mention ours) so they could move right in and feel right at home.  Such a blessing!
 
Here's a little before pic of Brielle's room.  We refer to this as the "castle room"  What the previous owners were thinking...I don't know.  They must've spent forever making every single little stone...it was even rough walls!  And all gone in one single pink swoop of the roller!    


 






And a before pic of Bryce's room.  Quite the green room complete with bamboo everywhere!  



Bye Bye green...hello boys room!  I must say it was fun using a bunch of Chad's old stuff to decorate Bryce's room...it was also nice on the pocket book. :)  See the little blob in the corner of the pic?  Yes, that is Bryce only 2 seconds away from completely destroying the bookshelf.  

 
 





 
And our living room..before the green walls made it feel really dark and blah.  Chad and I went back and forth on whether to keep the plaid curtains :)
 
And after - just keeping it simple (plus I'm no decorator, so simple is where its at!)




 
 
When Chad and I first went through this house our thoughts were "it just needs to be repainted"...simple and easy.  Yes, but we were not thinking about how time consuming and very difficult it would be with 2 young kids.  So we're getting there...having fun doing it...slowly but surely.  We'll post more as soon as we get more rooms done, but hopefully this satisfies for now!