Holy Cats... It's been a while!!

So everyone... yet again, I say, "it's been a while!"!! Yowza! I cannot believe what a whirlwind the past month and a half has been! As I tend to think in segments, I think I will have to tell the past month and a half in segments:

- My new job: As we all know, I recently left General Mills for Schwans. I am now ending my seventh week on the job, and have been candidly having mixed feelings. I honestly miss all my past coworkers - so much more than I thought I would have. I also miss some things the company offered, having processes in place, and knowing what I am doing. I have also had days where I feel like I am making a huge difference, thriving, and finally getting my new job. Then there comes a day where I feel like I have failed. I know I will get it eventually. There is just a lot to do. Even more so than just learning the job. I am virtually helping my team build these jobs, processes, guidelines, etc. This is what is making it so much more difficult. I will get it. I just need to be patient.

- Thanksgiving: This year was Bennett's first Thanksgiving! We actually had a wonderful time at my parent's house. Kaeden was able to join us for the first part of it, and he had a wonderful time playing with the Carlson kids - specifically, Lucas. He loves it when he can see Lucas!! Natalie, Lucas' sister, loves babies. She just hovered around Bennett. It was really sweet! I do think Bennett got a little overwhelmed though! Black Friday actually started at 9 p.m. on Thanksgiving, so of course our family was gone by 7 p.m. so Laura and I could get back home to go shopping and get our deals on!

- Black Friday: Laura and I had made our lists on Thanksgiving, and went out together on black Friday to get all of the amazing deals we could. As Target and a few other retailers opened at 9 p.m., we made coffee upon arriving at home and went out ready for a long night ahead. We got to Target, where we stood in line, however, got some AMAZING deals, that was totally worth the wait!! We ended up going to a few other stores, and overall, our night was successful!

- Friendsgiving: The weekend after Thanksgiving, we had decided to have a "friendsgiving" dinner with Jae's friends. WE had everyone over to our house to catch up over a nice meal. It was so wonderful to see everyone and hear about what was going on with them as we rarely catch up or see eachother even though we mainly live in the same neighborhood... crazy.

- First Snow: A few weekends ago, it was the first big snow of the year. Nearly blizzard weather! Of course, we didn't have boots that fit Kaeden, so out I went in the blizzard to Target so Goob could go outside an play. It was totally worth it when I saw how happy he was building his snow forts :) What a wonderful feeling! We also tried to get Bennett outside. We bought these cute little bib snow pants, however, Bennett was not having any part of it. He hated it!

- Bennett's Milestones: Bennett is officially 11 months old right now. I have no idea where all this time went! I love him so much, and it feels like just yesterday I was holding him as a newborn! Now he is scooting, crawling, sitting, walking around furnitur - well.. you understand where I'm going.

So that pretty much sums up our past month and a half. WE have been one busy, happy, crazy family! Looking forward to early next week and the week after! Christmas time is going to be the best few days! I love my family. They make me incredibly happy! Im case I am not on here for a couple more days, Merry Christmas!

Halloween (and after)

So as you know, we have been one busy family. Starting with me: last week was my last week at General Mills. I grew up with General Mills, have worked there for a total of approximately six years, love that company and even more - value my relationships with the people that work there. It was also the week of Halloween... which made everything go by that much faster!

We had the best Halloween yet. The entire family was able to get together! Kaeden was a "black spy ninja" which equated to the little costume (with padded muscles) that should have mimicked the outfits of the GIJoe movies :) Bennett was a bat. Mainly because of the massive bat ears that spurt out from his hood. It was wonderful. Jae and I brought the kids trick-or-treating while Laura manned the door (which rarely actually gets called upon). Kaeden got a half-pillow case full of candy... we will have enough (even with Jae's appetite) for quite some time!

This week started my first week at Schwan's as the Associate Manager of Shopper Marketing. While I knew it wasn't going to be a breeze - learning an entirely new company, job, boss, etc, it ended up being a really wonderful week. I feel like I am really catching on, adding immediate value, and most of all, I don't feel as though I need to keep my opinions and suggestions to myself. I have a feeling this is going to be a wonderful change of pace!

This past weekend, we took family photos. They really turned out better than I had hoped for! We made our first-ever Christmas card! I cannot wait to actually send it out!

Family's First Halloween:

Bennett as a Bat:

Kaeden and I with our pumpkins ;) :

New Job

This past month has been a bit of a whirlwind. I actually have big news regarding myself (and not about the kids - first time and probably last time for quite a while)... I have accepted a position at Schwan's as an Associate Shopper Marketing Manager. The opportunity came to my attention in the very beginning of October, and I will start my new position there one week from today (on Monday, 11/5), so needelss to say, the whole process was very accelerated. I am already having incredibly mixed emotions about the change. The opportunity is exciting, will be challenging, interesting, stretch me and my abilities, and I cannot wait to get started, however, I am going to miss Mills. I have had a wonderful experience here at the company and I grew up knowing all about the products, etc. In total, I have spent nearly 6 years of my life working here, it is going to be difficult to leave. I will dearly miss all the people here.

Wish me luck in my new role!

Our Fabulous Fall

We have officially entered my favorite time of year. I love fall - I love the weather, I love the activities, but most of all, I love all the holidays that are on their way! Our family has been a little crazy lately - not because of any activities that are solely for Jae and I, but instead with the little ones.

Kaeden has been wonderful. We have really been able to spend so much quality time with him now that we have consistantly had him all weekend, every weekend for quite some time. Also, he has been performing well in school. He rocks at math - it just comes naturally to him! Also, on the weekends, he has been playing flag football. At first, he was not very excited about it - at the games, he was slow and uninterested. Then, a couple of weekends ago, Jae, Laura, and I went outside to spend some one on one time teaching Kaeden football. Now that he understands it, he is really enjoying it (and becoming very good at it!).

Mr. Bennett is growing like a weed. Tomorrow, he will be nine months old. It is so hard to believe how big AND how old he is getting. It is officially time to start planning his first birthday - OH MY GOSH! He is constantly chatting, giggling, and playing. Still no crawling though... he is a stubborn little man and hates to be on his tummy. He loves to sit and play or stand. No tummy time. We have been practicing, and he seems to kind of be getting the hang of it... although, I have a feeling he is just going to go from laying to walking (and skip the whole crawling thing). Also, he is loving his Cheerios now that he officially has two teeth! Before the teeth came in, I was thinking how much I would miss the gummy smile - now I am so in love with his goofy toothy grin...

Kaeden Playing with his Future Football Pads :)

Bennett and Kaeden Playing - Trying to Get Bear to Enjoy Tummy Time:

BBear and Goob Being Goofy:

Bennett Playing at Dinner Time:

Bear Finally Beginning to Enjoy Tummy Time:

Almost Fall!

It is almost my favorite time of year! Fall/Winter brings so many wonderful things - apple orchards, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas shopping, Christmas Music, Christmas lights, you get the idea... So while we are waiting for that, a lot has happened in the past few weeks:

Bennett has been a doll as always. He is (still) officially teething, and it had gotten REALLY bad last week. You could just tell he was in an incredible amount of pain - he was always very irritable, he wasn't sleeping at all, and was drooling as much as a dog. Sure enough, at seven months, out popped his first tooth! While I am going to miss the gummy little smile he always gave me, his new smile is as cute as ever! Also, Bennett has really started to enjoy playing "So Big!" (see below). It is just the cutest!

Kaeden is doing so well in school (and finally enjoying it!). He is a math pro! We practice his math problems all the time, and he always surprises me with how quickly he learns new things I teach him. Also, he had been mentioning that he wanted to spend halloween with us this year as it is going to be Bennett's first Halloween - we spoke with Sonja, and we are going to have him! I am so excited I can hardly stand it! Last weekend we purchased his costume (black spy ninja). He is so cute running around with the mask on and the little trident swords :)

I have been busy as a bee. I have been taking on some really fun projects at work, and loving it! Also, I have been trying to figure out what business school I should attend and whether to go full time or part time. The latest decision is to try to get into the Carlson Full Time MBA program. It would be such an amazing opportunity. I hope it works out! Jae and I have done some numbers crunching, and we could make it work (albeit with lots of student loans) financially. Keep your fingers crossed! Application deadline is November 1st - hoping to hear back by mid-November.

Jae has been busy as well - last weekend, he spent some time paintballing up north with Billy. It sounds like he had a wonderful time! It's good for him to get out with the boys!

This weekend, we have quite the busy weekend - tonight, we are getting together with "the couples" - The Cliftons and The Kachmans - for a "dirty" theme night - based around dirty martnins. Jae and I are going as hobos. Can't wait! Tomorrow Jae's Coworker - Celnida is hosting a first birthday party for her daughter Olivia. Here's hoping to get a little bit of rest time in before we have to do the whole "work week" thing all over again!

Bennett is "So Big!"

Bennett Playing Before Daycare

The Blur That Was August

As you can see, I have been slacking yet again! I wish I had better excuses, but all I can really say is that August has flown by so quickly, the air has been knocked out of me... Given it has been so long, I have a lot to catch up on! In the typical board-game fashion, we will go youngest to oldest :)

Bennett has been such a doll! He is officially seven months old and getting bigger by the minute. Last night I tried to put on his 12-month sleep n play, and it was as tight as casing a sausage. Bennett is clearly eating well, lots and lots of formula as well as two servings of solids a day. He isn't crawling just yet, but rolling around, scooting, and sitting beautifully by himself (no help needed - at all)! B-bear has turned into such a happy little baby! He loves to play in his exersaucer, take showers with daddy, play with his toys, and read his books. He is almost always happy, smiling, laughing, and chatting!
*side note - what we thought was his ringworm was not - it was just a very, very bad case of his eczema. It is almost all gone, and his skin is finally as beautiful as it should be!

Goob has been wonderful as well!! Kaeden officially started second grade today. Last week, we had a "meet the teacher" night, where Jae, myself, and Kaeden all went to meet his teacher (Mrs. Butchert), see his new classroom, desk, and locker. Now that he is in second grade, he is located on the second floor - it's a big deal. The goobster is starting to come out of his shell. He loves being goofy, he's climbing nearly everything (last night I saw him climb our walls... it was crazy), and he has started to enjoy going to the park and meeting new friends.
*Kaeden's quote of the week: "I'm going to get you in the legs and butt ocks! Do you like that? I just made up a new word!" (referring to butt ocks... yes... he pronounced it as two words) Silly goon.

I have been crazier than ever. Work has been changing drastically in a really great way - I am enjoying my new tasks more than ever! - however, that also means that I have been working much longer hours than I normally do. In addition to the longer hours, I had spent most of the month studying for my GMAT; it paid off! I got a really good score and plan on applying to business school to begin class in the spring semester! I am really looking forward to going back, but also nervous as to the time commitment it entails (and what that means in regards to being with my family). Hoping it pays off!

As for Jae - he has been so great. As I have been studying and working, Jae has been doing so much with the kids, around the house, and all-in-all being very supportive. It has been amazing.

Bennett being a mischievous little man, stealing his dinner spoon and making a mess:

Bennett having fun with daddy after his shower:

Bennett playing in his exersaucer:

Hop Skip and Two Weeks Later...

I know, I know... it's been a whole two weeks since I last wrote in here. It's been a while. In all fairness, the whole family has been incredibly sick, which means that there have been fewer fun events occurring as we are all incredibly irritable and just attempting to sleep and get better.

It all started with the Goobster. The poor kid apparently got sick over the Fourth of July and is just now finally beginning to feel better. As he spends a ton of fun time with us every weekend, he in turn got all of us sick about two weeks ago. Bennett was the first to succomb. Even worse for Bennet - he ended up developing a bacterial infection from the cold, and then also got ringworm from some child at his school on top of that (eew... gross... I know). As of today, he is totally off the antibiotics, and his disgusting fungal infection is getting loads better (THANK GOODNESS!) At home, we have been working on his rolling over - which he now officially does both ways, sitting - he is very good at keeping himself up, and simply having fun enjoying our time playing. After Bennett got sick, both Jae and myself did as well. Hence the two week hiatus.

As of late last week, everyone was feeling slightly better - good enough to start coming back to normal life. On Thursday, I picked Kaeden up from his mom's house as per usual. We got to chatting about his flag football that will be happening this fall. During this conversation, Kaeden mentioned that he can't wait to teach Bennett how to play. I replied, "You are such a good big brother, Goob", and then Kaeden responded with, "Yeah - Bennett's my best friend". It just melted my heart!

Friday evening, we had our friends Tia and Bill's wedding. It was nice to be outside on such a beautiful day. As Jae and I were at the wedding all evening, Grandma and Grandpa watched the kids overnight. When I spoke with Kaeden on the phone that evening, it sounded like he was having a blast as he had watched Cars 2 with Grandpa, played a bunch of crazy eights, and had eaten a ton of candy and popcorn :)

Saturday ended up being a nice relaxing day. Sunday was Grandma Kathy's birthday. For this, we had lunch at Julie's and then proceeded to our house for champagne.

Overall, it was a nice relaxing weekend!

Happy 6 Months B-Bear!!

Today marks Bennett's six-month birthday!! I cannot believe how quickly time has flown, how big he has gotten, and how much I can love such a little prince! So, before I post anything, I would like to wish my B-Bear a fantastically happy half birthday! You are officially .5! Also, just to mark his progress, at six months, Bennett is rolling over regularly (especially at night, where, much to my dismay, he enjoys rolling onto his belly and sleeping face-planted in the crib), he is sitting by himself (see picture below), loves to play in his johnny jump-up and exersaucer, and love his beebo book! We have his six-month doctor's appointment on Friday, so updates on weight and length will come at that point :)

Regressing to this past weekend. It was a ton of fun - crazy busy - but fun. This weekend we had Kaeden and Laura Tubesing decided to take an impromptu trip home, so there was never a dull moment! Friday, the kiddos hung out with Grandma during the day while I worked (and got my hair highlighted - it had been over a year and a half). After, we went home and played, and then after dinner, I headed over to Laura's house for a quick visit. Saturday, we took the family to the science museum and had a wonderful time!
Pretending to be velociraptors:

In Front of the Giant Spider Web:

Pretending to be Newscasters:

Measuring Size Relations:

Sunday was spent running errands, and then Laura made a visit to see the kiddos. When she left, we hung out as a family. It is always so nice when we get to have Kaeden! I know he loves spending time with his little brother!

4th of July!

Both Jae and I were on vacation for the majority of this past week. It was nice to have such a long break and hang out as a family. While I was hoping for a very nice, relaxing break, our time off ended up being filled with friends, errands, and cleaning - there was minimal relax-time.

Wednesday brought a day of fun which started with family time, migrated to a BBQ at Grandma/Grandpa's with Julie and her grandbabies, and then ended with another awesome BBQ with our friends. The last BBQ was filled with lots of fun as we played lots of games, and the guys had (in my opinion, too much) fun with fireworks. See below picture of them playing roman candle wars...

Bennett and Daddy - 4th of July Photo

Thursday ended up being a (mainly) relaxing day, just ran some errands and picked up the Goobster...

Friday, the kiddos and I went to Julie's pool so Kaeden, Connor, and Kelsey could play. They had such a great time swimming - and to my happiness - after they were done, they were pooped :) Not enough though to keep them from eating fudgesicles :)

I was a little bummed that it was Sonja's weekend to have Goob, as we had been having so much fun... but she picked him up Saturday morning, and the remainder of Saturday for us was spent mainly running errands. Aunt Laura was nice enough to watch Bennett as Jae and I went out to a nice dinner alone at Redstone :) Then we finished off our weekend hanging out and doing some much-needed cleaning :)

Here's hoping for a more relaxing week!

Weekend Craziness

As I alluded to in a previous post, I had anticipated that this past weekend was going to be absolutely crazy... and it was. Friday, Jae arrived home, and we had a nice family night after I visited Dianne and baby Aubrey in the hospital. With Bennett being a little beast, I forget how small brand new babies are. She was just amazing! So tiny!

Saturday morning, my sister moved in. When Jae and I were cleaning the basement on Friday evening, we rearranged our current furniture, and I was a little concerned about all her items fitting as well, however, as she was setting everything up, it turns out to work perfectly! Success! It has already been nice having her around :) Kaeden insists on going down to her room to visit. I have informed him that we need to limit the visits and be sure to knock every time :) Oh goodness... I hope Laura doesn't get scared away!

Julie's grandbabies are officially in town, so Sunday was filled with their joint birthday party. As it was incredibly hot out, we were inside for the majority of it, until we all went down to the pool. The kids had so much fun, and it was nice to see them all splashing around in the water.

With everything that happened this weekend, I am definitely looking forward to my shortened two-day work-week (or even more so to my extended five-day weekend)!

Ready for the Weekend!

After a week of letting Bennett "Cry-It-Out", he is finally eating enough during the day so that last night, he woke up a minimal amount and was able to comfort himself back to sleep for the most part. After all these nights just myself and the BBear, I am so ready for Jae to be home, and I know the kids miss him too.

Don't get me wrong, yesterday was a wonderful day. I took the day off work since I had a meeting that took all morning, and afterward was able to spend some time by myself shopping (one of my favorite things - that I haven't done for as long as I can remember). After, I picked Goob up early, we got some ice cream just the two of us, and then picked up the BBear. We had so much fun playing last night (see below). At one point, Kaeden was running around and being so silly that Bennett was watching him and laughing continuously for at least five minutes. It was the cutest thing. I can tell Bennett is completely enthralled with his big brother. Needless to say, I am thankful for my half-day Fridays this week, as I cannot wait to go home and play with my pumpkins.

It's a good thing Jae gets home today. We have a crazy busy weekend ahead of us. My good friend, Dianne, had her baby girl on Wedensday, so today I will go and see the little princess. Then, tomorrow morning, my sister is moving in with us. We will end the weekend with a birthday party for Julie's grandbabies on Sunday as they will be arriving in town shortly :) This weekend is going to be so full of wonderful things. It's a good thing next week is a short two-day week for me (and Jae has the entire week off - lucky man).

Kaeden and Bennett Playing

Week Without Jae

This week, the B-Bear and I are alone. Jae left for his work trip Sunday evening and doesn't return until Friday. It is the longest he has been away from us since Bennett was born.

I knew it was going to be difficult without him, but it is exceptionally difficult as Bennett is sick with a cold. He is incredibly cranky and waking up multiple times every night. Yowza! We have been trying the cry-it-out method for the past week, and while I have not picked him up at all, I feel this week has been a loss as he has been waking up constantly. Poor little man (and poor, tired, incredibly cranky momma - yes, I am having a small pity-party for myself).

Of course, when he is in his good mood, he is such a wonderful baby. He has really taken to eating solids, and especially likes them this week as he has a stuffy nose, which makes it hard to breathe while at the bottle. He has gotten so good at eating rice cereal and bananas. It is the cutest thing. Lately, we have been getting home, making dinner for both myself and Bennett, feeding Bennett, and then he plays in his high chair while I finish my dinner. Dinner has been the highlight of my day :)

Wish me luck for the rest of the week - I sure hope he starts sleeping better!

Bennett playing at his highchair after finishing his dinner :)

Momma's Birthday Weekend

This past Sunday was my birthday, so as to be expected, we were crazy busy celebrating this weekend. This happened to be one of the weekends where we only had Kaeden until Saturday morning, and therefore, we celebrated my birthday as a family on Friday late evening with pizza and an ice cream cake - I think Kaeden was more excited about the ice cream cake than he was about my birthday:). Jae, Kaeden, and Bennett got me the cutest gifts. Kaeden made me the below precious card, and I also received flowers and some beautiful framed photos of me with Bennett.

Kaeden's Precious Card:


After Kaeden was picked up for his canoeing trip with his grandparents, Bennett, Jae, and I all went shopping. Jae and Bennett were wonderfully patient as I ran from store to store attempting to find some good deals. Later that evening, Jae and I brought Bennett for his second overnight at Grandma and Grandpa Carlson's, and proceeded to go out for dinner and cocktails with some of my friends. While I missed Mr. Bennett an incredible amount (and could not wait to go see him Sunday morning), I had a fantastic night out!

We ended the weekend with a fun BBQ on Sunday with our family, Laura, Mom, and Dad. We all got to eat delicious food and I got to open more presents (one of my favorite things to do)! It was a perfect birthday weekend!

Father's Day Fun

I want to start out by expressing how sleep deprived Jae and I are due to the fact that Bennett has reverted back to waking up three times per night. He has been rolling over for the past few weeks and now is doing this nightly in his crib. However, he can only roll over one way: from his back to his stomach. This means that when he rolls over, he face-plants in his crib and becomes incredibly ornery. I have no idea what happened to my wonderful sleeping child (who had been waking up only once, if not sleeping through the night). I clearly need to stop dressing him in the below pajamas :)



Even with our disadvantaged sleep patterns, we managed to have one wonderful, activity-packed weekend!
Friday, Grandma came over to watch the kiddos. During the day, she took Kaeden and Bennett out for a walk. When I got home, Kaeden informed me that he wanted to try to ride his bike sans training wheels, and that’s exactly what we proceeded to do. While I manned the stroller, Grandma (who has trained two magnificent bike-riders already) helped Kaeden attempt to stay on his bike. I know I have said this more times than I can count, but Kaeden is the most cautious child I have seen. Ever. With that said, Grandma utilized an enormous amount of patience as Kaeden continued to be ever fearful of his abilities. While he didn’t bike by himself this round, I know he will get it eventually… it will just take lots and lots of patience and practice.



On Saturday, Bennett, Kaeden, and I all went to Grandma and Grandpa’s for a barbeque with the Carlson-side women and children. It is hard to believe, but no one on the Carlson-side had met Mr. Bennett. Both Kaeden and Bennett had a wonderful time. Kaeden did not want to stop playing with the other kids, and I had a difficult time trying to get him to leave.

Finally, Father’s Day was Sunday. It was so nice to hang out with the family! Kaeden has such an interest in doing everything with Bennett now that he is so interactive. He loves holding him, feeding him, and playing with him! Sunday morning as a gift to Jae, I took all the feedings and woke up early with the B-Bear, which means that Kaeden, Bennett, and I got a lot of play time together :)






Once it was a decent hour, Kaeden and I began making breakfast for Jae. He is learning how to cook very well! I figure, as he is such a cautious child, I can teach him how to cook without him getting hurt  When we brought up the breakfast, Kaeden also gave Jae his gifts and card. Kaeden make the cutest little card, with a picture he drew of the four of us! It was amazing!

Little Slugger

Yesterday we were invited to watch Kaeden's final t-ball game for the season... I cannot express how adorable it was. After picking up the B-Bear, I made my way back to Minneapolis to meet up with Jae and Laura and watch the little slugger. The moment we arrived, we set up our chairs fairly far back from the field. As others start arriving, we notice how close they were sitting, and we realized that apparently the ball doesn't go very far :)

It was incredibly cute to watch all the little first-graders play. As the coaches are simply trying to teach the basics such as hitting, throwing, and catching, the "game" consisted of some throwing practice, followed by a "scrimage". During the "scrimage", an inning would consist of one team having all their players hit and run the bases while the other team fields the ball and tosses it to first base (regardless of where the ball landed). I remember watching one child field a "grounder" and while he could have simply held out his glove and got the runner who was passing him out, he instead picked up the ball and tossed it to first base without even attempting to reach for the runner...

Kaeden was on the "Red Sox" team. It was so wonderful to watch him work on his throwing and batting. He has one great swing! Kaeden was always the last to bat on his team. One particularly cute Kaeden-moment was when Kaeden hit the ball, and proceeded to run all the bases, passing the kid who was on first base when he hit :)

After the game, Kaeden was so excited to see all of us there, especially Bennett, who Kaeden thinks learned a lot from watching him play :)

I cannot wait for more cute kid-sport moments!

First Blog Post!!

First Post - Here it Goes :)

The other day I was packing away some of Bennett's clothing, and while I was looking at them, it was difficult to imagine that he ever fit into them. When he was born, he was this petite little monkey, in the 5-10th percentile, that fit just right into these tiny newborn-size clothes. Now, he is this little beast, that has already outgrown most of his six-month clothing (he fits into some 12 month items already ... eek!). Going through his old clothing as well as Kaeden's (don't even get me started on how quickly he has grown... he is now my giant bean), made me have the realization of exactly how quickly time goes by, how many photos/videos I take, and how many little things I forget (yet swear I will remember).

It is this realization that lit a fire under my rear and made me begin writing this blog. I have no idea how frequently I am going to actually end up writing here, however, my goal is to have a central place for all small stories, memories, quick photos, etc to be housed as well as to keep everyone updated. Wish me luck :)

P.S. I plan on adding a link to our shutterfly page. As we have tons and tons of photos, both recent and old, this is where all of our main photo albums will be held. Feel free to peruse whenever you'd like :)