Happy 7th Birthday Emma!

Seven years ago I forgo the annual mom/sister trip, to day after Christmas shopping, to go to the hospital and have a precious little girl. I can't believe Emma is already 7. She is growing up way too fast. She has turned into quite the little lady. She is definitely a girly girly through and through. I love every second of it. We may butt heads at some moments but we have learned great ways to compromise. I just hope we will continue on compromising through the teenage years! I have complied some pictures of Emma throughout the year. Looking at the pictures I can see how much she has changed in a year. I love her so much and it is so much fun to have a little girl who loves to get dressed up all fancy for anything.

Emma's Birthday Party

This year I thought I would try to have Emma's birthday party before the craziness of Christmas. Well I think anyway you look at it there is craziness of Christmas before and after the actual date. It rained and snowed that day but all her friends and our family made it to the party. It was so much fun and I am happy to say that it is over. Another party done for the year. I can't believe she will be 7 on the 26th. The time flies by. She is a joy and I love having a girly girl. She wears dresses or skirts every day, we do hair and make-up and she loves dance. I am so blessed to have a healthy little girl!

Heartache

I just need to post this to talk through what happened yesterday. Life as a parent is hard. I remember when we brought Braeden home from the hospital watching news stories about kids dying from doing stupid things they saw on TV. I would say to him you aren't going to do that because you are going to be smarter than they are, but in reality kids are just curious. As the kids have grown we worry all the time. Does the worrying ever stop? I am guessing never. I am sure my parents still worry about us constantly and now have grandkids to worry about as well. What has this world come to? This was a safe place. We are the land of the free. These awful shootings and terrible tragedies are only things that we heard about happening in other countries. They aren't suppose to happen here. WHY? How can we shelter our kids from this? Can I build a safe house and never let them out? What do they learn if I do that? I am so devastated for all the families in Connecticut. I can't imagine the horror that those poor babies experienced while sitting doing fun activities at school. I instantly think of my babies. I don't know how you over come something like this. Should we home school? This is so awful! Why do we have to worry about all of this? Not only do we have to worry about the sick child predators but now psychos that going on a shooting rampage that kill innocent victims. I am devastated and can't come to terms with this. Why here in the land of the free? WHY? This is so awful! My prayers go out to all the families that have to bury their babies right before Christmas. This is an awful tragedy and this world needs to change. Something needs to be done about guns and how to protect our babies in their schools. I would be happy to sit on a focus group to figure all of this out and how to make schools safer. I hugged my babies a lot tighter yesterday. Braeden is 9 1/2, Emma 7 and Charlie 4. This happened to babies their age. My heart hurts and I am so blessed my babies are safe but this could happen any where.

Thanksgiving

What a wonderful Thanksgiving we had this year. Ali made it home and we were able to spend a week with her. This is the first Thanksgiving we have had with Ali, in Mankato, in 3 years! It always goes by way too fast! I definitely soaked up every second of it though. We have so much to be thankful for this year. (knocking on lots of wood) This is the first full year, since Braeden was born, that we have not had a surgery and hospital stay. Every year we have had at least one surgery, several ER visits and a few hospital stays. This year we avoided ALL of it! What a blessing!! Everyone is healthy and growing up so fast. It was a great year and I am so thankful for healthy happy kids!! It is definitely the best Christmas present we could get this year. 2013 is going to be the year of change and wonderful things for us! I signed a lease on a office space/store. I take possession of the space on January 1st and will be up and running in it before February 1st to push Valentine's Day treats! I couldn't be more excited and nervous all at the same time. It is an amazing opportunity and I am so grateful for a husband and family that are so supportive. This past year I grew leaps and bounds and knew it was time to make the move. I am excited for the new year and what it will bring for our new adventure. I have amazing support from family and friends. We are definitely heading in a new direction.

Here are some pictures from Thanksgiving:

November already!

I can't believe that October is gone and we are only a few weeks from Thanksgiving. The time flies by faster every year! This pas month has been super busy for us. Braeden had a few swim meets on the weekends. They were in the cities and we were getting up and out of the house by 5:00am to get to the pools for warm ups. It sure made the weekends fly by and the sleep very important. We have all now had the colds and crud. I am sure it is from the schedule that we keep. The kids are involved in a lot of activities and we find that we aren't home much to enjoy comfy clothes on the couch. Braeden has been out of school for the last few days with strep. He will be home one more day and then I think he will be ready to go back. Poor kid has been down and out but I really think he has secretly enjoyed watching movies in mom and dad's bed while playing the iPad. Our renters in North Mankato moved out of our house and Nick has been working nonstop trying to get the house ready for the new renters. I made the mistake of going up to the house to see it. It looks great and it really is a perfect house. It has a great yard, 4 bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths and a double garage. If we could just move that house into the Franklin School District it would be perfect. Don't get me wrong I love my 1952 house with tons of character but we don't have a an attached garage and we only have 3 bedrooms with 2 bathrooms. The extra space would be FABULOUS! I am grateful to have a home and know this is the best place for us right now.

The kids had a fabulous Halloween. It was so much fun to watch them run from house to house getting candy! My mom made all the kids awesome treat bags. They are basically as big as a pillow case. With the weather being pretty decent we were out trick or treating for 2 hours...2 HOURS! It was crazy and the kids bags were full. We have quite the candy load. Braeden said he wants to eat it all but it will probably last until Easter. We went trick or treating with our neighbors and had a blast.

Here are some pictures from our Halloween:

1st Swim Meet

This past Sunday we had Braeden's first swim meet of the fall season. It was an early start to get to Edina before 7:00am. The kids did great getting up and ready by 5:00am. I was quite impressed. It is amazing what a little bribery can do. Braeden did great at the meet. He beat his times in 2 of the 3 events he swam in. We were really impressed in the improvement he has made. His coach is AMAZING!! He takes the time to work with him during warm-ups to make sure he is ready for his events. Then he sat at the end of the lane to cheer him on. I am always impressed with how he is with the kids. After each race he always talks to Braeden to let him know how well he did and what he needs to work on. Swim meets are the fun part for Braeden and is excited to go to practice this week to gear up for the swim meet this weekend. Here are some pictures from the meet:

Big Steps

The past 6 months has been EXTREMELY busy for my business. I have tripled my business from last year and keep growing. It is amazing and so rewarding. The hard work I have put in the last two years is really paying off. The classes I have been continually taking are helping me learn a lot of new fun techniques. The conversations have started on trying to decide when to get a space that is just mine and I don't have to share with everyone. It would be great to not have to store a ton of stuff at my house. It would be even better to move all my pick-ups and consults to a location that wasn't my home. We have started looking but are taking our time. I want to find the PERFECT spot. The commercial realtor we are working with is awesome. He is young like us and has great ideas for me. We have looked at some awesome spots and now we are taking second looks to see if any of them will work. We have decided to pick something that will work now and as I grow more we can expand. This is a huge step and kind of scary as well. I believe that this is the best thing for me right now. I really need the separation from business and home. It was really evident this summer when I would have people just stop by my house without an appointment. I am looking forward to that ending. It will also be great to have a door to shut and lock and leave work behind as I head home. More news to come as we are just beginning this process.