Sixty.

Tomorrow my dad hits a milestone: age 60. I will not be able to post a blog until later tomorrow night, so I wanted to get it out there now!

Happy birthday to my favorite dad of all time! Can't wait to celebrate over a some nice warm buns at Texas Roadhouse!

The Place to be!

Today my classroom was the place to be! I decided that since my students would probably be bouncing off the walls today, I would harness that energy for good!

We started our day by estimating how many marshmallows would fit into their ghosts. I thought this might be too elementary school for them, but they LOVED it! We then went on to "Mystery Math" and "Spooky Sudoku".

 For reading/language arts, my students were told to write a story about a monster that they made up. That is all the direction I gave. I got back WONDERFUL stories! Usually getting them to write is like pulling teeth. Apparently I need to print off monster paper for all our writing assignments. After they finished writing, we watching "Monster's University".

Next up was history. We read about the history of the Jack-o-lantern. Then we made our own Jack-o-lanterns out of rice krispies! Here are some of my boys molding their pumpkins.

Stirring up the marshmallow mixture. 

The finished products! My students even did a fabulous job cleaning up the kitchen space. I was pretty darn proud of those kiddos. 

We didn't have time for any of the slimy sticky science experiments we were going to do, so we ended by watching "Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin". Perfect way to end a perfect day!

2 Wild and Crazy years!

2 years ago, when Tony and I said "I do", I was a graduate student at Augsburg College, a paraprofessional at ZED, a single cat owner, an Impala driver, a toy free home owner! NOW, I have my masters degree, am a teacher, have 2 cats, drive an Equinox and have the best little baby boy I could have ever asked for.

Yes. These past 2 years have been wild and crazy, but I wouldn't change one single thing about them. Tony has been my rock, my supporter and my best friend through it all. I thank God every day for giving me this wonderful man. (have you had enough sap yet?!)

Let's do a quick flashback to our wonderful wedding day....

Pink Eye and Beyond

Tuesday afternoon, when Charlie and Tony got home from daycare, I saw a little green goober in the corner of Charlie's eye. I didn't think too much of it, but by the time he went to bed, that little green goober was overflowing both eyes and not just in the corner anymore. We put him to bed, but Tony proceeded to call the Mayo Nurse Line. The nurse told us it was probably pink eye, but to keep him happy and wait to go in until regular office hours. I was nowhere near prepared for a sub, so Tony took the day off. He had Charlie at the doctor by 8:20, had eye ointment by 9:15 and had the little bugger on the road to recovery! Tony was the absolute best stay home with a sick kid daddy! He washed anything and everything in our house, sanitized it and put it all back together before I was home from work. Absolutely wonderful! By Wednesday evening, Charlie was looking a lot better. Luckily, Tony had Thursday off work, so Charlie had another day to recover at home. I still have to put ointment in both his eyes, but he looks back to normal now!

Here are a few pictures of our little man!

Pink eyed boy after warm wash clothed cleaned away the gunk and the ointment was already working!

Pink eye didn't slow him down! Here he is attempting to crawl. 

Snuggle time after work on Wednesday. We both look a little tired...

HOWLing MEA Break

Tony, Charlie and I hopped in the car on Thursday morning and headed to one of the best fall/winter destinations around: Great Wolf Lodge, Wisconsin Dells. Our trip began by taking an unusual route to Wisconsin from Stewartville. We went through Chatfield, St. Charles, Lewiston, Winona and finally found interstate 90 for the rest of our trip to the Dells. We even got to visit my cousin Laura as we flew through Winona! When we stopped for lunch at Culver's in Onalaska, we ran into a van full of Kassonites: Jon, Mindy, Harvey and Natalie. The pictures I took there are on my phone, so you'll have to look me up on Instagram if you want to see those!

We followed/led the Kasson Knutsons to the Dells and promptly headed to the pool! Before we knew it, Aunt Laur, Aunt Jill and Grandma Cher were checked in and swimming away! Somehow, in the HUGE resort, Laur, Jill and Cher roomed right next door to us! Enough talking, you want to see pictures, right? Here they are!

The week leading up to MEA break was incredibly crazy and stressful for me at work. So, I LOVED being able to snuggle and love my little man.

We went and celebrated HOWLaween with the cousins. We have Batman, Raphael and the ghost!

Here we are trick or treating around the Lodge

Charlie LOVED pool time. It doesn't look like it here, but he really did. He laughed, splashed, kicked and screamed while swimming around. 

Back floats were a favorite. He would kick his legs like a crazy man. 

Treats were a must. Laur treated Mindy and I to Dip n Dots on Friday night, and Cher treated us to MORE Dip n Dots on Saturday afternoon. See Mr. Harvey hiding behind his mom? He's in the no pictures stage. That is unless Charlie is near him, then he's all smiles. 

The first night we ordered pizza in, the second night we went to Buffalo Phil's and had our food delivered by a train, and the third night we ate at Marley's. I LOVED the Carribean style food. Very delicious. Note all the napkins on the table...we had a few spilled drinks....again hiding Harvey!

The cousins enjoyed some pj snuggle time. 

We participated in an attempt to break the World Record for most people howling at a full moon. I don't know if we broke it, but it was fun! We howled for an entire minute!

Charlie wearing his wolf ears and holding his wolf souvenir.  Meet Wilfred the Wolf.

Cousins in the big chair. 

Our family 

Kasson Knutsons

It was such a fun time! Next year will be even better with our man toddling around!

Fireside Warmth

Charlie experienced his first fire today. He watched his Daddy start it up, and then he sat staring in utter amazement...

Thanks to Laur and Jill for giving us LOADS of firewood to keep us nice and toasty!

Birthday Girls!

Today is a very special day for 2 very special aunts in our lives. Tony's aunt Laur and my great aunt Elinor share a birthday! Happy birthday!!

I made beef stew and homemade bread for Elinor for supper. It was fun to have people over for dinner. It's been a while since I entertained...

Charlie enjoyed playing with his Great Great Aunt Elinor before bedtime.

Mom was funny and got a question mark candle for this year!

Here's just a cute picture of Charlie from earlier today!

Friday Foneday!

So maybe my spelling is a little off today, but I took the day off of work, so I can misspell words if I want to! Our wonderful daycare mom is out on the East Coast visiting her two sons, and I couldn't find anyone to take my little man today, so here I am! I couldn't be happier! Since he's snoozing away, I uploaded some pictures from my phone. There are a few worth sharing....

This is a picture from my brother Will's wedding that my mom took on her phone. The professional photographer also took a picture of us, so I can't wait to see how that turned out!

We've really been enjoying this nice fall weather. Here we are out on a hike through Bear Cave Park.

Little man LOVES his jumperoo!

He also loves to swing! He was giggling away ever time I pushed him!

He wasn't as sure about the slide, however. He didn't smile once on that!

He would've hung here for hours if we let him!

Tony thought this would be funny. Charlie didn't agree.

Mirrors are a favorite these days!

This morning, Charlie and I went and got the oil changed on my car. It's so nice that the dealership has toys!

Without getting into all the personal details, some of you know Charlie had a difficult time nursing. By difficult, I mean, that's ALL HE WANTED TO DO! Which made things not so comfortable for me...So, I decided to pump for the first six months of Charlie's life. It was one of the most frustrating yet rewarding things I've ever done. I was hooked to a machine for 20 minutes every 4 hours. I stuck with it until I went back to work. I could have continued, but it was so challenging. I did the first week back, but then I just had to quit for my sanity...Here you see the last bag of milk out of the deep freeze. I had produced and saved so much that it has lasted over a month and a half after I stopped pumping. Sorry if it's uncomfortable to read this little bit of personal history about me, but it was a huge part of my life that past 7 months...

Another story to go with this picture. When I first got pregnant with Charlie, I was quite a bit heavier than I wanted to be. After I had him, due to the extreme amounts of pumping, I lost all my baby weight and then some in record time. I was 7 under my pre-pregnancy weight by 3 months, but then I started to plateau. And after I stopped pumping, I could feel myself starting to slowly gain some of that weight back. So, when I saw my friend Jeff had started this dietbet thing online, I just had to join. You put in $25, then you lose 4% of your body weight in 4 weeks. The winners split the pot. Currently there is $200 in the pot, and after only a few days, I'm already 54% of the way there! That means I've already lost 3 pounds and I only need to lose 2.6 more! I've been religiously using MyFitnessPal app, and Tony has been a great encourager! Hopefully I can report in 3 short weeks that I'm a little smaller and a little richer!

Here I am on my initial weigh in!

Low Key

Things have been pretty low key around our house. I go to school, come home, and spend every possible second loving my little man (and my bigger man too ;) ) I took a few photos with the camera, and Charlie thought I should post them to the blog. He is almost 7 months old now, and getting SO big!

When Charlie naps, he goes all out! Arms up, legs up, mouth open wide and drool coming out...

I think this looks a lot like my brother Will when he was little! What a ham!

Charlie wanted to give you a tour of his toy box....

Star topper to my favorite tower

 Giraffe, Henry.

Letter A block

and Biscuit Halloween book.

Notice that all his toys are in his mouth? That's how EVERYTHING is these days....

Tonight is a special night for Tony. He is being recognized at Mayo's Department of Nursing Recognition Dinner. He is being recognized for all of his extra work that he has been doing on the technology side of his unit. His boss told him it was a pretty big deal, so he better wear a suit! Here he is ready to take off! I sure wish I could be there with him! Charlie and I are so proud of him! 

Charlie couldn't get too close with all the squash and peas all over....

Charlie's new favorite thing: Drinking water out of a sippy cup! 

Not too much going on around our house, but I thought I'd share a little!