Saying goodbye to Daisy Ln

I have a knot in my stomach as I write this post.  I have always believed that your house is much more than the place where you live, or seek shelter. It is your home. The place where you live your life, where your family’s story plays out. I believe that your home should tell who you are, and our home on Daisy Lane does just that. My family began here, this house, this HOME built my family. It shaped who we are. We started here as two and are leaving as four. More memories have happened inside these walls that I could have ever imagined. It is hard to say goodbye. I feel like we are losing a part of us, losing a family member. I can’t even put into words how emotional I am to say goodbye. And in 24 hours we hand over the keys. (Well technically just sign the papers, and then lease back for a week but you know still emotional). I am excited about our new house, but I still can’t seem to wrap my head around the fact that we will no longer be living here. As I look back at how my family was molded in this home, I get teary eyed. I want to go from the beginning.

This home begins with Bryan and I, two almost newlyweds who wanted a ‘fixer upper’ home. The moment we stepped in Daisy Lane they knew this was IT. The projects were endless. The entire house needed to be updated. It was exciting, scary, and nerve-wracking. Shortly after purchasing the house we got married, went on our week long honey moon, and giddily drove home so excited to finally live together. The day after the honeymoon we dove in head first on the renovations. There were times when dishes were done in the guest bathtub, dinner was cooked in the microwave on the floor of the living room, and we had to walk outside just to get to our master bedroom. It was fun, but it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. It was FAR from that. We spent the first 6 months of our marriage in a very stressful situation. But we made it, and ended up on the other side with a new kitchen, bathroom, back patio, new fixtures, and fresh paint throughout the house.  The little projects were never ending, but the big stuff was finished. We lacked out master bedroom and bathroom, but at the time we didn’t have the patience or the funds for that. We finally finished our master bedroom and bathroom about three years later. 

Two years later we welcomed our precious Kade into our lives. We spent the previous 9 months clearing out a guest bedroom, carefully selecting nursery furniture, painting, and getting everything perfect for our little guy’s arrival. We sat in our living room and watched as Kade crawled for the first time and a short several months later took his first steps. We watched as he grew into his own person. Two years and one day after we became parents for the first time, our sweet Ella was born and rocked our world. When we found out we were having a girl, we painted the guest bedroom ballerina pink! And spent several months getting her nursery ready, making it as girly as possible!

It was in this house we figured out our roles as parents, and got more comfortable in our new roles as mom and dad. We went from two to four in just 4 short years. We completed our family in this house. Our home on Daisy Lane will always have a soft spot in my heart. It is where we began, and it has been a fun crazy ride ever since. 

Now for some before and after photos!

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iPhone pictures

Just some pictures from my phone!






Bryan got a new phone. For anyone who knows my husband, this is huge. We gave Kade Bryan's old phone and he thinks he is hot stuff. In the car he tells "turn down the radio, I'm getting a call!" we oblige, he flips the phone open, has what seems like a real life conversation, says bye, hangs up, and then says we can turn the radio back up. What a character!



Picnic with my babes!



Lunching with our boy on his last day of school!








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Kade's last day as a St. Paul Lil Lamb!

What a year! Back in September, Kade had his first day of Mother's Day Out. I was sick to my stomach because I wasn't ready for him to start any kind of "school." I loved my days with him, but with Ella being 2 weeks old at the time, I knew it would be a nice break for me. I didn't know what to expect, but I knew he would like it. But what I didn't expect was how much he would LOVE IT! It was so good for him. The experiences he had, the people we met, the loving atmosphere his teachers created blew me away. They cared so much about the kids in their class. We had an absolute fantastic experience this first year of MDO. Kade went knowing his colors, shapes, most of his letters and numbers, singing several songs. And he left knowing ALL of his letters and numbers, singing countless songs, and best of all POTTY TRAINED (can we say worth every penny?!)  Yes, his teacher potty trained him. Awesome.

On his last day of school, all the MDO kids put on a performance for the parents. It was the CUTEST thing ever. I even teared up a bit (I hate when things come to an end, I get emotional every time)!
The kids sang about 8-10 songs. On the last song, the Penguin Song, the director announced that this was Kade's favorite song. I had heard from his teachers, on his daily report, and from Kade about the penguin song and how much Kade loved it, but I didn't know what the heck the penguin song was! So I was excited to finally see! It was adorable! Just a song about penguins that had a bunch of dance moves that made them look like they were penguins! Kade did his job perfectly! I thought he might be embarrassed, but he danced and sang all the songs! It was just precious!

After the performance, the kids were free to go. We said our goodbyes to the teachers (I might have teared up again), and they gave us a scrapbook for our child with pictures and hand-print art from throughout the year. Since we are moving, it was weird walking out knowing that we would probably never see his teachers again. They were such a big part of our year, and helped us out more than they will ever know. They watched Kade really grow into his own person (even watched Ella grow for that matter!) And all of Kade's sweet friends from school, we will miss them SO MUCH!!!

First day of school vs. last day of school

Kade's last day of PDO was Thursday. He has grown SO much in the 9 months he was there!!

Day at the Museum

About a week ago we met Allie and Emerson at the Children's museum. We have season passes, and we were ready to put them to use! Unfortunately there were no less than 25 school field trips that day so it was CROWDED! The kids had fun, but it was so crowded with big kids it was hard for the little guys to do much. Hopefully next time it won't be so crowded because we will be putting our passes to good use during the long hot summer!!

Conversations with Kade

Today we went to get Kade's hair cut. It was pretty out of control in the back. Kade had a little conversation with the hair stylist.

Hair lady: "wow, you have a crazy cow lick back here!"
Kade: (staring blankly at the hair lady) "ya... I have lots of cows back there."

After she was finished:

Hair lady: "your all finished! Do you like it?"
Kade: "ya I do...did you get all those cows out of there??"

And he has been talking about cows in his hair all day :)




Silly boy :)

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Kade and Ella head to the ballpark!

Last week we took Kade (and technically Ella) to their first Ranger game. I don't totally include Ella because she slept in the car seat the entire time. SO she was there but not really there, if that makes sense! Kade loved it! He was a smidge antsy when we got in our seats, but after some walking and running around he was better. We got him a foam hand and he was loving it. The poor old man sitting in front of him was not as enthused about him swinging it around :) He talked about the Rangers for several days after! Can't wait until our next game!