Our New House

We closed on a new house in November! It was a long process from when we first moved from Virginia until now but the wait was worth it. God has really blessed us in so many ways, including a wonderful home to call our own.

Right after moving in we knew the yard needed some help. So we removed a hugh amount of bushes and trees around the front and back of the house. Then the cold came so we left it. We were really hoping there would be enough snow to cover it all, but no such luck! Here are some pictures of the inside:

First time in the house with keys in hand!

The front yard before we tore

down all the overgrown bushes

Geoff taking on the bush

Main entryway with office

in background

Kids playing by the office doors with

laundry/mudroom & bathroom behind them

Family Room with fireplace, TV and windows.

Now how do you decorate a two story wall...

Our favorite part, huge windows!

Office where I spend lots of time

when kids are napping.

The kitchen, our main hang out! Located

between the family room & dining room.

Dining room...however we are turning it into a toy room until

we finish the un-finished basement.

Upstairs master bedroom (before furniture).

There are 4 bedrooms & 2 baths upstairs.

Our backyard stone path

Our backyard deck, patio & woods. There is

a park path right behind the woods.

Thanks for viewing! Hope to see many of you soon.

Update on Life

Wow, I haven't posted in so long! Made in just under a year. So much has changed! Including I need to change my blog title now that I have moved back to Minnesota. (I so wish I had posted more pictures as my hard drive crashed and I lost two months of photos.)

Geoff is enjoying his new job with MPC. It is rewarding and also very demanding. I'm still "playing" with the kids full time and do some coaching and web development on the side. Our biggest excitement, is closing on a new house in November. I'll put a separate post with some photos.

Here are some pictures of life now:

A captured moment of dad and daughter

relaxing outside.

Cousins and MG playing together

in the egress window at our new house

Our little princess

Grandma and kids shopping

Me and SL at the farm

Homemade Toddler Apron

Yesterday MG & I made a no sew apron. I wanted one for him for painting, helping with dishes and of course working on bikes like his dad does in his tool apron. All you need is a t-shirt, scissors, & chalk for marking. He did really good helping out and listening to the instructions. Afterwards he wanted to help with dishes, but for once we didn't have any! You only have to wait a few hours in this family and there will be another pile to help with.

Before

(notice he has his scissors ready to help cut)

After

(He was so excited he didn't want to take it off)

The Kids

Some photos worth sharing...

Playing in the double chair together

All smiles

More smiles

Such a focused little girl

Trying on bows

Changing Our Diets for the Better

We are making changes to our diet. No it was never really that bad. ( umm... except that sugar addiction) But you can always improve, right? And why not. Geoff and SL already have restricted diets. We started a while back. This past summer. Slowly we purchase less and less at the grocery store. And more and more from our local organic farmers.

We spend most of our food dollars on our winter CSA (community supported agriculture), farmers market trips and supplementing it with trips to Whole Foods, Wegman's organic section or Trader Joe's. We changed to cooking our own organic meats and vegtables. Soaking our beans and grains. Making our own broths. No more pre-cooked anything and minimal eating out.

Before all this we actually starting doing a vegetarian diet because knew we needed a change. It wasn't for us. There has to be something better we thought. We were made to eat meats along with all the other foods. That's when we found the Nourishing Traditions cookbook and their train of thought. It made perfect sense to us! Eat the meat, the whole eggs, the whole foods, but of the highest quality and prepared right.

The biggest thing we notice? We actually eat less. The food is of such a higher quality, with good fats, we don't need as much. And we love it. So full of taste! We now walk into the local Harris Teeter, where we use to purchase our food, and realize we wouldn't eat most of the items. We come out with very little.

Our biggest challenge you ask? Planning ahead. We are both so bad at that. It takes more planning and more time in the kitchen. I feel, I mean both of us feel, like we are in the kitchen so much more each day. Whew. I so do not like to cook. But it is worth it. For our kids health and ours!

Christmas Pictures

Wow have I really not posted since the beginning of November! Well a belated Merry Christmas and New Years to all! We spend Christmas in Minnesota this year with my family. The kids and I were there for the whole month, which was wonderful. Lots of fun activities and some low key times too. Only bad thing was everyone getting the 24 hr stomach bug. That was a bummer but we made the most of it as it rampaged through the whole family around Christmas.

My kids really got to know their grandparents. Sine being back Miles keeps asking about them. The other day he said to me "No friends... I see Nana and Papa R.". Which is great how much they made an impact on him, but also sad since they are 1000 miles away. Thanks all for a wonderful time. Here are some pictures from the highlights:

Nerf gun games with the whole family

AH getting serious about the Nerf game

Papa & MG riding the

Mall of America log ride together

Us opening Christmas presents

MG excited

SL getting ready for Church

The boys hiding out in

the Children's Museum lockers

At the Mill City Museum Outlook in

Downtown Minneapolis

Halloween 2010

Samantha (a cat) and Miles (a skeleton)

Miles and his buddy Nathaniel at

our churches "Trunk or Treat"

Cyclocross Update

Geoff is halfway through his cyclocross season! He's done 7 races over the last 6 weekends with 6 races to go. The championships and final race is on November 28th.

The kids and I have gone to most races to cheer him on. It is a fun time. Love the fall weather, the apples, the open fields, the way Miles shouts "Go Daddy Go" ringing his cow bell and seeing Geoff racing well. Here are a few pictures from the races.

Geoff places 5th

so Miles joins him on the podium.

Samantha playing while Daddy

warms up nearby on the trainer.

Geoff racing and looking good

Miles waiting to cheer for Dad

on his next pass.

8 races

Our kids

Our darling kids. Too cute to not post.

Miles loves posing for pictures with his baby Sis (as he calls her).

Miles - 25 months, Sam - 6 months

6 months old

Samantha turned 6 months old today! Happy half birthday my little darling! How fast time goes. She is such an active baby. She is constantly moving around and so close to crawling. Sometimes I think she is going to crawl before she sits! She has all the pieces of crawling just doesn't get up on her knees. She is also close to sitting on her own. She can do it for a while balanced on her arms.

Her favorite activity in addition to wiggling and making noise, is watch everything, especially her brother. You can just see her taking it all in. She puts up a fight if you try to take a toy away from her and is starting to eye Miles toys.

Here are her latest stats:

• Weight: ~ 15 lbs. (will get official details at doc appt)
• Height: TBD
• Health: Wonderful. She is very lean and tall.
• Behavior: Such a good, easy going baby. She rarely cries. Loves smiling at everyone. Has a soft spot for her dad. :)

Tot Cooperative Started

My vision of starting a Toddler Cooperative has finally come to fruition! We had our first get together this past week. It was a bit chaotic with a bunch of toddlers and babies, but what fun! The goal was to create a environment for toddlers to play and learn with others where they focused on all the skills they need for life. There are so many of these groups out there that you can pay for but why not do it ourselves where we can include our Christian faith?

This coming week we are learning about God's creation of the earth, numbers 1-7, and having a nature hike! Thanks ladies for making this happen.

Few of the Kids After Snacktime

Photoshop Class Finished

If anyone has been out to my blog lately (even without any new posts) you would have noticed the pictures were missing. Sorry about that... I was taking a photoshop class and needed to make all my picasa web albums private. I didn't think about the fact it would affect my blog. They are all back now.

The even better news is I have completed my online photoshop class after 6 weeks of work. I passed the exam and got a certificate of completion. Photoshop is an amazing tool! I feel so much smart in picture and graphic editing! I would recommend the class to anyone. Here is one example of how I changed a photo:

Original

Changed

(changed background to white and improved the coloring)

Family Portraits

We did family photos this year on both sides of the family. Here are some of the whole group.

My Family

Four Generations

My husband's Family

Us

My Favorite Guys