Father's Day 2013

A great father isn't just someone who horses around on the living room floor, reads bedtime stories and kisses boo-boo's all better. He's also mom's partner in crime. He's beside her every step of the parenting journey, in fun times and the most hectic. He's the voice of reason when there is no other; the funny one in just the right moments; a strong provider; the family's rock.

It struck me square in the face on Father's Day, as Andi and I were paddling a canoe down the Namekagon River, what a dynamite team we make together. Andi's Father's Day wish was to take a family canoe trip. He excitedly picked the route and arranged canoe rentals for his parents, sister and her boyfriend to join us. I like canoeing, but I have to admit I was a little anxious about taking Tory with us. Yes, she's more comfortable in a life jacket this summer but we'd also be within the confines of a canoe for a few hours and in the middle of a river with little access to civilization. I prepared the best I could and packed an extra set of clothes for Tory, extra swim diapers, toddler snacks, a sippy cup, sunscreen, towels, bug spray and a picnic lunch for the whole clan. We set out around 9:30am near Trego, WI.

Things started a little rocky as Tory bounced between the front of the canoe to the back, from my lap to Andi's, barely hanging onto the sides as she bobbed around. It made paddling for me nearly impossible as I attempted to have a firm hold on her during all times. Andi and I kept our composure though. We soon settled into a groove where I mostly tended to Tory and he did most of the paddling.

Our three canoes - Janie and Jim with Andi's nine-year-old cousin Mia, Lindsay and her boyfriend Kyle, and Andi, Tory and I - stopped on the river bank for a snack about half-way through the trip. The kids tossed rocks and chunks of ice into the river while the rest of us munched on cheese, crackers and chocolate-covered almonds.

Then, we continued down the river. Only toward the end did Tory get antsy as her nap time neared. By this time Mia was in the canoe with us to help keep Tory entertained while I held Tory on my lap and Andi paddled the boat. Talk about a strong man shouldering the heavy task of moving us down the river! Tory was nearly asleep in my arms as we drifted along, but cried every time I assisted Andi with paddling. I did my best to paddle and hang on to her at the same time.

We ended our canoe adventure with a picnic lunch back at the canoe rental / camp site. Tory caught a second wind with some food in her belly. I'd prepared chicken salad sandwiches on croissants and penne fresca salad for all of us ahead of time. Paired with sweet potato chips, Snapple tea and lemonade, it was the perfect outdoor feast.

Despite a few hairy moments during our canoe trip, Andi and I stayed cool and calm together. I'd even venture to say we had FUN canoeing and we'd be down to take Tory again this summer. When push comes to shove, I default to caring for Tory and Andi handles everything else. Upon reflection, this is what makes Andi such a great dad and partner in life: his composure, strength and love for adventure. Tory and I are so lucky to have him as ours.

After canoeing, we spent the remainder of Father's Day back at the cabin. We played in the lake, grilled hot dogs, opened presents and went for an afternoon boat ride around the lake. Our day together couldn't have been more picture-perfect.

Happy Father's Day, Andi!

Father's Day Bloopers

This photo session is too cute not to share ...

Last year for Father's Day, Tory gifted her daddy a three-series photo frame of herself holding the letters D-A-D. We've all seen this non-original idea on Pinterest.

2012

It turned out really cute though, and Andi has the frame on his desk at work. I thought this year Tory and I would update the photos as one of Andi's Father's Day presents.

Last week Tory and I traveled to Nebraska and it's been raining non-stop since we returned, so I haven't had a chance to get outside to take the photos. I suppose I could've taken them indoors, but I wanted to recreate the 2012 photos as much as possible. On Tuesday, the sun peeked out from the clouds just long enough for me to throw a cute outfit on Tory and high-tail it to the backyard with my camera. Everyone knows Andi is the photographer of our family so I struggle taking quality photos for him as the recipient, but they're photos of our gorgeous daughter so he's bound to love them, right?

Anyway, I gave Tory a letter "D" and asked her to stand in position. Ha hahahaha. Ha. What was I even thinking? No way a one-year old listens to any sort of direction re: standing and smiling.

Okay, the first one's not so bad ...

Ran to a new background location ... grrrrr.
Let's try a new letter.

Alright, standing = running
Let's try sitting on the stairs

Is that an airplane overhead?

Screw this letter thing ...

Just kickin' it

Oh my gosh, Mom. How many more photos?!

New strategy: set the letter next to Tory

Distracted ...

Peek! 

So OVER THIS, Mom

Crumple, crumple, crumple ...

I'm outta here!

I was frustrated while taking these photos because we didn't get any good ones, but after scanning the out-takes on my camera, I nearly died from the cuteness. These photos were too cute not to share with Andi (and I'm horrible at keeping presents a secret, anyway) so I showed Andi the series when he got home from work that evening.

Today, I'm going to attempt this project again to see if I get better "smile worthy" results and if not, I'll print and frame these photos just as they are. Because doesn't this sum up life with a one-year old perfectly? She cracks me up.

Nest

Andi's a technology lover. He's always got the "latest and greatest" of anything as soon as it hits the market. Fine by me, really, because the last generation version of whatchamacallit usually gets passed down to me.

A few months ago, our old-school thermostat bit the dust and Andi installed a Nest thermostat. I didn't really care what thermostat he selected, so long as it functioned properly. Although I have to admit, I did do some eye-rolling over the "need" for a $250 thermostat. After having it in our house for a few months now, I have to say it's pretty awesome. (It should go without saying, I didn't get paid to write this post; I just really like how our new thermostat functions and wanted to share).

First, the Nest took Andi about three minutes to install without any frustration, so that's a big win. Not that my husband isn't capable of installing a thermostat, but you know how those things go ... home improvement projects almost always puts someone in a bad mood in our house.

It's really easy to adjust the temperature throughout the day by just turning the dial higher or lower. My favorite feature though, is the iPhone app which allows you to adjust the temperature from any location. As in, far away from your house. Yesterday we were driving home from the cabin and Andi said, "oh, I better turn on the heat since it's 55 [friggin'] degrees outside!" (Okay, I added the friggin' part because, seriously, come on Minnesota!) By the time we got home, our house was warmed up nice and toasty. I think we save quite a bit of energy, too, because I'm more apt to turn off the heat / air when I think about it ... usually after I've already left the house using the app on my phone. Nest also defaults to a pre-set "away" temperature after it hasn't seen any movement by the thermostat in X amount of time, so we'd save energy even if I didn't turn off the heat / air manually. As soon as it detects movement in its vicinity, it kicks back up to the "home" temperature.

There's all kinds of charts and graphs which show your energy usage available, if you're into that sort of thing. I think it's safe to say, we paid for the initial cost by now.

Technology is pretty crazy when you think about it. I often wonder what things will be like when Tory's my age. What kinds of thing will be old hat to her (Internet, cell phones) and what new things will help make her life easier. I never thought a digital thermostat would make me so happy, that's for sure. (Read also: I think I've officially become an adult if these are the things that get me going.) Good job, Husband, for adding a new piece of technology to our home which really makes my quality of life better.'

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Edited September 2013: We're on the budget plan for energy (we pay an average rate 12 months of the year vs. extreme highs or lows each month based on usage). In the last three months, our energy provider has credited our account $262 due to our "under-usage" of energy based on a 12-month average. The Nest has paid for itself and now we're just saving money. Love this!

There's No Place Like Home

Tory and I flew back to Nebraska this week to visit family while Andi worked another photo shoot. I convinced my parents not to take vacation days (to save them for Baby #2's arrival) so I planned to spend the days with my sister, who's a stay-at-home-mom, and the evenings with my parents. I also wanted to meet my cousin Jen's newborn baby girl, Reese, while I was back in town. Of course, babies keep their own schedules and Reese decided to arrive 8 days late. I was actually able to visit her in the hospital; something that never happens because I live out of state. It felt so special to be there hours after her birth.


By coincidence, my sister had plans to teach vacation bible school every morning this week, so Tory and I spent Wednesday morning visiting my great-grandma at the nursing home where she lives. It was a nice treat to spend some quality time with her and not be rushed to move onto the next event, as is usually the case when visiting back home. I got to spend some alone time with each of my parents and with my sister, which also rarely happens when we're back for holidays or events. I really enjoyed being home for a "regular week" with no plans and I hardly experienced the heartache I usually feel when Andi's away. Tory did fantastic on this trip. As per usual, she was a gem on the short flight to / from Nebraska, but also took excellent naps and adjusted well to irregular bedtimes. As she grows older, life with her keeps getting easier and easier. I'm so thankful for that!

It was great to see my two nieces, Brooke and Neeley. Hard to believe how much those two grow in the weeks / months between our visits. Brookie will be six next month and oh my, that girl is opinionated! My sister advised me many times to "just wait" until Tory gets older. Ha.

On Wednesday night, we went to Brookie's dance recital. It was seriously the exact same recital my sister, cousins and I used to be a part of over 25 years ago. The dance instructor and her husband have to be at least be in their 60's by now, but they still looked exactly the same (albeit, a little more gray). Most of the songs and dance routines were still the same as they were when I was a kid. It absolutely melted my heart to see the little three year olds up on stage doing "the cookie dance" and I was singing along to the tune right along with them from the audience. Never am I home and able to attend these events, so this was just THE BEST.

Horrible iPhone photo but ...
Brooke (second from left) dancing to Little Miss Muffit

Thursday morning, I babysat Neeley for my sister while she taught Vacation Bible School. Neeley is such a happy baby so she was easy to care for, but keeping the girls from fighting over the same toys was no easy task. Tory's newest word this week is "no!" and she forcefully used that word to keep Neeley away from her toys. At one point, Tory pulled her favorite green push car into my parent's kitchen pantry and shut herself in there so Neeley couldn't get her toy. Silly girl.

Cousin love ....
Today, Tory put her stuffed monkey in a chair and was pretending to take its photo, so she must have enjoyed our little cousin photo session the other day.

Ashley, the kids, and I went to Lincoln Friday to meet my brother out for lunch and to see baby Reese in the hospital. First, Tory loved Grisantis just as much as her mama. (my favorite restaurant in Lincoln) She scarfed her weight in buttery garlic bread and tomato soup so she definitely has my DNA. I hardly see my brother, Adam, anymore so it was nice to catch up on his life.

Baby Reese is just as adorable as you'd imagine. Jen's the first of four cousins having babies in 2013 and things just got REAL holding a seven pound newborn in my arms again. I still find it hard to believe Andi and I will welcome another one of those tiny babes into our family in November. Happily, all is well with Jen and the baby and I'm looking to her now to give me all the tips on life with two.

Tory and Brooke waiting at the hospital to see Baby Reese

Overall, Tory and I had a great trip back home and I'm thankful for the time spent with my family. It's always such a happy time together which makes it all the harder to leave, but soon enough we'll be together again.

Toddler Busy Bags

First, my inspiration: 

When we moved to our new house nearly two years ago, we left our church behind. Finding a new church in our neighborhood was always on the radar, but cabin life made it difficult since we're usually there on the weekends. Therefore, our new church either needed a weekday service we could attend, or we'd have to find two churches -- one in the Cities and one near the cabin -- that we could attend wherever we were on the weekend.

Two churches sounded complicated to me. Plus, who really wants to go to church on Sunday mornings when you're at the lake? It sounds horrible to say it, but I'm just being honest. I wanted to find a church we'd actually attend and have opportunity to serve. The arrival of Baby #2 really kicked things in gear when Andi and I decided to baptize the baby in the Cities (vs. Nebraska at my parent's church where Tory was baptized). Baptizing the baby in our own church meant we needed to find a church and join it before the baby's birth in November.

So, Andi found a church in our neighborhood that holds a Wednesday night service. We've been attending for a few weeks now and we feel at home there. The trouble is, this is Tory's first time attending church on a regular basis and it's rough. At 1 1/2 years old, it's challenging to get an "active" toddler like ours to sit still for longer than a minute. Somehow, we have to teach her to sit nicely for 60 minutes! The church does not offer a childcare nursery during services because they believe children are more connected to God when they're involved in the service which, I actually believe. My sister's girls (age 5 1/2 and 9 months) behave very well in church because they attend often. Practice makes perfect. But ... that doesn't mean it isn't painful to teach my child to sit nicely during church.

I also realize Tory is only 1 1/2 years old. There's only so much I can require from her. I would like to teach her to be quiet during the service, sit or play nicely. No running away, climbing the pew or shrieking. Every Wednesday, I find myself scrambling to pull together interesting quiet toys and activities to keep her entertained during the service, so I decided to assemble a series of toddler busy bags. That way, I can easily pull a few bags for a service and she'll have something new to play with (on rotation) every week. I put all my toddler busy bags in a small storage tote so I can grab a few, toss them in my purse and head out the door. The idea is to have enough busy bags to rotate each week, so Tory stays interested in the items I bring.

Toddler Busy Bags:
I take no credit for the craft ideas. Descriptions on how to make each one are linked accordingly. Of course, I put my own spin on each craft as I was making them.

Felt "Paper" Doll
I've been working on a giant felt board with a variety of characters for Tory to play with for some time now, but I made a special felt board busy bag for her to take along to church. This one includes two felt dolls (think paper dolls, but more durable), dresses, pants, shirts and hair styles for her to create. So far, this busy bag has been a big hit with Tory. She piles all the clothing on one doll and claps her hands as if saying "look what I made, mama!" Very cute. I think this activity will become even more enjoyable as Tory grows older and she really understands what she's creating.

How I made this: I printed out the template linked above, then traced and cut out felt shapes. I took it a step farther by hand-sewing details onto the outfits. Total completion time: one hour, tops.

Felt Fishing Game
How I made this: Similar to the felt dolls, I made a fishing game for Tory. I sketched a fish shape from paper and used it to trace the image onto felt. I cut several colors of fish (two colors for each fish). The tutorial suggests hot glueing the fish together with a washer inside. I decided to hand-sew mine together and used a magnet inside instead. I duplicated her instruction for a fishing rod using a pencil, yard and magnet.

Tory loves the fish activity and knew what to do right away. Big hit!

*Note: After letting Tory play with this one a few times, the only thing I'm going to change is the magnet glued to the bottom of a piece of yarn. I think I'll tie a washer on instead because I'm nervous the magnet is going to fall off the string. Other than that, Tory loves this game.

Popsicle Matching Colors
How I made this: Using felt again, I sketched a popsicle template and cut the shapes from felt. I sewed two pieces of the same colored felt together to form a popsicle "pocket," sewing together all sides except for the bottom. Then, I wrote colors on popsicle craft sticks and stuck one in each felt popsicle.

This one is too advanced for Tory to read the colors on the sticks, but eventually she'll be able to do it. Until then, I drew a colored circle on each popsicle stick so she can identify by sticks by color. If nothing else, she seems to enjoy just pulling the sticks out and putting them back inside the pockets again ... even if they weren't correctly coordinated by color.

Popsicle Stick Magnets
This busy bag activity was simple. I hot glued a magnet to each end of a popsicle stick. Then, I let Tory go to town sticking the popsicle sticks together. She got a big kick out of the magnetic push between the two sticks and liked putting them together and pulling them apart again.

Popsicle Stick Puzzle
How I made it: I Googled an image I thought Tory might like (I selected a cow), printed it and Modge Podged the paper to several popsicle sticks. After the glue was dry, I used a scissors to cut apart the sticks.

My tips on this one: 1) Let the glue dry first. 2) I numbered the popsicle sticks in order so they'd be easier to see which order they go in. Except, I numbered them on the back, left to right, and when you're looking at the picture-side of the sticks the numbers read backwards. Next time I'll number them again but do it right to left so they'll be in order when you turn them around.

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I also added a few quiet toys to the bin:

Pocket Doddle
I found an off-brand travel-size Pocket Doodle at Michael's Craft Store a few weeks ago in their Dollar Bin section. Seriously, $1! I wouldn't say the quality of this toy is as great as, say, the name brand Fisher Price ones but for the purpose, this does the job. I've only busted this special treat out for Tory at church so it stays interesting.

Crayola Color Wonder Markers
My mom gifted Tory this Crayola Color Wonder travel case, complete with special write-only-on-the-correct-paper markers and a coloring pad. I brought this to church for Tory last week and it occupied her for about 10 minutes. WIN, I'd say.

Good Ol' Paper and Pen
I don't let Tory use a pen at home, so she was delighted when I pulled out a travel-size notebook pad and pen the other day and let her go to town drawing and writing. She played with the paper and pen for quite a while; I just had to keep my eye on her closely so she didn't write on anything she wasn't suppose to in the pew (she grabbed for the hymnal a few times ... eek!)

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Since I was already making these for Tory, I also made an extra sets to give as "Big Sister" gifts for my cousin's little girl, Lauren, and my friend Lindsey's daughter, Ashley. My hope is these activities will help keep their little girls entertained during those first few months of having a newborn at home.

Be Careful What You Wish For

My husband owns his own company, so it's safe to say he does his fair share of delegating in his career. I love him for it. His work / life balance has improved dramatically over the last four years with the addition of more employees and said delegation of work.

Sometimes his delegation skills spill over into home life. Like two weekends ago when he downloaded the Wunderlist app on our iPhones. It's a program where you can share "to-do" lists with each other. My "to-do" list started with several items. "Heather to do ...", "Heather to call ..." Ummm hmmm.

I do not love Wunderlist. My husband said I'm welcome to add things to his "to-do" as well, but I can't really think of anything to add. Can't we just talk about it if there's something that needs to be accomplished?

Everyone knows my husband is the shopper in our family. He has a walk-in closet in our guest bedroom that is full of clothes. FULL. I always know when he's been shopping again because I have to run out to the store and buy new hangers. Putting clothes away in his closet is a pain because there's no room to hang anything anymore. I can't imagine what it's like to actually find clothes in there. This weekend, I asked if one of these days he could go through his closet and purge all the clothes that are too big / too small / out of style / worn out / etc. I offered to do it myself, but I don't think he'd be pleased with the way I de-clutter.

Be careful what you ask for.

Is anyone hosting an upcoming garage sale? Or know anyone who is? Andi is insistent on selling these clothes on a garage sale. Upon hearing this idea, I bit my tongue so hard it almost bled. My dad always says to pick your battles in marriage. We are not hosting a garage sale just for these clothes when we really have nothing else to sell. I agree there are likely some hardly-worn, pricey name-brand clothes in this pile (Columbia, Patagonia, Oakley) but the hassle of organizing a garage sale just for this is not worth the money he'd make in selling them. I suggested Andi take the clothes to a second-hand store like TurnStyle to sell for cash, but he doesn't want to do that. If it were me, I'd drop them off at Goodwill and call it good. Or, how about post them for sale on Craigslist? Or Ebay? Except, I'm not going through the trouble of doing that for him and Andi doesn't have the time. So, garage sale ... anyone having one? He'll give you a portion of the profits in exchange for selling them. Otherwise, I have to store these clothes somewhere in my house for the next seven years until they magically disappear ....

It's beginning to feel a lot like ... summer!

Another great weekend at the cabin!

Andi, Tory and I drove up to the lake cabin Friday night with our new outdoor table for the backyard deck. Andi has a wood-working shop at his office and sourced his employee to make us a new wood table. It's really beautiful and easily seats 8-10 people. We're always searching for more spots for everyone to sit when we entertain up there, so it'll be perfect for that purpose.

Saturday afternoon, Andi and I tried out our new table for lunch with hot dogs, local farm-fresh salad and fruit on the menu. Our tranquil view of the lake ahead rivaled any summertime patio's ambiance. Tory and I also dined alfresco on Sunday afternoon and she thought it was pretty special eating outdoors. We ate together while watching Andi mow the lawn and talked about all the wildlife we heard around us.

The weather is finally warming up around here, so we anxiously took the pontoon cover off the boat as soon as we arrived at the lake on Friday night and hit the water for an evening boat ride before Tory's bedtime. Unfortunately, just as we pulled away from the dock it began to DUMP rain on us! Tory didn't think it was too funny, but Andi and I couldn't help but laugh as we were completely soaked on the ride back to the cabin.

After Tory went to bed for the night, Andi snapped some pretty incredible photographs of our surroundings. Seriously, tell me this isn't like being on vacation every single weekend? This place is our kryptonite. We are so at peace here.

After the rain, Andi fished off the dock for a bit while Chloe and I kept him company on the pontoon nearby. Andi caught a bass and I snagged fifty-million mosquito bites on my ankles and toes.

Nice rod placement, honey

Saturday morning, the weather was absolutely perfect. The three of us were on the water for a morning pontoon ride shortly after 9:00am. The water was glass and we were the only boat on the lake. Toward the end of our leisurely cruise, Andi pulled up to the swimming beach and another family on the lake was there with a little boy. We introduced ourselves and talked with them a bit. Their grandson was 3 years old and he and Tory had a blast splashing in the water. Of course, I didn't have Tory dressed for swimming because the boat gauge reported the water temperature at a chilly 58 degrees, but kids never seem to care and somehow Andi, Tory, the little boy and his grandpa were wading waist deep in no time.

While Tory took a nap in the afternoon, Andi and I tinkered around the lake. There are a million upsides to having a lake cabin tucked back in the bay, but one negative is all the mud and muck that accumulates on our shoreline. Andi used the boat motor to redirect some of the sludge while I raked weeds on the beach. He also persuaded me into helping him reposition the dock (why am I always pregnant when he needs help doing those things?) and we moved a picnic table down to the water for lounging. Those are some of the less glamorous parts of cabin life but even so, it was still nice to work outside together.

Shortly after Tory woke up, it started to rain so we drove into town to pick up groceries and run a few errands. We stopped by the hardware store, the meat market, the liquor store (for Andi), the laundromat to wash extra sets of cabin sheets and the dollar store. I don't know why I love browsing through the dollar store so much when we're at the cabin. I never ever visit those stores when I'm back home in the Cities, but for some reason it feels so "vacation-y" to wander the aisles there. As we were leaving, a 2-liter bottle of Sprite broke free from the plastic shopping bag and massively exploded all over the entrance of the store. The cashier, Andi and I stood in silence for a second, in awe of the sheer volume of fizz and liquid covering everything in the area. We couldn't help but laugh uncontrollably at what had just happened. I feel sorry for the employee who had to clean up that mess. Wow. The cashier said it happens all the time with Sprite bottles. (So maybe double bag 'em next time, lady. Just a thought.)

Sunday was sunny and breezy. Tory woke up early at 5:30am and by 8:00am, I was scrambling for something to entertain her. We decided to take a drive around the countryside and ended up in nearby Balsam Lake. We window-shopped in a few stores and stopped by a gas station for a second breakfast for me. (My lord, pregnancy morning sickness, when will you ever stop?)

Our motto to Tory, always. She needs this license plate for her wagon or something

Back at the lake cabin, we spent the afternoon lounging on a picnic blanket in the yard and playing in the lake with Tory. I taught her how to collect rocks on the beach and throw them back into the water for a plunk! effect. She loved this game and we played together all afternoon.

One of Tory's new favorite past times is splashing water. She loves to throw water in the bathtub (which is obviously a no-no) but here at the lake? Go hog wild, kiddo. With pink shovel in hand for optimal scooping and water-flinging, that's just what she did.

Throwing rocks in the lake

A girl and her bucket

Summer's here ... I can feel it. It's exciting to think, we have weekends upon weekends of fabulous moments like these ahead. I'm already counting down the days until we meet again.