Our Lives Loudly

 * I started this in mid December* 😂 Merry Christmas, happy holidays, happy new year to all! I haven’t been super active on here but it’s part of my plan for 2024! I love looking back on it and it’s nice to take the time to reflect and write down the day to day as it changes few so quick and times goes so fast! January :  Tom’s birthday! We had a fun date night out axe throwing with some friends! We also got our house re-painted inside! So many marks on the walls and actually got non flat paint! Really made a difference!! Celebrated a late Christmas with Tom’s mom’s side, and we hosted! It was a fun celebration and nice to see everyone. Unfortunately, after that many of us got Covid. All 5 of us tested positive.. quarantine crew! I also joined a winter bowling league with some girlfriends on Monday nights, such a fun thing!  February:  Elliott, Sam and Molly are FOUR! had a little family celebrating with a paw patrol cake, pizza and balloons and they were so pumped!...

 Happy 5th of July!! We had an awesome weekend doing ALL. The. Things! It was such a fun weekend and a perfect mid summer break! Feeling really blessed and have a full heart at the moment! ❤️  I say this every time but a lot to update on! I am just gonna write and see what happens, so this may get long!!  Few things we are doing this summer… Swimming lessons at the YMCA! everyone moved up to level 2 this session. They are so much more confident in the water and I am loving seeing the improvements. Gymnastics at the RHS. I’m pleasantly surprised by how well this is going. I wasn’t sure, but Elliott and Molly are loving it! We are also doing a sports sampler camp through the Y and it’s 8 weeks, 2 weeks of 4 sports. So we’ve done soccer, baseball and this week starts basketball. It’s fun to see what they are interested in. They are also in school for the rest of July, then start again in the fall. We also have Elliotts weekly speech/OT. He will be starting physical therapy n...

 Happy spring! Maybe! It’s currently snowing… 2 weeks ago it was 88 and my kids were in swimsuits… today it is  cold and raining.  Why do I even bother getting my hopes up every year! Anyways… :)  We are a few months into age FOUR! Four is… chaos.loud.hilarious.challenging.fun.exhausting.  All. The. Things.  Elliott -  Well, we got the official diagnosis of autism a few weeks ago. Def wasn’t shocked by it, and actually everything that was said in our evaluation was pretty much spot on. They agreed with our observations and also suggested some other opportunities for E to succeed. It has been a long road… We waited for almost 2.5 YEARS for this. But, we feel like now we are on a good path. I have a lot on my plate now just scheduling all of his “stuff” but overall I feel like we are in a pretty good spot at least help wise for him. Im working the county to get some grants to help us pay for some therapies that do not currently take insurance. Thankful f...

 These are always so fun to read from others and I am so curious what a typical day looks like for people. Obviously everyone’s day to day is completely different, but this was ours on this day! - Wednesday, February 1st 2023 -  School today for the kids so my alarm goes off a little before 7. Typically Sam is up between 6-6:30 but today he slept in! Molly was the first one up which NEVER happens. Anyways, we all got up, Tom was home still so we tag teamed the breakfast/clothes morning routine. Molly is the hardest in the morning, she is always the last to be ready and is such a slow eater! But, everyone was ready when the bus came at 7:46. Elliott still likes one of us to walk him out, and it was negative something outside so Tom threw on his shoes and walked him out. Once they left, Tom started working on the van. Our heat wasn’t working… brrr. So thankful he was able to fix it by replacing the thermostat!  While he did that I cleaned up the kitchen and then started on ...

 Hello and HAPPY 2023!  *I just went to go start another post and realized this one never posted. I don’t think I even finished it but I am just going to publish this one*  We are 20 some days in and so far… yikes! The five of us are just getting over covid. Dang. We had avoided it for so long and then… booom. It hit us. It is so strange, it hit us all differently. Tom and I had horrrrrible headaches/body aches for days and were so exhausted. Sam had similar symptoms to us, Elliott had some stomach problems and molly was throwing up/fevering for days. It was great… and a wonderful time for our dryer not to be working. The laundry was really piling up, especially once she started vomiting. Blah!!! Anyways; that is over and as sucky as it was I’m glad we are all ok. The big bummer was that Tom had planned a weekend away with some friends for his birthday… and he obviously had to cancel that. He works so hard ALL the time and he was so bummed but we are gonna find a time asa...

 2023!!! The last full year I have with these three home!! They officially start K NEXT YEAR!! (Fall of 2024) How did it happen this fast… I am not ready…  and also I cannot WAIT.  Motherhood is so weird and confusing 🤣  January  Tom turned 35! Started out the year with a girls weekend, a friend was in town from Colorado so after our tribe NYE party we did a night at the mall of America, hibachi and an escape room. Super fun and we escaped! Molly moved into her big girl room and bed! Tom put up some board and batten walls in our kitchen/dining room.  February  Trips turned 3!! Celebrated the “young wild and three” year olds with a trip to Great Wolf Lodge waterpark! It was an experience 😆 they were still a tiny bit small to enjoy such a big park, but we did the hotel, had cupcakes and they did some bowling! Overall a fun night with our family.  They started pre-school 4 days a week all with the same teacher. First bus ride and they loved it! Fin...