Moving thoughts... with a letter to a potential home buyer!

It is really happening!  We are listed and home searching this weekend for our move to the east side of the cities!  I am oh so very excited... and oh so very sad!  Yes, we have a newborn, but truly timing couldn't be better and though we have been more than busy, it is going smoothly!  I am thankful I was able to get a lot of the inside house prep done in June, and amazing family and friends have helped prepare the yard!

It is going to be amazing for Andy working at 3M center, though I will have a long commute after my maternity leave in January.  It will be wonderful to be so close to my family, closer to Wisconsin, and near our college friends, but our Hutch friends are irreplaceable.  Being young adults starting life and families together couldn't have happened for us in a better town with better people.  But I am not shy and can't sit at home, so I know we will meet more wonderful people.  We are looking forward to so many restaurants, parks and DOG parks, store variety, but I love how it takes only 5 minutes to go anywhere in Hutch and traffic is non-existent! 

But bring this next journey of life on! 

I have been busy reading blogs about moving, selling, getting unemotionally detached from your house... Haha... that just won't happen!!   We also have been lucky to have a few friends just getting done with selling and others who have done the relocation process who are amazing helps!  One thing I read was someone's letter to a future owner... and I like letters to help with milestones and goodbyes, so here goes... I will try not to cry while writing... at least not the whole time...

Dear Potential Owner of 530 Lincoln Ave SW,

If you love this home as much as we do, you would be buying one charming house in one terrific neighborhood!  Lincoln Avenue has the best neighbors in Hutchinson.  Everyone helps anyone and genuinely cares how you are!  You also may have noticed in winter it is Candy Cane Lane! (Hearts and shamrocks make appearances too!) 

The location is superb.  We are positive it is pretty much the center of Hutchinson. It takes 5-7 minutes to drive anywhere.   But more importantly, the walk to Main Street for all the great events at Library Square and Hutchinson's wonderful stores, State Theater, Library, liquor store, is less than 10 minutes.  It is so great to be near Park Elementary and the perfect walk around the river is 35 minutes.

The dining room and master bedroom addition makes the 1947 house feel like new with open floor plan in our kitchen and the huge walk-in closet and large master bath! Though we remember going in circles in our first walk thru of the house,  we now love our bedrooms on one side of the house.  We love the “circle” and two doors thru the perfect nursery/office room as we can get to either side of the house quick!  The big spacious rooms, skylight, closets, and storages make the smaller looking house from the street, so huge on the inside!  And our driveway patio really gives us our perfect outdoor space.  Though I did dream of French doors off the dining room onto a deck and putting a 4th bedroom/office downstairs in the west storage!  If you see those visions too, go for it!

We even loved it back then with “an Ugly Kitchen”!  And I say that because we won “The Ugliest Kitchen” update contest thru Richard Larson Builders three years ago!  It was awesome to be able to design my perfect gallery sized kitchen with our two man island!  It really is the best sized kitchen to work and cook in!  I loved the upgrades we choose with pull out pantry shelves & pan drawers, pull out garbage, thin spice cabinet and sink flip down for sponges.  Our old microwave shelf is the perfect appliance cabinet just left of the sink as it has the electrical outlet in it! 

Maybe you didn't even want to come look at this house with a one stall garage... We almost didn't and told our realtor 7 years ago we weren't interested.  She didn't give us a choice and made us walk through it.  We were forever thankful, as obviously we fell in love with the house.   We had intentions to get our 2 car garage with connecting mud room built over the years, but travels, inside updates, and now the job relocation stole our hearts and time... but truly our memories were made inside the house... not where our cars sit.  However, if you want to keep it the large extended one stall and not build a 2 car right away, we are aware of the updates needed to garage roof and are willing to fix that quickly for you!

Anyhow, we hope you enjoy seeing our home, and if it is right for you, that you’ll have as many laugh and memories in it as we did, and that love fills 530 Lincoln Ave for you! 

Sincerely, 

Current Owner of 530 Lincoln Ave SW.

Why 2 is better than 1!

I am loving life with my new Evan.  I will admit, after having a toddler almost full time with me in June I have moments where I think, "Man, Evan... I forgot you newborns are kind of boring..."  But I will take "boring" and precious and sweet and cuddly over witching hours and screams.  Infants may not be my favorite stage/age, but I do love babies and I love mine with all my heart!

But it is so amazing seeing Declan be a big brother.  Whoever gets him out of his crib in the morning, he now asks "Where's my baby Evan?"... not "Where's Mommy/Daddy?" He asks to hold him at least once a day, but more like 3 times and he is gentle at saying all day. He tries to put his nook in when he cries,  though Declan is giving up on nooks too. Evan just isn't going to take one and that is now fine by us. 

I do feel bad I am definitely taking less pics of just Evan as Declan tends to make it in half to pictures... but 600 pictures of Declan in his first 2 months of life may have been excessive... I'll get the cute ones taken care of for memory books and photo albums!

I really had only been fearful about scheduling days and not being able to help Declan and Evan at same time, but really it has always worked out fine.  Sometimes Evan has had to wait a couple minutes or Dec has had to wait 20 mn too but his patience is growing.

However, this comic had me laughing with tears the other day and I am sure it will come true!  Declan already will hit Evan when I am nursing if he wants negative attention but I am ready for the rough and tumble days too!  Thankfully he can't turn a doorknob yet and has spent his fair share of time playing alone in his room during feedings. 

A few tips i have found make things easier is just plan 30 minutes to get out of the house.... and lock a toddler in his carseat 20 minutes before we leave, and get him out our the car always last.  Another thing I am glad I did was hide/store away some toys and books and puzzles and can pull them out before I nurse and they are like new toys again! Letting him help with Evan as much as he wants and Evan talking to Declan always works to get a laugh out or get Dec to listen/do something!  

Hello Fresh Review

 Simply put, I love it.  Food delivered right to my door, in correct portions, with super easy recipes to follow, and delicious meals I would never think up on my own.  Fun to get more ideas to re-make too! We will definitely continue to do it once or twice a month for variety and on the busy busy weeks!   It is a bit expensive (60$ for 3 meals for 2, but the meals are large enough for Declan to eat with us and we had leftover for one lunch each time!  But you have to see for yourself what you think... Get your first box 40$ off by using this referral code or go to www.hellofresh.com, check it out and create an account and enter my code in coupons: SH6DWQ  and then I get 20$ off my next box too!  That will help us all make it super reasonable ;) I mean you all know I'm really just blogging about this to help you and help me, right!?!

 But there is no required time to try it, no cancellation fees and you can easily pause weeks you don't want it to come.  I have ours paused the next 3 weeks because we have to get thru freezer meals I made and so many awesome friends and family brought us with Evan! You have 6 different meals to pick three from too so you can be sure you get something your family would like.

Two of the receipes did have about 20 minutes of prep/cutting, but was so easy with all the produce and ingredients right there in their box... and I enjoy cooking and found it relaxing and just did this part during nap times.  The quality of the produce and meat/fish was better than anything I ever buy at store! I also liked that we (Declan included!) tried new foods and liked them!  Chrizo, fennel and purple sweet potato chips were delicious and I have never cooked with them!

I am definitely not a food photographer but below is a fennel orange citrus chrizo cod cooking and my favorite recipe of the three was Thai Beef Style Noodles!  (The carrots were noodles!  Sadly, Declan didn't eat them like I thought it would... he loves carrots and loves noodles but flavor on them may have been weird to him or he wasn't very hungry...)  Andy liked and ate them and he doesn't eat carrots by choice usually!

Only thing I feel a little guilty about is the packaging waste but they definitely advertise you are wasting no food and if you bought all the ingredients at a store packaging waste would be similar. But on their website you can get credit by sending back the packing cooler cushions and the ice packs are super reusable, or just water and can be tossed.

Hope you give it a try and see for yourself if you like it!

The Day of Evan

It was fun to reread The Day of Declan in my Timehop last month so I wanted to jot a few moments down about The Day of Evan!  I've always tried to plan with Declan, if I do this for one kid, can I do it for two?!

First off, I like numbers and have been really excited that June and July would have the 8th and 20th as significant events!  June 8th... Declan's bday, June 20th.. Anniversary, July 8th... Evan's bday and July 20th... My birthday... Andy needs to start a savings acct for June/July presents :)

But I was really happy "Firecracker" stayed in until the 8th!  And the experience of a scheduled c-section was better than a day of labor and going in for emergency c-section.  Though for Declan I was exhausted at 11 pm at night and slept amazing and could get up the next morning.  I was getting quite agitated and stir crazy with Evan's first day and me being wide awake, adrenaline rushes and  unable to move!  I survived and was out of bed by 3!

This time around, Andy and I both got to see at the same time with a little window in the surgery sheet that baby was a boy!  It was so special and brought us both to tears!  Anyhow, also now with c-sections in Hutch, they don't make me recover in a separate room and I got to recover with Evan the whole time, and be there for his whole super alert first 2 hours and nurse right away!  And they don't do baths til later in the day so he didn't leave us for 6+ hours!

 I really beg everyone to strongly consider waiting for the surprise in the hospital for gender of your baby because I just don't know if there is anything more exciting! But I know that's just my opinion... but I love it!    I really think and said I was 50/50 with wanting either a boy or girl, but after having Evan, I do think I wanted a boy more!  Our family is complete as we had decided and double checked with each other daily the last couple months to "tie my tubes" and stick with Man on Man coverage!

But if anyone wants to use our girl name, Saigelynn Mary, they should(Saige mainly, Andy wasn't a fan of the "lynn", but I wanted my name carried on!)  I really, really loved that name... but the thought of tights, bows, ribbons, coordinating outfits, too much pink/purple, shopping, drama, boyfriends, etc. had me much more petrified than brothers wrestling around!  Plus, with our boy, I got our ABCDEF family of names ;)  Andy also wasn't for selecting an E name, but he ended up suggesting Evan and we both loved it!  I like the multiple meanings of Evan too: God is Gracious, Young Warrior and Rock!

Anyways, Evan Francis was a good size at 8 lb 8oz (again, on July 8th... 8 will have to be a jersey #!), 20.5 inches long and was practically back at his birth weight before we left the hospital!  The hospital stay was perfect with lots of recovery and relaxing time which I am trying to continue at home but I have a hard time sitting still!

Declan did really well with meeting Evan and visiting through my days there  (most moments) but he was calling Evan a few wrong names at first.  Lucas... Isaac... My baby... (which he still is and it makes me a little jealous... "No Declan, he is your brother... He is MY baby!") but he has Evan down now.  I definitely missed Declan way more than I even anticipated (and I thought I anticipated missing him a ton) but am happy to be at home with all my boys and my in-laws helping out and trying to make me relax! 

4th of July.... in July!

Since we didn't head up to my cabin, we tried to do as much "cabin-like" stuff around Hutchinson!

We started the long weekend with some fishing Thursday night!  We had intentions of getting out more in the boat but too much wind, or other super fun stuff (and some projects) got in our way.

But Thursday night was the start of Declan's holiday weekend late bedtime... 10 pmish!  The next two nights he was up past 930/10 too and did great sleeping til almost 8am and being a happy boy still the rest of the weekend.  Sunday night he crashed and was asleep by 815!

He did a great job in the boat with us for over 2 hours and his attention on his bobber "was hooked" especially after catching fish with Daddy!

We spent sometime each day at a new park or pool completing the Hutch Park Tour we started this year! 

On the 4th of July, Declan and I got to go meet McGinley's new precious baby Lucas Adam!  Declan was entranced and sat by me holding his hand, being so quiet, gentle and super shy for over 20 minutes!  When we left he kept asking and talking about him!   "Where's baby Lucas?"  "Let's go back Noah's house"  "I wanna hold Lucas"    He will be a caring big brother!  (Most the time at least I hope... I'm ready for the jealous rages too)!  We got the rest of Firecracker's and baby stuff out for cousin Logan coming to visit too, and he wanted to go in everything but was happy to put his dolls in them instead too!

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It was also funny on Saturday the 4th the Declan was asking for a sprinkler so Andy went to set it up but then we realized he wanted to do a sparkler again...  Well, he was happier with the sprinkler and not so happy with the sparkler!  He has the words figured out now!

   

 Saturday night we grilled with Schwedlers and had fun celebrating the 4th and their new lake house with FIRECRACKERS! :)   Declan did well and was brave with the loud noises as long as headphone muffs were on!  Brockway didn't care too much for her birthday fireworks but she was brave too!

  

Sunday, we headed out to Oakdale and golfed 9 holes.  I wished I had had 18 in me because Declan was doing so well on the course, but I was tired.  I was pleased with a 44 considering the only 2 holes I had double bogey's on, I also had some stronger Braxton hicks contractions on!   I had a birdie on 3 and my first chip-in to save par on Hole 8 this year.  And when we asked Declan what his score/number was on each green he played he said,  5, 11, 3, Pink, Snack, Snack, 8, Pink and 4.  So not too bad for a 2 year old rolling the ball on the greens because we forgot his clubs!  I'm going to get 9 more holes in Tuesday morning before this baby comes!  I'm excited! 

We definitely missed our family at Whiteface Cabin but had fun here and were glad to be around our home relaxing and playing as our family of 3 one last weekend.

We also got our last belly pic sign in... click on link and scroll to the bottom to see Firecracker vs. Junebug at 39 weeks!  

Park tour COMPLETE!

Three day holiday weekend... Three parks to finish... I was determined to finish!  Plus we did one more pool and will finish off the pools in August!  Now with Firecracker almost here we can just revisit favorite parks!

1. Shady Ridge   
2. Women's Club  (Piano Park!)
3. Rotary-    New Fitness Addition!
4. Oddfellows   (Purple Dino Park)
5. Roberts
6. Masonic/West River 
7. Riverside Jaycee  (Rollie Slide Park)
8. Kiwanis   (Rocket Hill) 
9. Fireman's
10. Kimberly
11. North Woods    Click link as I did it's own small little blog as I was practicing photo collage and Blogger app on my phone :) 
12. Lions Park East
13. Tartan Park-  (Pirate Park)
14. North/Community Playground (Park Elementary)--  Our "Home" Park
15. South   (Frisbee Golf Park)
16. VFW
17. Elks
18. Lions Park West
19. Rolling Meadows-   (Slideless/Easy Park)
20. Driftriders
21. West Elementary
22. Junior Community Women
23. St. A's
24. Bike and Skateboard Terrian Parks  (Bridge Park)
25. Our Savior's Lutheran Church  (ABC, 123 Park!)
26. Library Square "Park"
27. Hutch Rec Center Pool
28. Silver Lake Pool
29. Glencoe Pool
30. Gaylord Pool
31. Lake Minnetonka Regional Park & Swimming Pond
32. Lake Elmo Park Reserve

West Elementary:
Friday the 3rd. This technically wasn't a new park for Dec but the few times we'd been their before of after ECFE I didn't have phone or camera or we didn't stay long.  Today we had Croix, Andy's new golf club to practice and lots of time to slide, climb the dinosaur and climb the tunnels all by himself.  Also, I'm a huge fan of the rubber tire mulch on the ground as it doesn't get in Declan's sandals like rocks and wood chips!

Glencoe Pool:  

Friday the 3rd Evening... We headed to this great pool after a nice long nap from Declan, and thankfully I didn't try to go to this one alone 9 months pregnant!  Declan LOVED the waterslide he could go down on Daddy's lap (and Momma's twice... but probably wasn't my best decision as I couldn't keep him too close with my belly!)  The easy access pool is nice and the froggie slide kept Declan busy until he/we discovered he could go on the big slide!

Schwedler's joined us and the kids swam for over two hours and then wanted to play at the park too!  It was a fun evening topped off with one round of sparklers too!

VFW

Ended up being fitting we stopped at this park on the 4th of July.  The park was Red, White and Blue!  Plus, it is behind the cemetery and Declan was fascinated with all the flags and flowers by the graves he could see.  He played on the park for less than 10 minutes as wood chips were getting in sandals and freaking him out but then had more fun playing on the benches/tables and doing "Walking ABC's" around them.  He made me make a few laps with him too! 

Junior Community Women's Park

Sunday July 5th!  This park is behind the HS and I knew this park was smaller but good for Croix to run around in!  But Declan had a great time on all the individual park equipment.  More see-saw, another tunnel to climb and slide in, a digger (which he is getting quite efficent at) and the individual spinner.  I wish I had kept my phone out for a video of the aftermath dizzy Declan getting off the spinner as all three of us were laughing hysterically at his crooked walking and falling!  

4th of July... in June :)

Baby Firecracker is keeping us around Hutch this 4th but our wonderful family had a early get together! We jammed a few cabin activities into one day in the cities and got to meet the newest baby Logan who is in Minnesota from California!

We met at Lake Elmo Park reserve and it is an awesome area with 3 great playgrounds (which Dec cared nothing about since we walked around the whole "pool" lake first!)  He just wanted to swim!

Declan kept asking to hold baby Logan after this pic! 

He loves his cousin Addison!  Arm around her!

Got some stories, spins, tunnels and dinner dates in with Auntie Kris and Auntie B!