Clean house = Happy Mom!!

It seems that the only time I can get and keep a clean house is when company is coming. Maybe I should pretend company is coming every day so I get motivated to keep the house clean.. It is just an endless task. I clean one room up and the kids are right behind me tearing it apart again. Usually I just give up. Since company is coming I am in a constant cleaning stage. At this very moment Connor is at preschool and Reese is taking her morning nap. The house will be clean until about 11:10 a.m. (that's when Connor is going to be home from school) then I will be in a constant cleaning stage again! So for the moment I am going to enjoy the clean house and the feeling that I don't have to get up and clean.
Reese is getting to the point where she is very mobile and into everything! She even opened all of the Christmas presents I had wrapped, at least I know she will enjoy Christmas! Looks like we won't be putting any presents under the tree this year! Connor was a little bummed that she did that because he helped me wrap the presents. Luckily they were gifts for other people and they didn't see their own. Better get going and enjoy the quiet while I can!

Christmas Shopping

Christmas is just around the corner and will be here before we know it! So far I think I have bought about six presents... I need to get into gear. But I am suffering with a dilemma for my children and nieces and nephews, do I get them what they want OR do I get them what they need? My sister says her children do not need any more toys.. I believe it. However, I want them to like what I get them for Christmas! Do I act like a good sister or a fun auntie? I think I choose the later!
I do however have to consider the fact that I have children too. She could get back at my by buying my children the most obnoxious gifts imaginable. So now I have to think about going into self preservation mode...In buying her kids toys I risk getting toys in return.. I am going to be buried in toys before the year end! But I still think I am getting her kids toys! haha!
For my family we draw names between the adults. Everyone dreads drawing my brothers name because he is sooo picky! You buy him something and it sits on a shelf for the rest of his life. It's difficult to find what he would actually use and want. Guess who drew his name.. ME! So now I basically have to search for the lost city of Atlantis. WISH ME LUCK!

30th Wedding Anniversary

This weekend we celebrated my parents 30 year wedding anniversary. We had a party back at their resort and had a blast!
My mom and dad were high school sweethearts. They actually started dating in the 8th grade! so technically they have been together for 37 years! I and couldn't have asked for two better parents or two better role models.
We were overwhelmed with the amount of friends and family that showed up to support my parents at their party. This was something we all looked forward to. Getting to see everyone and getting to come together to honor two people who have made such a wonderful life together was amazing.
After the party we had a band come to the lodge. They played till 1in the morning and I honestly think my parents danced every dance. We were so happy to see that they were enjoying themselves and so were the guests!
I have always looked at my parents relationship as something to aspire to. They have so much love and affection for each other. Before I got married my mom said "Don't settle for anything less than passion". What I realized is that having that passion for your significant other spills over into everything you do. Passion for your spouse, passion for your children, and passion for your career. But it all starts and ends with that special person.
Growing up my parents always said "I want more for you", I couldn't imagine having any more love or happiness than they have. It is something I aspire to everyday.

LaVoy Cousins

 

I have one sister and one brother. My sister has three kids, and my brother is still single. Above is a photo of the kids on my side of the family (my sisters children, and mine). Our oldest children are four, Connor and Jillian (In the back holding the babies) were born just 10 days apart. They have been best friends since birth. I nannied for my sister the first two summers of the kids lives so they were kind of raised like brother and sister. I was so lucky to have that time with both of them. Gabriel (far right, in the green coat) is  three years old and wild! He is always on the move and into something. He can be a terror but turns around and says the sweetest things like "Auntie, I just need a hug!" Ugh, melts my heart! I don't know if he really does need a hug or if he is playing me, he is a smart little stinker! Next is Zachary, he's the little chubby one down front with the red and blue coat. He is like a little teddy bear, sweet, and cuddly. You can't see it in this picture but he is kind of the odd ball of the group. He has dark brown hair, brown skin, measures in the upper 90th percentile, and looks nothing like his daddy! My kids, and Trisha's two older look exactly like their dad's (blonde hair, lighter eyes, and light skin) and Zac resembles my family, especially my dad and sister. Zac and Reese are only four months apart. He will be one year old on December 27th. I am so happy that my kids can have such a close relationship with their cousin's. They are always so happy to see each other, and usually play very well together (as well as kids can!). This picture was taken in front of my mom and dad's house. My mother knitted all of the hats for the kids! It made a beautiful picture!

Milestones

At this point my daughter is 7 months old. Every time I look I her little face I can't help but smile, first because she looks so much like her daddy (I married him for a reason) and second because she has the sweetest little personality. I cannot believe how fast  seven months has flown by! Lately it seems like we have been wishing away time. I want so badly to be done with school, and we want to get going on our move already. In that way, we are sort of wishing away our little girls time of being a baby.
Now at seven months she is just starting to crawl, and she wants to touch everything and put it into her mouth. She babbles and is starting to make the consonant sounds such as "ba ba" and "da da" not real words yet, but she is on her way! She loves her big brother! As soon as she sees him after preschool she starts giggling with excitement. She is actually easier to handle when he is around because she really likes to watch him play, and he likes to play with her.

I think I am kind of in a honeymoon period with my kids. Connor is really getting to be independant, and Reese is getting into a really good schedule, she is sleeping through the night and taking two good naps during the day! It makes me think about having another.. My husband thinks I'm crazy, and I tend to change my tune after a tough day! haha!

Christmas Time?

I just want to know why we need to start decorating for Christmas in stores as soon as Halloween is over. Don’t get me wrong.. I LOVE CHRISTMAS, but I just believe in celebrating one holiday at a time. With Christmas comes stress and worrying about what to get the kids and family members; I would rather jump that hurdle when Christmas is closer. Let me prepare for Thanksgiving before I start with Christmas.. Does it really need to be a 2 month thing?

                Connor is 4 ½, the countdown to Christmas for a 4 year old already seems endless, then they add another month to it! Poor Guy! He has already been asking me when we can put up our Christmas tree. I tried to explain that we had to wait until Thanksgiving was over. When I was explaining that Thanksgiving is coming first, he decided that he better start his “Thanksgiving list”! We had to have another talk about what Thanksgiving is; he is still looking forward to Christmas! HAHA!

A friend of mine posted this on her wall and I was very excited to see this! 
 

Hunting Widow

This week is hunting season. This is something I do not look forward to. I understand everyone needs their hobbies but none of mine take me away from my family for a week and a half and render completely useless to my husband.  I’ve been thinking of things that I could that would be equivalent to the time he spends hunting just so he could see how inconvenient it is for me and the kids. The only thing I can think about is shopping, go figure! But I have come to the conclusion that while I would be shopping I would be thinking about my kids, and shopping for my kids; when he’s hunting, he is only thinking of one thing and it sure isn’t me and the kids! One of Cody’s excuses for hunting is that it provides food for our family.. This is what I have to say to that.. BULL!! Deer meat must be the most expensive meat there is! From what it takes to prepare the sausage, buy the gun, buy the ammunition, and buy the hunting supplies we could save a small fortune (A little drastic, but I tend to over exaggerate when I’m tired!). I’ll keep thinking about what I will do for myself and keep you posted. For now I’m working on keeping my head above water!

My Caffine Addiction

Cody and I have decided to give up pop..... Ugh, this is more difficult then I would have ever imagined. I love pop! So why give it up? Well I think it may have something to do with both of our expanding waste lines. Also, pop is so easy, you don't have do go and fill it up, or mix it, it is right there ready for you to drink. But the more we drink the more Connor wants to drink it too. We don't want him having bad habits like us so we figured that if we were going to say no to him having soda, we better give it up as well. :( I will probably thank him some day though!
Like I said, giving up soda is more difficult than we thought. After I got over the initial caffeine headaches I am a lot better, but I still crave it. My parents drink soda like it is going out of style.. Always have! I would like to blame this on them. I grew up in a home with pop always available to me.
 I have however noticed that I am more active, I think soda kind of weighs you down. Now I have resorted to drinking water, hot tea, juice.. One day at a time!

Coming Back Home!

In my previous posts I mentioned getting back to Moorhead. Well our dream is finally coming true! Cody got a job transfer there and we are expected to get back there some time this summer! The timing couldn't be better! I will graduate in May, Connor is going to start kindergarten in the fall, and I will have enough time to find Reese a daycare if I find a job before then. We haven't figured out what we are going to do about living arrangements yet but we have time! I don't know who is more excited, us or our families!
We moved to Marshall January of 2011, so we have been here a little over a year and a half. The four hour drive back home is hard and it will be nice only being an hour from our families!Plus they make frequent trips to Fargo/Moorhead so we will actually get some visitors rather than having to travel back home all of the time.  Connor still thinks that if we are moving we should be moving to Pinehurst.. That isn't an option at the moment so he'll just have to settle with being closer to his Grandma's, Grandpa's and cousins! We will get to see all of them a lot more often!
It seems like a long time to wait but moving day will be here before we know it! We have so much going on (or at least I will) with student teaching, graduation, kids, Cody's transfer, finding a house, getting Connor registered for KINDERGARTEN, and finding Reesey daycare, not to mention the actual move.. Whaa I am getting tired just thinking about it!

First Snow!

We got our first snow here in Marshall Yesterday. Connor was so excited. Usually I am not one who looks forward to the snow and cold weather but seeing the smile on his face I couldn't help but get excited too. He didn't get much of a winter to enjoy last year, I think I can count on one hand the  number of times he got to go out and play in the snow. Poor boy, so yesterday we went out and had a snowball fight, made a snowman, and had some hot chocolate! While doing it I thought it was a little silly to be doing this in October but I figured the snow wouldn't last so we better enjoy it while we have it, knowing the Minnesota extremes it will probably be 80 degrees next week!
Like everything else in my life I waited till the last minute to get Connor some winter gear. So before we went outside we had to go to the store to buy him new boots, snow pants, and gloves (My father, the king of "survival kits" would be ashamed!). While we were picking his stuff out I didn't think his smile could get any bigger! He was so excited! Here is a picture of him yesterday morning when he realized how much snow was actually on the ground!

Pinehurst

This semester has been a slower one for me. With mostly online classes it feels like every weekend is fall break! Cody works 4 ten hour shifts a week which makes every weekend a long weekend! This weekend we are going to go back to my families resort. My parents have owned the resort since 2000, and before that it was owned by my grandparents, and before that my great-grandparents owned it. So it is pretty special. My brother and brother are in line to take it over when my parents decide to retire.
The resort is called Pinehurst, it is located in Northern Minnesota in a little town called Naytahwaush. It is about 45 miles north of Detroit Lakes. So to get home on the weekends we drive four hours one way.. Luckily we have long weekends so it makes the drives a little more bearable. I have also gotten Cody into books on tape! He doesn't read for pleasure so for me, this was a pretty big feat! My whole family lives at the resort. As I said my brother and brother in-law are going to take it over so my sister and her family own a house, and my brother owns house just down the street from where we grew up! Cody grew up in a town about 30 miles away from my home so when we go home we see ALL of our families! I love it, we are pretty close with our families so it is hard to be away. I am thinking a move is going to be happening in the near future (I hope)!





Here is a picture of the lodge at my parents resort. They also have 16 cabins and many many camping spots for trailers.

The Supper Table

Since I have been staying home with the kids lately I have had time to prepare our supper daily. While I was in school it seemed like through the hustle and bustle I wasn't able to take my time and prepare the nice meals that I would have liked to. It was more like "what can I throw together that is fast".  So now I value the time I get to prepare a nice meal and sit down with my family. I think I would enjoy it a lot more if I actually got to eat my supper...
I like to think of my children as my diet enforcers. I prepare a meal every evening. I make Connor a plate, and get Reese some toys to play with so I can actually sit down. That usually occupies her until I take my first bite. Then Connor needs a napkin and we happen to be out, then he needs a milk refill, by the time I have done this Reese is already screaming because she is bored and wants to be held! So like the multitasker mom that I am, I grab Reese and sit down to eat with her on my lap. She is at the age now where she wants to have her hands on everything, so naturally once I sit she's got a hand full of spaghetti. GREAT.
By the time all of this is done, I have a cold plate of food in front of me and not much patients to sit down and eat it. My diet enforcers really take their jobs seriously. :/

Busy Brain

Usually going to sleep helps me shut my brain off. During the hours in which I am awake I am constantly thinking about what I need to get done, I don't know if it is because I am a student and I am always thinking about deadlines, or if it is just a mom thing that always worry about everything. Probably both! Last night I couldn't even escape my busy brain in sleep. I dreamt that I had my first teaching job; I went to school on the first day and realized that I had written no lesson plans, and didn't know where the classroom was. I think this goes back to me always feeling I am forgetting something. For one of my classes I had to sit and do nothing for fifteen minutes. I found myself thinking about all the things that I was going to do after the time was up. I think my brain is wired to worry. That is the only conclusion I can come to. Maybe I will have to work my way up to fifteen minutes and try to train myself to do nothing and not worry for a short time during the day. I’ll start tomorrow! I’ll keep you posted!

Survival of the Fittest

One of the things that I have learned as a mom/student/wife/housekeeper/chef extraordinaire is how to adapt. It seems my whole life goes back to making things work with what I have at the time. I am constantly being tested in my adaptation skills whether and I think someone UP THERE believes that I need to practice this EVERY SINGLE DAY (maybe it’s because of my career choice)! If it isn’t one thing, it’s another. For instance, my salad today, I was so excited to get my Caesar salad at Burger King (they are my favorite), I usually have to bring my supper to school on Monday nights because I have evening classes. I open my salad, get the croutons and dressing on, grab my utensil bag and find that they have only given me a knife to eat it with. What to do? It was either let the salad get soggy and eventually throw it out later (which is basically unacceptable in my book), OR eat the salad with the knife and look like a complete idiot doing so. I chose the latter. I found that eating my salad with a knife made me eat slower which in turn made me full faster. Maybe I will have to eat all my meals with only a knife! Someone at Burger King knew what they were doing!

Pumpkins!

We got to go back home this weekend! Cody and I were high school sweethearts so our families live pretty close to each other. Last minute Cody found out that he was going to get Thursday off (he doesn't work Fridays) so we go to go home Wednesday through Sunday! Our little mini vacation. We are very close with both of our families so being four hours away from them is difficult to say the least. We can't wait to get back to the Fargo/Moorhead area!
My dad has a little land that he bought for hunting, this year they planted corn, soybeans and pumpkins to feed the deer around the area. They planted pumpkins last year but they didn't take. This year there were hundreds of pumpkins. Connor wanted to take them all home! We probably walked through the Field for about an hour just looking at all of the pumpkins. It was so much fun. We even carved one because Cody was craving some baked pumpkin seeds!  Here are some photos of Grandma and Grandpa's pumpkin patch!

After we went to the pumpkin patch we drove around the woods admiring the leaves. Minnesota is so beautiful this time of year. We spent most of our weekend playing outside in the sandbox, and watching the boys play football, & baseball. It was the perfect weekend!

Skol Vikings!

This weekend my little family ventured to the big city (or should I say cities?!)! My parents are season ticket holders for the Vikings and invited Connor and Cody to join them. They were more than happy to accept! The game was going to be Sunday at noon so we decided to go early Saturday morning and bring Connor to Nickelodeon Universe in the Mall of America.

When we got to MOA Connor was really nervous, I don't think he knew what to expect looking at all of those rides. I was starting to get nervous myself thinking he was going to chicken out and not ride a thing.. Once he finally got going he had a BLAST! He was just tall enough for some of the bigger kid rides and he was not scared! I was really proud! I even went on one of the rollercoasters, I think I embarrassed him by screaming.. He kept saying, "REALLY, MOM?!" I think that was code for "be quiet, you are embarrassing me!" haha! Reese was not into it obviously, she is only 5 months. So after a while I took her for a walk around the mall, I didn't mind at all! ;)

The next day Connor and Cody went to the game while Reese and I stayed at the hotel. Con got SPOILED; he came home with a new jersey, a foam finger, a little helmet, and a Vikings Robot. He was so excited! Cody said he cheered really loud too. Once we got home he told his dad that he didn't like watching football on the TV anymore, he only likes REAL football! haha! I don't blame him, but I think my parents would go broke if they had to bring him to the Vikings every weekend with them!

 My mom "Grandma Julie" and Connor at the Vikings Game September 23, 2012

                                                     Daddy and Connor

Maybe a little loud?

                                                Connor and his Robot

Fantasy Football is CONSUMING my life!

I used to look forward to Sunday afternoons. I would watch the Vikings and eat popcorn. It was a past time that I look back on fondly. Now, I view Sunday's as the bane of my existence. My husband has been involved in fantasy football for about three years now. It seems like every conversation reverts back to his team, his players, etc. IT IS EXHAUSTING. Not only do I get to watch my favorite team, The Minnesota Vikings, I also get to watch the games of every other team in the NFL (Note my sarcasm)!  I know players stats, projected stats, their injury status's and trust me, it isn't by choice!

Sunday's at the Bendickson home now look like this, my children playing, me reading, doing homework, or tending to my children and my husband vegged out on the couch watching two games (split screen)with the remote in one hand, his phone in the other (checking stats on his Fantasy App) and the computer in his lap. To put it mildly, he is obsessed.  I'm starting to think my children and I should spend every Sunday from now to January out of the house (for my sanity), I doubt my husband would notice!

Ok, my rant is over. I know everyone has their hobbies, my husband LOVES football and I wouldn't consider denying him that one pleasure (as if I actually could) ;). And I always have to look at the bright side, football is only on from August-January.. It could be worse! I've shared a picture below of Cody watching football..Do you see the reflection of the game in the window? His face looks like he is saying "Shut up Alison I am trying to watch the game!" haha!

Baby Pictures

Recently I had my kids pictures taken. Reese was four months when they were taken, and Connor was four and a half years.  I am a little later with Reese’s pictures than I was with Connor. Poor second child, I was so on the ball with Connor, I made sure I wrote everything down, took pictures, the whole nine yards.  But we got the pictures taken and that’s what matters!

We started taking pictures with Connor first. As usual, he was a shy boy (see first picture) but he started to come around! Especially when we started bribing him with Halloween costumes! Did I mention he LOVES superhero’s? He even got to take pictures in his Spiderman costume, which was a big deal to him!

Reese was her normal happy self, at first! She took pictures in her christening gown which my mother knitted, absolutely beautiful! She also wore an adorable pink tutu made for her by Cody’s mom! I am so lucky to have crafty mothers! By the end of the pictures she was DONE! As you can see in the final picture of her she buried her face in the pillow! It made an adorable picture and is actually one of my favorites!  

Now I am in the process of picking out who gets what pictures, ordering, and buying them.  Throughout this whole process I am thinking I am going to have to do this again in another 3 months when Reese takes her 6-7 month pictures! It is an endless process! But I couldn’t be more pleased with how they turned out!

Single Parenting

This week I have found a new admiration for single parents.. HOW DO THEY DO IT? Cody has been gone for work since Monday and I have been the one in charge of doing everything for the kids, home, etc. I understand that there is a large portion of what a single parent has to deal with missing in my duties this week, the job! However, I have been going to school so the long hours are similar. After one week of this single parenting I have decided that once children of single parents are raised the parents should get some sort of award for years of no sleep, little help, kids testing their limits and the constant game of catch up. I have only been doing this for about four days so I cannot imagine the hardships a single parent goes through.

I do believe that this is going to be a wonderful learning experience for me though. As a teacher, I am going to be dealing with many kinds of different families. Single parents make up a large portion of the United States population. I have done some researching on how to survive single parenting and found a site called Divorcewizard.com and they wrote an article called "Top Ten Ways to be the Best Single Parent" Which I thought I would share. 

http://www.divorcewizards.com/Divorce-and-Single-Parenting.html

Hopefully this will be a good resource to use and share with those single parents out there.

Now the week is almost over and there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Don't get me wrong, I love my children but sometimes a person just needs a break, and a little help! http://www.redtri.com/happy-mom-tip-take-a-break

Power LIONS!

I am more than likely going to post about my four year old, Connor, often to say the least. Connor has the best personality, he is shy, a real thinker, and it takes him a while to warm up to people. Once he does warm up to them however, it's hard to get him to stop talking! He is at the age where he is curious about everything, so naturally questions are a pretty constant in our household! He comes up with the silliest things, we like to call them” Connorism’s” because they are so unique and funny. Here is an example of a “Connorism”

One day Connor and Cody (my husband) went for a bike ride. During the ride Connor was noticing the orange flags that were buried in the ground, so of course he asked his dad what those orange flags were; his dad said "They buried lines under there". Apparently Connor accepted this answer and they kept riding. On the way home Connor ask his dad "Hey dad, where are those tigers?" Cody was confused, and Connor corrected himself and said "No, I mean the Lions.. You know, you said that they buried those LIONS under the ground." It took Cody a while to understand where he was going with this and realized that Connor thought that they were burring live lions under the ground near our home. It turns out he was scared they might get him. Cody assured him that there were no lions buried near our home and that what he said was “they buried lines, like power lines in the ground. Not LIONS!".

Family Introductions

Hello! My name is Alison, and this is a picture of my family. When I thought about blogging I had no idea what I would write about. My life is consumed with finishing my bachelors in education and my family. I figured the easiest thing to write about is the thing I could talk about FOREVER, my family. Nothing makes me more proud or happy than those faces you see in the picture above. Cody is an Auditor for the State of Minnesota. In his spare time he enjoys hunting, sports, and of course Fantasy Football (more about that later). Connor is four years old and attends Preschool here in Marshall. He loves superheros, transformers, and is starting to become interested in sports (much to his father’s delight). Reese is just five months and is really busy rolling over, learning to sit up, and working on teeth! Her smile is infectious. Like I said, I am working on my Bachelors in Education, and Early Childhood. I have been going to school for what seems like forever, but I'll get there. Cody and I like to joke that we have done everything in life backwards. First came Connor, then marriage, then his college graduation, then he got the job, then baby #2, then I will be graduating, and next step is to buy a house. It works for us, and we couldn't be happier with how things have turned out!