Such Cute Kids...

I've had the opportunity to take some pictures of some adorable kids... check them out! :)

This is Maija - She is Megan Ojanen-Saari's little girl. She is 4 months old and full of smiles!

This is Brady - Meg's middle child...And all three kids together - Caleb, Brady and Maija...This other cutie is Kate Swenson - Dan and Melissa's little girl.
She is almost 14 months old and also full of smiles! :)

Thanks guys for giving me the opportunity to catch such fun
shots of your kids - they are all so beautiful! :)

Floor Project...

We decided that painting wasn't going to be enough for our fabulous new living room... so we did the floor too. Check out the 'oops' post in March to see one of the obstacles
that we encountered during this fun project. :)

These were the floors prior to sanding for 8 hours...

After completing the sanding... We discovered that: 1) we don't have Oak floors but we have Maple, 2) we always call Rog for crappy jobs (thank you for all your help!!) and 3) we should have done this years earlier! :) I will post some pictures of the 'finished' poduct tonight - for the time being I don't have one.

Paint Project...

The Living Room project turned into a little bit more than just some fresh paint and new curtains... here are some 'before and after' shots for those of you who are dying to check it out! :)

Within this project - I've had the opportunity to learn how to sew (new curtains), make designs in stairs (still need some touch up painting) and that when the
Tuttle's start a project it is always more than we have planned. :)

Anyone Looking??

I caught these two squirrels while at my parents last weekend...
I love how they are trying to be 'oh so sneaky' as they are stealing Captains dog food. Enjoy!

Pond Hockey...

Damon has coached Pond Hockey for the last two years. He loves being on the ice and the kids - most the time. :) The kids were more challenging this year; however, he really enjoyed working with them and seeing their improvements.
The last game of the season was held in the arena - here are some of the pictures from the event.

This is his team for the National Anthem...

An Action Shot...

Coach in Action... And lastly - Lane taking his goalie position very seriously...

The Parents House Up-date...

The have moved in! Yep, everything might not be completely done but it is livable - yippee! Here are some pictures of the house with a little bit of life added to it! :)

Oops!

While we were finishing the living room floors - we ended up having to sand the second coat of Poly off the floor. Here is the result when using your hand sander for a larger job.
Note to self: Never leave power tools unattended after extensive use.

Pictures of the finished living room project are to come! :)

I love my Brother...

and when he cooks at my house! Erik has come over a few times over the last few months to have supper and best of all bring his Fabulous ideas with him! A few weeks ago we had White Chili - seriously awesome! I also love that I learn a lot from his techniques - neither one of us use recipes! I can't wait for our next meal... I think I would like to try Chinese! :)

I'm a wanna be...

Yep, I'm with Mara on this one - I'm a wanna be runner. For as long as I can remember I've always wanted to be a 'runner'; however, it hasn't really worked out too well for me. You know how it is... side aches, can't breathe, feeling like your legs are going to fall off, etc... It seems as though you hit a wall and then I don't want to be a runner anymore! :) Well, Damon and I purchased a treadmill in January and this week I have hit two really big milestones in my 'non-existent, running' life...

Yesterday, I ran 26 mins. STRAIGHT! Yep, no breaks - just kept on trucking!

Today, I ran 40 mins. STRAIGHT! Whoo-hoo! I ran a 5K - that's 3.1 miles! (Pretty pathetic that it took me 40 mins. to run only 3 miles but I am so excited!!)

The Bainblabber blog has been such an inspiration and Mara is right - it's a mind game! She said in one of her posts that if you can get pass the mental aspect - it's amazing what your body will keep on doing. Here's my secret... I put a towel over the screen and crank up the iPod! I listen to my body - when I get to the point of seriously needing a break... I'm amazed to find that I've ran much farther than I have in the past! I feel like if I'm not staring at a clock or putting a time frame on how long I can be doing my activity - I just enjoy my music and keep going. I guess my purpose of this blog... if I can do it, keep up with it - you can too! :)

My Hubby...

I am truly blessed with a lot of laughs in my marriage... mostly because of Damon. Most would argue that he is pretty laid back and doesn't say a whole lot but those people don't live with him. I have two Damon stories that just crack me up...

1) Two weekends ago we were lucky to have the opportunity to babysit Anthony. We were excited to bring him to his first Grand Rapids Hocky game! Of course, we were a little worried about how he would react because the game started at 7:30pm and his bed time is around 8-8:30pm. Anthony did really well - he watched the game, drank some apple juice, napped a little, had some popcorn and didn't really say two words the whole evening! Now, Uncle Damon on the other hand was having some issues! He had to get up to go to the concessions for first period... bringing back popcorn and pop to share (nice bonus); however, he drops his bottle of pop twice - bumping into the people in front of us as he tries to pick it up. Then - he decides to open his pop (yes, after he just dropped it twice!). Now, Damon has successfully sprayed the two kids in front of us, himselve and the diaper bag! And I thought bringing Anthony to the game was going to be a challenge!

2) Damon likes to put different ring tones on his phone. His new ring tone, which I think is really stupid, says, "You're a smelly pirate hooker". Does that make ANY sense?? It actually says this when his phone rings... SO, last night we are in Forest Lake having a Birthday supper with my parents AND Damon's phone rings. Lovely. The best part of this story - we just got new phones so we are not exaclty sure how to mute them without picking up and hanging up on the caller. I think I would prefer he go with the door bell ring tone! :)