THANKFUL that life is back to business as usual :)

I have mentioned here and there that we were having some backyard renovations done, but I chose NOT to go into it until after project completion. Want the REAL reason why??! I didn’t want every post to be a moan and groan session! I try hard to keep things and myself upbeat and positive and one of my wishes is that you get that when you come here as well. With that being said, our lives over the last several months (probably since June) has been a whirl wind and if I chose to blog about it, it wouldn’t have been pretty!!

Thankfully, my wonderful hubby (yes honey, you are great) is a jack of all trades and is very talented with around the house stuff. When we were looking for houses, we had a list of must haves. Sidewalks, kid-friendly neighborhood, close to as much as possible, schools and a yard for the kids to play in, among other things. When we saw this house, for whatever reason I was drawn to it, but the back yard was pretty terrible… there was NONE! I was SO disappointed because I felt like I had found my dream home and my hubs just said “I can make this work”. Long story short, he did!! I will post much more about the renovations in a separate post :)

All in all, my husband was working around the clock over the last several months which left most of the house stuff and taking care of the kids on me. He would stop and come in for dinner, but that was about it. We were able to have a few hours of family time on the weekend and Cody would be out with daddy “helping” him with tools and work, but I didn’t see  a  whole lot of him and was overwhelmed to say the least. Being a stay at home mom I don’t get a whole lot of time away from the kids and when Steve gets home we are all happy to see him. Usually we spend time outside or doing something together until dinner and then I clean up after dinner while he does bath and we tuck in the kids and then we have our time together. WELL, everything was janked (yes, that is my made up word for messed… get with the times!)  up because he was working until dark. I was missing him (his help and just him in general) and was completely bogged down. I was NOT myself and I was very much on edge and stressed. I really learned a lot about myself through this (which is a whole other post entirely) and I am sure there will be more times in my life like this, but let me just say it WASN’T FUN!

It has been a few weeks and the backyard project is complete (until Spring when we have some other little touches we want to add) and I HAVE MY FAMILY, MY LIFE AND MYSELF BACK!!!! YEA!!!  I have made the most out of the last two weekends and we have been jam-packed with family fun! We had birthday parties, dinners out, Church, the Pumpkin Patch, the FABULOUS Great Wolf Lodge HOWL-O-WEEN event, Firehouse Tour for Fire Safety Week, Smores around our new fire pit :) and other little family chill time in between. I have been in LOVE with my fam all over again and have realized just how much I MISSED it all!

We went to Schappacher Farm the last two years and have LOVED it. They don’t nickel and dime you for everything and they have a ton of stuff for the kids. Hayrides, pumpkin patch, corn maze, train rides, hot chocolate, animals to pet and feed, lots to do.

It was Fire Safety Week last week so we headed out to our local fire department to check out the fire house and “play” on the fire trucks! Cody LOVED it! They had some great advice: Keep doors shut at night and teach your kids to always check for a hot door before opening. If there is only smoke above them, crawl to safety (a check point you have mapped out that is NOT in your yard- a neighbors) and if the smoke is floor to ceiling tell them to close the door and go to their bedroom window to wait for the fire dept. They also said that you can teach the kids (age appropriate) to throw their stuffed animals out the window so the fire fighters know exactly where the kids are! Genius!

We had never been to Great Wolf Lodge and were SO excited to be invited to the Howl-O-Ween event. The kids were able to meet the characters Wiley, Violet and Oliver at a private dinner. Cody loved them, Grayson, not so much! He kept his eyes on them and as soon as they got close, he started bawling! He was terrified!! They had fun music and dancing for the kids and pictures with them of course :) Then they had a Halloween scavenger hunt for the kids where they collected some yummy treats and ventured out around the Lodge. After that we headed to the game room and played some games in the arcade and finished up in the main lobby for story time. It was amazing! I have to say that this is a place that EVERY family needs to experience. They have something for everyone! Various assortment of cool rooms, the WATER PARK!, tons of food, a toddler/ smaller child area with play toys, books and crafts, a HUGE game room with bowling and other goodies, a spa for the girls which was too cute and SO much more. I loved how kid friendly it was and how all the details are thought out for you. The story time they have is like a bed time story and the kids were in their p.j.s and everyone was just having fun. I loved how family oriented it was and I felt like a kid again just being there. Truly an amazing experience! I can’t WAIT to go back!

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I know that things like the backyard renovations are worth it. We needed it done and could never afford to pay someone to do it, but it is SO hard to get through it! My hubby always has some project going on, but I hope and pray that we never take on something this big again. A weekend project, no biggie. Months and months without my hubby… NEVER AGAIN PLEASE :)

What have you taken on in the past or currently that turned out to be bigger than you imagined and how did it change you and/or your family? Any tips and tricks on ways you survived?!