Craziness

Da Chun! 

Fixer Upper, here we come!!

Like Father...

...like son.

As we left The Quad Cities for good, we hit
up the world's largest truck stop!

Ballin!!! 

Mario sharing his go to hardware store snack
with a friend :P

Julian enjoying his first cookie dunk :)

Enjoying a little downtime at our makeshift dinning room table

Taking a trip down memory lane at the laundromat...a little
more eventful with my mom and Julian at my side!

Getting to know our new neighborhood with a little family walk!

"I'm gonna make this place your home"

Look at my little artist :)

I think it is safe to say he enjoyed it...

Oh that little nose

Even though there were no other kids there...he made sure to
stake his claim at the tractor table.

Trip to the John Deere Pavillion!

:)

One last ride in a combine! We are off to
tractor territory.

Mom wasn't a huge fan of the portable
highchair situation in the new house.

Julian didn't mind no furniture. He still had his coches :)

So the past few months have been stressful to say the least but we of course managed to squeeze in some fun :) Mario's parents came for a visit in February over Valentine's day weekend. MariCarmen was scared by how cold it was. And I'm pretty sure it was still above zero...it may have dropped below with the windchill but definitely not Iowa's worst. Haha so ya, I don't recommend coming for a visit in February :) Even though it was frigid, we managed to enjoy the Family Museum one last time, drive up to Waterloo to show them our new house, and Mario and I got to enjoy a little Valentine's date night. We went to Starbucks and a movie...best of both worlds :)
    In March my mom came for a visit to help us out with the house. She watched Julian as Mario and I began gutting our bedrooms! There was no going back! We actually managed to get a lot done in one weekend. And at this point we have moved out of our living room on an air mattress to a mostly finished, beautiful, updated bedroom! We are just missing closet doors and baseboards. Not to shabby Dealbas.
    The fun was awesome but the day to day was long and tiresome. From mid-January to mid-March Mario and I had to do numerous projects in our old house to get it ready to sell, Mario had an online class, Mario began working in Waterloo (two hours away), and we found and purchased our home in Cedar Falls. Some days Mario would commute 4 hours to Waterloo and back, others we would all stay in a hotel room for about 2-3 days up in Waterloo (With only one car up there). Which meant either Julian and I would have to drop off and pick up Mario for work (interrupting Julian's sleeping schedule) or Julian and I would be left to explore the wonders of the hotel. It was so frustrating because we were right next to tons of shops, restaurants, and the mall (which has fun stuff for kids to do there- playground, arcade, train, carousel, etc.) but it was still below freezing and very icy so there was no way to take Julian out in the stroller.
    Once we closed on our house we immediately moved in but our stuff did not. We brought a mattress, a pack n' play, camping chairs, and kitchen necessities and lived like that for about 2-3 weeks. Which is when my mom came and we began to start giving our house a makeover. Our goal was to be done with the bedrooms by the time the moving company came at the end of March. We didn't quite make our goal (only our bedroom was done) so our living room was packed to the ceiling with boxes. As well as our garage and basement. Ya...we have a lot of stuff. It's crazy to think that only two years ago we were still in a one bedroom one bathroom apartment with no washer, dryer, or dishwasher. Heavenly Father has blessed us so much these past two years! So in spite of all the insanity that has been surrounding us lately we do realize that this new job and our new house that needs a lot of work is all for the better and sweet blessings from above.
   So now we are just in the midst of school, work, the house, and unpacking boxes. I plan on doing before and after posts of the rooms once they look presentable...so probably in about 6 months from now ;) But really...Hope all is well in your neck of the woods where ever that may be! Love you all :)
    P.S. I will try to post pictures in the near future, no promises though!

One of our first adventures in Cedar Falls! We found a cupcake
shop in downtown...not as good as "Sprinkles" but it will do :)

Heavenly Father blessed us with record low gas
prices the month we were commuting back and forth
to Waterloo. It was cray cray.

I am going to be so sad the day these get lost
haha.

Family Museum Trip with Mario's Parents!

I love my mother-in-law...

Nani, Julian, and Alexa reporting live from the studio!

Valentine's Fun!

I tried making a "parking lot" for Julian
(cardboard in the background) and
he immediately did this. No one messes
with his line up!

Walmart run with our friends Lindsey and Adelyn to beat the cold!

Oh yeah...duplicated the the structure on the bag
...Julian didn't quite comprehend my
accomplishment.

Snow Smiles :)

One beautiful Sunday morning the stars aligned and we had a perfect snow day! There were mountains of snow (well Iowa mountains) and it was actually warm enough to go outside and play in powder that had fallen. It snowed so much they even cancelled church! Everyone on the street pitched in to clear the road and a neighbor's driveway who was unable to do it for themselves. It was so cool.  Julian was so so about the situation. He was pretty much a stumbling marshmallow. But he got a chance to hang out with his friend Madi a few houses down so they sympathized with each other.

Unfortunately, all the pictures from the weekend my mom came to visit are on her phone but if I ever get a hold of them, I will add them to this post!