Trevor and Mommy

So with Dada gone all the time, you may wonder how Trevor and Mommy spent their evenings? One word folks, eating!!

Ice cream was our favorite thing to indulge in. Trevor prefers the DQ sundae with strawberries!


Eating donuts in the morning as a reward for staying in his crib all night (he HAD to have the towel as a place mat. Matter-of-fact, this towel started going everywhere with him for a few days)


We didn't go out all the time...one night Mommy tried out the new oven and made a yummy dinner:


We made cookies too. Trevor loved putting on the different sprinkles on the 'cooks'


Well, maybe we should have said eating and reading. One day Mommy took Trevor to the book store to get his favorite book that he would hoard at school "The little mouse, the red ripe strawberry and the big hungry bear" (or something like that). Trevor had a death grip on both the regular and the board book so guess what? Our spoiled boy got them both along with "Going on a bear hunt" which he knows every word to!


Back to eating...Godfather's Pizza buffet is always a hit for our big eater:


Halleluiah another non-food picture. Trevor is fascinated with the umbrella and that little stinker is a pro at opening and closing it.




More donuts...this time Mommy wised up and bought a whole box of donuts. Much more economical but much worse for the waistline.


In the spirit of expanding waist lines we headed to a place Mommy has wanted to go since going to the U of M - Annie's Malt shop/Parlor. Trevor had no problem devouring his oreo milkshake.


One day we went to the Pizza Ranch with Jim, Annie and Sam. Sam and Trevor liked eating pizza next to each other!


Another night we had a picnic in the park across the street. Trevor really digs lunchables with jello!


He also liked dipping crackers in sauce!


We picked out new shades at Target - of course Trevor picked Thomas ones. All he will wear is his Thomas shirts. And if one isn't clean for school he has no problem wearing his jammie t-shirt to school!


Bath time with Trevor is always lots of fun. The stinker surprised Mommy this time by pulling out a letter and telling her which letter it was - specifically he knew B, T, R, V, O and A!


A walk back to DQ for more ice cream :)


Trevor is a people watcher. He watched and watched as kids played tag. He was watching so intently he didn't notice that a third of his ice cream ended up on the ground!


After ice cream we stopped at the 'pirate' park to burn off some steam.


Trevor really enjoyed filling the container up with sand and then dumping it overboard!

Dada!!

Dada came home for the weekend and boy was it sure nice having him around. We spent some time organizing and purging the house but the rest of the time was spent just hanging out and having fun!

On Sunday we went to Jeff and Dawn's for a yummy brunch. As usual, Lauren and Trevor were best buds playing on the computer.


On Sunday evening we headed to our favorite restaurant walking distance from our house - D'Amico. We sure will miss that bottomless glass of wine for $5 :)

Potty

We told Trevor that once he started going poopy and potty on the big boy potty we would go to Mickey's house (Disneyland). Well, guess what...every night he asks to sit on his potty and tells everyone he knows the deal. Maybe it will make things a bit more consistent on the potty front. But, he is a boy and they take a little longer than girls so whenever it will happen it will happen! Go Trevor!!

Nana and Papa!

Nana and Papa came back from their winter in Arizona a little early to be sure we got to spend time together before we moved to Arizona. Nana went with Mommy to get him from school and when Trevor saw her he had the best smile ever. He went running to her and big hugs were had :)

We came home and hung out. Trevor wanted them to read his new books:


Grandpa's Handy Helper!


We headed to Sammy's house at night since we had a house showing and the boys played and played. Here Nana was reading a book that had the boys do different things like touch their nose or jump up and down or make a tunnel like here!

House is Listed

House is listed! If you want to check it out and pass it along to friends and family (hint hint!) here is the link:
www.edinarealty.com/4130294

Together we can sell the house so that our family can be back together in one city :)

Random story about the house though...tonight Trevor and Mommy had a picnic in the park across the street from our house. Have we said how beautiful it has been in MN lately? Beautiful and extremely warm!!! Anyhoo, after our picnic we went to the playground to play and started talking to another family there. When Sara asked if they lived around the park, they responded something along the lines of 'Not Really but somewhat close. We're actually here because we're interested in the house on the corner.' Well imagine their surprise when Sara answered 'that's our house!' For the next hour the kiddos played together and we chatted away about the house, our similar photography passion and everything else!

They are going to come to the open house on Sunday to see it in person although they know it inside and out already through the pictures online. It made Sara smile when we were talking about the basement kitchen and mentioned how it started as just a bar but then we wanted another oven and why not have a wine fridge and a dishwasher...and Sandra goes 'dishwasher? there wasn't a picture of the downstairs dishwasher' :)

Life sure works in mysterious ways. Wouldn't it be very neato if this family purchased our house? Sara could just see them in it. They are a bit younger than us and have one son who is 5 months younger than Trevor. They would grow with the house and we just know they would love it as much as we do, which is important when you are selling your dream home!

Best Team Ever!

As mentioned in the previous post, Sara's Target team was amazing. At her happy hour on March 12th over 25 people showed up which according to one of her peer's was the highest turnouts she's seen. Sara doesn't count her success by the number of people who show up at happy hour but it did feel pretty good to see everyone out to support her!

On Sara's last day her team went out to lunch and fit in a quick Target run so Sara could use her discount one last time :) But at lunch they surprised her with going away gifts. Wow! First Sheila had crocheted her multiple washcloths and trivets that Sara has used already. Can't believe that she made them...for Sara! Double wow!

Her team knows her extremely well and presented her with a cupcake kit all contained within a Target lunchbox. Perfect, just perfect. Think some surprise cupcakes will need to be delivered to them before moving - complete with cool paper liners and damask boxes. Way cool!!!


The best part of the gift though was a card where each team member wrote a personalized note about Sara's leadership. Sara carries it in her purse to remind her of the great experience she had with this team and at Target :)

These thoughtful gifts were in addition to a printed 11x14 photo collage of the Channel team complete with thoughtful notes from each team member written on the back. This for sure has been viewed 100 times since Sara's last day. She loves stuff like this and they knew it.

Although Sara's last day was March 13 there hasn't been a day that has gone by that she hasn't thought of them. Matter of fact, she keeps hearing their voices in her head and she's sure they are talking about phone channel initiatives that were in the works. How silly is that?? But it's hard not to think of them when you wear the 'team bracelet' every day. Thanks so much Sheila for this trendy accessory!! Love the multi-colored one too!! And Trevor loves his too - thank you for that so Mommy didn't have to fight him every morning over hers :)

Zoo with Sammy

We headed to the Zoo after church on a beautiful day. We knew Sammy would be there with another one of his friends so we weren't sure we'd see them but once the boys saw each other their party of two became a party of three!

Trevor wanted to ride in his stroller for parts of the zoo. Here he was enthralled with the monkeys (the one animal he wanted to see at the zoo!)


The boys and Uncle Jim!


We headed outside to enjoy the beautiful day and Trevor found the baby bear. He had to have his hood up most of the day :)


Photo op with Sammy. Both boys are saying cheese!


Weeeeeeeee!


And the most precious moment captured on Mommy's iphone....they spontaneously just started holding hands. Mommy's.heart.melted

Arizona Bound

So we've had a bit of a hiatus from the blog because our world is a bit crazy right now because....we are moving to Arizona!! Crazy huh?? We're right with ya! Brian was contacted to interview for a Director of National Promotions position at PetSmart national headquarters in Phoenix in late January/early February and learned a lot about the position, the team, the culture and whatnot. It would be a great position for him - a big promotion and get him back into more of the marketing world which he loves (which by the way his background is exactly what they wanted - a mix of retail merchandising at Target and vendor marketing at 3M. Did you know he helped launch 3M's Pet Care line? Who knew that would come back to help further his career!) We'd also get to the warmer weather which we've been craving ever since meeting in graduate school!

But the timing was just a bit off because Sara was set to interview two days after Brian got his offer for a promotion of her own. She would be leading a new team from the team she was currently on at Target - a larger team needing strategic direction and with the promotion would be at a new leadership level. And thinking about leaving all of our MN friends and family and Trevor's school and everything else it really was a tough decision to make. In the end after talking all weekend, we decided Brian would take the position and we would move. Eek!!

So Sara told her manager right away Monday morning because she didn't feel comfortable going through the interviews knowing she wouldn't be at Target long enough to make an impact in the new role and not wanting to burn any bridges given that you never know what can happen in the future! Sara's announcement came as quite a shock, which you can imagine (heck Sara was still in shock as she was telling her) but her manager couldn't be more supportive. Sara will always appreciate her reaction and support from that moment on. We decided to wait for a while to tell the larger team because her manager now had to figure out a plan to fill two positions (Sara's current one and the one she was being promoted to). It was almost 3 weeks until we told the larger team but once we did it felt good. Sara hates keeping secrets especially given her close-knit team. Not sure she'll ever work with a better team. She's going to miss everyone so much!! There's an opportunity for Sara to work at Target Tempe in more of a call center role but for now she is going to focus on getting the family relocated and settled until making a decision on the next step of her career.

Back to Brian, he had to keep his leaving Target secret for a bit too because he wanted to be sure he left work in a good place given he was in the middle of busy season. He also knew that as soon as he told his manager they would basically escort him out because that is just Target's policy when you leave to go to a competitor. Although in Brian's case after he told his manager they were trying to find a way around the rule given their busy time, but his VP was unsuccessful. Brian's manager found him in a 4:30 meeting and walked him out, however not before he was able to tell his team what was going on. They had a nice happy hour for him a few days later and he'll for sure keep in touch with his colleagues and friends going forward!

And what does Trevor think all of this? Because we know that's what you all really care about :) When we told him he said 'Cactus? Pool?' and then proceeded to find his swimsuit and attempt to put it on. We think he's going to like his new home just fine :)