L-L-L-L-Lammmbeau Field!

This past weekend we had the opportunity to take a privately guided tour of Lambeau Field as well as its facilities.  It was incredible to finally be able to touch the "Frozen Tundra" with my own hands and to walk down the tunnel the players use to get to the field.

Not only that, we bumped into Josh Sitton (the Packers' starting Offensive Tackle), while we were touring.  When he saw Kate just walking along, he waved to her and said "Cute" under his breath.  :)

Kate & Mommy in front of the Field

Kate Walks Down the Tunnel....Ready for Action!

I DID IT!!!!!

The new buzz phrase around the Weiland household is....I DID IT!  Kate has officially gotten the hang of going on the potty!  We kind of went back and forth with it the past few months as she showed interest and then sort of pulled back.  The last few weeks though we've seen progress and yesterday was the first day where we could tell she fully grasped the concept.  She went on the potty 5 times and each time the same phrase came rushing out of her mouth....I DID IT!!!!!

We couldn't be more proud of our little lady.  Goodbye day time diapers...for good!

Welcome Liam Joseph Weiland

We have some exciting news around the Weiland household.  My little brother Greg and his girlfriend Alissa welcomed a healthy baby boy this past Saturday.  Liam Joseph Weiland was born Saturday at 1:49 PM.  He checked in at 8 lbs. 3 oz. and 20.5 inches long.  Both Mom and Liam are doing great.  Congrats to the new parents!

Summer Break in 65 Words

Hello Everyone!  Shelly and I decided to take the summer off from blogging and just focus on having fun with the fam.  That being said, Summer is long gone and we're back.  We don't want to leave you hanging as to what all took place these past few months, so here's a 65-word summary of the events since our last post:

Basement Is Finally Finished, Ugh...More Landscaping, Kate Counts to Twenty, 4th of July on the boat, Summer Party, Didn't I just cut the lawn three days ago?, A week of Fun at the Cottage, Warrior Dash, Tough Mudder # 3, Continuing Potty Training, Kate gets a Big-Girl bed, Kate learns its easy to get out of her Big-Girl bed, Pumpkin-Fest, Present!

'P'ee is for Potty

We have some exciting news to report from the Weiland household.  Kate went to the bathroom on the potty two days in a row!  Unfortunately John nor I can take credit as both times she went on the potty at daycare.  Since she's now in the "Too Cute Two's" room, they introduce the potty on a daily basis - not to mention on the cutest little toilet known to man.  Her teacher, Miss Tina, informed me this morning when I dropped Kate off that she heads straight to the potty rather than the changing table.  Usually it's after she already went potty in her diaper, but as you can see, there were a couple of times when she made it to the toilet.  Let the potty training commence (or continue)!

Tough Mudder #2

This past Saturday I completed my second Tough Mudder and this time had the pleasure of running it with someone else I knew.  Shelly's brother, Greg Burch and I took on the 12-mile, 29-obstacle course and had an absolute blast.  I thoroughly enjoyed having someone I knew running alongside me every step of the way. 

I gotta say, some of the new obstacles Tough Mudder has come up with are just great (not to mention painful)!  A new one they added named Electric Eel is a combination of Electroshock therapy (Running through live wires which generate a 10,000 volt shock) and Kiss of Mud (crawling through mud under barbed wire).  Underneath the barbed wire, there were little 12-inch long strands of electrically charged wires and each time you touched one, it sent a nice shock through your body.  Every few seconds you could hear someone getting zapped followed by every "choice" word you can think of.  I managed to make it all the way to the end before I took my first shock....which just happened to be in the forehead followed by a nice zap to my left butt-cheek!  Ouch-Town, Population: Me.

Anyway, I had a great time and can't wait to do it again in September!

Greg and I, About a Mile In

Me, Crawling in Mud Under Barbed Wire

 

Greg, Running Through Electroshock Therapy

Me, Working Through the Twinkle Toes Obstacle

Kate Shows Off Her Tough Mudder Face

Daddy, what is going on here?!?!

(Kate got compliments Left & Right for her Shirt)

 Tough Mudder Completed!

Happy Birthday Godson Zach!

Birthday month continues as Shelly and I wish our Godson Zach a very happy 5th Birthday!  We hope you have a wonderful day and everyone treats you extra special!

Also, a shout-out to Auntie Jen who celebrated her birthday yesterday as well!

Happy Mother's Day!

I wanted to wish a belated Happy Mother's Day to all the Mom's out there.  Kate and I couldn't be more appreciative of how wonderful and supportive Shelly is to us.  We love you very much and can't thank you enough for everything you do for us.

To my Mom, thanks so much for your support over my lifetime as well.  You continue to show me just how much you care and how hard you're willing to work for the happiness of your boys.  I love you, too!

Kate helps Mom open up her Mother's Day Gift

Kate "Dolled" up for Mother's Day

Kate Having A Ball!

Kate's 2 Year Check

Yesterday Kate had her two year check-up.  John took Kate to her appointment as I was not feeling well which I'll get to in just a little bit.  Evidently Kate weighed in at 29 pounds, but she would not let the nurse get her height as she was terrified of the apparatus used to get that information.  We think she's around the 33 inch mark.

Her appointment came at a great time as she developed a fever on Thursday evening which subsided on Saturday.  With that fever came a really bad rash on the back of her thighs and even some spots on her feet and mouth.  The doctor thought it was hand, foot and mouth disease but there were no spots on her hands so it was confirmed that she had a strep infection.  Since she knows that sharing is caring she decided to give me strep throat.  Yippee.  She is doing great since she is on antibiotics, but I'm still waiting for my antibiotics to kick in.  Needless to say, the Weiland women have seen better days!

Happy 2nd Birthday Kate!

This past Friday our sweet Kate turned 2 years old!  If we thought the first year of her life went fast, the second blew by in the blink of an eye.  I can't believe she's already two years old.  Kate, we love you so much and couldn't be more proud of you.  You're the most wonderful daughter and words can't described how blessed we are to have you in our lives.  Watching you grow and learn new things has meant the world to us.

So, here's some pictures and video of her birthday weekend.  Friday night we had a birthday celebration with the Weilands and then we had one with the Burch's in West Bend on Saturday.  Enjoy!

 Kate unwraps her new book, "The Very Hungry Catepillar" 

Shelly's Beautiful "Very Hungry Catepillar" Themed Cupcakes

Kate and her cousins play in her new Bounce Castle

Happy Easter!

We hope everyone had a great Easter.....we sure did. We woke up Sunday morning and Kate looked around for her Easter basket. Well, to be honest she didn't have to look to hard. I'm not sure we would've kept her interest too long if we didn't make it easy on her. After finding her basket and enjoying her gifts we got ready and met the Weiland's at church.

After that, we went back to their house for an Easter lunch and egg scavenger hunt for not only Kate, but for us "kids" as well. My mom set up a great game for us and the adults all had a great time. After that, Kate woke up and had her own little scavenger hunt. A big thanks to Deb for putting it together. Kate had a blast and we sure enjoyed watching her!

Rock & Read Baby!

The past week or so, we've made it a priority to bring Kate into her room before she goes to bed for the night and rock in the glider while we read books. We termed the activity "Rock & Read". It didn't take Kate long to learn the phrase and she's been saying it quite a bit lately.

On Saturday night, Shelly took Kate into her room and the two of them nestled up in the glider, put a blanket over each other and began reading. Without hesitation, Kate looked up at Shelly and blurted out..."ROCK & READ BABY!" We've been laughing about it ever since!

Her vocabulary has grown so much in the past month or two and beyond that, some of the stuff coming out of her mouth is beyond hilarious! That's our Peanut!

Flooring

Last weekend Greg, Laura, Brooke and Charlie Burch came our way for a few days. I was able to "coerce" Greg into giving me a hand tiling the bathroom since he had done it to his bathroom a few years ago. We also tackled the laminate flooring in Kate's new playroom while we were waiting for the leveling compound in the bathroom to dry. Once that dried up, Greg handled the tiling while I finished the laminate flooring. So to be honest, Greg is the one that did all the dirty work. He measured everything, cut the tiles and laid them. All I had to do to finish it was grout. When Saturday evening rolled around I was so thrilled with what we had gotten done.

The whole crew ended up spending the night and it was so nice to have them up for a few days. The kids had a blast together and we got so much done. A huge thanks to Greg for giving up his Saturday and helping us out. We're so appreciative!

Kate peaks in on the newly floored bathroom

Kate's First Haircut

This completely slipped my mind until just today. I mentioned a couple months ago that Kate had her first haircut. It took place in late January and here's a little video for those who want to see it.

Painting

This past weekend we tackled most of the priming/painting of our basement. Deb & Joe came over early Saturday morning and we got to work. Joe babysat Kate all day, while Deb, Shelly and I spent the day downstairs. I couldn't believe how much we got done in just one short day. We were able to completely prime the whole basement, paint everything but the accent wall in the living room (which is where the bar will be) and part of the hallway.

The next couple days Shelly and I finished the stairwell as well as Kate's playroom and we should have everything completely finished by the weekend at latest. A huge shout-out to my Mom for all your help this weekend. It's so nice to continue to have seasoned veterans helping us with this large project. We couldn't be more appreciative.

The Living Room

The Living Room #2

Milwaukee Children's Museum

This past weekend, the three of us headed down to Milaukee for one of recurring get-together's with our good friends, Tony, Melissa, Aaron & Cassie. Along with Tony's & Melissa's son Eli, the 8 eight of us went to the Milwaukee Children's Museum for the afternoon to let the kids "run wild". Eli is a little more than 6 months older than Kate and the two of them do very well together. We also got a little surprise while we were there...Shel's best friend Abby K. just happened to start working there on the weekends (which we had no idea about) and Shel bumped into her. It's been a while since we've seen her and it was so nice to briefly catch up.

After the museum, we headed back to Aaron & Cassie's place for a wonderful dinner and fun conversation. It was a great weekend and a nice brake from all the work we've been doing on the basement. Speaking of which, we'll be priming and painting all weekend. Once again, we'll post updated pictures early next week.

Kate & Eli go for a Cruise

Presenting......Me!

Hmmm, where does this tunnel lead?

Slide Time!

Go! Go! Golf Ball!

Drywall Completed

Between Ryan, Chris and myself, we've sure spent quite a bit of time downstairs the past two weekends. Shelly along with my parents chipped in as well and after 4 full days of drywalling, I'm beyond thrilled to say we're finished! When Shelly's cousin Andy asked Chris who would be hanging the sheetrock, he stated that we were doing it on our own. Andy's reply, "Good luck!" Now I know why.

That being said, I'm thrilled I/we did it on our own. I now have such an appreciation of the work that goes into a job like this and it feels good to know we've had a big hand in finishing our own basement.

The Plasterer's are at our place today and should be finished sometime tomorrow morning. After that, we start priming and painting the walls. I gotta say, we're moving along nicely and I truly believe we'll hit our April 30th deadline, possibly even with a week or so to spare.

The Living Room

The Bar Area

(The opposite side of the room pictured above)

The Half Bathroom

Hallway to Bedroom & Kate's Playroom

Inside Kate's Playroom

(Looking out toward the Living Room/Bar Area)

The Guest Bedroom

(Looking out toward the Doorway)

Basement Renovation Continued

Our project is continuing to move along nicely. We're still shooting to have the whole thing completed by no later than the end of April. I realized after my last post that I never shared what the finish product will look like. Well, here it is:

The Bathroom

Since my last post, the framing has been 100% completed, the heating ducts have all been installed and the electrical has been wired. I plan on completing the insulation here in the next couple days and then this weekend were going to tackle the fun job of dry-walling.

Early next week I'll post more pictures of our progress. Until then, wish us luck!

Punta Cana Vacation

Last week the three of us got back from a wonderful vacation in the Dominican Republic. We stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel in Punta Cana and it was beyond amazing. My parents took us on the trip and two of my parents dear friends came as well.

We thought Kate would do well on the trip but we had no clue she would do as great she did. Every day instead of having to go back to the room to nap, she did so right on a lounge chair and her naps were just as long as if she were in her crib. It probably helped to have the real-life ocean/waves sound her noise maker emits.

Sound Asleep

Just Waking Up

The resort has so many different pools, each catering to a different demographic, but we didn’t spend a moment at any of them. I’ve never seen such a beautiful beach filled with powdery sand and absolutely zero rocks both in the ocean and on the shore. It made for the best swimming I’ve ever experienced. Given that, we spent all our time there. In fact, here's a little video of Kate enjoying the beach.

My Folks Along With Shelly & I

Shelly & Kate Enjoy the View

This Weather Will Work!

It's a Tough Life

On top of that, the resort was absolutely gorgeous, the service was beyond incredible and it was a vacation I’ll treasure the rest of my life. Besides that, there’s actually quite a bit more to report. Kate had her first hair “trim” before we left, but you’ll hardly notice it. We’ll post video of that as well as some updates regarding our basement remolding project on Friday.

Basement Renovation

The ball is officially moving on our basement renovation project. My brother and I broke ground to rough in a space for a half bathroom a few weeks ago and just this past Friday and Saturday, the project got into full-swing. Andy Woldt (Shelly's cousin) who owns his own construction company came up along with my father-in-law Chris and three of us got to work.

By the time Saturday evening rolled around, I was shocked by how much we had completed. As the day went by Friday and into Saturday, I found myself laughing more and more at the thought that I was going to try and tackle this part of the project without calling in the experts. It was quickly clear I would've been in way over my head. The level of expertise Andy and Chris had was unreal and I'm so thankful they were here. Their craftsmanship and quality is readily apparent! So, if anyone's thinking about finishing off their basement without calling in an expert, let me save you some time.....don't bother!

Once again, thanks so much to Andy and Chris for all your hard work. Greg, thanks for coming Saturday and giving us a hand as well.

We'll continue to update the blog with updated pictures as we move along in the process. These pictures are of the work completed this weekend.