Fall is here

Wow, was it cool this morning. Fall is my favorite time of year. I love the smell of the crisp air, the trees turning colors, apple picking and bonfires!!! The only thing that sucks about fall is what comes after that and I am not looking forward to.

Today Caeden had his ECFE class and we had a great time. The theme today was apples. We got to peel and cut up an apple and the teacher was making homemade applesauce. It smelled so good in the classroom! We also painted apples, made a fall tree and did some apple counting. It was a great class. When it was time for snack, the teacher gave the kids the homemade applesauce. Caeden looked at it, pushed it away and said I want a cracker (this is what they usually get for snack). He has some sensory issues I think.

Noah is doing well. He is STILL not sleeping through the night and I can't wait until that day comes! Maybe when he is not sharing a room with his mom, that day will come. He is totally rolling over like crazy. He is even starting to get up on his knees and hands and kind of "scoot" his way around. He loves his excersaucer and playing with his brother.

We are HOPING to get back into the house this Friday. We are not holding our breath though. We have had a lot of surprises come up along the way. You would think that Brandl Anderson homes would be doing everything they could to make this situation better for us and not do sloppy work putting the house back together. Guess we were wrong. Mike was down there today with our good friend Mike J who is also in the building business and saw many flaws in their re patch work. So now it is going to be a struggle to get them to fix things. For example, they ordered new cabinets, but kept the doors. Well because the doors were sitting in the garage for 3 weeks, they were all scratch up and dented. We thought we could expect them to be in the condition of what they were when we moved in. Another thing, our banister got all marked up when they shoved our appliances out the front door. Mike again asked, if they could fix it and the superintendent said something to these words "do you know how much of a hassle it is to replace that?" Which in turn Mike said "Do you know how much of a hassle it has been to be living in a hotel for 3 weeks?" So these are the kind of people we are dealing with.

Don't get me wrong, I know things could be a lot worse, but this has really taken a toll on our family. We are hoping that someday we can only laugh about this and look back and see how minor this was. I have been having difficulties with wanting to return to this house, until a good friend pointed out to me that it is going to be a great house. She told me that we are going to make a lot of memories there, Noah is going to take his first steps there and the list goes on. She is 100% right and they don't deserve our tears anymore and we are going to make the BEST out of this situation. Thanks Kristy, you are the best!

Hopefully soon I can post some picture of the kids in the new house and fun things we have coming up. We have my sister's b-day, a friend's b-day and my favorite, apple picking all coming up this month. Not to mention Halloween!

Trying to still have fun!!!

Through all this chaos we are still trying to make life fun for Caeden and Noah. This past weekend we took them to the Como zoo. Caeden loved watching the rides, but did not want to go on any of them. He was more interested in the bridge that had a mist spray coming out of it. We had a good time together though as a family and that is what is important!!!








This morning I took Caeden to his 3 year check up. He is doing good and growing just fine. We talked about the potty training and the Dr told me boys are a lot harder than girls and tend to be more on the 4 year old side. Plus, he said with the craziness of what is going on he said to hold off. So that made me feel a little bit. He told me he promised he would not still be in diapers when he goes to high school!!! Caeden did such a great job with getting his shots. He didn't even cry at all! Way to go buddy!!

After his Dr's appt we got together with our ECFE friends and went to Burger King and let the kids play while the mom's chatted. We are so thankful for having such a great group of friends. They were so supportive with everything that is going on, and Caeden loves to play with all of his friends. We both had a good time and BOTH needed to get out! So thank you girls for everything!!!!!

A week later

It has now been 9 days since our hell as began. Sometimes I think I am o.k. with it, but every time I go down to the house I just get more mad and mad. I think I am passed the point of crying, now I am MAD!!! We have had some new surprises come up along the way, but are learning to deal with it. We are trying to adjust to life living in a hotel (again, only fun when you are on vacation). These are some pictures of the house right after it happened. They really don't tell the true story about what happened and you can't see the water very well. I wish I could figure out how to upload the video from our video camera. Now that tells the true story.






Here is a picture of where it all began. You can see how the pipe just popped right off!



Yesterday we spent from 9:30 am down at the house until 6:30 last night. We first met with the plumber insurance. That did not go so well. The person who came out to take pictures told us that in his 44 years of doing this he had never came out this late. He had always been out the next day. He took pictures, but basically said since it has been 8 days and everything was pretty much dried out, it wasn't going to do any good. So now we have decided to get our insurance involved and they can go after the plumbers insurance.

We also had 2 different mold specialist come out. One Brandl hired and he didn't find anything. Go figure. Mike decided to have a third party come through and he thinks he found mold. He has to take it to the lab and test it for sure, but he seemed pretty certain it was mold.

So needless to say we are exhausted and and tired of dealing with this crap. I told Mike by the time we move in, I am not going to have any energy to unpack. My mom tells me I have my whole life to unpack, but I have everyday day stuff to still unpack!

Thank you to all of our family and friends for their support and love. We would not be able to make it through this without you!!!

What house?????

Well since most of you are asking how the new house is, I thought I would give a little update!

Moving went well for the most part. There was little fighting between Mike and I so that was good. We had a lot of help. Thanks to brothers,sister, parents and Chandra and Darryl we got all moved in!!! It was a long day of telling people what goes where, Mike yelling at me because the treadmill wouldn't fit upstairs, and just exhaustion of moving in general. While moving in Chandra had noticed there was a little bit of water in the basement. We put a call into Brandl homes and they told us to put in order in on our toolbox. Then later that day when I went to go make Noah a bottle, I noticed our sink in the kitchen was leaking. I told Mike and he looked under the sink and noticed standing water. So once again we put a call into Brandl homes and they were going to put an emergency call into a plumber and one would be out in 24 hours. So now it is about 7 at night and Mike and I were starving so we and his parents went to grab something to eat. When we got home it was late, we put the kids to bed and we went to bed ourselves.

Now this night I was a very light sleeper because I did not have a monitor for the kids. Noah woke up that night at 3:30. I checked on Caeden before I went back to bed. At about 6:50 I heard Caeden calling for us. I was going to go get him and bring him in the room with us as it was way too early for us to be up. When I was down at his room it sounded like it was raining in the house. I was thinking, I bet Mike didn't shut the window and now it is raining in the house.

When I went downstairs, our HELL began. A pipe in the first floor bathroom had burst and we had about ankle deep water everywhere. I SCREAMED for Mike. He still half asleep came flying down the stairs, fell (doesn't remember this)and discovered our mess. He had me hold onto the pipe so he could go shut off the water.

When he went downstairs he discovered Hell 2. It too had been flooded and there was ankle deep water in the basement. It was so bad that Caeden asked us "Is it raining in here dad?"

Mike's dad and my sister came down. I don't think they realized the magnitude of the problem until they got there. Caeden kept slipping on the wet floor and telling us his feet were cold. Poor little guy. We tired getting the shop vac to suck most of the water up, but there was too much.

Now about this time we had finally got a hold of someone (10:00 am) and service master was going to be coming to the house. We were told the owner of the company was going to be coming out (he has to get back from his cabin) and the plumber. So I took the kids to my mom's house and had to go over to the old place to get the rest of the stuff!

When I got back the plumber, Service Master and my friend Kristy was there. Again, I don't think people realized how bad it was (don't get me wrong, I know it could of been a lot worse, but to us, this was bad. We hadn't even been in the house for 24 hours!!!!!)

I had to find a place for us to stay because obviously, this house was not livable!!! I just couldn't believe this was happening to us. We had spent the last 3 1/2 months preparing for this move and were all excited about it!!!

The one good thing that has come out of this is that there wasn't a lot of things in the basement. I remember telling Mike that why didn't he have people put more stuff down in the basement. Now I know why. Here is just a list of some of the things that were in the basement:

*Caeden's top bunk bed (frame and mattress)
*my Christmas village (some pieces are retired)
*Mike boxes of trophies, baseball, football cards
*yearbooks
*photo albums
*Caeden's toys (he had two motorized bikes, ruined)
*bedding
*bathroom rugs
*Caeden's old clothes
*Noah and Caeden's winter jackets

just to name a few

Now the upstairs is a different story. My couch, chair, kitchen table, tv, more toys, diaper bag, comforter and sheets, blankets, ceiling fans. Again to name a few.

So right now we are waiting for the plumbers insurance to contact us to meet with us to go over the damage. How do you put a price tag on irreplaceable things. Good thing my wedding pic's and the kids pic's weren't not ruined!

Right now most of the house is gutted and is waiting to be dried. They told us we would be out for 3 weeks, I am planning on more. We are living in a hotel, (only fun when you are on vacation).

Like I said, I know things could be worse, but I feel like I just need to wake up from this nightmare!!

We wonder if this all could of been prevented if they would of sent the plumber out to begin with????????????

Stay tuned for pictures. I need to find the cable to upload pic's!

Thanks for all the support we have received. We would not be able to make it through this without your love and support!

Finally done!

Well the day has finally come for the Bril household. Tomorrow is the big day we get to close on the house and finally move in!!! We are all so excited and can't wait to have more room, a backyard and Noah to have his own room!!!!

Twins

I said I would never dress my kids the same, but I can't resist on some of the clothes. Wanted to share this picture with you as I thought it was too cute!

Go Vikings!!!!!

It is definitely starting to be fall. With the temps changing, Taylor back in school and football season is here (Mike favorite time of year)! We will be sitting at home watching the Vikings game and hoping for their 1st win!!! GO VIKINGS!!!

Caeden's birthday party

On Saturday we celebrated Caeden's 3rd birthday! He woke up to a room filled with balloons and he was so excited. That morning we took him to Chuck E Cheese and he had a great time. We had some pizza and played some games. Caeden liked to play the games without the tokens. We would try and put a token in and he would walk away. So Mom and Dad got to play skee ball! Chuck E even sang Happy Birthday to him.






Later that day we had his party. My parents were generous enough to let me have the party at their house. I told them this would be the last year. Caeden had a great time playing with his cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents! He got tons of clothes and toys. We have a very generous family!






Noah had a great time too! He loved the all the attention he got from all our family. He even got to try out a new toy and loved playing in it.




At the end of the night, it started to rain and Caeden and his cousins had a great time playing in the rain. They thought that was the coolest thing. All in all we had a great day and Caeden had a great birthday. I couldn't of asked for a better day!

Taylor football/Brothers

Once again Taylor is in football and we love going to the games. The first game we went to Caeden kept wanting to go on the field to see Taylor and we were trying to explain to him he can't until the game was over. So about every five minutes he would ask "Is it time to go see Taylor"? Caeden had a great time running around and playing with Averi. Once in awhile you would hear him scream "go Taylor"!




Noah had a great time too. Poor little guy, it got a little too cold out so mom had to improvise and warm him up!



So Mike and I were getting some packing done and we looked over at the boys and Caeden was reading to Noah! It was so cute and precious!

4 1/2 months old

Well Noah is now 4 1/2 months old. We had his 4 month appointment last week. The Dr said he is doing well. He weighed 15 pounds and 4 oz and is in the 74% of his weight. His height was 27 inches long and in the 98% of his height. He is going to be a tall boy!!!

We compared Caeden's 4 month check up and Caeden was 15 pounds and 5 oz (I think) and was only 25 inches long. So I think Noah might be the taller one!

Noah still isn't sleeping through the night and sometimes I am convinced he never will. Maybe once he gets in his own room he will start sleeping through the night.

Here are some favorite things Noah likes to do:
*He likes to roll all over the room (he will start at one end of the room and before I know it, he is at the other end of the room)
*loves to play peek a boo with Caeden
*loves to laugh and giggle while mom and dad are tickling him
*loves to babble in the middle of the night after his bottle and then again at 6:00 in the morning

Happy 3rd birthday Caeden

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Caeden's birthday is in 3 days. He will be 3 years old and mom is having a hard time with it. (for those who don't know me, I am very emotional). It is so hard to believe how time flies by. I feel like before I know it, he is going to be off to Kindergarten.

I got this idea from another friend's blog and wanted to share some pictures of Caeden through his 3 years of life.

Here also are some fun things about Caeden that we love and adore:

* He loves to play with cars and lining them up in a straight line (just like dad did)
* He loves being outside
* He loves any kind of crackers or cookies
* He loves dancing and singing to Bon Jovi
* He idolizes he cousin Taylor and likes to follow him around
* He loves his little brother, even though sometimes it doesn't seem like it
* Curious George and Care Bears are his favorite cartoons
* He loves when we read him books and then reading them back to you
* He loves his play dates with his ECFE friends (mom loves them too)
* We love how he has so much to say and tells us all about it
* He has an amazing memory and geographical sense (he gets this from his dad)

Those are just a few things we love and adore about him. We know he is going to continue to amaze us through the years and can't wait to see what he teaches us next. HAPPY BIRTHDAY CAEDEN. WE LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!

Stay tuned for pictures from his actual birthday!