Progress

We are moving right along with projects around here. Last friday morning these bad boys were delivered.

A few hours later, thanks to some help from his Dad and friend Steve, Thad had them in the ground. Here is what that side of the yard looked like before we did anything.

And here are the new additions. This is by no means an after shot because there is still a bit of clean up to be done, but we'll call it a progress shot.

The best part is that once these fill in at the tops we won't be able to see that derrick behind them!

While Thad has been busy outside, I've been painting away on the inside. I even have a couple new callouses from the dumb roller. The lame thing is that most of what I have been painting leaves no before/after shots because it's the exact same color. The people who painted used plain old flat, and every time I have wiped grubby kid prints from the walls the paint came with it, so I have now repainted the staircase and hallways in flat enamel, which should hold up much better.
I did get Andi's room painted last weekend in her color of choice, turquoise. We even got a new cube organizer for her things and some cute purple drapes that have just been waiting for Thad to get back into town so they could be hung. Here is the before and after of her room. The after looks really dark, but it's not, as you can imagine that color makes the room very bright.

I have been trying to let Andi express her creativity in her room which is why the walls are turquoise and why every flat surface looks like a cluttered mess. To her it's not mess, she styled it all that way on purpose, I think she is trying to display every little nick knack she has. For now I am going to let it be and take deep breaths whenever in the room.
Sammy's bookcase got a new paint job as well in two shades of blue, but he's not sold on it yet. He told me it needs to be all rainbowed. We also painted Andi's old bike for him. The little trike was getting a bit small and this will allow him to transition to two wheels soon, but it was pink and covered in disney princesses. We just could not have him riding that. He loves the new look, and the "faster" wheels.

Sammy is still adjusting to the new house and we have been struggling with him staying in bed. A few nights ago we went upstairs ourselves for bed and found him asleep in the hall. I don't know how long he stayed awake watching tv through the banister, but now there is a lock on the outside of his door again.

 

Next on our list, put the yard back together in time for Easter dinner at our house, and hopefully get the kitchen and dining room painted, the dining room wainscoting up, and wood floors ordered. Can't wait!

Drum Roll Please

The verdict is in, and it's a boy. Sammy doesn't seem to care. Andi's reaction, "Why does it have to be a boy?!" and Thad laughed and told me I was in for trouble. I'm a little worried about having another boy after the WWF action that was going on here yesterday. Sammy threw a small folding chair at Andi's head. After I calmed her down and put ice on her gash I asked him why he did it. "Andi was mad at me and yelling." Okay, so instead of coming to get me or just yelling back, he picked up a chair and threw it at her. Logical little boy sense I guess. Maybe Thad's right, maybe I am in for some serious trouble.
Until then we have to come up with a name, and decorate, and now I can get rid of several buckets of baby/little girl clothes, so if any of you are in the market let me know!

It Begins

Now that the house is livable and the mountain of boxes has been removed, Thad turned his attention to his number one project on the list. Trees in the backyard to hide the oil derrick. Of course we couldn't buy decent size trees and let them grow to hide, he needed coverage now. So her ordered the 18 ft sequoias that will be here next weekend, and then realized how big the holes needed to be for those trees, and what else had to be moved before they got there. Enter Thad's toy for the weekend.

It made quick work of the things that had to be torn out or transplanted, and the kids enjoyed it too.

By the end of the day the yard was a mess, but in a good way. There are seven of these massive holes.

The picture doesn't do them justice. They are 4x4x3.5 ft. Basically Sammy could jump down in one and be hidden and not be able to get out. Tempting idea sometimes. And there are piles of stuff like this lying around needing to be disposed of.

But by next weekend we should have a wall of trees along the back wall. We also noticed that this has become a habit for us. Every house we've lived in we've had a backhoe in the backyard doing something major. Does anyone else do that or just us? We also made some major progress on hanging pictures and I came up with this little arrangement for the dining room that I just love. I've seen those gallery walls everywhere, and I wanted to do one, but I'm a little too ocd and it had to be uniform, so this is my, much smaller version.

And then I worked on this cute board for Andi's room. Kelsie made it for her for Christmas, but it no longer matched what we have in mind for Andi's room, so we just changed up the color and now it's perfect.

Today we will be replacing the ridiculous dishwasher that sounds like there's a growling animal in the kitchen, and buying paint for me to get started with!

Before Pictures

It's been just less than a week and I think we've made some great progress on getting moved in. The entirety of our old house was actually loaded up and unloaded here in 1 day. It's just taken me a few days since to unload the boxes. We even started hanging things on the walls last night. So here is a new house tour of big time BEFORE pictures. We have many plans for what the afters will look like.

View from the front door: office to the right, living room to the left, and kitchen/dining straight ahead.

View of the living room from the entry way, ignore those cords, they will all be run behind the wall eventually.

Here is the dining room still housing box mountain. And on the left of the room will be a sitting area.

This is in the dining room looking through to the living room and entry. I love that open arch.

This is from the dining room looking at the kitchen. Now imagine the carpet and linoleum have been replaced by wood floors for a seamless transition from kitchen to dining. Soon my friends, soon!

Close up of the kitchen, and that door by the fridge is my ginormous pantry.

The picture hardly does it justice, because it actually continues around the corner to the right that you can't see.

And the next door off the kitchen houses this loveliness. I know, most of you are thinking, what, it's just a laundry room. But it's indoors people! I've been doing laundry in the garage for the last 5 years, so this is amazing. 

Next up are Andi's bedroom and bathroom, which are just behind the kitchen. There are still a few boxes of toys waiting for shelving in the closet, but it's coming together. 

That is it for the downstairs. I did not show you the office, which is right as you walk in the house, because it's a horrendous mess. It's the least unpacked of all the rooms, and will probably be that way for a little while. 

Now upstairs, first is Sammy's room. 

It's quite a bit bigger than his old room, maybe now I should buy the poor kid a dresser to replace that little Rubbermaid stack.

Next door to Sammy is the future nursery, present dumping ground for all the baby things that used to live outside in the shed.

Then there is the bathroom.

And down the hall is the master bedroom.

Our bed looks so little in this huge room. We need a new mattress anyway, so it might be time for an upgrade.
That slider goes out to our little balcony that overlooks the backyard, and through that arch is the bathroom that is as big as our old bedroom.

And behind those mirrored doors is my huge closet. Yes I said mine, Thad actually has his own in the bedroom. Love it!

So that's the house. I'm having a hard time deciding on paint and  color schemes, hopefully I overcome the stupor soon. Here are a few shots of the yard. Left corner.

Middle

Right corner

 View from the back corner looking at the back of the house.

 

As you can see there is a lot to be done back there as well, but imagine a gazebo back by the fountain with a gas fire pit.  It's going to be great.

A Bit of Pretty

My house is a hot mess right now. Total Chaos is more like it. Moving day is fast approaching, and so my piles of boxes are growing and I'm running out of corners to shove them in. I told Thad not to get me flowers for V-day this year because I already packed all the vases. But he didn't listen, and I'm very glad. Somehow this little bit of pretty helps me ignore the rest of the mess that is making my OCD's twitch.

I also love that whenever Thad brings home flowers there are always stargazer Lilly's in the bouquet.He never forgets my flower. 

So being Valentines day, the kids had a pile of goodies to open this morning from us and my parents, and once the loot was opened they decided they needed their Halloween buckets out to put their stash in. Amazingly I could actually get to those, so they filled them and have been carrying their stuff around. I guess they realized it was raining outside and decided that the jack-o-lanterns would be more useful as rain head gear than candy holders. They are so strange sometimes.

Please ignore my exposed couch cushions in the background, I am washing the covers and they are not dry yet!

San Diego

Thad and I were able to get away to San Diego for a few days this week. He had a management conference and lucky for me the spouses were invited too. We left the kids with my parents and headed out Sunday morning, and it was lovely. The weather was ridiculous, 75 and sunny in January. This is why people live in Ca. Our resort was right on mission bay and there was this nice little bike path that ran behind it to the parks on either side. I had to go to meetings one morning, but spent my other day and a half reading and basking in the sun at the park. The company put on a Luau, and there was an awards banquet the last evening at which Thad received the "presidents excellence" award. Considering he was probably the youngest guy in the room and that he'd only been with the company for 2 years, I was pretty proud. Wednesday morning we did a session in the SD temple before heading home. That is one beautiful temple. They are all beautiful, but I this one is amazing. Of course we didn't take a single picture the entire 3 and a half days we were there. The only thing we have is this strip from the photo booth they had at the Luau. Better than nothing I guess!

And now project pack and clean is underway. Very slowly underway, but I'm pacing myself, we've still got a couple weeks.

For Memories Sake

     I have nothing super exciting to post, just little things I want to remember about the kids in the future. Andi lost her second tooth this week. I finally pulled it for her when I realized the permanent tooth had already broken through and started growing in behind it. Gonna need braces much?! She also had what she considered a near death experience Saturday evening. Thad and I were out to dinner and the kids were playing outside with the babysitter. They had left a whistle out earlier in the day and Andi picked it up to use and ended up having a pincher bug crawl out of it into her mouth instead. Needless to say she freaked out, and it took the babysitter a few minutes just to decipher what had happened, and then another ten to calm her down about it. When we got home Andi told us about it, and burst into tears again reliving the moment. Totally gross yes, but big sobbing tears just talking about it hours later?! She's a mess.

     Almost everything Sammy say's is funny, either because of the way he says it, or the facial expressions that go with it. He does not say the S at the beginning of words, lobber, melly, lippers, are all things we hear regularly. And yes, he does talk about slobber, and tells Thad he's smelly. Actually, Thad passed gas the other day and Sammy told him he needed to change his diaper. Boys are gross. He makes the dramatic exasperated sound at me all day long, ugh! often accompanied by throwing his head back all the way and staring at the ceiling as he stomps away. Now that he is potty trained(90%) he has discovered that he can use that as an excuse to get out of bed at night and down from the table.

     We also had the inspection done on the new house and the more I see it, the more excited I am to move, and the longer my project list grows as I envision the possibilities there.

Birthday Week

Andi turned 6 on Friday, and we celebrated a full birthday week this year.  The Sunday before her birthday we had family dinner at my brothers and had cake and presents for Andi & Bradon. Andi's birthday is the day after Bradon's so we always have a joint party for them.

Friday was her actual birthday, so we started the day with birthday pancakes.

My mom brought over birthday donuts a little later in the morning. Just so you know any food automatically becomes "birthday" food if you stick a candle in it. Saturday was her friend party. This year Andi wanted a Magic Treehouse party. She has been reading the books for a while now and absolutely loves them. So we planned some activities that incorporated the books like hatching dinosaur eggs(popping balloons), solving riddles, going on a treasure hunt, and they had a great time. Here is the whole gang after they turned Wyatt into a mummy.

And blowing out more candles.

Saturday night we went to Rosemary's and since she is six now, she ordered for herself. I have been hearing a lot of that this week. "I'm six now so I can do (fill in the blank)." "Six year olds can do that by themselves."  Sunday night we had dinner with Thads family to celebrate all the January birthdays and she got to blow out more candles and open more presents. And today she got to go to lunch and shopping with Grandma Bulkeley to spend her birthday money. I believe the celebrations are finally complete and that her birthday has been sufficiently recognized for the year ;)
In other pretty huge news, we bought a house this week. We have been looking for months and months and last weekend we found the one. We are more than a little excited, and have big plans for our new place. At least I do. Thad's main priority is getting some big trees in the back yard, but I've got lists. Long, exciting lists ;) We are supposed to close mid February, so cross your fingers it goes smoothly.
This picture has nothing to do with anything, other than these are the diaper ninja masks Thad introduced the kids too.

Wow, just wow

So I've been waiting to post till after this weekend after Andi's birthday party when I'd have pictures to post, but today deserves a post of it's own. I took the kids to the dentist this morning, Sammy's first visit. He was all excited when we got there because he finally got to go back with Andi instead of being stuck in the waiting room with me. So they do Andi's check up and they let Sammy watch everything so he won't be nervous when it's his turn. Then it was his turn. "We are going to need you to come back and help with Sammy." Did you know that dentists now have a "quiet room" for the insane children? So I held him while the dentist brushed and flossed his teeth and did the flouride paint thing. No x-rays, no pokey dental tools. Toothbrush and floss just like at home. You would have thought he ripped his finger off again. He screamed bloody murder the entire time and I pulled something in my back restraining him. He literally popped blood vessels in his face screaming so hard, he's got all these little red dots around his eyes and cheek bones. All the dentist did was brush his teeth!!! His reaction was pretty much the same as Andi's when she had her blood draw for school. Completely insane. Next visit our goal is to get some x-rays and maybe sit in the big chair for a minute by himself. Seriously I don't know where these children came from.

Relaxing in the New Year

It seems like Christmas was a month ago already. Not that we have had a very busy week or anything. We've actually been pretty lazy, and Thad has been home a lot to enjoy the lazy with us. He took the kids out to fly his plane and shoot Sammy's new rockets.

 

We took them shooting one afternoon, and Sammy could not get enough of it.

 

The kids have been playing a lot of super hero and secret agent, but for some reason they only wear the capes when they have their pj's on.

Story of the week. Kelsie and Porter came over one evening when the kids were getting ready for bed. Andi was in the tub and all of a sudden we hear her yelling, Help, someone help! and then she screamed super loud. Of course all three of us went running to see what was wrong and we found this.

 

I guess Porter really likes baths, so he climbed in with Andi fully dressed. 

Thad and I have been watching a lot of documentaries lately, it's amazing what you can find on netflix. Two in particular have given us some major motivation to be healthier in our eating habits and change the way we cook and grocery shop. If you need some extra motivation for your new years resolutions, watch Food Inc. and Forks over Knives. Serious food for thought.

Christmas

Christmas has come and gone and for the first time in years I don't feel like a tornado just passed. I'm not sure what was different because we still celebrated 3 different times on Christmas day, but it was just a nice restful fun day. Christmas eve was a break in tradition. Instead of the traditional dinner and Santa letter with Thad's family, we went to a movie and dinner with my family. We actually saw two movies over the weekend, which is totally abnormal for us. Anyway, then we came home and put the kids down early and set up the gifts and just relaxed. This was the first year Andi wanted to put out cookies for Santa, so we did, and she made sure to put out a carrot for the reindeer. In the morning Andi came running into our room asking if Santa had come, so I told her to check and she came back squealing. I just thought it was funny that instead of running straight out to the tree she still came in to our room to ask if he'd come.

Here is Andi with her robot dog that she's been asking for since September, and wearing her super hero cape that I made because she said she needed one.

Here is Sammy with his new computer, also sporting his cape. They have their initials on them in cute fabric, but no, I don't have a good picture of them.

After we opened everything we got ready for church, which Sammy protested the whole morning. Even during church he sat there saying, "I can't wear this. We can't go to church."

Then we came home and headed to my parents, where we made enough food to feed 100 people and ate too much of it. Then we opened gifts with them and laid around because we were all still too full to move. We had all of my siblings here this year, which hasn't happened for a little while. The only person missing was Kelsie's husband Cameron who is still in Kuwait. There were lot's of pictures taken, and video as well, but none with my camera ;) This year for the family gifts I made each couple an outdoor blanket. It's a quilt on the top, but backed with vinyl so it's waterproof.

That afternoon we went to Thad's parents to have dinner and do the Santa letter. We had another lovely big meal, then sang some carols, read the letter and opened gifts. Again, lot's of pictures, only a very few taken with my camera.

This year for Thads family we took on a huge project. We got the all the Santa letters from his grandparents, which cover 1972-2007, and we re-typed them and scanned pictures and had them printed in a book for his parents and siblings. It took us a while, but was totally worth it.
We also got to surprise both of our families with a little announcement. We are expecting our 3rd child at the end of July. I had the 10 week ultrasound today and everything looks great. They even did some of it in 3-d which was amazing and weird to see. Thad was mostly just glad to see that there is only one in there. I don't know why, but he always stresses about that till we know for sure.
So Christmas was grand, 2011 was lovely, and now it's on to 2012 and a whole lot of new adventures. Happy almost New Years!

8 Years Later

Yesterday was our anniversary, and I think we get less sentimental about it every year. Shame on us, I know, but we just get busy this time of year. Last night was Thad's office party so we went to dinner with a bunch of people I don't know. We were planning on making a long night of it and going to a movie after the party, which was over by 8:30, but we were lame and went home early instead. Here is the yearly comparison shot for your enjoyment.

December 20, 2003

December 20, 2011

Excuse the picture being completely washed out. We were talking last night about how quickly the time has gone, and where we are going to be in another 8 years.  The weirdest part was realizing we'd have a 14 year old and an 11 year old at that point. It just does not seem possible. Regardless, 8 years later life is good and we are happy, and I don't think we could ask for much more than that. Happy Anniversary!