Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Taking down borders, putting up fences...

How is it possible that they keep getting cuter?
Sheridan is a full-fledged crawler now. We have to put the baby gate up to protect her from the stairs and the cat from her. She loves chasing after Fiona, all the while emitting a high-pitched squeal of glee. The cat always runs in fear. Huh, I wonder why? Who could be scared of this cute girl? Oh, only every other kid between the ages of 6 months and 2 years. For some reason, they get very scared when she focuses her laser-beam gaze on them and starts advancing. Perhaps the high-pitched, gleeful emissions frighten them. Perhaps she just looks a little too intense. For whatever reason, before she even gets close to these kids they start crying.
We just had her 7.5 month pictures taken (what?!? not everyone takes 7.5 month pictures of their kids? Nah, you're just out of touch with other parents!) and will post the ADORABLE picts when we get them online. The photographer was far too good and should be fired for taking so many great shots that we were unable to choose thriftily. The burden of having cute kids, huh?

Jack continues to amaze us with how much he's grown, and by how smart he is. Of course, he is going through the indecisive, terrible almost threes (Mommy, I want this. WHY ARE YOU GIVING THAT TO ME AFTER I ASKED FOR IT?!? No, Mommy, please I really want it!). Do all nearly-three-year-olds have bipolar disorder? Because, seriously, I feel like I'm in the house with Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
Tonight, our neighbor stopped by to invite us to dinner on Wednesday (don't worry, guys, we still have openings to come to your house for dinner Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, or Friday). Jack was in the middle of an amazing meltdown--it was bedtime, he hadn't eaten well, and he hadn't napped--when he saw the neighbor. Now, on the way to church today he'd notice that Neighbor had some nice pumpkins. The tantrum froze (tears and all) and he asked so sweetly "Can I have a pumpkin".
WHAT?!? All we have to do is distract the kid with a pumpkin and the tantrum is over? Hmmmm.....
Meanwhile, Grammy sent Jack some COWBOY BOOTS! This is an exceptionally great time to do so since Jack has just discovered Toy Story. The above picture is (what must be) his juxtaposition of Buzz and Woody. Naked.
And, finally, Jack can tell you that his birthday is November Fifth and he'll be Three. He was recently pouring over the Toys-R-Us ad from the paper. I swear, he looked at the page with trains on if for 15 minutes (which is his max attention span for anything other than TV). Don't tell him, but we will be getting him a train for his birthday. Lucky kid.
Finally, the house continues to devour any "free time" we ever thought we had. Of the 50 projects we'd planned to do in September we completed 30. Since there are only 16 projects on tap for October, we might complete the other 20 this next month. Probably not!
Still no open house scheduled, but please contact us if you want a private tour. We have a wonderful 2-year-old tour guide (hint: he'll show you his toy room first and try to convince to you build something with him).
The borders in our house are all gone, bar the one in Jack's room. I finally found that I was supposed to prime over the rub on borders. They look much better now.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

You've Gotta Fight...

For your right! To Paaarrrrrrrrty!
Yep, Life is still party here in the House of Happiness!

The kids were rooting for the Eagles Monday Night. It didn't give the Eagles good karma, but the kids sure were cute! Thanks, Pop!


Tyler finally got the chandelier up and working. We need to take off the excess chain, but we have light!







I learned how to install faucets in the bathrooms. After several plumbing mishaps (the latest was a broken pipe while removing our washing machine during the move) I decided to give plumbing a try. Tyler's great strength was only required a couple of times. I think, however, that I kinda hate teflon tape! Here I am, with our new bathroom faucet!




Sheridan has learned how to pull up to standing. She can even hold on one-handed so that her thumb can be in it's rightful place (her mouth!). Her personality is really starting to shine. She's a pistol!
Jack is still too cute for his own good. He has started feeling left out if Tyler and I are having a conversation that he's not part of. "Excuse meek," he'll say "can you please talk to me?" Or, "Excuse meek, Mommy, how is your dinner." Apparently we don't give our kid enough attention!

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Exploring the new house

Well, we've all been so busy exploring our new territory that I'm slacking on the blog! Fiona has recently come out of hiding and is exploring upstairs. Jack is exploring outside. He now thinks he has a pet snail. I think he'll be really sad when he realizes it's not going to stick around! Tyler has been exploring the world of home improvement (and Home Depot, and Lowes) and is--as we speak!--installing a new dining room chandelier. This is a good thing, as the old chandelier looked like something from a 70's horror movie. I have been exploring a world without borders--that means the only border left to remove is in Jack's room! Bye-bye, moose and bears in the office, stars and moons in the playroom, and birdhouses and fences in the kitchen! Actually, some Moose and bears remain in the office. They are "rub ons" and if anyone knows how to remove those, please let me know! This is the office (up) with the lovely border still up. Below is a snapshot of Jack's room. More borders.
Sheridan is exploring the world of CRAWLING! She never went "army style", just straight to all fours. Poor thing looks like she's taken sandpaper to the knees! This means we need to revisit the world of baby gates! Here's a pict of Sheridan with her cute new cousin, Joshua.This is Sheridan's PURPLE room. We'll be changing that!

Monday, September 3, 2007

Movin' on Up

Ok, moving with kids is a nightmare. All of you without kids, now is the time to move!
We're in, but far from settled. We have a huge list of projects that will span several years, although we did get over to the local Home Depot and outfitted ourselves to start a few. Tyler finally got his shopvac (a dream come true, I guarantee!) and is working on getting our refrigerator to fit into it's home. We'll see how that goes!
So, here are some pictures

This is our entrance, our lovely split entry entrance.
This is the living room. It is much bigger than our last living room.
From the living room, the doorways to the kitchen and dining.
Guess what this room is? The fridge doesn't fit, so Tyler will be Mr. Carpenter.
Oooh, the hallway to bedrooms (left at the top of the stairs).Since this blog site only lets me post 5 picts, this is all you get tonight!