Friday, August 20, 2010

Hey baby, hey baby, hey!

While we were in Oregon, my sister and my sister-in-law gave birth on THE SAME DAY! It's pretty cool. We were in town for my sister (my SIL lives in NJ) and I got to be the one who got the 4:45 am phone call to watch the other kiddos. HOW FUN!! I also got to be the first to hold the little bundle of adorableness (that's totally a word, don't mock me!). But, as usual, I didn't have my camera...so you all can enjoy picts of Jack and Sheridan loving on sweet little Annia.
Sadly, I haven't figured out how to upload picts from facebook onto my blog, so you don't get to enjoy the cuteness that is Max. If I figure out how to upload that pict, though, I'll add it for a little more baby sweetness. Congrats on the babies, my sistas!

Saturday, August 14, 2010

You Drive Me Crazy!

We drove to Oregon in May.It was a LONG drive. The kids got tired, but they did a really great job. Star Wars helped (at the end of the drive, the kids started pretending that Storm Troopers were attacking our van and they had to use their blasters to head them off. It made the last bit go by much more quickly!)
We all survived, even if the kids only slept for 1 hour during the whole 13 hour trip. Fun times!

Mother Dear, We Love You So

Mothers' Day may have been 3 months ago, but it was a good one, so let's share!

Tyler and the kiddos made me my favorite breakfast, whole grain belgian waffles with strawberries and cream. YUM!
Jack and Sheridan made me cards. Sheridan's has a "pink dress" on it and Jack drew a picture of Princess Leia with a blaster (inside a heart). They were VERY cute, and very much represent my kids' loves at that point!

The kids were so excited at present time that they couldn't help but DANCE! I love family time! (I also really like my new bread maker).
And what rounds out the day better than New York steaks fresh off the grill with sauted mushrooms, couscous, and chopped salad? Thanks for a great day, family!

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Off the Rail, What the--!?!, and Other Home Improvement Stories

Perhaps you remember this deck. It has been featured on the blog before (usually for sections of the railing falling down under pressure from snow) and has easily been one area we don't want people around as it is a death trap.

Those stable-looking pieces of lattice? They're plastic and the wood around them is pine. Pine+water+extreme temps=major warping. Which equals pieces of plastic lattice hanging out and warping all over the place. That leads to gaps, which we feared could lead to extreme injury. Wanna come over for a BBQ?
In April, we were DONE! We decided to do a proper railing.
Look how gorgeous it is! Yay, Tyler! Preventing injury and head trauma!
Hooray for projects done well!


Patchwork:
So, there were some sketchy patch jobs on walls in our house. Actuallly, there are probably still some I haven't found yet.
This was the one in the office. It was originally covered in a little joint compound and paint, but if you rested against it, the edges would pop up and the middle would push in. Not a pretty sight!
And here's what I found:
Oh, right, the old "metal sheet as a really big patch"" thing. Weird. Underneath?Yeah, it was joint compound on another piece of metal. Because, I'm sure that was so much easier than getting a 1.5 x 3 foot piece of sheetrock. And it looked nicer, too, I'm sure. I undid all their work and put in that "sheetrock" patch and even textured over it. I'd show you the "finished" picture, but it just looks like...a piece of wall.

Next! This patch got a little screwed up when I pushed against it and it crumbled.
So, I wanted to put a new patch on. First, I evened up the hole so I could just put in some sheetrock (a little more stable than the patch below: a bunch of newspapers crumpled up and painted over)At least the previous homeowners can't get blamed for that one. They only lived here from 2004-2007. This job took place in 1993! Looks like our poor house has a history of poor patch jobs. Don't worry, house, we're finding all the junk jobs and cleaning house! In other home improvement news, we were gifted this sweet dollhouse. I have since stripped all the contact-paper wallpaper (it was peeling a little) and rather dusty carpet. Tyler helped a lot.
Now I just have a waist-high 4 room dollhouse. Any suggestions? I'm thinking I'll paint it out black or white and decoupage some damask-style paper in the back. Thoughts? Suggestions? Sheridan would probably like it painted bright pink with pink carpet and pink everything, but I'm executing it, so...

Jack got his Pomp on

I know that most dutiful parents have long since blogged about their children's preschool finale, but I have been less-than-dutiful with the blog, so you get it just shy of 3 months after. Let's all sigh sadly and then move along.
Mrs. Taylor was the ROCKIN'EST teacher EVER! She worked with Jack's superior skills so he'd still be challenged. Here, she's showing off a picture he journaled about what he wants to be when he grows up. At the beginning of the year and throughout, he'd decided he wanted to be a preschool teacher. Awwwww. He journaled about his real desire to be a Lego Star Wars video game designer. The truth must come out sometime, I suppose!
We were not surprised that Jack wanted to lead the class in a poem about Pizza. It is his favorite food, hands down.
He had such cute friends in his class. We miss seeing them every week!
Uncle Corey and Aunt Jenni were able to make it for the big event! Jack was thrilled beyond measure that they'd come along. So was I (they distracted the little ones while I tried to get some photographic masterpieces with my point-and-shoot under flourescent lighting--that's what real friends do!)


We're so proud of our big boy! Can't believe he starts Kindergarten in 2 weeks!

Monday, August 9, 2010

Works in Progress

Where have I been?

It's like a great big void was in the bloggosphere because I haven't blogged in ages, I'm sure.
Truth is, we left at the end of May the day after Jack's preschool let out. We got back a week into June and then wrestled with ear infections and getting Henry ear tubes for the next 3 weeks. Then, Tyler's parents came into town at that point and we had FAMILY TIME for the next month (Vigue family reunion in Heber and SLC was included in that time). The day T's mom flew back to NJ...we did, too! We got back from NJ last week after 2 FABULOUS weeks of fun, and I have yet to download the picts from my camera. I'm a little slow, I'll admit.
So, what posts do you have to look forward to in the next several weeks?
Mother's Day, Father's Day, my birthday, Fun in Oregon, Bird Family Reunion, 2 new babies, Vigue Family Reunion, Fun in New Jersey...and maybe some others.
Right, I'll be lucky to get those all up!
So, look forward to some updates...as soon as I find the cord to my camera...
Peace out!