Remodeling Continued

Tearing out the bathroom sink and vanity...

 

And J's bathroom upstairs...

His comment last night when getting ready for bed..."something's different in here."   Yep, no door kiddo!!

Christmas tank

Santa brought J a fish tank and we set it up yesterday. J picked out the gravel and the one decoration that's in there right now.

We're getting the fish tomorrow along with more decorations! I love having this experience with my family.

The Power of Planes Two

After a hard day of playing, five of the seven boys enjoying a showing of Planes Fire and Rescue before bedtime. Cousins are the best!

Thank you all for the wonderful visit!!

Merry Christmas!

He's ba-ack!!

Our elf arrived back to us safely this year and found us even though we weren't at home. The expression on J's face when he saw him was priceless!! He had to go ask his uncle if he had an elf, to make sure that it was really J's own elf, Son, that had truly found him. He just couldn't believe it. I hope he keeps this innocence as long as possible...I love to see things through his eyes!!

Reading the elf story tonight before bed. 

Nap time

Looks like somebody ate too much turkey this weekend!

Playtime with Grandpa

Got Grandpa involved with sand playtime...it's called kinetic sand; it sticks together and doesn't make a mess. I love it!!!

Don't these two look so cute working together?!  😊

Happy early Thanksgiving!

My gobbling Pilgrim says "Happy Thanksgiving!"

Turning things white

One door with trim is in and we love it!  It just makes the space look bigger, brighter, and more modern already. Can't wait to get the baseboards started. 

Winter Project beginnings...

Just changing the color of the door has made the kitchen look bigger and brighter!  

We're going to replace all the interior doors and baseboards and change it to white.  Getting rid of the original, beat-up brown and making it look cleaner. Can't wait to see the results!!

Hockey?!?!

We gave J a choice between hockey and tae kwon do this year.

Surprisingly, it was hockey...hands-down.  You'd never know that he's only been on ice skates one other time last winter.

He was so excited for the season to start, as you can tell by this picture! (you can see that adorable smile even through his facemask!)

It was quite the comedy trying to get all the gear on him.  Although we requested the "small" set, those smalls are huge on him!

This is Chris putting J out on the ice the first time.

It's kind of like watching him learning to walk all over again!!

He was very persistent and didn't give up the entire hour they were out on the ice.  This next video was the first time he got up by himself after falling.  Every single time he fell down, though, he got right back up...

...and he fell.  A lot.  They all did, as the following video shows; they look like bowling pins or something, continually falling over, trying to get back up, and falling down again.  I give them all a ton of credit because I was getting frustrated for them and I was only watching!!! J is the one right in the middle of the screen who doesn't fall down even once in this clip.  :)

We are so proud of him!

His first words when he got off the ice, even before I got his helmet off:

"That. Was. AWE-SOME!!!"

So are you, my boy.

So. are. you.

NLCS Game 1 2014

We made it to the 1st game of the NLCS this year!  Even though the Cardinals didn't pull off a win when we were there, we still had a ton of fun!!

And we definitely have a baseball fan on our hands...I love this boy.

Ready to catch a foul ball!!! 

January to April 2014

Yeah, I know...January?!?!

I have definitely been slacking on the blog this year.  I can give excuses or just post these pictures that I've just recently run across again...

I agree.  Do the post.

In January, we spent some time at my aunt's house with my parents and sisters and their families.  Random pictures from that visit.

Warning: total cuteness factor will be seen multiple times over!

Rub-a-dub-dub, four boys in a tub

Someone had a great night's sleep!!

Twister with Grandma

Twister with great-Aunt Lori

Fixing up great-Grandpa's walker for Valentine's Day

J played indoor soccer from January to March and enjoyed it.

(But not as much as he's loving t-ball presently!)

Playing trucks with his friend, B (who I think was jumping during my picture attempt, hence the blurriness/shadow around him)

First roller skating attempt.  He says he likes ice skating better.

Helping Daddy do some "man work" around the house with his tools.

The donations to the animal shelter that he received in lieu of birthday gifts this year.  What a sweet boy...he was so excited to do this when I mentioned it instead of get gifts for himself!

So now we are quickly caught up to April.  I have pictures through July photoshopped and will try to get those up soon.

Yeah, I know, you've heard that one before!!

Another First!

Last Friday was J's first day of Kindergarten!

So much fun to be able to share this with him.

And we can't believe he's growing up so fast!!

We are so so proud of you!

Our camper

If I can get it uploaded correctly, here is video of our camper.  I had to cut it into multiple shorter movies because it was too long, so watch them all if you want to see the whole camper!

Looking forward to going back up!  The camper will stay there, so that way when we go up, we can just unlock the door, push two buttons to pop out the slide-out and the awning, and we're pretty much good to go after Chris hooks up the water and electric.  Guess it's not really true camping anymore, but boy is it fun!!

And next time we go up, I finally get my hammock hung up...just hope the bugs aren't too bad.

Who's up for a visit?!?!

300th post!

Took me a while to get there, but this is my 300th post on the blog!!  And to commemorate it, I want to wish my husband a happy 10th anniversary a day late (June 26th).

It's been a wild ride, with ups and downs, but I'm so glad it was you I was on that ride with.  I can't imagine what my life would be like without you.

Happy 10th Anniversary, Honey!!

What a difference ten years makes...

Thank you for making me so very happy.

I'm the luckiest woman/mommy in the world.

4th Family Day!!

Four years ago today, Chris, J, and I became a family of three.

The ride in the van from the adoption agency to our hotel:

The following day on the plane, ready for takeoff!

 

Daddy helping J get to sleep at home.

 Chris' first Father's Day

Later in the summer:

Guess we know how early J caught the flying bug!!

Happy Family Day to us!!!!

And Happy Family Day to good friends that we met while over in Korea, Annie and Mike, and your J as well.  We got our boys on the same day and flew back home on the same plane.  What a ride we've been on!  Congratulations!

(this picture was taken 4 years and a couple of days ago)

Chopping Wood

I forgot the best video from the trip!!!

(and it shows some of the camper as well)

No worries, I told him that chopping wood is definitely NOT a game, but how can you not smile and laugh at this video?!?!

First Camping Trip of the Year and Graduation!

Knock, knock.

Hello-o-o??

Anyone there?

Yep, I'm back!

So sorry to not have posted anything in 2 1/2 months.  I have been getting used to a new job, working at the same place, and am now a Monday-to-Friday-er with a (very) flexible 8-5 schedule for the first time in over 10 years.  Which means J is also going to daycare five days a week.  (I think he's transitioned better than I have, but that's not surprising, as he's always been pretty laid back and goes with the flow.)  At work, my to-do list is perpetual, which is new for me as well; I'm used to finishing all my charting on patients and then going home with everything completed.  It's been hard for me to leave things unfinished each afternoon, but I'm learning.

And speaking of learning, we have a graduate on our hands!!  J graduated from pre-K last week and his school had a ceremony for all the kids with diploma, awards, and cake included.  I swear Chris had tears in his eyes when they started playing "Pomp and Circumstance" for the children to walk in to (although he keeps denying it!).  Mom of the Year moment: remembered the camera (yay!)...forgot to charge the battery (boo!).  Argh!  So I got a total of 5 pictures before it completely died on me and most of those were blurry.  J's award was that they think he's going to be a Future Airplane Mechanic or Pilot.  And if you've been around him for any length of time in the last oh, 7-8 months, you know that they are dead-on with that guess!  Here's the best picture of the bunch:

We also went camping a couple of weekends ago to put our new camper on our land.  It will stay there permanently and it's going to be so nice to just drive up there, unlock the door, and push a button to slide out both the awning and the one slide-out we have!  We definitely have room for visitors, so if anyone wants to set up a time, let me know.  :)  I made a video tour of the camper, but it's way too long to upload to here...and I didn't even take a lone picture of the camper.  Sorry!  I'll get one next time.

It was a tad bit cold at the beginning of May when we were there, so we were all bundled up.

picking up kindling for the fire

this is B's idea of "kindling"!!

don't know how many more years he'll be able to do these splits

Daddy and J walking back to the campsite; they've both been waiting years to do this together!!

Chilling by the fire

Our last morning there, this is what we woke up to!  But it had all melted by 8:30.

putting together a model airplane

LOVE!

My boy

Took him forever to get to sleep in the hotel on the way home and this is how he ended up when he finally gave it up to Mr. Sandman!  He looks so long in this picture!

I'll try to be better about posting.  I've got tons of pictures to put up from the last couple of months!