January Update...

We have had unseasonably warm weather this January and had ample time to play outside.  We have had a couple of days of being under the weather, but for the most part we have stayed pretty healthy this year. 

 Eliza did have a stomach bug for 24 hrs.  Poor girl! 

Luckily I was the only other one that got it.

One day Eliza and Daniel were watching a quiet movie while I was getting a project done.  They were so cute sitting there snuggling.  I love these two!

This weekend our neighbors decided to take advantage of the warm weather to trim their trees.  Since the trees are so tall this is the device Marek came up with.  It worked great!

Checking for stability.

"Yea! It will hold!"

The kids wanted to climb the ladder so bad.  They just wanted to help.  :0)

Who's behind you Bradley?  

The trees turned out great. 

Spring Weather with Shocka

One of our neighbors' friends has a big dog named Shocka.  He is only about 6 months old and already big!  He is pretty sweet and does really well with the kids.  I am not sure who they like to see more, Mr. Chris or Shocka.

 Mr. Chris and the kids playing with Shocka.

When Shocka gets a ball in his mouth he runs around and the kids try to touch him.  He loves playing keep away from them.

The boys lost a ball to Shocka, but they had a very fun 15-20 minutes chasing him around trying to touch him.  Eliza kept saying, "Shocka, stop!"  It was pretty entertaining!

Thanks for letting us play!

Brother or Sister?

The kids and our neighbor Margaret were able to go with me to my ultrasound on the 27th.  They were pretty excited to see the baby moving.  They also thought it was funny to hear the baby's heart beat.    Daniel was sure we were having a baby brother and Bradley was sure it was a baby sister.  Daniel asked the tech every 45 seconds if we were having a brother or a sister.  :)

"Hello!"

Apparently this baby loves having its hands by its face.

Cute profile...

and the results are in...

It's a Brother!

Bradley was a little bit sad it isn't another sister, but he has assured me that the next baby is going to be a sister.  Can you say pressure!!  This one isn't even here yet!  :0)

Everything looks great with the baby and I have been feeling pretty good.  We can't wait for him to arrive the end of June.

A Visit From the Tooth Fairy

Last night Bradley was eating a corn dog and took a bite.  He got a funny look on his face and said, "Hey, my tooth fell out!"  Then he giggled for the next five minutes!

Bradley's first tooth.

He was excited that the new one was already on its way in.

This morning Bradley found 50 cents under his pillow.  He was so happy the tooth fairy found his tooth.

Yard Projects

This first project is one that I have wanted to do for a while.  The north side of the house is always in the shade so nothing but the weeds grow there.  I hate trying to weed around the coolers!

I sprayed weed killer a couple times to kill everything and then we leveled things off a little. 

Then we laid down some ground cover...

Dug a little to put in some edging.

Andy packing dirt around the edging.

Last we put down some gravel to keep the ground cover down.

The kids were so excited to help with the rocks.

Andy did the heavy lifting...

 and some raking.

 Since it is always wet and muddy over there we also go some stepping stones.

Looking good!

I am very happy about how it all turned out.  All that is left to do is to level the stepping stones.

This last project is one that was just fun for Andy.  I noticed that one of the trees just off the deck was dead.  There is a wood pecker that kept drilling the branches and then they would come down the next time that there was a good wind.  I knew the tree was dead, so I asked Andy about cutting it down.  He got home from work pretty early one day and had time to work on it.

He used his hatchet to cut the base a little.

This picture shows the branches hanging in the vines around the tree.

Once he chopped the bottom a little Andy got a rope and a stick to throw around the tree to keep it from hitting the deck when it comes down.

Up and away...

Once the rope was in the tree he pulled a little to see if the stick was in there good and the tree just started coming down.  He decided he better keep pulling to get it to fall away from the deck.

It worked!

Daniel was pretty sure we should have cut down another tree too.

 Andy holding the tree up just before dropping it down into the woods.

I am glad we had all the kids up on the deck when Andy threw the rope into the tree because the tree came down a lot faster and easier than either of us thought it would.  It is nice to have it gone since the next strong wind could have knocked the tree over... maybe even hitting the deck.

If we had to rate which improvement project was the most fun everyone at our house would choose the second one!

Bradley the shark boy

Ever since Bradley turned 6 he has been wondering when he was going to loose his first tooth.  I have asked him a couple times if one of the bottom ones was loose, but he didn't think so.  Yesterday Andy checked his teeth and found that he has two permanent teeth coming in behind his bottom teeth.  The three front bottom teeth are a little loose, so we are working on getting them to come out.  Bradley was excited and kept wiggling them.

Bradley was excited to see what his teeth looked like.

Jan. 9, 2012

Happy New Year!

For New Year's Eve we made home made ice cream.  Andy got an ice cream maker for Christmas.  The ice cream turned out pretty good and we are excited to try some more of the recipes that came with the maker.

Andy adding the ice to the ice cream maker.

Our neighbors recently got some chickens.  Andy was excited to have a day off so he was available to help them build a run to the coup.  Nathan and Andy discussing the next step.

The kids love to check on the chickens everyday.

Daniel and Eliza saying "Hi" to the chickens.

The kids did some coloring while they supervised the building.

Setting the sides of the run up next to the coup.

Later the night we did fireworks in the cul-de-sac with some of our neighbors.

Owen watching form the stroller.

Andy lighting some "tank" cars.  They kids loved watching cars shoot sparks at the center car.

The kids all loved sparklers.

Margaret and the pyro techs.

We left the fireworks in the street after we lit them because they were still a little hot.  One of the fountains Andy lit started the others on fire!  Part of the time we had a bonfire to go along with the fireworks we were watching.  Apparently after I took the kids in one of the fountains hadn't completely gone off and since it was in the fire, it finished sparking!  Andy said it was pretty cool.  Andy also remembered all his boy scout training and did put the fire completely out before coming in.  We really enjoyed ringing in the New Year...I know it was mid-night somewhere when we went to bed!  :)  Happy 2012!