New Hats

These hats were made by our sitter, Frances.

Hanging Out Under the Tree

Luke's First Haircut

Luke got his first official haircut last weekend. It's super cute. Cara does a great job with both boys. Since I have a post for Luke, might as well talk about him a bit. He is now 29 pounds, wearing 2T clothing and acting completely like a 2 year old. I have to keep reminding myself that he is not actually two. He says nearly everything, but only the first syllable so I can't really count it as talking. It's his own language. It's pretty funny and cute when he jabbers on. Although he can say a good handful of words with good intelligibility. He is throwing all sorts of temper tantrums and in result is getting lots of discipline as he is deliberately thinking about naughty things and laughing about it as he does them. He loves to play with playdough, read stories (only for a short time, but will still bring you books to read), with the tool bench is some of his favorites. He easily plays by himself, which is a wonderful relief. He is a good sleeper as long as its dark and warm. He's a great eater, but doesn't like too many vegetables or hard/crunchy bread. He loves cheese, pasta's, rice, all fruit, and chocolate, but will eat nearly anything. He pretty happy and easy going, often laughing and having a good time.

Kris' Birthday

The boys helped me make a cake for daddy's birthday. They were dying to put on the candles!

Thanksgiving 2011

We were all pretty sick on Thanksgiving. Alex had a fever, so we stayed home and didn't spread our germs. It was a nasty cold, resulting in an ear infection for the boys (their first ones) and bronchitis for me. We are all feeling better and it's our goal to stay healthy for Christmas. So the only pictures we have are the things we made (and the one shared previously by Kris of us sleeping on the couch). Alex made this pinata awhile ago with Theresa. It has been hanging around our house and I thought it would be perfect to make a turkey. We raided our scrap craft box and got out the glue gun. He turned out pretty well. Alex made the other turkey at school with foot prints and hand prints.

When Throwing Things is Okay

The boys love throwing things, unfortunately. I still can't figure out why no matter how many times I tell them and hand out punishments the behavior has never ceased. Either way they love it when this behavior is allowed. I'm not sure how long they would throw rocks into the water if given the time. I like the rails here so I know they can't fall in. These were taken November 13th.

My Cell Pics

Everyone had colds this holiday weekend. Here is Alex and Michelle taking a rest on the couch.

I took Wednesday off. So i got to hang out with the boys. I took this pic and sent it to Michelle. I started laughing when i saw the face Alex was making.

Lily aka Wabba with the turkey pinata that everyone helped make.

Luke and his Winnie the Pooh cup. He must have just finished eating because his chair has no cover on it.

Lily is very stubborn. She think she was here first.

The boys are good with both cats(who are both fully clawed). Tessie will walk away, but Lily will stay no matter how much positive or negative attention she is getting.

Wrapping the fort in xmas lights

Halloween 2011

Well now that we are entering the Christmas season, I thought it may be time to get the Halloween pictures posted. I've had a bit of a backup with blog posts after my computer ran out of space after storing my thousands of pictures on it, which makes for extra work to save them on external hard drive, back them up else where and still I feel anxious "deleting" them off the computer. All of which takes extra time I don't have. So, hence the reason for the lengthy delay.


We didn't have time to carve pumpkins this year as a family. But, Theresa and Alex carved this one during Luke's nap on Halloween. Here's Luke checking it out after he woke up from his nap.






I had reason to believe that Alex would be uncooperative with a costume this year. So, I came up with a costume that he could buy into on various level and it would still be a costume. He it quite the "handyman" lately and adores "Bob the Builder" now. So, I thought he would be into this costume. But, it took a major struggle to get on the tool belt and he would only carry the hard hat. He ended up collecting his candy in it.


Luke reused Alex's George costume. I thought for sure Luke would have the chicken pox on Halloween. But, Luke never got them. I don't think they were really the chicken pox that Alex had.

Play Structure Play

Play Structure Update

Almost every weekend Alex will ask to work on the fort. It was quite hot for some time so i didnt get to much done. I also started to work slower so he could have more things to help me with. Here is where i am at so far:

I decided to wire it for power. Alex has always loved to plug things in. I bought 3outlets, 2 switches, and 25ft of romex. There is an outlet under the flooring to run an extension cord to the house. That way i can control the power. I wired each outlet to a separate switch and put each outlet on either side of the slide. Then covered the wires with a thin sheet of plywood and drywall.


I decided to build a door. I was going to have it swing out but it would hit the slide. So I bought some 2x4s, 2x6s, and a 2x3(didnt know they made them)


I was short one piece of wood to finish my Z, so I used some scrap to hold it together.

Here is the door completed and stained a black cherry.


Lowes sells gate hinges that look older. I wanted it to look like a tavern door or an old castle door. I found a handle that matched and added a latch to lock it.


I made the windows out of .25 inch plexiglass. I still have to add the latch on the left side. The 2 ft by 4 ft window folds completely flat against the siding. It will easily be out of the way when the swings are added. There is also another small window to the right of the ladder. The boys like hanging out in there while its raining.

I am not a MSU fan. My plan was to paint the whole thing a darker green. When i went through and primed it i had to use a brush to fill in the recessed lines. To get an idea of what the green would look like i decided to quickly use a roller and paint it. i was going to fill in the lines with a brush later but decided it looked pretty cool. I also have begun staining the whole thing the same color as the door. The inside is fully drywalled, including the ceiling. I also caulked all the edges of the drywall so no bugs can hide.