Fort

We recently got rid of a few pieces of furniture, so we had room to store what we had under the steps going down to our basement. I decided it might be fun for the boys to have a reading area, so I got some sleeping bags out, put a lamp in it and the boys really like reading books in their "fort"...

Silly Callie

I have really been enjoying seeing Callie get even more personality lately. She is such a GOOF! She cracks me up multiple times a day. It's a really good thing, too, b/c she is also a big handful. This afternoon we were all outside playing and she decided her new favorite thing was a swim floater thing she found in the garage. She carried it around for a long time. I actually liked it b/c she couldn't go as fast as she normally does.

She really likes to take off and tests her boundaries ALL THE TIME. I would think she would know by now not to go near the street, but no, it is a daily learning lesson for her. She actually runs towards the road or the neighbors yard when she thinks I'm not looking. (Fortunately I'm always looking.) The boys had no desire to leave the yard and I never had any problems keeping them off the road. Callie has been saying a lot of new words lately. She really tries to repeat anything I say, especially when the boys are downstairs playing and I call them up for lunch. She stands at the top of the stairs and yells a whole bunch of gibberish down at them. Once she really starts talking I doubt she'll stop! She says apple, baby, duckie, Hunter, Tate, juice, more, all done, thank you, Callie and several other words. She is starting to learn the different sounds animals make. She likes to dance and shout.
She has a HUGE smile and likes to show it off a lot, especially to the boys. I think she has them pretty much wrapped around her finger. She likes to kiss daddy.
She likes to climb(especially onto the table). She likes to look at books. This morning Brent went in to Hunter and Tate's room to find her sitting cross-legged on their little green chair reading a book to herself. She jabbers to herself, turns the page and then jabbers some more. It's pretty cute. She likes her princess dress I found at a garage sale. (I didn't even know they made princess dresses this small!!)She likes to mooch off other peoples food, as she's doing here with Gramma Mary.

We sure do love our silly Callie girl!

What we've been up to...

We've gotten a LOT done on the house this past week. We're finally finished grant-wise with all the house stuff, our contractor is packed and gone. We're pretty happy with how everything turned out. I was very happy when, after the 80 degree day we had today, I went upstairs and did not feel like I was suffocating from heat like I am used to during the summer months. The insulation has been SO NICE! We got our downstairs utility room walls insulated also, and that's made a huge difference in the temps downstairs. I pretty much love everything. I can't believe this is my house. I won't get used to this ever I don't think. My brother and sister-in-law came up for the weekend to help us out, so Justin helped Brent with redoing the downstairs plumbing and getting the washer and dryer upstairs while Anna and I painted the foundation and I started on the garage. My friend, Nikki, came over on Sunday and helped me paint a lot more on the garage. It looks better than before, but its going to need at least one more coat. Today Brent spent all day(since he worked so long yesterday and will tomorrow he was home most of the day ) doing trim work and hanging our bi-fold doors. I painted a lot while the boys played very nicely outside and Callie napped. We spent all the rest of the evening after the kids were in bed trying to figure out the layout of our shelf in the mudroom. It was very frustrating with lots of complications and problems, but we(Brent actually) got it done. Brent left immediately for his night work and I can imagine he is VERY tired. We're going to have to take a break from the house stuff for the rest of the week I think. Here are some pictures of our progress:

(these are before the foundation was painted...we painted it the color of the shakes)The bookshelf Brent made me:
...the sign hanging by my washer.
...I can't let you see the rest of the laundry room just yet, its too messy)
...we're going to build a bench with a shoe shelf along this wall.
(the tile still has a lot of sheet rock dust on it)
...the other side of the room....this is what is above my bi-fold doors. I got it here.

Learning to use a Fork!

I'm so cute aren't I?!?

Hmmm, its a lot easier to use my fingers.

Oh, but I feel so BIG when I use a fork!!

Playing Dinos

Spring has Sprung!

It is absolutely BEAUTIFUL out today! We were outside all morning and had a picnic lunch on the front porch. I also painted Callie's toenails, which was fun for me. I love having both genders so I can participate in boy and girl stuff! Here are some pictures. And also, if anyone has any tips for keeping your 15 month out of the mud, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Blessed

I'm feeling really blessed with this remodel right now. I'm seeing things on the more finished side now, and it's starting to sink in that we actually WERE able to get this done. I sat this morning before church eating breakfast and drinking my coffee(I got up before the kids!!) and was so thankful for my new dining room space and the new addition we'll definitely soon be enjoying. It's more than I could have imagined. I painted the dining room Thursday night and Friday during nap/quiet time, and Brent put down the floor on Friday evening. We painted up some trim for the dining room yesterday and will be putting that on soon. The boys were VERY interested in helping Brent out with the floor. Tate brought up all his tools, or anything that looked like a tool(evidently the pizza spatula looked like a tool) and they both "helped" as much as we would let them. Here are some pictures:
The boys helping:




Before and after of the dining room:
Before the doorway was cut yesterday:

The new doorway:

And here are a couple pictures of my muddy children. A lady from church gave me some lady bug rain boots for Callie, except they were a little big. I put on her jelly sandals and then put on the boots, hoping they'd stay on better. They stayed on, but she's not so good with her balance and right after this picture was taken she fell face first into the puddle:
After getting her all changed I came out to find that Tate had gotten a little muddy himself.
This picture just screams of Tate's personality. Mud on his face, his toothless grin with a little drool coming out, and of course a boy's favorite attire: camouflage.

I think he ended up going through three outfits due to mud, and Hunter went through two and Callie through two. I had to go buy another thing of Oxy Clean b/c I'm running a little low. Hmmmmm, wonder why. Between mud and potty training my washer and dryer are getting a rather strenuous workout. Potty training is going pretty well, I think something clicked in Tate. He even woke up dry this morning!