We lived with this gap under our front door for about a week. Frank and Peter removed all of the mortar from under the tiles and cleaned up the floor which involved removing the threshold for the front door. Frank was then out of town for a week on a business trip. We shoved towels under the front door to try to stay a little warmer. It was really cold that week! Frank has since returned and fixed the threshold and we are much warmer at night. Still cold, but not freezing anymore. A new furnace is on our priority list (current one is tagged by SDG&E DO NOT USE!).
While Frank and Peter were cleaning up the mortar mess, they taped off the family room but forgot to tape off the stairs and close all the upstairs doors. This is how thick the dust was on the stairs. There's a thinner layer on everything in all of the rooms upstairs as well.
Empty room
We got reprimanded by our...err ahem I mean my genius way of plugging in all of the Christmas lights. I apparently did a major no no which could've resulted in a house fire. Frank says this is a common mistake amongst all people. I had three extension cords connected to a three outlet thingy that was then connected to another extension cord and then plugged into a timer into the wall. I thought it was a good idea. Frank explained why it was not. He then sent me to Home Depot with a list of supplies and he would fix it. He installed two of these four plug outlet boxes. This one under one of the eaves, and the second in the garage. Then he used heavy duty extension cords and wired them together and somehow they are all on the same timer which is located in a different outlet. I don't know how he did it, but it works wonderfully! They are specifically designed to be used for Christmas lights so we won't have any problems hanging them up next year.
Christmas Eve Connor enjoyed eating colored popcorn. We spent the holidays amongst the families as usual. We spent most of Christmas Eve shopping and spending time with the O's. We also opened all of our presents from the O's then as well. Everyone received jammies amongst other items.
We also did our traditional drive by of the luminaries in Westwood. There's something so neat about seeing streets lined with luminaries. When we got home it was bedtime and then Santa came. At 10:30 there was the sounds of power tools in our family room. The instructions were clearly misleading, there was no way someone with a regular screwdriver could puncture plastic enough to drill screws in. It was a late night followed by an early morning.
Connor enjoyed cooking breakfast
Gotta love the hairdo.
So this video is two videos in one. I don't know how I did it, but when you get to the end of the first video, then the second one starts. The first is of Connor being let out of the room to see what Santa brought him. The second is him playing with the kitchen.
After opening the kitchen at our house we went to my parents' house to see the stockings and the rest of the kids gifts. Connor got a rocking horse from us.
A tricycle from his great aunt and uncle.
And a toolbox from grandma and grandpa.
We also enjoyed blowing bubbles in the front yard.
After brunch we drove to Chris and Mary's and enjoyed some fun with them. We had dinner there and arrived home late.
Today we went to my parents' again. Abbie and Rafe arrived and we opened the rest of the presents and had breakfast. We hung out and enjoyed building a 3D puzzle, playing the Logo game and just chatting.
This evening we went to see Santa and Mrs. Claus in Poway! This was the coolest house I have ever seen. This family has been opening their house to do this for years. You walk up the driveway and get in a line to see Santa and watch a movie while you wait or you can walk through a few rooms of the house and then through the backyard that is just totally awesome!
Here's the staircase
One of the rooms all decked out with bears...I think this was my favorite! If you look slightly to the right of the photo you can see Temple Square-just left of Kermit.
Three little bears played the xylophone
This was the jungle themed room
As we left to go outside we were greeted by the Grinch.
These guys sang and danced for us.
Outside Connor enjoyed catching snow bubbles.
There was a whole village with giant houses. This was the inside of one of the houses.
I loved the blow up critters floating in the pool.
Here you can see some of the village.
Here's Mary and her kids. Shortly after they put Calvin in Santa's lap, he freaked out. Santa looks at Calvin and Calvin has the look of disgust staring back at Santa.
Connor on the other hand wouldn't look at Santa.
After sitting with Santa, Mrs. Claus handed out candy canes. Then behind the sleigh were bins of toys. Each child was allowed to choose one toy to take. Also on the property were cookies and hot chocolate and places to sit and eat. It was just amazing! The family that puts this on does it for 12 days before Christmas. They don't hold it on Sundays. Today was day 1. I don't know what the hours are, but we were there around 6:30 and left about 8:00. So to those of you with children or grandchildren-you have to check this house out!!!! It's on Joyas Court in Poway. As you start to get close there are signs that help you find the way.
A couple of days ago we got out our Christmas tree and started decorating it. This year we only hung the non-breakables as Connor really wanted to do it all by himself. We've managed to hang a few way up high once he's been in bed.
He carefully inspects each ornament before finding the perfect spot.
Connor has been really into all of the lights this year. So we walked along Christmas Card Lane last night. Connor liked the chilly polar bear.
We all liked Calvin and Hobbes
Then this morning Frank came over and Connor and I got kicked out of the house due to all the noise they were making. This lovely floor is now gone! We removed the little half wall that was here too.
Yes this is our living room. Isn't it lovely!
Peter and my dad watch as Frank removed the flooring. Actually each man took their turn doing the manly work.
The floor is all gone!
This is where the flooring moved to. Each bag weighs roughly 100 pounds. There's about 15 or so bags here.
While the guys did the manly work. Connor and I went to my parents' house and hung up their Christmas lights. My mom had bought new LED lights to replace their old regular lights...so....since they had no need for their other lights, I requested borrowing them so I could decorate our house. (We only had three little strands from the condo...not nearly enough to do the whole house.) Only problem was the ladder didn't reach nearly as high as I need to get to. Luckily the previous owners had put nails in the wood that they hung the lights on, so I just needed something very long to use to hook the lights onto the nails.
My mom suggested I use the pool sweep pole with a brush on the end. I could extend it long enough to reach all of the hooks. It was perfect!
Then this evening we went to Home Depot and picked up some more extension cords so we can light up all the lights. We also picked up a blow up Eeyore to keep my Pooh and Tigger company. Pictures to come shortly when we have everything up. Yes at our house it is beginning to look a lot like Christmas.
Last week was my Thanksgiving Break...Yes I get a whole week off of work! On Monday I watched 5 children at our house. We put up barriers to keep kids out of the living room that is totally under construction and strollers blocked the stairs. Connor knows to stay downstairs, but Calvin does not. Basically we stayed in the family room/kitchen and backyard. We played in the morning, then Calvin took a nap. When he got up it was Connor's turn. Then when everyone was awake we cleaned up and then walked to the park. The day went by pretty fast and the kids were all well behaved. When we got to the park Connor wanted to swing, so by default Calvin got to swing too. They both thoroughly enjoyed their time on the swings. They also played on rocking animals and the slides. We were only at the park about 30 minutes when Chris came to retrieve his kids.
Claire enjoyed the swings too.
The other two girls were off playing on the play structures...I don't have pictures of them.
On Tuesday Connor and I walked to the park again. It's maybe a 10 minute walk. Connor spent most of his time on the swings and then enjoyed the slide. He liked the twisty slide best.
Wednesday morning we watched the 5 kids again. Peter took the early morning shift 5-7am while I woke up around 7 and helped out until Mary came shortly after 8. After they left, we got in a little bit of cleaning and then people started arriving. Connor and I headed to my parents house to visit with my aunt and uncle.
On Thursday morning Abbie and Rafe arrived. Peter and my aunt got together in the morning to stuff the bird and inject it with some yummy sauce and then Peter baked it. While it was baking we went up to Hilltop Park to play around. Everett, Abbie, Rafe and my dad joined us there. Connor had a blast and was quite exhausted when we were done.
After a nap it was time for dinner. Connor sat in a big boy chair (he hates his booster seat now). After dinner he enjoyed playing a game of "eek a boo" under the table.
He also enjoyed fixing the little nook under the kids' counter with grandma's screwdriver. He pushed the shelf up so he had a place to sit.
After dinner Abbie, Rafe and I geared up for the big sales. We hit Walmart and Target. After waiting in line outside of Walmart that wrapped halfway around the store for about 30-45 minutes we were let in to the craziness inside. Okay it really wasn't that bad. At least not as bad as you see online. People were somewhat courteous and nice and there was no shoving. I headed straight for the toy section. I wanted a play kitchen that was advertized for $50 instead of the usual $80. I got back there and looked all around. Then I asked someone, who checked a paper of all the in stock items and she told me that that store didn't receive that item. "What?" Now really if you're going to offer doorbusters, you should make sure that every store has them. I could understand if they were all sold out, but that wasn't the case here. I was annoyed! Well after striking out I went to find Abbie and Rafe. They picked up movies for me but didn't find them in the piles that were on the discount. So we took the movies and the ad and what they wanted to buy up to the cash register. My blu-ray movies each rang up as 19.96, but when we showed the cashier that they were the ones in the ad, she fixed the price to the sale price of 8.96 and then took 3.00 off each because they rang up wrong. So I got two blu-rays for 5.96 each....so Walmart wasn't a total loss. Then it was on to Target. I picked up three more movies and that was it. The line to check out at Target was clearly longer and slower than the Walmart line. I swear we stood in line to leave FOREVER! We started our evening adventures at 7:40ish and returned home around 11:15. And my Christmas shopping...well the movies we're keeping, so I guess you can say I haven't started for anyone else.
Saturday afternoon Patty, Peter and I went to Walter Andersen's. Patty loved the train as so did Peter. I loved picking out all the flowers I wanted to buy. After that we went to Home Depot. We came home with a Christmas wreath like thing that smells really good for $5. We also walked by these super cute rocking horses. You pull the ear and the horse makes noises, wags it's tail and moves the head. (While visiting at his cousins' house Connor always plays on the rocking horse. He also loves the rocking animals at the park.) When we went to check out Peter had a horse under his arm. So I guess we have started our Christmas shopping.
Connor loves playing with kitchen tools. The tongs are his favorite.
Making breakfast-apple pancakes...yummy!
Cooking up some yummy ritz crackers
Here's what we've been up to with the house. We cleared out this side area. This would make a great place to ride bikes...for now it just stores the trash cans. On the left is a big storage shed. It's empty and we doubt we'll use it. Peter wants to get rid of it.
Here's the other side yard. We have been digging up rocks here.
Here's the backyard. Most of this concrete is going to go. What this picture doesn't show is that the concrete was poured on different levels. There's about four different heights of concrete in our backyard. The area under the gazebo will likely stay concrete as well as the patio by the door.
Here's the front lawn, or what is left of it. Last weekend we went prospecting for sprinklers. We found 16 sprinklers for this tiny lawn. I saw the pattern and told Peter where to start digging and sure enough we found several that were buried underground. Who needs 16 sprinklers for a lawn this size?
Looks like mole holes
I still can't get over the number of sprinklers.
In this little area we found three more sprinklers...so that makes 19. 19 sprinklers for the front grassy area. There's a running theme of many sprinklers around this house. There are a ton where our strawberries and peas are planted. There's also a lot along the dirt area leading up to the front door.
Here's a pot I planted with cilantro seeds a few weeks ago.
And here's the area that is planted with pea seeds.
Have I mentioned how many rocks we have found in our yard? Last weekend Frank emptied four buckets. This weekend he told us to empty all the buckets into his truck and he'll take them all to a co-worker who wants them. We're glad to get rid of the rocks...though there are several more that we haven't found yet. It's like digging for buried treasure in our yard. Everywhere you dig you'll find rocks.
Today Frank put up scaffolding and mudded our living room. Our goal is to have the downstairs complete by Christmas.
