Thanksgiving Week

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.

What we have been up to

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.

In Loving Memory

When I went to pick Connor up after work today my dad told me that Gracie died this morning.  Last night we noticed her breathing kind of hard and she didn't get up to play with Connor outside.  My dad took her to the vet first thing this morning and the vet wasn't going to be in until about 9am.  He was told to take her to the Emergency vet.  He did and they ran some tests and took x-rays and found a large cancerous tumor on her heart.  He was told they could drain some of the liquid to help alleviate some of the pressure she was feeling, but the prognosis wasn't good.  She didn't have much time left.  While waiting to do more tests she passed away. 

Connor took my dad out in the yard twice today to look for dog poop. 

Best Buddies

She liked to keep a close eye on Connor and she LOVED to swim.

 She would've been 10 years old next week.

 We love you Gracie!

Connor is 2

Yesterday Connor turned 2. He had a great birthday and enjoyed opening gifts.  

I got clothes and sandals (not pictured)

And this really cool bike.  I enjoyed "helping" daddy assemble it.

In the beginning Connor had more fun assembling the bike than anything else.  It was like the kid that would rather play with the box than what is in it.  Except he wanted to assemble more.  But once he realized he could ride this thing...he was off and rolling.  He hasn't got the concept of using the pedals just yet, but that will come soon.

Look at me, I'm Two!

Here's my birthday cake.  I helped with the sprinkles.

Everyone is singing to me.

After everyone sang I blew out my candle.

Then while the camera was not recording my candle was lit again and I blew it out again.

This evening when we got home, there was a large package on the doorstep.  It was a turtle sandbox!

Just before dinner Connor decided to help himself to some leftover cake.

I think he thoroughly enjoyed his birthday!

Halloween Fun

 A couple days prior to Halloween we carved pumpkins.  Connor enjoyed taking the seeds out of the pumpkin.

 

On Halloween when my mom got home from work she opened up the big bag of candy for the trick or treaters and gave Connor a piece.  He hasn't had much candy before so this was a real treat.  Then he was told that if he put on his costume and carried a bucket around to the neighbors he would get more candy.  He then let me put his costume on him and we went around the cul de sac.  He had so much fun we decided to keep on going so we went around the block.

Daddy dressed up too.

He was so cute with his bucket.

At one point Daddy ran back home to get a bag to help hold Connor's candy, but Connor didn't like the idea of parting with any of his candy.  So he continued on basically dragging his bucket at the end.

When we were done walking around the block.  We hopped in the car and went to visit Grandma and Grandpa O.  Connor showed off his costume and then promptly took it off.  He then dumped out and showed his loot to everyone.  He even sampled a few pieces.

It was a long night and he thoroughly enjoyed Halloween.  He now really understands the concept of candy.

Here are a few cute pictures from this evening.  Peter was making dinner and so was Connor.

Would you like ravioli or chicken noodle soup?

Now who put the candy bucket just out of my reach?

This Weekend's Adventures

Frank took the weekend off and helped fix a friend's car (cause when he's not at his normal job, he's fixing houses and when he's not fixing houses he fixes cars-he has a lot of talents.)  It was nice not to have to work on the house...though we did anyway. Actually we had two carnivals to go to and I was glad to have Peter come along.

In the morning we worked on the yard a bit. Peter cut back and removed more of the overgrown morning glories that were all over the side fence. Now the fence is bare and it is really leaning over...We'll have to prop it up for a little while before we take on replacing that. Connor and I enjoyed planting a rose bush in the front little planter area. Then we filled up two of our empty planter pots with soil and planted bell pepper, chives, and cilantro seeds in them. Oh and I'm super excited...our bean seeds have sprouted!

 Above: Before, Below: After

We ran out of green garbage cans again and it's not green week this week.  

I think we'll have to go buy a few.  This area looks so much cleaner.  Don't you just love the fence?

Do you see the bean sprouts?

I think for family home evening tomorrow we're going to buy more soil for fruits and veggies and then get started on planting our pea seeds. We also have radish and carrot seeds. The carrot seeds we got are for multicolored carrots-pink, purple, white, yellow and orange...It sounds so fun!

After a rather short nap, Connor, Peter and I went to my parents' house to pick up the costumes. I was going to be Pooh and so was Connor (yes we already had the 24month costume-it's roughly 9 years old). Well I put my costume on and with the 87 degree heat we were having I knew there was no way I was going to make it as Pooh. So we found the box of costumes and plan b was to be a clown. Though the clown costume had a few flaws that needed fixing. So it was on to plan c. I went to work as a scarecrow! I wore sunglasses and nobody recognized me until I started talking. It was pretty fun. Connor refused to put on his Pooh suit, so he went to the carnival as himself. He was really cute! He didn't understand why everyone looked so strange. I think most people scared him. He played a couple of games and then really just wanted to dig in the dirt. After the work carnival we headed to Sprouts to buy pumpkins and then headed home to make soup for our church carnival. We arrive and see that one of the games involved throwing darts at balloons. Well when the first balloon popped, Connor's face filled with great sadness and crocodile tears started flowing. Then another balloon popped and he was set off screaming. Peter and Connor roamed the halls of the church until all of the balloons had been popped.  While roaming the halls, Connor would run up to a dark spot and then point to his shirt (it glowed in the dark).  He had fun finding dark spots to show off his shirt.  Then when the coast was clear they entered the gym again and had some dinner. After dinner, Connor played a fishing game and got some funny lips. Then he went to a big pumpkin and pulled a tootsie pop out, he didn't win another tootsie pop, but left the game with three tootsie pops (it was the end of the night and Connor didn't understand the rules, and the girl hosting the game said it was okay.)

Today Connor enjoyed two more big tomatoes. He plucked one off the vine and gobbled it up. Peter saw one that split open and plucked it off. Connor saw it and enjoyed eating that one too. Last week he plucked and ate all of the ripe cherry tomatoes-there were six or seven of them. He's also enjoyed a few more strawberries.

Kitchen back splash and front yard

The back splash is in!  We love it, we enjoy sitting back and staring at it.  The only thing left to do is seal it, which we will do.  My mom will come and do the touch up painting and then Frank will be back next weekend to do the final caulking.

I love how he finished off the side by the sink.

Here is an up close look at the tile and marble.  Peter loves how the marble turned out, he wants to do tumbled marble in the bathroom too.

These two are the before pictures of the planter area that is by the sidewalk.  I weeded and removed more rocks than I care to count from this area.  The previous owners used rocks in everything! 

 

This is the planter area near the house.  We planted strawberries and bean seeds.  Connor has enjoyed plucking two strawberries already.

We also planted tomatoes, lettuce and green onions last week.

 The front planter we filled in with plants that we had in our window boxes from the condo.  Nothing spectacular, but nicer than what was already there.

 We have two pentas, some carnations, primrose, something red that I can't think of the name for, and several freesia bulbs that we found.  Should they live-great, if not, oh well-they look nicer than rocks.

 With the window boxes empty, we decided to plant succulents in them.  The house has three window box shelves.  Two in the front and one in the back by the kitchen window.  As luck would have it, we have three window boxes.  Here's the first one all decked out.  Next weekend we'll have to go to the farmer's market and get more plants to finish the other two boxes.

Next weekend's plan of action is replacing the sliding glass door and the last window in the master bedroom.