Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Basement

We are very excited at the progress in the basement. I have been doing my best to give Josh every Saturday to work down there. We (well he) now has the following rooms completely framed: guest room, guest closet, networking and audio/video closet, main room, and McKenna's understair hideout. He has the soffit lines done, just needs to figure out how lighting will be run before those are installed. All we have left is the small under stair office (josh's idea), bathroom, and mechanical room! The hardest part is deciding how to do the cabinets, and where we want lighting/electrical.

Our hope is to get it done by May 15th, when Gramma Rue comes to watch Mac while we are in the Mediterranean. We'll see how realistic that dream becomes as time gets closer!

Somehow Josh keeps conning his friends into coming over and helping. Sashank had never really worked with tools before, but his wife and son are in India visiting family, so he came over and spent Saturday with Josh.

--this picture is to prove to his wife he can use power tools--

Sounds like he is coming over this weekend as well. Thanks for helping Sashank!

Monday, February 25, 2008

Winter Weather Warning....AGAIN

I am SOOOO tired of winter weather warnings. Mondays are my day to hang out with Mac and we made the best of the crazy weather, and had a great day anyway. I have been getting over the worst flu I have ever had, and even though I couldn't sing, we stuck to our Monday routine. We go to Kindermusik at 9:30, then usually run errands. We play games in the afternoon, have lunch, nap, and usually take cheesy pictures after she wakes up. Today we mailed a book to Lily after Kindermusik. We are part of a book chain. You mail a book to one child, and if everyone participates, you get 36 books in return! Sounds like a cool deal to me! Lily is Kevin's friend. She lives in Raleigh, and we hope she likes the book we picked out!

After nap today we watched the BIGGEST snowflakes start to fall.

--Hard to tell, but the snowflakes are as big as golf balls--

--view from our deck--

--Mac checkin out the flakes--

--She watched the snow for at least 15 minutes--

--Saying "mommy snooooow"--

--Cheesin for the camera with her FAVORITE toys the teletubbies--

--tucking bear in for a nap--

We decided that since the weather was yucky, we would go through her closet. Mac has been small since she was about 9 months, and has been a little behind in sizes. She is just now starting to outgrow her 18 month stuff. We brought out the 2T jammies tonight. It is a little sad, because I remember when we bought them, they looked SOOO big! I can't believe how fast she is growing!

--sporting her new 2T jammies--

Friday, February 15, 2008

Happy Valentine's Day

McKenna got spoiled with Valentines this year! She got candy from Cole at daycare, a gift basket of fun goodies from her nanny Heather, hugging bears from Gona and Baca, and a cute valentine from Grandma Watson!

At our house we make valentines - they are more fun that way!

Josh made me a dozen oragami roses. They are awesome! And they will keep a lot longer than real ones!

--very pretty!--

Last year Gona and Baca gave Mac an outfit from China. We have been anxiously waiting for her to fit into it! So we spent the day before Valentine's Day taking pictures to make this valentine for Daddy:

--she is the perfect subject--

We had a lot of fun shooting others as well!

--chillin on the stairs in her warrior suit--

--up close--

--calling china to thank them for the cute duds--

I had also asked Emmi to help me with a funny gift for Josh. I gave this little frog that sings and flashes you to Emmi to put in Josh's office (since they work together.) I called her at 1 because I hadn't heard from Josh. She had forgotten in all of the hubub of valentine's day with the kids. Luckily she was willing to rush home and retrieve the flashing frog. I get a frantic phone call telling me that the frog didn't work! I am willing to give up at this point, but luckily she saved the day and exchanged the frog for a working model. THANKS EMMI!!!


--Josh, you're unbelieveable :) --

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY TO ALL!

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Tali and Nikki spend the night

Yesterday was Tali's winter ball. For whatever reason she couldn't go to the ball, but the girls did come to our house! Gona and Baca came over in the morning to help with the basement and play with Mac. Then the girls came over around 1 to hang out. They helped me make home made pizza dough. Then we put toppings on them and baked them in the oven. Josh taught them to play settlers, and we enjoyed some sparkling cider to celebrate the occasion.

--There most poshist of posh looks--

--Here they are toasting the pizza and settlers of catan--

After dinner it was time to run around and be silly. Mac LOVED Tali and Nikki and soon would rather hang out with them than lame old mom and dad. They played follow the leader, hide and go seek, and did silly things like dog pile and run around the house screaming:

--Here they are playing ballerina--

--watching nikki be a monster--

--hangin out on the floor in her "baa baa" jamies--

--one of the girls--

--playing hide and go seek (pretty good hiding place I think!)--


--here is some general sillyness--

After Mac went to bed we watched Austin Powers. Tali and Josh have been quoting the "moley moley moley" line for years, and she has never seen it! Then, I got sleepy and went to bed while everyone else stayed up and watched 28 Days Later and had popcorn.

We had such a good time with Mac's cousins! They are both so attentive and fun to hang around with! You can tell that Mac just loved playing with them! In the morning we made pancakes and I taught them how to do eyeliner without looking like a raccoon :)

We sure hope to do this again soon!!!

My dog has OCD

For the longest time I have been meaning to blog about this. Rylee has OCD. Every night we feed her 1 cup of food. And every night she eats EXACTLY one half of her food, leaving the other half until the next day....

--this is too weird to make up--

Keep in mind I did not arrange her food like this, she does this. Always the left side first, then the right the next day.....crazy dog.

Friday, February 08, 2008

Fun ramblings

This morning Mac woke up at 4:30! In an attempt to get her to go back to sleep I got her a drink and took it up to her. I covered her up and closed the door. I only filled the drink half full, because otherwise it could leak in her bed. At 6:00 I heard a quiet, "mama, more? mama, more?" Then a much louder and more emphasized, "mama, MORE! MAMA MORE!" I go in her room and she starts giggling and holding her empty cup up, expecting more drink. Then she proceeded to tell me "oh no, baby owie me" I guess she bumped her head against her doll and wasn't too happy :)

Tonight we picked out some new flannel "ba ba" jammies that have sheep on them. She had to point at every sheep and let me know "two ba ba, two ba ba, two ba ba" she thinks that all letters are A and all numbers are 2. At least we are on the right track!

Then we sang "rock by baby" together and she asked for "bea, baney, baby and ba-ba" (bear, blankey, doll and doll's bottle).

Good night my sweet princess :)

Sunday, February 03, 2008

So Tired

I was looking through some pictures and forgot to blog about this one. A few weeks ago, Mac was sort of getting over a cold. I have never seen her do this, she was so tired she actually fell asleep eating! Definitely a first for her!

--So sleepy!--

Saturday, February 02, 2008

Busy Weekend

We are only half way through this weekend and it has already been very eventful. Today Josh spent his whole day in the basement. I just realized I have yet to put pictures up of the project.

--Damon creating the entry way to Mac's fort under the stairs--

--Josh standing in the new guest room, aka Gramma Rue's room--

--Mac figuring out what all that noise is downstairs--

We have realized that finishing the basement is a lot more work than we thought...well I haven't done any "work" yet, but I have watched Josh do a lot of work! And I have diligently shopped for colors, bathroom fixtures, baseboards, etc. I have also done a great job of coming down and inserting my opinion.

Today, Nolan got to come over and play while Damon helped Josh for a few hours. I think having the extra help really makes things go 4 times as fast. Today he got the entire guest room finished, and started the "fort" under the stairs for McKenna.

I always enjoy the days because it is just me and Mac, and we get to play all day. Any time Josh used the nail gun, or saw, she would say "oh no, daddy owie?" It was hilarious. And at times when the air compressor would turn on, she would run to me and say, "oh no!"

Tonight Josh went to play poker with some friends in Ames. We tried bean burritos for the first time. She loved them, but made quite a mess :)

--This is not spots on the lens....it is bean burrito on her face--

Tomorrow Josh and Mac are going to Perry to visit Grandma and Grandpa Great. They are going to hear all about Gona and Baca's adventures in Africa. I am stuck working the superbowl, so I am sure the store will be a ghost town. Oh well, time to catch up on other work!

Friday, February 01, 2008

Talking is Fun

I have been doing my best to capture Mac's cute little sayings, so that I can tell her all about what she was interested in at 21 months:

"Mommy sit down"
"no doggie, get down"
"time ew eat?" (time to eat?)
"wach la la po?" (watch lala and po) from Telletubies, she LOVES that show for some reason
"give Mommy ball"
"bea, baney, dink?" (bear, blankey, drink) before bed she gets them all together to read stories
"oh no!" very dramatic
"go po-po!" I think that is self explanatory - potty training in the near future!
"rock by baby" (rock a by baby)
"choo choo, nina nina nina nina" (choo choo, dinah dinah dinah dinah) a song we sing about a book from Kindermusik
"ah dun naw" (all done now)
"notty" (naughty)
"time go"

These are just some of the fun things she is saying. I know there are many I am missing...but thought I would write them down while I had a minute!

We are anxiously awaiting Gona and Baca's return from Africa! They should be getting home tonight! We also agreed to have Energy Doctor come out and install some thin foil lining over our insulation in the attic. It will reduce our energy bills by 25%, and is good for the environment.

I started classes two weeks ago. I am taking Psych Disorders, and Diversity. Both are very interesting, but have a lot of reading. Now I know what doctor's have to go through with all the dry subject matter. Reading a 900 page book that is meant to be a reference for mental illness is not my cup of tea!