Easter at Mace's

Yesterday Damon, Sashank and Josh finished framing the basement. There is only a little bit of soffit work and some of the ceiling by the stairs that needs finished. Mac, Nolan and I hung out for most of the afternoon. I don't know how people with more than one small child do it! It was a lot of fun, but I was tired by the end of the day!

Today we went to Mace's at 10am. We visited for a while and McKenna was quite the entertainer. There was a valentine's day balloon that was still floating. It would sing if you hit it and Mac thought that was pretty cool!

--Here is Kade and the balloon--

Then, we ate Easter lunch. There was ham, rolls, corn, potatoes, bread, snickers salad, and I brought an asparagus dish. Emmi really outdid herself and made me a HOMEMADE angelfood cake with vanilla pudding and strawberries, YUM. And then she made a really yummy strawberry pie. Spoiled!

--Easter dinner from one side--

--And from the other--

--Here I am blowing out my candle--

Then I got to open presents (I feel too old for presents, but was still fun!) Kathy and Denny got me a book about Italy and other places in the world, and a gift card to borders. Emmi and Mark got me the amazing cake, and some yummy body wash (not tasting, just smelling.) Glenn and Edna got me some money to spend in Italy and Edna made me a really neat herb quilted decoration. McKenna got me a card and Josh put her hand prints on the inside...but since we didn't have paint, he used wood glue. Very cute. The card is about sticky frosting, so it is very fitting :) Josh got me rack for the car to hold my bike, some Italian software, and a to-be-chosen piece of jewelry, YAY! Overall a wonderful easter/bday!

--here is a cute pic of Mac watching her crazy cousin Kade--

--and here is what Mac was watching--


--Running and playing with Nikki--

After Easter dinner, Kathy, Denny, Josh, Emmi and Mark all went to Kathy and Denny's to tear apart their kitchen. Their fridge is about on its last leg, and they can't find one with the right dimensions. And since they have remodeled the rest of the house, time for a new kitchen.

--Here is the kitchen before demo--

--And here it is after--

More pictures to come later of stylish new kitchen!

My Neice the Cheerleader

Here are some cute pix of Tali and her cheer squad. Go Ames cyclones!

--She is second from the left--

--Aren't they cute :)--

My uncle's multi-million dollar home

The discovery channel featured the heating/cooling system that my uncle had installed. He is building a "green" house in Denver, and it is amazing! Check it out!

Fun rainy days

Today was a wonderful, do-nothing, rainy day. Usually we have Kindermusik on Mondays, but since it is spring break, there was no class today. So, we ventured to the post office to mail Brandon's bday gift, and went grocery shopping. On our way to the store I told Mac that we needed milk, yogurt, and bananas. So the whole time we were in the store she kept reminding me, "milk, gurt, nana?" It was hilarious. She surprises me as to what her brain is capable of. I also got her laughing so hard she fell on the floor and was gasping for air. We were pretending to be doggies, and apparently my dog impression is hilarious? Who knew? I wish I could have captured it on tape.

--not as funny as earlier, but here we are playing doggie and tickle monster. Yes she snorted, and yes rylee hit her in the face with her toy, but it didn't hurt--

I am longing for the days of going to the park and on walks. I know my stir crazy dog is as well. We got a little tease of 60 degree weather, but then it fell back into the 30s-40s....darn mother nature. But I think next week we will be park-bound!

We try to make bath time educational, since we have a captive audience, so we went over all her colors today. I think we will move on to counting to 5 next. She knows the numbers...but not the order....

--here she is washing Dipsy (it is our trick to let us wash her) she washes the Teletubby, then whe washes herself, very sneaky--

--and here we are showing the world that, yes, she does have hair--

Josh and Baca also worked their bums off this weekend in the basement. They finished framing the bathroom, bathroom closet, and most of the storage room. The only thing left to frame is the ceiling around the heating vents and the very tricky framing around the intake air from the furnace. He cleverly designed a shelving system that will minimize the weirdness of that wall. And he gave me my coveted linen closet in the bathroom. It cramps the style of his storage/mechanical room, but I am eternally grateful :)

--Here is a view from the main room, looking at the stairs and the bathroom (don't worry, we are getting new lighting for the bathroom once the drywall is in)--

--This is the view from the stairs looking down. You will see a door that opens on the left, that's the bathroom, and straight ahead will be the storage/mechanical room--

It really feels like it is coming together! Josh and I hashed out a lighting/electrical plan. Well, he and mark talked about a plan, and he wrote down what he wanted, and I inserted my opinion....so how the lights will actually turn out is TBD, but I really don't care, as long as I can see! So the next few weekends will be final framing, electrical, inspection, drywall, flooring, basement warming party! Woohoo!

Early birthday celebration

Josh and Damon met with a client this morning; it is their first paying client for Cornfield Media, so very exciting! Then Josh bought the lighting for the basement. His parents are coming to help work on it tomorrow.

Damon's birthday was earlier this month, and mine is later, so we chose today to go out to eat. We chose the Cheesecake Factory, and quickly decided it is not kid friendly. We now have 4 adults and two kids. There is not a table in the place that seats over 4 except booths (and they don't work so well with high chairs). We managed to fit into a booth, Mac's high chair was against the table, and she kicked Damon and me. Then Nolan's car seat holder was in the middle of the aisle, and he spent most of the night on Shelly's lap. We had a good time...but these are things you don't think about with one or no children!

--We are trying to force spring by wearing cute spring clothes (thanks auntie april!)--

--you can't tell Mac to say cheese, or she gets this crazy look on her face and shouts "Cheeeese"--

--before the Gentrys got there, arranging our silverware, note the barrette on the left side...we finally got her to keep one in her hair!--

--yay for family and cheesecake (again we told her to say cheese)--

--Damon, Nolan and Shelly; happy 30th Damon--

After we got home, Josh started work on the web, and Mac and I played. We headed upstairs to tell daddy goodnight, and Mac decided she wanted to play her Elmo computer game with Daddy for a while.

--playing Elmo game on the left, while simultaneously writing code on the right (young programmer in the making)--

Gavin's blog

Kim finally sent me an invite to her blog and I am LOVING reading about Gavin's adventures. Can you tell these two are cousins?

--Here is Mac at 3 months (man how she has changed!)--

--Here is a recent photo of Gavin (7 months-ish)--

Genetics are funny :)

Fun, useless information

There are certain things that I don't want to forget at this age...so this may be a boring blog to all but her mom :)

Mac's favorite foods:

Every morning she asks for "oatmea, nana and jutce" so we have a routine where she chooses which oatmeal packet she wants, then waits for the microwave to "beeeep!" She also loves eating yogurt and daddy's cereal for breakfast!

She isn't really a picky eater, which makes my job easy! She likes to eat what we are eating, but is a little less adventurous when I make spicy things like curry or spicy shrimp. She will now eat meat if it is cut into minuscule dinky little pieces. She can also completely feed herself (which she has been able to do for at least 6 months) but it is much less messy that it used to be.

If she is reluctant to sit and eat, we can usually trick her by letting her choose which bib, fork, spoon and cup she uses. This makes her feel like she is making very important decisions, and that she MUST be involved in the meal.

Favorite words:

It seems like she learns a new word everyday. I think it helps that we have such long drives to and from work that we get to sing and talk together on. She knows all of her colors "lellow, back, bue, geen, bown, et (red), range (orange), purpo, pink" it started as a bathtime game and she really picked up on them quickly. We also sing the ABC song...sometimes for 30 minutes alllll the way to Heathers (sorry daddy.) And she does pretty good on the ABC.....EFG......EFG....P.....T......Z.........me. That is basically how her song goes. She lives EFG...so it gets in there twice. She will also ask for "more baa baa, pease" which means she would like to listen to baa baa black sheep (still her favorite song) on repeat...over and over and over.....I think we have both learned to tune it out.

I love how she says please. I NEED to get it on camera. She cocks her head to one side and looks innocently at you and says "peeeeease" it is the cutest thing since she used to ask for "mooooooore." We are still working on thank you, but she seems to be a pretty polite kid.

Fun quirks:

I have also learned some tricks from Kindermusik. Apparently if you sing the "put the toys away" song McKenna instantly becomes a cleaning machine. Mac already is very neat. She hates to have things out of place or messy (lucky mommy) but sometimes before bed she is a little reluctant to clean. So we sing the song we learned at Kindermusik together:

Mommy:
Let's put the toys away
Let's put the toys away
Away, away, away, away
Let's put the toys away
Thank you

McKenna:
toy away
toy away
way way way way
toy away
ta you

McKenna is also an excellent tooth brusher. We make faces in the mirror. I have one tooth brush and she gets the other. We growl, yell, stick out our tongues...quite fun!

Mac loves to keep every door in the house closed. She will go around and close them all. I have to go around and open them when she isn't looking to keep the air circulating in the house!

She is a great sleeper going to bed about 8:30. We usually try to read a story, although lately she likes to take a book over in a corner and "read" it herself. Then we sing and rock for a few minutes and she is out until 7am! Lucky us again! Thank you daylight savings for changing her habits. She used to get up at 6:30 and it was not nearly as convenient.

Movement:

She has been jumping for a few months now, but is really starting to perfect it. We are trying to hop on one foot (which is much harder.) She is very good at kicking balls right where she wants them to go (future soccer star...I think so!) She loves running and hide and seek has become one of her favorite games. Her best hiding places are behind the rocking chair, in her closet, and next to the fireplace. She would play this all day if we didn't distract her into doing something else. Mac has been wanting to "walk" up and down the stairs now, with assistance.

Well this is quite long. I will probably do a more detailed "what is mac up to" blog on her 2nd bday...which is quickly approaching! I can't believe she is almost 2!!!

Funny photo ops

Here are some fun adventures that haven't made it into the blog:

When we play fetch with Rylee, we usually have to get down on all fours and growl like a dog to get her to release the ball. Sometimes Mac will just pretend to be a doggie, growling, barking and crawling. Pretty funny.

--Grrrrr--

--playing with one of her favorite christmas gifts, the choo choo from grampa rue--

McKenna is very good at helping me with laundry. She dumps all the laundry on the floor and then I fold it. She loves to sit in the laundry basket, and we pretend she is in a train, car, whatever. I push her all over and she has a blast.

--holding her favorite toys, the telletubbies--

Basement

The basement is trucking right along. This weekend I had class. I am taking a class that runs for three weekends, but when I am finished, I have 3 credits...so hard to pass up. I went to class from 5-10pm Friday, and then 8-5pm Saturday. Gona and Baca came down to help Josh install a fan in the soon to be downstairs bathroom.

--I am glad I wasn't home to see them drilling into the hard wood floor in the closet--

Later that day, Aunti Em, Tali and Kade came over. Auntie Em watched Mac and the kids played video games and made brownies. Then, they all headed south to watch Mark go skydiving, and to bring brownies to the skydiving crew.

--Quite the photogenic crew--

After Saturday, the bathroom was completely prepped for the plumbers to come today. Josh and Baca ran a fan, and got the room ready for the tub to be installed. Today, the plumbers came out at 7:30. They ran water to where the sink will be, and installed pipes to vent out the smelly toilet water. They installed the tub and will be back out once we have the drywall done, and the toilet picked out to finish.

--Here is the fully installed, fully functional, very dirty shower--

--doesn't look like much, but lots of pipes and vents, going lots of places--

Basement is really coming together. Mark came out and went over all the electrical plans with Josh, so the next few weekends will be running electrical, finishing the mechanical room, and framing the few walls that we have left. Can't wait until its done!

We booked it!

Thought I would post a quick note to let everyone know we booked our hotel in Rome!!! Most of the photos are in flash, so I couldn't copy and paste them from the website - but you are free to check them out at
Eurostars International Palace

--Here is a photo I found of a band playing behind the hotel :)--

We are really excited because the hotel is right near Via Nazionale and the heart of Rome. That way we will be able to walk to all of the cool destinations, and not have to worry about a car! We are counting down the days till our trip!

Sars

I am finally recovering from what I would call the worst sickness I have ever had. It started two weeks ago with achiness, then a fever, throwing up, continued fever and runny nose. Then I started to feel better, then I lost my voice for three days. Finally on Friday I couldn't stop coughing and had a fever again, followed by upper respiratory problems. But, after three days in bed, many many hours of Lost and many many boxes of Kleenex, I would like to announce that I have beaten you Sars, bird flu, the plague, or whatever it is that I had. Thanks for all of the concern...but I am okay, and luckily, no one else in my house got it! Thanks to Josh, Gona and Baca who watched Mac while I recovered!

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!

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--

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!

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.

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 :)

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!--

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!

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!