Florida, we miss you already! (Part 2 - Clearwater Beach)

After Disney World we spent the next three days at Clearwater Beach. It was amazing! The weather was perfect, our hotel was right on the beach plus it had a pool, and the girls absolutely loved it!

 We got to Clearwater late afternoon but the girls were anxious to see the beach so we went out for a little bit and Chris found some kind of sea creature right on the beach. I still don't know what it was but Ava enjoyed looking at it.

 The ocean water was pretty cold so Chris let Sadie take a ride on his shoulders.

 The first night at the beach Chris went out to get us food for breakfast in the morning and when we came back he said he wanted to show me something. He took me out on our 5th floor balcony and this is what I saw. I had to wait until morning to take a picture because it was too dark and I was so relieved to find it still there in the morning. It was huge too.

 We bought a few sand toys for the girls and they were very entertained with that. The sand was so white and fine it was perfect for playing in.

 Chris and the girls running from the waves. It quickly became Sadie's favorite game.

 Chris buried Ava in the sand....she is actually standing up in this picture.....and then had to pull her out. She doesn't look like she is enjoying it, but she really did. I promise. He buried her several different times.

 Sadie is a little camera shy so they only way to get her to actually let me take a picture with her looking at me and smiling is to tell her NOT to look at me and smile. Works every time.

 Chris also found this perfectly preserved horse shoe crab.

 As long as the sun was shining it was warm enough to get in the pool. I'm kind of a wuss though so as soon as a cloud came by I'd be freezing again. But we had weather in the 70's the whole time and lots of sunshine......

 Chris didn't know it yet, but he has a sunburn to prove it!

The girls and I getting warm in our towels on our last day at the beach.

The trip home was long but the girls did really well. They were nice to each other, they didn't cry or complain (even though Ava got carsick on the way to the airport and threw up) and we finally made it to Denver after 14 hours of traveling. Unfortunately we came home to a snow storm and we had to stay near Denver and come home the next morning. But we finally made it. I'm glad to be home but I just have to say.....I'm freezing my buns off!! I miss the Florida sunshine already.

Thanksgiving

This weekend for Thanksgiving all of Chris's brothers and his sister were in town. Ava and Sadie had a blast with their cousins.  Here are just a few (literally only 3) from this weekend.

 Sadie takes her first boy/girl cousins bath with Roman and Madden.

 Best friend/cousin Kate reads a book to Ava and Roman. She may be 6 years older but she is such a good friend to Ava. They even got to have sleepover!

The kids have more fun playing in grammy's rocks (pebbles) than almost anything else.

We had a great Thanksgiving weekend and hope you did too. Now we are off to Disney World!! WAHOO!!



more on the house

We are still moving right along. Dad's here doing some finishing work and then we'll start painting next week. The doors and trim are now on. Below is a picture of my bathroom door (the open one) and the closet. I couldn't get a good picture of the trim. Sorry.

 These are some of the shelves in our closet. There are some on the other side as well (except smaller because they are Chris's and he doesn't need much.)

 Here is the door to the storage closet under the stairs in the basement.

 It's hard to tell but this area will actually eventually have shelves and doors and be my food storage closet.

 Just a shot of one end of the basement.

On your way back up the stairs before turning the corner and going up you'll see this fancy little nook I had my dad build for me.

Like I said, paint next week. After that we are in the home stretch and it'll be done before we know it.

Halloween 2011

Halloween costumes are sort of like prom dresses and wedding dresses. Wear 'em once and then you're done. Kind of a waste of money. But we celebrated Halloween four different times this year so it made things a bit more worth it. Plus my girls love dress up so into the dress up box the costumes will go.

 First we celebrated by doing "parade through downtown" that the library puts on every year. I don't know if that's what it's actually called but basically we put on our costumes and walk up and down 3rd street and the businesses hand out candy. There is usually a good turnout and it gives the kids another chance to wear their costumes. Above the girls are waiting for the parade to start. Below we are still waiting but this time with Batman (Paul), Robin (Wyatt), and a member of the Red Sox (Rylee).

 Friday night was our ward Trunk or Treat. I was tempted to try and pass it off as our actual Halloween and be done with it.....but we didn't.

 Sadie, my little cowgirl, eating dinner (or a sucker) at trunk or treat.

 Ava and I showing off our costumes. Maybe I didn't mention this, but in case it isn't obvious, Ava is a Princess. Sadie is a cowgirl riding a horse, and I was a cat. And not to be outdone, Chris put on a dreadlocks wig and some Birkenstocks.  Unfortunately he is not pictured.

 Above you see Sadie taking a drink break while we are trick or treating. Apparently walking around with horse attached to you is a lot of work. We stopped for a drink break in between almost every house.

 Here are the girls with friend Rylee waiting for the door to open.

Rylee's dad went a little Clark W. Griswald Jr. on us this year for Halloween so we took a picture with the kiddo's in front of one of his displays. So cute!

And finally, Sadie is in potty training. We'll see how long it lasts. I think I tried 3 times with Ava (for half a day) before I finally stuck with it. She's got a rash that just won't go away so I figure potty training is the only solution. Wish us luck! She's a big girl now.

p.s. scroll down for the latest pictures on our house.

Latest House Pictures

I realize it's been a while since I've posted any pictures of our addition but really there wasn't a whole lot to show.  Here's where we are at now and what went on the last month.

 Dad and Dan put in windows and finish the siding. We also have our roof on. Our new addition and the old part of the house have different siding and different roofs now but in the next few years (yes years) we'll match the existing house to the new.

 As for the inside, the plumbing and electric have are in place as well as the furnace and vents. WAHOO!!

 Right now the drywallers are here and the inside of the house is really starting to take shape.

 This is looking down the hallway from inside our dining room. The first door on the right is our existing bathroom and the second door on the right is the now mechanical room.  The first door on the left is the baby's room, but someday guest room. Our room is straight down at the end of the hall and the stairs to the basement are just before that on the left.

 Baby's room getting drywall.

 The Master bedroom (part of it). Our bed will be approximately where the ladder is in between the two windows. There is also a window to the left that isn't visible. The closet and bathroom are on the right. (don't know why I didn't take pictures of that...sorry.)

And the stairs to the basement. I didn't take a picture of the basement because there was no light down there. It pretty much looks like an unfinished basement so you get the idea.

The drywallers should be done Tuesday and then after that comes doors and trim, paint, cabinets and carpet. We should be done in about another month. Can't wait!!

Upper Cow Camp & A Belly Shot

For a few months out of every year our "Rider" lives in a one room cabin (no electricity, no plumbing) at a place we call Upper Cow Camp and her (yes it's a her!) job is to sort keep her eyes on our cows, if you will, while they are in the mountains each summer. 
Last week we had a "neighborhood" picnic at upper cow camp. The men folk (and a few tough cowgirls) went to work chopping down tree's and fixing fences while the women (the less tough ones) sat around gossiping talking and preparing lunch. It was a lot of fun and totally worth the long drive and the 8 mile stretch of the WORST dirt road you can possibly imagine. And fortunately with all the falling down trees no one was injured. (I've got a great video but my internet just isn't good enough to download it here for you.)

 Here's Chris hooking up rope to one of the tree's they are taking down. It's the only picture I got of the men working. And as a side note, they only took down dead trees and then cut them up to make posts to fix the fences.

 I did get plenty of pictures of the kids playing so here are just a few. The above picture is of Claire (2nd cousin), Sadie, and Ava. Ava even "babysat" Claire while we helped pick up fallen branches and sticks.

 And of course Sadie managed to steal Claire's horse toy within a matter of minutes and didn't let it go the entire day.

 I LOVE this picture! Left to right it's Sadie, Wyatt, Ava, and Paul. (Also 2nd cousins).

 And I don't know why Sadie gets all the attention but I had to put a picture of her riding the horse. She was so excited when they showed up and was really disappointed when she only got to ride for a minute before the riders left to go fix fence.

And in case you were wondering I am starting to show. It's smaller than I expected to be at 16 weeks but then again when you throw up for 2 months what can you expect? Each day is getting better and I'm feeling more like myself. I'm sure the belly will really pop soon.

And for the few who care, more pictures of the house to come soon. It's too rainy and cold today to take pictures.

It's. A. Mess.

It's happening fast now. It will still be another couple of months probably until we are completely finished but things are moving much quicker now. Here's where we are at:

 Chris helping frame the walls.

 Window well for basement so we could finally backfill around the foundation.

Stairs to the basement.

 basement starting to be framed.

 I'm not sure if "siding" is the right term for this but that's what I'm gonna call it. They've put up this siding all around the addition.

 And today they started tearing into the exisiting room and had to block off part of the house. Everything that was in this room ( TV, Computer + desk, chair, couch, etc.) plus all of the stuff that was in the closet had to be moved so it's all been crammed into the rest of the house. It is literally a disaster! I have a table in my kitchen. A couch and chair in the dinning room and everything else has been crammed into the living room, and any nook and cranny we could find. It's painfully messy.

What you see here is our old "TV room" which was actually a small bedroom we used for the TV because there wasn't any other place to put it. The area you see that's black was the door and from there straight out is going to be the hallway. The wall on the right will be knocked out and the existing space will be added to about 10' of new space. It'll make sense when it's done. :)

Ballet, Construction, and Corrections

 I signed Ava up for ballet and she had her first class on Wednesday. I'm so giddy about it. She looks so cute in her leotard and tights I just can't help myself. Don't worry. Lest you think I'm a parent who is forcing my daughter to do something in order to live vicariously through her, let me just say she loves it too! Here she is with her class. She's the second one from the right. Her best friend Oakley is two down from her (wearing the same outfit....total coincidence by the way!)

 Doing warm ups with her teacher Ms. Taylor. She's a great teacher!

 Ava and Oakley pose after their first day of ballet together. Little Diva's!

I haven't shown any picture of our construction project lately and apparently I've done a bad job of taking pictures because this is all I have. Our friend and neighbor Thad did the concrete work on the floor of our basement and this is a great picture of him.

 And for some reason I didn't take any pictures after that until today. Sad. But since the concrete they put down the floor/basement ceiling and then today they've start putting up the walls. The opening on the left is where my shower will be and the rectangular opening on the right is the window in my closet. And since taking this picture they have a second wall up on the oppposite side.

 I am so excited to finally see some progress with lumber. haha. The concrete seemed to take forever. Now things will start coming along quickly. Stay tuned for more!

Lastly, Chris is under the impression that no one seemed to know that my last post about "sympathy weight" was actually a  joke. So I need to make sure you all know I wasn't actually making fun of my husband. I would not do that. He put some stuffing up his shirt that we got out of a box and I snapped a picture in front of the donuts because I thought it was funny. In truth, his stomach is flatter than mine.

I think the term most commonly used is "sympathy weight"

Look at that gut! I think it was the donuts that did him in.