Bathroom/Laundry Room Update

We finished tiling (whew, what a job!!!) and I have started painting. I painted enough in the laundry room to get the washer and dryer back in. I think I will finish that this weekend. The bathroom is all painted! We were planning on a greenish color, but then decided a red would be a better compliment to the tile. Here are a few pictures.





All of the fixtures are in for the bathroom...next pictures will be a finished bathroom!!! Yipppeeee!!!

I don't know how he's 5...

Wyatt turned 5 on Monday...crazy, because he was born on a Monday. Hadn't thought about that until just this minute. He is so 5 years old, if not more. He's always been a wise little person, but sheesh! He's such a boy now. No more toddler, no more baby. It's tough to stomach but an amazing thing to experience all at the same time.


Wyatt still loves to build - playing with Legos, K'nex, lincoln logs, you name it. One Saturday morning recently, Matthew and I were relishing the 7:30 a.m. hour because all was still quiet. Annabelle sometimes sleeps in, but Wyatt RARELY does. As it creeped closer and closer to 8 o'clock, we couldn't believe it, but wanted to just soak it in at the same time. Soon enough, Wyatt came upstairs. He had FOUR different things he had built out of K'nex - two for each of us. He presented them like a special delivery on our bedside tables! So, actually, he hadn't slept in, but was busily working away in the playroom. Go figure! His attention span is such a gift for this sort of thing!



He asks questions constantly! I know deep down that this such a great thing, but sometimes it just gets to me. He will ask a question just to ask it, not because he's truly wanting to know. Most of the time, he is keenly interested in the answer, though, so I just try to take a deep breath and come up with an intelligent answer for him!


He is so excited about any activity these days. He is currently taking swimming lessons once a week and is in a little soccer program, too. Oh, yeah and a science class that's called Mini Engineers, but I'm not quite sure what the engineer tie is, yet. Coming up is T-ball and a few mini camps along with swimming for the summer. He can't wait for all of it!


He is patient and loving with his sister. It's amazing to see him be so willing to consider Annabelle and her wants and needs. He couldn't be a better role model for her. She loves to copy anything he does, and he (so far) hasn't been annoyed by her.



Wyatt is really figuring out language and math. He's constantly telling us different math equations such as, "three plus four is seven!" He usually stays within the boundaries of 10, but it's so fun. This is all on his own...usually. We now have to watch what we spell around him...he often times knows who or what we're talking about... I'm not saying he can spell everything, but he's pretty good at guessing based on a few letters. We have to spell some kids' names backwards so he doesn't know who we're talking about!!! When he watches a program that does word families, he grabs a pencil and paper and writes the words. As a teacher, it's just crazy to get to observe the progression!



Okay, so he had his party on Saturday. It was a superheroes/The Incredibles party. I think all of the kids had fun! They played, ran out a bunch of energy playing freeze tag, freeze dance and the limbo! After some pizza, they were on to the pinata and then some ice cream cake. Wyatt said his favorite part was playing football with his friend Clayton from school and breaking the pinata. It doesn't get any better than that!!!

Dash and Violet welcoming their first guest - Princess Chloe.

That sandbox was such a great investment!!!

Playing on the play structure!

What a cutie!

Freeze Tag!

Freeze Dance!!!

And, Limbo! Who knows where Wyatt got the idea for this...

Pinata time!

Jackson gives it a whack!

Chloe's turn!

Grabbin' up the loot!

Blowing out the candles! (Wyatt picked these out!)

Oh yeah...and here's a picture of the kids the day before stuffing goody bags...it's pretty cute!!!

Gymtastic!

I've come to realize that most activities start when kids turn 3. I think I was able to do some things with Wyatt before three, but so far Annabelle has only been able to watch Wyatt in his varied activities. She understands that when she's older then she'll have a chance, too. I found this "gymnastics" place that would take her even though she's close to three.


It's a pretty fun place, and she LOVES to go! At this age, it was a struggle to get Wyatt to leave my side to participate in activities, but Annabelle literally did not look back! This place allows parents to sign out to run errands or whatever, but I've found that I'd rather watch her! Today there were only 4 kids, which is great! They move throughout the place in stations. At each station they do 3 or 4 things, and then after a little while they move on to the next station.




The lights in the place did not work well with my camera when I was trying to zoom in, so a few of the pictures are dark. She's the one with pink pants!

Getting up on the high bar to try a stradle basket hang!

On the rings to flip through.

The landing!

If you look closely, you can see the stradle basket hang!

Doing a little dance in the donut!

Look at that back bend!

I think this is her favorite, so far, the trampoline!!!

Our First adventure in serious home improvement!

Last year, meaning January 1, 2007, Matthew suggested that remodeling our powder room/laundry room would be a great goal. I thought that sounded good...not too big of a job, but big enough. I played around with paint color early in the year, looked at a bazillion different vanities, etc. Well, when January 2008 rolled around we finally started to get serious! I couldn't let another year go by with six, yes, SIX different colors of paint on that bathroom wall!


So here we are, I think technically in the middle of our project. I started early last week by removing base boards and starting the linoleoum removal. What a joke! Don't ever insatll lino!!! Well, come to find out, after getting about 80% of that up, we realize that there is particle board under it that needs to come up, too. After some friends came over to help us remove our toilet, vanity and washer/dryer, Matthew started in on the particle board.


We now have particle board up, all staples removed (there must have been 1000 of them!), hardi-backer mortared in and screwed (another thousand screws!), and I think we're ready to start actually laying tile! We hope to have the tile part done this weekend...it would be nice to have the washer/dryer back...

This is the ugly wall paper that was under the base board.

Wyatt ready to help Papa!

Particle board all out and cleaned up! (Annabelle didn't care to be in ANY of these pics!)

A disgusting spot that keeps getting worse with everything I try! Guess what's next?! New carpet!!!

This is what happens when Mama and Papa are hard at work and the kids are left to play...

Sawing-the-last-little-bit-of-hardi-backer!!!

Hardi-backer is all cut and fits like a puzzle!

And a little video of the face marking!!!

Calling All Superheroes!!!

Dash and Violet are in the house! We are now in full birthday preparation! The kids got an early Valentine's Day present!!! They are VEEEEEERRRRYYYY excited! As you can see, it will be "The Incredibles" theme. The movie is pretty cute, and I'm happy to take a step away from Star Wars!!!

On another note, I turned in all of the registration papers for Wyatt to be enrolled in KINDERGARTEN! Can you believe it?! I can't. It makes me want to cry even writing it! I'm sure I'll have more to write about this as September draws closer...actually, not September...it's August, these days!!!

Working on Valentine's

We picked out Transformers Valentines a week or two ago (I did this early this year, as last year it seemed like the selection was not good by the time we got there...). Great Grandma sent this package of really cool foam Valentine's, and Wyatt decided that he liked these better. The assembly was fun, and neat to watch his creativity in action. I helped with "limbs" (Wyatt's word), but he did everything else. Annabelle helped a little with eyeball gluing. She did a great job, too! Now to get them all signed and packed into envelopes!!!

Snowy, Beautiful Tahoe

We braved the weather for another fun-filled weekend in Tahoe. All three families were there, which turned out to be o.k. - I mean 6 adults, 6 kids and two dogs in about 1500 sq. feet...if you started thinking about it, it might scare you, too! Each family was busy getting ready for skiing, skiing, or out and about, so the chaos was pretty limited!


Wyatt had his first official ski lessons at Tahoe Donner. They were great! He did one on Saturday and another on Sunday morning. Saturday the TD Lodge had a children's carnival going on, so it was great fun for Annabelle and a good way to pass the time while we waited for Wyatt to finish his lesson. I think Annabelle must spent over an hour in the jumpy house! Guess what?! That night? Night terrors, of course...no nap an hours of jumpy-housing, one could only have predicted it. At least we know the formula for it, and what to expect. Too bad everyone else had to hear it all...



The weather was beautiful on Saturday - bright blue skies. Sunday is started snowing buckets again, so we high-tailed it out of there right after Wyatt's lesson. I've had ENOUGH of the white-knuckled snowy driving for this winter!!!

At the carnival...nice flamingo-bracelet!!!

How fun does this look! Look at the picturesque background!!!

Riding up the hill in the snowmobile pulled sled! This was Saturday, when Wyatt started in the yellow group.

Who could pass up some free ice cream?! She's definitely her mama's daughter!!! Also, a good way to pass the time...

Heading up the "magic carpet"...soooooo much better than the old rope-tow!

Look at that great form!!!

Sunday morning, waking up with the cousins! Look at all of those kiddies!!! Maile is the only one not in this picture.

Annabelle got to try out the skis on Sunday!

Looking good!!!

Some things never change...her tongue is still hangin' out of her mouth!!!

Wyatt graduated out of the yellow group and spent his lesson on Sunday in the orange group! He was VERY excited about this!!! His form looks good, but he's not looking ahead of him!!!!

I think the instructor is heading over to help Wyatt out!

Uncle John and Jackson came over to watch Wyatt's lesson, too!