Home Remodel: Phase 2

Once upon a time we moved into a townhouse. This is what the front “yard” was like when we moved in.

  

 So with the help of a sledge hammer and our neighbors crowbar, we decided to take out that slab.

Very quickly the rubble was piling up. So we enlisted some help to finish breaking it up and putting half the pile in a bagster.

 Coolest thing ever.


 They bring this truck with a crane that come out and the driver uses this remote control to move the crane and lift the bagster into the truck bed. There is a 3000 lb max limit allowed in the bag, we barely made it. The truck tried once and it wouldn’t go, so he had to move the truck closer and we got it in. Most nervewracking thing ever. But fun to watch and oh so relieving when it’s gone.

 Remember that was only half the pile. For the part of the rest I did some landscaping

 It rained and everyone got muddy.

 So we cleaned up in the sink.

 Then finally finished lining the front and back yard garden area’s with concrete.

 Next came multiple, multiple, multiple trips to the free mulch pile to get recycling bins full of free mulch to fill in the space. Top that with a few bags of topsoil, grass seed, and peat moss and you get…a front yard.

 Wait for several weeks and you see grass.

 And after a couple more weeks you know that you need to plant more seed…but that will have to wait until the spring.

 Back to the cement, after two trips to the dump (they only allow one freebie per year-thanks so much to our friends for using their identity for the 2^nd trip), our remaining pile of cement remains next to our door. We are slowing throwing it away a few pounds at a time. It will be here a while, so come and see it.

Let's Eat

In light of our recent holiday, here are some of our recent food experiences. Meal times with one and sometimes two little boys can be pretty fun.

Jack's fun thing he likes to do is pile up toys wherever he wants them. This day it was on the high chair tray. Jack would run and get a block, put it on the tray, and then they both laugh hysterically and the process starts over again.

 Jack has a piece of cilantro on his nose and has his finger up it.

Jack is up on the table again, Levi's food just tastes better I guess.

 They have been eating lunch together now that they are on the same schedule. Jack is on a phone book of course. It's pretty cute.

 Jack loves beans. This little activity will keep him occupied for a while while I make dinner. He is pretty good at keeping them off the floor, but isn't perfect.

 He fell asleep in his high chair! I've always heard of other kids falling asleep while eating but never knew it was possible. Then one Saturday it happened to us. Turns out you just need to have them be really tired and ready for their nap.

 This is why I don't let kids into the kitchen without my supervision, you get a mess of spaghetti on the floor.

 Once upon a time we had snow before Halloween. We decided to pick the remaining peppers from our garden and came up with quite a large bounty. Look at our green peppers! Before we just had three, then in September the plant exploded with more blossoms. Too bad they didn't all reach maturity.

Happy Eating!

the leaves are everywhere

Here we are in the midst of our second east coast fall. With the lovely trees, we have lots of leaves. Our total yardage is about a tenth of what I had growing up, but we have 10 times the leaves. Jack of course loves any chance to get outside so he helps me rake. And by helps he uses a broom to drag along the ground. 

 

Back before it got too cold I tried to take the boys outside everyday so we would explore new playgrounds and find new paths. One afternoon we literally stumbled upon a little trail that I absolutely love now. We walked over a little footbridge, through a pedestrian tunnel, and came out to this scene:

This part of the trail is also part of a stream restoration project, which will make it even more gorgeous when the stream is complete. I made Chris come back so we could take our 2nd annual family picture in the woods. It would be a lot easier if we had someone taking the pictures, or at least a tripod, but the timer works.  

Now, just for fun here is Chris and Jack enjoying the wii together. 

Home Remodel: Phase One

Oh boy, September and October have been busy months. Here is one of the things we did. We had some money saved from our down payment that we were planning on putting toward home stuff or our mortgage. After being in our house for a year we decided on what we wanted to do. When we moved in, our washing machine was in the kitchen and our dryer was in the living/dining room. This we did not really like and so I tore out some cabinets, called a bunch of plumbers (I was amazed at how hard it was to find one) and we got some plumbing work done, then we also had to get an electrician and get electrical work done, along with getting permits and inspections, did some insulating and caulking, and then try to sell our old set (we were able to sell our washing machine on Craigs list, but unfortunately there were no takers for the dryer), and then finally purchase a brand new washer and dryer. They got delivered last Friday. So exciting. We had been looking forward to that day for a while now. Myself and the boys were entertained by just watching it run for quite awhile. We approve.

 Way Before

After work was complete

Installed and working!

cow

Whew, barely making a post during October. We have a lot of catching up to do but for now here is our halloween. Jack was a cow. He liked his costume. He would bring it to me and say "iseeyou" meaning he wanted to see himself in the mirror with it on. 

 We had a fun ward activity and Jack really got the hang of trick-or-treating. He never said trick-or-treat, but  he would say "or treat?" after we would leave a door. By the end he was expecting everyone to give him candy, even the other little kids.

 (He lost his pants because it was hot)

 Jack is getting better with friends! He really seems to like to be around kids his own size now. Hopefully soon we can leave him alone in nursery.

We were all ready for bed by the end of the night.

Happy Halloween!

For the Grandparents

Since we don't have real internet, it's difficult to Skype or Google chat so the grandparents are never able to see Jack and here him at the same time, so here are some videos. Up first, Jack and his abc's. He knows some, but generally will guess 'B'. R is our favorite. 

Next is Jack and some words.

Helicopter was a guess, so was kitty but he usually knows that one. Jack had to run off and find his hippo (appo) and then we were able to resume.

Jack will often ask for 'Wavie' on the weekends, so we have to tell him Levi is with his family. I would have like to gotten more words but if I'd mention outside, shoes, socks, or walk he would run out like he did on cracker. We like that he says a pretty good apple (sounds like his hippo sometimes though) but then applesauce is ah-wa-wa-wa. Pacificer is somehow wa-wa. He'll stand at the gate at the bottom of the stairs asking for his wa-wa, since he only can have it upstairs for sleeping.
Jack is also great at having conversations in his own language.

Too bad it is impossible to get his really good jabbers on video, but there you go, talking Jack.

Green Thumb Wanted

This is a picture of the garden plot that we use. A guy in our ward let us use some of his space, and it has been thrilling. We only have a small portion of a bed and only planted 5 plants but that small amount has gotten me hooked. It is so fun to see the stuff you plant actually produce. I'm so looking forward to a time when we can have a nice vegetable and herb garden in our own backyard. Next year I'm going to try and get our own plot and I can't tell you how exciting that will be. We grew:

Cilantro, and harvested the coriander.

Cucumbers. Although they died and we don't know why. We got a handful at least.

Jalapenos. These have been great. I have dozens chopped and frozen to pull out when I need them.

Hot banana peppers. They did the best and I have the least use for them.

So here is our little area. We also have a bell pepper plant but there were no peppers yet when I took these pictures (way back in early July). Since then we have had 4, but one rotted. Kind of a disappointing turn out. Just behind the guys in this picture is a patch of green beans that we adopted. (Some kids from the ward planted them a long time ago and haven't been back since so I've taken over.)

Jack likes to help water, and play in the mud.

So what did we do with the banana peppers? Made pepper jelly! This is a family tradition from my side and Chris has accepted it with open arms, and mouth. This was my first time canning anything and I was really nervous, but it worked out. Hooray! Then I was on a little canning kick and made some raspberry jam with a free sample of pectin I got. To complete my 2011 jam collection, I got a package with northwest blackberry jam from my parents. 

In other news, Jack is doing fine. He has become very attached to his blankie (ki-ki) and has to have all the time. He tries to take it outside but we draw the line there. If he has been playing without it and then sees it he gets all excited and says hi to it (hi ki-ki!) and tackles it.

Jack is now down to one nap a day. I have Levi and Jack napping in the same room now. They need to have a barrier so they can't see each other and a fan for white noise, but they sleep thank goodness. I really like this schedule actually because Levi still takes a second nap and during that time I can get dinner ready. (I let him sleep until 6pm, right before he gets picked up-I hope his parents don't mind!)

I now understand why toddlers are so tiring. All this week I've felt like a bad parent because all day I'm telling Jack not to take all the books off the self or take all the cords from the ottoman or all the tupperware from the drawer or all the cans of food from the shelf. There is only so much baby proofing I can do and still manage to store all our stuff. He is a constant machine of destruction. What is worse is that he likes to throw things now, at Levi. What is even worse is Levi usually laughs, encouraging Jack to throw even more things at him. So frustrating, but that's the life of a child.

One Year Later

Today is our one year anniversary of coming to Maryland. (Although we were greeted on our anniversary with an earthquake, so I'm not sure what Maryland is trying to say to us...) Last year at this time was so crazy and stressful, life has definitively calmed down for now, thank goodness. We know our way around now, are all settled into our house and making it our own, and are lucky to have friends out here. One good thing about moving into a struggling ward is that everyone welcomes you with open arms, and we couldn't be more grateful. Chris is about to start his 2nd year of school, and he has started a research project. For now it is just a project, but it could lead to his candidacy (one of those hoops you have to jump through before they let you out).
So life is great. Here is what has been going on:

It's been hot. It has cooled off for now thank goodness.

 Babies are just happier without clothes.

And this is what happens when you leave your kid with Dad while you have a presidency meeting.

(Chris took a picture! I was so proud)
Jack loves water (picture him vigorously shaking his hand almost like he's waving doing the sign for water.) We've had a lot of thunderstorms lately, usually we have to go outside and watch them. He doesn't hesitate to go out and play.

A couple of times the rain has started during a mealtime, and in order for Jack to keep eating, he has to see what is going on.

Jack is addicted to outside. One of his clearest words that he says is "outsiiiiide?" Then he asks for his "shoooes" and a "walk" (this is wa but really sharp). We can't touch the door without him demanding that we let him out. It's getting difficult.

Recently Chris's family came out for a visit. While they were here Jack learned how to use an ipad and we went out to Annapolis to see boats and eat crab cakes. It's a neat place.

Some other pictures I found recently:

I honestly don't remember this event, I saw the picture on my camera and laughed. Apparently Jack got up on the table and found his mirror so I took a picture.

These pictures were from my phone while we were up in Seattle. I love how Jack and Sabrina have matching expressions. They must be related.

Just the other day Jack brought me my camera and was whining for me to do something with it. I told him to smile and he actually posed. When I looked at the picture I was surprised at how old he looks!

 That about sums it up for now.
By the way, we survived the earthquake just fine, just a few pictures fell off the wall and a few things fell off shelves but there are no cracks in the walls so we're good. It was Chris's first!