A little bit of catch up

So, my phone completely lost the ability to allow our computer to access the internet, so we are pretty much internet-less and without any plans of that changing anytime soon. We are making due, but it has been really hard. I have to make more trips to the library to use it or take advantage of internet while babysitting-like now. Anyway, blogging is not something that will be happening too much, but hopefully once a month.
Here are some things we always meant to put on but never did.
September
We went to the museum of Crime and Punishment on museum day so it was free. It was a pretty good time.

 Chris also had a birthday. He is now 27 and is officially old. We had perfectly cooked steaks and lots of caramel and chocolate cake and ice cream. (Not pictured)

November
I made a rice crispy treat cake for my birthday. I at least have one more year of being young.

For Thanksgiving, we were able to go to Chris's parents house near Chicago. We had wonderful turkey and meal. I want to eat the turkey legs every thanksgiving from now on-they were delicious. We also had the fun opportunity to go cut down a Christmas tree, which was a new experience for me. We found one for Jack. He had a blast running around. 

December
 We went to the zoo again. Jack's favorite were the flamingos. There were also zoo lights.

We saw more lights at the DC temple and visitors center. This was heaven for Jack. He loves all things temple and will point out every steeple he sees. Every night after we went he would ask to go back to the temple and would be sad that we we not going.

Looks like it's time to go home, but there is still so much more. We will resume later, I promise.

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!