Update on The House

I love my key lime tile!!

Entry way lockers and drawer for each kid. Still need hardware.

It's been such a long time since we posted about our house and I have had several requests for pictures so here they are! It has been really hectic to stay on top of the build between our trip, work, and the kids. There have been several instances of the workmen saying, "We didn't get your selection choice so we just guessed". Ahhh... no. All of the instances resulted in them redoing it the right way. Anyway... it's been an adventure and we have both learned a lot. Move in day is only weeks away, as long as they can locate our "cabinet guy" who appears to be AWOL (our contractor thinks he is either in jail or hospital or dead). 

Back exterior

Kitchen sink, staircase, dual sided fireplace

Powder bath

Tanner Rides

Last year it was time for Tanner to get up on two wheels. I took his training wheels off and we tried a couple of times on his old little bike. He was terrified and I was impatient and put the training wheels right back on....So THIS year it was time for Tanner to get up on two wheels.


Jake got a new BMX bike for his birthday, so we stepped Tanner up to Jake's old bike which is a little bigger and doesn't have training wheels to start with. It was sunny today and we were all out front, so I got Jake's bike down to see if it would fit Tanner. The plan wasn't to try anything today, I was still preparing for that down the road, remembering our last experience.


Anyway, he got on it to size it up and it fit him perfectly. He seemed confident and ready to go, so I asked him, "Do you want to try?". He nodded yes and bing...bang...boom he was off down the street. Took literally five minutes and he did it! He was so proud of himself and I felt awesome about it.


I guess there's something to be said about being ready when you're ready and not before. He was ready today and is off and riding.

Paradise

Our five days in Hawaii were beyond paradise. It was so luxurious having just the two of us- from the plane ride where we read OUR books and watched OUR movies, to waking up and going to sleep when WE wanted, and eating, drinking, napping, etc... when and where we felt like it. Did I miss the kids? Yeah... but not really until the last day. The weather wasn't great- in fact we really only had two nice beach days-but we found that it really didn't matter. I think we could have been in Iowa and ALONE and enjoyed it. Yep- it was nice to have the time away to reconnect and remember how much we truly like each others company. And it was a little unsettling to realize how very very relaxed we both can be away from the stresses of work, kids, and building a home. Now the trick is bringing the mellowness back to "real life". Hmmm. I need to work on that!

We ate so well- including breakfast in a beachside restaurant each morning followed by ice cream sometime before noon. Lunch was casual and dinners out were delicious, decadent, and all included beautiful ocean views (or a table right on the sand). We wandered around Lahaina and shopped, read our books by the pool, took naps, drank lots of boat drinks (Well, I did. Brian mostly stuck to Red Bull and Diet Coke), and basically just hung out together in a "child free haze of delight".  

Our flight got into Portland at 1150PM so we spent night #6 in a airport hotel. We got in and went to IHOP for a late dinner (OK... a VERY late dinner) and the next morning we woke up late and walked over to Ikea for breakfast and a leisurely stroll through the entire store. Even that day was heavenly. That's what I mean about Iowa. I guess the location really doesn't matter as long as you are with someone you truly love and enjoy being with (and that person, for once in 9 years, isn't under the legal drinking age). 

The vacation wasn't completely stress-free: We arrived in Portland at 630AM to find that our flight to Honolulu was delayed.... BY 15 HOURS! Our arrival in Maui was going to be delayed by an entire 24 hours. Ummm... not what I was hoping for. Hawaiian Airlines was less than helpful in getting it rescheduled but eventually we lucked out and found a flight to Seattle with a connection to Maui that would get us there even earlier than we had originally been scheduled to arrive. Unfortunately Hawaiian Air wouldn't pay for our tix from Portland to Seattle and 400 dollars later and a VERY tense full-on run through the terminal and we made it on an 8AM flight to Seattle and no further delays (coming or going) were experienced. 

The Grandmas took great care of the kiddos in our absence. I don't think any of the kids even really missed us too much. (Could it be that they needed a break from US as badly as we needed a break from THEM?). However, they were very glad to see us in the airport and had made us welcome home signs and decorated the house for our arrival. I was definitely ready for some kid snuggles and they were happy to oblige. Grandma Mary had homemade potato salad, broccoli salad, deli sandwich fixings and homemade lemon meringue pie waiting for us and Nana had bought me a bunch of tulips. Seriously? They were still spoiling us even after we got back? There is just no way to properly thank them. Their willingness to take on our chaos for the week is priceless. The fact that we were given a week to decompress and reconnect is priceless. Somehow I think the Starbucks cards did not do their work justice so I hope that by reading this they understand how very, very grateful we are to them. 

Aloha, everyone. 

Jake's 9th Birthday

So for the last few years it's been, "football, football football" for Jake's birthday. This year he said he wanted to do a sleep over with a bunch of his buddies, which was fine with us as truthfully, I was running out of football themed ideas anyway. 


He invited seven of his friends from school (six of them spent the night).  Tanner and Faith also joined in. It was more than a little heartbreaking to see Tanner's face fall apart when he learned that he couldn't sleep in with the big boys and was sleeping in our room. To be fair, we had told him three or four times from the time we scheduled the sleepover until the day of the sleepover and he said "okay" each time, but when the time came, he just lost it.


As a surprise, I spent most of the day on Saturday installing the projection TV system from the new house in the boys bedroom. I hung it in the closet and shot it onto a king size white sheet across the room. I also hooked up the surround sound and brought the Wii upstairs (right, sometimes I over-do it) so they could watch movies and play larger than life size video games all night. 

As soon as his friends started to arrive... they all went across the street to the green and started a flag football game. Tanner took up his usual position of ref and they played football for a good 45 minutes, returning to the house in full hyperactive sweaty 9 year boy mode, which they would be in for the rest of the party.


We had Papa Murphy's take and bake for dinner and then Jake opened presents. He got a bunch of Raiders stuff, water bottles, chewing gum and sunflower seeds, and gift cards to two different sporting goods stores. Then it was upstairs to play, what else..Madden on the big screen. 7 sweaty, smelly 9 year old boys locked up in a room with a heat generating TV projector, had about the effect that you would assume and when they came downstairs a little bit later for cake, I went up and turned on the ceiling fan and opened all of the windows to try to air the room out. It made us realize that maybe a conversation regarding deodorant and personal hygiene wasn't far off in the future.


After cake it was upstairs for the evenings movie selection....Rudy. We pulled all of the mattresses onto the floor and popped popcorn while they all watched Rudy on the bigscreen. Towards the big game scene at the end we could hear them from downstairs chanting, "RUDY, RUDY, RUDY" (because all the windows were open up there, so could our whole street actually) as they got really into it. After the movie it was more video games until bedtime. Eventually we closed the windows and they all fell asleep about 10:30. They made a pact for the first one up to wake everyone else though, so they were back at it at 6:00 am the following morning.


Jake wanted very specific donuts for his birthday breakfast. I hit the road at 6:00 in the dark and rain to make sure I got the one's he wanted. In the photo, you can see him with his local favorite "bacon maple bar". After breakfast? You guessed it, more video games until pick-up time at 10:00. 


After about 8:00 am, pickup time couldn't get here fast enough for us. It was a lot of fun, but the constant noise, chaos, smell and need to make sure everyone was having a good time started to get to me. 10 minutes after his friends left, Jake came in and announced that he was bored and he literally almost didn't get any older. 


It was a looooong rest of the day with three tired kids and tired parents. But Jake got the sleepover he wanted, which ended up being football themed anyway and had a really good time with his friends. As he continued to complain (along with Tanner), they spent the rest of Sunday cleaning every room in the house, making beds, putting away laundry. The real lesson here is when Dad works all day to make sure you have a fun birthday party; 1. you BETTER say thanks, and 2. you BETTER leave him alone to clean it up in peace.

Faith's 5th Birthday Festivites

Faith had her friend birthday party on Saturday. This was the first one she wanted to invite friends to. She invited four girls- three from preschool and our next door neighbor, Ava (who is in first grade). She didn't want any organized party games, she just wanted to play with everyone. It was a beautiful day so they played out front with sidewalk chalk, bubbles, and jump ropes. Mostly they chased each other around on the lawn. We played some Disney Bingo, then had cake. She picked out a dog cake (this was pretty much the "theme" of the party... animals). After about two bites she called Nana over to her chair and whispered, worriedly, "Nana, I don't like the cake".  She wasn't upset about it she just wasn't sure if she was required to eat it all. Mom assured her that she could leave whatever she didn't want. She was very excited to open her presents and clearly had a favorite: a "Pucci Pup" golden retriever. She couldn't wait to take it out of the packaging and start playing with it.

On Sunday we took her to Build-a-Bear to spend her birthday money from Auntie Sue. She picked out a Weiner Dog, weiner pup, dog bed, and a bathrobe (for the dog). She proudly carried her two bags around the mall for the rest of the morning. Guess what she brought for Show-and-Tell today?

Monday was the day we designated to do our Family Party since Brian and Jake were at baseball tryouts during her friend party. Brian picked her up at Miss Wendy's early so he could take her out for her special birthday dinner. She chose Burger King, of course, hence the crown in the picture above. Grandma Mary and Nana came over tonight and she opened lots more presents. Again, her favorite was an animal- a baby bird "Furreal" from her brothers that "drinks" from a bottle. She got an iPod Nano from us (for her lullabies at nighttime and to listen to Colder Weather over and over and over again!). From Papa she got a new purple bike helmet, Mary got her cool speakers for her new room to go with her iPod. Some magnetic ballerina dolls from The Crebars and a snuggly guy that lights up when you squeeze it from Grandma rounded things out.  More cupcakes, one more round of "Happy Birthday" and we called it a night. 

Tomorrow is her ACTUAL birthday (905 AM to be exact) but because it is a work/school day and she has dance class from 530-615, I am glad we decided to celebrate tonight. Her big request for her big day? Pizza for dinner.

Happy Birthday to my Faithy-Faith- my best surprise ever. I love that little girl so fiercely and can hardly believe she is five years old already... seems like only yesterday I was shocked senseless by that little pink line staring up at me :)