A Long Time Comin'

I knew it had been a long time since I posted pictures of the progress on our house, but I didn't realize until I looked to see what I last posted that it has been since July! Sorry for those following along. Honestly for awhile it seemed like things were stalled. I felt like they were never going to finish for a couple weeks. They were mostly working on the closet I asked them to build for about 2 weeks. The shelves are all built now and I finally got to move the toys in. I LOVE it. This closet is like an answer to my prayers. One central place to keep our toys close to where we will spend most of our time(the new family room). It also creates a bit of a foyer in the front of the house which I like.

Some of these pictures are recap since I have been taking pictures all along, but I did get to posting them.

This is the view from the front door now. Matt put up a really thin drywall to cover the textured ceiling as a surprise for me when I came back from my mom's house because he knew I didn't like them. You'll see the texture if you look at the ceiling of the closet.

This is the hallway to the garage you can see goes off to the left from the entryway.

These are the cubbies Matt suggested. One for each kid.

This is the closet, the second area you see of to the side of the entryway.

Here is the left side of the family room with insulation. See the boards on the wall? Those are in case Jay ever wants to mount a TV there.

This is the other side of the family room.

This is the closet in our bedroom.

Here is the bathroom.

The closet is on the left and the bathroom on the right.

You can't see the roof from our bedroom anymore:-) See that little board over the door? That is where our new plasma TV will be mounted. You can guess whose idea that was. This from the man who made me get rid of the TV I had in my room when we got married.

Jay is installing surround sound before they put up the drywall.

The kids watched him.

Ryan helped.

Lily tried to help, but really she just picked up whatever tools where laying around and handed them to daddy.

This installing hidden wires is serious business.

Lily finally got to really help:-)

Here is the best part of the week...I got to put stuff in the closet! Do you know how much space that stuff has been taking up in my living room?!

Little kid toys on the bottom, then bigger kid toys and finally stuff that could cause a problem for a toddler(small parts, etc.)

We have a few games too;-)

Tomorrow they start the drywall!!! I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. The vanity and medicine cabinets came today. It feels like things are really coming together. I can't wait to see what happens this week!

To those who are coming to the party this weekend...don't worry I've been promised that the family room will be available for Saturday.

I love this dress!

Don't anyone tell me she looks like a boy in her little blue dress or I might have to beat you down! ;-)

I had to go out and buy Lily some fall clothes because the weather has been so cool and she doesn't have anything. I didn't find much, but I did find two little outfits I love- both dresses. This little dress has a long sleeved hoodie that goes with it. So cute! I debated getting it because of it's blueness, but it does have pink in the skirt and it is so dogon' cute!

Ideas For Ryan

It struck me today that most of the people who will want to buy gifts for Ryan read this blog. I have been a little lost myself as to what to buy the boy for his birthday, but I have a couple ideas. I will share them with you and you can talk amongst yourselves and claim gifts in the comments if you wish.

Diego Roller Skates- These are at Target and I think he will like them.

Lightening McQueen and Mater "Shake and Go" Cars -(also at Target)

He could also use some new characters for his Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.(I've seen them at Walmart)

There is this CD read along I found that he would love.

This Curious George Tea set would be fun with his kitchen.

The same website with the tea set also has some other cool Curious George stuff.



Things he loves- Anything Cars, Curious George, pretend play, Thomas the Tank Engine, building stuff (Legos, Brio building kits, etc.), The Tigger Movie, running, jumping


I'll update as I think of things. This is by no means an exclusive list or even a registry type thing. It is just ideas because a few people have asked me. Feel very free to do your own thing.


PS The links are just so you can see what I was talking about. I did no hunting for the lowest price and I'm sure lots of this stuff is available in stores. The Curious George stuff would probably be hard to find in stores.

Follow up

I knew Lily would remind me of more things she says before long. She says quite a bit during Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. She tries to say Meeska Mooska Mickey Mouse in the beginning. It's somewhat recognizable. She also told me she wanted to watch Mickey mouse Clubhouse the other day by sitting on the couch looking at the TV urgently and singing the theme song. It sounds something like "i ah i-ee Mou uh-ouse" but I knew what she was singing. She also says "cho" when Mickey says "Say 'Cheers!'"

Then there is "Ready, ready, GO!" It sounds just like the real words, but I don't know where she got it. It is pretty funny sometimes. It's a bit messy when she smashes her fruit on go, but it is cute.


As a follow up to Ryan wishing to die with his money I wanted to share another short story. When we got home Ryan wanted to get his chore money to give to Jesus(that's what we call it when he tithes- which is completely voluntary on his part in case you were thinking we tortured him into it) Since we had just gotten home the night before and he asked as we were going out the door we didn't have time to do it. He made sure to make a pint that he was NOT going to give the money Grandma gave him to Jesus and that he still wanted to "die up to heaven" with it. So I asked him and he confirmed my suspicion that the money he got from Grandma was special because Grandma gave it to him. Ohhhhhhhhhhh. It makes much more sense now. Anyway, later that day Jay took the boys to the grocery store. This is not something that really ever happens, so I guess Ryan thought it was pretty special. When they were getting ready to go to the store Ryan said, "Wait! I need to go get my special money. I want to help pay for the food with it." So he did. His 9 cent contribution is clearly stated as "$0.09 cash" on the receipt. I'm starting to think he might just get it after all.

Obesessed with Death

Ryan is obsessed with death. I'm not sure what to do about it. At first it was just in play. He and his brother would be playing and he would take a toy and start beating the other toy saying, "Die, die, die!" I think he picked up from Zach, but it seemed like every time they played together this happened. I'm not a big fan of that kind of play, but I held my tongue because I'm on a parenting team. The other half of my parenting team thinks that is perfectly normal and maybe even healthy boy play. Since I was never a little boy I defer to his judgement on that.

I guess the play made him start thinking about death and dying. One night when I was putting him to bed he asked, "What's going to happen when you and Daddy die up to heaven?" I told him the truth including our plan for what would happen if that did happen while he was still young enough to need someone to take care of him. I told him I don't think that it will happen anytime soon. He wasn't quite satisfied. He wanted to know the back up plan for the back up plan. I told him he didn't need to worry because there would always be someone to take care of him. Then he told me, "I want to die up to heaven with you at the same time." I almost cried, but I didn't want him to keep thinking about it or to scare him, so I kept my composure. I told him he is very young and he doesn't need to worry about it. He got very indignant, "I am not young. I am old!" I told him I'm not even old yet and there are people who even think I am young. He was pretty amazed by that. He seemed to be in a good place, so I said goodnight and left the room a little worried about how I handled it, but not knowing how it would keep going.

Now whenever he really likes something he says he wants to die up to heaven with it. First it was me, then he got a new watch. "I want to die up to heaven(that's what he says every time in case you didn't get that) with you AND with my watch!" he said with an excited giggle. He giggles the cutest giggle when he is excited. We went to visit my mom and she gave him 8 cents in change. He clutched it to his chest and said, "I love my money. I want to doe up to heaven with it." At this point I'm getting a little worried on multiple levels. First he is talking about dying a LOT. Second he is way over valuing money. Third he thinks he gets to take stuff with him to heaven. I know he is three and doesn't really get the whole thing and that it is fine that he doesn't. I do want him to know that money is not the most important thing. I explained it to him the best I could that people, not money, are the most important things. He continues to talk about "dying up to heaven" and I've tried to explain that his body stays on earth and who he really is inside, his soul, goes up to heaven. I'm not sure he gets it, but I think he will at some point. I just hope I'm not scaring him.

This parenting gig is hard sometimes. There is so much second guessing and the thought that I am forming these little humans into who and what they will be is overwhelming sometimes. Every decision and interaction has big consequences that we might not be able to know at the time. It's a good thing I don't have time to be deep much or I might not want to get out of bed in the morning;-)