We got it back!

And just slightly under the two week mark.  Yay!  They fixed one problem, but not the other, which they deemed "cosmetic".  However, that cosmetic one can quickly turn into a structural one...  I have one year left on the warranty, and I think if I fought hard enough now, I could get it "lemoned" out anyway.  Bad news is I don't expect it to last forever.  You have been fore warned :)  My Aunt A said I have some of the worst luck with computers, and I suspect it is true.  I don't even do anything with them.  I am not a gamer, nor do I download tons of stuff, so I don't have a lot of software issues (which I think are more common).  I have hardware issues.  And I am not even hard on it!  I don't drop it and then complain something is broken.  I turn it in for one thing, and in the process of "testing it", they usually replace something else.  This past time I turned it in for a cracked casing that had wiggled loose the charging port and stopped charging.  Again.  They replaced that, thankfully, but also replaced an optical drive.  I didn't even know it was broken.  I must have a black thumb when it comes to computers....

Any who.  Back.  Here.  All's well that ends well.  

So, while I do some serious catching up, here is a picture of Kaitlyn doing her homework.

What?  Isn't that how you do yours?

Can't live with it...

... Can't live without it.

Turned in the computer yesterday (look how cool I am, posting from beyond the "grave").  The casing on the outside of the computer is cracked.  Joy.  Still here.  Still alive.  It will just be approximately 2 weeks or so until I come back to the internautical world...  Sigh.

Smiling Babies

I started by taking a picture of Kelsey on her stool.  It is amazing what I find her with now.  Significantly less amazing is how not safe everything I thought was safe is turning out to be.  I guess I am not feeding the child enough.  So she decided to steal Jace's food.

Oh, and guess what?  I have another child.  Nope, not really.  His name is Jace and I borrow him a few times a week.  It is almost like having twins, with him and Kelsey being so close.  They are approximately 6 months apart, but he weighs the same, if not more, than she does.  Look at those eyes!

And then I turn the camera a tiny bit more and I get this face.  Yeah.  I know!  Check out his eyes too!

Of course we didn't forget you Kelsey.

Back to you.  As always :)

Just Another Average Monday

The weekend is over.  It is back to real life.  Sorta.  When I was trying to think what to post, I kept singing the song "Just Another Average Monday."  Guess what?  That isn't the actual words to the song...  Great, huh?

Now, to show you that I am not the only air head in existence, I leave you with picture proof that others do, in fact, exist.  Hubby brought home this picture after touring the job site he was about to begin construction on.  Seems someone else decided to take advantage of the spacious, and well wooded and covered land while it was uninhabited.

10 points for Gryffindor if you can tell me what kind of plant it is.  In my naivety, I just thought they would want to call someone to pick up their plants...  Little did I think it should be the boys in blue.

Handcuffs

When Grandma and Grandpa were here last, they took the kids to the store so they could each pick out a little something.  Kari came home with a pair of handcuffs.  And somehow, inexplicably, they ended up on Kelsey's legs.

While she looks somewhat happy in the picture above, in the picture below, she starts to get genuinely concerned.

No Kelsey.  I don't have the key.

Guess you will have to go back upstairs and ask Kari.

Thankfully, her legs are so short, it actually didn't seem to impede her too much :)

Labor Day Weekend

Our goal for the year is to finish all the little projects, and be done with the entire house "remodel" before the year is over.  That is totally doable.  It doesn't even mean entire weekends working hard core.  Just a few small projects every week.  We jump started everything on Labor Day weekend, by staying home instead of travelling.  We started the day with a 3 hour trip to the Depot to scrounge up supplies and ideas, and then took the middle of the day off to do a few other non-house things.  So much for working all weekend! 

 Before dinner, however, we had enough done for me to spend an hour or so sanding.  We spent a coupla extra bucks getting the slightly higher grade wood, which thankfully meant, I only felt the need to go over it with some 220 grit, instead of starting at the bottom and working my way up.  When I came inside, hubby just kinda giggled at me and told me to go get in the shower.

No, I wasn't that gross (although it was decently warm outside).  I was just coated in a fine sanding dust, which covered and highlighted every downy soft (and not so downy soft {AKA kinky}) hair.  No folks, I am not gray...  Just dirty.

That weekend, we were able to finish making the boxes for the drawers in the blue bathroom.  We also, spent an exorbitant amount of time trying to figure out how to construct the door and drawer fronts, only to figure out that the router bit we had purchased in our earlier 3 hour trip would not fit in the router.  Hubby was able to convince me that rather than return the bit, he needed a new router....  I am fairly certain I must have lost my mind for a small portion of that weekend.  Or he promised to spend some of his birthday gift cards on it, and run the price down to half.  Happy Birthday hubby!  A new tool!

So, while waiting for the router to arrive, we picked up a few more projects.  Like filling, priming and painting a knee hole.  It is now painted and blends in swimmingly.

And taking down the baby gate at the top of the stairs.  All of my children can now successfully navigate the stairwell, so it had turned into a rattling "don't touch that" annoyance.  When it turned it "accidently ripped out of the wall", rather than re-installing it, we decided to take it down and cover the holes.

The hallway still remains spotty.  We have almost completed the molding there, and then can pick a paint color that somehow blends from the family room to the bed rooms upstairs.  It also, apparently, needs to be washable.  Like fur real...  Look how dirty that wall is there!  Or else I need to install a railing at child height...  Any ideas?

Nursery Take 2

So, remember when I said Kelsey could go into nursery.  Well, I was fairly careful not to say that she had actually gone into nursery.  Just that she could :)  See, the thing is, that hubby has taken our other 3 to nursery for their very first time.  We thought it would be an easier separation for the first two, and then it kinda became a tradition.  The first Sunday that Kelsey could go, hubby was out of town fishing.  He asked that I hold off one more Sunday.... So I obliged.

The following Sunday, hubby took her down the hall.  They walked in and she started playing with toys.  Hubby kinda snuck out the back door, and Kelsey was ok.  Our fabulous nursery leader (whom I love and adore) said she looked up a few times with a concerned look on her face, but they were able to distract her and life went on.  Day one in Nursery: Check!  She did, however, warn us not to expect it to be that easy again.

Enter Second Sunday....  Um, not so much.  Hubby took her down, and as they got to the door, she clamped onto his shirt, and held on for dear life.  So, hubby, being a dutiful daddy, went in and sat down for a bit.  After a few minutes, she was nicely distracted, so he slipped out the door again.

Unfortunately, it didn't last long.  Hubby got called in during the second hour, and this time she learned her lesson.  She pulled hubby down onto the floor, sat down, and refused to leave his lap.  Several of the other kids were nice and brought her toys, but...  She wasn't budging.

She may be our most difficult transition-er.  I wonder if that has anything to do with the fact that I won't let her go or grow up either...  Hmmm....  something to think on ;)

Gone Fishin'

Hubby had the opportunity to take a "non business business" trip out to Washington.  One of his clients was trying to schmooze some business, so he offered a fishing trip. :)

 Because they are cell phone camera pictures, they aren't the best quality, but that doesn't change the fact that the views are quite lovely.

 Hubby is a sucker for a good landscape picture.

 They did do some fishing.

 And had absolutely no problem getting their limit.

 They also went to the beach.  This isn't quite the kind of beach I am used to, but again, it is quite pretty!

 Proof of Visit Picture :)

 Is it odd that I am "telling" hubby's story?  In case you didn't know, hubby isn't super fond of blogging.  He doesn't really like to have an internet presence at all.  Good thing I am around to help with that ;) 

 That's a big fish, no?

 The fishing company filleted them, vacuum packed them, and flew them home in dry ice.  Hubby brought home, maybe, 15 fillets.

 I told ya, he is a sucker for pretty landscapes!

So the question now becomes, does any one have a good recipe for cooking salmon?

Skiing

In the spirit of keeping with our previous theme of cleaning off the cell phone and/or sideways videos, today I am posting about a ski trip Kari took with her daddy.  Hubby wanted to get his ski on, and Kari wanted to go too.   I would gladly have gone myself, but with other children involved, it just didn't work.  And right now, in the middle of my air conditioned family room, I wanted to see snow :)

Lunch time with a pink faced, hat haired girl :)  I think daddy even let her have soda.

For those of you out in Utah, try not to compare our dinky little mountains to yours...

She had tons of fun with her dad.  He even got her on some slopes other than the bunny hill...  She has such an adventurous spirit!

And now, for your viewing pleasure, another sideways video!

It is a bit windy sounding, but I am impressed hubby can ski backwards and around her and keep the video camera pointing in the right direction!

Like Peas in a Pod :)

Kelsey vs The Soccer Ball

Back when Kari was doing soccer this spring, all of the kids seemed to enjoy the sport.  Including Kelsey.  She started by chasing balloons around the house.

And was quick to graduate to the actual soccer ball when her sisters were careless enough to leave it out.

Notice that she isn't even walking yet!

I have been waiting for this video from hubby's cell phone.  Kelsey had barely learned to walk, but she seemed to have gotten the hang of this soccer thing! :)

Sorry it is sideways. :p

Kaitlyn's First Tooth

Besides putting my baby in nursery, my second oldest baby lost her first tooth!!!

See what I did there?  They are all my babies.  They will always be my baby.  No turning back now.  Sorry. 

(Pay no attention to her dirty finger nails)  She lost it at school, so they gave her a "treasure saver" to keep it in and bring home.

The toothfairy even folded up her dollar and stuck it inside the tiny little box.  That is what I call mystical powers :)

She is so excited to be catching up to her big sister :)

Nursery

This last week has been a biggy for us.  Kelsey changed from two naps a day, to one.  While I enjoy the extra ability to run around and do errands and actually leave the house, I miss some of the time I had to do things without her.  I love her dearly, I really do, but the child is a bit of a menace....  She carries a stool around with her now and it both delights me and frustrates me.  I love how her world has suddenly become so accessible and interesting.  However, I hate how interesting and accessible MY world has become to her.

Also, Kelsey turned 18 months old, and in our church that is the big Nursery milestone!  Previously, she had to stay with a parent, but now she goes into her own little class.  :)  

Guess what Kelsey?  You get to go to nursery now!  Cue concerned look....

You get to play with toys.....  And eat treats!

She is such a big girl!

Can I start crying now, or should I wait until later?