House Update

Here is the long awaited house update, from the outside the addition looks massive and is just as impressive from the inside. Chris has been working hard at getting this place livable. We got the Tinners in and they are finished with the duct work and now Chris is getting the water piping finished hopefully by my birthday (May 5) we are looking at getting an inspections done on the Tin, Plumbing, and Electrical (Joel has to finish the first floor) and then we are onto the laying second floor wurzbo, insulation and sheet rock. Now the new outlook for moving is sometime in June probable toward the later part of the month. Maybe by the time Jasmine is home from horse camp she will have a new room to sleep in.



This is wonderful picture. Nick is helping me point out the hole in our floor made by our master carpenter Grandpa Old Guy. The second floor was getting water logged when we were in the process of getting the roof on so Tim thought it was a great idea to drill a hole in the floor of the second floor. It worked but now we have a hole in the floor. Oh well at least it will be covered up. Right now as I type this post, Tim is doing a wonderful job of building sofets in the addition and getting little odds and end done. This year Father's Day is really to appreciate all that Tim has done for us.

Finally as time slowly progress toward the finish of this addition, the kids are getting antsy for their own space. They are finally getting the concept of what their own rooms mean to them. Almost everyday (now that the weather is nicer) Nick goes and spends some time in his OWN room. He enjoys his room even without the floor, walls or furniture. The view is what he likes the best, it over looks the garage. :-) Hopefully next update will the the final touches!!

Random

This post is a random jumble of thoughts and pictures but I know you will enjoy and understand my rambles so here we go...Here is just an example of the pictures I got taken by Michelle Lundgren from the downthelanephotography.com This one I will probable get in a larger picture and I will be using her again soon. I got the photo CD and can get it to anyone who wants it too.


This next picture is a really cute picture of Jayna in a very suitable lil' stinker shirt that my parents got from their Branson trip, but the only problem is that this particular shirt is Tony's gift. She found this shirt and assumed it was hers...it is wonderful she actual fits in Tony's clothes. There are many days that I find Jayna wearing Tony's pants only they are capris on her.



Of course the next picture is of the bug again, but she wants everyone to know that she is a big, big girl now. She has officially received her Dora Back pack for being fully potty trained (with the watchful eye of mom). She is proud to tell everyone that she is a BIG, BIG girl.


Last but certainly not the end is cutie Tony eating his breakfast. He is a hungry man and lets you know that it is no longer acceptable that you eat without giving him something too. Today's feast was an Eggo waffle and he enjoyed the entire waffle himself. This is one child that is eyes are certainly NOT bigger than is stomach.

True Love

I finally got the chance to take pictures of Jasmine and her passion for horses. Phoenix is her horse at the moment but once she starts next the next session she will be on Indee Anna. Phoenix is one of the taller horses and you can tell when Jasmine is on the horse.

On this particular day, they were able to take their horses to the back arena and then onto a pleasant trail ride. Jasmine brought up the rear of the pack as they left the arena but some time during the trail ride she passed a few riders, so much for Phoenix who always was the slower cantering horse.

Mark, the owner and instructor at Windy Ridge Ranch, delivered a new foal last year and from the picture Juniper has taken a liken to our baby Tony.

Tony wasn't sure how to react to Juniper's persistence, but eventually Tony held out his hand to pet Juniper. It was quite a sight to see Tony's eyes get really big when Juniper walked over to him. Nick tried to pet Juniper too but she was only interested in tasting his shoe so we hightailed it out of there. Now that the weather is nicer Jasmine's lessons will be mostly outside so we won't be able to watch from the comfort of our cars. Oh well, I guess that is the price we pay, besides the $$$, for the next equestrian champion. Oh I forgot...Jayna wants to ride horse too.

A Gala of Pictures

Hey if anyone is looking for someone to take pictures of kids and don't want to spend lots of money here you are. I just got pictures of Jayna and Tony taken by someone I found on the site Moms Like Me on Kare11 and they are wonderful. Here is the website of the pictures and I will be getting the CD proof too so I can order pictures if anyone wants them too.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/goodmorningsir/

Plus here is her website if you want more information...downthelanephotography.blogspot.com

Also on the website momslikeme.com, Jasmine and I got to go to the movie 17again prescreening for free. I won tickets through this site so they do have a few cool things on this site so go ahead and check it out.

It was cool, you never know what you are going to find surfing the net!!!

North Carolina or Miami??

The search is over...Chris has found the infamous North Carolina house but we can't exactly see it, but we did find the specs on the "house". Funny the road view is just trees but the deed claims there is a 876 sq. ft house on the land and was bought for $3,300 in the 70s so do you think they would take $3,500 for it? It took a little detective work and a few miss turns with the town's spelling, but we found in the great Smoky Mountains. Hey if the addition wasn't going so well we might think about moving, hey we would be trading in one small house for another.

We can now sleep easier that the mystery is over and the Miami house is out of the picture also, because it is wall to wall houses...no way Chris could bring all his cars down there, but the ocean is just blocks away. So everyone can breathe easier we are staying put here in Maplewood. Now we can refocus on what is really on our minds...the addition.

The World of Fast Food

Okay I admit I fall victim to the wrongful side of fast food every once in awhile, but I thought this one might be a great photo opp. We are getting to the point where everything we eat Tony makes it know that he wants it too. One of the pictures we have is Tony's first Chicken Nugget. I think he played with it more than anything but a few french fries made it to the stomach.


Is that really horrible or what? I just can't bring myself to make a full meal when it is just Jayna (the no eater) and baby boy, no one eats except me and then the left overs go to waste. Today Jasmine was at the rollerskating rink "hangin" out with friends...we can all remember those nights at the roller rink.

Jayna is turning into a mini Nick eater and just likes meat, but when it comes to McDonalds she loves the fries but leaves the nuggets.

I don't think that french fries has the nutritional ingredients to make the bug grow. Hopefully she will branch out but until then we will continue trading Nick for his french fries in exchange giving him her nuggets.

April 1st

Happy 1st Birthday Caden

from all of us in Maplewood.

We love you and miss you.

Chris, Jessi, Jasmine, Nick, Jayna, and Anthony.