Little Helper Or Big Distraction?

Here are a few pictures to show you Grandpa Old Guy's little helper. Surprisingly enough he knew just what to do with the socket, and this is just one reason we have to leave Tim alone when he is down here helping out.

Hide and Seek

I never gave too much thought to what it would mean to our family when we got our addition done. Don't get me wrong I know we will finally get the space we need and will stay out of each others hair more. But I also realized that it gives Tony more room to cause mischief. Tony is getting the hang of running around and just plain being a maniac.

For example the other day while in the addition, Tony was just having fun watching the guys come and go from the shop and playing with his toys. He is just a great little guy playing trucks and he reminds me so much of Nick when he was a little guy too. I guess he got bored with the toys and had enough of the addition, because before I knew it he was gone. Yeah that is right I couldn't find him. I was calling his name and searching for him in the addition. I looked upstairs and in the bathrooms and even checked outside just in case he made his way out there. I was almost ready to call Chris in the shop to see if he made it out there, but then I heard a sound. It was coming from the old house. I slowly walked over and peeked around the corner. Sure enough there was Tony in the old kitchen hugging his horsie and talking to the dog.

WHAT...somehow he had managed to drop back into the old house without making that much noise. He is a sneaky little guy and that isn't the only thing he sneaks. His newest and favorite word is FOOD. He says it often and knows exactly where to go for his treats. Some how he finds someone to feed him.

AND that is why we call him Tubby Tony :-)

House Update

We are so getting there...every day is bringing us closer to move in day. Shhhhh...we are liking the extra space the addition is giving us right now but actually living in the space will be totally different. Thanks to our handyman jack of all trades, Tim Carvelli, we are looking at finishing up really soon. Tim has been working hard at getting our staircase dialed in so we can get the upstairs carpet installed in the next week or so. The stairs are looking beautiful with the actual treads and rises on and not the construction steps.

The carpet has been ordered and if anyone is curious you can see our carpet on the San Diego Zoo rhinoceros live web cam. I guess Mohawk carpet has it there to prove how stain resistant the carpet can be so they put a piece in their living area and it gets washed every night and looks new still. I haven't personally gone to the website, but liked the look and feel of it when we say the sample.

Chris has been working hard at putting on the finishing parts of the trim on the first floor and now I just have to put the finishing paint touches on the walls. Still looking for a electrician to put up the pendant lights above my island and the vanity lights in the bathroom if anyone knows of someone who WANTS to work, but until then I will have to bug my brother.

So I guess that is what our check list consists of...lights, staircase, carpet. Then we all have to cross our fingers and pray while the inspection is taking place and then MOVE IN DAY!!!! So my projected 2016 move in day might happen after all. YEAH.

Happy New Year

I finally downloaded a bunch of pictures off of my camera...150...so I figured I can update the blog finally. So this is a bit of everything wrapped up in a nut shell. Where to start hmmm. I guess it should be with the holidays. Down here at the Carvellis, we did our usual stuff by trimming the tree and making the ginger man houses which were a wonderful treat for the deer after they were displayed in our house for a while.

It was really nice this year to have the space in the addition for the kids to spread out. Traditions are great and this year was no exception. On Christmas Eve, the kids had off the day off so I decided to let them burn off some energy by going to Just Jump in Woodbury. They had fun jumping around the large inflatable bouncy things and the nice part was we were the only ones in the place. Tony got the chance to try the big slides all by himself and Nick discovered he liked to play air hockey as much as he does ice hockey. I was just informed now as I am writing this blog that Nick doesn't like hockey because it makes him sweat and his helmet gets hot. I guess that means he is doing something right, but watching him race around the rink makes me believe he loves it once he gets going.

For the last few years, the kids have been putting their own ginger man houses together and decorating them and this year Jayna got to do it all by herself. This year was no different, but the darn frosting was a little too stiff and didn't glue the roof together. Throughout the project we had to deal with sliding roofs and sticky fingers, but I think they had fun. Next year Tony gets to tackle his first house too.

It is pleasant to have the day of activities and this gave me a chance to try my hand at making a cake again. After my horrifying ordeal with Vicki's cake, I decided to down scale the size of my own mother's birthday cake and made a delicate chocolate cake for her. By the time all the baking and decorating was done, we were off to the Zientara's for an eve of presents.

The kids always have fun getting together with cousins and were better behaved this time around. We were able to eat dinner without the "can we open presents yet" chant throughout the meal. Once we at the wonderful meal, the kids took their spots by their name tags and the presents were passed out. By the look on Tony's face, you can see that he was a bit overwhelmed and he thought every Truck and Trailer toy was his. He was upset to see that Nick got the "fun" toys.

As usual, the kids got everything and more than what they asked for from Santa. Fitting the kids into the big block Chevy was a sight to be seen, but with the predicted snow falls Chris didn't want to chance getting stuck with the minivan. Plus getting up the unplowed driveway was going to be a challenge with any vehicle we drove, but some how we managed to fit all of us and the gifts in the cab.

Getting the kids to sleep in preparation for Santa the next morning is a fight in itself but they fell a sleep after much anticipation, but no one was springing from their beds the next morning. Actually we slept in later than I expected and opening gifts was a whirlwind of wrapping paper, even Emma got a few gifts from Santa this year.

Then off to the Carvelli side we went, but of course I forgot the camera that time so no photos of the fun this year. A delicious meal was served and family gathered, and before you knew it it was time to go home. Not before Tony shed a few more tears because Nick got the cooler toys, but Jasmine got another collector horse to display in her new room if it ever gets finished and Jayna got a Dora Tent that takes up her ENTIRE bedroom.

I think the kids did okay this year and Tony finally came to the conclusion that Nick's trucks become his trucks once they get mixed together in the toy box so he is okay now that he gets to play with all the trucks. Tony also got a push four wheeler to replace the big wheeler he kept trying to ride around in the garage. Now he keeps up the kids as they race circles.

The holidays are fun but very exhausting. The kids' holiday break is coming to the end and I am very much looking forward to getting back into the routine of life. I am thankful for all the stuff we got and the time we got to spend with family but also thankful it happens once a year.

So to all...Happy New Year!!!!

Christmas Scrooge

I feel like Scrooge this year. It is hard to get into the Christmas festivities and I feel bad for the kids, but I don't think they are missing it. I think it was by pure luck that the tree and stockings got put up this year. I am just waiting for Ron, the neighbor, to call on us. I choose to put the tree up in the addition because there isn't enough room in the old house to put up the tree. For some reason, getting into the holidays is hard when so much is going on otherwise. I don't usually push much as in the way of tradition, but this year the kids are thinking Santa must be telepathic because we didn't even do letters to Santa. With no TV, I don't think the kids even know it is Christmas because we aren't bombarded with advertisements and other holiday specials. So we have to give thanks all our family who are picking up my lack of spirit this year.

I think the addition is sucking all the energy out of us and the kids are focused on getting into their own rooms, but I think Santa still has a few surprises up his sleeve. Jasmine surprised me last night by saying she didn't want any gifts; all she wanted was to get into her own room. She wanted to donate her gifts to the less fortunate (they have a giving tree at school). She is a sweet girl. I think she is onto something, hopefully we will in a position to do some of that next year.

Now that we are coming into the coldest months of the year, Chris has expressed his "excitement" to see the heating bill. I can feel the drafts coming through the front door and windows, and Tony's room is the ice box of the house. We have resorted to leaving his door open to allow the heat to come in through the night, but that has lead to some real early mornings for him. Luckily he has gone back to sleep, otherwise with the door closed he is a popsicle in the mornings with blue lips. Chris spent most of last night dialing in the upstairs wirsbo so now all the bedrooms should be equally heated and the downstairs shouldn't have hot spots in the floor. Yeah!!!

This Sunday, Tony (Erik's brother-in-law) is coming down to the house to measure for carpet. That will be wonderful to get another big project done, hopefully we are able to get the staircase done too so Tony can carpet them as well. Unfortunately, our back up electrician is either busy or laid up. On Tuesday, Justin fell outside his house and hit his head. There is a small window during the day when no one is home and he choose that moment to go out to his garage and fall. He called my mom who told him to call 911 and my father went over to his house. The EMTs came and took him to the hospital to check him out and the CAT scan came back fine. So now Justin just has to recover from sore bones and a golf ball size bump on his head. If that is all the mishap that goes on for all of us, I will be thankful.

So I am praying for everyone to stay healthy and safe this season.

GOLDIE

Here was Nick's special guest.....GOLDIE GOPHER!!! Unfortunately, Chris and I couldn't make it so Grandma Vicki & Grandpa Old Guy got the exciting task. Goldie was that exciting, because he held Tony's attention when Tony usually runs around the whole time. After this day, Nick was surprised to see a Gopher AD on TV and that there were more than one Gopher. I had to explain that the "Gophers" were a mascot to the school and he was like, "there are more than one Goldie?" I'm not sure he got it, but was eager to hear they have hockey at THAT school.

Cake??

The season is upon us when the holidays are in full swing. The 4th annual Ackerman cookie exchange is happening again and that means baking galore. This year was a bit easier with only 8 1/2 dozen cookies to bake, so this year I decided to tackle a cake too. Like so many other things in life, I thought this was going to be easy. I guess I forgot how demanding kids can be, but I anticipated this and started baking on Thursday so Chris could watch the kids before he left to go trail clearing up in Cook.



So on Thursday, I got all of my cookie exchange cookies done...chewy fudge browning cookies, lemon bars for Chris and brownies for the kids and Chris to share. On top of that, I got the batter done for the peanut blossom cookies that I was going to make for Chris to take with him too. I thought I was on a roll. Then Friday came...Chris had to work part of the day and all the kids were home from school (staff development day).



I was still feeling good, but I realized that I was running out of Hershey kisses. After a run to the store and 12+ dozen cookies later, the peanut butter blossoms were done. Now onto the cake. I was excited to start this project because it was suppose to be an easy cake with fancy frosting. This cake was suppose to be made from a box mix BUT of course I forgot to buy the mix. No problem, I'll make the cake from scratch. Some where along the lines working with my double ovens I got side tracked and jumped the cooking process. So unfortunately the first cake didn't come out of the pan in one piece but no worries nothing frosting couldn't fix.



I have to say this cake was fun to make, but I have no idea how it tastes. We will have to ask Vicki for the final say, because it was her birthday that inspired me to take on this task. The chocolate cake, filled with chocolate ganache, topped off with strawberries and chocolate swirls/wording is a sight. The picture is the after affect of hot ganache over frosting and chocolate swirls...a melted lava of cake. A little disappointing after the work put into it, but now we know let hot ganache cool before applying the chocolate lettering.