SCORE!

Woo Hoo! It's my lucky day...BOOKS! Our local library did some re-arranging and decided that they had too many books. (Can a library have such a thing???)

What could they possibly do with extra books? Sell them of course! Although for the price I paid I would call it giving them away.

I got fifteen books for myself. All for the grand total of...$3.00.

Yep that's right!..twenty cents a piece! I told you they were giving them away! All the books I picked up were in very good condition-HC and dust jackets included. What a DEAL!

I also picked up twenty hardcover children's books for Ryan and Katelyn.

$4.00- can't find that deal on the Scholastic book orders they drag home from school.

So- TV off- Let's read! (Except of course on Mondays- Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, Charlie-Can't miss those!)

Working Hard

Here's the morning update...The cement was poured yesterday afternoon. When I stopped this morning, the forms were coming down. I believe the next step is a foundation inspection. (Great, waiting on an inspector???? That can't be a good thing for progress!)

A Party For Renny (Warren)

Here's Renny! I can't believe that he's already one! He's such a cute little bug. He spent most of his party crawling around chasing after his new ball. He could walk if he wanted, he stands quite well on his own. I guess he just thinks it's quicker to crawl!

He smiled so cute when we sang "Happy Birthday" to him. It was funny when we got to his name- some sang Renny, some sang other variations- Ren, Rennerton, Warren. Poor kid is probably still trying to figure out his name at a year old! He looks so much like Rikki did.

Here's the Elmo cake that I made for him. He was so excited.

When he saw it he clapped and squealed "Lelmo"!

He reached for it but Rikki wouldn't let him take a handful. I so wanted to see the mess. Although I don't think anything would have topped the "Cake Wars" Ryan and Katelyn had on their first birthdays. I'm so greatful that the cast members at Disneyland didn't ban us after that mess! I never did get the frosting out of my Pooh bear T-Shirt...

This is about the only good shot I got of Daxen. He runs everywhere! When he did stop, it was never for very long and I wasn't fast enough with the camera. I happened to get this one because he climbed up the monkey bars and was stuck for a second. Stuck until his mother saw him and came running. He is not afraid of anything! Rikki will have to keep a close eye on him!

A Quick Peek...

Here's the progress as of this morning. It's slowly coming along...

Ryan's a Star Too!

Here it is! The long awaited Ryan "Shining Star" poster. It's been a few weeks since he was the star of his class-it just took me this long to get him in the mood to hold it up for a picture. (Boys!) I have to admit I was really happy when he LET me work on this poster with him. Ryan doesn't like girls. Girls like dolls, girls put stuff in their hair, girls are not boys. This includes Mom. You see I too am a girl (so kindly pointed out by Ryan). He very seldom allows me to do anything with him. I consider it my lucky day if I am allowed to help him tie his shoes!

Back to the poster...He picked everything himself. Stickers and all. The frogs at the bottom HAD to be on lily pads- he tore out the white flowers on them by himself too. The frog on the lower right has legs attached by brads. Underneath the legs, he put hidden Mickeys. If you look really close you can see one showing. This to me was a silent testament that he really does like his Mom...after all, he certainly wouldn't put hidden Mickeys on a poster to please his Dad!

Side note: This picture was taken this morning on his way out the door to school. Notice the hair? He won't let anyone comb it! Girls do their hair, not boys. Whenever it starts to stick up a bit, he announces his need for a haircut!!! What a silly guy!

Our House Has Feet???!!!???

This is what Ryan so innocently asked after hearing Wes and I talk about the footings that were poured on Wednesday. Here's a little snapshot of the "feet". It's been a long time coming...I'm so excited to see what new things will be there on my way home from work! I'm hoping that the storm clouds in the background don't put a damper on today's events!

PROGRESS!

It's kind of hard to tell, but if you look really hard you can see that we

actually have a hole in the ground!

I was beginning to wonder if the weather would ever let us start digging! The mountain in the background will be the view from the back of the house. Hopefully we'll be ready to move in by the end of the summer!

Grandpa's Elk

Hunter wasn't into hunting with a purple basket- especially after realizing that the cash egg had been found by one of his cousins. He had a bigger interest...

Grandpa's Elk- He couldn't wait to go see them.

Katelyn wanted to go see them too. Had Wes not been there to stop her, I'm sure she would have started the ATV and gone by herself. Kids are way too smart these days!

Easter Events Continued

Here's a picture I took on the way to Idaho on Easter Morning. The sky looked really cool with all the clouds- note the fresh snow on the mountain...a hint as to how the house would progress during the week.

Katelyn managed to find lots of eggs at Grandma's hunt.

Dawni couldn't find any eggs...

She finanlly found ONE...in the little kids hunting grounds.

Ryan found a stash under the edge of the cement-watch out for crawling creatures under there!

Better Late Than Never-Easter Events

Our town Easter egg hunt is something that Ryan and Katelyn look forward to every year. They have finally figured out that the golden eggs mean that they get a prize instead of candy. Wes made it home in time to go to the hunt with us.

Kate and Ryan on the hunt...look what Ryan has found!

A golden egg! Woo Hoo! No candy for Ryan!

Katelyn, (not to be out done by Ryan), has her golden egg!

What was the big prize this year? A large bottle of bubbles! As soon as we were home, they went out to the deck, opened the bubbles and had a bubble blowing fest! Ryan spilled his and Katelyn kindly gave him half of hers. What a nice sister!

Nothing Comes Without A Price

FINALLY! I thought this day would never come...

Wes finished our master bath. The new vanity looks great. He did pretty good picking out the wood and style. He was so excited!

All that's left to do before we put the house on the market is touch up the paint where the kids beat the walls with bats when we leave and clean the carpets.

ALAS! It was not to be that easy...

This is the family room ceiling a week later. I couldn't bear to take a picture of the leaking pipes and sagging dry wall. Poor Wes, he's done such a great job remodeling the entire house. The last project would be the disaster. He was so frustrated that he actually threw in the towel and called the plumber to find the leak. (When Wes was securing the vanity to the wall. The screw broke and made a direct hit to the line. He didn't realize it at the time. We won't say any more about the pipe layout that he has and what went wrong.)

He's planning to finish the repair to the ceiling this weekend. I'm sure you'll never be able to tell when he's done. He's done remarkable work with the rest of the house. Oh, and by the way...

We met with the builder at the lot to mark where the house will sit. Monday is the BIG digging day! I'm so excited, I can't hardly stand it!

SHHH...Don't Tell Daddy

Mommy has to work Friday when we have Parent-Teacher conference. Mommy usually takes us after Parent-Teacher and gets us something special for doing so well. Today Mom talked to Mrs. Vance and Mrs. Roberts for a quick update of how we're doing.

Katelyn- I am doing great in reading! I'm almost done with level three in our reading series! My hand writing is coming along nicely too. I picked a dog movie (my Mom wouldn't let me get a real dog) and I had a Happy Meal for lunch. Don't go to McDonalds this week, the toy is very ugly- I don't like aliens.

Ryan- I am doing really good in school. I am learning to read and I love to do art work. I color in the lines all the time. I write very well and can spell most of my numbers through ten. I picked Air Bud on DVD and had a Happy Meal for lunch. My DVD had a cool prize too...

It's a dog tag with "BUDDY" and a paw print stamped on it! I am so cool! I can even undo the chain all by myself. I have wanted this for my whole life!

Easy Bakin' It!

Sunday Katelyn stayed with me instead of doing chores with Dad. It was too cold and snowy for girls! I bet you're all thinking that we watched

The Wizard of Oz...

Surprise!

We played Easy Bake! She got an Easy Bake oven from Santa and Daddy enrolled her in the Sweet Deliveries Club. Now we have those really cool mixes delivered right to our door (Ok- our PO Box). I can't figure out why my mother disliked Easy Bake so much when I was little. Kate doesn't make messes at all! I remember wanting one SOOOOO BAD! I saved my own money and bought a used one from the D.I. Mindy and I had great fun with it at night - in our dungeon bedroom.

She loves playing Easy Bake- quite the aspiring chef!

Kate and her beautiful two layer party cake!

Ryan came home just in time to lick the spatula and have a piece of party cake.