T-Ball Game and other pictures

I've been meaning to post pictures from Ryan's first T-Ball game which was last Saturday. The game was really cute. It was quite apparent that none of the kids had ever played a real game of baseball before. One kid hit the ball off the T and ran right for the pitcher instead of first base! And when the ball goes into the out field, they all charge it - the entire team! It's very cute. They don't keep score and the inning is over when everyone gets to hit. Here are the pictures:

Cute Clippies

My very crafty friend Beckie posted about these little hair clips that she made and she linked the tutorial which is here. They are super easy and you can get as fancy as you want to! Here are a few that I cranked out:

Michael's usually has spools of ribbon for a buck, so that's where I got most of the ribbon I used. I have tons of ribbon for the tag blankies I make but it's too wide. This ribbon for the clips is 3/8". Anyway, give it a try! People will think you're very crafty, even if you're not! At least that's how I feel :-)

So, now I suppose I should get back to my neglected kitchen and floors...

Remodel -- Part 7

I've got a few pictures of the bathroom, it now has a roof (albeit, un-shingled, but none the less, it's a roof!) Take a peek below:

Tripp is framing in the room that will have the toilet in it

My closet has been sheet-rocked and taped, ready for paint!

And speaking of paint, we are having a disagreement regarding the paint color in our bedroom. I did choose it when we first moved in, but once it was on the walls, I was less than thrilled. It's just more "Nantucket" and I was hoping for more of a "Tuscan" feel, something that goes better with our massive bedroom furniture. I'm thinking more of a warm brown. Anyway, Tripp does not want to paint the room again, he'd rather just leave it the color it is plus there is a lot of this paint color left. And I said that I will just paint it myself, but he says I'm not allowed to paint. Apparently my perfectionist husband, who actually painted many a building to pay for my wedding ring, does not think I am a good painter. So, Tripp made me a deal. I could choose to leave the room the color it is and he'll install a tube light in the shower (it is sort of like a mini sky light) or choose a new paint color and he'll paint the room and I don't get my tube light. What's a girl to do? I'm going to scour Craigslist for a tube light AND keep trying to convince him to repaint our room. Because, seriously, if it doesn't get painted now, when will it ever happen?

Fun Skirt for Little Girls Giveaway

When I checked this out because my friend had posted about it, I thought that I could maybe try to make it myself. But then, as I read her instructions I realized that I am not a seasoned enough sewer to even begin to attempt this task. So, I just want to win the one she's giving away! Go check it out here. It's really cute!

My Funny Valentines

I can't believe it's already Tuesday! I've been meaning to post about Valentine's Day and give an update on the bathroom addition progress. So, without further ado, here are the kids getting their Valentine goodies from Grandma and Grandpa:

Casey with a "Cars" sticker book

Each of the kids got these cute cards with lip shaped chocolate candies

Here is Ryan looking at his animal sticker book

Emily is checking out her kitty cat card with the lip shaped candy

My sweet husband, though he had to work on V-Day, came home with these beautiful pink roses. He gave 4 roses to each of our kids to hand me then gave me a card that said something about wishing they could give me a flower for all the things I do for them. Very sweet. Aren't they gorgeous?

My 19 year old step-sister was visiting us this weekend and offered to babysit the kids so Tripp and I could go out on a date! Score! Here she is having smoothies with the boys.

Here we are getting ready to leave for our date. I'm not digging my hair in hindsight, but I felt like it looked o.k. when I left!

We had a giftcard from my dad and step-mom to go to P.F. Chang's. We had a fantastic night!

There's not much to update with our building progress. They are finished with the block work, as you can tell by these pictures.

The problem now is that though the trusses (the triangular shaped wood structures that support the roof) were ordered as specified by the plans, they are not actually the right size. Once Tripp got one up on the roof, he saw that there is a 3" difference when it's supposed to be flush with the existing roof line. Crap. So, he's talking to Home Depot (where the trusses were ordered from) and they are trying to work with him and have the trusses fixed rather than purchase new ones. So that's all I know for now. I have to tread lightly sometimes, when trying to gather info from my husband about the progress. If I ask him when he frustrated and annoyed, I get nothing! So sometimes I just listen to his coversations with other guys to figure out what's going on!

Yesterday

I intended to blog about this my day yesterday but my husband was at the computer all night doing our taxes . Good times. For the first time in our married life, we will not be getting a refund. In fact we'll have to pay a significant amount. I guess this is one of those little "emergencies" Dave Ramsey talks about. He says you should have an emergency fund to pay for things that you don't see coming. We're working on it, Dave!

So here are a few nuggets from my day yesterday.

*Almost had a mental breakdown trying to figure out my grocery list without my "crutch". I was a faithful member of couponsense.com. This is an amazing website (similar to grocerygame.com, but better!) and it makes putting my lists together each week so easy and I get so many good deals. But because of family budget cuts, I decided to stop paying the $15 a month and try to figure it out on my own. It took me literally hours, but I think I did okay. I got some reassurance from my friend Becca who is very savvy when it comes to finding deals. She is a good friend. Go see her blog here if you live in AZ.

*I went to Albertson's first. They were having a huge NBA celebration or something. I didn't know they were doing this. First when I walked in, they handed me a card and had me step over to a computer monitor where they proceeded to scan my card. I didn't win the grand prize of attending some big basketball game (do you sense my disappointment? I don't even know what kind of a game it was!) but I was excited to win a pack of gum! Woo-hoo! Who doesn't like free gum?

*So I go about my business of grocery shopping. I was only getting a few things at Albies. Then someone makes an announcement over the loud speaker that if you can correctly guess who the '07-'08 NBA defensive-whatcha-majigger was, you'd get a free bag of groceries! All I heard was "free groceries"! I whipped out my cell phone and aksed Tripp (I was repeating the question in my head like a phone number so I wouldn't forget it!). I hussled to the front of the store thinking, "free groceries, free groceries!" I submitted my answer. Nope that's not it. I called Tripp back and aksed for another name. Nope that's not it. Okay, Honey try again! At the moment that Tripp said the next name, a guy beside me said it. He was right. Dang it! I was so close to getting those groceries! But do you know what happened? The man with the right answer said, "Oh, she can have the groceries, I just wanted to see if I knew the answer." That man has no idea how he made my day! I told him he should look through it and see if there was anything in it he wanted. But he said, nope, you can have it. I was so excited! Here's what was in that precious bag: a liter of soda, a box of popcorn, a loaf of bread, a can of spaghetti sauce, a package of spaghetti and a can of pringles. I. was. so. excited. Because remember from this post, how much I like free stuff?

*When I got home, the boys were playing next door at our neighbors' house. We live in this secluded cul-de-sac. You can see it here when Ryan learned to ride his bike. Anyway, I didn't pull all the way into the garage, like I normally do and it's a good thing or I would not have seen happen, what I'm about to share with you. I was going back and forth bringing in groceries and I noticed a car pull into our cul-de-sac and 2 people got out. Our neighbors always have people at their house, so I assumed it was some friends of theirs, but didn't think much of it. I came back out to get more groceries and glanced up to see the 2 men loading something into the trunk of their car. I did a double take because I recognized said object. Hey! That's OUR battery operated driveable jeep! Ryan and Casey had parked it on the sidewalk in between our house and our neighbors' house while they were playing next door! I said to them, "excuse, what are you doing?" They look up, surprised, "oh, this is yours?". "Uh, YEAH! Where did you find it?" They point to a location on our sidewalk, in front of our mailbox and proceed to put it back. Seriously? First of all, it's sitting in our secluded cul-de-sac, in front of our house, with no sign on it that says FREE. Would you really just take it like that in broad daylight? The nerve of people! And they saw me unloading groceries, and could've asked me if I knew if it was up for grabs! So what do you think? Were they trying to steal it or do you think they just thought it was left by the curb to go to the dump? I like to think the latter, but who knows with people these days!

So that was my yesterday! I'm looking forward to this weekend - I'm picking up my sweet step-sister who is visiting until Monday! Have a great weekend everyone!

Mildly Inappropriate, But Oh So Cute!

This evening Ryan was "taking care of business". I went to check on him, as it had been a little while that he'd been in there. This is what I walked in to find:

Ryan is learning to read in Kindergarten and his little brother asked him to read him a book. So Casey pulled up a footstool and Ryan "read" to Casey. I know that some day I'll have to delete this post because it would probably scar my poor first born! But seriously, isn't it sweet?

Future contestents on...

"So You Think You Can Dance"!

Please excuse my disaster of a house -- all master bedroom items are currently in the dining room, including the king sized matress leaning against the wall. My house in complete and utter chaos and there is constantly a white dusty film on everything. I. don't. like. it. Today while at Costco, I splurged and purchased one of those hand held Swiffer Duster things. I'm really glad I did -- Ryan dusted everything within his reach! He loves it!

There's not much to report on the remodel progress. The block workers should finish up the block work on Monday. Tripp has removed the window and moved it to it's new location that looks out into the backyard. Here's Emily supervising Tripp:

Remodel -- Part 6 (Progress!!)

A lot happened yesterday and it's exciting to see the progress. I have lots of pictures for you! Yesterday, bright and early, the cement truck rolled into our side yard.

Tripp had the help of his Uncle David, his dad and his friend Dave

The boys thought that this was the coolest thing ever. Casey is sure he wants to be a cement truck driver when he grows up. The little boy beside Casey is the boys' 2nd cousin, Logan.

Emily had to come check things out too!

Here are the guys smoothing the concrete out.

And this is the finished result

Next, Tripp and his Uncle David tore out the block wall for the new window. This is the area that used to be the old vanity mirror. Our new view will be of the backyard.

Today, they started working on the block wall for the new addition. When I left this morning for Bible study there was just the cement slab and when I came home it looked like this:

Yesterday, Tripp took out our vanity so when I left, our room looked like this:

And when I got home, we had a view!

Tripp boarded this up with drywall so we don't have to sleep with a gaping hole in our room.

Tomorrow, we hope to pass another inspection regarding the block wall, thus far. Then they can finish it. It's coming along!