more spring

Sitting up in the bumbo seat. The best invention ever, made even more so by the addition of the table.

Look! I can do it myself!

Dyeing easter eggs....getting ready for the Easter Bunny!

springtime favorites

The spring this year has been unusually nice...with lots of cold fronts rolling through giving us those perfect warm days and cool nights. I appreciate it more and more, as the clock is ticking down to the summer yuck.

Big H is growing at a rapid pace, but still trails her sister in height and weight at the same age. She is fully sucking the thumb and refuses to take a nuk (thank goodness!). The ninja-style barfing continues, but she is starting to roll over every so often. Time is sure flying by!
#1 daughter is also doing new things! We're beginning to pick up on the fact that she is far more perceptive than we thought. Tricky going these days. She has also really taken to riding her tricycle like a champ. Pictures to come...


Q: "Who is on the phone, Lilly?" A: "The cow is on the phone!" Duh!

I got it!!

Big smiles for Daddy!

awww...so cute

field trip

The weather has been spectacular recently (although awful when Grandma P came for a visit!) and we headed out for a family field trip last weekend to see Battleship Texas. Soon to be drydocked, the ship was still afloat and in pretty good condition for being built in ~1913. You could access most places below and go all the way up to the crows nest. Our friend D came with us, and we nominated him the photographer for the day.
Battleship Texas! (painted a Navy-approved color, so we found out).
Aye aye!  Sailors we be!
Thinking about joining the Navy....

more to come

I've gone back to work....and the end of leave was super busy. My goal is to at least post something new every week.

garage demo-1

This past weekend we had a bunch of our friends over to knock over our sad mess of a garage in preparation for the new one.  Our contractor came by and had the garage doors taken out and (hopefully) out for reuse.  We spent the next day salvaging wood and other stuff before the real tearing down began.  The picture above is the garage before D-day.
What was going on inside during demolition.  What you cannot see is that every lego and train set piece was scattered all over the floor.  The pre-naptime cleanup was epic and met with much resistance.  
Salvaged wood pile--soon to be picnic tables, vegetable garden edging and the chicken coop!!  
One of the completed small projects (still awaiting its top)--a recycling bin bench!  Hooray!

garage demo-2

Saturday morning was started by tearing the metal roof off...
Roof truss removal.  
The demo crew, looking tough.  Amazingly, and thankfully, there were no injuries, save for a few sore muscles.  All of that corporate safety training paid off!!  
Only the utility room was left on Saturday afternoon, but gone by Sunday in time to watch the football games.  We did the final load of laundry Saturday night and are (im)patiently waiting for the new washer and dryer to be installed in their new digs--INSIDE!!  My little domestic fantasy.
Garage is GONE!  Slab removal in progress.  

for the grandmas and grandpas...

Saturday mornings at the playground
Check out those cheeks!!
First smiles!  This is especially welcome at 3 am...
Lilly finds the Christmas elf hat amongst the dress up clothes
Tiny little monkey toes