Rennovations

So here are a few of the things we have been doing in the past 4-6 weeks, since we moved into our house. YIKES!!! What a job! We had some wonderful friends, Don and Peggy who labored tirelessly to scrape the "popcorn" off the ceiling and then paint the ceiling and the paneling in the whole house. What a blessing that we could at least have it painted, carpet removed and somewhat cleaned before we moved into it!!

The house is about 1800 sq ft and sits on about 2 1/2 acres. Lots of trees and space.

Before we began the work.

This is the room we had our stuff stored in!!

Lots of stuff!!

The lovely pink carpet that we removed.

The lovely linoleum, which is still there, for now!

The kitchen peninsula that we tore out.

A crazy built in "desk" that we tore out.

The dining area.

Removal of the wall!

The wall and peninsula are gone!!


Here is where that "desk" was. We found this lovely little mouse nest under neath!
Joshua and Aunt Peggy making roads in the "popcorn" rubble.


Prepping to paint.

Scraping the ceiling.

Carpet removal with benefit of official supervisor!

The next big job is painting the kitchen cabinets which have this heinous layer of crud on them so just scraping them clean is quite a hefty task.

Not sure if the photo really does it justice, but this is the goopy stuff coming off the cabinet doors!

We will post "after" photos a bit later, after the mess is more cleaned up!!

Happy Father's Day

Just wanting to share the cute photos of my boys! Happy Father's Day to an awesome Papa to my sweet boy! I am so very blessed!!

Marianne

Mother's Day and a Little Bunny

Well we had a sweet Mother's Day together which you can see by this cool picture!
Then this evening, Charley went outside and Angus had something at his nose, between his paws. Lo and behold, it was this sweet, teeny, tiny bunny!
Okay, our boy is a little dirty in this picture but hey! I figure it shows what a fun day he has had!!

Joshua's Friend Erin

At Mother's Day Out, Joshua has made a wonderful friend named Erin. They just love each other and get so excited to come to "school" so they can see each other. They play together so well and talk about each other at home all the time. It is so precious. Here are a couple of pictures. Not the best, but Oma has been asking for a peak at Erin. She is just a neat little girl! (as is her family!) He is sitting in my lap and even just looking at her picture he is saying her name and pointing and laughing. So cute!!

A good after shot of Joshua's lip

Here is a good shot of Joshua's lip revision. We are so blessed by Dr. Buckmiller. She is the BEST!!

Joshua's Dream COME TRUE!!

So this weekend we went to a HOT WHEELS birthday party for our friend Owen. Now Joshua is a car fanatic, really that is what he plays with 90% of the time. He always has a hotwheel in each hand, wherever we go. So the party was at a local park, lots of boys and dirt. Tons of fun. But suddenly there was this roar of an engine and Joshua stopped mid-stride and looked up at me. Well it was a REAL race car. Susan (Owen's Mom) had arranged for him to come and show the car to the boys and Owen even got to sit in the driver's seat. Well Joshua liked to have lost his mind!! He went running up to the car and began circling it, checking out all the parts, telling me what they all were. (He was right too!) He LOVED the big roar of the engine when the owner started it. He could not stand still as noted in the group shot where he is mid-air in a jump!! It was so neat. When we got home and put the photos on the computer he sat for 30 min. just watching a slideshow of the event, imitating the roaring engine and re-living the whole thing. What a fun experience!!

Surgery!

So, on April 29th, Joshua had his lip revision surgery at Children's Hospital in Little Rock. So the night before, we drove to Little Rock. We checked into the hotel and then walked down to the River Walk area where we ate dinner and then took the trolley ride which took us all through downtown Little Rock and into North Little Rock and back. We were the only ones on the trolley and Joshua got to push buttons and step on levers. He absolutely LOVED it! He did not want to get off after the hour ride. (And here I was thinking it would be too long and he would be bored!!)

The next morning, we woke up and went over to the hospital. The surgery was about 2 hours long and then he spent the night in the hospital and was released the next day. He did so well! It has now been 2 weeks and he is back in Mother's Day Out today and is thrilled because that is what he missed the most! He spent those two weeks watching movies, and not a variety, but the same two movies!! CARS and THE POLAR EXPRESS! He had to stay calm and not jump around so it was quite the challenge after the first few days!! But all is well now and his lip looks beautiful!!

Working the trolley car!

Itching to get back to his own seat to look out the window!

The "before" picture. A great after picture will have to come tomorrow. I forgot it at home.

Sleeping under the misting chamber to ease breathing after the surgery.

My cool arm restraints. After Mama sewed Lightening McQueen fabric over them, they were suddenly much more acceptable!!


Lightening McQueen shirt, shoes and arm restraints.

I am too cool!!

April Showers

Well the sunny, windy days of March have given way to the wonderful thunder and lightening storms of April!! But the fun of all that rain is the GIANT puddles that are created on the field behind our house! We could not resist and so we put on our rain boots and off we went for a splashing adventure!
That is a lot of water!

I think my feet are still dry in these great boots.


Run, run, as fast as you can!


Stomp and march.


BIG, BIG steps!


Kicking water on Mama is also quite entertaining.

Oh MAN, I think there is water in here.

Too much fun!

And this is what the fire ants of the field do in a deluge, a wiggly pile of them on one little spot of semi-dry land. Weird!