House pet, anyone?

This is just wrong. I picture in my mind a pest control commercial that shows an animation of bugs crawling into your house leaving their germy footprints wherever they go. So, that's extra dishes for me to wash now. I was tempted to empty the whole drawer into the dishwasher. Not to mention that I will definitely be even more on the lookout upon opening drawers and cabinets in the future. My potholders are in the drawer below this one. I'm really not in the habit of checking for spiders before I stick my hands in them, but maybe I should be. These spiders are all over the house. They actually blend in pretty well with wherever they may be, so I don't really see them that often. However, that's a two-sided coin because while I'm glad they aren't in my sight all the time, it creeps me out to think about what's lurking where. They don't move very fast, so I guess it could be worse. In all of our previous houses, we have just sprayed our own bug spray for any kind of pest other than termites. This time we might be in a little over our heads. We have opted to go for the full shebang service contract for at least this first year. Bug man will be here in two days! He can't come soon enough!

A Wonderful Day

I read a book and took a nap this afternoon while Ryan was napping. Wow, that felt SO good. My cleaning/organizing project today consisted of putting the puzzles together with Ryan. Don't you just love that happy little face? I could just kiss him all day long. I'm so grateful to be able to stay at home with him. I love being a mother.

Beginning projects

So, now you can see just how beautiful our house really is. :) It came with a few surprises, this being one of the first:

  

And this is one of my first projects. I had to recaulk this tub, so we could have a place to shower while I fix the grout in our master shower. I was glad I took the before picture because when I was done it didn't look all that much better to me, but beside the old picture it does.

And I can't tell you how proud of Nate I was with this one. The old appliances in the kitchen didn't work, so he replaced the dishwasher and added in the microwave over the stove. And he stayed mostly calm through the whole process!!

As you can see with our lovely wallpaper, we have much more to do!

And Happy St. Patrick's Day! Those crazy leprechauns forgot to come to our house this year. Maybe they knew it was already messy enough without the chaos they usually add. I did make green macaroni and cheese for supper, though. Very gross looking, but there weren't any leftovers. The kids loved it.

Here we are

Well, either blogger or my computer is having some issues, so we'll just have to forego pictures for the moment. I don't know if this one will post or not. We are in our house, and we are so grateful that we have made it through so much chaos. Alright, we don't have everything in order yet, but we are coming along and starting to get a few routines back.

We had new carpet installed upstairs yesterday, and it just feels SO MUCH BETTER!!! I can finally get a glimpse of the nice house that this will be. It's really going to work! We hadn't put any furniture up there because we were waiting for the carpet. The girls had just been sleeping on their mattresses on the floor, and they were so excited to get their beds back last night.

I can't wait to post some pictures of the handy work Nate has been doing. He has never claimed to be a handy-man, but maybe he will be one day after all. I think he is really enjoying it. Our home inspection report was rather lengthy -- we knew it would be -- but the inspector did include one problem that I think he could have left off: "There was an abnormal amount of spider activity in the crawlspace. This is for your information only." I really would have been okay without that information. I think Nate would have, too. He really doesn't want to go down there, and there is nothing encouraging I can say about it.

So, anyway, I'm back online now. My to-do list is pretty full, so chances are the blog will be neglected for a while, but our email and phone number haven't changed if you need to get in touch.

We're Alive

What? Ryan is taking a nap for longer than 30 minutes? Wow, I'm enjoying it, and I'll take advantage of it to post the fact that we haven't fallen off the face of the earth. We might be close to it, but we're still here. :) Actually, things are going well. Ryan is struggling with all of the changes, mainly with trying to take his naps and go to sleep at night. The girls had their first day in their new school yesterday, and it went really well. Hannah said her teacher is more strict than her last one, and Nikki said she misses her old teacher, but they both had fun with the other kids at recess. Since we stayed in the same county the curriculum is mostly the same, which is really nice. I think Nikki's old class was actually a little farther along than this one, and Hannah had the same homework pages sent home yesterday that came home last Friday from our last school. Whew, at least we don't have to worry about them being behind academically. We still haven't closed on our house, but each day makes it one day closer. They are still making repairs to it, and hopefully that will be done soon. I'm not going to complain about the delay because it just means that we don't have to do those repairs ourselves!

Our Boy

Ahh, I have a minute to myself. It seems like those don't come very often lately. So, I just want to write down a couple of things about Ryan that I don't want to forget.

Last week was his first Sunday in nursery. Nate was ready to dance a jig in the hallway at church. Since I've been playing the piano in Primary, it has been Nate's job to contain him at church these last few difficult months before Ryan was old enough to go to nursery. Whew, he made it with his testimony still intact. :) Wait, how did my baby grow up enough to go to nursery? Where did the last 18 months go?

Ryan has a thing for phones and shoes. He loves to talk on the phone and gets so upset if we hand him the broken phone. He wants the real thing that lights up and makes noises. Although, when he just can't get his little fingers on the real one, he will eventually settle for a remote, a little book, a block, or anything else that he can squish between his ear and shoulder and then chatter away. He also frequently raids the front closet for shoes. He's pretty good at walking around in them even if they are WAY too big. It's okay, though, because he also likes cars and trains and balls.

He is a little chatterbox, and he is starting to say words that I can actually recognize. His most clear phrase is, "Oh, man!"

Hannah can usually be found reading on her bed, and she is usually in such a hurry to get to her latest book that she always leaves things undone. So, I stand at the bottom of the stairs and call up, "HANNAH." And now Ryan frequently stands at the bottom of the stairs and calls out, "Hannah!"

If I offer him something he doesn't want, he can't just shake his head no. He has to grab the item, throw it, and then shake his head at me.

When I dry my hair, Ryan comes and lays down at my feet on the rug in the bathroom. I don't know why, but he does it everyday.

He is big on routines. He knows each step I take when I am getting ready in the morning, and he is usually handing me my clothes or my hairbrush or whatever just as I am about to reach for it. Last night I was going to just say prayers and then put him to bed before we read scriptures so we wouldn't have to worry about him trying steal our scriptures or turning the pages on us, but he wouldn't have it. I set him on the ground and he ran and grabbed the scriptures and tried to get up on my bed. Well, there's not much I could do about that except just let him join us. After scriptures and prayers he ran into his room and reached up for me to put him in his crib.

He is so much fun. We all love having him in our home. He is so happy and loving. It is such a joy watching him learn and seeing his little personality come out.

Happy Birthday, Hannah!!

For Hannah's 9th birthday party (yes, she turns 9 tomorrow), she decided she wanted a tea party. So, here is her cake. I hope you can tell it's a hat. It's always such a stress to make the cake, but I love the tradition of making a fun cake for my kids' birthdays.

Here is our little crew waiting for the party guests to arrive. We had snow that morning, but Hannah was so relieved that the roads were clear enough for the cousins to still come. When everybody got here I forgot to get any pictures of the kids eating at the table with the china in all of their dress-ups.

More of the cute partygoers waiting for their cake.

I think Hannah liked her gifts. She is such a sweetheart. We are so grateful to have her in our family. We love you, Hannah. Happy birthday!

My surprising news

So, I started a new job this week. I wasn't looking for a job. I'm quite surprised by it myself, but I'm excited about it, too. I'm working for a professor that teaches online classes at several online colleges like the University of Phoenix. He teaches at 13 different colleges, so he needs help entering grades and other data entry stuff. I do check a few assignments, which is scary to me. So, it's just working from home a few hours early every morning, although he's been training me this week so it has taken more time. The kids have been so wonderful this week. The girls helped babysit Ryan this morning since I didn't finish before Nate left for work. They were great helpers. What am I going to do when they track back in on Thursday?! I'll miss them, that's what. Anyway, while everyone else has had great baby news this year, my surprising news is of a little different nature. :)

More snow pictures

We finally got a snowman! The girls have been so excited that the snow actually stayed around a few days. I can't say Ryan ever really enjoyed being out there, but he grew a little accustomed to it.

Evening Entertainment