More rainy days....The yard has some muddles, but the spring flowers and bulbs are starting to push out. I can see a few rhody buds forming. We got a bit of snow up in the hills and tried to sled, but it rained before we got there. Loren has been getting a lot done on the house and I've finally got a few pictures. Hopefully we'll be moved in by the end of March.

Here is the fireplace Loren tiled. Loren and dad put the floors in. We've got to do some sort of trim for the mantle, but at least we can burn some wood in there and keep warm . It's tied in to the main central heating system for extra efficiency.

Here is the downstairs shower. It's 6' instead of 5' and is proving hard to find a shower rod for so far. The extra foot doesn't give me any advantage, but Loren's excited about stretching out in the tub.

I'm really into the slate we put on the countertops in the downstairs bath. We couldn't decide what to do down there and I'd alwatys wanted to buy this honed slate with the little birdseye pattern and we finally decided to use it here. It's really pretty.

We made some progress on the boys room and I got to paint with my chalkboard paint and put up leftover cork flooring on the wall for a corkboard at kid height. The solar system is up and we've done even more since these pictures, but here it is as a work in progress.

The cabinet guys put the baseboards and trim in so the kitchen is progressing too. Loren got the baseboards in and the electrician wired the dishwasher and disposal. We've still got some things to install but we've got a kitchen sink!

Here is our first working toilet. As soon as we get the thumbsup on the septic we can use it!

Here are the cork floors that dad and I put in and a finished doorknob I got to install. I'm excited about the door style since it's a bit different then most of what you see these days with the 6 panels.

The shower is tiled and shower heads installed. We had a headache with the valves leaking for awhile but it seems to be working now. I love the travertine tiles. Our glass door should come in the next couple of weeks. If you come visit you can stay here! Beautiful view of the back yard redwoods and rhody's and soft cork floors. We'll even have baseboards and window sills in.
I got the granite tiles in the upstairs bath tiled. I grouted about 500sf of floor, 400sf of vertical shower and fireplace and about 100sf of countertop. I've used both sanded and non sanded and made all the mistakes there are to make I'm sure. I'm glad to be done with it. The bathroom was my last grout project. I just have to seal it all now!! Here is Loren working on the upstairs pocket door which gave him some trouble, but is finally done.
The downstairs hall we were going to carpet but decided to tile. I'm sure we'll be glad we did in the end. Here is the Cars playroom in progress. Cheap checkerboard flooring like Nascar flag, and gray and red to match the Cars fabric I bought to sew the curtains.




More volcanoe fun. I bought a volcanoe kit from Michaels and we got to put it together at our friends the Sullivan's house. We mortared and painted it and then got to make it erupt.

We've been going out to eat alot lately and have been able to hit a little music. This night it was some Peruvian musicians with a lovely pan flute. Caleb wanted to get down and dance. The boys made a show themselves dancing around and we got to enjoy our margaritas.

We ruined the volcanoe from too much use and remortared it with leftover tile mortar. I added rocks, logs and trees for effect.
Our talented Miss Cari at preschool painted on the boys legs. Nolan got a atreasure chest and volcano, his two most recent loves (thankfully the puppies are over, although he still thanks God for puppies every night). Nolan didn't want to bath for days, but they finally rubbed off.
The valentine candy stuck around for quite some time, but as I started getting rid of some the boys took the last box of candy hearts and hid them. What a clever hiding spot there behind the fish tank. Hopefully they'll continue to choose great spots like this to hide things.
I bought a gym mat to do excercises and play games and it's turned into quite a toy . It's been a boat, waterfall (they go over it in the laundry basket boat), volanoe, tunnel, and numerous other things in the past few weeks. We have done a bit of tumbling on it too...

Spring is almost here. We've gotten to spend some nice days out in the yard and treehouse finally and we also played hookie from church one Sunday to hang out at the beach.

We got a lot of great action shots of the boys and used our new Christmas present (the digital camcorder) to both take pictures and record some small movies.

Both the boys and the dogs got lots of exercise.

You can't really play hookie from anything in Humboldt county as you'll always run into someone. We ran into our good friends Matt and Tom from church at the beach as well, just done surfing. =)

Nolan did really great both catching and throwing the frisbie. We got some great shots of both. Not sure how Loren captured this one of me, but it does demonstrate my amazing style and grace I display when playing.

Grandpa bought the boys some Carhart overalls that have been great for playing outside. I just throw them over the clothes and we can play in the mud without having to change our clothes 5 times a day.

These pictures demonstrate the nature of brotherly love. Lots of antagonization, overreaction and a little jealousy (see the drink shot).

I took the boys to Trinidad one Saturday for a hike in the woods and walk on the beach. Everyone always heads right for the water.

Nolan has a new obsession every few weeks. A couple of weeks ago the puppy craze started. I get asked about getting a puppy every couple of hours. We just got a puppy last year and I don't plan to get any more dogs for quite some time. So for now he can play with his stuffed puppies. I gave him a leash, collar, crate and some "food" and water. It'll have to do for a few years.


For the boys new bedroom we're doing a space theme and we painted planets for our solar system we'll hang from the ceiling. Nolan's getting ot know a lot about the planets and can answer quite a few questions about all of them.

We've also been through a recent volcanoe obsession. I built a volcanoe out of a homemade flour based clay recipe I had in a preschooler activity book and we mixed up some lava for it too with vinegar and baking soda. Both activities became quite messy as the boys wanted to experiment with the vinegar and baking soda "explosion" in multiple bowls using all different colors. Each boy had to have their own bowls for each color as well. At least both vingar and baking soda are my main cleaning products so we had a lot and it was fairly easy to clean up!


We've been using our Family Fun mag to make lots of fun games and do a lot of crafts. Their favoite game was one using a box with holes notched out and different point written on it to shoot marbels into. They also like making penguins and an igloo out of pipe cleaners, craft foam, cotton balls and old tupperware. We made a spider web out of twine and wire. And of course we've made a lot of valentines. I think we had to make 24 alone just for preschool.

We also got to play at the zoo with Cole and Carson one afternoon. The boys definately overran the place and caused a ruckus, but we decided when we get them together outdoors in a park or zoo is better than in our living rooms and kitchens!

The Birthday Party was back in December but I finally got the photos on my computer and up on the site. Grammy and Papa came to visit and we all had a great time. We had the boys party at Flips for Kids Gymnastics. Nolan had some great friends come and got lots of presents. Some of Caleb's friends came too from his old daycare and they all had fun.

Nolan wanted lots of space to open his presents, but everyone wanted to see what they got.


It was fun for us to actually be able to talk and chat with parents at the party since the gym
staff supervised the children.


We got to get out on the floor and play too. Caleb got to show what a monkey he really is.


The giant trampolines were popular and Cole and his best buddy Nolan checked out all of the toys.


Everyone had great manners for juice and cake time, which we give them right before we send them back to their parents!


Lightning McQueen stole the show and was a definate central theme to this party.


With childcare provided by Grammy and Papa we got to go on a date too at Loren's company dinner.

The big airplane ride was the funnest for the boys. They both had their little backpacks with toys they'd chosen and they looked so cute. It was a pretty easy ride. Caleb read up on the safety precautions we should take in case of an accident.

Here are some more of the photos from Riverfront Park in Spokane on our big day in the city.

As promised for weeks we took the boys to Chuck E Cheeses and celebrated the madness of a building full of children, toys and sugar. It's exhausting. Luckily they guard the gate good looking for the magic stamps on you and your kids, because the do get lost easily in there.

Bozeman got some snow while we were there and we got to play and build snowmen.

Caleb looked very cute in his snowsuit. I took a lot of photos and footage of him.

Mom and Dad got to get away on a couple of snowboarding dates. The snow was decent and we got to spend some time in the trees.

We even got away for a date on NewYears and saw some music.

We went up to the tube hill on Mt. Spokane and had a great time for a few hours getting pulled up the hill and sliding back down. Caleb getting ready for a ride in down the tube hill.
It was great to get pulled up the hill instead of walking in snowboots.
While we were waiting in line the boys climbed around in the snow.

After a great vacation visiting family and friends, we're somewhat settled and I can finally get some of these photos up. We went to Spokane to stay with Grandpa Rich and we went to the Mobius childrens museum. It had great educational, interactive exhibits including a model home and store in the South Pacific, traffic and fire safety with ridable little cars, art, sand, aquifer/water, space, insects, theater and so much more.



Both of the boys have been really into insects lately. Although they aren't really insects, Nolan has also bee really into spiders. He can tell me most of the differences between arachnids and insects and we put up a spider web frame outside and are waiting for a spider to make a home there.


In Spokane we also went on the Gondola over the river (very short ride), the carousel and Riverfront park with the giant Radio Flyer slide. I'll get some more pictures of this up but these are from our new digital camcorder. I haven't loaded up the camera photos yet.


We went up to the mountain and to the inner tube hill at Mt. Spokane. They pulled us up the hill with a motorized pulley so it was worth paying for especially since the boys don't walk very good in there boots. (neither does mom!)


The boys had a great time on the four wheelers with Grandpa. Nolan especially liked the evening rides through the scary woods!


Nolan did an amazing job snowboarding. Mom and dad got to go alone a couple of days too, but we took Nolan up to Bridger Bowl in Bozeman Montana one morning and he was a real trooper. He'll do anything for hot cocoa!