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!