Under Construction

So I've had a few people ask for pictures of the construction. I didn't think to take before pictures, but it was just a single car garage bay with a normal old garage door before.

Today we have the house painters here, and the wallboard for the interior is supposed to go up by this weekend. Last night we went and looked at carpet and paint colors, and we're pretty close on those things. The other big thing we're waiting on is our bid for the new A/C units and the accompanying work. Overall I'm really pleased with the progress and am very much looking forward to the extra space!

Looking at the new room from the front of the house.

Looking from the laundry room toward the window.

Looking from the window toward the laundry room (the laundry room door will be coming off, and there is a new entryway built that you can't see through the insulation. That's where the door to the garage will go.).

Update

Ryan loves his baby sister!

Apparently it's cool to wear sunglasses in the bathtub!

You can definitely tell they're related!

Trying out squash for the first time


I just realized that it's been a while since I've blogged, so I thought I'd post some new pics and let you know what we're up to. Annie turned 6 months last week, which I still can't believe. She is sleeping awesome and continues to be our little angel baby. She is so good natured and mellow, and such a calming presence in our home. I took her in for her shots on Thursday and even though she is continuing to grow, she is now only in the 5th percentile for her weight! We just tried out solid food for the first time yesterday, and she is pretty unsure about that at this point.

Ryan is doing great. While Annie is allowing us to have nice quiet nights, Ryan definitely is not. Hopefully it's just a stage, but he is up every single night, at least once and often more. It's tiring, but chalk it up to parenthood, right? He is talking like crazy and coming up with new words every day. It's so fun to watch, and he is quite entertaining.

We recently began converting part of our garage into another room. No, we're not having another baby, but we need more room! We have it framed out and the window has been installed and the stucco done on the outside. It will be nice to have some storage and a place to put my sewing maching and scrapbooking stuff so I don't have to pack it up everytime I use it. We're hoping to have it completely done in about a month or so.

That's about all that's new here. It's been crazy hot, and keeping Ryan entertained indoors is proving to be quite a challenge. It should be an interesting summer!

Ryan's First Trip to the Firehouse

A couple of weeks ago we went to Tehachapi for my step-sister's baby shower. While we were there, Ryan got to visit the fire station with Papa. He had a great time pushing all the buttons and checking out the lights. Thanks, Papa, for the fun time!

Happy Earth Day!

I've never been a big "Save the Planet" kind of girl--I drive a Suburban and am a registered Republican. However, since having kids, I have become more environmentally aware and try to do my part. I haven't adopted anything earthshattering--just the little things that if everyone does will combine to make a big difference. Our efforts include:

~Recycling everything we can

~Using canvas shopping bags

~Using cloth napkins instead of paper

~Switching to energy efficient lightbulbs

~Using Nalgene bottles for water instead of disposable water bottles

~Washing clothes in cold water and using the quick wash cycle when appropriate

~Getting our windows UV coated to keep it cooler (and use the A/C less)

I'd love to hear what others are doing to help save the planet!

Mad Skills

So I just started taking a cake decorating class, and this is the first cake I did. I'm definitely no Duff Goldman, but hopefully I'll be able to make cute cakes for my kid's birthdays. This whole domestic thing is turning out to be pretty fun...

Happy Easter!

Disney Fun!

Two weekends ago we decided to pack up the crew and head to Disneyland. Ryan absolutely loved going on the rocketships, Dumbo and the Autotopia, as well as lots of other rides. Annie was her usual angel self, and we made some great memories.

Valentine's Day at the Zoo

This year we decided it would be fun to take the kids to the zoo on Valentine's Day. They recently opened a Little People Zoo area that we wanted to check out, and we wanted to enjoy the amazing weather we've been having. (While most normal people do things like go to the zoo in the summer, when you live in Arizona you do everything outdoors anytime BUT the summer.) Ryan had a fabulous time, and I think Annie enjoyed the fresh air. I was just happy to get some good family time in outside of the house...

Too Cool for School

Annie's Blessing

Yesterday was Annie's blessing, and we were excited to have family together to celebrate the special event. My parents came down from California, and Bryan's sister and her family from Portland had coincidently planned to come into town for the weekend. My sweet mother-in-law hosted a wonderful brunch at her house afterward, and my mom made Annie's beautiful dress. We enjoyed showing off our sweet little Annie Bear and not to be outdone, Ryan was looking pretty dapper himself!