Basement: Part III

Josh and Jaime have made great strides in getting our basement finished. After all the framing was completed, new windows put in and insulation laid, the drywall was delivered (by a giant truck!) and now we have it put up ! It is great to really see the rooms come together now and visualize what I will have to work with when all the "construction" is finished and I have my way in decorating. The boys have cleaned it up really well too, so there isn't as much dust as I thought there was going to be...yet. We have a guy coming to mud the drywall next week and get it all smoothed out and ready to be painted soon. I can't wait for this whole project to be done, but looks like we've extended it a bit. We've decided to try and put a bathroom in down here. At least rough in what we can while still not finished and then complete it later. This means Josh has to dig a trench in the concrete from our drain stack to where the toilet is going to be...so we'll see what happens there! Hopefully it will go smoother than I expect, but I would really like to have a bathroom down there because it will makes things so much easier. Especially if we spend as much time as I think we will down there. Here are more pics of the drywall up!

Emaline Swimming!

Emaline has officially become a swimmer. I can't believe it. We really got her going at the end of last summer and I was afraid not being able to have the pool all year long that it might set her back, but nope...there was no stopping her! So this year we switched her over to swimmies/floaties so that she could get a feel for floating around on her own and she really like the independence. I did buy her one of those swimming vests, but she absolutely hated it, so the swimmies were the next step for us. Then, just randomly a couple days before the 4th she told me, "mom, I don't need my floaties, I've got magic fish goggles that will help me swim". So I put on her goggles for her and sat on the step with her in the pool, next thing I know she's jumping off and kicking her legs and moving! She had gotten really good at holding her breath, but it scared me too, so I made her hold on to me for a little while and the next day she was showing Pepere like she was an old pro. Now, no more floaties, no more holding on to Mom....*sniff sniff*, my baby is growing up! So here is one of her first push offs. I hope you enjoy watching it as much as I do.

Jumpy Jumpy Piper!

Piper's First Solids!

Piper got her first taste of solids last week and I think we will have no problem feeding this child. She took to the cereal, not quite as quickly as Emaline, but well enough to want more in her little belly! We've since moved on to veggies and fruits and she loves almost everything we spoon into her mouth. She was a little hesitant about peaches, but has since realized they were tasty enough and eats just fine! She cracks me up. Now if I can only get her to stop spitting and blowing bubbles while she eats....

Fourth of July 2009

This year for Fourth of July my parents decided to have a pool party since this year was the first full summer with the new pool installed. It was also nice to have some family in town this year! The week before the 4th my aunt and cousin came to visit us for a few days and we basically hung out and relaxed with each other. We did make a trip to The Science Center to see A Dinosaur Named Sue, which Emaline really liked! She liked digging for fossils the best. Then the week of the 4th, my sister and her daughter came to stay with us for a week. It was so great to see everyone and have them meet Piper in the flesh. We swam, ate and relaxed over and over again! The day of the party we all jumped in the pool...although it was pretty gloomy and it did rain on us a little bit. I hope that everyone that came over still had a good time! After everyone left, we snacked on some leftovers and decided to go see the fireworks display at Chesterfield Mall. I think its funny when kids get so excited to see something, they build it all up and when they do see it they aren't that impressed with it. Well, that happened with Emaline and we got to see about 3/4 of the show when we decided it would be best to get the kids home and to bed. It was a very long day...with no naps! Thankfully, no one was too cranky and passed out when we got home. Josh had to work yet again, so no fun fireworks for him...maybe next year!

Father's Day 2009

I always say, better late than never...so I'm catching up with my blog today! We spent a nice and quiet Father's Day at my parents' house barbecuing and swimming. Have you noticed a summer trend here?? Earlier in the morning Emaline and I made Daddy some lovely breakfast in bed while Piper looked on from her seat. Then Em gave Dad his presents of new binoculars for his duty bag and "Left 4 Dead" for the Xbox. I was a bad Mommy and didn't even get one picture of the girls in bed with Dad that morning :-( Well, we got cleaned up and headed over to Nana & Pepere's house to have some good eats! We swam and watched Pepere open his gifts too. Thankfully Josh was off to celebrate being the father of two! Unfortunately, Josh's Dad was on the road, so we will be celebrating all birthdays and Father's Day come next Saturday when his family can all get together. Can't wait to see him home for a little bit :-)

Swim Date with Grandma, Madi & Aunt Angie

The Friday afternoon before going to see Dora Emaline, Piper and myself packed up with Grandma Audrey, Madi & Aunt Angie to go swimming at a cousin's house. Grandma showed up and we all piled into the Expedition and set the navigation to work on my phone. We went to visit Grandma's nieces from her previous marriage, the Brockman Girls, at their home in House Springs. They bbq'd hot dogs and hamburgers and we just had a good 'ol time swimming and lounging around their patio. Emaline enjoyed hanging out with the little ones, and Piper...well, she slept most of the time. Her MO these days when we go anywhere! It was quite an adventure getting home, we were told by the GPS to literally drive down a dirt road and cross a creek, thank God we had the Expedition! It was a really fun day though and the weather was perfect!

"Dora, Dora, Dora the Explorer!"

On June 13th, Emaline and I had a "date out" to go see Dora the Explorer Live! at the Fox Theater. She has really gotten into Dora over the last 6-8 months and I decided she could handle a little trip to the theater. Plus, it was a chance for me to spend some nice one on one time with my little girl. We went to the eleven o'clock show and it wasn't half as crowded as I thought it was going to be. Getting there wasn't even that bad considering it was the same morning as the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure downtown that morning! Emaline wore a lovely little sundress and sunglasses and was ready to shake her little tail feather. We walked in the doors and she gasped, "Mom, what is this place!" and if you've ever been to the Fox, you know how it feels to see all the luscious red velvet and ornate decor within the lobby. We were then handed stars/estrellas for the performance. Then quickly we made a mad dash for the potty, did I mention she is completely potty trained now? Hooray!! After that we found our seats which weren't bad at all being in the rear center orchestra, row Q, about halfway up and on the end--which was awesome. The show started and at first I don't think she knew what to expect. The music and lights were exciting and familiar, so she just watched in awe. It was fantastic to see my baby experiencing her first, of many I hope, shows at the theater. I'm not gonna lie, I even got a little teary-eyed at seeing Emaline's face brighten with excitement as to what she was going to see. Which, was in fact a cheesy, mainly neon colored show about a little Hispanic girl trying to find her teddy bear. Crazy, I know. At least we got to dance,sing, wave our little stars and speak Spanish! We had such a fun time and I'm so glad we got to go. Hopefully something fun from Nick, Jr. will grace the Fox stage again next year. She said to me a few days later, "When do we get to see Spongebob Live mom?"...who knows baby, who knows. These are our shots from before the show and intermission:

After the show we had a lovely lunch of McDonald's and went back to Nana & Pepere's house to swim away the afternoon. It was a fantastic day!

Basement Remodel: Part II

This part of the remodeling took place sometime in April after Easter and Josh had just started to get everything out of the lower level and placed upstairs in our front living room. Which means yes, it has been sitting there for 2.5 months waiting for me to sift through and decide what stays and what goes. I just don't have the energy right now. Once they make some headway on getting everything said and done, I'll probably move into high gear, but for right now it doesn't have anywhere to go anyways! So on to what the boys have done thus far. With the stairs done and out of the way and the clutter removed, the framing began to take shape with us deciding how we were going to divide up our new space. We decided to have a "family room" area right when you come down the stairs--the wall was torn out half-way to add light from the stairs. Then Josh's office would be in the back behind the stairs and a craft/sewing room for me on the other side of the laundry room. There is going to be space to potentially put in a bathroom, but I don't think we are ready to do that yet. We might have to save a little more money to get the "roughing-in" done. I'd like to finish the laundry room as well, but that is also put on the back burner. So...we have the framing of all the rooms and the ceiling is prepped for drywall.

Above is Jaime working hard and the laundry room cleared out and ready for the wall that is going to make my craft room.

These two are the duct work getting framing/cross-bars for drywall and then the corner of my craft area getting 2x4s.

Finished wall making the laundry room/storage into two spaces.

Basement Remodel: Part I

This is the first of many posts about our venture into the world of basement finishing. Technically, our basement was finished when we moved in, but everything was kinda done "jankety" in my book. The paneling was old and painted over and needed to come off the walls and there was water damage due to many STL storms over the past couple of years (which apparently the previous owners never had a problem with...yeah, right). So in a fit of rage one day after a mini-flood, Josh decided to pull out the water-logged marble shag carpeting and then left the basement to sit, untouched for about 3 years. Then come our children...Thinking we need more space of kid-friendly things and family time, Josh jumped right into getting the ball rolling on this basement fix-up. Since Joshua is so good as demolishing things, he took out everything and Jaime, whom we hired to help, tore out walls and framed it back up again. So here are some pictures of that beginning stage.

The above shots are showing the stairs being turned over and redone and the horrible plaster that was on the wall coming down the stairs. What ever possessed the people to finish the basement walls like this is beyond me.

These show Jaime's "work area" and him finishing up the stairs. Nothing like progress!