Drum roll please...

Here it is after a lot of work this weekend...our deck.

Zac still has work to do. He has to get the "roof" on it, it's getting cross boards to make the supports for the awning. The deck itself is pretty much done, we have to let the wood dry out some before we can stain and seal the deck. The color will be closer to a cedar deck but we haven't decided for sure on a color. The awning will also have to go up once the deck is stained in a few months. Zac's parents bought us the awning for my birthday and are having it sewn in Denton and will ship it once it's done and we'll get it up. The back of our house faces the East so the awning will give us some much needed sun coverage in the mornings so the kids & I can enjoy the deck and backyard in the mornings. The entire deck is in the shade by about 2:00pm this time of year and one nice thing about the hills is that we're above the fence line so we typically have a nice breeze to cool us.
The deck is turning out way better than I could have imagined, I absolutely love it and the kids love playing on it too! I'm so thankful to have such a handy husband who could envision this and bring it to real life, thanks Zac I love it already. And I can't forget my dad who helped so much with the building of the framing. Thanks Dad, I hope you visit soon so you can enjoy it!

Our bigger girl

I took Emmie to the doctor today because she's had way too many dirty diapers in the past few days (read more than 4 a day). I needed more prescription medicine for it and I'd never gotten any diaper ointment medicine here in SA. She's fine and almost back to normal but I wanted to make sure nothing was causing it since it's been the last 3 days and she's been even more whiny than normal.
I was so excited when they put her on the scale, she weighed 21 pounds!! this is amazing since she only weighed 18 pounds 2 1/2 months ago at her 1 year check up. I don't know how long she is since they only measure at checkups but others have said she looks taller so maybe she's a had a growth spurt. I knew it had to happen at some point since she eats non-stop.
That's all, this whole post was about how my baby finally weighs enough to face forward if I would let her. We went to the park after our appointment and played in the sand. Emmie also loves swinging next to Micah. She does a great job on the big swing she holds on and stays on.

Decorating skills

I have finally taken pictures of the kids' rooms painted. As I post these pictures I wish I knew an interior decorator that could take everything I have and make it look awesome. Don't get me wrong, I love their rooms and actually think I'm quite good at picking colors it's just that beyond that I feel lost. Their rooms are painted and have their names on the walls but I still need more decorations and am at a loss for what I should get.
Here is Micah's room, it should have 3 airplanes hanging from the ceiling and no paint bucket but Zac's been really busy and I haven't had him carry the paint out or put up the planes.





And now for Emmie's...they both need curtains but the short wide windows are stumping me as my normal window treatment for kids is a roman shade and it won't work quite right in these rooms. Any suggestions? Em's is even harder since she has bedding I made and of course they don't sell the fabric anymore so I've decided to do nothing so far.

Now onto more pictures and questions...is this normal? Here is Emmie helping me cook on Sunday, she is eating a tomato like an apple! So I ask all the other parents out there does your one year old steal tomatoes off the cutting board and eat them? She will eat almost anything and everything, I only pray she stays this way as she gets older!

And last, pictures of the game the kids were playing this morning...I told them they needed to find a new activity but they didn't listen. If you watch the video closely you can hear Emmie do her impression of a cat which I think is pretty cute! Emerson is my climber, I constantly find myself telling Micah not to do something because Em will try it. Well, they love to stand on two breakfast trays we have and since it's not too far to fall I allow it for Emmie's pleasure! Look how confident she feels, she's waving at me!

And now the video...

And last but not least a random thing. Does anyone shop at Restoration Hardware? I got a card in the mail that gives you 10% off anything at the store until 9/30/08, the catch you ask? Nothing, the card is even reusable until that date...you keep it to use on anything you buy. I kept thinking I would use it but I haven't so I thought if someone else shopped there I would send it to them and they could use it. Any takers?

My little painter--and more

Zac's mom was here this week for a visit and we've been very busy! We took Granna to Chuck E Cheese and then Sea World. We love Sea World and have enjoyed our season passes this summer. We saw a few things we hadn't seen at Sea World with Granna. She brought Emerson a stuffed penguin from her visit to Alaska so it inspired us to make a visit to the back of the park to the penguin exhibit. The exhibit was so cool, there were 4 types of penguins and they were swimming, climbing on rocks, and taking showers in the falling snow. The part Micah liked best was the moving sidewalk they had which allowed you to ride past the exhibit and watch without having to stop, it kept everyone moving on. I think Granna & Micah rode the thing about 5 times before we dragged him out of there! We also fed the dolphins, we had been down there before but never gotten any fish. We figured out if you teased the dolphins with the fish they would come really close and you could feel their skin. Like always, we spent time at the water park and had a blast. The kids love the water so much and Micah loved wearing out Granna in the wave pool and doing a few laps in the lazy river, his favorite part is the misters he just loves getting squirted with water. We all had a great time and were very tired at the end of the day.



Since Granna was here I figured it would be a great time to do something messy. We let Emmie try finger painting for the first time...she LOVED it! Don't worry the paint washes very easily and is not toxic!

Here she is getting started...the paint on her face was the beginning test of the paint with her fingers, she quickly moved on to the brush.

And then she realized she could use the brush to get her hands dirty and then get her face even more covered! She really did a great job painting the paper as you can see in the picture on the right but did an excellent job of covering herself.

She's almost done and doesn't she look pretty?

Micah loves painting, I can't forget a picture of him.


Zac worked today on the deck and is really getting somewhere now. He & his dad spent a few hours working this morning and it went quickly. After his parents left, he was by himself and the work went more slowly but it's going great. Here are a few pictures of today's progress. He's hoping to finish the decking tomorrow and then get the horizontal parts of the rail done.

My happy little workers.

Micah does not like loud noises so he always covers his ears when Zac uses the saw or anything loud and now Emmie has picked up the habit. The noise doesn't bother her at all but when she sees him covering his ears she usually puts at least one hand up to be like her big brother!

The way the decks looks at the end of work today!

Can you top this?

Can anyone top this for the view from their backyard? Zac's mom looked out the guest room window and saw a deer this afternoon. He was eating off the trees. Micah loved watching him eat, we watched him for a few minutes and then he left. Here are a couple pictures that turned out. I had a hard time with my camera wanting to focus on the closest trees and not the deer and didn't have time to set the manual focus points. Anyway...here is the view from the window!

Progress

We have had a busy last week and weekend with my parents here for a last visit before school starts. They got here on Wednesday afternoon and we went to work on Thursday! My dad helped me paint the ceilings in the kids' rooms, the builder did that lovely thing they all do now...paint the walls and ceiling the same color, some version of tan. The ceiling looked really funny after I had painted Micah's room blue because it was obvious that it wasn't white so we decided to paint it too. It looks great and so does Emmie's. He also took on the project of putting up chair railing and crown molding in Emmie's room and helping me paint the room pink on the top and brown on the bottom. The molding is done but the painting took a backseat to the deck so I still have to finish the touch-ups this week while Zac's mom is here and I'll post pictures of their adorable rooms soon.

My dad & Zac worked so hard all weekend on our new deck. They made amazing progress and I'm so excited, I can't wait for it to be done. Zac had hoped to be able to put down the decking after work this week but it's been raining all day and is forecasted to continue so it might have to wait a little. Here is the progress so far. The tall posts will support the top and the shorter ones will be cutoff to support the railing.




I was a little worried about how the kids would react to Dad & Grandpa spending so much time outside but they did great. Micah stayed outside most of the time and came in to cool off and play. Micah "helped" a lot and did a great job of staying out of the way. Here are a few pictures of Em & Micah.

Silly boy wearing Grandpa's hat

I think they're double checking the numbers and supervising the workers.

Micah "helping" dig the post holes!

And last Emmie just playing on the steps while everyone else works!

Great summer

We're still around! We've been so busy enjoying our summer and our new city that I find it hard to find time to blog. We've now lived here 3 months and it's hard to remember (I don't try too hard) living in Houston. We loved our friends and neighbors in Houston I just didn't feel like it was home. On the other hand...our house here feels like home to me, a disorganized home but a home none the less! I have so enjoyed moving to a new city where I already knew someone. It's been great to see Rosey so much and she's graciously shared her friends with me so the kids & I have people to do things with and play with. I signed up for MOPS with her at a church right by my house for the fall and I'm so excited to meet girls on this side of town and kids for my kids to play with. Micah is also starting swim lessons this fall, he'll go once a week until Christmas. He already LOVES the water but I'm hoping he'll enjoy an activity without Emmie where he'll learn skills that are important.

Our friends, Emily, Andrew & Stephen were here this weekend and it was so fun. They are great friends and definitely what I miss most about Houston, it's great to have a friend close that you can drop in on if you feel like it! We met at Sea World on Friday and spent the day watching shows, eating, playing at the waterpark and exploring Sea World. On Saturday we met for lunch and then spent the day just hanging out at our house playing and talking. The kids have a great time playing together and they're so funny to watch. The guys put my new patio furniture together for me so it's ready for my Dad & Zac to build my new deck for my birthday. Since I have no ability to invision what Zac is planning he's made me a drawing of the deck...here it is. It's kind of an early sketch, he's added grass and stuff now but you get the idea.

We spent Sunday at the Riverwalk, we had lunch and rode the river boats which were hot but very fun!

We had a great weekend with our friends and now a few pictures of the kids.