Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Mostly Done and a Gymnast

Thanks to Ryan who did a LOT of work - but the house is (mostly) DONE! Also, thanks to Shyan and Sondra for keeping Natalie each for a day so we could get stuff accomplished. We now have NO annoying transition strips and the floor looks great. I think it really makes the back half of the house look bigger not to have that strip splitting it up. All the baseboards are painted and caulked (by me) and we just have to tack the quarter round trim up. The ONLY thing left on our massive list is to paint the rest of the door handles and the cabinet pulls with the paint...but those are smaller jobs that can get done with Natalie in tow. Here is a sneak peak!







Natalie took a play gymnastics at the YMCA a few months ago and now is going to start a second session on Tuesday. Ryan always is horsing around with her, but she did these all by herself! I'm pretty surprised! At the end she is signing I love you - it's hard to see that up close!!

Gymnast


Sunday, December 28, 2008

If You Give Ryan Leave...

If you give Ryan leave,
Kim will want to do some work around the house.

Work around the house means a trip to Lowes.
If Lowes has a sale, then work can begin!

First it will start small with touching up paint.
When you touch up the paint, you will notice things need to be caulked.

Once you finish the caulk, then the baseboards will look dirty.
After you paint the baseboards white, the doors look dingy.

Now that you have clean white doors, the front and back doors look faded.
After you paint the front and back door the handles look grimy.

You decide to paint the cheap brass with a hammered nickel to match all the lights.
If you paint the door handles you will want to paint ALL the handles and hinges.

When you go in the kitchen to count the pulls, handles, and hinges you see the counter is slanted.
Bracing the counter is nice, but now you see that the counters could use some caulk.
When you go to the garage for caulk you will decide to straighten up the garage.

Once you straighten the garage you notice the pile of new flooring that needs to be laid.
To lay the floor you will have to pull up all the floor you already did two year ago. SIGH...the next few days will be busy!

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Merry Christmas

We're sad that we are not home to celebrate with our families, but we had a great time celebrating here. We spent Christmas Eve with Heather and her family. Her husband Chris is in Iraq so her mom came to celebrate too. We had lasagna and then went to see lights and exchanged gifts.

Christmas morning was fun! Natalie opened her stocking full of Hello Kitty stuff from Santa, then we had a full breakfast - eggs, bacon, pancakes, juice. YUM!




First we got on webcam with the Windle's. Natalie was so excited with everything she opened. Socks, clothes, books, toys, all got a happy reaction! It didn't take her long to figure out she opened one and ran to the pile to get another. Ryan was super excited to get a picture of the electric guitar he got (which we will pick up in January) and I loved my Joann's gift card, Mizzou shirts and more!


Then we did webcam with the Zeissets, including my grandma too! We opened the presesnts from Great Granmda early because the dogs got into them, but we all have been loving our 'pretties'. Natalie loves her big present from Oma - the tent and 'pack-a-pack'. For some reason she only backs into the tent but loves to get inside with books and her flashlight! Ryan has been running around in his cowboy hat, he's silly!

Finally, Natalie opened our presents, and Ryan and I exchaged gifts. Natalie loves her tea set. Ryan did a good job picking out thigs I like and I think he's happy with his little pile of loot too.


After nap, we are going to eat at Heather's and watch a movie and have dessert. I hope I'm tired, I have to go to bed early to meet up for shopping at Target!!!!!

Apparently it was too much for the dogs (we are petsitting)



We wish you a Merry Christmas and can't wait to see everyone in less than a month!!!!

Monday, December 22, 2008

Oh My Gosh

Heather's mom (The Perry's, Ice Queen Forever) is in visiting from California. At the airport, she ran into this store called...NATALIE'S CANDY BAR!!! So, being related to Heather, she just HAD to bring a candy bar for Natalie. How funny! It was thoughtful and cute. I will have to put the wrapper in my scrapbook.

Also, Ryan got me a birthstone bracelet and earrings, plus a matching braclet for Natalie. He's red, I'm blue and she's the purple. I love it!

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Busy Weekend

I'm sure that has been the title of many of my Sunday night posts. But, then, we are usually busy. We didn't have plans with any friends, but we got a lot done. I sewed 2 dresses, a top/skirt, and a pair of shorts that I had an order for (see Halter Dress on http://www.kmaedesigns.blogspot.com)Then after church on Sunday, we went to Lowe's for some great bargain hunting deals (see my post on www.windlesdeals.blogspot.com). Ryan is going to be off from Christmas Day until January 5th so we are planning on getting some work done. He already put up the new lights we got for the doorway and the top of the stairs. They now match the rest of our lighting downstairs and look much better than those cheap-o white domes.

Natalie and I broke out our matching pj's for a Christmas picture by the tree. I think we look cute. Everytime she puts them on she says "Look mommy's jammies".

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Had to Post for Heather

Ryan and I were sitting on the couch and Natalie announced she wanted to go bye-bye. I asked her where she wanted to go and she said Go Heather (The Perry's) house. I asked why and she said "CAAAAAAAAAAAAANDY".

The video is a recreation- but she did it all on her own first. It was so funny!
Candy

Natalie and Drake

Natalie has taken to riding on Drake's back!!! She thinks it's so funny.

Ridin Drake

Friday, December 19, 2008

A Piggie In There

So yesterday in the car I was talking to myself, sort of, I forget how much Natalie listens back there. We passed a police car that had a stuffed animal pig on the dashboard. I said out loud 'That's really funny that there is a pig in that police car". Well, every police car we pass she says "Look, police car. A piggie in there. Really really funny". Let's hope this passes before she actually says it TO a cop!

Saturday, December 13, 2008

4 Parties in 24 Hours

Wow. The hoilday season sure is full speed ahead. I am finally sitting down after going to 4 parties in 24 hours. Let's go through the details.

6pm Friday. Grown up party for Ryan's squadron. We had not gone to one in 4 years, so we were excited! They had a buffet with TONS of food - ham, potatoes, rolls, green beans, corn, pie, etc! I had a nice time chatting with people from his work. We also won $50 in door prizes!



11am Saturday (after the Y for working out and shopping MAJOR deals at Walreens). Birthday party for Nicholas (my friend Maureen's son from work). We met at Port Warwick to ride the train and visit Santa. Natalie got a goodie bag of toys, reindeer antlers and candy.



12pm Saturday - Squadron Children's Party. We took Natalie for hot dogs, chips and MORE desserts. Then she made a few ornaments and pictures at the craft tables. She did not want to stop 'color paper'. But finally an alarm went off and you could hear a lot of jet noise. The doors to the hangar opened and SANTA came down a ladder out of the cockpit. I got tears in my eyes watching Natalie's eyes light up. Then they had all the kids sit down while they called out the names for them to come up and get a present (prewrapped and dropped off by the parents). She got bath crayons!




4pm Saturday - Chuck E Cheese for Tyler's birthday. I mainly went to help Heather (The Perry's) wrangle all the kids and help serving the food. Natalie had a ball and got enough tickets to get a magic wand. She talked NON STOP about Chuck E Cheese all the way home. We are tired of taking pictures at this point! I might get one of Heather and I to put up later. But here is Natalie enjoying her crayons in the tub.




Finally, she is in bed and I am on the couch achy and worn out. But it was fun, and nice to spend all day having fun with my family.

Monday, December 08, 2008

Bible Book Broken

Natalie loves her bible book. She reads it in bed. If you ask her what it says, she says one of three things.

1. God loves YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
2. Hallelujah praise Ye the LAWRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRD
3. Jesus loves children, All children world. Red, White, Precious Site.

She sure loves her class at church on Sunday. I swear it's just regular church. Not a cult or anything. But I digress.

We had another non-nap today. I was babysitting Kelly's kids, one was napping and one was up. So it was hard to go up and down and lay her down everytime she sat up (which is what Ryan does at bedtime). So apparently she decided to stay up. And, tear all the pages out of the beloved bible book. For the rest of the night she would say "Bible book broke. Bad bad bad".

Saturday, December 06, 2008

Camera Hog

I was taking pictures of all the sewing I did today (see k. mae for updates). I recieved a surprise from my dad a few days ago in the mail! It is a serger, which is the type of sewing maching that does the seams inside store bought clothes (like t-shirt seams). I was busy busy catching up on some projects that had piled up that I need to sell. Anyway, Natalie grabbed the camera and said "Cheeeeseburgers please". So here's her pic with Daddy.



By now you have probably recieved a Christmas card, or will be very soon! You probably figured out that the randomly placed stickers and crayon were from Natatlie, but I'll add this video of her helping us get them ready to mail.

Christmas Cards

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

Overheard During A Non-Nap

Well Natalie took a 2 hour non-nap today. She spent that time in her crib, yes, I said crib. We put the sides back on. I think she is just too young for the freedom. She was in and hour for 2+ hours the last two nights. We tried the whole Supernanny don't-look-just-put-in-bed-over-and-over and it did not seem to work for us quite yet. She is only 21 months. Anyway, back to the main story. I kept checking on the monitor to see if she was awake and heard some funny 'conversations'.

Help me mommy, I stuck in here. Stuck in baby bed mommy.
Here go bunny, thank you, welcome (she gave him a book).
Where my bible book go? I tired, I need bible book.
Happy birthday mommy and daddy, I play toys.