Skipping Church

This morning as we were walking out the door Jason called to tell me to stay home with the kids because the snow was making the roads slick pretty fast. The kids were already dressed warm so we decided to stay in the porch and play in the snow for a few minutes. Isaac was a good big brother and taught Kadyn about eating the snow. It is so exciting to see them start to enjoy being around one another, even though it only last for brief moments before someone is screaming!

Christams Traditions 2009

Finished gingerbread structure (it's too bad to call a house!)

Working in the gingerbread

Christmas PJ's

This year Jason and I decided we were going to start some family traditions (the conversation was on Christmas Eve so not too much prep time). We decided on making a gingerbread house, but as you can see we needed a little more prep to make it work, it was pretty bad. We also took a picture of the kids in front of the tree in their matching Christmas PJ's, but Isaac's pants were wet in the washer so that didn't go too well either! We rented a Christmas movie and ate popcorn while watching it. That was pretty good, Kadyn actually sat through most of it...it was Santa Buddies (don't waste your money, it's not work the dollar at redbox!), but since it had puppies in it she liked it. We learned that we need to talk about this earlier next year! It was actually the best Christmas we've had so far, it was very relaxing and low key. I am looking forward to next year being a little more organized.

Before and Afterish

Kitchen/Dining Room After

Before

Hallway after

Before

While we still have tons to do before things will be completely done, but we have come a long way. The major part that has changed is the kitchen. We removed a wall and made the kitchen bigger and added several more cabinets. We have one wall painted but can't decide on the other color, so any suggestions would be appreciated! The hallway just looks so much better painted to I had to include that.

Christmas Tree Decorating

Kadyn helping with the lights and showing us her smile

Family Fun

We actually put the tree up earlier this year (last year I think it was a few days before Christmas!) and the kids got to help. It was fun, but I had to put aside my OCD tendencies and let all the distribution of ornaments not be perfect!

Thanksgiving Pie Lover

All of us love a little pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving, but Kadyn went to town! She wouldn't pick it but instead didn't waste any time and just ate it straight off the table! She also really loved the whipped cream (which must be made from scratch!) We had a good Thanksgiving with my parents in town and missed the Magers' side of the family!

Growing Up

Isaac has recently been obsessed with growing up. He has been questioning when he will be a dad, who his wife will be, and what his kids names will be. He has also reminded us multiple times that when he gets a job he's going to buy a jeep and a tape measure. We have been patient with him, explaining how his name will still be Isaac when he's a dad (he thought that it would change to Jason) and how God already has his wife picked out for him and that he just needs to be patient and prayerful about who she is. Last night when he was getting tucked into bed I noticed that his little chin was quivering and his eyes were tearing up. I asked him what was wrong as this wasn't his usual fit throwing cry, but a sensitive, sincere one. He responded that he didn't want to have a wife and be a daddy if that meant that he couldn't still live at home with mommy and daddy! Talk about taking away every frustration experienced throughout the day, my little boy melted my heart and I was reminded how precious, sensitive, and perfect God made him.

Smushed Finger

I love going to the gym, being sweaty, and then not feeling guilty about what I eat (which happens to be a root beer float at this very minute made with some great ice cream we got at walgreens that tastes pretty close to homemade ice cream)sorry, I get really excited about good food, or any food...anyway, but the whole house rehab thing has really put a damper in my workout time. Since two good friends and I were planning on running a 5K this fall we actually worked really hard this summer, but then one of us moved to stinky ohio and then I fell off the wagon, which incidentally coincided with most of my close returning to that dreaded painted on look! So, good intentions in hand, Kadyn and I headed to the gym after dropping Isaac off at school on Monday morning. Since we had not been there before I went to the desk to find out if I needed to change any info in the system since I am now going to a new location and Kadyn is gazing outside at the balloons that are tied out front. As I turn around to make sure she isn't running around I see a guy open the door and then hear Kadyn screaming! She has her poor little finger smushed in the hinge of this HUGE glass door. I immediately open the door and get her finger out! The desk chick was really nice and got us an ice pack and thankfully the gym is only a few minutes from home so we headed home. Kadyn cried off and on for probably an hour and then I laid her down for her nap. When she got up we utilized our good friend Jon, who happens to be a pediatrician, for a consult and decided to take her into the ER b/c her fingernail had popped out from under her cuticle. It is really great having connections and we were in and out in less than an hour! They decided not to do anything b/c the edges of her fingernail weren't damaged so now we just wait for it to grow out! Now we will see how she does when we return to the gym, hopefully next time will be less eventful!

Week One Down

So many of you that know me know that I place cleaning (the real get on your hands/knees scrubbing kind...well most any kind actually) very very low on my list of important things to do. I enjoy things being sorta picked up, but I really like living in a house that is lived in. There is nothing I hate more than walking into a house and it looking like a show house, not like someone actually abides in it! Maybe part of that feeling is just plain envy that I can't have a house that looks like its from the pages of Pottery Barn, but I really think its just because I like "homey." Jason and I have rented our prior two residences so I haven't been overly anal about cleaning them, but now we have our own place that we have struggled through making it our own and we love it! So after having the carpet installed for one week, it got it's first vacuuming with my super fancy vacuum (which doesn't get tons of use, but I love my dyson and suggest that everyone buy one, they are so worth the money!). I truly wonder how long it will last, but I feel some accomplishment about the success of week one!

Fall Fun

Kadyn enjoying some leaf time

Throwing leaves

Isaac's great smile after he jumped in the first time

Rehabbing and moving into a new house that has a HUGE tree in the front yard would have been amazing in the summer, but moving in November means that the leaves that fell off that huge tree really had no chance of making it anywhere but on the ground. That would be fine in my eyes, but everybody on our street has some fancy "tool" to take care of their leaves (or they just pay someone else with some fancy tool to do the work!)...that is until we moved in! We really just kept putting it off and then when we were walking out one day and one of our neighbors, who happens to be a college student renting the house next to us with two of his college student buddies, asked me if it was okay if he raked our leaves!!! So, he raked all of our leaves for us and told Isaac that he would jump in them with him when he was done. We did go out and help put them in 12 giant construction trash bags after some fun time with the kids. It was a great opportunity to meet one of our neighbors and great to see a 22 year old college kid (coming from the 27 year old!) being generous!

Isaacisms

Isaac is ever changing. It amazes me to see him becoming an independent little man. Here are two cute things he said when we were getting ready to move that I had written down and put in a place I wouldn't forget!!! That usually means that I won't be able to find it for at least a month...it only took a week this time, so here they are...

"Mom, I'm finished with this box, we've been working really hard, let's take a break."

"This would be much easier if we used a fork lift, next time we go to Lowe's that should be on the list too."

Living room painted with carpet

Kitchen getting closer to being completed

First several nights in our new bedroom were like this, I felt like we were camping!

Our bedroom with carpet, furniture and our great computer closet!

Will get some more pics posted later, have a great Thanksgiving!

Forgive me

We just got the internet at our new house so I promise I will get some pics updated soon. We are moved in and got our carpet laid yesterday which was a HUGE relief, the playroom is already in full use. Our bedroom and the living room are painted and look great, we are excited to get the rest of the walls painted too. The kitchen is beginning to be usable, but hopefully we will get a chance to finish our make-shift counter tops tomorrow and the cabinet doors will be done in the next few weeks. We are all exhausted, but the kids have adjusted relatively well. We are looking forward to having the parents over to this side of the state for Thanksgiving, they just don't know it's really going to be a "work day" and wish that Nate, Danielle, and Jonah could come too!

Pretty Tile

Here is a video of our crazy kids dancing on our new tile (love miss kadyn's booty dance). It is beautiful to see both our home coming together and our family together again, we have really missed being with one another. I worked today at 11 so this morning we just spent some time together and actually got to relax. Jason and the kids were cuddling in bed reading books while I was getting ready and it brought tears to my eyes to see/hear how much our kids cherish their daddy. He is an amazing husband and father and all the work he has put into making our new house our home has been priceless. Our parents have been working every weekend, which is appreaciated, but my husband has been there every day even when he was sick and we can't wait to enjoy all his handy work, we love you!

Almost Done

We are almost done!! We have gutted the kitchen and replaced everything (including finishing the cabinets ourselves and moving around the sink/appliances), torn out walls between the master/4th bedroom, put in new walls for our new bathroom (to be done when money allows) and walk-inish closet, closed off the door between the master and the hall bath, put new tile in kitchen and dining room, rewired the entire house, installed 18 new can lights, new lights in the dining room/kadyns room and it seems like there is more. All the project have just finish work to be done, but we are getting really close and it's a good thing, we move in this Sunday!!!! Our carpet won't be in before we move in b/c it's on back order, but oh well...we can manage! The kids have been troopers, but as you can see, Kadyn is a little tired of not getting our full attention. I will get more before/after pics up as we finish stuff, but we are really excited about our first house and making it all our own. Thanks to both of our parents and our good friends Jon, Linsie, and Jeremy (and his dad Rusty) for taking so much of their time to help us out!

Rushed Halloween

This year we were a little rushed and only picked out costumes when we met up with my parents at 4 on Halloween night. Thankfully my mom had a huge box of costumes from my childhood and from my cousin Alex. We threw together Isaac and Kadyn's "magician and rabbit" pretty quickly, but they were pretty cute! We took time out from working on the house to go to a few houses on our new street and that was enough for them. Kadyn was very excited about the whole idea and spent most of the time squealing at the top of her lungs! Jason was generous enough to buy two HUGE bags of candy at Sams (he LOVES candy so I'm sure there was no selfish motives there!) and now every time we get to the house both kids want to eat some.

Cabinets

Our new kitchen cabinets have been installed thanks to my incredible husband and dad, they did an amazing job and I am so excited to see everything come together. There is still lots left to do, but having the cabinets in makes it feel more like a "real" house. I am sooo glad we took out the wall and made the kitchen 2 feet bigger, it doesn't seem like much, but it really made a huge difference. The tile is being put down starting today so I am excited to head over and see how it is coming!

Working Hard

Dry wall fun in the kitchen, Isaac loved "helping" out!

Our new wall into the new bathroom (formerly the fourth bedroom upstairs)

Closing off the door into the hall bath, on the right is the old closet which we are making into a computer closet, which my dad and Jason so wonderfully wired an outlet and light into!

We have the studs up for closing off the door between our bedroom and the hall bath and also the wall between our bedroom and the new bath, Jason is working on the closet wall as we speak and then we should hopefully be done hanging/mudding dry wall this week. My dad got most of the house rewired over the past 5 days and we are anxiously awaiting his return. Jason and our friend Jon got our new can lights put in (all 16 of them) on Sunday afternoon. The kitchen is almost ready for the new cabinets! Things are getting closer.

Safety First

Masks for when mom is sanding the dry wall joints (which she NEVER wants to do again!)


Ear plugs for safety!

Tow Truck

We have just gotten home from another long day at the house and after dinner and baths we are just hanging out while I am checking my email when I hear from the background,

"I need a tow truck mom, you know you can just go to the store and get one, that's where they come from."

After me not responding:

"Mom are you seriously not listening to me, this is important."

Three year olds crack me up!

Little Helpers

This is the cabinet that Isaac helped stain, I wish I would have gotten a pic of him doing it, but I was elbow deep in stain too, he was so very proud that he got to help and he was so patient, making sure he got it almost completely covered! He would have done the middle, but I was standing on that side doing the edges. On side note the cabinets turned out beautifully. With the cost of custom cabinets we knew that wasn't an option so we got unfinished oak ones at Lowe's and stained them ourselves. I couldn't find a color that I truly loved so my mother-in-law and I bought two and mixed them together for this deep chocolate with just a hint of red, I can't wait to get them up!!!!

Kadyn playing in the unfinished cabinets, she thought the garage was her personal jungle gym and was a little frustrated once we started staining/varnishing and she couldn't climb all over the cabinets.

Isaac HATES loud noises so I told him I would bring my "special helicopter" ear plugs home from work for him to wear. After a few hours he was fine with the noise and I needed to replace the actual ear part!

Kadyn crashing after another 13 hour day at the new house! Both kids have been great. The last couple of days we have been at home more and Isaac is having some struggles with rules being present, but he will figure it out.

Progress

The fireplace has been removed, and now they are working on taking out the brick

Jason found this written on one of the pieces of sheet rock, made me kind of sad that we were tearing up their hard work, but I'm sure somebody will do it to ours at some point!

The sheet rock out between the kitchen and dining room

No more wall, the support beam is up!

We have made some progress on the house, it is coming along. Jason's parents were up last weekend and our friend Jon came over on Saturday and they did tons of stuff. My dad is at there as I am typing this so I'm sure that more will be accomplished over the next 5 days while he is here.

Isaac's Words

Since I don't really have a "formal" baby book for either kid (I have one somewhere with maybe 2 pages written in for Isaac...) I need to document all my favorite things about my kids on here. Isaac is a very articulate kid, but he has some words that I just love to hear him pronounce so here's my list just for me to remember when he is older and we are facing other trials than just being three!

Screv: screw
Mwater: water (this one is getting more "normal" and I am pretty sad!)
Panino: piano (one of my favorites!)

I'm sure I will add more as I hear them.

Kadyn is using more words everyday, but her favorite remains "eat" she eats more than Isaac at most meals!

What Has Taken Over Our Life

The Front

Our backyard that needs some grooming

Basement play room waiting for carpet

Wood stove/brick that Jason is taking out

Kitchen that is going to be completely redone

Today we began a new phase of our lives...remodeling our new house. Well, it's not officially ours until the 15th, but thankfully our friends are letting us begin early since we have pretty high hopes for all that we can get accomplished in one month before we have to be out of our current residence! So it is day one and I already pulled the sad, whiny, please don't leave me with the kids routine as Jason was leaving to go remove the wood burning stove that takes up 1/3 of the living room. I know, pathetic, but I just didn't want to handle the kids on a few hours of broken sleep...but, if I want my wonderfully accommodating husband to get everything done then I must suck it up and realize the next month I am going to be flying solo most of the time! More pics will come later!

Friends

We have made some great friends in St. Louis! We tend to spend a lot of time with Tracy and Micah and their two great kids Roman and Kate. These are some pics of our last outing to the park together and then the kids trying to look over the fence for the neighbors dog!

He's not talking to me...

Today Isaac fell at school and got a very small cut on his hand. He has had many of these before and when Isaac questions how they will get better, we always tell him that God can heal his owies and he is fine with that. Today we went through the whole conversation again and then from the back seat I heard a frustrated little voice say:

"He's not talking to me"
M: Who's not talking to you?
I: God in Heaven is not talking to me, I'm telling him to fix my owie, but why isn't he talking back?
M: (stammering, trying to figure out how to explain this to a 3 year old) God talks to us in other ways than through a voice.
I: How?
M: (thinking: seriously kid I'm running out of answers) He talks to us through people in our lives, so mommy and daddy are helping him take care of you and your owies
I: Oh, okay. Well, I'm going to talk to him some more then so you can help too

I know I've said this before, but I love seeing how innocent and pure kids can be. We are called to have childlike faith, but so often our faith is jaded by past hurts, our own desires, and self protection. How would our world be changed if we changed let all the crap go and just followed the most perfect and holy God, who wants nothing more to love us. Hmmm...

The bone and the baby

Kadyn found her belly this week, which means there is lots of laughing and lots of belly button exposure around our house. The other day Isaac and I were sitting on the couch and he was inspecting his belly button and reminded me that we were connected there when he was in my belly. So, seeing him process his thoughts the conversation went:

I: Did the doctor take Miss Kadyn out of your belly last night?
M: No, she came out on her birthday
I: What did the doctor do with her when she came out?
M: She gave her to me so I could hold her.
I: No mom, she put the bone on her belly and fixed her, then you could hold her.

I'm not sure where he has ever seen a cord clamp on a baby or would put the two together, but that kid amazes me every day with how much he absorbs!

15 months

We had Kadyn's 15 month check up this morning.

Weight: 19 1/2 lbs
Length: 30 inches

Still in the 15th percentile for weight, but sprang up to the 40th for height!!! She might get to be front facing in her car seat by the time she's 2, but who knows!

Miss Kadyn's Black Eye

The kids spent last weekend in KC and survived 11 acres, a pond, a playground, and three kittens without anything more serious than Isaac getting some scrapes on his legs from the rose bushes...but, within 5 minutes of being home Kadyn had face planted into a chair causing a small cut on her eyelid and the resulting black eye/bruise on her forehead!

First Day of Preschool

Isaac in front of his school

Isaac in front of his cubby

Isaac after his first day of school!

Isaac began preschool last Friday. We took it as a good sign when he threw a huge fit complete with crying when we had to leave "meet the teacher day" the Wednesday before. He is loving school so far, but we will see! He is going three mornings a week and it already has been a nice break for mom and it's great to spend some time with just Kadyn! I didn't even get teary!!!

Forgetting Miss Kadyn

The story goes something like this (or so I'm told since I wasn't there!):

Jason takes the kids to the grocery store (south city shop n save) for a few items. Isaac is walking and Kadyn is sitting in the seat by where you push. They finish getting the groceries, Jason takes the grocery bags out of the cart, puts the cart back, and heads to the car. They get to the car, Jason puts the groceries in, tells Isaac to get in his seat and buckle in, proceeds to walk around and open Miss Kadyns side and realizes....there is no Miss Kadyn!! So, after grabbing Isaac and running back into the store he finds her right where he left her...sitting in the cart, swinging her chubby little legs, talking to a nice lady who had stopped to make sure that "the momma" came back for her!

Walking, Etc...

Miss Kadyn can walk, but does she choose to? The deciding factor for Miss Kadyn to walk is the proximity of her brother. If Isaac is anywhere around her, she would rather keep a low profile and crawl...it is much faster if she needs to get away from him and well it basically hurts less if he unintentionally (or intentionally for that matter) body slams her onto the ground. It is pretty cute, but seems to just further her already serious case of independence that is brewing deep in her soul. Sorry for the sideways video, we keep forgetting that we can't rotate with our new camera!

Botanical Gardens

Looking out of a "beehive"

Isaac expelling some energy

Getting ready to pull some flowers

Still happy at the end of the night!

We spent Wednesday evening at the Botanical Gardens for the final night of free jazz in the Garden. It was so much fun! We met our friends Jon and Linsie there and enjoyed some fabulous KFC and some okay jazz (we didn't really listen!) Isaac and Kadyn had fun running around and keeping Jason busy. Both kids are growing crazy fast! Isaac starts preschool in two weeks and Kadyn is trying to walk.