Week 3 house update

Well, Week 3 is over and today marks the start of Week 4.
Family room over the garage


Garage leading to the laundry room


View from downstairs of stairs leading to family room


View from upstairs family room to upstairs hall and 3 bedrooms and 1 bath, plus all of our attic space.


Back view


Side view


rront view


So as you can see, Week 3 was very productive... the stairs got put up and that lead to the upstairs being framed up and some walls being put in.... I can't wait to see what Week 4 will bring.

Very Bitter.. yet oh so sweet

So, G just started Vacation Bible School today.
This is the first time someone not directly related to my child is caring for him.. outside of the hour long Sunday school class.
This is the first time he is being dropped off and I come to pick him up.

He could have cared less.

That is the bitter part.

He had a blast and he is loving going to 'school' and feeling like such a big boy and his pride for himself just oozes out of him...

This is the Oh so sweet part.

Just a start of what his Tuesday/Wednesday (aka preschool) school will be like come August.

D is going to get so sick of me. lol.

Week 1, Week 2 house updates... and One for the BC girls.

So we just ended Week 2 of the house building, of course I haven't updated or anything for the first week, so I am just going to make one big post...

End of Week 1:




So by the end of the first week, they had footers put in, garage floor laid and flooring down.... they are doing so good, we are super proud of how well things are going.

Week 2:





So the walls, windows,doors and everything on the first floor is taking shape. They have cut and sealed the garage floor and they are working hard. We had one bad rain day this week, so I don't know how bad it slowed them down... but it is looking like a house.

My Supermen (thats the new thing now) on the BobCat


This is the reason the few trees in the yard are coming down.


View from the back end of lot looking at the back of the house after Week 2.


And last but not least... for the BC girls and anyone who loves The Office.

Gulf Shores in Pictures

Just so you know, before the pictures get you enamored, last week was Week 1 of the house building.. we are starting into Week 2 and the framing is going up... I am taking pictures and will be updating with pics. Hugs.

Day 3

Day 3, Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Today started like all the others... D and G up at the buttcrack of dawn and set on ready. Apparently J got up and fixed them sippies and changed a diaper because of what I was told. I never heard a thing... all I know is that NaNa woke and J came back to bed because those 3 finally got us 2 out of bed around 9am.

At one point, NaNa and the boys found some crabs scouting around in the hall... NaNa wanted to keep them as pets for the boys but wanted J to help her catch them... J in his sleepy state apparently told them to "shoo them outside"... I didn't realize his aversion to crabs.

They continued on their adventure and came across a rat...
Nice.
It was outside and playing it the bushes so I am not too worried about it getting in the rooms.

By 10am we were all snacked out and heading down to the beach... we got settled on our chairs and I immediately realized I had forgotten to wrap my hand up... back up the boardwalk I go.
By the time I got back I see D in daddy's arms wailing... apparently he was playing and felt and scrapped his legs on the chair... I took him and he laid on me for about 30 minutes.. I thought his was asleep and I was imagining how I was going to explain the baby tan line I would be receiving at that very moment.

No need to worry my head, he was up and ready to drive me nuts. He had it in his mind, I am guessing, from the minute he woke that he was under NO circumstances getting in the ocean. NaNa and G even dug out a very large hole near the tide and filled it with water and told D they had built him a pool.

He could have cared less.
He never did get near the ocean this morning.

He did however watch J dig and dig and dig... I don't know exactly what J was aiming for in his digging adventure, but he dug a hole in the sand big enough for the boys to stand in and still be below ground level. I think he would have dug forever...

If it wasn't for that HUGE, ENORMOUS, MAN-EATING, 2 inch by 1 inch wide crab emerge from the hole J was digging. My big, strong man leaped out of that hole in a single bound... ahhhhh he is my superman.

Playtime was not yet quite ruined but during our stint in the morning, a group of 3 teenage, I am guessing about 14-15 years old laid out their blankets and was sunning right in front of us. Their parents were next to us soaking in the rays too... The boys really didn't pay too much attention to them... at first.

D was the first to notice and we really got a glimpse of his approach... He is slow and steady and doesn't really mind being noticed... he has no manners when it comes to his gawking... he walked right up to them, said hi and circled them slow... eye on them the whole time... never did his eye wander away... then he went up to candidate number 1 and asked her "wanna go to Pops house?"

that got a lot of awww's from bystanders... gave me a migraine.

G is more subtle. He was running up from the ocean when he stopped them and once he was in their line of sight that little booger head stopped and his gait turned into the slowest dragging of feet I have ever seen... he slight had his head hung with his eyes glancing sideways towards the girls to see if they noticed him. Once he was finally a significant distance away, he pace sped back up...

Now I have an eye twitch.

This routine with both of them continued until around noon with they both came and got in my lap and asked to go take a nap. Nice.

On our way up to the room, he were walking along the sidewalk to the room when my superman in front took a flying leap backwards... he did steady himself enough to wanna tell the boys "LOOK AT THE SNAKE BOYS... LOOK.. HURRY"...
The whole time I am 40 feet in front of them shooing them into the building.

When everyone finally woke ME it was 3:45... and apparently we were heading to the pool.... great, it is right outside the balcony of our room. The boys got on their floats, jumped in and was having a blast.... Until they spotted 2 little girls in the pool... one was 6 and one was 4... both cute as a bug.... I let the boys play in the pool without momma for a while and just observed them...

G was copying everything the 6 year old did... D just watched... after about an hour, the atmosphere had shifted and now my 2 and 3 year old is sitting on the steps and the 6 year old his sitting talking to them both... G got bored and headed off and that little blonde kept talking to D...

then I heard it.

"Wanna go to Pop's house?"

The 6 YEAR OLD blushed and asked me how old his was, I said 2 and she said "He told me his was 3."

Great... not only is my 2 year old inviting every hussy he sees back to his crib, he is lying about his age to get the older women.

Wow... didn't know you could get a migraine AND an eye twitch at the same time.

I felt like this was a good time to get the boys in, get ready and take tonight to go out to eat and do some more shopping. We wanted to go to The Oyster House... we called on our way and they said there was not wait... 15 minutes later we called and it was an 1 1/2 hour wait... We ended up at this little place called The Gulf Island grill.

D loves him some sautéed crab claws. G loves him crackers dipped in ketchup.

After a very full meal we headed to this place called The Happy Place... it was big hippy shop of sorts and after some souvenir shopping, a lady walked up and gave the boys a hug and a sticker that said "I got a free hug at The Happy Place". D thought he would try to fit in by refusing shoes and G found a gumball on the floor and helped himself to it.

Checkout was shortly thereafter.

Then another first for the boys.. they went into their first tattoo parlor.

NO

No one got a tattoo. I got my lip pierced again though. They didn't witness the procedure... I would not subject them to that... before we got home, G was asleep in the van and D was covered in bubble gum....

Fun day, long day... tiring day. Hope tomorrow is more of the same.

Hugs.

Day 1 and 2 of 'Da Beach'

DAY 1: Monday, July 6th
We reached Gulf Shores last night in 10 hours of what should have been an 8 hour trip... but the boys were really good about being in a car that long... the DVD player helped and even though we had a slue of DVD's the boys love... we watch a total of 1 non-stop... Bolt... thank you John Travolta and Mylie Cyrus. The boys slept in until 6:30 and immediately prompted us to get our useless butts out of bed/sleeper couch and get to 'Da BEACH'...

While the boys ate breakfast and were getting ready I was opening the immense amount of toys that NaNa thoughtfully bought for the boys.. and BOOM

My hand got in the way of the knife.

No big deal.. wrap it up tight and head down there to the boardwalk... once we hit sand it took us another 20 minutes to get 50 feet to the chairs we had rented...

I would have bet my life savings that G would hate the sand and D would never come out of the ocean.. but like always, my boys make liars out of me.
We played in the sand (not a good idea with a wrapped up open wound), we built sand castles, we played in the very strong waves(not a good idea with an open wound) in the overcast sky and ice cold water for a good hour before the rain hit...

Excuse me.. not rain..
beebees falling in water form from the sky... they stung and the boys were freaked... so we came in, had a snack, I did some laundry, we ate some lunch and got the boys to napping while the rain was coming down.
After naps we went to the beach again in the spitting rain because we are on the beach dadgumit.
We played some more in the water and D got really into finding seashells while G and daddy built a monster of sand castles...
Then we found a crab trying to sneak up on the beach and we got him.. D was elated... we put him in a pail with sand and seawater and he was doing good... then boom.. I found 2 hermit crabs being pushed in from the ocean and snagged them up and set the up the same way...

Of course this started my 2 year old running around yelling in excitement.. "I GOT CRABS!! I GOT CRABS!!"

The young and old got a real kick out of this.

Finally, while in the ocean we realized that G had begun to turn blue from the lips and it was spreading to the cheeks.... TIME TO WARM UP KIDDOS.

Of course since we have to pass 2 pools to get to the room, we decided what the heck...
the pool felt like bathwater and it relaxed me so much I peed 3 times with in the hour we were in the pool.

Once the boys got inside and got good baths and we got settled, I took another look of the wound and we all decided I really should have sucked it up and got stitches.. Oh well.


Day 2, Tuesday July 7th
Dammit... thunderstorms
Dammit... should have brought the pails with the crabs off the balcony because the freshwater rain was just to much and what a disappointment to the boys to have 3 crabs belly up in less than 24 hours of having them.

Lets do some more laundry.. and let the boys watch a movie...
Now it is 9am and we are at a loss because the thunderstorm is predicted all day.

FEELS LIKE A SIGHTSEEING DAY.

after a morning snack, we headed out to check out Gulf Shores and figured we would find a good seafood place to eat for lunch...

Once the boys got in the car they figured it was nap time so we took advantage and just drove around and looked and scouted out stuff to do... Outlet Mall was out because it is outdoors.... I guess we could hit a souvenir shop after we ate...

Hazels.... it advertised seafood and a buffet... how much better can you get?

Turns out, a lot better... their seafood consisted of crab cakes and shrimp... and the buffet had fried chicken, grilled chicken, mashed taters and green beans...

Well, it was good, but wasn't what we were looking for, but oh well.

After that we hit a local hotspot.. Walgreens.. I needed to get some medical supplies for a recent incident involving a kitchen utensil.... that is when the boys spotted the shark...

A local souvenir shop has a sharks mouth as the entrance to its establishment and the boys just had to enter the belly of the beast... along with every other single person in Gulf Shores at the moment...

We had a good time and the boys had a blast picking up souvenirs for Jenny... of course, we had to remind them about other people on their lists... but we knew who they were thinking about.

Oh and a word of caution for those who will be receiving gifts from D... he goes for simple shopping.. he finds something HE likes, then starts filling him arms with the exact same thing while naming people off... you have no idea how many pink and green stuffed dolphins I had to return while his was distracted.

Your welcome.

Then we came back to the hotel after that and miraclously the sun was shinning and it felt like beach weather...

Dilemma time... make the boys get their naps in... our say screw it and head them down to enjoy a sunny afternoon on the beach.

We are big suckers.

As we were heading out, D never got it out of his head that the nice warm pool was so much better than the ice cold ocean water.... we pushed the ocean.

We played in sand and G wanted to play in the waves...

D wanted nothing to do with touching the water...

We buried each other in sand and we got alot of sand time in... both boys were cover and every now and then G would get up and go play in the water and wash off the sand...

D wanted nothing to do with touching the water....

D started getting fussing around 5 and we figured he was pretty tired and we could tell that the sand was really starting to irritate his skin since he had it in every orifice he has.

We made him suck it up and took him kicking and screaming into the water to wash him off... after we came out he was so mad and so tired and so hungry he begged to go back to the room. Momma and D went back to the room to get a hot bath and to settle in for dinner...

G wasn't too far behind.

Dinner, settling and off to dreamland they lay now.

**Pictures will be posted when we return home and get settled on the 12th or 13th.... I will try to update as much as possible... daily is my goal.

***We have some house updates too... Footer for the house are being set up and laid out in the next few days, the slab for the garage will hopefully be done by the end of the week and they are scheduled to start framing it up the beginning of next week. I have pictures of the land as we were setting the post to lay out the framing but it was mostly pictures of the large yard that I am considering a riding lawnmower for.

Dollywood

We are back from Dollywood and the boys spent all day yesterday trying to catch up on their sleep and whiny-ness.

We had and blast and so thankful to Pops and Ka-Ka for letting us and Berek and Jenny crash their vacation.