In progress...

With Eli turning FIVE in just a few weeks I thought it was time to move him to a bunk bed (from his current toddler bed), with Carter soon to follow (from his pack n play).  Around-abouts Eli's birthday we'll make the official room transformation (if all goes well???) We couldn't find a simple wood-framed bunk bed like we were wanting, so we're making it ourselves!  And by we, I mean Kevin of course! I really am thankful he's so handy--makes life so much more fun!  

Even on Father's Day he was busy cutting and sanding our pieces for the bed frames!

Now the bed frames are assembled in the basement. Next up will be more cutting and sanding of the posts and guard rails.  Then more assembly!  It's exciting to see it come together! Stay tuned for more progress and hopefully soon, the finished product!

Sweet brother

I'm not sure how it came about but one day Eli wanted to paint Hannah's nails.  So under my supervision, I permitted.  Look at that sweet face... What a good big brother!

That's one thing I really love about Eli.  He's ALL boy. Rowdy, aggressive, too loud, often crosses the line when it comes to being in other people's space. BUT he likes to play dress-up with Hannah and "take her to the ball", he likes to dance, he'll paint her nails, play Daddy, and put headbands on his hair.  It's little things like that that make me think he's going to have a good understanding of Sister and girly things, and that will help him later in life when he {hopefully} chooses a wife of his own. What a sweet boy!

BEACH Vacation Pics

Finally I have the final few pictures added to the album and it's ready to share!  You should be able to view the album with the following link to Snapfish, and there you can order any prints you want!  Let me know if this does NOT work for you!

VIEW BEACH PICTURES!!

All in one post.

Just a random bullet point list of things going on around here...

* We spent the weekend with Kevin's family at the Amana Colonies, Iowa last weekend.  Will post pictures soon.

* Almost ready are the beach pictures in a way that others can order prints.  =)

* While on our beach vacation our calico mama cat died. The mother of our two litters of kittens, last year's and this year's. I was sad to hear the news from Kevin.  Didn't realize I cared about those cats until then.

* Then about 2 weeks later Eli's kitten Meesa also died.  She'd had eye goopies, as most cats have at some point, but then the next day Kevin found her on the sidewalk lifeless.  Still not really sure what happened, and I was sad about that one too.  But I told the kids what happened, not sure of Eli's reaction but wanting to be real with them, but he was actually fine about it and just replied, "Oh it's okay. I didn't really like it anymore anyway, it always scratched me." Alright then.  He's since adopted our littlest kitten as the new Meesa, though he doesn't pick the kittens up much anymore.

* Kevin and I ran a 5K race for our town yesterday. My first 5K. More thoughts on that HERE.

* We're just starting to build Eli's (and Carter's) bunk bed for their room.  A big-boy room is sort of the gift we're giving Eli for his 5th birthday next month.  And I'm so excited to get the project started!  While Kevin works on his projects, Eli builds nearby with all the scraps.  And boy, it's my FAVORITE thing to watch Eli build!  He's so good!  He mentioned also that he doesn't like to play trains anymore, he just likes to build the tracks.  Can't wait to see what he becomes in life! I sure am proud of him.

* Speaking of Eli, I never mentioned it, but he's big into super heroes now.  Even though he hasn't seen any of the shows or anything to know really WHO they are.  And he's asked for a Superman birthday party. And then when I went to confirm that with him, he said Spiderman instead.  

* I've been working with Hannah to get her to pronounce the "th" sound correctly instead of substituting "f", "d", or "s" in its place (like "sank you", and "wif" and "udder") and she's actually GETTING it!  Kind of makes me sad at the same time.  She's growing up.  She's also really improving her handwriting and starting to write parts of her name by herself now!  When it comes to writing, she's a natural!

* And Carter, growing up so fast, as you've been reading in his monthly updates!  =)
* Remember the story of our baby pool blowing away last year and many months  later finally being spotted out in the field? Well, we lost our new baby pool this year to another night storm Friday night.  This time it was a big inflatable one that we had tucked under the porch swing.  Somehow the big thing got free and up and over the porch rail and off it went.  We've driven all the nearby mile roads and searched all the fields, but it's nowhere to be found.  And surely if we ever do, it will have been popped by the barbed wire fences.  So, there goes another pool, darnit.  Sometimes the country winds are really irritating.  Just a tad.

'Spose that's all for now!  More posts coming soon!

Carter: 17 months

Every month...

 growing...

 changing...

 learning...

 discovering...

 becoming...

my sweet

little

big boy

Updates:

* Caught a glance of about three (or more??) new teeth coming in in the back! Who knew??!

* Is finally starting to copy quite a few words now and has added the signs "please", "banana", "thank you" 

* Gets really excited when he sees a dog and usually heads straight for it or stands there pointing and saying "Daw, Daw!"

* His favorite toy is still by far a BALL.  Loves it!

* I THINK he's figuring out how to go down stairs, though I've never really given him the opportunity to learn.  He can do one step now though without falling off.

* Is definitely a toddler and can throw quite a little tantrum. 

* Often hits me in the face almost every time I pick him up, and is now into throwing things, like big things.  AWESOME.  *sigh*

* Is still a big eater, although I have observed that he's not a cheese lover.  

* Is starting to use a fork and spoon if I help him get the food on it.

* We're trying to switch out his blankie for a new one.  He's sucked the life out of his other one and we'd like to at least have one to alternate it with in the laundry.  But so far, no such luck.  He just a'CRIES until we finally give him his blankie back.  So now we have both blankies in his bed and hopefully after a little bit of time, he'll get more used to the new one.  Sure wish I could've found a duplicate but it's nowhere!!

* Went on his first vacation to the beach!  Did OK in the water, but it just depended on the moment.  Sometimes he'd charge straight into the waves.  And other times he'd cry as soon as he got near it!  But mostly he liked to dig his fingers in the wet sand or wander the open beach. He did great on the car ride!  I was wonderfully surprised!

* Also went on his first vacation to the Amana Colonies Iowa. We did a little waterpark there too.  The first day it took him a good hour to finally warm up to the place and have fun in the kids splash area.  The second day he took right off!

Testing

Trying to figure out how to share the beach pictures such that family members can order them directly if they want, and it will also spare me from me posting a bazillion pictures into Blogger.  Was going to do Shutterfly but that option is not available, but I think Snapfish will.  Before I go uploading all my pics to there, I wanted to try an album I already have there.  If you can view this album, let me know! Note, you do have get a free account in order to do so.  Thanks!

CLICK HERE TO VIEW RANDOM ALBUM OF SARAH'S PICS