Long story short, I lost my camera on Friday. Being without a camera all weekend felt quite odd and I realized how much I truly document what we do.
But good news - Colin's teacher found my camera last week and returned it to me today! WOOHOO! I was even at Costco looking at cameras on Saturday. Phew.
Friday update: A huge thank you to Grandma who made the trek to the kids' school and got lost in the process! We attended the first Grandparents Day Magic Show & Dinner hosted by the parents and teachers. Colin loved the magic show and Justin had diaper issues so he was neutral for the event. Thank you, Grandma, for making the trek!
Weekend updates (with no pictures):
Electric in the house was completed, but somehow we lost power to our furnace. We have cool Fall weather, so Jack fired up our kerosine heater. So it turned into an indoor "campfire." The best ever!
Went to the Farm Park for tractor weekend. Animals + Tractors = 100% fun.
We picked up a few toy boxes from storage and the boys are in toy heaven. Just a good reminder to all parents out there to rotate your toys. Kids look like they've never seen these toys before.
Monday updates (with camera in hand):
I'm not sure which was more exciting. Our camera angel, Quetta, who witnessed my "you've got my camera dance" or...
...seeing 5 cabinets installed in the kitchen! Oh yeah - the boys joined me in the "we've got cabinets dance." I think it's a tie - Monday wrapped up quite nicely, don't you think?!
I'm feeling much better now that my camera and I are reunited. Sleep well, all.
The bunk bed arrived! Since the boys are a bit on the young-end for bunk beds, we chose one with stairs (versus a ladder). They love it and we're thrilled with our blind-internet purchase. It came on Friday and by Saturday morning, we had it ready for the boys!
The wild card in moving to a new house and neighborhood are the neighbors. Well, we feel lucky to have met some great neighbors so far, and this morning we met 1 more. Grace came knocking on our door with home made "bis-COH-ti." Oh my - they were delicious. Doesn't taste anything like those hard biscottis you find at the store. These were moist, sweet and delicious. We pretty much ate one plate immediately. We put some in a bag to share with Grandma. Colin replied, "Well, if we share with Grandma, then Grandma will share cookies with us." Yes, child, that is how it works!
We had a campfire on Sunday night and on Sunday morning, we woke up to deer checking out our scene. Jack is still the most excited of us to see the deer. Cracks me up.
Colin started wearing socks and decided that rolling them down was the best idea. I think we did that in the 80s, right?
We celebrated cousin Sarah's birthday & Justin Bieber was represented again! She was the happiest 4 year old ever with her Justin themed festivities!
The boys enjoy about 1 pinata a year - at Sarah's birthday party. It's like natural instinct - kids just know what to do when they see falling candy.
In non-essential building news, Jack built the boys a balancing beam this weekend and Colin has mastered front, back and side stepping. Justin has mastered putting his arms out while I carry him across.
Yes, it was 30 days ago that we signed papers and picked up keys to our home. It's been a busy month, and this week/end was no different. Big house updates to report...
Natural maple hardwood floors are in! I still prefer the house pictures with Justin in them. =) Let's all "ooh" and "ahh" together over these floors. I picked Maple and Jack picked the "natural" look. So it was truly a team effort.
After a ton of delivery delays, we finally got our washer and dryer! Jack picked them out himself, and I was pleasantly surprised. LOVE THEM BOTH! Look, our washer has a window on top.
This weekend was all about Jack & the basement. After Jack hooked up the washer/dryer, he painted the entire basement. The wall next to the washer/dryer and sink looked like this on Saturday. And I found Jack & Colin in the garage working away.
By Sunday morning, it had the beginnings of a storage shelf. The boys used it as a stage for half a day. And yes, this was the first day that Colin wore pants since Spring-time; there was definitely an Autumn breeze in the air today. Justin still insisted on shorts.
By Sunday night, Jack built the storage shelf. Bolted into the ground and walls, it's sturdy enough to hold dancing children. Colin can even tell you that you need to use a hammer drill to drill it into the ground. He loves watching Jack work and picks up on all of the tool-terminology.
Ensuring that our entire lives are not all about house remodeling, we snuck in a visit to the "Honkin Haulin" trucks event in our neighborhood. They had all of their big vehicles there for kids to drive and play on.
What's better than eating cookies, drinking sugar juice and looking at trucks?
They had a great set up and Colin got to ride a car around this city.We'll definitely be back next year.
At home, the boys found the costume box...
"If you pretend to be a baby rabbit, you can go get your binkies because you'll be a baby." - Colin to Justin.
I was feeling so good, I even made banana bread in our toaster oven. This toaster oven has saved us during the transition. It can fit whole pizzas and works just as well as an oven. LOVE IT! Jack is all about research and did a great job with ordering quality appliances for us.
Last week, I did a trial night with Sophie (neighbor babysitter), and she was great. So great that Jack immediately asked her to watch the kids for us for a bit this weekend. She came over on Sunday - and Jack & I went out for drinks and appetizers. SO NICE to get out and get some date time.
Our whole family definitely got a good boost of productive energy this week. Feels good. Mostly, it just feels good to walk on flooring. Not subflooring and nails. Nice flooring. Oh, how amazing it feels.
Quite honestly, it was a week full of delays and more delays for house progress.
But lighting went into the kitchen. (the picture with Justin in it was so much better than one just of lights.)
Boys got a new drum set...um, I mean, bricks were delivered. We took out a kitchen door to make room for more cabinets. It's a relatively small kitchen, so we had to get creative to make more space. These bricks will be added to the exterior of the house to fill that area that the doors used to be. (You can see the area behind the boys.)
The fallen tree branch was finally chopped up. Jack sure loves a chainsaw. And Colin loves to stand a safe distance away, with safety goggles.
Grandma came over this weekend and helped us clear our yard (of leaves and acorns) and stocked us up with food again. We're just not going to tell her when our kitchen is done and see if she still brings us carloads of food every week. =) We love Grandma time and on this trip, the boys got into her bags and we found them dressed in her clothes!
On Sunday, Matt & kids joined us for our first camping adventure in our backyard. I'd call it a success!
The 2 year olds got into the chocolate. And secretly kept eating it until we caught them. Justin & Ana.
The cousins had a blast playing together. I wouldn't be able to say this 1 year ago, but this trip was pretty much fight-free. I love seeing cousins all play together...warms my heart.
Jack says that "this is how history gets written, by the people who do the writing." So with that said, these two drank beers and relaxed all weekend. I did everything. I earned triple points this weekend. =) Okay, that didn't really happen, but I like the power to say whatever I want.
And well, the rest of our weekend was spent doing chores around the house. It's worth mentioning that we have not set up cable at the new house. Only 1 TV is set up (in our room) and it only has netflix on it. When we were moving out of the old house, we got into a bit of a TV-rut as we tried to busy the boys while we worked on packing and cleaning the old house. So Jack & I are thrilled to ween the boys from TV (or VT as Justin calls it), and love to see their imaginations run wild again.
Jamie updates:
I don't remember when work has been this busy. It's more exhausting than it needs to be, and I'm looking forward to things getting into a manageable pace again.
I find myself complaining more than I'd like about the lack of progress on the house. But I'm reminded to be thankful for our family and friends who are truly keeping us afloat.
Jack updates:
Managing our house remodel and working overtime at work. We are managing as a family, but it's busy around here.
Jack is not a complainer. He maintains peace and gives us reality checks. He lights up like a 4 year old when he sees deer hang out in our backyard and he couldn't be happier just being in this house.
C & J updates:
Overall, they seemed unphased with our mid-renovation state. But they have not been sleeping well since we moved here. Most nights, at least 1 of them wakes up during the night - and we had a couple of nights where we thought they were getting sick. We pulled through, but the lack of sleep is getting to all of us.
Justin is conversing more everyday. He likes to jump into conversations and speak his mind. When Colin asked for a donut, Justin replied, "no, too much sugar." Or when the dog barks, Justin tells me, "I'm scared. And then daddy holds me up high so the dog can't get me. I don't cry. but it's scary." And he still tells me, "Mama, you so pretty" almost every day when I leave for work. If you try to label him anything (i.e., smart, bossy, good listener, funny), he usually responds, "no i'm not. I'm justin elwell."
Colin is a busy 4 year old. I overheard him telling Uncle Matt how dinosaurs were wiped out, he asks how the earth moves to make a new day and how the very first living thing got into the ocean. He is inquisitive and often asks why we do things and how things work. He often comes home with presents that he makes me at school (usually family pictures), and he loves to tell me about girls at school that he thinks are "so nice."
I'm not sure if our life is any busier than an average family - but I do know that we are looking forward to things slowing down for us in the months to come. I suppose we are living up to our blog name - this is truly an elwell adventure.
