Some assembly required

The beginning, bought for 150$ off craigslist, stored in the garage in a big pile of boards. It was a little harder to figure out how it all fit back together than we anticipated.
The camera was out of batteries at the beginning of the process, but I still caught a few construction pictures.
Attaching the slats was a little harder than we thought it would be, in an effort to drill in the screws the drill started smoking and smelling really bad, and the battery powered drill wouldn't even start to turn. So we started nailing the boards. Then we gave in and went and got a drill with enough power to get the job done.
The finished product. Don't mind the black lines on the ground, those are for the guy coming to dig our sprinkler trenches in the morning, on to the next big project. This one will be interesting since we really have no idea what to do or where to even start. But we have the sprinkler design and all the parts so we'll give it a try. And if we can build a deck, we should be able to figure out sprinklers right? Later we'll do some railings, but they didn't have any premade that we liked so thats a project for another day.

The chimenea :) It was the last one left at home depot and has a little crack so we got a discount :) But then we read on the intructions not to use it on a deck, hmmmm, do you think we can just make a little platform from stone or brick for it to sit on on the deck and be ok?

Happy Birthday Kenny! We miss you!

Toddler Creed

Found this on someone elses blog and thought it was priceless.

Toddler Creed

If I want it, it's mine.

If I give it to you and change my mind later, it's mine.

If I can take it away from you, it's mine.

If I had it a little while ago, it's mine.

If it's mine it will never belong to anyone else no matter what.

If we are building something together, all the pieces are mine.

If it looks like mine, it's mine.

This is KC all the way. Some days he sounds like one of the seagulls in Finding Nemo "mine mine mine mine"

Parkers Pictures

Parker is starting to really like drawing people. Its so cute to see a real picture and not just scribbles finally. The first picture is our family. I'm the small one in the bottom left corner. When I asked Parker why I was smaller than everyone else he told me that I'm far away. This would no doubt be because "You're a girl mom, and the rest of us are boys, so your not the same" Parker has created his own little 'boys club' to which I am obviously not invited. Last week when getting ready to go somewhere Parker suggested that the boys should ride in daddys car and the girls could go in mommys car.

It all brings up terrible flashbacks of my childhood with 3 brothers, and no sisters. I even bought my own GI Joes once so I could play too, they stopped playing gi joes after that.

This family is in desperate need of a little girl so we can have a girls only club, and mommy doesn't have to ride alone in her car when all the boys get to ride with daddy.

Anyway, the next picture is my favorite. Parker brought it to us and asked Aaron to write KC loves Elmo on it. Aparently it is a picture of Elmo and KC. Elmo being the big one. And KC is standing over a #1 because he's one year old.

Moms Birthday Party

The 14th is my Moms birthday. I wanted to do something for her but since they took of for Mexico fotr a week yesterday I needed to think quick. So I decided to put together a small surprise party with some family and friends. It was so fun. Here are just a few pics from the night. I hope they're having fun sitting on the beach in Mexico while we're here still getting snowed on!

1st birthday cake for a friends little boy.

Craigslist Rocks

Last night we got a 4K deck off craigslist for $150. sweet. Its made from trex material and pretty much all disassembled of course. Looks to be in pretty good shape too. We got it from a guy up in Alpine in some fancy house. He had no idea how much it would have been to build it brand new, he was amazed at how many calls he had gotten about it. When Aaron told him how much it would have been he was shocked, and probably felt a little stupid for just giving it away practically. Anyways, now its taking up our whole garage, anxiously awaiting the final grade on our yard so Aaron can put it back together. Aarons pretty excited about it, since he really really wanted to build a deck out back. But when he took his plans to homedepot to get some pricing and they quoted him 5K his dreams were smushed and he was sad. So hopefully it will all work out and if anything we will just have to replace a few pieces. Like the one that fell off the trailer in transport.

Jabber mouth

KC is learning to say all sorts of things these days. Its so fun to see him learn what things are called and to see what he associate with different things. For example he really likes to pint at everything he can and tell you whos it is, or who uses it. So he points to the computer and says Daddy, points to the table and says mommy.
Yesterday I was painting the bathroom and he stood in the doorway the whole time saying "ooohh, nice, pretty. nice...pretty" Over and over again. I'
d ask him if he liked it and he'd say ya, and start all over with the nice and pretty.
When I do a cake he comes in and points at it, ooo pretty. Its so funny.
Last night when Aaron got home from work I was in the kitchen working on dinner. KC ran to his daddy and as usual is so happy to see him. But this time he launched right into his explanation of what we were doing. You have to imagine this in almost 2yr old language, you know, this kind that usually still needs interpreting by mommy :)
"daddy! Mommy cookin." he runs to the kitchen "me help!" he had all the tupperware lids out and was arranging them on the floor while I made dinner :) "Daddy work, home. Kitty night night"
He is just non stop lately. Its so cute. Its so fun to watch little ones discover the world around them.