Zane turns 7

Here is Zane on his birthday. My sister (Christina) took this great pic and I stole it from her blog.

Seby, Zane & I are on a vaca here visiting my big sis Kitty and family, and overlapping a visit from big sis Christina and family.

Zane had a fantastic birthday down here in Mexico! He planned the whole day - it started with a breakfast of BACON. Followed by a swim in the local pool and then lunch with the family at the local restaurant (also at the pool). Of course prior to lunch he just HAD to have a couple orders of calamari - his new favorite food down here. Uncle Jamie helped bake a wonderful cake for Zane and brought it to the restaurant where we iced and decorated it - then consumed it!

Superheros!

How adorable are they? And quite the pile of laundry behind them!

Construction & New York

We started to work on the master bathroom last week. We have been working on our plans for it - but we thought we would finish the basement first. Did I mention we are fixing up the basement? It started out just one room, then it was obvious with the mess they were making we might as well finish the 2nd room - which led to - it sure would be easier to fix the master bath with all the ceilings and walls exposed in the basement. So, now there are workmen here all the time, again! It is the same crew that did the Carriage House - so they are great guys. They all love Olive and I have to keep her away from them or they might take her home with them.



This pic is the day they did demo of the existing bathroom. We took everything out of the bedroom (goodbye Cody's old room).

Ah, the lovely dust of construction!



Last week Cody & Graham had their spring break and Slade took them to New York on a business trip. They had a great time, and of course have a great "getting lost" story. I'm sure they will be eager to go again with him sometime.








I haven't even asked how long it will take to wrap up our projects - but progress is being made every day (at least this week!).

We are very excited about being able to reuse our old tile, and the old tub. I can't believe that someday we will have a working tub in this house. Very exciting. And one more bathroom for all six of us to use!

Olive with a Cone Head

Here is sweet, little (well, not really little anymore) Olive. She has to where her "e collar" so she doesn't scratch her eye where she had surgery. Some strange little thing her "third eye lid" was doing that had to get fixed. She also got spayed. So is not very happy about having to wear this thing and would much rather be able to just scratch the eye up. 12 days. At this point she is 6 months old and weighs 37 lbs. I'm not sure that she will get to her full 55-60 lbs we were told. She has been a great watch dog and has a wonderful security bark. She sounds much bigger and meaner than she is - but that is fine with me. It has been great to get out in the neighborhood with walking her - one of the things I was looking forward to in getting a dog. Zane wishes she could sleep on his bed and is looking forward to having a "sleep out" with her up at the lake house. We think she will love the lake as last weekend on a walk she went quite happily into the lake to chase some ducks!

I found my camera cable!

Finally! I have found my cable so I can download my camera to my laptop!

Here is Cody and his two buddies going to a Winter dance at the school.



This is our group up at Pine Mountain Resort during our annual President's Day weekend at the lake house. It was a lot of fun to hang out with Janette, Ken and all their boys. Olive was big hit and next time we hope they bring their labradoodle, Marley.



Ann, I've promised you a pic of Olive with something to compare her size to - here is Zane "holding" Olive.



Here is the first stages of the carriage house. All set up to quilt and sew. This weekend we will move in the old sleigh bed upstairs and we will officially have a guest room.



It was like Christmas opening up all the fabric boxes - and now having a home for them!




Here is my first quilt. This is for Kate Johnson-Fry - a friend's baby who will be born any day now. It is just pinned together in this pic.

This is an old photo. From New Year's. Zane sleeping in Liz & O'd's bed w/ Duke, he just couldn't stay awake any longer.

I have been taking some pictures - but I can't find my cable to download them to the computer.

Erika has moved out of the carriage house and we have moved in!

Slade and Cody put in some shelving in the basement and we got all my quilting on the 1st floor. It isn't organized, but all the sewing/craft/quilting supplies are all in ONE PLACE. With a table to work at. I have volunteered to make a quilt for both Seby & Zane's classes so this space will get well used for those projects. We are also going to make the 2nd floor a guest room and game room.

I'm sure I'll have many posts of pics on this new project (the basement project is still in progress, we have been in a holding pattern because our furnace decided it needed some attention - so we have to replace that!). Now I must go get cleaning so I can unpack all the sewing/craft/quilting supplies!

President's Day Weekend

We spent the 3-day weekend at the lake house with our good friends, Janette & Ken Siegel (and their 3 boys: Forrest, Quentin & Spencer). These are dear friends from living at Prairie Crossing. It was so fun to hang out with them - and have the boys all get along so well. We spent one day skiing - except for Janette & I, who kept the bar seats warm.

The season is changing - did I mention spring is my favorite? I can see the changes in the smallest things. Today the sun is shining in a different way. Maybe it is the lack of snow covering every inch of the ground.

Erika will be moving out of our carriage house on March 1st. I have already planned setting up all my quilting out there. This week I'm thinking of also starting all the seedlings out there too.

We will miss her living out there - but she is going to be coming back once a week so we will still have her around.

This photo was sent to me last night from Liz, it was from New Year's Eve from up at the lake.

Now I must go outside and get some of this gorgeous sunshine before it is gone.

Old Photos

My mother has just sent an email to the mass of our family requesting information on how we are doing, and in fact, that we are all still alive.

I guess it is time to update the blog.

We are under construction. It is supposed to be all in the basement - but it isn't staying down there. There is dust EVERYWHERE. And I forget every time we do construction that it happens. I hate it. Last night I said I wasn't making dinner - even though I cleaned up the kitchen because it was so dusty and disgusting. I keep dusting - it keeps getting dusty ------- argggghhhh

But, spring is in it's early stages. I LOVE being in seasons. Spring is my favorite. Last year we planted a ton of bulbs (well Erika planted them). I am eager to find the first ones.

When I felt the guilt from dear ol' Mom to post I went to see the last photo I uploaded. It was this one. Mom at Cody's baby shower. A baby shower he wasn't supposed to be at - but he arrived 3 weeks early, so he tagged along with us.