Luke's new look

A week ago I took Luke to the optometrist for an eye exam. I have been noticing him squinting a lot lately and he's been complaining some about not being able to see things at school and I've noticed him not being able to read things at a distance. By the end of the exam the optometrist confirmed my suspicions that Luke does indeed need glasses. We were told that it would take about a week to get them in. At first he was not excited about the idea of having to wear glasses, but he has been looking forward to getting them all week and he was super excited to go to the store to pick them up today.

M&M also got her first pair of glasses in 4th grade. So far we are 2 for 2 with nearsightedness. Hopefully some of the younger kids will take after me instead of their dad. 8-)

6 months old!

MJ is getting really close to crawling. She will get up on all fours for a little bit but she isn't sure what to do there yet. She can roll both ways now and can turn herself in circles by using her arms. At her 6 month checkup she was in the 50th percentile for weight and about 77th percentile for height. She loves trying to pick up anything she can get her hands on and the first thing she does is try to put things in her mouth.
When she gets frustrated she lays on her stomach and tries to "take off"!She's also getting better at sitting - although she can't sit too long by herself without support.

Pistachios

A couple of days after Christmas I gave Kay a package of pistachios to take downstairs to her dad. When she took them down to him he asked her if she knew what they were. She responded, "Yes, they're mustaches."

Elevator

Apparently Kay hasn't been in too many elevators. When we were leaving the doctor's office today I asked her if she wanted to go down the stairs or take the elevator. She said the elevator so we headed over to it and I had her push the button. I got on first, carrying MJ and her car seat and I grabbed Kay to make sure she got on as well. Kay wasn't sure what to think of this little room that we had just entered and then the doors closed on us. Then she felt the movement of the elevator and it kind of caught her off guard. When we got to the 1st floor (from the 2nd), the doors opened. Kay was hesitant to step over the metal where the door just was and she said, "It's an alligator." Then as we were walking out of the building to the car she said, "We went down the stairs in the alligator!"

Awesome shirt

I am not a big fan of a lot of the graphic shirts out there for kids, but this is one that I found that I just had to buy for Luke:

Wood floor - finished product

The installers ended up finishing and leaving while I was out taking the kids to their piano lessons on Friday so I never got to inspect the finished product with them. We were a little disappointed in the finished work that was done. Several of the baseboards that had been removed were definitely worse for the wear and the room just looked somewhat incomplete. Also, the transition pieces leading to the tile in the kitchen and entryway seemed really insecure since they weren't attached to the tile at all - there was somewhat of a gap under the transition piece where it overlapped onto the tile. So while we really liked the wood floor itself, we weren't 100% satisfied with the end result of the project. The installer had mentioned something about having to come back so I could sign something so DH and I considered saying something about it when that happened. It didn't really state in our contract how much of an obligation the workers were under to return things to their previous state so we decided that it wasn't really that important.

On Monday I got a call from a lady at Sears asking if she could bring out some papers for me to sign stating that the work was completed. When she came by I decided to point out the problems to her and see if there was anything that could be done. She said that she could talk to the project manager and have him come out to put caulking around the top of the baseboard and to glue down the transition pieces to the tile. So I signed the paper and she said she would call the manager as soon as she left. I kept waiting for the manager to call me and he never did, but the installers showed up a couple of hours later and said that they had been sent to caulk and glue for us. We had already moved the piano and the couch back into the room so I had DH come up to help move the piano out away from the wall so the workers could get to the baseboards behind it (DH had had a dentist appointment earlier in the day so he was working from home again). The workers said that we would need to prevent anyone from stepping on the transition pieces for several hours while the glue set up and dried or it would push the glue out onto the tile. I ended up spending a good portion of that time in the kitchen so I could remind the kids not to step on it and to lift Kay over it whenever she came into the room...

All I can say is - Wow! What a difference the caulk and glue made! The room looked so much more put-together and professionally finished! I'm glad I pushed the issue a little! We absolutely love the floor! It looks beautiful and DH and I both love the creaking noises that the floor makes! While I'm sure we paid more for the floor than if we had done it ourselves, we are glad that it is done and with relatively little effort on our part. We also wanted to make sure that the project was done right since this is part of the main living area of our home and the first room that people see when they enter the home.

Now we are in the market for new living room furniture and some area rugs - and that is turning out to be a much bigger task than we initially anticipated... We also need a good doormat and entryway rug so people can clean off their shoes nice and good before walking onto the wood floor.

Finished floor with some furniture on it:

Wood floor installation - Day 2

Friday, January 7, 2011
The installers did the bulk of the work on the first day. Once they had gone home for the day, DH and I inspected the work that had been done and we were both drawn to one particular spot where it looked like the workers had nailed a piece of the wood incorrectly - the nail was almost poking out of the top of the wood, splitting it slightly. Unfortunately it was several rows into the floor from where they had stopped. We debated whether or not to say anything, but in the end I decided that this was the whole reason we were having the floor professionally installed - so these types of mistakes wouldn't be in the finished project...

So Friday morning I pointed the spot out to the workers and they had to take back out all of the wood up to that point to replace that piece. I think that that mistake made the second day take a lot longer than the workers had been planning on so I tried to stay out of their way as much as possible.

End of day 2:

Wood floor installation - Day 1

Thursday, January 6, 2011
Before pictures:The installers showed up around 8:30 in the morning. DH was working from home that day because he had a follow-up eye exam in the morning and then a follow-up exam with the oral surgeon around lunchtime to check on his implant. The installers took an early lunch because their pneumatic nail gun kept jamming on them so they needed to get another one. The installers had started doing the installation near the kitchen and the stairs so I was trapped upstairs with the girls and DH and Luke were downstairs (M&M was at school and the rest of the kids are off-track for their 3 weeks). The girls enjoyed watching the installers from the top of the stairs and Luke had fun down in the family room making a fort with the extra couch down there. I had a hard time keeping Kay upstairs because she just wanted to see what was going on and she kept wanting to go down to the family room to see Luke. I was able to entertain her a little by reading books to her, but she kept trying to escape. After talking to my parents that morning they offered to come and pick the 3 middle girls and take them to their house for the afternoon. I had to keep Luke because he had an orthodontist appointment that afternoon. It worked out very nice having the girls gone and they had a fun time at my parents' house.

Halfway through day one:
We had the workers quit around 6:00 and I picked up some pizza for dinner. My parents ate with us after bringing the girls back - we all had to cram into the cramped kitchen now. :) The kids had a ton of fun playing on the floor after the workers left. It was a lot of fun having the room empty with a new wood floor that was perfect for dancing and sliding on!

End of day one:

Next big change

Before Christmas, DH was at Sears buying some tools for some home/car repair and was accosted by a Sears employee offering a free estimate on a home project. Ever since we moved into our house 7 1/2 years ago, we have been talking/dreaming about pulling out the carpet in the living room and putting in a wood floor. A big part of our dilemma has been whether to also rip out the tile in the kitchen to extend the wood into there as well. So DH told the Sears employee that we might be interested in getting an estimate on having a wood floor installed. She also gave DH a coupon for 15% off any flooring work done. Later that evening I got a call from Sears to set up an appointment to have an estimate done. We set the appointment for the evening of December 15th. We wanted to wait until all of the Sounds of the Season rehearsals & concerts were over.

So on the evening of the 15th, two project consultants came to our house and were here for way too long! Probably close to 3 hours. In the end, with a lot of discounts that were offered, we decided to let Sears install a wood floor in our living room. If we end up wanting to have the wood continued into the kitchen after we see how it wears, we can have Sears do it for the same discounted prices that we had the living room installed for - provided we do it within 12 months of the completion of the living room project. We decided to go with a hardwood instead of a laminate or engineered hardwood and we decided on hickory in a nice medium brown color that coordinated well with our piano and kitchen cabinets. (At first we were drawn to one of the maple colors, but it was almost the exact same color as our piano and cabinets and would have been way too much of the same color in the room.)

A couple of days later we had the installers from Sears come and measure our living room so they could get the materials ordered. Then a couple of days after that I got a call from our Project Coordinator saying that the materials were in and we could have the floor installed anytime! (Now remember that this is all before Christmas and right in the middle of moving around all of the bedrooms in the house and dealing with the mice issue as well...) I told the Project Coordinator that we definitely wanted to wait until after Christmas and probably after New Years as well - for one thing we had our Christmas tree setup in the living room this year and I wasn't going to be ready to take down all of the Christmas decorations yet.

So the week after Christmas I got a call from the Project Coordinator again asking if we could setup a date the first week of January. I called him back the Tuesday after New Years and had to leave a message with him. He returned my call on Wednesday and I said that we could have it installed anytime - as long as it wasn't over a Tuesday (I have cub scouts in my home on Tuesdays and I didn't want the house a mess with them here). So the coordinator asked if they could come and start the project the next day (Thursday)! It was going to take 2 days and apparently work is a little slow this time of year. Since we had already paid a portion for the floor and I did manage to take down the tree and most of the Christmas decorations on Monday I agreed. He then said that the workers would need to bring the materials over to the house that day so that they would be at room temperature when they came the next day to start the installation. That meant that I had to do some serious cleaning and organizing so that we could get all of the furniture moved out of the living room - with the big items being our couch, love seat and piano! I also had to move out everything from the front closet, everything from the top of the piano as well as move the piano bench and all the music in the room. I had to organize and clean out a bunch of stuff in my bedroom so we could move one of the couches in there, move the table and chairs around in the kitchen so we would have room to move the piano in there, and then make room for the other couch in the family room. In addition to this it was also my nephew's first birthday and we had been invited over to their house that evening for dinner and birthday cake. I also managed to find time to cut Luke's hair (it was looking way too shaggy) and I also gave Kay her first haircut (her hair had a bunch of long, scraggly sections in the back that I wanted to even out with the front of her hair - it looks super cute now).

I saved the big furniture for DH to help me move, but I still had to make room in the living room for the workers to put all of the wood. They came in the early afternoon with the materials and Kay thought it was a lot of fun to play on:

Visit from Grandma-Great

Friday, December 17th, 2010
DH's grandmother was in town visiting DH's uncle the week before Christmas and she stopped by to visit one evening and to see MJ for the first time. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of her visit. Each of the kids performed a Christmas song for her and DH's uncle gave DH a cool top that had been made for DH's dad by DH's great-grandfather (if you can follow that). I will have to take a picture of the top and post it when I get a chance.

DH's Christmas break

Monday, January 3, 2011
Between Christmas and New Year's DH took some time off work and worked from home a few days. We were also able to get the van into the shop for some repairs. Since DH wasn't at the office he was able to grow out his annual facial hair. One day it will be nice to not have him working for the church...

Happy New Year 2011!!

My parents came over to spend New Year's Eve with us. We had a lot of fun playing games and eating goodies. This year we introduced the kids to the game Pit and everyone had a blast playing it. The best part of the game was when Blondie hit the bell indicating that she had won the game and the rest of us looked at each other in disbelief and asked to see her cards. She really had won! She couldn't quite hold all of the cards in her hand while she was playing so she would organize them face down in front of her in groups so she knew which pile she was trying to get and which ones she wanted to trade.

Sleepover at Grandma & Baka's house

December 30-31, 2010

The Thursday between Christmas and New Year's we took all the kids except MJ to my parents' house to spend the night. We had just had a snowstorm so my dad took the older kids sledding on Friday while my mom and Kay stayed at the house reading books and doing puzzles. DH and I were able to go to some stores to get some supplies so DH could fix the chest of drawers in Kay's room that had been in disrepair for many months. The kids had a lot of fun, but stayed up way too late - my poor parents! I think next time we will have them just take a couple of kids at a time - not all at once.

Snowblower

Last winter I kept thinking that my dad could really use a snowblower now that my parents live out here in Utah and my dad isn't getting any younger. DH's dad gave us our snowblower a couple of winters ago and we have loved it. It definitely saves a lot of backache. The only problem with getting my dad a snowblower is that they are expensive, so I kept brushing the thought aside. Well once the holiday season started creeping up last year the thought kept popping back in my head over and over again so I finally talked to my mom about it and we discussed the possibility of getting my dad one for Christmas. After looking at some prices I decided to email all of my siblings to see if they would be interested in pitching in for one for a group gift. After looking at a few used models for sale around the area my mom and I decided to buy a new one. And luckily all of my siblings thought it was a great idea for a gift and all 6 of them (along with my mom) pitched in some money! I found the model that I wanted to get on sale at a local store a couple of weeks before Christmas so I bought it, printed up a sign from all of us, and bought a big bow to stick on it. DH helped me put it together and we presented it to him on Christmas when we went over to their house for dinner. I think my dad was completely surprised by the gift! It was fun to be able to give it to him!

MJ's First Christmas

Christmas from MJ's point of view:

Wow it's awfully early! What planet am I on again?
Okay, I'm a little more awake now. What is this whole present thing?
Finally! Something to stick in my mouth!
Yum! Socks! Can I eat them?
Why won't Dad let me eat this present?
Finally! Thanks Dad! Yummy paper!
Hey! This tag tastes pretty good too!
Yea! Mom's finally holding me! By the way, when are you going to feed me?

Christmas pictures 2010

Christmas 2010

Saturday, December 25, 2010
The kids had to wait a while for everyone to wake up Christmas morning. Kay and MJ were the last ones up. My parents arrived before we went downstairs so they were here when the kids opened up their Santa gifts. Then we went upstairs for breakfast casserole, cinnamon and orange rolls, and fruit. The kids all really enjoyed their gifts. My favorite comment of the morning was from Blondie when we were coming upstairs for breakfast. She said, "This is the BEST day ever! I love my gifts!" That totally made my day right there! Another favorite part of the day was that the kids were so engrossed in the gifts they received that none of them had any interest in playing any of the new Wii or DS games that they received that morning. They didn't even open any of them until the next day. After breakfast my parents left to get dinner going over at their house. We then went over to their house for dinner and to open the gifts from them. My sister and her family joined us as well.
This was Kay's sibling gift to Blondie. She absolutely loves gum and when I saw it at the store for under $5 I knew that she would absolutely love it! She also loved the dress she is wearing, from Grandma and Grandpa N.
Pillow Pets from Grandma and Grandpa S. Kay was so excited! She has been asking and asking for one every time we saw them at a store.