Basement Update #4 of 234!

I had full intentions of posting these pics on Saturday night . . . however . . . due to a STICK being under MY BIG TOENAIL . .. it didn't happen. Bathroom surgery was performed instead. Anyway . . . back to the subject at hand . . . we (Bryan) finished hanging drywall! The above pictures is significant in that we can SEE THE BARE FLOOR again! Hallelujah!
This is Bryan putting in the last piece of drywall. We (Bryan) wasn't initially planning on drywalling the storage closet but we had 5 pieces left . . . so . . .much to Bryan's delight, we got to use them in the WONDERFUL STORAGE CLOSET that Lisa is pumped about!

I'm sure this shirt is what gave him the extra "umph" to keep working!

We wanted to bless Shawnee County Refuse with some modern art!

And just for fun . . . Kayla's latest antic has been to insist on the following things with her AT ALL TIMES:

1) "bah-kee"
2) "wah-tee"
3) "ba-be"

Translation: blankie, water, baby.

Hope everyone has a stellar week! Oh, and since I know everyone is just worried sick about the STICK under MY BIG TOE NAIL -- I went to the dr. on Mon. morning and he wasn't convinced that it was still there . . . so, we are waiting (literally) to see if it gets infected before he starts diggin' around under MY BIG TOE NAIL which is 100% certain to cause intolerable pain. Thanks for your concern.

Worlds of Fun!

OK, one of the coolest things was the HUGE ball house/playland thing. It was 3 stories tall with TONS of foam balls with all of these air guns, air hoses, etc. The kids LOVED it!

It was a pretty big operation!

Joshua would "load" the gun himself and then fire the balls -- all with a very determined look about him!

And then . . . two minutes before we were going to leave, Kayla started screaming HYSTERICALLY and I quickly realized she had gotten stung -- the first time she has gotten stung. So, we ended up filling out several accident report forms, etc. She seems to be fine today.
This was the last ride of the night -- we didn't leave until after 9pm, so I would say that our half-price tickets served us well. The kids really did great and were POOPED when we got back in the van!

Worlds of Fun!

Yesterday we went to Worlds of Fun and absolutely had a blast! We bought Twilight tickets (used garage sale $$ b/c this definitely was NOT budgeted!) which means that you don't go until 4 pm. It worked great! The kids (well, Kayla) got a nap at home, the weather was very comfortable and the lines were short! Joshua was absolutely enamored with everything! Kayla was NOT interested in riding anything!

Yes, that's Joshua driving his bumper car. Most of the ride, he just went in circles all by himself -- away from the other drivers, which was OK by this mama!

Kayla much preferred the safety of the stroller to the spectacular rides!

We all went on the carousel -- as you can see, Kayla was a little hesitant!

Riding the train -- sorry for the blurriness -- at the mercy of an unknown camera operator!

Swimming Lesson Pics

Um . . . just wondering if anyone call tell me where my "baby" is . . .because that can't possibly be him in the pool, can it? Holy Cow. We finished lessons today -- great, great experience.

This right here was the most difficult for Joshua . . . yeah,
the whole sitting still on the step thing!

I am still a little shocked that they managed to get him to jump off -- but by the end of this week, it was no big deal for him!

Yep -- that was it! Can say enough of how good these teachers were!

Fun Times!

Joshua started his first round at swimming lessons this summer! I was SURE that he was NOT going to like it, but he has been a trooper! Still is not crazy about jumping off the board or putting his eyelashes in the water, but he is getting better! Hopefully I'll get some better pics today and tomorrow!

He looks really little in that big pool, doesn't he? While he's floating on his back, he likes to tell his teachers what shapes the clouds are! What a goober!

OK, I am learning that sometimes getting things done in the most efficient manner is NOT the most important thing -- sometimes, or should I say, most times, I just need to slow down let my kids "help" me! That's really hard for Type-A's! Anyway, we got some corn this week that I wanted to freeze and Joshua really enjoys "helping" me shuck the corn! So, even though I'm still picking silk off the garage floor (it was raining that day) we had fun shucking corn together!


Kayla appointed herself the "official corn transporter" from the shucking site to the garage step. For those of you who might eat corn at our house this year . . . relax . . . I thoroughly washed the ears before I cooked them!

Wow -- did you know Smore's could be this messy????

Happy July 4th (6 days late!)

Joshua was SOOOO excited about fireworks this year!!! And, since every parking lot in Topeka has not one, or two but THREE fireworks tents, let's just say that he was VERY EXCITED to FINALLY purchase our very small bag of fireworks! These were very "mama-friendly" -- smoke thingies, sparklers, poppy-thingies and a few fountains.

Kayla loved the poppy-thingies -- she was very, very determined to get them to pop!

It takes a lot of determination for these (notice the tongue!).

During the day, we all went to my aunt/uncle's and got to spend time with extended family. Looks like Ryan wanted to make sure Mom was having a happy July 4th!

The manly council gathered around the grill.

Basement update #3 of 364!!!

Sorry the blogging rate has been a little . .. um . . . slow! We have been CONSUMED by the crazy basement. I know, I know . . . you're going to look at the pics and say "It doesn't even look like work has been done" -- but trust me, WE HAVE BEEN WORKING ON IT!


Ceiling drywall is done (Can I hear an AMEN!) and we (well . . .Bryan) only has one soffet (however you spell that) left. Hopefully in the next week, the walls will be completed. Progress is just a little slow . .. (keep in mind we're a bunch of musicians . . . Drywalling 101 wasn't offered in our music courses!!!!)


Here's my hero -- I think Bryan will be more than a little excited to have the ceiling stuff done -- there is just nothing glamorous about working above your head! He's been a trooper because most of the time I'm busy keeping the kids occupied with . . .

things like this . . .! Kayla loves this little portable booster seat. She insists on having the seat belt on while dumping the beans back and forth in the dishes!

This was a "thing-a-ma-jig" that Joshua and I created sometime last week. You put a ball in the sweeper attachment, and it would ultimately end up in the egg carton at the bottom of the Legos lid. Unfortunately, it met it's untimely demise because we actually NEEDED the sweeper attachment for the mountains of drywall dust that accumulates!

Stay tuned!!!!

Trip Pics 3

I know this picture won't mean much to anyone besides me, but I'm posting it anyway! We caught a Kings Brass concert in the area and after the concert, the kids were playing in the trailer while they finished loading. OK . . . the orange thing in the background holds the display for the product table, and back in the day, we affectionately called it "Big Orange." So -- seeing my kids stand in front of "Big Orange" just seemed like two extremely different worlds colliding! BTW, it was great to see all of the guys again -- Joshua, however, made it VERY clear that he preferred to hear the concert from the lobby instead of the sanctuary -- it was VERY loud. Bryan was very gracious and allowed me to stay in the sanctuary for the concert while he was in the lobby!

We swung through IN to see my brother's family for an evening -- looks like the boys are hard at work!

These pictures never go quite as planned . . . at least the ones in the front are both chewing on their fingers!

Plan A was for Kayla to sleep in the crib. However, after 20 minutes of her SCREAMING, we decided to go for Plan B -- bring the crib mattress into the room Joshua was sleeping in. The girl must have decided in the night to go for Plan C -- the crib/floor method! Yes -- she was actually sleeping like this -- I wish I was that adaptable!

My hubby still teaches me not to take life too seriously!

Pics from Trip 2

We took one morning to go to a local water park . . . Kayla was ready to leave about 1.2 seconds after we walked in the indoor park!

This was Kayla's standard "look!" -- to her defense, it was pretty loud!

Joshua had fun with the "fountain thing-ies" -- boys and water!

Grandma is always such a genius about playing games outside -- I wish I had that creativity with play!

One last pic from the park -- notice the pink waterpark band -- Joshua was VERY proud of this band!

Trip Pics

These are late . . . but thought I would post anyway! We went up north to visit Bryan's parents last week -- and a great, relaxing, time!


Going to the park is a STAPLE of being at G/G -- in fact, yesterday, when I told the kiddos we were going to the park, Joshua wanted to know if we were going with grandma and grandpa Nelson! Notice the sweatshirt -- it was a little cooler there than here!

Grandma and Kayla

Not the greatest pic in the world -- but holy cow, how did our family get all "grown up" all of a sudden?


This game managed to consume the "men folk" for a large portion of our visit . . . amazing, eh?