Mimicry

The other day the boys were watching "Wild Kratts" and they taught about mimicry (one animal mimicking another animal).  Well Andrew and Eric have a little mimic of their own -- Tanner.

First, mimicking "the look" -- often when the boys get ready for school, Tanner does too.  Here he is in Eric's coat, with a backpack and hat.  If Eric had gloves on, Tanner would have also.

The other thing Tanner has been doing is wearing the boys clothes -- he's even been known to where their (clean) underwear on top of his diaper.  Almost every night he wears their pajamas.  The picture doesn't quite capture the fact that he's wearing Size 7 pajamas here.  It's a tripping hazard for sure.

And the picture below is one I took back in July -- cracked me up when I walked in the room and saw him perched on the table just like Andrew.  My favorite lately is when the boys put their hands in their pockets because it's cold -- he stops and puts his in his pant pockets too.  It's really cute.

Now if he would only start mimicking their speech.  He's great at mimicking noises and even voice fluctuation.  But when it comes to actual words -- he's got a language of his own.  We started speech therapy this year, and I'm hoping it'll help.  We both get frustrated when I can't understand him.   And then if we specifically ask him to repeat something, he won't -- even if I'm asking him to repeat a word/sound that he knows.  Hopefully this will all improve  soon!

2012 Glimpse

So I'm writing my semi-annual post.  I'm not sure why I keep trying -- I think I'll be like my bro and sis-in-law who have a great blog and then print it off at the end of the year into a huge book.  I don't keep a journal, and so once in a while I think it would be so great to do something like them!  But then I think "where do I start" and "I'm not that interesting."  But since I only have 3 "followers", I guess I shouldn't care too much.  (:

So here's a little review of the last half of the year:

 1.  We had a great time at the cabin with cousins.  There was a little grandpa/dad/sons fishing trip -- I was told that Tanner LOVED the mud, water, and just being out there in by the water.  I'm not surprised.  Eric just walked by and saw this picture and sadly said "Oh.  That's when I got a leech."

I love this picture of some of my beautiful nieces hanging out at the dock. 

2.  Brian's mother passed away in June.  She had endured a lot in the last few years, so mingled with the sadness and loss was a bit of relief.  It's hard to watch someone go through Alzheimers, surgeries, strokes, and loneliness.  Brian's dad died several years ago, so we all happily think of them together again.  Almost every night Eric says "Please bless that the people who have died (Grandma and Grandpa) will remember us.....and we will remember them."  I'm not even sure where he got the idea to include that in his prayer, but it does make us pause and smile.

One great thing about this time was the chance to see our Cox cousins who live on the other side of the country.  They were so nice to our boys!

3.  Halloween --  Here we have Spiderman (or as Tanner says "Bawgubas"  Not sure where he got that!)  He was quite the trooper trick-or-treating.  Brian said he just kept on following the big boys up to each porch, outlasting even Eric.  He does love candy!  Andrew was a zombie -- he was very good at acting the part.  When we went to see him in the school halloween parade, he came by looking quite dead, with his limp arms and dragging foot.  Eric was a ninja again this year.  I love it when I can reuse a costume!

4.  We had some great snow storms earlier this year.  The boys had a great time building giant snow balls and we did make a pretty good snowman this year.

5.  Brian is a big classic rock fan, and so when he read that Styx was coming to town we got 2 tickets to attend the sold-out concert.  It was a small arena (400 people or so, I think.)  It was a lot of fun and I actually recognized many of the songs -- thanks to my older sister Marie's music listening in high school and also the "musak" station at Taco Time.

 6.  I turned 37 this year.  The boys were very excited about my birthday -- Brian was going to make the cake, but after he and Eric picked out the cake mix, he asked Brian if he had ever made a cake.  When Brian answered in the negative, Eric said "Maybe we should just have mom make it."  (:  We didn't have many candles, so there are 3 candles on one side, and a big 7 on the other -- 37.  Fancy!

7.  Christmas has come and gone but here are a few pictures we took at a family party.  Ho. Ho. Ho.

Our obsessions

I've been a bit obsessed with quilting these days.  After reading about this "emerald" mosaic contest, I thought I'd enter it.  Chances are slim....but given that I've been contemplating a "MineCraft" quilt for my boys, green has been on my mind.  How could minecraft not be on all of our minds around here...  The boys talk about it A LOT!  So.....I have to put the mosaic somewhere online, so here it is:

Tell me that doesn't say Minecraft Creeper to you?

Hopefully I'll post something more interesting later...an update on our life.  

Memorial Day '12

For Memorial Day we went on a little hike -- it was very crowded, but nice anyway.  1/4 mile hike to a tall waterfall.  Eric said "This is the best day ever!" several times on the hike.  Tanner wanted to walk the entire way, but it was too rocky, so although he enjoyed it he was pretty mad when we carried him.  Andrew wanted to take lots of pictures to remember the hike. Here are some great ones:

After working in our ridiculous yard (seriously, it's pretty much just dirt and tree roots and weeds.  It's going to be a lot of work and time.....)  Anyway, after working in the yard, we went to the old city cemetery to show the boys the graves of some relatives.  Andrew was happy to find several "Squires" headstones (his middle name) so Eric had to find some "John" headstones too.  Luckily, in addition to "John Squires",  Pres. John Taylor was very nearby.  (:  It was a nice evening, despite Eric's complaining of a stomach ache, which I thought was just complaining....but the next morning he started throwing up the next morning.  Poor guy has been sick ever since.  He's so sad to still be sick.  He just cries every time he needs to throw up again.  

And below is a picture of our finally finished master bath -- I painted the light oak vanity a dark brown, added hardware, and put up some shelves to help with the fact that we have no linen closet.  Sounds like it could be done in a day -- but for me it took weeks.  Literally.  I pretend to be a "do-it-yourself-er" but really, I'm just learning so everything takes me so long!  Argh.  

  

The Remodel - Bathrooms

We did some work in all the bathrooms.  The master bath still isn't finished (I want to refinish the new/second hand vanity) so maybe I'll show that later.  But here are the others:

Main Bath

Before

During

Today (not the greatest picture :))

Before

 During (gross toilet -- construction workers!!!)

Today

(Looks like I didn't take that picture!  Will show you later!)

The Remodel - Kitchen

And here is the finished kitchen -- hooray!  As much as I love it, I have found that a great desk does not organize the papers on it's own.  Darn-it!  It is a kitchen/dining room -- but I have yet to refinish the second hand table we have....so maybe I'll post a before/after photo of the dining area another day.

Before

 During

Today

The Remodel - Entry and Living Room

I have been meaning to take some pictures of our house for months now.  I've been waiting for a day when it looked nice and clean and well decorated.  Well, it's not clean often, and I keep rearranging furniture and haven't hung much on the walls.  But today we actually had a play-date with a new neighborhood friend -- so I had to at least pick up the toys and clear the counters.  So lucky you, here are some pictures of our new home!

The Entry

Before

 During

Today

The Living Room

Before

 During

 Today

Tanner - Age 1

Just wanted to post this cute picture of Tanner -- taken just the other day on our back porch.

One year, many changes

So here I am, blogging after a year -- mostly so I won't fill up your mailboxes with the numerous pictures I'm about to post. We purchased a house a few months ago. Since then we have been remodeling -- by "we" I mean the people we hired. We can barely keep our dishes done....we aren't about to try and do this stuff by ourselves. :) Anyway, I'm excited that it finally looks like progress -- instead of tearing down, we'rebuilding. Hooray!

So I'm just going to give you a small glimpse of the place:

The Living Room -- this front room was darkened by a lava rock wall fireplace. This was Brian's least favorite thing about the house I think (unfortunately the exterior of the house still has this rock.) We had the lava rock removed and a new mantel and fireplace put in. We are going to have a brick surround, but haven't gotten that far yet. Also, I was very happy to cover up the Crayola Orange-Red wall -- I am typically drawn to the color orange -- but not this one.

The Kitchen -- what started as a laundry/kitchen/dining area with dark gray cabinets and a drop ceiling, is a beautiful, much brighter kitchen. Tomorrow we will be getting the countertops "templated" to be installed in a couple of weeks. Also, there was a wall full of small closets that we knocked out and turned to a section of coat closet/lockers/pantry. Not a mudroom, but as close as we could get!

Lastly, I'm not sure you can tell much from these pictures -- but let me describe because I think this might be the best change we made. The original stairway to the basement was right off the small entry. It was a "U" shape stairway with a weird cupboard in middle. Brian was not fond of the turns in the stairs (perhaps too many E.Q. service projects moving furniture???) Our smart Realtor suggested that we ask about having them straightened. Well, we did....thus eliminating one bend in the stairway, the weird cupboard, the hall closet (unfortunately) and opening up the entry. I think it was a great change -- the entry is much more inviting.

Oh, and don't worry -- the floor isn't pink. (I know you are surprised given my lifelong love of the color pink.) It's actually wood flooring now. The pink is just the painters paper.

Hopefully in a couple of weeks we'll be completely finished and moving in. I know everyone says that construction always takes longer than it's supposed to -- in our case it's taken more than twice as long. Luckily (and not so luckily) we haven't yet sold the house we're living in. But now's the time -- if you know of anyone looking, let us know!