Master Bedroom project...

Well, we like to spice up our lives and spiff up the house every once in a while with a new home improvement project. :) This time we decided to gut the den and turn it into a master bedroom suite and a smaller den. So, we took down the paneling, pulled off the carpet, tore down the ceiling and insulation, took off the trim, and took down the old closet over the weekend.

Now, it is framed, plumbed, new electrical and insulation and awaiting the drywall that is going in as I write! The tub is in as of yesturday instead of sitting on our patio! Levi thought it was pretty funny to joke about taking a shower on the patio outside while it sat there!

More to come...

10 Months and feeling fine...

Clara Kate turned 10 months this week, and she is enjoying it! She still doesn't seem like 10 months to me since she isn't crawling and really prefers to be fed, but she does try to grab everything, eats quite a bit of table food and is very squirmy! She also tries to say quite a few words that are getting a little clearer all the time. I have been trying to capture them on video but as usual, the camera is an immediate distraction that takes away any need for words! We have always called her our little chunk because she has kind of chunky legs but apparently the Dr thinks she needs to chunk up some more! We aren't really concerned and are sure she'll catch up with time. She's 15 lbs and 27 inches now.

Tellico Plains...

Here is the rainbow above the falls that we saw as we hiked. Quite pretty and Levi enjoyed telling us why there are rainbows since he had been studying noah's ark at school. :)

Taking a break. You can tell levi is pretty tired!

hiking with his friends. Levi has the orange shirt on.

At the start of one of the trails.

Enjoying wading in the water in the lake. I enjoy the bug trail shirt. :)

On Mother's Day weekend we went with 3 other families "camping" in Tellico Plains. We say "camping" because we stayed in a cabin so it wasn't real camping but that was fine with us since there were 10 kids and it did rain. We had a great time though. Levi loved playing with all his friends and Clara Kate seemed to enjoy the excitement as well. She watched her friend that is her age crawl all around, but it didn't motivate her to try yet. :)

An Update...

Update:
Levi at 31/2: He is really into changing his favorite color. He likes to say, "Hey mom, do you know what my favorite color is today?" Then telling me a different color each day. Today it is green. He also likes to talk about what he wants to be when he grows up. Right now he says he wants to be a firefighter, army man, mailman, baseball player and a doctor, ALL of those when he grows up. His favorite games he says are football, basketball, and baseball. (however, I would say that you have to include golf and swimming in there too, but I think baseball is still the favorite over all based on how many times we play it on any given day!) He is still very independent and a big "worker". (we hope this never changes because it makes him a huge help to us too!)

CK at 9 months: She does a lot of "talking" with intentional "da, das", "ma, mas" and "ba, bas" for brother and has her hi/hola which sounds kind of like "hiya". She waves and uses her hands a lot and really enjoys attention and seems quite social. She is still very content to sit and watch rather than crawl. She loves eatting but would still rather be fed than feed herself. (obviously a HUGE difference from her brother!:)) Overall she is quite a happy little girl and lots of fun for all of us!

(I find it easier to do a lot of blogging updates at once so that is why you get three updates in two days! :) It would be nice to be more spread out, I know, but this is easier for me, so this is how it is!)

Rainy day fun...

This was Levi rainy day fun yesturday. He built a treehouse and a normal house for Clara Kate all day. He just brought cardboard boxes back and forth from "lowes" and built and then tore down but eventually wanted Clara to enjoy his handiwork which is the one picture of her inside of the "house" in her "bed". (she really enjoys doing things like this as you can tell from the picture!) Then he built a train and made himself the conductor.

More from the last days of April...

Here is Ck on a day after church. Not her biggest smile since she is always pretty tired after church but looking cute in her dress from Grandma Lubbers. :)

Another of Levi at the park. I just love how his hair is blowing in the wind! His long hair days might be limited since it is getting so thick, so we have to enjoy it while we can!

Here is Levi by the roses. He had been watching them eagerly to see the first blooms and commenting daily on how they were looking, watering them, etc. This is about two weeks ago and today there are about 12 blooms already thanks to this 80 degree weather.

I realized that the other pic with the gas fill up for their mowers didn't really show levi so here is another. He is just really into doing what "big people" do and doing it himself.

Last days of April...

Clara Kate is giving out wood chips if you are interested.

Levi loves to climb and also is really into firefighters so the poles are great fun to go down so that he can pretend to be a firefighter going to a fire!

You can't really tell from this picture, but Levi always likes to mow the lawn with his little plastic mower as Craig does, just following behind him. In this picture Craig had to stop to fill up his lawn mower with gas so Levi ran and got his gas station that goes with his flinestone car to fill his lawn mower up to.

Fun with his friend Lulu. Lulu came over to play last week and they always wear each other out because they are both very high energy but it leads to really good naps for both of them!