Easter and Home Construction

Whoa.

If you've hung out with Caleb for even a little while, you would know that this is one of his favorite expressions.  

"Whoa!  Big truck!"

"Whoa!  Tractor!!"

"Whoa!  (Unintelligible whatever)!!!"

But this would be a very "Whoa!  It's been a while."

It suddenly dawned on me today, as I was battling ants in my kitchen, that I needed to make a better effort to record the events in my kids' lives.  I hate ants.  And I hate the craziness that keeps me away from writing and I hate that I've missed recording so much here in the past couple months.  Because Lord knows, I've done just a bang up job on their baby books...

But any-who.....I'll catch you up eventually.

Easter was awesome here.  Mom came down and visited and really created some great memories for the kids.  Caleb even gave her a name, which was kind of like "Eh-ma" and sounded like Elmo.  At first I couldn't figure out why the sudden Elmo obsession, until I realized that every time he called it, she answered.  And that just made my heart smile. I remember when I was pregnant with Elizabeth and she was really concerned with what her name would be.  Like what they would call her.  So far, it's been Grandma, but Caleb is so behind on his language, that he really hasn't called her anything.  Therefore, the Eh-ma was especially sweet.

Saturday was our big celebration because she had to go home on Sunday so she and the kids made a bunny cake (which is a tradition my aunt has amazingly done for years) and then she hid 100 Easter eggs in the back yard.  Each egg had a puzzle piece in it and the kids then came inside and did the puzzle with Grandma.  

And yes, the spatula STAYED in the boy's mouth

Mom videoed the whole egg hunt for my grandparents to watch later.  It took Caleb a little bit to catch on.

I don't know if you had beautiful weather this weekend, but for us, it was gorgeous.

Did I mention they tore the back off our house??  No??  Oh, that will come with the catching up part. 

 

 

So it took a while to get the puzzle together because, as seen in this picture, Caleb was on top of the table and had knocked a good half of them underneath.  I liked this tradition way more than candy, because they were all straight crazy people after eating the goodies from their school egg hunt. 

We went to church Saturday night and then had to say goodbye to Mom on Sunday.

Of course, I worked in bunny ears.  And no, the boy would not put his on.  Not that we tried...hard...

This is my "please don't leave, Mom...I'm so tired.  Can't you see that I'm tired?!" face.  She used to cry a little when she left.  Now she burns rubber and waves out the window.  ;)

Speaking of crying a little bit, this was last year.

Why yes, that is the same cardigan.  Don't judge me people.  It's very springy.  And just look at Caleb.  He was so drooly.

Here is was tonight, pointing out the holes in the ground.

OH, YOU WANT TO KNOW ABOUT THE HOLES?!  Fine, stop yelling.

Well, of course, I forgot to take a before picture.  So this was last summer and you can see that we have plants and siding and a deck.

This was after today.  They are laying the footers for an 800 square foot addition, that will have our new master suite, laundry room and office.

And new deck. Those are the holes for the base of the deck.  The real rub?  See them stairs over yonder?  That was what was allowing the dogs access to the yard.  

Yes, exactly.

So now I have to take the dogs AND my little children out front to walk and go the bathroom.  Tonight, we went for a stroll after dinner, both dog leashes in one hand, the handle of the wagon containing Rachel and Caleb in the other, and Elizabeth following behind on her scooter.  It was really fine until Elizabeth tried to take a hill too fast and bit it on the way down, skinning a knee.  So then I had a howling 5-year-old bringing up the rear.  It was awesome, really.  I hope my neighbors aren't fans of youtube.

Didn't you miss us??  :)  Much love, my friends.