Go!!

Yeah, so it's been like forever since we've posted last, and I am so sorry - - we had baseball tournaments, and then this week has been preparing for vacation, so I just put this on the back burner. But tonight's video will be worth the wait. :)

Alex always wants to be outside - and he is quite a bit, whether playing with his sand/water table, running around the house looking for frogs/toads and snakes, or just playing with the rocks and dirt - but when Daddy went outside this afternoon to start the grill - Alex really wanted to be outside!

Andy then began this game, and I don't know exactly how Alex caught on (it just must be that special father-son bond), but it was too funny for me not to record and pass along.

Andy begins by the back door, yells "Go!" and then he and Alex race to the front of the house - Andy on the outside, Alex indoors. Alex scales the couch, waits for Andy, and then they begin the second stage of their race. Again "Go!" is called, and this time it's back to the rear of the house. Alex almost always beats Andy - granted, he has a shorter distance, but he also has shorter legs. It's just too funny!!

I wonder what the neighbors think when they see Andy running around the house......

Acta Update!

Well, after all of this excitement with the remodel the past few weeks, I completely spaced my monthly Dr. visit! (oops!) I finally went in on Tuesday, and the Dr. wanted me to do the glucose test. So, it was scheduled for this morning.

For those of you who didn't know with the Alex glucose test - things were fine at the beginning (pre-test), and then I drank the orange fizzy pop stuff. Thinking back, I am 99% sure the nurse told me to go home and eat something so I could take my vitamins. When I went back an hour later, my sugar was at 132. Dr. Julie, who always tends to be overly cautious, wanted me to limit my sugars because she wants the number to be under 130. So, this time, I was nervous - I didn't sleep too well last night......

Last night was the beginning of the baseball tourney, and Andy's team WON 9-3 vs. Ravenna. They played an outstanding game - but it didn't get over untli 7:45ish, so I didn't get supper until after then (beginning my worry #1 about the test this morning). Concession stand food - low sugar - right?!!?! :) I had a hot dog and a few nachos - and NO popcorn!! When we got home around 10:30 I had terrible indigestion (another baby with TONS of hair??), so I had to eat something. Grrrr....begin worry #2.

I tried falling asleep, but it wasn't coming. The indigestion was still bugging me, so I took some Tums (didn't look at the clock when I did this) it was 12:30. The nurse told me NOTHING to eat or drink after midnight. Worry #3.

After tossing and turning all night, and saying about a million prayers, I finally passed out around 2:30. When Andy's alarm went off at 6:30 this morning, it was way too soon. We all had a fairly late night last night, so I felt bad waking Alex up so I could take him with me to the Dr. office to have the pre-test done. (My appt. was for 8:30).

Apparently my Dr. has found some research or something where she doesn't like the orange fizzy pop stuff, (remember that she's overly cautious - which I am grateful for) so they asked me to bring in 24 ounces of Coke or Gatorade. So, fruit punch it was. My pre-test number was 79. After drinking the Gatorade, they told me to go home or run errands - still not to eat or drink anything - and come back in an hour. **This is where it donned on me that I am SURE that I ate something the last time they did this with Alex.

I tried to pass the hour doing anything I could think of - - laundry, go to the bank, run a couple things around town for Andy, organize the t-shirts we are selling - -and finally the hour was over. My stomach was cramping as Alex and I walked back into the office. I held my breath as she pricked my finger and held it up to the reader. The result was a whopping 99!!! :) YAYAY!!!!! That's when I told her about when I was pregnant with Alex, and she shared that a nurse that no longer works there had told a couple of other ladies to go home and eat during the test - so at least I wasn't alone!! :)

Anyway, I am thrilled. Bring on the popcorn! :)

Baseball games again tonight, Andy's team plays the #1 seed - Shelton-Gibbon. If they play like they did last night, they have a great shot at winning this one! If you are curious how the tourney is going, click on the link off to the right. We are trying to keep it updated nightly.

YAY FOR LOW SUGARS!!! :)

Bath Time!

Well, tonight's our last night at home for a while. Andy's baseball tournament starts tomorrow night, and will run through at least Sunday night. Rain and storms are predicted for the next four nights - so it may end up running longer......we'll see.

So, tonight was bath night! :) Alex loves his baths, as long as water doesn't come anywhere near his head. (Unless it's him that is dumping the water on his own head....) Once I began to drain the water, he wanted to stay in the tub. I figured he'd get pretty cold, and then decide that he wanted to come out - nope. :) This is what he decided to do once all of the water was out of the tub........

And once I checked my camera for the pictures that Andy got- here is what I found.......

If this next one is as ornery as the two I already have, I'm gonna quit.

Have a great Wednesday, everyone!! :)

Pictures Galore!!

This post is all about the pictures that I should have been posting over the past few weeks, but didn't have all of the "equipment" that I needed (i.e. the correct USB 'thingy' for the camera phones). SO, you are getting them all in this one shot. Enjoy!!! :)

Alex and Daddy running the bases after the games in Loup City.

Alex after enjoying about 4 breadsticks at the Pizza Hut lunch buffet...... MESSY!!!!

Even though Alex seems to show right-hand dominance, he insists on putting his glove on as though he were a lefty......this was one of the rare times he had it on the correct hand.

Alex has developed this new "habit" of putting his foot up on the table as he eats.....I'm thrilled...

Alex trying to lick the last little bit of sauce off of his chin. (It didn't work.....) ;)

When we were in Lincoln for the 4th, we stopped and had lunch at Famous Dave's. Alex NEEDED a clothing change after his lunch, so we used the back of the car. Look at his pose - future model?!!?!?! :)

Alex playing in the new bathtub - notice the "Dennis the Menace" hair in the back - - and how the winkie is carefully concealed!! :)

And now to more recent pictures. Andy's company had their annual family picnic on Friday night. They rented out the local bowling alley, had food catered in, and we had a great time. Here's a shot of Alex contemplating running down the lane (Yes, he did make it down at least twice - Andy chased him once, I did the other time......very awkward!!) He also managed to pull a 12-pound ball off of the rack, narrowly missing those bare toes - we both gasped!!

We went for a walk with Kyle, Amy and Micah on Saturday night. The bugs weren't too bad, so we headed over to the Little Park. I think that Kyle and Amy had more fun than Alex did....Micah was asleep in the stroller the entire time.

Alex tries out the teeter-totter.

Kyle (painfully) shows Alex how to ride the animals.

Daddy gets in on the fun, while Alex carefully watches.

Finally a toy Alex loves - the slide!! :)

A group photo before they had to leave (I'm amazed both boys sat through the self-timer thing on the camera!!) :)

Long story that I am trying to make short - I bought some Golden Grahams for breakfasts, and saw the recipe for the Smore bars on the back. My mom used to make these all the time, and I haven't had them in forever - so I have spent the past few days craving them. Today I broke down and finally made them - and you can see that I did have to taste them!! :)

That's it!! Phew! :) Hope you enjoyed all of the pictures, and I hope that I explained all of them well enough so you know what's going on. :) Baseball tourney starts this week, so life remains hectic. School is creeping ever so closely - where is my summer??!!!?!?

It's DONE!!

...Well, for the most part. Andy and I still have to paint the ceiling and trim, but IT'S DONE!!!!

**Disclaimer to "someone" - the shots of Alex are at the end - so you can just scroll down to the end now. :)

My Mom and Dad came up Sunday night (with Ruby the dog) and left this morning. They completed so many projects, and it was nice to have them here again. I never get tired of having family around - I just wish that everyone weren't so far away.

Here are some pictures of the finished work in the bathroom. We applied two coats of paint, hung the towel ring, toilet paper holder, robe hook, scrubbed the grout and tried to get all of the "extra" stuff off, finished the quarter-round in the kitchen, and Dad even had time to drill a hole in the downstairs shower (Long story - basically, the guy who owned this place before us took the floor drain and closed it off to make a shower. A few months ago when we had the water softener problems and the basement flooded - that may have been prevented if the drain had been able to do it's job.) Dad drilled a hole into the shower - and we have a plug that goes into the hole when someone wants to shower, and then is pulled out when the shower is not in use. Anyway, here are the shots:

Here are a couple of shots of Alex napping yesterday - we all had time to take a nap! (Except Daddy, he had to work...) That's my arm on him - I didn't want him falling off of the couch.

Alex also has a fascination with the box that holds our garbage bags. He has placed them in the dryer before, lugged them all over the house, and this morning he was using them as his own car. He had the sound effects and all! Silly boy!

We're on our own for a couple more days, anyway. Kyle and Amy Royuk, and their 4-month old Micah will be visiting us this weekend. We have a company picnic for Andy's work we have to go to Friday night, and then we will have our guests. Then next week is tournament - - where has my summer gone?!!??!?! Hopefully after tournament we will have a little vacation....we'll see. :)

Hop on Pop

I know it's a Dr. Seuss title, and many thanks to him for having the appropriate words for Alex and Daddy's new game.....

I guess I do get a kick out of their game - although it may be dangerous. Alex hasn't tried jumping off without Andy underneath him - although I guess this boy needs to realize his own mortality at some point. :)

On an un-related note - my parents are up here helping us finish some projects. The kitchen is now DONE - the doors are working properly (some had to be shaved off of the bottom because this floor is up higher than the carpeting) and all of the quarter round is installed. It's absolutely beautiful!! The bathroom is being sponged right now, so hopefully paint will be able to go up soon. Mom and I spent the better part of today sanding, filling, resanding, and looking at all of the dust we kicked up. So, with any free time I have the next couple of days, I will be dusting and cleaning. :) The joys of home improvement.....but I LOVE the results we are getting!! :)

New Game?

Tonight, as we were getting ready to leave for the baseball game, Alex found the Swiffer and was running around pretending to clean the floors. (I need to remember to put a clean rag on it - he may be able to help me with the cleaning!!) :)

Andy thought of a new game with Alex - and he seemed to really enjoy it. I don't think that the people at Swiffer would approve of their product being used this way, nor do I really approve of this game (note the disclaimer in the middle of the video), but the two boys seemed to be having fun.

Enjoy! :)

And here's a shot that I found of the ornery boy on our way to Lincoln the other day.....

Happy 4th!

Hello all! :)

Sorry we didn't post on the actual 4th - we were out of town. Our friends from Alaska (Jason, Anne, and their three kids) were having a big BBQ at Anne's parents on Friday. It was mostly a family thing, but there were some of their other friends there, so we didn't feel out of place. Anne has five sisters, most of whom have at least one child, so it was crazy! Alex took his bathing suit along, and they had a bunch of water toys to play with. Luckily, Andy and I managed to stay dry - although there were quite a few adults that weren't so fortunate! We had supper there, and then left to stay in downtown Lincoln.

There was a fireworks display over Oak Lake in Lincoln, so when we called to make our reservation, we specifically asked for a room on one of the upper levels facing where the fireworks would go off. The show didn't start until 10, and Alex was bathed and ready for bed when we sat down to watch the show. He stayed awake for the first 15 minutes or so, then was out. The noise wasn't too bad, thankfully, and we still had all of the beauty of the lights.

This morning we woke up to rain! After eating breakfast at the hotel, we decided to drop in on Great-Grandma and Grandpa Frank, to take them out to lunch. We spent a few hours with them and then went out to Olive Garden to eat. (I have been craving the soup and salad - and breadsticks - for a while. It was VERY yummy!) Grandma and Grandpa ended up treating us - this was after much debate - and then we headed for home.

We weren't 2 miles away from the restaurant and Alex was OUT! He slept almost the full hour and a half until Grand Island. We stopped for a quick snack, and then the final hour home. We are going to watch a ball game tonight (all three of us - WATCH! Andy won't be coaching!) :) One of Andy's ball players who is filling in for some games invited us to come and watch his team play here in Ord tonight. So, that's in about an hour - and the weather isn't looking too promising...there's some dark clouds coming!

Tomorrow is a relax-day. My parents are coming back up to help us finish up some of the little things that need done in the bathroom and kitchen. They're bringing Ruby (my sister Sarah's lab puppy), so we will see how long it takes Alex to warm up to her. We know we're going to have to lock Squiggles in the bedroom - she doesn't handle change well! We are looking forward to seeing them again!

That's all for now - sorry there are no pictures - I have a few on our camera phones, I just have to find the right cords to transfer them to the computer! Getting things re-organized is one of my goals for this week!! Hope you all had a wonderful and safe 4th!! :)

So Much To Say!

Well, I guess it should be "so much to write" - but you get the idea. :)

I have been putting off this post for a while, because there is just so much to write about!

Let's see - I left off on Friday night, when we had just finished laying the final boards for the kitchen floor. Saturday was a blur, because it was the final day that Dad and Grandpa were going to be here, and there were a bunch of things that needed to get done. We started off in the bathroom, because the tile on the walls needed to be "grouted," and that was going to take a while. After some frustration, we finally finished the project, and my arms and shoulders were so sore from all of the scrubbing! We also worked on installing the toilet (YAY!), the vanity, the mirror, the vanity lighting, priming the walls in the bathroom, moving all of the appliances back into the laundry room and kitchen, and installing the quarter round in the kitchen. We worked so hard that we skipped lunch (except for Alex - he was getting really cranky, so he was fed.) :) Andy and I, as a BIG thank-you to Dad and Grandpa, took them out for a nice steak dinner at the Country Neighbor that night. It was nice to just sit for a while! When we got back, we began right away trying to finish the quarter round. At about 12:30 AM, we just decided that we needed to go to bed - Dad needed to drive back to Missouri in the morning, and Andy had two baseball games on Sunday. We were beginning to make some silly mistakes, so we left it half-finished and are going to get back together in a couple of weeks to finish up. It's functional now - and that's the important thing. We just have quarter round to finish under the "bar" area, around the stove, and to the doorway downstairs. But, it all looks so amazing!! We also need to have a couple of doors shaved off of the bottom, because this floor is higher now than the carpet was. The basement door won't close at all, and the back door needs to be lifted as you open and close it. The bathroom walls need to be sanded and filled, and then painted. We need to do some touch-up grout work on the shower walls, fix the windowsill in the bathroom, prime and install the baseboard in the bathroom, install the shower rod, and I am sure that I am missing about 30 other things, but I just can't think of them now. I have a list - - it's two pages long now. :) BUT, it's all "cosmetic" things, and my folks are going to come back up in a couple of weeks and help us finish it all up.

So, you are wondering - - here are the pictures!! :)

The kitchen floor looking out from the hallway..

In front of the stove..

From the "dining room" into the rest of the kitchen and laundry room..

The laundry room..

The shower

The vanity, mirror, and lighting..

Sunday morning all five of us left and headed to Grand Island. There was room in Dad's pickup for some of the extra supplies we needed to return. We followed them to Grand Island and stopped at the Home Depot. Dad and Grandpa left from there. It was so hard saying goodbye to them - they did so much for us - that's the bad thing about having family living so far away. Andy and I picked up a few more of the things that we needed, and then headed to Loup City for his two ball games. After the games, we still needed to grab a few things, so we headed to Kearney from there. After supper, we headed to WalMart and got the rest of our stuff. All that, and we were home by 8! :)

Monday I spent scrambling cleaning, shopping, and getting things ready for our company Monday night. Our friends, Jason and Anne and their three kids came over for supper. They are visiting their families in Nebraska for a few weeks (they live in Alaska), and took time out of their busy schedules to have supper with us. It was so nice to see them, but the time flew by way too quickly.

This morning Alex was up about 3 hours before I was ready. I think that the past three weeks are really catching up to me, and my body isn't happy with all of it. So, Alex and I went shopping today - to return a few more things and to pick up a couple of other things. One of the things that we needed was some new shoes for Alex - he was quickly growing out of his sandals, and his feet were STINKY when he took them off! :) So, we got some new shoes!

Once we got home, Alex HAD to put them on! Now he loves running through the house, hearing his little feet slap against the new floor. But now that we have new shoes.....this all has changed!! :)

He did stop running just long enough for me to snap a shot of the new shoes (I especially love the "deer in the headlights" look that he's giving me) - he had about 5 pictures taken before this one, so he knew I was taking them - SILLY BOY!!! :)

Well, that's all I am going to write for tonight.......my fingers are tired. :) Enjoy the pictures, and if you want to see it in person, just give us a call to arrange a "viewing" - meaning that you come and visit. :) (Sorry, Andy's brother is a funeral home director, I had to use the "viewing" pun) :)