Daddy's Helper

Well, we've reached the sanding part of our ceiling repair. This got Reece eager to help, so here he is! Daddy's Little Helper!!

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There's been a lot of Reece blogging lately.... I realize I do have another child!

So, what has Riley been up to?

Riley and I have been reading the Harry Potter series together. I've actually been reading it to him, but it is great Riley~Mommy time! I've resisted the HP craze until now.... I'm actually glad I did, because it has been so much fun reading this with my boy. The first book took us a LONG time to get through, I wasn't even sure I was going to enjoy it until close to the end.... Book 2 has been a lot easier to get into. We have 2 chapters left.... Harry is just now entering the "Chamber" all by himself! Sometimes I feel I am more into it than Riley.

Yay for bonding with Riley!

Secret Code

Once again..... Reece has made a funny! I hope when I retell it, it is just as funny!

This morning I asked Reece to open the garage so he and his friends could play with the outside toys.... "But I forgot the code!," he says. I whisper it to him, and he proceeds to go and open it. Moments later, he comes up to me, "Mom, I think we need to change the code again! Cy (Casey's 4 year old son) watched me open the garage!" My friends and I laughed, and I reassured Reece that Cy did not learn the code. Reece wasn't so sure about this, so I asked him, to ask Cy what the code was. Reece then belted out, "But I forgot what the code was!"

Moral of my story..... I don't believe our code has been compromised, and we will not be changing our code! Hahaha.....

Flip Flops

I asked Reece to find me some flip flops, so I could head out to the porch with him while it rained. He grabbed the first pair he saw.... then on the way to the door, he found a different pair that he liked better. So he had the urge to put the first pair down where the others were, and bring me the better pair. I'm so happy my little boy is looking after my appearance.... The funny never ends!!

"Impressed"

Reece has become quite the fish this summer.

A "dog paddling" fish, but a fish nonetheless!

He is my child who begs to go to the pool daily (he gets it from me.....or at least I was this way as a kid) This year, the heat has been way too intense to be in it everyday.... Riley and I prefer to hang out in the AC more often than being in the pool.

Jake was home on Monday, and as usual, Reece did his regular begging to go swimming. Riley wasn't in the mood, mommy wasn't in the mood, so Daddy and Reece went alone. Apparently, Dad is way more fun than Mom. Mom reads a book and sits in the shallow end to cool off when she takes the boys..... Daddy tends to all of Reece's needs! He follows him from the pool, to the lazy river, to the big slide. Reece was able to show his dad, for the first time, how well he does when he jumps into deep water. Dad told Reece how "impressed" he was with his swimming skills.

Guess what!?

Now Reece only wants to go to the pool with Dad, because "he is impressed with me!"

Good times.....This kid cracks me up!

Shopping

I took the boys to Walmart today, to allow them to spend their own money.

They have really never gone out to spend much money of their own.... most money they earn or receive goes right to the bank. Now that they are getting a little older, I've struck a deal with them. They are only allowed to spend half of the money they get, with the rest being saved.

It was fun for a bit allowing them to take in all of the toy aisles, and Reece quickly found a Lego set he wanted.... it went into the cart, and then he found something else down the aisle.... a Thor hammer like weapon, and a Captain America shield, which meant the Legos were back on the shelf. I thought it was interesting, but after asking many times if he was sure, I let him choose it.

Then there was Riley.... I calmly got a little impatient. He needed to go down all of the aisles, some of them two or three times. As I feel that a cautious shopper is a good quality, I just couldn't spend all day in Walmart's toy section. He finally chose a Lego robot, that actually lights up! I think it's cool, and the boys are pretty happy! Now they have some more work to do, before we are able to do it again!

Meeting Landon

Yesterday, I finally got to go meet my good friend, Becky's, son. He is now 7 weeks, and is just so adorable!! He is very long and skinny, and he looks JUST like his daddy! I held him for about 2 hours and he just curled up on my chest and slept! I loved it!!

Ceiling Repair: Part I

Consider this our first, REAL, heavy duty project in this old house.... most everything, up until now, has been cosmetic. I consider ourselves lucky..... this house really does have good bones! The boy's old room had the worst ceiling. It is plaster.... it was cracked, but not to the point of falling apart, so again, consider us lucky!!

One of Jake's specialist at work, helped us come up with a plan to fix it..... Originally we were going to put up drywall, right over the plaster. However, this ceiling is a bit higher than the other rooms, so it gave us some extra space, to put up more insulation. Win/Win, if you ask me, in this old house!!

When we moved in, this was the fabulous patch job, the previous owners did. The fan could never be on anything other than low!

Guess this picture was pointless.... it cracks just don't show up! All cracks let to the fan though....

We worked hard, and framed the room, by finding all of the studs above the plaster.

Proof that I helped.... or maybe just a photo op! Jake did most of this work.

Then we used foam board to add more insulation.

This was the disaster we went to bed with.... foam board is messy!!

Tomorrow it is drywall!!

Lamest Day

Just documenting Reece's lame day....

This boy was without his big brother for approximately 2 hours yesterday.

What was Reece's response?

"This is the lamest day EVER!"

It was quite a depressing show he put on for me! When Riley returned, the "lamest day" went out the window..... funny how big brother can make that happen!

A.I.D.A.N.

What's the best way to get Riley out of a "bored" funk?

Cousins, of course! We feel so blessed to be so close and such great friends with the cousins!!

On Monday, my sister was so kind to bring the boys out, and we had Aidan stay for a couple days.... it's been a while since I'd seen Riley so entertained!! Sadly, it was WAY too hot for them to get out and about, but they made their own inside fun! It amazes me how much fun they made just from board games!! They are getting to an age where the more "big kid" games are fun!

My other nephew, Owen, was only here for a few hours, but my camera is just drawn to him!! Probably the age..... and the fact that he is so cute and just cracks me up!!

The older boys are playing the Wii, so Owen found another game that looked like a remote so he could pretend to play too!

100* out and the boys are playing "Headbandz" on the porch..... later, after Aidan told me, "It cooled off." I got out and played some "Apples to Apples Jr." with them. Good times for all! Can't wait to have Aidan back!!

It's H.O.T. Hot!

Oh, these are the dog days of summer.... it's so incredibly hot and dry here, we feel trapped in our home!! We have had the longest stretch of 100's and no rain. It If I would have known this summer would have been so extremely miserable, I would have broken down and gotten us a pool pass.... I had chosen to pass on the pool pass, because it was SO much more expensive than the Gardner pool AND it had even gone up since last year.... I thought I'd be able to space it out, and save some money. However, it has been so hot, that not even the pool is fun on many days. Jake gets annoyed that I haven't forced the kids outside lately, but it's just so uncomfortable, that it zaps the fun out! McPherson needs more indoor options! The poor boys are starting to get on each other's nerves, just because they are bored inside this house.... and I don't blame them! I am too!!

I have been finding multiple projects to work on. Last week, I scrapbooked. This week, I'm trying to fix the bathroom walls.... Last year when we moved into this house I desperately needed my only bathroom in a functional state. This caused me to rush (big time) to get it there. Well, I peeled this special wallpaper off, and never realized that there was a residue that was left behind. I found the bumps on the wall after painting, of course. I just never had the time to fix it, and now I am. It requires sanding and more painting...... it has turned into the kind of project, that I wish I would have just left it. The bumps just added character (I say that in retrospect =).

The last 2 projects I wish to complete (this is where all of our money is going!!) is to fix the ceiling in the boys old room and repaint the stairway wall/upstairs hall. Funny story... my lovely designer sister came to my house on Monday. She glanced at the wall going up the stairs, almost immediately, and asked, "Is this the color we picked out?" Long story short.... Jake did a color match at Lowes, but only by name and it was way off..... the color always bugged me. I didn't think it really matched well and at certain times of the day, I saw PINK in it! Yuck!! But I just trusted Jody, not knowing it wasn't a good match. So as much as I don't want to paint, it will just bother me..... I may be turning into my sister, or she might be rubbing off on me!!

Here is the wall I was talking about (the tan wall)... the new color will be much more complimentary!!

Reece's Journal

I've had Reece journal almost everyday this summer.... and it's been a struggle getting him to write much, or put much thought into it. I've had to start his journal with an idea lately. I try to be creative, but even for me it's a struggle. Today's journal started out with...

... If I could build my very own tree house....

Since Reece's cousin has a very cool tree house, I thought I'd get specific details about a very COOL tree house! Nope! Instead I got....

...I would need wood. And a hammer. And a screwdriver.

The end. Thanks so much Reece! (enter sarcasm)

Here are some more cute spellings though!!

*skero Geriver = screw driver

*naem = name

*galixe = galaxy (we were writing about Super Mario)

*sparcolee = sparkly

*pante = paint

*coloset = closet

Riley & Daddy Time

We've noticed Riley becoming more quiet and withdrawn lately....Could be the boredom of summer setting in, or the stress of being an older brother. Who knows? So Jake and I felt like getting some one on one time with him would do him some good! First on Jake and Riley's list was "Transformers!" (In 3D)

Riley found that pretty, "Awesome!" He really enjoyed it!

Someone in this house did NOT enjoy it so much.... When Jake broke the new to Reece, oh did the tears come flowing! It took me several minutes to calm him down... And all of this was after Reece told me, "I don't want to be with you alone!" I tossed out the idea of going to see "Cars 2" and that sounded like fun to him, but then he decided going to the pool would be better. So off to the pool for 3.5 hours we went!! That wasn't so tough! Although, it's been so HOT this summer, that I'm really over it all! The pool included!! Bring on FALL, even if it means I'm back to work!!

Reece, Reece, and More Reece

Stuffing his mouth.... what Reece was best at!!

This next picture makes me think of the Weeble Wobble toys!!

My blue eyed boy!!

And, PROOF that White Teddy, was once white and super fluffy!!

This doesn't even look like my kid!! He was such a HAM!! And I loved every minute of it!!

He was also my pacifier kid!! So cute!

And this is one of the MANY times I had a pacifier on hand.... never an arms length away from me!! Angry boy!!

Riley the Toddler

Kitchen pots are fun!!!

Life is rough!

This Halloween, Riley was a bit grumpy! The remote was about the only thing that made him happy.... and this is about as happy as we got!

Coloring on the balcony.

This next picture is pathetic.... at about 23 months, Riley got Rota (sp?) Virus.... he was so sick, and in this picture all he wanted was milk from the fridge. He got so bad and lost so much weight, he became lethargic and we had to take him to the ER to get an IV put in him.... he bounced back so fast after that!

When Jake owned the Outback, John Madden's Outback bus went on a tour to many of the Outbacks.... It made a special stop at the Olathe Outback, and we got to hang out in it for a bit.

(Riley even got to take a Matchbox car from it.... how many 2 year olds can say he stole John Madden's grandkid's toy?!)

I'm a BIG kid, brushing with a BIG kid brush!!

Scrapbooking Blues

As you recall, a few weeks back, I pulled out my scrapbooks and photo albums for Riley's birthday.... they had been boxed up in our basement ever since we moved here a little over a year ago. It didn't take me long to get into a funk! Pulling out these scrapbooks did 2 things to me. One, it made me MISS scrapbooking!! I wasn't ever a crazy scrapbook fanatic, but I really had fun learning new ways to display pictures of my babies! And two, I was really depressed at how much scrapbooking I did for my first born, and not my second!! Oh what an awful feeling!! Now I'm so far behind, that I have a hard time thinking about where I'm going to begin.... So I asked my friend, Leesa, if she wanted to start scrapbooking together. She's a huge fan of scrapbooking, so of course she said yes! We set a date, she brought her girls to my house (the kids had a blast!), and we scrapbooked! I think the only problem was, that we hadn't talked in so long, we found ourselves talking way more than scrapbooking..... so a couple hours later, I only had one, very simple looking page done.

But it was of some of my favorite pictures of Reece!! Look at that happy kiddo!!

And to show how much I have of Riley, scrapbooked....

above is his first year, that took up all of one book,

and below are 20 more pages, that get us up to the age of 4.

(I haven't gotten an actual album yet to put them in... Oh the chaos!)

Then we have Reece's album.... 20 pages, age 18 months, and not even an entire album filled.

Yikes!! Poor second child!!

This has given me a goal.

It is to catch my scrapbook up to my blog.... once my blog begins, Reece will be able to look back and see how much I've blogged about him, because of his adorable age. Maybe this will kind of make things even..... or maybe not!

*sigh*

It's Been Awhile...

So, I've been on an unexpected hiatus.... just having a wonderful, relaxing summer! Looking back at my camera, this is the ONLY picture I've taken lately... And Reece didn't want me to take the picture, so my camera got put away right afterwards!

Not a lot is going on, but Jake was off all weekend, so we took the boys up to Salina's waterpark, Kenwood Cove. Our neighbors joined us! It was so much fun for the boys!! That is where this picture is from, so don't let Reece's face fool you.... he had a BLAST!

On our way home, the excitement was that I saw my very FIRST tornado! It was very south, from where we were, but it was very real!! No damage, no threat to us, so I was calm! It only took me 29 years of Kansas residency to see one! Here is the picture of it....(I stole it from the KSN.com.... it wasn't this clear to us!)

Lastly, McPherson has zero ban on fireworks, therefore, for the last 4 nights we have had front seats to some of the best firework shows around.... they know how to have fun here! But we had a fun, fabulous and SAFE Fourth of July.... and we got rain JUST in time, so I wasn't nervous about the insane fireworks that take place here!!

Time to continue this lovely summer!!