Ultimate train track!

I was just sitting at the computer catching up on some blogging while Nicc and Davin were building some trains! I turned around to find a pretty ornate train track! When they ran out of pieces I heard Nicc say, "Just a minute let me think...OK, I have an idea." Then Davin follows, "Yeah, I have an idea! Let's use blocks!" It keeps getting bigger as I blog! This is what I hear:
D-"Here dad, we can use this!"
N- "Good thinking Davin! I think it will be great!"
D- "We are almost done with these blocks! We can put the train right here!"
N- "OK, what we need to do for real is find a way for this to stay together here son."
D- "Mom, look at this cool train track! It is a big, big, big one! We need a bouncy ball, I forgot!"
N- "We sure do need a bouncy ball. Without that none of this would work! I think it will make it now Dav! Check it out, we're in business!"
D- "Cool dad! This is cool!"
These guys are pretty funny! Nicc gets into building this as much as Davin does and they both are so particular it is always a working, no-nonsense track!

Fun day!

We had such a fun Saturday! Not much super exciting, but still fun! Nicc put the last little bit of trim up around my new door and hammered down flashing around the chimney and then we PLAYED! It wasn't a real warm day but Davin insisted on jumping on the trampoline with the sprinkler on it! He could do this for hours and not get bored!

Then we decided to take a picnic up the canyon for dinner on the 4-wheeler! One of our very favorite things to do! We stopped at the dam and let Davin throw rocks in for a long time then we hoped to hit enough pot-holes the rest of the way up to start some sort of contractions--no luck! It was a beautiful ride none-the-less! The trees are already starting to change colors and the sun was shining in all of the perfect spots! I can't say enough how I think we live in the most beautiful place on earth!

Davin's drawing!

I went into Davin's room the other day to find him drawing on his chalkboard. This is what I found!

"Mom, it is spider man sticking his tongue out!"

Summer transformation!

OK, here it is! The labors of our summer. We literally spent ALL summer working on our house! We started Memorial Day weekend replacing the septic line and finished Labor Day with the last little bit of siding! I am SO grateful for a husband that knows how to and is willing to do all of this for us! I am also especially grateful for a mom that was willing to take Davin for a couple of weeks on end so we could work all day without worrying about him, for Nicc's Dad and Clint and Amy who were willing to give up their time and vacation to work on our house, and last but not least for friends who would just show up at the perfect moment and take Davin for a couple of hours so we could work! Yeah for all we accomplished and all of the many things I have learned about building and tools that I never in a million years thought I would learn! There is a lot to this post--be prepared!

Septic line work

replacing the back door

Davin helping in every way we can!

Sturdying up the mud room

YUCK! Taking off the old, wasp infested cedar siding!

The garage (if that is what you call it). It is a pretty handy set up but wasn't so pretty. And this was even after Nicc put a wall around the shop area (to the right).

This is what our house looked like under the cedar and green!

Doing anything to cut energy costs! One funny incident--Nicc was spraying foam around the windows just to insulate them for certain. We woke up the next morning with foam coming into Davin's room. Our house was just one mess after another! All of them fixed though now!

Davin had to leave his mark on the house before we sided it!

Here is the finished project:

New front door

New screen door (with a screen--yeah!)

View from the front yard! Ignore the green rail! It will be replaced next summer!

Back side of the house.

View from the street! The chimney looks even better in person. I thought it was crazy to side over the chimney but it looks great! Also, might I point out for Nicc's benefit that he took away a gas line that ran to the black box in the bottom of the picture! That is his favorite part of the house!

New porch out the back door! This has been perfect. Before we just had 3 steps coming straight out so you had to back down the stairs to open the door. We also like to sit here and eat popsicles or watch Davin play out back!

This is my favorite part. I wish I had taken a picture of it before. This is a mud room that was obviously added on to the back of the house at some point. That was the problem with it--it always looked like an afterthought. As handy as it was it was UGLY! Now it looks like it belongs!

Mud room--this was the only window in the house that wasn't replaced when all of the others were--just another one of those things that makes us scratch our head about our house. Sure looks nice and maybe more like it belongs too with a white vinyl one to match the others!

Back of the house. Still sporting the ladder Clint made to save us $60! To give Nicc credit I was so frustrated that this part took so long but he had to work around all of the boxes to the right there!

Garage! I might also add that there is a garage door opener--that Davin loves to push! This will get soffit and fascia next summer!

Side of the garage--the old window from the mud room was re-used here to replace one that didn't open! We were also able to re-use the metal roof we took off of the house last summer on the roof of the garage!

New mud room door and trim! This is the door that leads from the Mud room into the house! It is so nice to have some light in what used to be a dark little corner!

New yard! This is only about 1/3 of our yard but we had to replace all of it after we dug out our septic tank in May. Kind of tricky to keep the deer off and birds from eating the seeds but all in all it has come in pretty good!

I am so excited for all that we got done! I was telling a friend this morning that I just enjoy coming to my home more now! It is funny how something like this can make a house more homey but it really did! Thank you, thank you, thank you to all that helped!!!

Scissors!

Davin has just become interested in scissors. I was quite hesitant at first but I thought if he is going to know what they are he might as well know how to use them correctly. So, after about a 20 minute lecture on how to hold scissors, never to walk with them, only using them when mommy is around, only to use with paper, and how to hold them, Davin went to town on a piece of paper! Now, just about every day he asks to cut paper. 20 minutes and a floor full of scraps later he has had a great time!

Davin the Builder!

Can he build it? YES he can!!
Davin has been into building so many different things. His favorite is houses. This was a house he built while we put the finishing touches on our house last weekend! Pretty creative!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Yesterday we had a ton of fun celebrating Nicc's birthday yesterday! We made two round cakes yesterday morning and let them cool while we were playing outside. I was picking weeds and Davin and his friend came in to play. A little while later I hear, "We need a drink!" so I came in to get the kids a drink. When I looked over to the stove the cakes were sitting there with chunks out of the tops of both of them! Somebody got hungry! After a brief time-out both felt really bad! I was able to patch the one cake with pieces from the other to make one decent cake which worked out fine! Davin helped me decorate it later that afternoon. He LOVES to decorate cakes. He was quite disappointed when I wrote "Happy Birthday Dad" because he thought it should say "Nicc" so all of the red writing says "Nicc." Of course no cake is complete in a 2-year olds eyes without a big pile of sprinkles!

We had a pretty low-key but fun celebration! Nicc's favorite dinner--steak with fried potatoes and then we had cake and ice cream.

Of course no party is complete without presents. Davin liked to "help" Nicc open all of the cards. He is no dummy though--he knew that there was money in the cards and was convinced that the money in the card from Granny and Papa was for his birthday!
We had a lot of fun celebrating Nicc's birthday with him! The big 2-8!!! He didn't get a baby boy for his birthday like he was hoping for but still lots of fun. Happy birthday Daddy!!! We love you!