Chinese Food

  The other day Avery noticed the Chinese Food restaurant by our house.  She read out Chinese food, and said I want to eat there.  This was surprising since Avery is in that wonderful stage where trying new foods is not her thing.  Since she was so excited I told her I would make sure that we would eat there.  Tonight I took her and Harper there for dinner.  I read off the menu items to Avery and she was insistent that she have stir fried lamb.  Harper was also insistent that she have soup of which she only took one sip of course.  They had a great time.

Harper wanted to pretend to be eating soup in her picture.

I love that Harper wanted to make this face for the picture.

Avery using the chopsticks.  

They wanted to do a silly picture.

House Update #3

  The house is coming along.  We were really excited to see that the exterior painting was mostly finished.  Gone is the drab exterior that looked like every other stucco house in the neighborhood.  The interior painting is done in the basement, and is almost done in the upstairs bedrooms.  It's a nice blue-grey color.  Avery and Harper's bathroom's tile work is all done, and our master bathroom has all the drywall up.  We will be moving in eight days, so the basement and the upstairs will be ready for us.  

The new exterior paint color.

The triangle is almost gone from the dining room.

Here's what the kitchen looks like currently.

The family room is awaiting it's new fireplace.

The laundry room floor has been tiled, and we get our new machines on Monday.  I am really excited about my new washer and dryer actually.

Daryl's server room just needs a door and its fan.

Here is the basement wet bar sans mirror.

This is where our tub is going to be in the master bathroom.

Another view of the master bathroom.

Avery and Harper's bathroom.

Our pocket door for the upstairs bathroom is getting put in.  Before the door swung in just nearly missing the toilet and was just cramped.  That's the only we are doing to this bathroom.

Sisko and Dax

  The other week we expanded our family with two new furry additions.  We got two British Shorthair kittens:  Sisko and Dax.  Sisko is a grey boy, and Dax is a white girl with silver tips.  They spent the first week at our home mostly huddled under our bed, only coming out at night when it was just Daryl and me.  The trip the kids and I took were probably good for the kittens to adjust to our house with only Daryl there.  They now spend the majority of their time out from under the bed.  Sisko has learned to love his source of food, and lets us love on him.  Dax is still cautious though and is reserving judgement.  Their names are from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine in case you were burning with curiosity.  

Avery and Harper actually do a pretty good job of playing with the kitties.

Dax hanging out in Avery and Harper's room.

Sisko caught the feathers!

Sisko checking out the toys in Avery and Harper's room.

Dax loves to sleep on my night stand.

Reagan's Birthday

  Last week we spent a few days with my sister Nellie.  Daryl couldn't come because he had class, so I drove down with the kids and Ashlyn.  My parents also drove down with us in their car.  It was nice to help celebrate Reagan's third birthday.  My sister Alex and her husband Chris were also there for the birthday with their kids Mackenzie, Sam, Addison, and baby Hudson.  It was great to see them all.  Avery and Harper were very excited to see all their cousins.  We tend to think of Reagan as our missing link because she's right between Harper and Emery.  When Reagan is there to play with Emery gets to play more.  The rest of our time there we made the best of the very warm weather and went swimming every day.  My cousin Jennifer came over too.  It was so nice to see all this family we haven't seen in a while.

Emery, Avery, Harper, Ashlyn with Luke, and Mom getting ice cream in Rice Hill, Oregon.

How many kids can we fit in Reagan's toddler bed.

Emery making herself at home.

I made it into a picture with Luke.  He wasn't quite sure how he felt about the water.  He started to splash around, but then he splashed himself in the face and he was done.

Avery wandered into the picture.

Everyone hanging out in the pool.

Ashlyn and Luke.

Avery playing with Sam and Addison.

The quintessential Harper.

Baby Hudson is a year old, and I think he weighs the same as baby Logan.

Reagan after eating birthday cake.

Emery enjoying birthday cake.

Harper, Addison, Mackenzie, Anna(Reagan's cousin on her dad's side), Sam, Reagan, and Avery.

Reagan is a big Minnie Mouse fan.

Emery loved the water.  She had little fear,  With the help of her little floaty she was swimming all over the place.  It was quite the job shadowing her.

Addison and Avery

Avery got roped into towing Harper and Reagan around on the floaty.

Emery and Reagan in the pool.

My cousin Jennifer and Luke.

All the cousins: Sam, Reagan, Avery, Addison, Harper, Mackenzie, Hudson, Emery, and Luke.

House Update #2

  Our greatest fear has been realized.  Our cabinet order is going to take longer than previously thought, so we will be going at least a month without a fully functioning kitchen once we move in.  I must admit that I feel like I went through the stages of mourning when I heard the news, but we are at the acceptance step.  We will be setting up a small kitchenette in our basement by the wet bar.  Despite having no kitchen when we move in on the 31st of this month, we are actually really excited to move.  It's really tiring having the kids bedrooms right across from our bedroom, and on the main floor.  We are making good progress at the house though.  All the new windows are in, and the new siding is up too.  Avery and Harper's bathroom was demoed and is awaiting new tile.  The server closet in the basement is awaiting its inspection.  Once that is done the basement is pretty much done excepting for painting.

We replaced the french doors in the dining room.  You can see the plumbing bits for our master bathroom.

Our new siding.

The pillars are gone from our dining room, and the triangle is being filled in.

We also filled in this weird giant art niche.

The new window in our master bedroom that doesn't give us a great view of our neighbor's driveway.

Now we get to see the mountains.

This is our master bathroom.

Avery and Harper's bathroom.

The other side of the giant art niche.  This is Emery's extra big closet now.

We had the mirror in the basement wet bar taken down.