More baseball in the backyard

Jared is a great hitter!  He can track the ball and connect.  His bat speed is really good for a 9 year old!  Can't wait to see him hit in a real game!  He's also practicing as a pitcher, but can also catch in the outfield pretty well.  I think he is excited about playing this year.  Two years off from baseball might have been good for them.

Josh is really working on his pitching.  He is not as excited about batting, but I think he just needs to build his confidence and work at it!  He also has a pretty good glove and I think he'll do well in any position.  It sounds like the kids will rotate around quite a bit until they find a good fit for them.  Opening day is April 10 and then we will be busy, games on week nights and Saturdays.  Luckily, Josh and Jared are on the same team and Jaydon won't have as many games as the big boys.

Baseball in the Backyard

What a beautiful spring day!  We spent the afternoon in the backyard with the boys.  Corey helped them with pitching and hitting and Jaydon just enjoyed the sun...so did Bandit!  I even had to break out the sunscreen.

Science Fair

The boys presented their results at the science fair on Monday night and Tuesday morning.  It was fun to see the projects everyone selected and their results.  I think the boys got excited about this and plan on doing it again next year, just not with each other (which is fine by me)!!!

Science Fair Project

The boys did a science fair project together this year.  They tested the longevity of batteries (duracell, energizer, rayovac, kirkland, and a rechargeable energizer).  They used a Thomas train of Jaydon's and loaded the freight cars with 6 extra batteries for weight (to speed up the project).  The copper top did outlast all the others, but the rechargeable energizer was a close second, even beating the regular energizer.  I think this family will be investing in some rechargeable batteries in the near future. 

Mega Marble Mania

Corey and Jared worked together to build this marble maze.  It's pretty cool and the boys like watching the marble move through it.  In this photo they are  just starting, but you can see by the picture on the box that it get pretty big.

Abominable Snow Dog

Busy Week

Good thing we got a lot done on the remodel last weekend, cause this week has been crazy.  Corey's been in Houston and the boys started baseball this week.  Josh and Jared are doing an experiment with batteries for the science fair at school.  I'll include details and photos of their display board when they get it done this weekend.  They have to present their findings during school next week.  They also had 2 baseball practices and guitar lessons.  Jaydon even had teeball practice this week.  Needless to say, we've been busy.  Corey's home now and we are hoping to get a few things done this evening.  It's snowing pretty good now, so we won't mind staying inside to work.  Bandit and I have really enjoyed the nice weather this week.  We walked up to get Jaydon from school and managed to get a few extra miles.

Jaydon is still having a hard time adjusting to the time change.  It's 8:30 a.m. and he's still asleep.  I need to get him up and moving for school.  Nobody wants to go to bed at night, but I can't get them up in the morning either.  It may take another week to get back on track.   

Bathroom Remodel--Tile Floor, Vanity, and Shower Floor Tile

Corey and I worked for 2 straight days on the tile.  Kami came up Friday night and picked up the boys.  They stayed until Sunday morning, allowing us a lot of time to work on the project without interruption.  We laid 16 x 16 inch travertine tiles on the floor, set the vanity, and laid the 2 x 2 mosaic travertine tiles on the shower floor.  Seems like everything takes twice as long as you think it will.  We feel pretty good about everything we accomplished.  Corey goes to Houston this week, so I will only be able to work on little things, like grouting the floor and shower floor, and painting the bathroom.  But I guess it's a least something. 

Bandit thought we was helping us with the shower floor, but he kept wanting to step on the mortar!  That would have been fun to clean up.

Bathroom Remodel--Shower Pan and In-Floor heat

We poured the shower pan and built the front curb with mortar.  That took a little longer than we thought (2.5 hours).  The tub has been installed.  It has 10 jets and a heater to keep the water warm.  I'm so excited!!!

We decided to spoil ourselves a little and chose to install in-floor heat under the tile! 

We then poured a self-leveling floor over the heat coils and spread it across the floor.  It was much easier than we anticipated!  That stuff is pretty neat! 

Jared was my photographer.  He loves taking pictures with my digital Rebel! 

Tent architects

While Corey and I are rebuilding a bathroom, Jared and Jaydon are building a huge tent in my living room.  You can see Jared's face in the middle of the picture.  They had so much fun together, building and creating.  I love it when my boys play so well together.  It may be a mess to clean up, but it was hours of entertainment for them, which is so worth it! 

New Guitar

The boys love the new guitar.  It sounds so much better than that little blue one.  Their guitar teacher told them they should keep that little blue one so when they become mega rock stars they can open their first concert playing that guitar and then smash it on stage and save the pieces!  They thought that was and awesome idea!

Bathroom Remodel--Deconstruction

I do enjoy the deconstruction phase, taking out the old and making way for the new.  Fitting, since it is Lent, and that's what we are trying to do for ourselves!! 

So far so good!

Uh Oh!  The first signs of mold.  I guess we knew this might happen.  At least we can get rid of it now!

This is the backer board that was behind the tile in the shower.  It was pretty moldy and water saturated!  So glad we are taking care of this problem

Master Bathroom Remodel--Before Pictures

This blog is about to be overwhelmed with pictures of my bathroom remodel.  You've been warned!!!  It's only fitting to begin with the before pictures, for those of you who have never seen this room.  And Yes, that's a pink vanity top!

The door next to the vanity lead to our walk-in closet.  We are not changing anything in the closet.

Corey removed the first tile from around the tub 4 weeks ago.  Now considering he works a full-time job, with some traveling for days at a time, and we've have company one weekend, I'd say we are getting quite a bit done.  We will be tiling tomorrow, but until then, I will continue to post pictures of the last few weeks.

Guitar Lessons

Josh and Jared started guitar lessons in February.  I've been hoping they would want to learn a musical instrument.  It would have been easier and cheaper if that would have been the piano, I could have given them the lessons.  Instead, they chose the guitar.  We found a really good instructor.  He's a young guy who can play a lot of the boy's favorite popular songs.  This really keeps them excited and motivated!!!  They started on this little blue guitar (First Act from Target) but we quickly realized it just wasn't going to work well.  It wouldn't stay in tune from the beginning of a song to the end.  So after shopping and searching Craig's list, I found them a used, full-sized guitar and it's working great.  I'm going to look for another one.  They take their lesson at the same time and it's nice when they can play together. 

TV Stand and Basketball

It may only be a few inches, but this set-up is much better than the old one.  This smaller room does feel quite a bit bigger now.  We ordered the stand over the internet and had to reorder the top 3 times before we finally received one that was not damaged.  We are so happy with the way it turned out and with the HDTV.  What a difference in the picture!  Can't believe we didn't do it sooner.

The boys enjoyed the back patio and the nice weather on a winter day.  Jaydon and daddy were on the same team.

Jaydon couldn't stop giggling...or traveling!

Good Vibrations

When Roger and Renee were hear, we decided to take the washer and dryer off the pedestals to reduce the amount of vibrating when the washer is in spin mode.  With the laundry on the second floor, the vibrations would rattle the entire house and most of the things hanging on the walls.  It would get very annoying.  We had to pull the washer out a little to reach the plug for the dryer, which was quite a reach.  So Corey had to lower Rog behind the washer to unplug the dryer.  You can see by Corey's face that this was a comical moment. 

Kindergarten Registration

I just can't believe I'm signing Jaydon up for KG.  He's 5...5 years old...where did my happy, smiley baby go?  He's ready for big boy school.  This is his second year of preschool and he's the "big kid" at school, because of both maturity and size!  He's excited about going to school all day, eating lunch at school, and seeing his friends all day!  What will this lonely mother do with all of her time?  I have lots of ideas, and I'll have to keep you posted.

Harlem Globetrotters

We met up with Kam and her kids to go to the Globetrotters.  The kids had a ball and were quite entertained!

 

It's not always easy to remember to smile when your holding the camera for a self-portrait.  

Miss Cassie after eating cotton candy.  At least it matched the blue in her shirt!

Steve, Jera, Kenli, and Trinity Boeselager came to visit us this weekend.  Jera and I decided to take all the kids to the Butterfly Pavilion.  There are a lot of pictures coming up.  With so many things to look at and do here, I just couldn't resist. 

Josh and Jared both held "Rosie", the tarantula.  The younger kids were all a little scared of her, accept Trinity.  She really wanted to touch Rosie, but I guess you have to be 3.

Trinity was looking at the Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches.  There are all kinds of bugs and spiders in the bug room.

Kenli is looking at the Dori and Nemo fish in the sea life display.  They also have starfish and horseshoe crabs you can touch.  The kids really like the hands on displays!!!

The tropical experience maze was very excited.  There was a zip line set up for the kids to ride.  Jaydon did this more than once.  You would never have known that we have a zip line in our backyard!

 

Kenli and Trinity posted for their picture as butterflies!!!

This is soe of the many butterflies we saw in the butterfly room.  The kids also saw turtles and Koi fish in the pond.  The butterflies float and dance through the air, and make you dream about a summer afternoon, laying in the grass, just relaxing.  It's so peaceful.