A serious conversation...

Conversation on the car on way to new house...

Me: "I don't plan to move out of this home. I plan to live there forever."

Caleb: "Until you are dead at least."

Me: " Or you put me in a home cause I've gone crazy."

Brooke; "A care home like Grammy is in?"

Me: "yes"

Caleb: "I don't think you'll ever go crazy."

Me: "Well, if I do put me in a home don't try to take care of me."

Caleb: "No, we will take care of you. You are our mommy and we won't put you in a home."

Brooke: "Oh, I'll put you in a home" (said emphatically and with attitude.)


After this, I think I should really be nicer to Brooke or try bribery. She will, after all, be the one to take care of me when I am old. As we stand now, I think she may ship me off soon!
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What we have been up to...

We have been incredibly busy...

Trip to Founder's Plaza at DFW airport

We met Dee, Vaughn and Camden at Founder's Plaza last week to play, visit and watch the plans.  Vaughn and Caleb started an impromptu game of baseball in the field.  The rules were slightly modified and ever changing depending on who was batting or pitching.  I was a terrible mommy and allowed Clare to get her first sunburn.

Books, books, and more books...

My parents saved pretty much every book my sister and I ever possessed in childhood.  Ever since Brooke was born, we have been in possession of the library and added to it.  Lily, however, has become a huge fan of reading and it was time to share.  Brooke and Caleb went through the vast assortment of books and made a rather large stack for her.  We were unable to part with any Berenstain Bear books just yet, but I am sure we will soon.  Lily came over and saw her stacks of books and was in heaven!  She just kept picking them up and going through them.  Brooke and Caleb also entertained her by running circles around her.  I adore her smile and look of pure joy as they trot around her.  I was so glad to hear tonight that she loves Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb!

Clare learned to officially crawl and tackle her brother...

I think the pictures explain it all...

 Road Trip to Midland...

We traveled to Midland Memorial Day weekend.  It was a quick trip, but we were so glad to see everyone.  Leah, Aaron, Don and Phyllis were down from Washington.  We spent most of our day Saturday at Granny and Granpa's visiting.  Clare was the hit of the party and was in such an outstanding mood.  This is particularly amazing due to the lack of sleep she got over the weekend.  (This morning she slept until 9:30.  The girl was tired.)  I am missing a lot of the pictures from the weekend as we took them on Granny's phone.  We do have some of Clare with Granny and Clare, Will, Guy, and Granny together that are just amazing.  I'll post when I get them.  Caleb and Brooke had a lovely time, too.  They got to play with their cousin Draven.  Brooke got to sit in Leah's lap and visit with her.  Brooke was so sad to let Leah go and head home.  Hopefully, we can work it out to see her again when we visit Oregon this summer.  When I asked Brooke what her favorite part of the weekend was she said, "Eating cake and seeing Leah." 

Marlene cooked us a glorious lunch on Sunday.  These were the ribeye's that Will grilled for the meal.  I didn't get any pictures of our time with Marlene other than this one.  It is a terrible injustice!!  We had such a lovely time with Nanny.  Great breakfasts including homemade oatmeal (the only thing other than avocado that Clare has willingly let me feed her from a spoon.)  There was puzzle time, great conversation.  When I asked Caleb what his favorite part of our trip was tonight he said "Seeing Nanny and playing with Draven."  

 Checked on the house again today...

 They have installed our real door.  It still needs to be stained.

 We have countertops throughout.  This is the kitchen color.

We have light fixtures.

 

 The master bathroom countertops are in and the shower is tiled.

The tile throughout the house has been put in.

Back home...

Swim lessons and some Sock's kitty

That's a lot for the last week.  I'm tired....

 

House update

Well, I put together a beautiful post on my Mac using Pages. After all this work, I am unable to post this great work.  Come to find out, my new Mac comes preloaded with iPhoto, iVideo, and Garage band (all part of the iLife set), but does not come with iWeb.  Without iWeb, it seems I cannot use pages to update my blog:(.  I cannot get iWeb without buying the whole iLife set.  I don't need the whole iLife set because I already have most of it.  I will call Apple at some point to complain, but no time.

We have walls and cabinets!

 "Welcome to the Hall of Justice." Caleb said upon entering his closet.

 The wine bar.

 I cannot believe how much has been accomplished in the last week.  We have textured walls, shelving, door trims, closet bars, interior doors, the outside brick work is nearly complete, and as you can see below, we have cabinets.  Not just any cabinets, but gorgeous cabinets.  I’m not sure the pictures do them justice, but I am absolutely thrilled at how they turned out.  My kitchen is going to be beautiful!  The other wonderful, exciting, beautiful thing that is complete is the wine bar.  We almost decided agains the wine bar because of the cost.  I am so glad that we didn’t!  I would have been disappointed and it is stunning.  

Stuff my son says

Soo Will gets home and takes off his work clothes down to his boxers and undershirt. (Brooke is at a sleepover and Clare is asleep, so it's just me and the boys.)

Caleb starts giving Will a really hard time about being in his underwear. "Gosh dad" and such.

Me: "you are sitting here in only your underwear. Why can't daddy be in his underwear?"

Caleb: "because he's furry!"

I am still cracking up about this!!! It was/is hilarious!

New York

Our trip to New York -

                                           


Our first day was all about traveling, eating and a trip to see Newsies.  I don't really have any pictures from this day.  The show was amazing!  We stayed right no Time Square and could see the New Years Eve ball out our hotel window.  (Thanks to Will for all his traveling for this wonderful opportunity.  We couldn't have affording this expensive hotel without all his points.)  It was close to everything.  We were able to walk to Dave & Buster's, the show, the American Girl Store (a necessary stop for my Brooke), and just about anything else in the Time Square area.

Day 2 - Was our whirlwind tour of New York courtesy of Ben.  The pictures didn't turn out as good as I had hoped.  At one point the camera stopped auto focusing and I couldn't figure out how to fix it.  As a result a few are quite blurry.  I'll share a few that I like.

Central Park:

The French Consulate.  I took this for Will.  Not sure why.

 The MET!  Thanks to Ben, our gracious host, we did the MET in about 30 minutes.  It was outstanding! I snuck a few pictures.

 Grand Central Station.  We had the most amazing lunch at Grand Central.  Tri Tip Steak sandwiches.  We also began our sweets extravaganza with black and white cookies.  Amazing.

 St. Paul's Chapel by the World Trade Center site.

 World Trade Center mural.

Our one and only subway ride to Chelsea Market.  I am not a fan of the subway, though we did have some dancing entertainment for a portion of the ride.  The Taxi is well worth the cost.  I don't have any pictures of Chelsea Market, but we had some of the most amazing treats!

 The World Trade Center memorial.  Apart from the show this was our one 'have to see' for the trip.  It was breathtaking.  The pictures just don't do it justice.  Will's cousin, Will met us in New York too and spent the afternoon with us.

Random silliness:

 St. Patrick's Cathedral.  We lit a candle for Mom inside.  It was so dark inside though it was hard to get great pictures.  An added bonus was that this is where the camera started going crazy.  It was so beautiful though.

 And a times square trip wouldn't be complete without some silly pictures in front of the New Year's Eve ball.  I am rather embarrassed about how I look in these, but figured it wouldn't be honest to omit them.

 We had an amazing trip to New York.  A huge thanks to Ben for spending his whole day with us showing us around the town and to Will for taking the train down to see us.  I don't know about Stephanie, but I am already anxiously awaiting our next trip to the Big Apple!