Welcome Ava Bromann

My "brother from another mother", Brian, and his wife Stacy, just had their little girl yesterday at 12:10pm. She was 7 pounds, 4 oz, 22 inches long. Her name is Ava MaryAnn Bromann and she looks just like a Bromann! First grandkid for Pam and Gary (Brian's parents). Brian and I grew up together, next door neighbors and we've hung out with each other since we were 2 years old. I'm so excited for them! Congrats Brian and Stacy!

tires, airplanes, and rooms

I was driving home from work the other day and I've seen this a couple of times, but this time, I got my camera out to take a picture of it. This is a massive tire being trucked. From the picture, you are like - oh that is a big tire. But really, look at how big it is compared to the tires on the truck! What exactly does this tire go to? Fogg tells me it's for trucks and equipment at places like mines but really, I can't imagine how it really could fit on to anything at all!


Ok, enough of that. Here are some snapshots of playing on the floor with Reed the other night.

Airplane!

Reed love his Dad!

So, as promised, here are some pictures of the last room in the basement with some furniture in it.

And we got ourselves a new king bed! We got a deal on it, so here's what it looks like. We got the mattress, box spring, and the whole frame/headboard, with 2 king pillows and 6 throw pillows for $450. I also got new drapes for the windows. For our old bed, I got this great bed set that had matching window treatments. Well, since we went from a queen to a king, I had to get new bedding, therefore a new window treatment. I got these at TJ Maxx and I simply love them. They are great for blocking out light in the morning too.

That's all for now! Cheers~

Home

I never would have described myself as a "home-body" before. I loved to get out and do stuff. I never minded spending the night in a hotel, or a tent, or someone else's house. I liked to go out to eat, or plan things for every night of the week, or run errands after work. A day in the house was almost prison to me, I'd get bored so easy, itching to get out and do something, anything. But now, well now, I love home. I love to sit at my kitchen table and surf the internet. I like to watch TV and clean up my kitchen, and catch up on laundry and organize the pantry. I like to make each room look nice so when I walk by rooms that I never use, they look like a nice bed and breakfast, waiting for a guest (maybe you?). I like to be in a safe spot for my little boy to crawl around with little danger and lots of toys. I like that I can put him down on the floor (cause that's getting increasingly more difficult when he wants to crawl around the grocery store floor...). I like that he can take a nap in his crib and eat in his high chair and I don't have to plan ahead for either. I enjoy my safe and comfy home and I like to be in it. When I get home at the end of the day, I'm so glad when I don't have to go anywhere and pack snacks and diapers and not get home till it's dark and there is a million things to do. I like making my house comfortable and I'm so glad that I like to be in it. So if you need me, I'll be at home.

My Drive

If you didn't know, I drive about 45 minutes to and from work. So that's about an hour and a half a day that I spend by myself driving. This drive has become not very good for me as my brain doesn't stop working and I arrive at my destination all kinds of wound up. I think about everything from how I want to write a book and I need to decide what it will be about, to errands I have to run. I must have a pen and paper with me, cause I start to get going and can't stop myself. I think about what I'm going to blog about next, my little boy, what I'm eating, rearranging my house, things I need to do, my schedule, my hubby, Michael Buble concert coming up, conversations that I will probably never have with people, friends that I haven't seen for a while, what the plans are for the weekend, gifts I should buy, things I should do to show my appreciation for people that do great things for us, vacations that I want to go on and places I want to go, what I want the next year to look like, jobs, cars, skiing, dirtbiking, and a billion other things. I'm pretty sure that this drive is bad for my health.

9 months old

Reed is 9 months old already. Completely freaks me out, cause it's been so fast. Everyone tells you that and it's true. Here are some things that Reed has accomplished so far in his short life:

• He shakes his head "no" at the most appropriate times to crack us up, though I'm pretty sure he doesn't know what it really means.
• Crawls everywhere now, two speeds - slow and turbo fast.
• Pulls up to standing on anything he can possibly try, legs, drawers, chairs, and refrigerator doors:
  
• Saying a variety of things such as "mamamama" and "dadada" though, not sure he is saying anything in particular just playing.
• Eats everything in site. Not so psyched about mashed up veggies, but loving the fruit, puffs, yogurt melts and pretty much anything an adult has on their plate, especially sweet potatoes, carbanara, mashed potatoes and pot roast, and brownie and ice cream. He can pick up food and put it in his mouth, but that tends to get messy fast, as demonstrated by the food on his head in below picture.
  

• Smiling and laughing all the time - especially to women strangers, I believe that he is a flirt already.
• Sleeping through the night - almost religiously gets up at 6:30-6:45 every morning, no matter what time he went to sleep. Does two pretty good naps during the day too.
• Not a huge fan of his car seat but is alright once the car starts moving, and almost always falls asleep during the ride.
• Snuggles with his mom and dad when he is tired or doesn't feel good.
• Loves to pull glasses off your face and play with them.
• Has made it through his first ear infection after two rounds of antibiotics - hopefully no tubes in his future.
• He likes to crawl over to London when he is on his dog bed, London will usually ignore him. He will crawl over to London if he is sitting in the middle of the floor (probably going after his tail) and London will usually walk away. London will hover around Reed's high chair during a meal, hoping for a fallen morsel.
• He has a fondness for balls, he will push it then crawl after it and when he gets to it, will push it again and keep crawling after it. Almost dog like...
• He has the best laugh in the world.
• His favorite book is "That's Not My Teddy...", he will turn the pages and feel all of the textures for quite some time.
• Loves to knock over things.
• Loves cords or strings of any kind.
• Enjoys splashing a lot in the bath, kicking his feet and smacking the water with his hands.
• Just learned to clap.
• Has discovered opening and closing doors, he will spend 20 minutes just pushing and pulling.
• Learned the concept of cause and effect. Example: you wiggle your fingers than tickle him, the next time he sees your fingers wiggle he will start to laugh, anticipating the tickle.
  

He has made great progress in the past 9 months, even losing a pound of weight as soon as he really started crawling, you can't stop the boy. We love our little dude and couldn't ask for a better child. We are truly lucky to have him in our lives.

Cheers~

The Basement is DONE!

I even tried to take before and after pictures so you can see the great progress. I guess we still have basement 2.0 - fix one door, a couple of paint touch ups, fix the air draft problem from the concrete behind the walls, and finish moving in furniture and hanging some pictures on the walls. But here are the before and afters:

This is the basement door from the top looking down


After you hit the landing, here is looking down the rest of the stairs


Looking into the bathroom at the bottom of the stairs


This is what the vanity wall used to look like,


Now this is what the vanity wall looks like!


Here is the linen space - it matches the way the linen space in the master looks


Vanity - we bought an old one and refinished it and put a new top on it


Door into the shop area


Looking the opposite direction, back to the shop door, looking down the hall to the first bedroom


From the door looking into the first bedroom


Pics from inside the bedroom


Closet in the first bedroom - third pic has the closet door on the far left.


Hall closet


Looking down the hall to the second bedroom (hall closet would be right outside of view on the right side)


Second bedroom


Closet area in the second bedroom


Looking back to the door of the second bedroom


Looking back down the hall from the second bedroom, to the door of the first


Looking back up the stairs


Ta Da! And back up to the top! London saying peek-a-boo!

So there was our project! Looks good huh? Better tell me it does, cause we put a lot of work and time and money into it - so there! Come visit us now, you will have a nice place to crash. The second bedroom will be more of an entertainment area, we will put a TV on top of that weird thing in the corner (it's the cover to the sump pump) and a couch on the back wall. The couch will be a pull out bed (with a nice top so it'll actually be comfy) for extra sleeping space. We hope to finish moving in stuff this week so I'll update with pictures when we get that done. Fogg did an AMAZING job on the basement, I'm so proud of him for getting it all done and he really paid attention to the details, making sure things matched the rest of the house. James was awesome to lay carpet for us (in exchange for a few dinners, which I happily made). We also got help on the plumbing from our friend Jed, and a little electrical and framing help from Andrew, Rob and Scott. Pete helped with the tile in the shower and dad helped with tile on the floor. My father-in-law, Dick, helped out at the very beginning with helping to frame and get a few doors hung and a little drywall up. But Fogg did a majority of the work himself, truly solo. Great job Fogg!

And a few fun pics of Reed to end this very long post!



Cheers~

Hallelujah!

Hallelujah! Fogg got a job! What a HUGE weight off our backs, I'm so proud and excited for him!

So, he'll be working for a company called Systems Implementers. They work with the military integrating computer systems and he will be working as a project scheduler. Basically, he manages when things happen and with who. He will get to utilize his logistics degree and experience. This job is a great fit for him, not just a job. The opportunity for growth is fantastic and the schedule is optimal with working either 4 10's with every Friday off or 9 9's with every other Friday off. He will also get national holiday's off due to the work with the government. We are so excited about this new opportunity (and of course the chance to actually have money). Fogg will start working in a couple of weeks, once paperwork is in and sense he will be working for the government, security clearance is given. This gives Fogg a couple of weeks to wrap up a few things and for us to secure all of our childcare needs.

Just the quick update of the day - more later!