Colette's fun words

Today's post about the girls is the cute or funny things that Colette says. The only thing that's too bad is that you can't hear how she says these things. The inflection is half the cuteness!:

• When we were at the zoo in Idaho she was really scared of a lot of the animals and statues (see pictures here), and that's when she started calling such things "Rawrs". A few times she's been scared to sleep in the room because of rawrs, and she has a puzzle she likes to do lately with a baby tiger on it, and she calls it her rawr.
  
• She says happy "pappy". I asked her once if she was happy and she exclaimed "I'm pappy!" Then it was like a regular thing, her informing us that she's pappy all the time.
• One day she kept saying to Mike as she'd point to her chest "I'm me", and he parroted back, "I'm me". And she'd say no "I'm me," then finally he says "You're you" and she said "Uh huh!" - He was impressed that at a little older than two then that she had figured out how to make that conversion from me to you.
• Adrienne had picked up on animal names and body parts probably by around 2, but Colette has been doing things her own way, and she just doesn't care about accuracy as much, as long as she knows she she's saying and we eventually figure out what she's saying. Maybe she figures if we're doing the work why should she have to? :-) Awhile ago, when she was about two (notice I'm catching up on this stuff from awhile ago) when we tried to go over the body parts we'd try to get her to say them, but she'd just point at them questioningly and we'd always end up saying the parts, so then she felt like she didn't have to. So I tried again a few months ago and this time we were off to a good start - I pointed to my nose and said "What's this?" and she says "nose", so then on to the next body part "what's this?" and she says "that", (okay, I guess you could call it that - try again) "What's this?", and she says again "that"...and on and on :-) Lol...just now I tried with her again to see where she's at now. I point at my nose "What's this?", "Nose"...at my cheeks "what's this?"..."Eyes". I say "No, that's my cheeks" And she points at her eyes "Eyes". Then she says "Ear", and so I point at my ears....I guess she wanted to control the conversation. But she got all the facial features besides forehead. :-)
• She calls candy "tanny" and it was also one of her first words ...she's a sugar fiend.
• She says I love you "I yuh you"
• She calls Blues Clues "Gloc Glue"...this started awhile ago and thought she might say it differently by now, so I asked her last night what her Blue stuffed animal was and she still said it gloc glue.
• She calls babies "eh-eh"
• She calls Adrienne by a nasal sound, almost like "En", but doesn't open her mouth. She also makes nasal sounds for any words she doesn't know and needs a filler sound.
• When things happen like something spilling for example she'll say "No again!" (with the same inflection that people say "not again!"...or if it's a close call, then "Phew" with her hand wiping across her brow.
  
• She calls all grandparents "ta-ta"
• When she needs to go potty she says "I'm peeing!" Kind of alarming if you don't know that that's just her cue that she needs to go. I have to warn anyone caring for her that that's what she means so they don't freak out.
  
• And alternately she calls a pool a "poo"...so she will say "I want to go poo!" meaning "I want to go in the pool!"
  
• If someone accidently bumps or bonks her she says "Hey! You bop me!" She does this when she accidently bumps or bonks someone else...apparently she thinks anytime she feels pain that it must have been caused by someone else.
• In recent months both girls have enjoyed watching the original "Cinderella" and the new "Cinderella III" fairly regularly, and of course Adrienne loves everything to do with Cinderella, but Colette's favorite character is the fairy godmother. After the first few times watching the movies, I caught her casting spells all around the house with a baton saying "bop bop boo!"

Recent House Stuff

Pictures from the last week of construction:

Took these sometime last week. Not much has changed on the house itself, but a lot of work has been done in the garage and shop. Worked on framing for the garage as you can see here:

But they did get more windows in on the main floor:

And in the basement:

Took these pictures tonight. Framing on the shop - very tall walls - this wall is what we see when we look out from the trailer now:

I helped Mike get that beam up tonight, another angle of the shop walls also:

And another of the framing in the garage:


This is the berber we got last week in Tacoma off of Craigslist. I said before it was a screamin deal at $0.37/square foot. We got three rolls and it will be enough for the whole house. We weren't originally planning on doing the same carpet throughout the WHOLE house! but, we do need to be keeping costs down, and carpet will be something easy enough to change out later on.

For berber we really like it - berber can be rough, but this is pretty soft, and it's a nice color that will go with almost anything - it's like a light brown with a bit of a pinkish color to it. Neutral, but warm. We have berber in the girls room now and it cleans VERY well, when each of the girls were still in diapers they went through the phase of wanting to have an art session on the carpet with their poop, and it all came completely out of the berber, so it will be good to have while the kids are still young.

While we put up that beam tonight, this is what the girls did a safe distance away. They were making pizza. They'd just gotten out of the bath and were in their jammies, that they then had to change when they got in because they were all sawdusty :-)

Phil Hansen's Art

Check this guy out! My parents told me about him. You need to read about each piece, so check out that link when you have some time. I really like this one:

"A Moment"


But you have to see how he did this! It took him 136 hours with only bathroom breaks!:

The rag dress

So, here's my daily post on the girls...Took this picture a few weeks ago of Colette. She brought me a washcloth and wanted me to put it on her. So, I must have been bored or something and got some other washcloths and safety pins and a ribbon and put together this "dress":

Wow...

I can’t believe it!...my kids just woke up at 11:15 this morning! Which is great today because I stayed up until 4:30 a.m. to finish Harry Potter. Of course I don’t want to give anything away, so I’ll just say that it was as good as you would hope.

So back to reality and now I need to get going, I haven’t slept in this late in ages!

A poem by Adrienne

So, my daily post about the girls...I will be getting one up about Colette next, but for now, another one about Adrienne.


She is starting Kindergarten this Fall, so at this point any reading and writing she knows she's learned from the Leapfrog DVDs, or she's taught herself. So, to translate her poem - (line by line)

I B L E V iNF E /I believe in fai-
R E Z E D /ries and
M A J i C E D A /magic and tha-
T S U L U O / t's all of
F M i P O U M / my poem.

I tried to resist...

But I’ve been sucked in to the last Harry Potter book. Since we’re so busy lately I was going to try to be sensible and limit myself to reading a chapter in the morning and a chapter at night. That did work out okay during the week because I really didn’t have a choice and was too busy. But over the weekend it’s been too easy to put things off and I’ve been reading any spare moment I can. Part of what is fueling my desire to finish is that people want to talk about it and I don’t want to hear any spoilers! Mike's listening to the story by audio book as well.

Breakin it up...

My new thing lately is breaking up bigger tasks by chipping away at them on a daily basis…works well when I am consistent. So I’ve been getting behind on posts I want to put up again (maybe if I didn’t want to document every little thing!)…so instead of some of the long posts that I was going to do, I’m going to break ‘em up.

One thing I really have wanted to write about is the cute stuff the girls have said and done…my version of doing baby books. I started out with the baby books and lost track somewhere along the way. But awhile ago when it was still just Adrienne, I started to think that I really don’t care on which date I got each tooth, and what I’ve liked to hear most from my parents are the cute and funny things I’d said and done as a child. So, like I said in a previous post, I started writing down some of those things for my kids in a Word document. But now I want to put them here (and I might transfer stuff from the Word doc too to have it all in one place). So, for today I will recount to you the funny thing Adrienne said today in Costco.

(Bear with me on the back story to lead up to the “funny thing”) We were talking about her clothes because we had picked out a few things there for her for starting school in September, and she asked what I was going to do with her old clothes. I told her Colette would wear them eventually and then when she was done we would make quilts out of the favorites and give the others away. She asked when that would be – “When I’m a teenager?” I said something like – “Well, when Colette’s done with them.” Adrienne says “Yeah, when I’m a – (here she puts up air quotes around her face as she says) – teenager.” The air quotes cracked me up…don’t know where she picked that up! :-)

Sweet!

Mike and I went to Tacoma tonight and picked up enough carpet for our whole house at $0.37/square foot! Craigslist ROCKS!!!

Good way to do quick posts...

I just discovered this morning that I can put up a post on this blog by sending an email. So for quick posts, that’s what I’ll do! So…anyone seen the show “Cash Cab” from the Discovery Channel? It’s my new show for doing the dishes to. Fun stuff, so check it out if you’ve got that channel!

Latest House Pic

Taken this morning...the picture is dim because that's what the weather was like!...cloudy and rainy. So, since last week the top floor has been framed! It's really starting to have a presence...I can see the house from the street now. That big ramp thing was for getting the wood from ground level to the top floor easier. Notice how clean it is in the house now thanks to me :-) Now I just have to clean up the garage so they can start framing for the bonus room above.

Food

So I liked the ratatouille...if you like Mediterranean flavor then you will likely enjoy it too. Plus the fruit craving has sort of faded and a much less healthy craving has replaced it!...root beer floats. It probably won't do too much damage since I have only been indulging about twice a week or so...must be the hot weather or something. Anyway, yeah...boring post.

Pooped!

I worked outside cleaning up the construction mess from noon until 6:00, with about an hour's worth of breaks in there. I didn't even get the whole main floor done in that time!...The dining area and master bedroom were left. I didn't get to the top floor at all, and all I did in the basement was sweep out wet areas so that they would dry (it rained a lot the other day and there was a lot of standing water down there). I know that this is a different kind of cleaning, but I could have cleaned the trailer 5 times over in the time that I was out there, and I only got a portion of that house done! This will be the downside to a house this big, but it's a small price to pay for this one con compared to many many many pros!!

The other day...

Tuesday I took the girls to Regal's Free Family Film Festival...we saw "Doogal", which I think is the stupidest kids show I've ever seen. I'm usually pretty easy to please, but I really did not like this movie.

It's first come, first served, so I was trying to get there by 9:45 (it started at 10:00) and so rushed like crazy to make it, and when we got in there it was pretty empty! So we were sitting there waiting, and someone walking by turns to Colette and attacks her................it was my sister Bryn who was surprised to see us there - she just turned to hug her, but the sudden movement freaked me out (did I freak you out too?). So that was fun to sit next to her, she was there with her class from the day care she works at. Colette was pretty good, but she cracked me up when in the middle of the movie she says "I wanna watch Hi-5!". Hi-5 is a kids show that is Colette's absolute favorite...no matter what is on the T.V. she wants it to be Hi-5, and she really would watch it over and over and over...I know because I did that one morning when she got up especially early (bad mommy....I know). So it just made me laugh that even when we're in a movie theater she would prefer to be watching Hi-5.

After the movie we took my mom out to lunch for her birthday (that was on the 9th!) ...we went to a French bistro because Adrienne is about all things French, and we had gone to see Ratatouille with my parents a few weeks before, so we were on a French kick. The food was good, but it was pricey and not the best place to bring kids. I would go back with Mike, but my description of our lunch experience has turned him off to the place without ever having been there.

Speaking of Ratatouille and being on a French kick...after the movie I came home and looked for some recipes of ratatouille that I would try later (my already small kitchen is very cluttered right now...any new cooking endeavors like that I'm saving for my new huge wonderful kitchen). Well my mom had the same idea, and she has a kitchen she can work in, so she's making ratatouille tonight, and we're invited to come try! I'll let y'all know what I think!

Yesterday my goal was to get outside to clean up the job site, but different things kept pulling me away from that goal, so that is number one today. But we did go to Lowe's last night and spent a few hours getting some concrete decisions made on hardwood, carpet, the front door and french doors, and then some not as concrete decisions on a few others things. We need to decide on cabinets, and paint colors, and appliances, etc.

I shouldn't even mention posts that I intend to put up because I end up doing them so much later than I want...maybe I do it to keep me feeling motivated to do it....well, anyway, I have a few posts I've been meaning to get up...the one from June I'd mentioned about the girls, and one from last weekend and the birthday party we went to. So hopefully sometime before the weekend is over.

Recent progress on the house...

Finally! Sorry, I told some people these would be on here Sunday night...I just couldn't seem to find the time to put these up. I have to go in a few minutes, I'll try to quickly put up descriptions and if I don't get to all of them, I will later today:

So what has happened since the last update is that the floor joists for the top floor were put up, then the floor itself, and then the staircase. In the last few days Mike and my dad have been working on framing and the layout (there was some gained room in the bathroom and laundry area, so we re-worked those) I think the windows and trusses will be in the next few weeks and Mike will also be starting on the plumbing.

This is from the driveway looking into the main floor and you can see the new staircase to the top floor!:

The main floor with a ceiling over it now!:
Sorry it's sideways...the stairwell from the main floor:
Sorry it's sideways...the staircase from the main floor up to the top floor:Looking down from the top floor into the garage and shop area...bonus room will be above the garage:
Looking out from the top floor:
Another angle from the top floor...looking out over the stairwell. The open space to the left will be open to below, the middle open space is the staircase, and the open space to the right is over the porch:
Looking out over the top floor in the direction of the kids rooms:
View....The view will be better later when we get some trees taken down or lopped off:
You can't see very well because of the clouds, but this is our view of Rainier:
Another in the direction of Rainier, only zoomed out...it's between those two tall trees in the middle of the picture:
More view:
We'll have more view of Dyes Inlet, but you can see some of the water peaking out here:
Looking down from the top floor into our bedroom:
Down into the dining area:
Down into the living room (I need to get out there and clean up after them! It's getting hazardous for them to be working in all this mess!):
Down into the study:
Down on the staircase:

Introducing Sarah's Treats!

I wanted to explain the link to Sarah's Treats that's there with the links to my friend's blogs...

Sarah is a good friend of mine, and she took the cake decorating classes at JoAnn Etc. and now she
teaches the classes herself!

You can see when you follow that link that she is also in the business of custom making them as well!

This picture is of a cake she helped me make for my mom's birthday last summer (sorry it's sort of fuzzy). I have some cakes that I like to make for birthdays (they are THE yummiest EVER - see my cooking blog - still need to get the lemon one up though), but if I'm ever too busy to bake, or want something special looking, she's the one that I go to. So check her out if you live in the Kitsap area!

P.S. The cake on her site that has a slice cut out and on top of the cake is the one she made as a gift for me for my birthday last year!

ATTITUDE

I saw this handout at my mom's house and loved it...

"I Intend To Have A Great Day"

There once was a woman who woke up one morning, looked in the mirror,
and noticed she had only three hairs on her head.
"Well," she said, "I think I'll braid my hair today."
So she did and she had a wonderful day.

The next day she woke up, looked in the mirror
and saw that she had only two hairs on her head.
"Hmmm," she said, "I think I'll part my hair down the middle today."
So she did and she had a grand day.

The next day she woke up, looked in the mirror
and noticed that she had only one hair on her head.
"Well," she said, "today I'm going to wear my hair in a pony tail."
So she did and she had a fun, fun day.

The next day she woke up, looked in the mirror
and noticed that there wasn't a single hair on her head.
"YAY!" she exclaimed, "I don't have to fix my hair today!"


Attitude Is Everything
Have A Good Day!

Thank goodness for A/C!

I had complained before that the A/C wasn't quite enough to keep me comfortable...well it has been lately, and I'm SOOOOO thankful for it! It's currently 97 degrees outside which I know is not such a big deal for some, but for us around here it is quite uncomfortable!

And yes, the fog is definitely lifting! I have been feeling great this week and have so much more energy. Finally my allergies symptoms are fading away.

Well this is short...need to get to that saved draft about the girls and their cuteness soon :-)

The Fog Is Lifting...I Hope

I think my allergies are finally fading. I'd just gotten used to feeling the way I was that I forgot how "normal" feels. Most days I'd be pretty slow in getting going, then by Colette's naptime a lot of the time I'd be sleepy too and was taking more naps than I would have normally. So that's most of the day without feeling like I could be very productive at all...So anyway, long story short, I'm feeling a lot more energetic and am getting a lot done now.

Those hives I'd complained about never have gone away completely...but to be more accurate, the doctor had said they were related to hives, but are called dermatographic hives. Basically I welt anywhere I scratch...even if only very lightly. Taking an antihistamine helps, but I've needed fewer and fewer to keep them in check. Well enough of boring allergy talk...

On to boring pregnancy talk... :-) Just that I did find the perfect amount of heat for bedtime...I had said that even the lightest blanket was too much. Only putting the blanket over my shoulders is the just-right amount of warmth. Well...that's all...possibly my most boring post ever :-)

Updates, today, and random

So it looks like Mike did fix my phone, I haven't had a problem with it - but the very same day that he saved me from needing to buy a new phone, he leaned against his and ruined both of his screens. This is what it looks like - kind of interesting, but useless for telling the time, who's calling, who he's calling, etc.:

So now we have to get a phone for him! But he found a "handyman special" version of his phone on Ebay that we'll hopefully get for about $20 and he can just swap in the screens from that one. It's so nice having a handyman husband, I'm sure he's saved us thousands of dollars in different ways over the last 7 years.

It turns out that Colette doesn't have a UTI - the culture came back with no growth. The consulting nurse wasn't very helpful in answering my questions about why she would have had trace blood in her urine on Thursday, or about why she might have had a fever. But she did come up with another possible explanation for her complaining of it being "hot" in her pee-pee area - yeast infection. So, I started treatment for that tonight and we'll see if that clears things up. It would make sense...in the 2 1/2 days that she was on the antibiotic she never stopped complaining about it being "hot" and in fact if it is a yeast infection it could have gotten worse with being on the antibiotics. I was giving her yogurt though, and I'll continue to do so.

Saw Ratatouille today...it was really cute, I thought I would like it, and I liked it even more than expected. Went with Mike, the girls, my parents, and Rianne. Mike and my dad are working mornings, then breaking from about noon to four to avoid the worst of the heat, and then working later. So we went during that break-time.

This is random, and I know it's a long-shot that anyone reading this will know, but this is bugging me! As I've mentioned before, I deliver newspapers around a lot of the county, and I've seen these stickers on mailboxes - they're on maybe 50 out of the 1450 boxes that I deliver to:

Does anyone know what KT means??? I know, who cares, I didn't used to...I've seen them for the 5 years I've been delivering, but just in the last few months it's really been eating at me! I just want to know!

Mike thought maybe they had to do with Kitsap Transit??

I'm HOT!!!

No, I'm not being vain...I'm 22 weeks pregnant in July! I didn't really notice a difference until the other day when Adrienne was complaining about it being cold in the house. Then Colette was echoing her complaint and I'm thinking "What's wrong with these girls?" That's when I realized...maybe it's not them, it's me! We do have A/C and even with it set to 70 degrees I get too hot, but don't want to turn it down because I don't think the girls will appreciate it! Last night I slept with the lightest blanket I could find and it was still too hot...it's going to be a LONG summer!

In other pregnancy news, I had mentioned that I was having fruit cravings...not that this is so interesting, but check out all the fruits I've got in my frige (and from Costco, so lots of it!) - cantaloupe, pineapple, apples, strawberries, oranges, grapes, and peaches - I couldn't choose, so I got them all. I was also craving avocado, which is technically a fruit - I must need the potassium in that - I got close to getting a leg cramp the other day, ouch!

Here's another product recommendation if you're not against the use of Splenda...I LOVE Kozy Shack's Rice Pudding, but it's so addictive I don't allow myself to get it. I saw recently that they've got them in individual servings and made with Splenda and are only 90 calories per serving. They taste pretty close to the original.

So last on my random post for tonight...The girls and I watched "Pete's Dragon" tonight...one of my favorites as a kid. I've added a bunch of old favorites to my Netflix queue now that Adrienne is old enough to appreciate them. We watched "Supergirl" a few weeks ago...I think it was lost on her, thought she'd really like that one since she's so girly and likes to pretend to be "SuperAdrienne". Oh well, it wasn't as great as I remember, but I'm sure I'll get a hankering to see it again someday, just out of nostalgia. Next up are "The Last Unicorn", "Escape to Witch Mountain", and of course "Return from Witch Mountain", "Bedknobs and Broomsticks", and "Freaky Friday". I also like "Return to Oz", but that one's pretty creepy, so the kids should be older for that one. I guess I have sort of weird tastes...Those listed are excluding my FAVORITE favorite movies from my childhood/teenagerhood - "Princess Bride" - all-time-fave, "Labyrinth" - close second, then in no particular order - "Dennis the Menace", "Babe", "Matilda", "A Little Princess"......and, I think that's it. G'night! Paper route bright and early...I'll be on a mission is to find an apple fritter (the fruit craving has curbed, but not completely eliminated my sweet tooth!)

This week...

Our 4th of July was good. We didn't go to Everett like originally planned because the tour of the Lincoln was only for kids 8+. So, we made plans with our parents to have a BBQ here. Before the BBQ I took the girls to Big Apple Diner so they could buy the stuffed animals that they had been saving up for - they helped me for two weeks with the paper route with bagging the few papers that I bag and toss, and helping me to deliver them as well. Mike's mom Kathy wasn't feeling well, so she didn't make it, so it would have been Mike's dad Ron, and my mom and dad, and us - but then my sister Camille, her hubby Josh and my niece Rianne came by last minute. So it turned out to be quite fun. We BBQ-ed out on what has been built of the house so far, and I bought some kiddie fireworks, and Camille and family brought a big box full of fireworks. We mostly set off the kiddie fireworks while it was still light, then a little after 10:00 we took off to Port Orchard to see their city fireworks. It was perfect because we arrived right as they were starting...we just pulled off on the side of the road near the waterfront, and it was a great view. We took Mike's truck and the van, so we were able to sit in the back of the truck to see better. The girls loved it, and it was probably the funnest year yet as far as the kids' involvement and excitement. After that we came back home and set off the rest of the fireworks that Camille and family brought. We were in bed shortly after midnight.

Last year a family we know was planning to go to Mexico to work at an orphanage and so to earn some money for their trip they put on a summer camp for little kids. Adrienne went and loved it, and this year they did it again. So, yesterday morning I took Adrienne while Mike was still here and Colette was asleep - I didn't think Colette was old enough yet to go to the camp, but found out after-the-fact that she could have gone too. But that was moot anyway because when I got back I decided to take her to the doctor while Adrienne was gone. Backing up now...in the last few weeks Colette has been saying that her pee-pee (our word for their private area) is "hot"...I thought maybe this was her mimicking Adrienne because Adrienne had been complaining of some irritation there and every 3 or 4 days I'd need to wipe Adrienne and put vaseline on her. Colette had a UTI when she was 1, which is unusual for children under 4, and so I knew that was something that she might have a problem with, because at that time I decided not to get the tests they wanted done unless something came up again - Since she wasn't potty trained they had to give her a catheter to find out that she had the UTI and they couldn't sedate or numb her because of how young she was - that was the worst mothering moment I've ever had. So that's why I decided not to do the tests at that time, because they would have had to do another catheter and for an extended period of time and it would have been horrible. Back to the present - like I said she was complaining about the pee-pee being hot, and I was hoping she was copying Adrienne, and then yesterday morning she woke up with a fever. Could have been unrelated, but I decided it was worth checking out, so I took her to the doctor - this time she was potty trained so I was able to get her to pee in a cup, and they tested it and found that she may have another UTI and started her on antibiotics. They will know for sure once the results of the culture are in, probably tomorrow - then I'll find out if they will want those tests done that I had put off before. For the rest of yesterday I gave her the antibiotics and she continued to have a fever until right before bedtime, she was pretty chipper through it all, but she did sleep a lot. So I didn't get a lot done yesterday because I cuddled and napped with Colette. But then last night our friend Andy stopped by and so we went to Big Apple Diner for dinner and also called up friends Tyler, Clardon, and Roland to come as well, so that was fun.

By this morning Colette had no fever and seemed just fine...so she got to go to the 2nd day of the summer camp. They both seemed to have had a blast. Adrienne has been picking out her outfits lately and gets really offended if I offer any advice about her choices...I thought her outfit selection for the summer camp was fine, except for the mismatched socks - one of which was one of mine!, and the fact that she wanted to wear the same outfit for both days...Oh well! I got 3 hours without the girls, and I got some errands done, but then I got to spend it dealing with annoyances like - a cell phone that was dropping calls left and right and email that wouldn't work. The annoying thing was that it was really a futile effort on my part - I spent about an hour on livechat with someone about the email, and he finally just said that it was something that might resolve itself in the next day or so - and by the time I got back from picking up the girls it had! The cell phone issue was probably caused by my dropping the phone the other day, but I didn't realize that and so was spending wasted time looking for a cheap cell on Ebay to get me through the next 3 months until I get a free one with my plan - while I was browsing on Ebay, Mike started tinkering with it and it appears he may have fixed the problem. I will see in the next few days...if he has I'll buy a hands-free device for it (because as of Sunday it's now a big fine to talk on your cell while driving - in case some of you didn't know), and if not, then I'll get a new one with a speakerphone option.

House progress is coming along a little more since I last wrote about it...the outside wall of the first floor is done, and the inside walls are almost done. Then they'll put up beams and start on the floor joists for the top floor, frame the top floor, then trusses. Mike is taking leave without pay until mid-August, so he and my dad will hopefully be able to knock this stuff out quickly. Mike will also be doing the plumbing, electrical, and HVAC.

Tomorrow we'll go see Ratatouille finally!

And now for pictures:

This was last week while Mike was gone...first night I'd slept in our bed, and woke up with hives. So the second night I planned on sleeping on the couch, and since I didn't want the girls to come sleep with me on the couch in the middle of the night (it can be done though! Colette will sleep up next to me, and Adrienne sleeps with her head at the other end), we camped out in the living room...of course the girls thought this was fun:

Adrienne with her snake she earned, from Big Apple Diner:
Colette with her seahorse that she earned:
Adrienne stealing Grandma's chair (4th of July BBQ), my dad is on the left and that's my mom's arm and leg :-):
Colette throwing a pop-it (Josh is next to her):
Rianne on the phone, as always:


The downside of her new do - she just needs to brush her hair out of her face, but she never feels inclined. Wouldn't that bug you? I can always put product in her hair, or a barrette or something, but we were just hanging out at home. Oh, and this outfit is pretty good except for the mismatched socks, and dress shoes :-) :
Colette, Camille, Rianne, Adrienne:
Adrienne after the first day of summer camp, she thinks she's French - she's always telling people about how she's going to Paris, France. I've always wanted to go, so maybe her enthusiasm will prompt action - if we can ever afford it!:
The sick one...poor girl :-(
The aftermath of the 4th:
If you can see the differences from the last pictures...the outside wall is finished, the porch is framed in, and you can see some of the inside framing:
Another view:
The study area framed in (along with more 4th aftermath :-) :
The kitchen area (and our makeshift table and chair for our BBQ):
Just one of the girls:
Framing for our bathroom:
Framing around the staircase:
Framing for the kitchen:
Framing for our closet:
Mike and dad working in our bedroom: