Friday, August 31, 2012

2nd Birthday for Baines


We had Baines’ 2nd Birthday party on Aug 4th.  I’m totally late on the update but wanted to post a few of my favorite pictures.  We had a Pool party as we did the year before.  I didn’t go as crazy with the decorations as I did for her first because I was pregnant and lacking energy. J   But the same about of love went into it.   It still turned out great and we were so happy to share the day with our friends and family. 

We had the party catered by Super Mex with 5 huge 1 ½ Foot Burritos and chips, guacamole and fruit.  We had plenty of food!  In fact too much because we had some last minute guests that couldn’t make it.   Nicholas’ Mom made the cutest mermaid cake.   Baines loved it and keeps talking about how Nana made her a cake for Birf-day.  My parents also came out to help us celebrate.  Baines loves them so much and we love sharing her with them.  It was nice to have the extra help too.  


Chillin before the guests arrive
Joking with Grandma


Mermaid cake

Watching her cousin swim








The Loot
Ready to sing happy birthday

Here she is enjoying the attention while we sing her Happy Birthday, until she turns bossy and tells everyone to stop.

More interested in the ring pop then the cake
So excited about every gift

In all the party was a huge success. We are so lucky to have so many people that love her.  Baines got super spoiled and loved all her gifts especially the Toy Story action figure set.   She has been carrying around her “friends” and tucking them in her covers for bed.    




This picture is kind of a BIG DEAL.  This is the first time she sleep in her OWN room.  We finished just in time for a much needed nap after a fun party. 



Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Shaver Lake 2012

Every year in August my family and their friends take a camping trip. The location has changed a few times over the last 12 years but the last few years they've been going to Shaver Lake (Camp Edison) in Central California. The problem with the trip being in August is it is a crazy busy time of the year for McCall so she is never able to go. I usually try to go but opted out last year because it would just be too hard to camp solo with a 1 year old (plus making the 5 hour drive). Now that Baines is 2 I decided to go. I already had to take the week off of work since our babysitter (my Mother) and summer back up babysitter (sister-in-law) were going on the trip. I talked friends Tim and Ingrid to be my carpool buddies since they we leaving at the same time and headed up to Shaver Lake.

The weather was great and the campground is beautiful. Camping semi-alone with a 2 year old turned out to be way more difficult logistically then I thought it would be. Luckily I had help from everyone there or it would have been a total nightmare. I'd have to ask my Mother or Sister-in-law to watch her while I did simple things like set up the tent, run to the rest room or try and cook food. As you probably could imagine a stubborn 2 year old has her own agenda of what she wants to do and would flip out when told she had to stick around me while I worked or cooked.
My parent's and my Bother/Sister-in-Law's trailers were also very helpful because they had electrical hook up's, AC & TVs. Whenever Baines got moody she would want to go inside and watch "Buzz." They were like comfort zones for her. Over the week she probably watched Toy Story 1, 2 & 3 at least five times each.


hamburger bun hat?
  The iPad was also very helpful to keep her calm, she did not like to be around the big group of people we had camping with us (strange place and people she does not know all that well). We have a lot of educational games on the ipad and keeped her entertained. It was something she was familar with so while we all sat around the campfire she would play her games and she would not mind hanging out.

I stayed the week and then had to come home and get back to work but my parents were staying another week and we could not get a babysitter so Baines had to/got to stay another week. That means, sadly, McCall has to go two weeks without seeing her. Most of these pictures were ones I took just so I could keep send them to McCall's phone. It's hard to keep a phone or camera out while chasing a 2 year old around and especally while we were at the lake; it was almost impossible.

Me: smile for Mommy
B: stop it! 


proud rock climber

 Our Friend's Julie and Jeremy site was Baines' favorite hang our spot because they had some plastic flamingo's and because they had two real cat's in their motor home. She would spend all day trying to play with the kitties if they would have let her. We'd have to go by and visit the flamingo's every once and while.

hugs


Papa giving the kids a class on tree rings
  The place was loaded with rocks and boulders. Good ones that she should climb over and play on.

Blue lolly pop!

I was not able to get many pictures of the lake area because I could not keep my phone on me near the water. I had to almost stand guard at the waters edge to make sure she would not run too deep. The sand shelf dropped off FAST so she would be in over her head within about 3 feet from the edge. After the first day or two she understood and we were both able to have more fun in the water. Hopefully others took more photos at the beach and I can add them later. Overall the trip was fun, not very relaxing, but fun. Leaving Baines there for anther week sucks as well but we did not have any other options. My parents are in for a busy week.

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

A few Picutures of what is going on


Although our Blog updates have not been up to date on the progress we have been making on the house believe me, we've been working hard at it and have finally reaped the first fruit from it. One of the reasons for the time away was the problems we were having with Blogger and posting/editing photos. It was such a headache that I could not deal with writing a post after fighting with the program just to get the pictures in the right orientation and order. For some reason, Blogger and the iPhone were acting like oil and water.

Enough about that.

I can't recall where our last house blog post left off so I'll just say what has happened recently. We passed all inspections needed to start hanging the drywall/Sheetrock/gypsum boards in the rear addition. In my mind I've divided our house into two parts, the rear addition and the front half. The front half does include the front addition too but it also includes all the existing house. We will be tearing down all the plaster and knocking out about 5 or 6 walls in the front half of the house. We'll bring it all down to the studs so we can insulate, add new electrical and drywall to match the rear addition. We don't want to do any of this to the front half until we can move into the rear addition otherwise we'd have nowhere to live.

McCall's Parents and Brother's and Sister-in-Law all came out to help work on the house for a week in May. The timing was perfect, we just got the green light to drywall and that's not a job I'd like to do alone. They did not come out just to work, they also wanted to visit, let the kids play and spend a few days a Disneyland. We got about 4 sold day of work in and hung 100 sheets of drywall. Sorry I don't have any pictures to show of all the rooms we did right now but it's hard to take pictures of a room and get the scope and picture of drywall are boring.

Now back to my skeleton crew I started to tape and mud all the drywall we hung. My friend Kent came to help one day and my father would come and help any time he could. We decided to try and get Baines' room done and ready to move in by her birthday so we stopped working on the other rooms and focused on hers. We finished the mud and I started sanding, my dad stated working on the window trims when he could after work and we ordered the doors. After sanding came the painting. It's almost as sucky as mudding and sanding. After the doors baseboards and trim came more painting, I hate it. The two pictures are the room before we painted the trim. The room is kind of abnormal in shape, 9x16 so taking pictures does not do it justice.


east side
  

west side
 Now that the room was painted it was time for carpet. We did not want to buy nice new carpet since the whole house is still under construction and no matter how hard you try, dirt and dust gets everywhere so we were able to get time high traffic carpet tiles. We were now at our deadline: Baines' birthday so I spent most of the night laying the carpet down while McCall built the bed my parents got her as a birthday gift and the little table set. McCall's parents were able to fly back into town for B's birthday party and to help out with a few more finishing touches; like building the kitchen set they bought her as a birthday gift. Here is a picture of all of them enjoying the room after a long day partying at the pool. I'll have to get a picture east side and closet showing the finished product.  


In addition to working inside getting the room drywalled and all We've also been flip flopping on working on the outside of the house. We started some of the window trim, the T&G for the porch ceiling and Saturday after McCall's parents left we were able to put up our first section of siding. All this means is more painting and I'm not looking forward to that!



Friday, August 3, 2012

2 years old!


This crazy little girl is 2 years old today.   She’s now a little person instead of a baby.  So sad but so awesome!!!  I love having her as my little best friend.

We have a Pool Party planned for tomorrow and my parents are coming into town tonight.  So this girl will be spoiled.