the family room un finished

Since we can't post pictures of the finished project I decided we could at least post pictures of what it looked like around Christmas and New Years. The sheet rock was taped and mudded the few days before Christmas and the painting was done with my family here to help directly after Christmas. I did the red wall on my birthday and we started working on the floor New Years Eve. Enjoy, we certainly are!

surviving

So as you all have probably figured out from my last post. Yes, we are expecting baby number 2! We are excited and anxious for the time to pass quickly. Unfortunately we still have lots of time to go. I have been sicker this time than last so of course Piper has the run of the house. I only hope the morning sickness/nausea will pass in the next couple of weeks rather than sticking around for the next 7 months.
When I get home from work all I want to do is sit and relax or sleep. With Piper that is not an option. If I close my eyes she is right there saying Mama wake up and pulling me to another room. Needless to say if you stop by do not be surpirsed at the mess we are currently living in. :) This too will pass. I have managed to somewhat keep up with my classes and still have an A or B depending on the class! My family gets 2-3 meals a day and we are all still wearing clean clothes so at least I have done something, right?
Over Christmas break we "finished" our basement! Except for about 4 square foot of flooring and getting the trim up. We do not have the last 2 doors that need to go in but we all have really enjoyed the additional space! I told Wes quite a while ago that he could have a Nintendo Wii when the family room down stair was finished. He borrowed a Wii from his brother for Christmas and we have had one hooked up ever since. Even though the room isn't completely finished I told him he could have his and we have about one night a week as our date night of playing against each other in a friendly game of Mario Cart or Mario Party. It has been fun. I still have alot of things to get finished and re-arranged around the house to minimize the furniture upstairs and move down but it is a work in progress and when finished we plan to post pictures of course and have a party to thank all of those wonderful friends and family who have helped in the long process.

Piper's new shirts

So, Piper got a couple of awesome t-shirts from her Uncle Blake for Christmas. Everytime she sees one she wants to put it on and calls them her Blake shirts. I thought I would share one of the with you. Yes, he made (tye-dyed) them himself and we think they are pretty sweet. We have also written a little message on a new shirt for her that I think you will all enjoy. She calls it her Blake shirt as well. Enjoy!
Due Sept 13, 2010! Grandpa Ellis' birthday!

Piper

Hello 2010

I guess I shoudl post something on here to let people know we are still alive and almost well in Iona, ID. The holidays were good to us! We spent Thanksgiving with my family in Twin Falls, at Lacey's new home. Christmas we were able to have a visit from, yes St Nick came but so did Aspen and Troy, Tarry, and Mom and Dad with the younger Waters clan. Wes' mother, Mike and Blake came Christmas eve for pizza, Blake came back the next day for a while too. We rushed a tape and texture job the few days before Chirstmas and had a semblance of a family room where we decorated the tree and opened presents. IN THE BASEMENT! Then after Christmas with the family still with us we put them to work priming and painting the new family room. Any and all who wish to come see it is welcome to stop in and stay for a bit. I spent my birthday painting and accent wall and then New Years eve we started laying a lovely Brazilian Cherry laminate floor. Three days later and 2 swollen hand the majority of the floor is down and we have carried down the TV, entertainment center, DVD cases, and installed the surround sound system. The bean bag has found a new home in the center of the new floor. Piper loves it!

I have since carried down the double recliner so there is newly found space in our "office" up stairs and comfortable seats down stairs. I am working on making new cushion covers for some lovely wood furniture that will reside in the living room once the covers are done. Then the comfortable couch and love seat will also go down stairs.

I started back at work the first Monday after the New Year, and school started (ISU) the 11th. My classes are terrifying! I am praying to pass all 3 and working on Grad School application! This is my last semester of Pre-Professional classes!!! I will be taking fall semseter off this year to hopefully help my brain recover.

Question, how do you refer to this year? 2010 do you say two thousand ten, or twenty ten? A topic of discussion at work.

Wes is still at the credit union and we are hoping to some day soon have a floor plan to present to the owners of a specific building here in town for a future SHAKE OUT in Idaho Falls.

Piper is a delight and a challenge, We love her to pieces and enjoy listening to her chatter about things daily. She also is very stubborn and determined, where did she get that?? Just today, she wanted to go to a friends house to play and pulled me all over the house to get my boots on, her coat on, looking for her boots... Then screaming when I sat down for a minute to rest. We ended up next door for a few minutes and in that time was being bullied by the 3 year old so she bit her on her cheek! We promtly left as I lectured her on not biting. What to do with a toddler? Anyway, we are still here and that is a bit of what we are up to.

Feel free to comment, I love getting feed back!

Trick or Treat (woof woof)

Our cute little puppy, she was not feeling so secure on the trunk of the car. We took her trick or treating at the down town North Platte 11th annual Halloween trick or treat around local businesses. We really liked the money tree idea and wished we had one with some real cash on it :)

Crossing the street to find the fun.

Piper couldn't say trick or treat so we had her say woof woof instead, so cuted she said it out the side of her mouth. If you look close you can see which side was her bark.

Meeting the big black cat

Hello Big Bird

This is Sparky the fire house dog.

They even let her sit in the drivers seat of the fire truck.

We went sledding that night rather than trick or treating because we didn't feel much like knocking doors to people we don't know. This is basically the ONLY hill in North Platte. She loved the sledding and always was the first person to sit on the sled when it was on the ground. It was dark so the pictures didn't turn out the best.

Grandpa going down with Piper.

The Jones Family ready to go!

Halloween and Nebraska

Piper's first experience with snow. Piper's first step into some "deep" snow, she stopped there and cried because it was cold.

Then she tried to pick it up and learn more about it.

Building a bucket snowman with Grandma

It is getting taller

A finished snowman who promptly fell over :(

Piper driving her John Deer tractor in the snow, she loves vehicles that move!

After one night of snow this is what we ended up with. Piper is 31 inches tall and you can see the snow was pretty high up on her. We shoveled for a while to get cars out.

The start of the pumpkin clean out. Piper tried to use a spoon...

She quickly figured out her hand worked so much better.

Each time she picked up a handful she would say eww or yucky.

We did not get the end result of the carved pumpkin but this was the last of the goop pulled out. Piper had a blast and I think her Dad enjoyed it aswell. Wes found a power tool for pumpkin carving. Proof that he knows how to use it. Grandpa Joe made this rocking horse for Wes when he was a little boy. Piper loved it! She also found the glasses to be very entertaining.