Oh, I get it. This is a Halloween "trick"

One of our many activities that got us through Aubrey's 5 day illness.

So here is a rundown of my morning so far.

-Slept in until 7:30 (treat)
-Aubrey came down stairs a little while later to find Ainsley watching Little Einsteins. Aubrey starts crying hysterically because the TV is on her sisters favorite show (trick).
-Aubrey calms down and decides to take the bathroom stool up to her room to get something off her dresser. I ask her to leave that stool in the bathroom and suggest hat she uses the stool that is in the bathroom upstairs adjacent to her room. More hysterical crying, I give in (trick).
-Aubrey comes down with pink hair ties so I can do her hair and tells me she needs to go potty (treat).
-She comes out of the bathroom without flushing, yells at Ainsley and tells her she cannot have the cereal I gave her and has to have rice krispies (trick).
-I ask her to return to the bathroom and flush. More crying, this time it is so intense that she cannot calm herself down (trick),
-Mike comes downstairs needing to head out in a few minutes and tries to calm the situation. She refuses to flush, and I would venture to say that he forced her hand to flush the toilet. I only say that because her crying escalated once again once the toilet flushed (trick).

You get the picture. There was more drama when I reminded her to bring her milk to the table, when Ainsley handed Aubrey her hair ties, and I am sure there will be more to come. I really do love this little girl, but when the first hour of our day has been showered with tantrum after tantrum it is easy to lose sight of that. I guess she just woke up crabby. Bummer. As for another treat to throw in. She came and cuddled up next to me while I was typing. Just like her Daddy, she knows my switches, and knows there is nothing like a good cuddle to remind me how much I love her.

Hopefully the rest of this day will be filled with endless treats.

Oh Geez

Mike and I had planned to do early voting for the election. He was going to go today on his way home from work and I was going to go tomorrow since he is going to be working from home for part of the day. Ummm. Early voting ended today at 3pm, so we have to vote on election day. Needless to say, I will be waiting in line at 7am Tuesday morning and Mike will be heading there when I get home. We are such procrastinators. Ugh!

Pumpkin Carving

A few weeks ago Aubrey found a game on Playhouse Disney where you can change the face features to make the perfect Jack-O-Lantern. Last night we had Aubrey design her pumpkin using the computer game and then we recreated it on our own pumpkin. Isn't technology grand?
You cannot see it well, but this was the face that Ainsley wore through the majority of the project. She also kept trying to take off with the bowl of innards. I wonder what her plan was for that?
I love the way you can tell a different story with pictures than the reality of the event. Do you see how attentive my little angels are? They actually kept sneaking away to play on the computer. Little devils! Mike and I are up to our elbows in pumpkin yuck so they seize the opportunity.
The final result. We still have one more pumpkin to do, but no more family time before Friday night. I will either be carving that one solo, or braving a pumpkin event on my own during the day. What a weird tradition this is!

Direct from my Inbox

With the election less than a week away, I get more and more forwards about a certain presidential candidate, but this was my first cartoon. It made me laugh, and I rarely laugh out loud at things. I have laughed at the SNL political sketches too, so maybe making fun of politicians tickles my funny bone a little. So anyway, Happy Halloween and Happy Election Day and Happy end of Daylight Savings too.

Is it...

New stage. Everything out of Aubrey's mouth is a question, and she knows the answer to many of them. It isn't the "why" stage. It is the "Is it" stage. As in "Is it pink, Mommy?" "Is it for me?" "Is it my underwear?" With the occasional "What are you doing?" thrown in. And yes, all four of those questions popped out o her mouth in the three minutes it took me to type this. My only question is "Is it a short stage?" One can hope. One can hope.

I admit, I am starting to feel like a victim here

First off, notice the lack of bootie on my kiddos. They got that from me, sorry guys. If you stay thin it won't be that noticeable!!! Moving on. Yesterday Aubrey came into our room and told me she wasn't feeling good and that her throat hurt. It wasn't that I didn't believe her, but you know how it feels when you wake up and you really need a drink, I thought it was like that. She was pretty certain about it, so I went ahead and gave her some medicine and we skipped church. Ainsley also slept in a whole hour so I figured the girls needed the rest. The day went on and she was a bit emotional (duh, Rachel, catch on already)! But besides being over sensitive and complaining about her throat she was pretty decent. Around 6:30 I noticed that she looked lethargic. I kissed her head and knew. She had a fever. Again. It was just over 102. I gave her some medicine and watched it rise for the next hour and a half. It got as high as 104 before it started responding to cold compresses and medication. So here we sit with a sick child yet again. It's getting a bit old. So hopefully everyone will be healthy enough to Trick or Treat on Friday (including Jasmine, who spent the day with us Saturday. Sorry Rachael, I had NO idea). At least I seem to be immune to my kids multiple illnesses. I tend to get mild fatigue and a touch of it, but never like them. At least that is something to be thankful for. :)

Part 2

Aubrey singing songs with Grandma. They did this over the summer too, but Aubrey was actually singing along this time and loving every minute of it.
Papa with the girls! They had a blast. They listened to oldies, took tractor rides, and had lots of lap time.
Aunt Krystal drove up from Chico to spend the weekend with us. She brought her boyfriend, Mike, along too. Aubrey REALLY took to him and wouldn't leave him alone. She even took to calling him "Uncle Mike." Slow down Aubrey, they have only been dating a few months!
Grandma enjoying a cuddle session. She cuddled with Ainsley a little too much and ended up with the stomach flu the night before we left. Sorry Grandma!!!
Aubrey learning how to "help" with dishes. She had such a blast with her Auntie and Grandparents.

We had an okay trip home. Mike had the stomach flu for about 18 hours when we needed to pull away. Yikes! But he was a trooper and took one for the team. I was able to keep the kids looking out the window searching for deer on the way off the mountain, and even though they were very pale, no one chucked this time around. They were also hopped up on Benadryl and I withheld dairy until the worst of it was behind us. Our day was very long with a 6am departure, a 2:45 flight (that was over an hour delayed once we were boarded) and an hour drive home. We got home at 9pm and were exhausted. It took several days to get back on track, but the kids are back to normal and missing grandma and papa tremendously. Aubrey was recently talking to my mom on the phone and telling her that Grandma and Papa live in the mountains, that she got sick driving there, but had a lot of fun at their house. How cute is that? We were very clear that the road was the culprit and not her grandparents. :)

The Leader of the Pack

As the weeks turn into months, it is becoming more and more clear who the leader is in the bunch. Ainsley is very bossy for such a cute little thing. She will actually tell me to "Do it!" when I am not engaging her. This includes dancing, singing, patting during Little Einsteins, coloring, and building with blocks. Watch out world, we have a leader in our midst, and perhaps a dictator!

HallOOOOOOOOOOween!

We had our Halloween Playgroup today with church. It was fun to see everyone in their costumes. Aubrey abandoned the witch idea a few weeks ago when she saw a Princess Aurora costume at the store. I was happy with that. Ainsley is still in costume limbo as the costume I had for her is too small/short. I just dressed her in black and put this lady bug front on her. I also tried to make her hair into antenna. She only lasted about ten minutes in the costume, but it was still fun to see my favorite little bug all dressed up.
Here is a picture of most of the kids. My girls were crying and clinging to me so they are not pictured. Jenna's daughter also opted out of all the ruckus. Before the crying started the girls each had a healthy serving of candy corn and pumpkin muffins so it may have just been too much sugar making them cranky.
My kids didn't cope well with the mass amount of kids. Ainsley kept clinging to me and saying "ready go, mum." over and over again, and Aubrey, well, was Aubrey. I ended up getting their blankets from the car and sitting them on the couch so I could pack up and say bye to people. The girls ate a great lunch when we got home and were ready for their naps shortly afterward. Even though activities like this never go as smoothly as I had hoped, it is still fun to do them and I am glad we did. I met a few people from church I hadn't met before and got to visit with dear friends. Aubrey also found many more must have princess toys to add to her ever growing Christmas list. We are looking forward to the real deal next Friday! Oh, and the title is how Ainsley says Halloween. She sings it and it is adorable.

Almost done

Enough with all the blabber. Here are some pictures. All the lighting went in. Here are the sconces we picked as well as the rope lighting in the crown molding and the can lights.
I turned off all the lights except for the rope lights in the three ceiling trays. This gives only kind of an idea of how cool it looks.
Fully lighted, including the pool table light and the two countertops put in on the bar area.
Another view of the bar area. As of right now the top piece is also included, but I haven't snapped new pics yet.
The pendants we picked as well as the new tumbled stone backsplash and new sink.
View back towards the office again.
New shower door.
The new black granite bathroom vanity countertop, toilet, sink faucet that I (Mike) picked out and the awesome $5 light fixture that Rachel bought at a garage sale from our neighbors. (the bulbs cost 6 bucks. :) )
This is the ceiling vaults back towards the theater area.

The final paint is happening right now. The final inspection is Friday and we will be moving in furniture and boxes by this weekend. The pool table gets delivered on Friday as well. We are pumped to start enjoying it. Thanks for staying tuned.

18 month check-up

Ainsley had her well check on Monday. It was hard to talk to the doctor because Aubrey was screaming at the top of her lungs during Ainsley's examination since she knew she would be getting the flu shot at the end of the appointment. Ainsley joined in since things must have been pretty dire judging by Aubrey's behavior. So basically Ainsley hit all of her 18 month milestones some time ago so the doc was pleased, except for her weight. She is still at 19 pounds 6 ounces, which happens to be below the 3rd percentile. Needless to say, we will be going back in a month to check her weight. We are hoping for the big two zero by mid-November. The only issue is that Ainsley eats what and when she wants to, not the well rounded meals I provide. We are not always on the same page as to what that looks like and she will refuse to eat at all if you put an undesirable food on her tray. It would be a big help if she would eat bread, tortillas, and other carbohydrates to help her bulk up a bit. Hopefully I can convince her that those are just as tasty as fruit and yogurt in the next week or so.

Still to come: Part 2 of the vacation post and more basement pictures

A Big Thanks!

My dad complains that he never gets to buy the kids anything. I know what you are thinking, Rachel there are tons of things at your house from your parents. You are right. For some reason my dad wants to be more instrumental in the picking out process than he has been in the past. He was vetoed when he wanted to get Aubrey a Jeep for her first Birthday and I think he has held a bit of a grudge ever since. Anyway, we received a package in the mail today for the girls from my parents. This is it semi-assembled. It has a bridge and tunnel and all sorts of things, but this was all this Mommy could handle when it came to construction. There is a pile for daddy once he has some time to rest tonight. You can also manipulate the track so it can be a whole new toy each time you play with it. The girls were playing with it minutes out of the box and didn't quit until bedtime. I think the cars use batteries and move on their own too, but again, we'll save that part for Daddy. And who's that random boy in the picture? I have no idea! His dad is doing our tile work and he dropped off some materials tonight so "Jake" came with him. He's five and says "what the" a lot. Aubrey now says that too. I cannot really be upset though since I seem to have passed on "frickin'" and "darn it" in the last few weeks. My non curse words sound pretty foul coming out of her sweet mouth, but that's another post altogether. So thanks Dad (and Mom) for the random October gift. The girls love it and so does Jake!

Ummm

So is it normal for an 18 month old to count without being prompted? Yesterday Ainsley stood against the front door, counted to seven, shouted go, and took off in a run. I don't know why she picked seven, but it was pretty cute. Aubrey joined in and they raced for a good twenty minutes. They even did squats as they counted.

A week away, part 1

We recently got back from a week at Mike's parents house. It was a lot of fun, but it feels great to be home. For those of you who don't know, Mike's parents live in a remote area of Northern California. There is no easy way to get there, and there is no way to avoid windy bumpy roads. More specifically, they live somewhere between Eureka and Redding, their mail is addressed to Zenia, and you know you are close when you see "Heldt" nailed to a tree. We headed out last Wednesday and flew into Sacramento and rented a car for the rest of the drive. Mike is a stud and got a free upgrade to a Chrysler Town and Country. What a great vehicle. It was roomy, had duel climate control, which I loved since Mike likes to keep the car icy when he is driving for long times. It also had Satellite radio, a DVD player, and the sun glass holder doubled as a mirror to show you your kids, oh and one of those backing up camera things too. I wouldn't trade my comfy Odyssey, but the amenities were pretty great for the trip.
Anyway, we stopped at In N Out for lunch and then started our five plus hour drive . The kids did great. They were so excited to be going to their grandparents house that they handled the traveling really well. Unfortunately, you can be a great sport and still fall victim to motion sickness. The last three hours of the drive was on a mountain road that was pretty treacherous on your tummy. The kids were very pale. We stopped several times, even to play on the playground of an elementary school, but it was no good. Aubrey got sick first. We had to pull her car seat out, bag up her blanket and clothes and get her into some clean clothes on the side of the road. Mike was a trooper and cleaned the seat out with baby wipes and tried to get the upholstery cleaned up too. I on the other hand was dry heaving on the side of the road. What kind of mom am I if I can't clean up vomit without getting sick too? So we got back in the car and started driving again. Ainsley was throwing up within five miles. So the clean up started again. Aubrey said, "Sister got sick just like me!" We continued our journey and arrived at Mike's parents house very late, at least an hour after they thought we should have arrived. They were extremely worried and Jerry was actually about to head out to look for any signs of us.

I don't know if it was the aftermath of throwing up in the car or something more, but Ainsley barely ate the entire week we were there. She had one normal eating day in the middle and that was it. We stooped to all kinds of antics to get the girl to eat. Grandma played games at the counter. The most entertaining was letting her crawl across the counter, pull her back by her feet, and make her take a bite before she could do it again. Sheesh! She's already skin and bones, she can't really skip eating for an entire week! She also got some sort of bug (flu) the last few days of the trip so she was still not eating, but fairly cranky too. The only thing she wanted to do was watch Little Einsteins over and over and over and over...
Aubrey on the other hand ate non stop. Every time we would offer Ainsley something Aubrey would say, "I would like that Mommy." And like that she did. She was eating so much. She loved grandma's "salads" at dinner time. Grandma makes yummy Jell-o dishes with fruit inside. Aubrey thought it was great to have dessert right there on her plate next to dinner. She thought it was even more great to have a plate of chocolate chip cookies appear magically at the end of the meal. But what really won Aubrey over was the pink room she got to sleep in. She was amazed by the pink paint on the walls and a little upset that hers was green at home. She also loved a picture collage on the wall of herself, her auntie Krystal, and three of her cousins. Ainsley and Kaitlyn were absent as they were not born when it was put together. To be honest, I think Aubrey liked that too, the little stinker!

Blogger is being a punk so this is the end of part 1. Stay tuned for the rest of our adventures in a different post.

more on our health

Here's some pictures of the kids on hour 12 of 14 on our return trip from Mike's parents. They were amazing for how tired they were. Ainsley was already fighting a slight fever at this point. Aubrey was utterly exhausted, she had been up since 5:45am with no more than a thirty minute nap. When I woke her up that morning she said, "Sweetie, it is still dark outside." Ainsley said, "I really really tired." (which sounds like reary reare tiword, so cute).
Back to the matter at hand! As of this morning we are still vomit free. Aubrey is all clogged up but seems to be in a good mood. Ainsley still has a fever, but she ate breakfast and had a banana at 1am (after waking up for the fourth time, after the banana she slept until 7am). The only thing she ate yesterday was a 12 calories of an otter pop. Not good! Mike seems to have had a relapse, but is still in a shirt and tie. The mortgage industry waits on no illness. Hopefully he can put in a half day and come home at lunch to rest. I still have a stupid head ache, but Mike pointed out that it may be the paint fumes that are coming through are vents and not a real sickness. We have library books due back today and I already renewed once so I think we will at least have a car trip this afternoon. My goal for today is to CLEAN my kitchen and pray that no more dry wall dust floats through the vents!

Sorry for the delay - More basement updates

I know it has been a week. I took the fam to visit my folks last week. We had a great time, but Rachel will post more about that later. Before we left, this is what the basement looked like.

They were working on putting up the drywall and had the majority of the walls done when we left.Looking at the theater wall. It took them a bit more time to get the soffit ceilings done with all the levels. Needless to say, it is very dirty down there not to mention the film upstairs EVERYWHERE from the drywall dust blowing through the rest of the house.

When Rachel and I walked down there last night, we were blown away about how much had been done in such a short period of time.

They had finished putting in the railing on the way down the stairs. It is identical to the one upstairs which I was very impressed about and am sure I paid for. :)

Here is the view from downstairs back up. They cut out part of the wall on the other side of the stairs also so they could bring in the railing to continuity. What do you think?

Looking back at the hallway to the office. We got doors to match the office upstairs.

They finished all the tile work in the bathroom. Here is a shot of the shower with the "bench" seat. Can you see how boring we are with our color choices.

Here is a view of the work in progress on the bar area, still sans the countertops, but including the new cabinetry.

Tile on the bar floor.

Finally, a shot from the bar back through the "to be" billiard area to the theater screen wall. I really liked how the crown molding worked into the soffits.

The painter was down there all day putting on the first coat of paint. Aside from the intoxicating fumes wafting upstairs, things are pretty awesome down there. The final inspection is set for next Tuesday. Lots to do between now and then, but I have no doubt they'll get it done.

Flu Watch 2008

Ainsley has been borderline sick for a week. Mike got the stomach flu Monday. I'm assuming that is what Ainsley has too. She keeps swallowing down bile and pointing to her mouth and telling me it hurts. She also rubs her tummy and says "owie." Oh, and she has 103 temperature too. Aubrey says she has a tummy ache and is keeping a mixing bowl near her. I have a head ache and am extremely tired. Who will be the next to vomit? Check back tomorrow to find out. I've got my money on Ainsley.

too tired to blog

BIG apology to all of you anxiously awaiting more basement and more cute kid posts. We have been super busy and things are not slowing down. Besides that, little Ainsley is healthy, but a mess. She hasn't really ate anything in two days and has had trouble sleeping at night. Perhaps that is due to her liquid diet as of late. Anyway, Mike and I were up with her for 3 hours last night and still trying to function during day time hours. I could of slept, since she only wanted DADDY, but the guilt was too much. We are a family and we will be awake together. Anyway, we will be back up and running once life settles down a bit.

the other side of construction

So Mike has the amazing position to come home and see loads of work being accomplished each day. I on the other hand, am living through all that work each second of each minute of each day. It's not that bad, it's loud, but livable.

Yesterday may have been the exception. They had to bring the drywall in through the house and it took about 4 hours. That meant my front door was open for 4 hours. The door to the basement was off the hinges for 4 hours. It was 61 degrees in my house for 4 hours. And I couldn't do much about that after they were done since they were cutting drywall and it would be unwise to run the heater. It would have just pulled the dust through the vents and poured it out on us. My 18 month old was very interested in what was going on too, so I had to be her shadow for 4 hours. It was a long, cold day.

But the thing that bothered me the most is that one of the workers continued to use our front door as his passage to the basement (instead of the window well with the ladder that EVERYONE else uses.) By the end of the day, he wasn't even knocking. It made me very uncomfortable. He's here again today and he just did it again. He rang the doorbell this time and I locked the door after he left, but it is very frustrating. I feel like I should have said something yesterday and since I didn't it's too late. He is smoker and stinks to high heaven too. The smell totally lingers in the house, ugh! He is digging out a window well in the back yard and doesn't even take his shoes off when he walks across the carpet. The longer I type this, the more I realize that I have to say something to him. Hopefully his part will be finished today and he will move on to someone else's house. Maybe we need to run some errands today.

All in all, the workers are very nice and polite. This one guy is leaving a bad taste in my mouth though. Yeah, and it tastes like cigarettes!

my littlest one

This picture was taken a year ago when Ainsley was only 6 months old. Time has gone by so quickly. I cannot believe my baby is nearly one and a half. Should I be thinking about her Birthday already? Nah, we still have plenty before she turns two. But I know it is going to be here so quickly. It doesn't help that she seems to sprint through her milestones erasing so much of the "baby" and leaving an amazing little person. She now says "I yuv you, Mom." It's the best when she just walks up to me and says it because she wants to and not because I want her to. This morning when she woke up she started saying "Where are you?" over and over again. I cannot handle the level of cuteness in this house lately!

Week One is Done

Week One Update -

I can't tell you how amazed I am at all that was accomplished in the first week of our basement finish. I figure that if I were doing it myself, I might have got around to buying the lumber. :) After just 5 days, here is what we accomplished:

Fully framed all walls, ceilings, ceiling soffits, theater wall cutout and cabinetry space underneath. They plumbed for the bathroom and bar area. The electrician wired for all lights and outlets. Today, my bud, Jason Shelton, helped me (read as: did most of it himself) prewire for all the speakers, phones, data, and cable to basically every place you could think.

On Monday, the drywall is delivered first thing in the morning and they should be slapping it up by lunchtime. We ordered the fridge, tile and carpet, and bought the pool table light, pendant lights, bathroom lights, and sconces for either side of the theater. I put down the deposit on the pool table and the cabinets were ordered. Oh, and I managed to work a full week. :)Here is the theater wall. It is 99'' wide and 63" tall. My theater screen is 91" by 53" so it will be a pretty snug fit. You'll notice all the fancy wires for lights and speakers.
This is just another shot down the hallway past the bedroom. All the wires are in place.
This is looking back towards the bar area. We prewired for phone in the bar as well as a cable TV which might be mounted on the wall between the two windows, for poker nights. Heaven forbid someone has to crane their neck around to see the 100" screen behind then when the big game is on. :) What can I say? I am a man of the people.
Here is all the cable coming out through the back of the cabinets under the screen. This consists of an HDMI cable for the HD projector, component video cable, speaker wire for a 7.1 surround sound (I learned that is 7 speakers though we will only start with 5), cable cables, for the HDTV through our Dish Network service, a computer cable so I can project my laptop onto the big screen (who wouldn't want that?), and finally a phone cable and a CAT5 cable for the internet connection. Jason is a A/V expert specializing in million dollar commercial jobs so he is an amazing resource and I couldn't have done it all without him. (Well, I could have, but not for as cheap :) ) Afterward, he said, "I don't know what else we could possibly stick back here."

Hey, Becker, when you come out next (read as: never) we'll be shooting terrorists on the XBox 360 in style. (kidding, my buddy Ron is expecting twins next week so he will be busy)
Finally, this is just a shot of the same area but back from the bar area, which will consist of a two tiered granite slab with a bowed upper level. Get your drink on at the Heldt's!

Next week is going to be really busy for us, so I will probably wait awhile to post again until after the drywall is all done. So no hate mail if the updates drop off for a week.

What do you think?

We Missed It?

I don't know how it happened, but we totally missed the season premier of The Amazing Race. We're bummed. The first episode is kinda important with reality TV since you get to "meet" the cast. So now we will be watching complete strangers race around the world this season. It's a sad sad day.

How fast they change

Aubrey has been very agreeable lately. She will give you a firm "yes" to just about anything. Her voice is precious when she does this.

Ainsley will give you a fervent "no, no, no.." to just about anything. She shakes her head and pushes you away at the same time, just in case you didn't hear her. It's not cute.

Aubrey is currently picking up blocks in the other room so she can get a basket down to play.

Ainsley is currently sleeping, but if she were awake, she would be sitting in the middle of the blocks and moving her arms forward and back to make a bigger mess.

Neither kid cried when I dropped them off at "school" yesterday while I went to Bible Study. They both cried when it was time to go home.

That's about it for now. The water is turned off so I am in a stand still with laundry. Luckily I was able to finish cleaning the bathroom first. I really take running water for granted. I'm glad it will only be off for an hour or so.

Day Two

Well, one day I miss an update and I already get "calls". What's up with that? I took some pictures last night but just didn't have time to update the blog. Sorry Ron. :)This is a shot standing in the office and looking back towards the bedroom and bathroom (signified by the piles of dirt to the left.

This is out the door of the bedroom past the stairs into what will be the billiard area.
This is a shot of the mechanical room and to the left is the bedroom door.
This is from the bar area back towards the theater wall.
You can't really tell the depth of these holes, but this is the beginning of the plumbing for the bathroom.

The framers are still down there tonight and it is almost 8 pm. It's REALLY loud. They are working on the soffit ceilings and the bar framing. I will have more pics tomorrow if I can ever get down there tonight to snap some.