Happy 11 Months TJ!

I didn't miss TJ's monthly birthday shoot - see below - I'm having uploading issues.

Anyways, I'll have to make this quick since I can hear him stirring from his afternoon nap. Only 1 more month (well, 2 weeks now) until TJ is 1 year old. I can' believe how big he is getting! Everyday he does something new and unexpected.

11 Months




He's starting to look like a toddler!


A few amusing TJ anecdotes from the past couple of weeks

Helping dad take down a shelf for me by holding the "ladder."


Someone doesn't like wearing bibs anymore and just rips them off. Here is our solution - eating naked! Well, in his diaper... hehe He looks pretty upset about it, doesn't he?


One of his new favorite things to do: get a book off the shelf, crawl over and climb in his chair and "read" his book.

Finished Patio!

Drumroll please!

Finally, I'm posting pictures of the finished patio. It's been done for a week now but my memory card reader is busted so I no longer have the convenience of uploading pictures on my laptop. I have to come up to the desktop which is in our loft and not at all child proofed. So I'm sure you can imagine how that works with my little charge. Unfortunately, it means I'm quite behind in uploading pictures and posting on my blog.

Here is the finished product! Well, sans grill and furniture which we do now have. As you can see TJ likes it already!







Look at how open our yard is!


And, what I think, is the biggest difference. The removal of a huge, overgrown, planting bed and 2 huge evergreen trees on the north side of the yard.

Here's the before for comparison:


After:


I'm so happy it's done! I can't wait for a little nicer weather so Jim and I can sit out there with a drink and unwind. And it's done before TJ's big bombass birthday beach bash!

Happy Mother's Day!

Wishing all the mothers out there a very happy Mother's Day! Especially my mom, my mother in law, my grandmas (and grandmas in law, I just call you grandma too) and all of my special June 2009 mamas!

I had a wonderful Mother's Weekend. Saturday, Jim took over TJ duty so I could paint my kitchen with help from my mom. I had been putting off painting the kitchen for the past 3+ years with hopes that we could just gut it. Unfortunately, that is not going to happen anytime soon. I couldn't stand it any longer so a face lift was in order. I'm so incredibly happy with how it looks now! Jim just didn't understand why I have been so embarrassed by the state of the kitchen. I finally found a good analogy. I asked him how he would feel if he hadn't mowed the lawn for 3 years and all of his family and friends were coming to the house. That is how I've felt about this kitchen for the past several years. All of the damage has been patched and the dirty blue-so-pale-is-it-really-blue? walls are now a nice shade of sage green. One shade up on the color strip from our family room. I do still want to put a fresh coat of glossy white on the cabinets and get some new hardware but the difference is so dramatic I actually don't feel the need to do that right now. I ended the day with a nice hot bubble bath. :-)

This morning I got to sleep in and then we went to brunch with my parents and brother. TJ got me a Mama card and a pedometer for me to use on our walk/jogs. Jim got my a beautiful necklace with a black pearl floating in a circle. It's EXACTLY what I would have picked out so he did an excellent job. The pearl is both my and TJ's birthstone. We then spend the afternoon at the Brookfield Zoo.

A few pictures of our fun day


My little lovebug


Getting a big fat kiss from my little man


I have to say, it was nice having Jim behind the camera so I actually have some pictures with me in them!

A very nice zoo volunteer came over to take a group shot. I can't believe how great it turned out!

Patio - Days 3 and 4

The third day of the patio project was not very exciting... basically the guys spent the entire day laying a layer gravel, spending an hour packing it down and repeating that about 5 times. The 4th day they began laying the pavers. They spent a long time measuring and leveling and getting those first few bricks laid. It looks amazing! I'm so excited about how nice our backyard will be. I can't wait to be able to spend evenings out there this summer with a margarita in my hand and the baby in bed. :-) They'll be back Monday to finish up. They only have all of the fussy cut pieces to put in which will be time consuming and then sod to lay.







Looking down on the pattern from inside the glass slider.

Patio - Day 2

Today the workers ripped out the entire deck and what a process that was! TJ and I watched from the patio door and family room windows as they attacked it with a chain saw. It was fun watching the walls of the gazebo come out first and the roof falling down. They also did major removal since the dumpster was dropped off today. The rest of the plants from the large bed and all of the timber are gone. The landing and stoop of the patio was started this evening with incredible precise and patient measuring and leveling. It's already looking great! And I have peace of mind seeing how diligent these guys are.

Look how open our yard is now!




This planting bed is going to from about 4 feet deep to about 2 feet deep. Much more manageable for me to keep a few plants alive. The patio will extend to the right side of the windows in front of the planting bed.

Patio - Day 1

Day 1 began around 1pm with the removal of two large evergreen trees. They also removed several bushes along our back fence and most of one of the large planting beds along the side fence. It's remarkable how much larger our yard is with just two trees gone - we gained back about 1/4 of yard space!

Before with trees:


After:

(excuse the poor photography - I was working with a setting sun and a certain 11 month old strapped to me)

The trees were in the right hand side of this photo and the large planting bed extended the entire length of that wooden fence and came out about 5-7 feet


Tomorrow - bye bye rickety, rotting, ginger bread house deck! I won't miss you!

New Patio

Our latest project - a new patio!

We try to do one big project on the house each year. Our little budding walker has dictated which project come next - the deck. Or rather, removal of the deck. I'm not sure when the deck was put on this house but it is in BAD shape. The boards are splintering and nails are popping up. Even Lucy hates walking across it and practically tiptoes to get to the yard. We also have a gazebo, that while it seems like a great idea, just takes up space and makes the yard seem smaller and crowded. We've gone back and forth all winter on what to do. We thought about just removing the top boards and replacing them, keeping the foot print of the current deck and underlying structure. We thought about removing it all and pouring a concrete patio. In the end we decided to remove everything and lay a paver brick patio.

The original owners of our house were a retired couple so they spent a lot of time gardening. When we first looked at the house the yard was amazing. Of course, we have not been able to keep up with the weeds and plants in the slightest so now it's an overgrown jungle. So while we're ripping up the deck we thought we might as well have the landscapers tear out the large planting bed and replace with sod as well as remove two trees. We want TJ to be able to enjoy the backyard and have room for him to run around and play. We also don't want to do any more yard work than mowing!

Work starts tomorrow so I'll be updating the progress each night. It will hopefully all be done in a week to 10 days. For now, here are the before pictures.







I'm convinced this was a DIY project - who in the world would use 1x2s for a deck surface??