Happy New Year, Monkey Style

And my Mom said it couldn't be done!!!

Since my monkeys can now tell time, she thought our tradition of telling them it's midnight at 10:00 p.m. would be ending. NOT SO!! We just told them we would be celebrating with Sydney Australia and pulled up the YouTube broadcast from earlier today. Gotta love technology!

Eric made confetti bags out of sandwich bags and paper and I made poppers with popcorn inside since I was a bad mom and forgot to get the regular poppers at the store today. I think everything turned out quite well! The dogs even cleaned up all the popcorn for us! : )

Closed up, waiting for a warm day to paint

The window has been in since Sunday morning, but rains kept us from finishing the siding until last night. Finishing the drywall inside will be next, and we will paint as soon as we get a warm day.

Demolition Day

This morning Eric and I took advantage of the nice weather with a home improvement project...

Replacing our master bedroom window.

One of our recent rains we noticed water dripping from the top of the window on the inside. Once Eric started investigating, he discovered that water had been seeping in behind the improperly sealed windows for quite some time. Under the siding we discovered soggy, rotten wood everywhere.

Since Eric was not happy with the quote we were given by a local remodeler, he decided to undertake the project himself (with my help of course). However, not being a master carpenter, he decided that cutting and framing this round window would be beyond his skill. And seeing how I hated these widows anyway, we ordered new ones : ).

Logan and Amanda had a ball climbing on the scaffolding and helping whenever possible.

Here is all the drywall removed, before Eric took out the rotten studs. Be sure to check out the video below of the kids helping us knock out the drywall.

At the end of day one, you can see the new framing for my new windows. I'll have a large rectangle on top, and two single hung window where Eric is standing. The sides will be new drywall. It's definitely a bigger window, but no weird curves so tomorrow's installation should go smoothly.

We absolutely must get it done on Sunday, because the weather man is calling for rain on Monday!

Drywall Demo

Surprise Tuesday

Surprise Tuesday has been a tradition in our family for two years now. It started when Logan was in Kindergarten and Amanda was going to Mom's Day Out on Tuesdays. Each Tuesday I would pick her and Logan up with some sort of surprise for them. The surprises range from treats (like donuts, cookies or cold Sonic drinks), to small gifts or acts (like picking them up with the dogs or cat in the car).

For me, Tuesdays have come to mean something more than just a treat. It's my special way of showing them how much I love and appreciate them with my small acts of kindness. My hope is that when they are grown, they'll look back on their childhood and remember that love... not necessarily that mom like to give them things on Tuesday. Some weeks I know exactly what I'm going to do. Other weeks I have to rack my brain to come up with something original, but they care not for the WHAT, only the WHY.

I love you, Monkeys, with all my heart.

2 Years Cancer Free

Yesterday we had a celibration... Logan 2 year anniverary of being in remission!!!! His last doctors appointment of the year found him to be in perfect health and we had cake and sparkling grape juice to celibrate. For the next 3 years he will visit his cancer doctor every 4 months for a checkup but his pronosis is VERY good!!! Looks like we might have whipped this nasty thing called cancer!!!!!