Robyn's Thoughts on the Renovation...

It's Day 5 of the reno and the guys have gotten lots done. I'll have Nick post some more pictures later. Joe, our contractor, estimates about 3 more weeks until completion, which seems so soon. I won't hold my breath, though. I've watched enough shows on HGTV and DIY to know that there may be a few unexpected issues come up...but I hope not too many. :)

Ok, on to my thoughts. Let me first say that we are thankful to the Lord for enabling us to do this renovation! It is something we've been thinking about and talking about for about 2 years. Actually, probably over 2 years, even before we moved into this house. In case you're new to this blog or just forgot, we bought this house from my step-grandmother, and thanks to my step-mom and her siblings, were given a great deal! We knew that there was work to do on the house and some things we wanted to change sooner or later. Some things we changed right away and now we are thrilled to be renovating the master bathroom, closet and laundry room. The bathroom was tiny and had some pretty serious plumbing issues, the closet was tiny and could only hold Nick's clothes, and the laundry room was unfinished (as in you could see into the ceiling rafters and some parts of the wall...creepy) and couldn't be accessed from inside the house. Though we were thankful to even have these rooms in the first place, we knew they could be improved. Sooo, that's how we got where we are today! This project makes me feel like a grown up. Most of the time I don't really feel like a grown-up, eventhough I'll be 30 this June, but doing this project makes me feel like one.

I'm sure we'll learn lots of lessons during this whole process. And in case you don't know me that well, I'm a bit of a perfectionist and a regretter. This isn't a good combination, especially when doing a renovation. In the end there might be a thing or two that I wish I'd done differently, but I pray I'll have a thankful heart and see how wonderful it is even if it's not perfect. We'll keep you posted on the progress. :)

Renovation, Day 3

Here are some pictures from day 3 of the renovation. I'm very impressed with the amount of work that they've completed. In a nutshell they've gutted the old bathroom, closet and laundry room and have jackhammered the concrete in order to lay new pipes to accommodate the new layout. There are many other things that have gotten done, but it's late so that's all the details you get.

Buddies

Nick and Taylor are buddies, big buddies. He's a great Daddy and they're really cute to watch. Here are a few shots of the fun they have together playing, snuggling, reading, "painting" with water, and putting marker tops on their finger tips. (Disclaimer: Taylor does not drink coke, that's water in the coke bottle. But Nick does and that is indeed coke in the can.)

Teddy Bear Picnic

Taylor's class had a Teddy Bear Picnic last Tuesday at MDO. Each child was supposed to bring their favorite teddy bear, which for Taylor seems to fluctuate. This particular day this one was the lucky guy. I'm not really sure what all they did, but I do know each of the bears got an award. Taylor's bear, who is so cleverly named "Teddy Bear" got the award for Softest Bear. You can't tell very well from the picture but her dress has 3 teddy bears on it. It was a hand-me-down from my step-siter, Melanie, and the timing was perfect! Thanks again, Mel!
On an unrelated note, one of her teachers said Taylor was having a "Little Day", meaning that she looked super young that day. I agreed, she did look a little babyish that day.

Renovation starts with demolition

The talk of our house for the last few weeks has been the renovation that we've hoped to start soon. We've met with architects and contractors over the last couple of months and now that the new year is here we finally decided that it's time to get started. Right now our master bathroom and closet are very small so we're going to expand both of those rooms. And right now the laundry room is attached to the house but is unfinished (no sheetrock and you can see into the attic) so we'll move things around so that you'll now be able to access the laundry room through the house. I think this is the part of the renovation that Robyn is most excited about. And I actually drew up the plans for the remodel so I'm excited to see how my plans turn out.

We've spoken with our contractor and he's going to start working tomorrow so we decided to get started with the demolition yesterday. You can see in the pics that we made some good progress yesterday. We removed the toilet and vanity and got all the tile off the walls in the bathroom. Robyn also worked hard and made a lot of progress on the laundry room. I think we're both sore today so we decided to have a Sabbath and leave the rest of the work to the contractor, although we'll do more work later on.

Mommy and Me Ballet Class

Taylor and I had the privilege of going to a Mommy and Me Ballet Class this morning! You just don't know how excited I was! I would LOVE for her to be a dancer, but don't worry I won't be one of those pushy moms who tries to live vicariously through her children.:) I couldn't find the little camera so I don't have any pictures, but we plan to go again next week, so I'll be sure to take some then. I think she had a good time. There actually wasn't a lot of ballet today, but it's a 12 week class, so I'm sure we'll progress into more dance. It really was more of just a "movement class" where we warmed up, stretched, sang songs and did hand motions/body movements with them. The teacher briefly told the story of Swan Lake and showed them pictures of swans and a ballerinas, then we did some toe-walking, skipping, and pirouette turns across the floor and back...and by "we" I mean the teacher and the mommies.And by "mommies" I mean one other lady besides myself. The teacher said there were more people there last week and that Kindermusik started back up today, so that might be a conflict for some.
After class Taylor said she had to go potty again (we went right before class started, too) and then when we came back into the class she excitedly screamed that she went tee-tee on the potty and was wearing big girl panties! Thanks for that!
She's on her third week of wearing big girl panties and going potty and I must say that she is doing excellent! Yippee!
Ok, I'll keep you posted on the subject of ballet and will try to get some pictures next week.

Prima Ballerina

Taylor is truly a girl after my own heart today. She found my Tchaikovsky Nutcracker Ballet CD and said she wanted to listen to it. Then she got her tutu out, which for some reason she called a scarf, and said she wanted to wear it. So of course I put her hair in a bun and took pictures. I mean, who wouldn't?

Oh no she dit'in

This is the conversation I just had with Taylor.

T: you got a boo boo? (pointing to a spot on my face)
R: no, that's a blemish.
T: you got another blemish? (while pointing to another spot on my face)
R: yep. thanks.

She's an observant little thing. And oh so complimentary. ;)

Lots to say, so little time...

Once again, I apologize for my lack of consistent blogging lately. I have lots of reasons (excuses), some very valid, but I'll spare you. I need to come up with some type of plan on when to blog...actually my whole life is in need of some structure :) So I make no promises but I hope to post more often. I do, however, promise to make a Christmas post soon.

As the title says, there is lots to say! Happy New Year, first of all! Also, I gather from people's comments/questions, that the previous picture of Taylor on Christmas morning needs some explaining. Nick made that post and he liked that picture, so he put it on there. It captures her excitement. The present is actually a chunky little toy mail truck. We got it because she enjoys playing with other kids cars/trucks sometimes and we chose the mail truck because for a while now she has been interested in the mail truck and gets excited when she sees or hears him. So that's the story behind that.

The most note-worthy thing around here is that TAYLOR IS POTTY TRAINING!!! Yep, she's been going on the potty since last Tuesday! She spends most of the day in big girl panties (or "underwear" if you're Nick and don't like the other word). Of course she still naps and sleeps in a diaper and for now she'll continue to wear a diaper for errand running. I must say a huge thank you to Nick's Mom, Carole, and sisters, Lisa and Val, for their contribution! The whole week of Christmas we were in St. Pete visiting Nick's family, which you would already know if I had blogged about it. ;) Anywho, I jokingly told Carole that I wanted her to go ahead and get Tay potty trained while we were there. Well, I was only partly joking. So, she got the little potty out and some potty training books and patiently took her to the potty numerous times everyday. Lisa and Val also took her potty and read books over and over again. Two of Tay's girl cousins who are potty trained were there, so Tay got to go with them and I think that really helped her get it. She never actually did anything on the potty while we were in St. Pete, but something definitely clicked. We didn't have anywhere to go the Tuesday after we got back home, so I figured I'd put her in underwear and take her potty all day long. I was so thrilled when she actually went! She's never been scared of the potty and has been sitting on it for months but now there is some action! Whoop whoop! Ok, I'll leave you with a visual of the little potty-training-punkin!