Life . . .

. . . is busy. We spent the entire weekend running errands and helping Uncle Jay put up drywall in his new living room. Never once picked up the camera this weekend! It's going to be a "light" week for photos unless I can find some "oldies but goodies" that I never shared!! Keep your fingers crossed!

. . . is exhausting. Shane keeps us on our toes all the time these days. His days of napping seem to be long gone and with them went our treasured moments of quiet and relaxation. He's got us going non-stop and the only time we sit down these days is when he's asleep for the night! With all these new developments, we're a *little* behind with a lot of things to say the least! Exhibit A - last night we watched the season/series finale of Shark (that we tivo'd) from May 20! Only took us 4 months to find the time to watch it!! By the time we're finally able to sit down and un-wind, we just want to go to bed ourselves! We're WAY beyond sleep-deprived these days!

. . . is fun. Busy and exhausted as we may be, we still have a great time. Shane makes us laugh on a daily basis - either by something he says, something he does, or an accomplishment he's made. When he's finished eating his yogurt, he no longer leaves the empty yogurt cup and spoon sitting on the table (or the floor, or the couch . . . if I'm being honest!) he now throws the empty yogurt cup out in the garbage can (this warms my heart) and the spoon goes right back into the silverware drawer (yogurt remains on the handle and all)!! So in addition to fetching Shane all day long, we're also fetching dirty spoons out of the drawer!

. . . is good. Most of all, despite everything else, life is good. We need to remember that a little bit more some days!

The Summer Party - Again

Below are some additional pictures from our get together on Saturday. Truly was a fantastic time!

Uncle Rich, serving up the drinks!
Bocci, anyone?
If you're not over the age of 21, please skip over the next picture! By the end of the night the guys had the beer pong table out and in good use!
Aunt Lauren and Aunt Kate:
Uncle Jay with Aunt Lauren, cool effect with the smoke from Rich's cigar.
These last pictures were taken by Chris on Sunday. You can see just how exhausted Shane (ok, everyone!) was from the last few days.

This kid doesn't sit still for a second, let alone actually lay down!! Even Kylee is wondering what the heck is going on!

This is pretty much what we did all day long!
Does he look wiped or what?! And the sucker and blanket he's got with him - those RARELY leave the crib - a true sign that the day before got the best of him!
Look at that poor, tired, face!
Yet, by Monday, he was rested and right back at it again! Anyone need any work done around their house? I know a guy . . .

Exhausted

That's pretty much how we're all feeling at our house after this VERY busy, and LONG, weekend!

After 3 days, a whole lot of manual labor and elbow grease, our kitchen/computer room are now complete!

Appliances removed from kitchen - CHECK
Corner hutch emptied and removed - CHECK
Old kitchen floor removed - CHECK
Old molding removed - CHECK
Screws removed from concrete - CHECK (after SEVERAL hours)
Appliances all deep cleaned - CHECK
Cabinets and counters all deep cleaned - CHECK
New molding purchased - CHECK
New molding cut - CHECK
New molding painted - CHECK
New floor installed (this was the only thing that we didn't do ourselves) - CHECK
New molding installed - CHECK
Appliaces all brought back into the kitchen - CHECK
Corner hutch cleaned and re-hung - CHECK
New curtains ironed and hung - CHECK

CHECK, CHECK, CHECK and CHECK

We're done and won't be doing it again anytime soon! We have no pictures of the "during" stage of the project (mainly because I couldn't find the camera amongst all the mess that was our house this weekend), but I'll take pictures of the completed rooms and post them this week.

Thanks to Grandma and Aunt Kate for taking Shane all day on Saturday so that we could get the majority of this project behind us!

I never thought we'd be so happy to be at work today!

Uncle Jay's Kitchen

It's been brought to my attention that I haven't posted any pics of Uncle Jay's kitchen. The reason is I actually only have one picture right now, and it's not from a very good angle.

The ceiling fan has already been replaced. The cabinet door sitting on top of the dishwasher has been re-hung and the knobs on the cabinets have all been switched out. The mess has been picked up and the shelves have been cleaned off.

The wall behind the (standing) fan is the wall that is shared with the future living room. This is the wall that will be knocked down.

I'm standing in his hallway taking this picture. The "yellow room" is behind me, the bathroom is to my right and the living room is to my left. The doorway that Shane is standing in leads out to the sun porch.

(**Click on the picture twice to enlarge it**)

Uncle Jay's House, Take 2

We were all back at Uncle Jay's new house on the 4th of July to help him officially move in! Quite a day, but we got a lot accomplished. The move went really well, only one snag. Jay's leather couch wouldn't fit through any of the doorways. They ended up having to take out a large window on the sunporch and bring the couch through that way! By the end of the day things were in pretty good shape!

Below are some last pictures of the house before the actual move:

Jay is currently using this room as his living room and as his bedroom while he is renovating what will be the living room. Jay will turn this room into 2 rooms - his bedroom and an office. View of the "yellow room" from the kitchen/hallway:
View of the back of the room (taken from inside the room at the front of the house):
Same angle: Front of the room, the large window overlooks his front yard:
Same angle:
Taken from the corner next to the large picture window. Looking into his entryway:

Taken from the corner next to the front door, into the "yellow room":
Taken from the "yellow room". The closed door is directly across from the front door. Behind that door is the staircase to go upstairs. The open doorway leads into his future living room:
View up the stairs to the 2nd floor. Pictures to come of the upstairs:

And he's finally home!!!

Welcome home, Uncle Jay!!!
All Jay's belongings! And he thought he'd have room to spare with this truck!

Uncle Jay was a hero that day! In Shane's eyes, Uncle Jay was Superman! Uncle Jay had a "gee"!!!!

Congratulations again, Uncle Jay!!!! REALLY great house!!!

Next time we go visit Uncle Jay, we'll take some updated photos to post.

5 On Friday (On Thursday)

1) Uncle Jay signed all of the papers and as of July 1 he owns his very own, very first, home - in Milford, CT!!!!! Pictures to come next week. Way to go, Uncle Jay!!!

2) Aunt Kate signed the papers, too! As of July 1, she has her very first OFFICIAL job as a first grade teacher for the town of Bridgeport!! Way to go, Aunt Kate!!!

3) Shane has decided that he LOVES the closets at Uncle Jay's new house! The very same closets that Uncle Jay hates and plans on taking out! We went to see the house on Tuesday night after dinner and Shane spent most of his time putting me inside of the closet and closing the bi-fold door on me! And when he wasn't doing that, he was busy looking out the windows in the house that happen to be just about toddler viewing height! Did I mention that Uncle Jay plans on replacing those windows, too?! Poor Shane!!

4) "Ba, 'rage!!!" (Translation: "Goodbye, garage!!!") Shane's new favorite thing to say. Nuff said.

5) Speaking of garage (it's literally all we hear about at our house!!) no one but Shane is allowed to open or close the garage door. We have to hand him the remote to open the door once we get home and we have to hand it back to him to close the door once we pull into the garage. In between, there's a lot of screaming and squealing going on. Fun times!

Hope everyone enjoys the holiday weekend! Check back on Monday for lots of new pictures and stories!!!

Belmont, Revisited

Just two more quick shots from our day at Belmont!

I realize I say it all the time, but seriously! How could you not love this face??!?!?
Guess who didn't want to ride IN his stroller anymore??? The kid loves being in control!
****I will also be taking the weekend "off" from blogging to enjoy the time with family (and to help Uncle Jay move into his first home!!!), so "5 On Friday" will be on Thursday this week!****