Thursday, June 19, 2008

Our household grows by one!

Ok, ok, before you get too excited, we have NOT adopted another child! I know...bummer! BUT we have acquired a new house member...well, we will very shortly anyway. For those who have been following along from awhile ago, you may remember me saying something about my dad possibly moving in if he could sell his house. You guessed it, he finally sold his house! So he will be moving in within the next month or two. For now, he will stay in our camper while we aren't camping until it is too cold to do so. While we are camping, he'll be in the house, unless he decides to camp with us. Once it gets too cold to stay in the camper, he will be taking over the upstairs bedroom that I am currently using as a sewing room. My stuff will go into storage. My dad plans on giving us a large portion of the proceeds from selling his house so that we can start on the rebuilding of our kitchen which will now contain a back bedroom/bath for my dad. In my dreams, this addition/renovation would have two floors so we can build two more bedrooms upstairs, but realistically, I have little hope of this actually happening. It would be nice to move the girls into our current bedroom which is the size of their bedroom plus my sewing room put together, and then not only would their huge bunkbed/playhouse not overpower the room, but they'd have room for all their toys, too! Our room also has a big walk-in closet which would solve so many issues with their clothes and all the hand-me-downs they have yet to fit into! The sewing room would be cut in half, half for an upstairs laundry room and the other half would be a hallway leading to the back bedrooms. Back there, I'd love to put another bedroom (for any future children because come hell or high water I am NOT done adopting kids!!) and a master bedroom and bathroom suite with a set of back stairs or exterior stairs off a small deck for fire safety reasons.

Yes, I love to dream and this is one heck of a dream as to do this would essentially double the square footage in our house which would do god only knows to our already over-inflated property taxes!! My father's financial gift would definitely help, but would in no way be enough to actually finish the job, even without the second story! We're probably looking at a home equity line of credit at the very least. My business is definitely increasing, but is it enough to realize this dream??? I guess only time will tell! If anyone has any helpful money-saving tips or secret grant/loan tips for us, I'd really appreciate it!

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Camping with Daddy!

Have I mentioned before how much I LOVE camping??? We just returned from our latest trip and I am bummed that we had to return to life in general today. Below is one of the results from the girls' favorite camp activity (other than riding their bikes). This one is Drew's creation after Julie traced her outline on the pavement.



Here's Luci's creation.
Here is some of Drew's budding academics. She practices her math skills with the sidewalk chalk.
Luci tries out Hannah's scooter thingy (yes, I KNOW there is an actual name for this contraption, however, I am currently having a brain-fart and cannot think of it, hence the "scooter thingy".)
Amy and Uncle pulling out after a pleasant visit on Saturday. Amy waves good-bye!
Here's my cute little man being a good boy.
And here is the newest family member on the "S" family! This is Ruby, Hannah's new dog, actually she is still a puppy, but you'd never guess it from her behavior. She is the sweetest, prettiest pup I've seen in a while! And very lovable, too!
Here's one of Monty's favorite pasttimes when nobody is playing with him. Chew, chew, chew! Speaking of chewing...Mr. Monty will officially be less of a man as of next Monday, and while he's under, the Dr. will be pulling all four of Monty's baby canines as they are still in his mouth right next to all four of his adult canines! Apparently, it is rather common in the toy breeds for them to retain some of their baby teeth. So along with having a sore ummm, nether region...he'll also have a sore mouth, poor little thing! He'll be getting lots of TLC when he gets home from that appointment!
The girls came up with a new game called "Mergency". In this scene, we have the patient, Luci, laying on the backboard while EMT's Drew and Hannah prepare to load her into the ambulance.
Once loaded, the EMT's get into the front seat of the ambulance and start driving. (Dean provides sound effects and motion effects for all the potholes in the road.)
Luci's pretty good at "playing dead". Gotta love the tongue!
And of course, today is Father's Day! And to celebrate the awesome Dad in their lives, the girls gave him a book called, "Me and My Dad". Here he is reading it to them!
Also part of the gift was a ribbon with "World's Best Dad" (and he really is!!) and some homemade artwork from the girls (which was Dean's favorite gift of all...next to the hugs and kisses, of course!)


Playtime ensues after the gift-giving!


After the little Father's Day celebration, we went to the "S"'s camper for breakfast. How's this for some breakfast chow??? I don't do strawberries, so I opted for some pancakes a la Jimbo! They were pretty yummy!!

Poor little Monty was left outside at our camper while the rest of us were at the "S" camper and he was none too happy about either!
Ummmmmmm.....I don't really have an explanation for this shot.
Jim on a little morning walk. Walking off some of those calories from breakfast, maybe???
Hee hee! The girls drew hop-scotch squares on the road and Dean was giving it a try! It looked as funny in person as it does in this picture!!

Nothing was funnier than watching Luci hop! I can't even describe how she was moving, but suffice it to say that we all got a huge laugh out of it!
This little gem of nature was located outside the men's bathroom. I snuck up while Mama was out looking for some food.
And what would summer be without some cute posed shots of the girls! I love these hats! Not as much as those smiles, but they're still cute!


The next planned trip is two and a half weeks from now and it's far too long a wait, but school isn't out for another week and a half. And then I have a wedding to shoot on the 27th, so we'll see how it goes for that weekend. Until then...