New Doors!

We live in an old house. I think it was built in 1923 and there are a lot of upgrades that we could do, if we chose to. This past year Dan has replaced the stairway with nice new Douglas Fir treds and new white risers. We still have a bit of work to do to finish that project, it's probably 90% completed. But, we decided to install 2 new exterior doors with money from our tax return. When we moved in we knew both doors needed to be replaced at some point, it was just a matter of saving the money and then choosing the doors. With the arrival of Elliott we fell a bit behind in repairs, just too busy with a new baby. Yesterday the new doors were installed for us and they are AMAZING! It is weird to be so excited about doors? I don't think so, not if you understood just how bad the old doors were.

The door out to our garden had a hole cut in it for a dog door. We just put some plywood on the outside and left it that way. The door was really old, the glass was single pane. Around the lock mechanism you could actually see outside. Basically there was a lot of air leakage. Here is the old door from the inside and then a picture from the outside:




Now here is the new door:




Here is the door from our basement hallway out to our back patio. Before it was a terrible slab door with a dinky hole cut into it:




Now it is so pretty!




The installers said that this basement door was one of the most challenging they had every done. Made me very thankful that we decided to have them install for us, rather than Dan learning how to do it on his own.

Can't wait to see what a difference not having those two leaky doors will make in our heating bill next winter.

Tulip Festival '10

On Friday Elliott and I went to the Tulip Festival with both of my sisters and their kids. We were celebrating Sarah's 34th Birthday - Sarah, you are old! Ha ha, just kidding. It's just nice to know that even though I just turned 30 she is now 34 :) (evil smile, he he).

The kids had a great time. There were a lot of activities to do without even going to look at the amazing tulip fields. Everyone, except E and I, went on a cow ride around the farm. I'm not sure what I was thinking...I think I thought someone needed to guard the strollers. I'm sure they would have been just fine. Maybe next year we can go on the ride.

Sarah and Grace getting ready to start the cow ride:


Amy with Cameron, Josh and Caleb:


Elliott on the horse swing:


Elliott sniffing the tulips:


Getting ready to investigate more tulips:


Tulip fields:


Brooke and Josh on the walk back:


Elliott is chatting up a storm recently. His new favorite word is "Amy". This morning he pointed at a picture of Amy and said her name. We are now working on the names of all the other aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins, etc... Owl is still a good standby, as well as turtle. We also think he says, " I want that". What manners he has!

Easter Picture Extravaganza!

Sorry for the lack of updating! I have no excuses, I'm just too lazy to hop on the computer at night to update the blog. We've been spending some time outside - when it's not raining. Dan and I had a great adventure which ended with us having a car towed out of our backyard... It is finally spring here and while it is still raining a lot, there have been quite a few great sunny days. A few weeks ago Elliott and I went on a big bike ride with both of my sisters and their kids. Amy and I towed 2 kids each while Sarah, Josh and Brooke all rode by themselves. It was really fun, though I did have a hard time riding up hill pulling at least 60lbs. of kid behind me. I had intended to take pictures of this fun trip, but was working too hard to remember the camera.

This past week was very busy for us. I think we had something happening every day, which is unusual for life around here. On Saturday we went to Wilsonville (we spend a lot of time there) and had Easter with my family at Amy's house. The kids played and did a little egg hunt inside.

Most of the cousins:

Brooke has a bruised eye because she ran into a door knob earlier in the week

Caleb:


Cameron hunting for eggs:


Elliott showing off his loot:


Elliott totally understood hunting for eggs, though most of them needed to be fairly obvious. I have a video I'll post below of him doing a small hunt at the Porter's house on Sunday. The most thrilling part of the day was also very scary! Elliott fell all the way down Amy's stairway. We are so thankful that Ryan was so quick on his feet and was able to, somehow, get to Elliott in time to catch his head before it hit the hardwood floor. E seemed to be fine, amazingly. He was very scared but didn't have even a bruise. In all, I think we are very happy and thankful as it could have been so much worse. We also learned that Elliott is into "group comfort". He had to be comforted by me first, then Dan, then Grandma, then Amy... then Amy gave him chocolate milk and he was fine.

On Sunday we had Easter with Dan's family. (I guess it's helpful that my sisters are nurses and always seem to have to work so that we move holidays around.) It was a pretty low key celebration compared to the day before. Elliott played with his Easter loot - including a new broom! Then went down for a nap while the rest of us ate dinner without him. I sometimes forget how nice it is to eat without him there. After his nap he discovered the broom again and went to work cleaning house.


Egg hunt:


We had a great weekend and had fun celebrating with all of our family.

Mini-Vacation

Last night we arrived home from our mini-vacation to Seattle. On Wednesday night we drove up to Centralia, WA and stayed at Great Wolf Lodge. This was in celebration of my 30th b-day, plus we've been talking about wanting to go for a while now. Let me just say, this place is AMAZING! If you are between 7 and 13 I think this place would be total heaven. Somehow we were upgraded to a suite and had a total of 3 queen sized beds and 1 king in our hotel room. We were able to put Elliott in his own room and hang out after her went to sleep - with lights on! The water park is really fun. There are 4 water slides but we were only able to go on 2 of them. The other two you need at least 1 adult and someone else who is more than 42" tall - we didn't have that and we coudln't just leave Elliott with strangers. But, we did everything else. Elliott really liked the water and had a great time in the small pool for little kids. I got him to actually voluntarily put his whole face in the water. Every time we left the pool area he was mad at us.

On Thursday we drove up to Seattle and planned to attend the Seattle Sounders v. Portland Timbers soccer game. Thankfully Dan's sister, Lauren, came to the rescue and volunteered to watch E while we were at the game. It was really fun seeing a game in such a big stadium, Qwest Field (I've never been to a college football game or an NFL game). The Timbers won, 1-0! It rained for at least 1/2 the game, so I was pretty thankful when we were able to leave. It was cold!

We brought our camera, but forgot to use it at all. I did take a few pictures with my phone of E playing in a park in Edmonds while Dan was working on Friday afternoon.




E has a bunch of new words recently. Cookie, outside, truck, whale, shark, tree, airplane, baby, and bird. That's all I can remember off the top of my head. He is trying new words everyday.

Well, it is beautiful outside so I think maybe we'll head out to do something fun.

Copycat

So, I'm 30....ack! I made a promise to myself that at 30 I would do P90X with Dan, but I was going to wait until March 1 to start. Dan did this program a few months ago and lost 15lbs and said that he was feeling much more fit. I've always had a hard time working out. I think it's because I swam for 12 years, I wanted a break. So, I just had a 12 year break. Back to working out.

This morning we were doing our fitness test. Basically we were doing push ups, pull ups, wall sits, etc. Elliott was very interested in what we were up to. After Dan did his pull ups, Elliott walked over to the door and lifted his arms up - meaning he also wanted to hang from the pull up bar. After push ups he did his own little version. After our wall sits he walks over to where I was and sits down next to me with his back to the wall. It was too funny. Here is a short video of his push ups. He's also obsessed with Owls, and I got him to say it on video.




In other news, Elliott and I were both sick right after our last blog post. I thought he had croup, but I'm not convinced of it now. Though, he was coughing a lot and we had more long nights than I liked. We are both finally feeling good. I also turned 30 and Dan was more than generous with a birthday present for me. I got a new fridge. While you might say that's not very personal, it is to me! I love my new stainless french-door fridge. Thanks Dan, you are the best!! My sister in law and soon to be brother in law - Lauren and Justus - got me a cookbook. So far I've made blueberry muffins and peanut butter cookies...both were fabulous. I might have to break the P90X diet and continue to try out recipes. Thanks guys!

Okay, I'm tired after working out for the first time, I think it's time for me to get to bed.

It's been a while

Sorry for the bad blogging. The truth is, our office has been such a mess I haven't wanted to enter it for fear of contracting something... Dan cleaned it though, thank goodness! Thanks D!! We had a busy weekend with family. On Friday my sister, Amy, hosted a Valentines Party for all the cousins. The kids decorated cookies - more sprinkles than I think I've ever seen on a cookie. They colored and played hard. It was great. Dan and I went roller skating on Saturday night for a friends birthday. We were really lucky because Dan's parents took Elliott all night long! Woohoo, sleeping in AND not having to listen to a baby monitor all night long :) Sunday was a lazy day of playing and sleeping and celebrating V-day with Dan's Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Vic who were visiting from Montana.

Elliott has turned into a major climber. We have to watch him closely now because he'll climb up his high chair and it's a little scary to see him up there alone. He has found that my yoga block is very helpful in giving him that extra little height needed to scale the couch or look out the window.




While the rest of the country is covered in way too much snow we are enjoying great weather here (not so good for the Vancouver Olympics though...). Today we went to the park with Amy, Cameron and Caleb. Since our neighborhood is so old we still have a merry go round at the park. Obviously they are way too dangerous now (sarcasm) so it's hard to find one. The kids love it!

A Rainy Day

It's wet in Portland today....really wet! But, Dan and I decided to brave the rain to take Elliott to the zoo. I think we were half crazy. Not surprisingly, the zoo in Portland was nearly deserted. In way though it was nice. We were the only people viewing the Polar Bears, the Elephants and the Monkeys. Unfortunately, the Lions weren't out for display. That was really the whole reason we went to the zoo :(. Still, it seemed that Elliott had a good time. He is much more aware of the animals and did get excited when they would walk around or swim. One of his favorites was the Owl, he's big into Owls right now. He tries to say "owl" but that's a pretty tough word for him. I'm not sure I can even describe what he says, but he's trying. Elliott also likes turtles. There is a picture of a turtle above his changing table and we talk about it daily. In the NW exhibit they have a bunch of turtles they are trying to save...they are teeny tiny!

This is a terrible picture of Dan and Elliott - I can't ever get good shots with my phone.


Baby Turtles (I like how they are stacked):


Hopefully everyone else had less wet weekends :)