Our house...

Things are really moving along!

The front

The back.

The north side.

Most recent picture...

The rain is slowing things down a bit, but here's what the house looked like on Friday.

Our New House

We realize that most of our out of town friends don't even know that we are building a new house. So, here's a recap of what's been going on so far...We purchased a 1.13 acre lot in Sutter in August. It had lots of junk and some old almond trees on it.

We cleaned it up, cleared it out and left some of the almond trees.

Built a pad...

Poured some concrete...

Built a raised foundation...

Built some walls...

And in between, we've been making LOTS of decisions! We plan to move into our new house in March. We are all very excited and can't wait! We'll post more pictures as things progress...

Conversations with Syd and Sam

* While walking through the WinCo parking lot, Sydney saw an old station wagon with wood paneling on the sides. Her eyes got really big and she said, "Mommy, that car is made of wood. I've never seen a car made out of wood before! Did they have wooden cars when you were my age? Did they have cars when you were my age?"

*While walking along the sidewalk in front of Raleys, Sydney saw a woman talking on a pay phone. "What is she doing Mommy?" She's talking on the phone. "Why does that phone have a string on it? I explained that some phones have cords. I also explained the concept of a pay phone. "Why doesn't she just use the phone in her purse?"

*While sitting at the dinner table..."Mommy, I need to send Landon (Warta) a wedding invitation." Why? "Cuz I am going to marry him and lots of people are going to come watch and when we're all done, I'm gonna be Sydney Warta!" Note that Sydney has never been to a wedding or seen a wedding...she just seems to have figured it all out somehow!

*Sam: "I Bam and I THREE!" while holding up five fingers.

*Sydney was drawing on the Magna Doodle. She had me draw her a picture of a girl and then she wanted to put makeup on her and complete the finishing touches. When I came back to her room, her drawing was complete. The girl had little dots all over her face. I asked if she gave the girl freckles. Sydney's reply, "No, Mommy! That's a picture of you! Those are boo-boo's (pimples) all over your face!" I feel so loved... :o)

*Sam came out of Sydney's room, dressed in full Snow White attire...matching dress, purse, crown and high heels. I told him he looked so beautiful. His response, putting his purse free hand on his hip: "Mommy, I not byooiful, I a handsome princess!"

Back to School!

School started last week. Both kids are now attending preschool at Jack & Jill. Sydney goes on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and Sam goes on Tuesday and Thursday. They both love it!

After Sam's first day of school, we found out the answer to the question: "Can we fit three booster seats in the back seat of our car?" Yes, we can! (with lots of effort!) Hunter came with us to McDonalds. A fun way to celebrate a great first day!

Sam is 3!

Sam turned 3 on August 20th. He had a Scooby Doo birthay party. He had been planning it for months...he wanted a Scooby Doo cake and a Scooby Doo pinata and he wanted all his friends to come play. Sam's wish came true! He had so much fun!

The Great Outdoors...

Wait....I better make that "The Great Backyard..."

I heard the back door close earlier today and went to investigate. Once again, I discovered Sam, pulling down his pants, getting ready to pee on the bushes! If only I had captured the look on his face when he was finished. He was so proud of himself and told me all about what he peed on. Yesterday I found him walking backwards as he peed, yelling, "It's chasing me!"

Now I realize that you could have gone the rest of your life without ever having seen these pictures. In fact, I never thought I'd post a picture on the blog of my kid peeing. But, it has all been so stinkin' funny, that I just had to share. Friends warned me that once Sam peed outside, it was all over. They were right! They can now feel free to say, "I told you so!" Sam will wake up at 2am and need to go pee, but refuse to go in the toilet. So yes, I have taken Sam outside in the middle of the night so he could stand at the edge of the back porch and pee in the grass. Yet another one of those things I never thought I'd do... I guarantee you that I'll have more fun "pee stories" to tell you in the future. So stay tuned... :o)

Wedding Bells...

You may recall that Sydney has her future all planned out...she is going to marry Austin after she finishes college and then they are going to have babies. Well, the other day she was very insistent that we go to the grocery store (WinCo). I asked her why she wanted to go to the grocery store so bad. Her response, "I have to go buy a wedding dress! I'm gonna marry Austin next week, after I finish college!" I called Lisa, Austin's mom and told her about Sydney's plan. Austin was ok with the whole thing, as long as he got a lolly pop! Wouldn't that just be something if she really did marry Austin some day?

Sam is potty trained!

A friend gave me some information on a potty training technique that worked for her two year old. It required that I stay by Sam's side for at least three days, so I decided to try it over Easter vacation so that I wouldn't have to bring Syd to school. It actually took more like five days of not leaving the house...at all! But, it worked. Sam threw all of his diapers into a garbage bag and only wore underwear for this process...no diapers or pull-ups allowed. The first few days were rough! Lots of messes to clean up! By day three, he was really starting to get it and by day five, he was doing great! He wakes up dry every morning and if he needs to go potty during the night, he just calls for me and I help him. He is doing so well! I am so proud of him! But, it makes me a little sad, too. He's growing up so fast!

Oh, one more thing...he got to pee outside (on a bush) for the first time the other day. You should have seen his face! Sydney was really irritated that I made her go in the house. She wanted to know why her pee pee didn't have a "hose like Sam's."

Easter

The kids had lots of Easter fun! They dyed eggs at Sydney's preschool. This was their first time, since I haven't been brave enough to do it at home yet! Sam refused to use a spoon...he found that putting your fingers into the dye was way more fun!They decorated cupcakes at school, too. I don't know if Sydney had enough topping on hers...Sam just kept eating the frosting. We attended a family gathering the day before Easter. We saw lots of family and the kids had an Easter egg hunt. I made bunny cupcakes. They turned out really cute!

My "big" kids.

Sydney was really excited to see what was inside the eggs she had gathered.

So was Sam!

Easter morning.
We went to Aunt Mary's house in the afternoon. We had lots of good food, got to visit with lots of people and the kids found LOTS of eggs!