Quilt

My new favorite quilt pattern! Made this for my brother's new baby Annika.

Favorite Little Chubby Toes

Seriously doesn't get much better than this for me! Paris had always had little fatty feet and toes. They are getting a little stretched out but still chubby. Loved this pic of her feet in dress up shoes!

Thank you notes with Will

Willy

Will is a hilarious little guy lately. He often hugs me tight and says he "will never let me go." Also the other night he said, "Mommy, you are a very attractive woman."

He makes me laugh!

Merry Christmas to Shanda

So excited about this exciting present Austin gave me for Christmas!!

Merry Christmas to me!!

Will

I love this little nutball!!

Stairs finally done!

20 Awesome Basketball Shots

We live in a time when your 10 year old son can devise crazy shots with his buddies, take video on the flip cam, add music, edit the film and have it uploaded to You Tube in a matter of minutes. 

For those of you who got a taste of Cooper McKeehan's first production (Awesome Ping Pong Shots), this is the sequel "Awesome Basketball Shots."

Coop was born in Michigan, and so he chose Eminem for background music (Clean version - don't worry). 

For those of you who know Coop well, some of these shots are classic Coop (like the one off the roof at the end). He will always have that knucklehead factor -- but sometimes you just gotta embrace it and laugh. And if you look close you may see some of your own kids also in the video.

My only disclaimer is that I was at work while all of this happened. 

Click on the link and enjoy if you have 90 seconds. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99isk_OQ6fE



Thanks,

Austin 

Will

Will just came down in this get-up and told me he is "going to explore the coast of Egypt."

His outfit included a blanket, a hooded sweatshirt, hockey pads, a torn up pillowcase and a pair of my old leggings.

Wood flooring is here!

Halle-freaking-llujah!!! Our flooring finally arrived! Installation coming soon!

Mirror re-do

So when you have one of these lovely construction mirrors, you can take some of these pieces of trim and make it awesome!

AND when you have concrete floors you can spray paint right on top of them!!

Bachelor

Will just announced that when he grows up he is going to be a "bachelor", but later he "might change his mind." I didn't even know he knew what bachelor means!

Old pallet to new bedroom sign

An old crusty pallet, a few hours of nail pulling, some cheap paint and stencils and I have a signboard for my bedroom that I love!

Hot mama

"Don't I look like such a hot mama?" Paris announced as she came downstairs displaying all her finery.

Marco Polo

Cooper has been working on an explorer project at school. His explorer is Marco Polo and he had to dress up today for their living museum. We did the best we could with the costume, since he was born in the 1200s, not many reliable photos exist!

Stairs are coming along!

Unfortunately didn't get a picture of the carpet demo, but here is the first shot of the staircase revamp. Just have more coats of stain and lots of white painting to do.

In other news, the kids have been loving rollerblading and sidewalk chalking all over our lovely concrete floors! We had all the flooring on our first floor ripped out a few weeks ago in preparation for our new hardwood floor. Which is taking its sweet time getting shipped to us! Maybe after next week we won't live in a scud missile anymore!

Thunder Road round 2

So happy to be done with my half-marathon this morning!

Demolition

We are having new hardwood installed on our whole first level and here are some pics of the demolition. These guys are working their fannies off scraping the old wood that is glued down to the slab.

Grandpa Stauder this one is for you!

Just found out I can post from my iPhone! This is very exciting! Here are some pics of Austin and I off to a Halloween party. Just thought we would dress as our true selves! I have wanted to be a punk ever since I was in 3rd grade and my grandparents sent me a postcard from London of two mohawked punks on the street. The party was with our baseball friends. Austin said that they were going to be so surprised that "the grandma who knits at the games and never comes out past 9 is dressed like this!"

Words of Wisdom

I am running my fifth half-marathon in a couple of weeks and I am feeling a little burnt out with running, ready for some laying on the couch time! Anyway, this morning I just finished my 12 training run, which I was seriously dreading last night and didn't want to do.  So I told this to Will.  Here is how the conversation unfolded:

Me: Will, I just REALLY don't want to run anymore.
Will: Then don't Mommy, just don't show up for the race.
Me:  But I have already paid for it and I can't get a refund.
Will: It's ok Mommy, if you don't want to do something, just don't do it. That's what I always do.


Really? Wow, didn't notice that one.

Interesting perspective Willy! Maybe we have gotten to the root of your uncooperative attitude!