Just a few more pics while we're at it....
First day of school for Emma and Sarah...5th and 3rd grade. It's all about the leggings this year. I still haven't cut my baby BOY Luke's hair....it's just that it took 5 to get one w/curls. He's been mistaken several times lately for a girl...it's probably time.

I've got such great helpers w/the remodeling. Even if Jacob's not painting, he's bumping into some wet paint somewhere. I don't think he has a single shirt w/out paint on it.

Sarah and Fiona, excuse me, Princess Fiona. Sarah's finally living her dream!

More remodeling pics....
Ok, so I'm looking at these pics thinking, why does the first pic, the pre-remodeling pic, look the best? It's only because in this pic we have only owned the house about 5 minutes, and it's still clean. The other pics are total remodeling chaos, but just try to picture after it's clean again one day. (maybe when Luke's 18)
This pic makes it look way better than it is.....the floor drops off about 2 inches by the sink, the tile looks like crap....

First thing I did was painted......the paining was fun, but that prep work is for the birds.

Next thing, removing the old tile. Not so easy. Good thing I have a strong husband though, he pryed out while I picked/swept up.

Next we removed cupbards, appliances, and coutertops. Now they're all piled up in the family room, and the kids are having great fun playing inside of them.
Then 8 bags of self-leveling cement, and we're level!! That stuff wasn't cheap either, hello, like $36 a bag!

And wa-laa, the new slate tile floor! Laying was not as easy as they make it look on tv, but it's done, and a huge improvement.

I need to take more pics, but since, we have added bead-board to the outside of the island, new baseboards, and a new sink faucet. (I installed the faucet myself, so proud of myself. Ok, so Adam had to tighten things up after, but I did it....w/out instructions! I got it on clearance for $41, so it came w/no instructions)

got to get back to the house and kids....more pics later.....

Finally some pictures....

We have made the most dramatic changes to the family room. I started pulling baseboards off the first morning we woke up here.
We thought the cupboards were cute, but the pot belly stove really had to go, it was dirty and taking up way too much room.

We figured if the stove was going, the cupboards might as well too, to make more room. So the girls helped me, and we got most of it taken out the first day before Adam even got home from work. My girls are great w/demolition.

Next, we opened up the right side to make an entrance to the living room. Then resheetrocked a few walls, and textured them to make the old and new walls all work together.

We kept sanding and trying to fix the old ceiling, but finally decided just to resheetrock it and put up a new one. Adam installed some recessed lighting while we were at it.

Finally paint on the ceiling and walls, and now we are ready to sand the floors down. This weekend's project!

More pics of the kitchen, living room, and bathroom later....got to get the kids off to school!

Flicks and Forks....

Luke said his first word yesterday!! Well, first word besides Mama, and Da. I was searching for the kitty, with Luke in my hip, calling out "kitty, kitty", and what do you know, but Luke started doing the same, "kii-ee, kii-ee". I couldn't believe my ears. Not that I didn't think he would learn to talk, but he's just MY BABY, and I am totally not rushing the growing up thing with him. I thought maybe it was just a fluke, and called again to see if he would, and sure enough he did, several more times. He hasn't done it again since though, and no one believes me.

Jacob on the other hand...some of you might remember he had a little bit of a slow start with language development, I wasn't too concerned yet, I was giving him till his 3rd birthday before I worried, but then a friend of mine seemed concerned, so I thought maybe I should be too. I scheduled a developmental screening for him, which we did, and were told he was doing fine, that there's a wide range in which kids develop. Soon after, he turned 3 and his speech improved dramatically. He communicates pretty much everything on his mind these days quite well. Although, a few words can get confused by the listener for other words......like "fork" and "flick".....I try so hard not to let him say those words in public, they sound EXACTLY like another 4 letter F-word. Yikes! About a month ago we were eating at the chow hall on base, (when we were living at the Navy Lodge), and we try SO hard when eating there to keep the kids under control, anyway, Jacob stands up on his chair at the beginning of his meal and yells out for no apparent reason as loud as he can "fork head, fork head, fork head". I got some looks, let me tell you. People were wondering what kind of language we were using at home w/our kids.

Jacob's favorite thing to do to people, when they're bugging him or something, is to flick them with his fingers (beats punching or kicking). As he does this he announces, "flick you, flick you". I'm so trying not to make a big deal out of it, the last thing I want is for him to know it is a BAD word, because in his head he is saying "fork" and "flick". Honestly, it's just so hard not to bust up, once again though, trying not to bring any attention to it. Any suggestions??

Still working on the house....
Wow! And so looking forward to being done. Our goal is to be done enough to have our household goods delivered about the 2nd week of Oct. Adam has a business trip right after that, and I am just READY to have my life back and just be a mom again!! The calendar is starting to fill up again, Sarah's starting gymnastics and Emma soccer this week.
I went to the school for "curriculum night" to learn about the teaching strategies/expectations, ect. Hello, 5th grade is SERIOUS business over there. They had me a little nervous. Yikes. Hope we can all handle it.
Sarah came home about a week ago and told us her new nickname at school..."calculator". It so fits here, too funny.
Luke is walking!!! He took his first step right before we made the drive out here, and has been working on it ever since, but hasn't gotten much practice since I strap him down and confine him every chance I get (trying to keep him safe in our construction zone). But even through the confinement, he has still figured it out, and is all over the place and thrilled about it.
Isaac and Jacob got a break from the TV today, they had something much better to watch right in our back yard, we had a backhoe digging all afternoon. Two big 7 ft. holes. We're having our soil tested, the first step in getting a new $30-40,000 septic system, that the previous owners are paying for. Who knew a septic system could be so expensive to replace?? Crazy. They did cover the holes back up for today, but next time I don't think we're going to be so lucky....our neighbors may think we're getting a olympic sized pool from what I hear.
So, we got the kitchen floor done---took out cupboards/appliances, leveled one end of the floor w/self-leveling cement (hello, 8 bags!), took old tiles out, layed new slate tiles down and grouted, scrubbed the tiles for about 3 days because I did not use the sponge as much as I should have along the way, and then finally put appliances and cupboards and coutertops back in (which was a little tricky because they didn't fit quite the same with the floor 2 inches higher!!). Whew! It was a bigger job than I had anticipated. They make it look so simple on DIY. But it's done now, and looks great!! Such an improvement.
Now just a bunch of little things, and then refinishing the hardwoods downstairs next. THEN, we can move to the upstairs to work.
Duchess still isn't quite back to herself, hopefully soon, we can't afford doggy counseling. She was the hero a few days ago though....there is this little cubby in the bathroom where we keep our dirty clothes, and I threw a bunch of clothes back in there, packing them in tight, and then walked away. A few seconds later Duchess started barking loud right in front of them. It took us a second, but then we pulled the clothes out, and found Fiona, Sarah's kitty, buried under them. I felt so bad. Sarah's not usually Duchess' biggest fan, but she has been very grateful to her ever since.
The Workman family got asked to speak in church last Sunday. We spoke on the Word of Wisdom. All but Luke and Jacob spoke. The kids did really good, I was proud of them, and they got lots of compliments after. Oh, and I got a new calling, Primary Pianist. Yeah!! I was soo thrilled, no preparation or lesson planning, just show up!! That is totally what I needed right now.
The girls are excited, they have a race with their daddy coming up. It's sponsored by the gym on base. It's all the way around the island, 15 miles, this Saturday.
That's about all that's new around here....we miss our friends and family!!