back at it again!

after brian's month long stunt of bronchitis, we are back in the basement making progress! a few weekends ago he cut out the concrete for the new plumbing in the bathroom. the cutting turned into a little longer project then expected, but he got it done, sore back and all. his mom and dad were up for the weekend to help which was great. tony and i worked on re-doing the basement windows.

after the concrete was cut out he had to dig 18-24 inches of dirt out of the hole so the pipes would have a downhill slope...

all this concrete and dirt have to be packed out of the basement...we are taking volunteers! :)

our nephew tyler loved the dirt pile in the basement, he played cars in it most of the day...i think he would prefer us to leave the dirt. :)

looking into the bathroom...



this last weekend we had plumbers and electrician (jeff our brother-in-law) at out house working their buts off. the plumbing is done and we just have a few more boxes to put in for lights and a couple more closets to frame and then we are ready for sheet rock.

notice the tench is now filled with dirt and were ready to pour concrete on top.
the new shower...


this is not a very interesting picture, but this is the "grinder" that pumps all the waste up to the sewer lines...just wanted to make sure you all knew what it was in case you are in need of a bathroom in your basement someday! :)

looking down the hall from the family room, you will see the bathroom to your left and then two bedrooms, one on each side of the hallway.

there is lots more work to come, but we are making some headway. i think i have mentioned this before, but we are so lucky we have family that likes projects. my mom and lucy came up for a few days over spring break to help us on a few projects as well...thank you! i don't know what else to say about jeff other then he is a SUPERSTAR!!!! i don't think they left our house until 8pm and they had a 2.5 hour drive home. the guy works so hard, you have to force him to take a break and eat....THANK YOU!!!

we were hoping to have the basement finished before miss sweetpea joins the family, but i don't think we will make that deadline, which is totally fine. it is nice to just shut the door to the basement and live in the clean finished upstairs. it is a little messy doing laundry in the basement, but i can live with that. it is just so nice to have brian well again, i don't think i have every known him to be so sick before. we were just not that exciting for while, sick husband with a prego wife, but were back at it!

more pics of our sunny vacation...

we stayed at a small resort called korakia in palm springs. it had two historic mediterranean villias that were located at the base of the San Jucinto Mountains.

the entrance...

the walkway to our room and courtyard...the grounds were gorgeous, there was jasmine and orange trees everywhere, which smelled awesome!

the entrance to our room...

the courtyard and pool....

the bare belly at 30 weeks...

we did a lot of this while we were there, as well as both finished a book. the temperature was 75-80 the every day we were there, don't think we saw one cloud in the sky the whole time!

we rode the tram up to the top of the San Jacinto Mountains, we started out at 2500 ft elevation and went to 8500 ft. there was a great view of the city and lots of hiking trails on top. the temperature was in the 40 when we got to the top, we weren't able to do to much hiking around because brian still hand the lingering bronchitis that he has had now for 3 weeks. :(

view from the tram car, the mountains were very rugged

more belly exposure!

loving the warm pool at night...the courtyard was gorgeous at night with lots of candles and two fires burning.

enjoying morning coffee in the pool...

the lounge area, it was really relaxing to hear the rock wall fountain, at night one of the fires was in this area.

the courtyard where we ate breakfast...it was so nice to wake up to coffee and tea and breakfast made all while you enjoyed the sunshine!

the entrance...

our room...

more of our room...

the entrance of our room is off to the left of the arbor with pink flowers...

the parents to be!!!

my tan is already starting to fade, I think its time to go back or maybe the NW summer should just hurry up! :)

heading to the airport to fly home...

it has been a hard adjustment coming back to the rainy cold northwest, but i think spring should be here before long at least i think that's what it means when my bulbs are blooming! :)

hope you all are anticipating the fun summer to come as much as we are...we can't wait to take miss sweetpea on some sunny adventures!

here is the link to the place we stayed, just in case you want to check it out more:

www.korakia.com

for some of you that like to read about the week of pregnancy, here is 30 weeks which is were i was in the pics. :)

http://www.babycenter.com/6_your-pregnancy-30-weeks_1119.bc?responsys_count=1&scid=mbtw_preg30:324&pe=2UwnKgU

ahh....sunshine!!!

....more pics to come of our very sunny and enjoyable vacation in Palm Springs.

Gwynn turns three!!!!

gwynn turned three on March 5th...she had a fun day celebrating with friends and family at the Children's museum

aunt libbers and payton...

the face painting area...

gwynn's friend made herself a cat, even with black legs (the black marks on her arms!)

dad and his little guy...

presents!

tiff and i...

the fam...looking good!

this is my first movie attempt with my flip video, so bear with me.

hope you enjoy!!!




a few days before gwynn's birthday i was able to pop in and see gwynn's dance class. she is such a little character, with so much energy. it was fun watching all the girls giggle and be silly, i think it really hit me that in a few years i might be doing girly things with my little sweetpea...crazy! i think gwynn will be a great cousin for her!

stretching...

circle time

29 weeks and glowing....i mean growing!!!

i'm back home from my month long work travels. it was a tiring month of very early mornings and cold weather. we are leaving tomorrow morning to escape the rain and soak up some sun in palm springs...i can't wait to tan my belly!!! we will have lots of pics to post when we return, so stay tuned for some more belly shots, maybe even a bare belly if your lucky! :)

i had a doctors appt. on friday and all looks good, she is growing at a normal rate and kicking like a frog. the kicks seem to some times startle me now rather then just feeling like a flutter. we are hoping to work on a name for miss sweetpea while we are soaking up the sunshine. i think the crib and dresser should be in when we return from vacation, i'm looking forward to getting her room put together. you can find more info on 29 weeks here:

http://www.babycenter.com/6_your-pregnancy-29-weeks_1118.bc?read_more=1

hope you all have a wonderful week and we will try and send some sunshine your way!

Happy 21st Lucy!!!

birthday girl...

We spent the day snow boarding and snow shoeing at Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood to celebrate lucy's birthday. They just received lots of fresh snow a few days before, so the conditions where great!

cute party guest....

another cute party guest...

grandma and penny...

don't miss payton in the backpack! he had a good nap out in the snow...

yummy lunch at Timberline Lodge...

aunt lucy teaching miss gwynn some of great manners...eating honey packs!

birthday kids!!!

(colton and lucy both have birthday's in February)

payton showing us his two new bottom teeth!!!

after our snow run we all headed to Mom's for dinner, dessert and presents. we had chicken fried steak and mashed potatoes for dinner (lucy's request and favorite meal), there was no left overs so it seemed to go over well! :)

gwynn was so excited to help aunt lucy open presents...

what did colton get...gwynn was right there to find out!

LOVE this picture of gwynn and lucy....what pretty girls!!!

new bamboo blanket...

this was lucy after charlie made her a margarita!!!!

she is a leap year baby, so she didn't technically turn 21 until sunday, so we did a little toasting at home...as you you can tell one drink went a long ways for the birthday girl!

happy birthday to you...

this picture makes me laugh every time I see it...i'm not sure what their doing, but they look hilarious!!!

ride'em cowboys!

Happy birthday Lucy!!! I can't believe my little sister is 21! We had a great time celebrating you big day. Sorry I couldn't toast a margarita with you...maybe late this summer when miss sweetpea is a bit bigger we can hit up some hot spots!