Kids Say the Darnest Things...

Just a quick post to share some of the funny things have Alex has come up with over the last few weeks:

Nanny and Poppy or Nana and Poppa?
For the longest time Alex would only call my dad Poppa despite everyone trying to get him to say Poppy. Out of the blue he switched to calling him Poppy. But with that, he started calling mom Nanny instead of Nana. So apparently the endings have to match.


Hi Piggies!
During bath a couple of weeks ago I was helping him get washed up and said something about washing his piggies. So he looked down at his toes and said, "Hi piggies! We are taking a bath!". It was the funniest thing mainly because he was just as serious as could be.


Wrinkled Hands.
Not long after the bath with the piggies I had another funny bath experience. He didn't want to get out but had been in the tub for a very long time. So I told him that his fingers were getting all shriveled up. So he looks down at his hands and says, "hand, you want to get out?" and then looks at me and says, "no mommy, hands no wanna get out."


Disgusting!
The word of the weekend was disgusting. The first time he used it was at Gatti Town with Nana and Poppy when he saw some weird noodles. We got his on video the next night talking about daddy's cooking: (I will vouch for daddy that dinner was in fact very delicious and not disgusting.)

I Not Know:
Another big phrase for him right now is "I not know" and he makes the funniest face when he says it. He scrunches up his forehead and squints his eyes and looks so serious. He uses this all the time too. Night before last he said he wanted a snack and carried on a whole conversation with himself about it:
All Alex:
"I need a snack"
"I not know what I want"
"Goldfish?"
"I not know"


Backseat Driver:
Alex has become the world's worse back seat driver. He is constantly tell me to stop, go faster, turn, or whatever he thinks I need to do. It is pretty funny most of the time.


I am sure I am forgetting plenty of other funny moments since we get at least one a day. I will post again if I think of any other really good ones.

A Clean Car??

I recently broke down and admitted that although I swore I would never drive a minivan, the new Honda Odyssey with the built in vacuum is quite tempting. One look at my car and you would understand why. On any given day you can find a ton of trash, cereal, matchbox cars, a ball or 2, a drink cup, and various other things all in just the back floor board.

It was funny when I spend 20 minutes cleaning out my car to take it to the car wash to be cleaned. And then the employees there still managed to find 3 matchbox cars I hadn't found. Less than 24 hours later you couldn't even tell it had been cleaned out.

I bet you are wondering how this happens? It happens quickly and easily due to the fact that Alex rides with me every day to Frankfort to Sandy's. Before we leave the house he has to gather his snack (usually dry cereal), a drink and a toy to take with him. Most of the time some of the snack is dropped into the car seat, then falling down into the seat of the car. The drink has been known to fall over leaking onto the seat as well. I finally learned to say no to milk since water isn't as big a deal to spill onto the seat. Then the toy, a car, truck, ball, etc. is left in the car, rarely actually taken into Sandy's and never carried back into our house. Thus turning my car into a toy box until I take the time to pack it all into a bag and carry it into the house. Of course the process just starts all over again the next morning.

So my poor car, only a year old, has been through it. Matt finally quit complaining about it and just shakes his head whenever he gets in. Hopefully one day I will drive a clean car again, at least for longer than 5 minutes.

Mess Of Wires, Pipes, and Much More...

Big changes lately! Mainly looking like a big jumble of plastic pipes, wires and metal pipes. But of course this means finished plumbing, wiring and HVAC! Once this is all done, we will get the call for the pre-drywall walk through. This is a chance for us to ask about any concerns we have of anything going on in the walls before they get covered up with dry wall. One might wonder, "how in the world would I notice if something wasn't right" but it is amazing how much you notice when it is your house being built. 

For example, when driving down the road to the house last week I told Matt the front door looked slanted. I am sure he thought I was nuts. But sure enough, it is leaning. The top leans out further than the bottom. I will mention this for sure. Matt noticed a crack on one of our steps that needs to be fixed. I also noticed that when we changed the way the door swung open from the garage into the house, they didn't fix where the light switch went. It should be moved to the other wall, but now it is behind the door. That will be awkward coming in and trying to get a light on with the door blocking it. See you notice things!

But that is why you get these opportunities, to be sure the finished product is as close to perfect as possible.

The other exciting part about all this is that once the dry wall is installed we will get the official closing date. Right now we are set for February 25th but they will be able to tell us exactly when we will close once the dry wall is done. I actually had a call from Ball Homes on Tuesday letting me know things are moving along nicely and asking if we would be willing to move our closing date up and be in earlier. Of course!! We should find out for sure in about 3 weeks. Yay!

Here is what is going on right now:

Looking up into the attic at all the chaos.

Soon to be light switches!

Furnace. On these cold days I really wish it worked when I was over there checking things out! I bet the workers do too!

This may seem like a crazy picture but I was SO excited to see it. It is the sign in the upstairs window with the house number and OUR name on it. Getting so real now!

Rome Wasn't Built In A Day...

But apparently a deck can be built in a half of one! I drove by the house yesterday at 1 and they had just backed a trailer up to the back of the house. I was curious what it was for so I went back by at 4:45. Much to my shock and surprise they had almost completely built a deck in less than 4 hours.

Lots of Help...

Matt and I both agree that there is nothing more annoying than a squeaky floor. So Matt decided to buy a big bucket of screws and go through the house making sure all the floorboards were good before the carpet got laid. Of course the kids wanted to go "help" too. We did find that they had used quite a few screws on the floor throughout the house so Matt didn't have to do quite as much as he expected.

Just a few pictures of his help on Sunday:

Reagan wasn't really "helping" she just jumping in for a photo op.

He had packed all his tools into his toolbox to take with him.

Blink and You Have an Exterior!

After my post on the 1st, we went by that weekend and sure enough they had finished the brick!

And then we go back the next weekend and ta da! we have siding too! I was out of town most of last week so Matt had his hands full with the kids. He didn't get to go by until Thursday and he found the siding. It is amazing how fast things get done. Ben said they did the siding in less than 2 days.

So the exterior isn't finished but it sure has a lot done!

It's A Brick...House...

Looky, looky, we are getting brick!!

And then it rained for the past 2 days so I am anxious to go by after today and see if anything else new has happened. Matt did stop by a day or so ago and said they had been working on the inside on plumbing and that in the basement there was quite the mess of pipes running around.

Couple of Random Pictures...

Thought this was a fun photo op because the wood at the bottom is our project number for the house.

I also had to get a picture of the staircase that was laying in the front yard for a long time. Mainly because we would drive by and see it laying there and think, "shoot still can't get to the second floor". Until one day, we went in the house any way and there was a staircase installed. So we have no idea what the extra one was for.

A Dream Come True...

Some people have dreams of big jobs, fancy cars, crazy vacations. Me? I dream of a big, deep, bath tub. Yep, a bath tub. People have told me over and over again that big tubs are a waste of space. I will disagree until I am blue in the face. I have mentioned before that a big tub (or room to add one) was a requirement when we were house shopping so of course when we decided to build, there was no question about whether we would have one.

I know most people really don't take baths that much, but I honestly do. It has killed me to not be able to take one in the rental house (lack of water pressure would equal the water being cold before the tub was full). So when we walked into the new house and saw my dream installed, there were no words to describe my excitement. It took everything in me not to climb right in. And of course Alex saying "it's dirty mommy". But one day it won't be, and it will have water hooked up and actually walls around it, and I will be in heaven!

Yay!! So excited!

Matt's stand up shower. He is excited about this as well, but not nearly as excited as I am about the tub.

Windows and Doors...Closer...

Just a couple of quick pictures of the windows and doors up close:

Closer shot of the front door. But it will be black when all is said and done.

Picture is dark but this is the back door and windows of the breakfast nook.