Home Improvement

So first, we apologize for not posting anything in over a month! It's been an incredibly busy end of the summer and beginning of fall. The biggest new event is that I (Joni) went back to school on September 13th. I started an MBA program and am really excited about it. It's a ton of work, but only 20 months long and every other Saturday classes. Al is being extremely supportive and helpful so its helping me a lot mentally. I'm not pulling my hair out yet!

In other news, back in May we got hit with a pretty hard hail storm. It shredded our newly planted landscaping in back and also did some damage to our house. In ones way though, Mother Nature worked in our favor. We hated the outside of our house, but couldn't justify new siding in the foreseeable future. Even though the hail only damaged one side of our house, the insurance company couldn't match the aluminum stuff we had so we ended up with the whole house redone and the detached garage! Oh, and a new roof, but that's not as exciting. Anyway, we're sorry for not having some Taylor pictures (we've tried to upload some videos...or Al has...but it hasn't been cooperating), but hopefully those will come soon (Al has to take over the blogging for now).

For tonight, I just wanted to show some house progress!

The front of our house before the facelift. In this picture you can also see some stone by the sidewalk. I had taken 2 days off from work and did some landscaping. It was actually very therapeutic. Out all day in the sun for 2 days, improving the yard, getting away from work and having "me" time.

Here is the side of our house (the side that was actually damaged) with all the ivy and overgrown foliage. Ugh.

Close up of the side (before). Seriously, everything had been so unkempt when we first bought the house in 2006 and we just hadn't had the time to work on this side yet. Unfortunately it's the side that is most exposed since we're on a corner.

Back of our house (picture taken in 2006 before our patio). Notice all the ivy on the addition. It was beautiful in the summer, but looked bad in the winter. Plus when it dies off, it's impossible to come off (the front of our house was an example of this).

Here's a picture of Al taking things into his own hands. We decided that since we were changing our house color, we wanted to get rid of the awful brick in front. It had been painted white and was falling apart anyway. Al worked on it for a few days with a small sledge hammer and a crow bar. It actually came out pretty easily! We just have to pay for the siding that covers that area since it wasn't a "necessary" add-on. Well worth it for us!

Close up of the front of the house. You can see what the ivy does to the siding and brick when it dies off. It's IMPOSSIBLE to get off too. Yuck.

A fun shot of all the brick we took off of the house. Woo!

Ok, drum roll please! Just to give you an appetizer, here is the "after" picture of my landscaping. It was really gratifying to do this myself, but now I know that I could never do it for a living. I was so sore for days! In case you're wondering, the white-looking stuff behind the stone is grass-mulch mix. Next season it should fill in nicely.

Close up of one side. The one plant in the front is a really nice hosta, but the white flower got chopped off by another storm we had in August. Next year it will look even nicer. I love the perennials in the back because they are at peak time right now (September) with bright pink color. The middle ones now have a purple daisy-like flower. It's amazing how many new neighbors you meet while doing some landscaping. I was surprised by how many people stopped while driving by to tell me how good it was coming along. So nice!

Front of the house after new siding and new roof. Next season we're going to look into tearing out the big bushes and redoing the landscaping. We want big bushes like this for the privacy, but the ones we have are dying out and in bad shape. We also need to find a way to cover the foundation. It will be really fun to get some ideas from the landscaping company we used for our patio.

North side after new siding and all of the bushes ripped out. We will hopefully landscape this area too next year. Al is working on getting the shutters up on this side currently. The one bad thing about the new siding though is that the window trim looks shabby now (older windows) and are covered with dead ivy remnants.

Back of house. It looks SO different without the ivy! So bare, but nice. Al redid the downspouts and tore out the ivy roots, except for what is on the chimney. We're debating on leaving that part. You can also see the handrail by the backdoor that Al put up about a month ago. He is getting to be so handy!

Back of the house with the new siding and patio. We like how the Texas sign looks against the new house color.

Ok, so that's all for the house, here is your reward for looking at all of that. Taylor and daddy during the first game of the year. So precious! She's getting to be such a big girl .

Taylor's First Birthday!!

This past Saturday, August 16th, our baby girl turned one! It's extremely hard to believe that a whole year packed of amazing milestones has gone by so quickly. We had a very memorable birthday weekend for Tay (or at least we'll remember it) and have many pictures and videos for her to look at when she's older.

Before we get to that, we want to document some of Taylor's recent milestones and personality traits. We don't ever seem to get around to scrapbooking or updating her baby book, so we've relied heavily on journaling through this blog. Feel free to skip to the pictures at the bottom since this post is pretty "wordy".

One year doctor appointment stats:

Weight - 21lb 13oz (65%)
Length - 31 in (96%)

Head - 18.75 in (98%)

She's staying steady with her long and lean, big-headed look! ;)

Taylor is such a fun girl and is full of personality. She is constantly amazing us with how quickly her brain picks things up and soaks everything in. Her first word is officially "Ball" although it comes out as "Ba!". She definitely knows what it is though. She also says "ma-ma" and "da-da", but not as consistently. She loves to pull herself up on anything, but is still a little ways away from walking. For a couple of weeks she has been able to point out "nose" and "ear" and is very deliberate when pointing to other things. She also waves "bye-bye" and has been doing that for awhile now. Currently we think she is predominantly left-handed, but you never really know if that will stick. Her new favorite thing is to throw things down the laundry shute. I knew this day would come when we would find toys mixed in with the laundry downstairs, but I never expected it to be before she could reach it by herself! She also likes to throw things out of her ducky tub and then sit back and raise her hands in a question when we say "Where'd it go??". Then she picks up the toy and repeats the above action over and over and over.... She also likes to say "uh-oh", usually after we say it.

She loves her puppies and when we come home from daycare, she kicks all of her limbs at the first site of them. She cries when we let them outside and it looks like they are running away from her. She also cries if you shut a door that she wants to go through. It apparently hampers her exploration. She loves small stuffed animals that she can cuddle into the crook of her arm when she goes to bed. She still sleeps on her tummy with her butt in the air and her feet crossed over each other. She is a very warm-blooded child. She hates having a blanket on her and manages to kick it off any time we try. So even though she just wears t-shirt and shorts (pajamas) to bed, we don't even bother with a light blanket, she stays warm enough without it. She likes story time, but gets impatient and wants to turn the pages faster than you can read. She has started to "dance" a little with certain musical toys. Usually she will be holding herself up on the coffee table and just sway her hips back and forth, it's precious.
Alrighty, we could probably go on forever so we'll leave it at that for now. I think we got a good picture of "Taylor in a Nutshell" Version: 1 year.

Ok, back to the birthday weekend.

Friday evening, we drove up to Danbury, WI to spend the weekend at Joni's aunt and uncle's cabin (Ann and Joe). The weather couldn't have been more perfect, low 80s and sunny all weekend.

The people in attendance on Saturday for Taylor and Katrina's (Joni's sister and Taylor's Godmother) birthday were, Ann, Joe, Grandma & Grandpa (Joni's mom and dad), Katrina, Joan & Bryan (Joni's Godparents), and Donna & Wendell (long time family friends of Ann & Joe). Joni's cousin Deanna and her 2 daughters joined us on Sunday evening. We spent Saturday at the beach, then for dinner grilled steak. We ate a little early to make sure we could get to the festivities before the youngest birthday girl went to bed. My aunt Ann made Taylor a fantastic monkey cake in honor of our little monkey. It was so great! Taylor wasn't sure what to do with it at first, but once she got a taste of that frosting (and shared some with us), she was on board!

We took a ton of pictures of the whole weekend, but here are just a few. If you want to see the rest, I have a link at the bottom of this post.

The birthday girls having breakfast Saturday morning:

Naptime at the beach, we love those chubby thighs!

Mama with her baby girl:

The wonderful monkey cake from Aunt Ann:

Taylor sharing frosting with Al...before she even tried it herself:

Checking out her first present, she never did quite figure out what to do with it (or any of the gifts for that matter):

Helping daddy read her card:

Lounging before heading to the beach on Sunday morning:

Taylor loved her new crab floaty with her "Ba!":

Taylor with Joni's cousin's daughter, Benaysay (she turned 2 in May):

Taylor lounging after her lunch on Monday before she, Joni, and grandma headed back to Minneapolis. "Mom, I'm really done with performing" :

"OK! One more shot, but that's it, I'm done after this.":

Poor baby was not a fan of the life jacket we tried to make her wear. She couldn't even sit upright by herself:

So we swtiched life jackets and she was a happy camper. We love this shot of her on the boat for the first time:

Here is a quick video of Taylor watching Bianca and her friend tube, she really liked it!

When Taylor and Joni returned home on Monday evening (Al had come home Sunday night), we had another birthday celebration with just the three of us. We got a free 7 inch cake from one of the local grocery stores, and gave her the gift from us, plus the ones that had arrived from Al's mom and grandma, Samantha (her friend from Austin..Scott and Tanya's daughter) and our friend's Jon & Priya (the Irish soccer ball).

Birthday cake Round 2!

There are plenty of more cake eating and present opening pictures on the Ofoto link. Click here to see those.

It was a fabulous weekend and Taylor is so blessed to have so many wonderful and supportive people in her world. Thanks to everyone who made her first birthday an extra special one!

Another trip to Texas!

Sorry to keep everyone waiting for our latest post, there were some issues posting pictures a couple of days ago. Now I've finally had time to load them!
Our trip to Texas was a whirlwind as usual, but of course fun. We flew into Dallas because 1) we now have a handful of friends in the area and 2) it's SO much cheaper than flying into Austin now. Our first evening we were able to stay with one of Al's oldest friends (and now mine of course), Lora, and her husband, Parker. They have a beautiful baby girl, Presley who is 6 months now. It was so fun to see Taylor and her interact a little bit. Of course, Taylor seemed to be more impressed at times with their Jack Russell Terrier, Cady.

They LOVED each other! This is what she does with her own pups too...she loves those kisses:

Here is Al with the two little ladies. Presley is such a sweet little peanut, I'm so glad we finally got to meet her!

The next morning, we made a pit-stop in another Fort Worth suburb to see my old co-worker, Whitney, from my days at Guaranty Bank in Austin. She and her husband Shane have a very sweet and adorable 4 month old baby boy, Austin. Whitney is now one of my blogger buddies, we're both addicted!

Here are the proud mamas with their babies:

After stopping at the Lumpkins house, we started making our way to Dripping Springs to have a quick visit with Al's Mimi (Grandma) and Mawlene (Great Grandma). Taylor was a little fussy during the visit so we didn't get any group photos, but here is one with Mimi singing to her. It seemed to calm her down for a bit!

The rest of our time in Austin was great and filled with lots of friend time. We really miss everyone down there!

Here is a picture of Taylor with her Godfather Kolin:

We stayed at our usual place in Austin, Scott and Tanya's house. They have a beautiful 2.5 year old daughter, Samantha, who is such a doll. She was in love with Taylor and always wanted to lend a helping hand. Such a sweetie.

Here's a cute picture of the girls hanging around. Taylor with her classic wide open mouth smile:

Since our flight out of DFW was on Monday morning, we made the long drive back to Dallas on Sunday and stayed with our good friends, Suzanne and Keith. They had just gotten back from a week long vacation about 2 hours before we arrived so we were so appreciative of their wonderful hospitality! Plus, Taylor got to play with her boyfriend, Nicholas, who is 7 weeks (to the day) younger than her. They were so cute together. Of course both of them are on the move, so it was hard to get a great shot of them together.

Here's one of them playing with one of Nick's toys:

Now for some fun videos.

This one cracks me up. Suzanne is holding Nick and Al is holding Taylor. I love how Nick actually is able to walk towards Taylor while Taylor just stands there and watches.

Watch their version of "Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots":



This is Taylor going a little bonkers during the drive to Austin. I swear she goes through about 4 different emotions in about a minute! She's really trying to start babbling!

Seattle/Vancouver...finally!

Wow, I guess I wasn't kidding when I said we would get these pictures posted in July! I finally uploaded all of our pictures to Ofoto from our trip out to Seattle and Vancouver. We flew out Monday, May 19th the day after Taylor's baptism. Our old roommate (Taylor's godfather), Kolin was with us for the flight there. When we arrived, our other Texas friends, Delia and Jon were waiting for us at the airport. Jon's wife, Michelle, was stuck in California for work stuff and was flying out later that night. We all stayed in Seattle for a couple of days, then Delia and Kolin had to head back home. Jon, Michelle, Al, Taylor and I drove to Vancouver Wednesday morning. We toured downtown for a bit, saw some Totem Poles and then took a 90 minute ferry ride to Vancouver Island. On the island, we stayed in a small city (Sooke) where we rented a house tucked away in the middle of nowhere (or so it seemed to us). It was so relaxing and peaceful and it was awesome to stay in rental houses the whole trip. We won't do another long trip any other way. Especially when traveling with friends and/or kids!
Vancouver was beautiful and the weather cooperated for most of the time. We had a great place on the water with an outdoor hot tub and great deck. Many times we had dinner at the house and just hung out drinking wine and beer and playing Scrabble! We stayed there until Saturday, then took a ferry back to Vancouver and drove back to Seattle that night.
The trip was so relaxing and fun. Taylor was such a champ the whole time. She never showed any signs of being stressed out with the flights, car rides, constant sightseeing and new places. We were so proud of our little traveler! We also loved being able to spend some quality time with some wonderful friends. Can't wait to do it again!!

Here are some of our pictures from our trip.

Taylor and Kolin ready to land in Seattle:

Dinner the first night in Des Moines, WA. Kolin (behind the beer) and Delia:

The view from our main, upper deck at the rental house:

Here you can kind of see the mountains in the distance:

Famous fish throwing at the public market in Seattle:

Al, Jon and Taylor hanging out at the house:

Lunch time in Seattle - just look at those big blue eyes!:

Wednesday - driving into Vancouver:

Family picture in front of the Totem Poles:

Ferry ride with Al, Taylor, Michelle and Jon:

Taylor enjoying a meal at our house in Sooke. Beautiful view from the dining room:

3 Hour hike. Taylor was a champ and actually napped for about 30 minutes of it!:

Beautiful scenery on our hike. That's probably why it took 3 hours, we were constantly stopping to snap pictures and soak it all in. The first part of the trip was through the woods (see pic above), then the last half was coastal (below):

Al getting ready to jump in the hot tub....what a stud in his hiking boots. Yes, he's wearing a swimsuit under the robe:

Doing some sightseeing in Victoria, the capital of British Columbia (still on Vancouver Island):

One of the many purple starfish that we saw at our house in Sooke during low tide:

Group shot in front of the rental house.

To see the rest of the pictures from our trip, click here!