The final reveal!

I realize now that I probably should have been blogging about this through the whole process because now I have so much to tell you and oh so many pictures!  When we moved in the home inspector told us that the T1-11 siding that is on the house was recalled at some point but ours had not been replaced.  We could see where previous owners had not kept up on the paint and the bottom of the siding was rotting away.  But it was a small thing to worry about at the time we were buying the house, and even still, the deal we got was worth the need for new siding.  Finally, we decided this summer was the summer to replace the bad siding and paint the house, so of course we will start with the obligatory BEFORE pictures:

Front:

Back:

East side:

 We started in June with Bryce slaving away on removing bad siding.  And of course under the bad siding was.....MORE bad siding!  Yay!  So he had to put up new plywood in those spots and cover it with new T1-11 siding.  And then I had to paint it.  This first picture is the back of the house where we did not have to do any new siding, but still had to prep.  I especially love this picture because at this point the house was about 7 different colors between the original, old, and new siding, and the four different colors I painted on the house to try and decide what the new color would be!

Of course Dietrich helped with the pressure washing

We strive to look our best when working outside...

 And always make children help

 Here you can see the original siding that was under the siding we had when we moved in.

 I painted and painted and painted, I stood on the roof of this giant house and painted.

 I painted in the hot hot sun, in the dark, and today I painted in the rain.

 I wanted to make sure our fruit and veggie box made it to our house! A little purple duct tape (it's still there, but under the beautiful new siding).

 The back was the first side done and it was pretty exciting to see the new color!

 After replacing the bad siding on the sides of the house and the chimneys Bryce moved to the front.  When he removed the trim around the front windows he discovered that the sill plates under the window were rotten.  We had a window company come and estimate new windows, $500-$700, so we decided to take out the old windows VERY CAREFULLY, replace the sill plates, and put the windows back in, VERY CAREFULLY.

 Of course Bryce was successful, although it was incredibly scary...to me anyway.  This lovely scaffolding lived in front of the house for far too long, but then Bryce put up beautiful new lap siding on the front of the house.  Bryce helped me choose a totally different color for the lap siding, which made me very nervous at first, but the guy at the paint store said the colors went together well and I decided, it's just paint, I could do it again if I HAD too...

In case you were wondering, this is what happens when you try to paint with a three year old around.  Green paint on my fresh brown paint...

I took this picture because I was so proud of myself for moving the ladder from one side of the house to the front and setting it back up.  It wasn't pretty and I may have hurt myself, but I did it.  Only this once, after this I tried to only paint when Bryce was around to move the ladder for me.  Or if I only had to slide it around not totally move it.

After months of siding and painting, bruised shins from standing on ladders, Bryce needing to see a physical therapist (hence the backbrace) and paint permanently adhered to my skin, we thought we were done!

After Back:

East side, West side

The shed, so cute!

And Finally, after one small color change above the garage we are DONE! (you know other than the front porch needs painted and the red door isn't really the right red now...)

So finally, here it is!  

This goes down as the LONGEST most difficult project in the history of Our House.  Bryce spent weekends and evenings whenever we were home working on the siding, putting up trim and still to come, new gutters.  Grammy and Darby watched children so I could paint for hours, I woke up at 6 many mornings to paint before the kids woke up, and sometimes I watched them play from the top of a ladder and asked them to help "paint" with water and their own paintbrushes. Today our neighbor told us the house has "never looked better" I couldn't agree more!

A morning in the life....

I know so many people with one child around the age of Lenorah 18 months-ish.  If it's their first they are all talking about the second baby, and I was too when Dietrich was 18 months old, because I was three months pregnant with Lenorah.  Everyone told me that two years apart is the perfect distance between kids and when Lenorah was first born I remember telling people, having two isn't as hard as I thought it would be!

And then she started moving...

And it got harder.

Then she decided to potty train herself at 16 months old and while everyone told me how amazing and wonderful this is, they were not running a baby to a toilet every ten minutes because suddenly her favorite word is "potty" and if she says it you have to take her there!

Sometimes I wonder in the afternoon why I am dragging so much, why am I so tired?  I feel like I get enough sleep (most of the time), and by the time nap time for Lenorah rolls around I want a nap myself.  But maybe it's because every moment of my day goes something like this.

I sit down to eat breakfast.  "Mom I need more waffle."  I get up and get more waffle and some juice so I won't have to get up again. Sit down, one bite, "juice" I didn't get juice for Lenorah.  Up again.  "Potty!"  Jump up and RUN Lenorah to the bathroom.  Where she plays around, up and down, tells me to sit on the toilet, laughs, stands up and runs away.  I sit down, another couple of bites. "Potty!" Jump up and run to the bathroom again.  Lenorah slams lid down on toilet, apparently she doesn't want to go.  Back to breakfast, another few bites.  "Potty!" I run to the bathroom...again...Lenorah refuses to potty...again.  Back to kitchen.

Dietrich and Lenorah are now playing in the bathroom when I hear "poop!" and then Dietrich yells "Her pooped!"  And while I clean poop up off the floor Dietrich is yelling "one, two, three, fifteen poops! Say good job counting mom!" "good job counting Dietrich."  I clean up the floor and Lenorah.  The dog also joins us in the bathroom because if there is any sort of commotion she has to be there investigating and licking your face.  So I wash my hands and go back to the kitchen and finally finish my last bite of breakfast.

Thankfully not every day includes poop on the floor...only the really special days.  So when you think about having that second baby close to the first, just think about all the great quality time you get to spend with your bathroom.  While sitting on the bathroom floor waiting for both children to use their respective potties, Bryce peaked in on me and I looked up at him and said "I live here."  So if you are looking for me, I'm probably in a bathroom, somewhere, with two kids...

Bryce turns 30

         August has been the busiest month of our lives, ever.  I feel like I am coming out of some sort of crazy marathon like fog and just starting to sort through all of the fun craziness that has happened during the last few weeks.  My brother Paul and Kate got married, we had company and festivities and family and parties, and there is so much that I couldn't even start with all of that.  So instead I am going to go out of order and start with the last thing we did which was celebrate Bryce's 30th birthday this past weekend!  Shawna, Bob, and Abigail arrived on Friday afternoon and then Saturday afternoon I helped host a bridal shower for my sister-in-law Bekah at our house. Then on Sunday we celebrated Bryce's big day with a very HOT back yard BBQ.

 I made this giant birthday cake and the frosting turned out beautifully!  Finally!  Cake success!

 Dietrich of course had to help open a present.  Little kids at birthday parties are so awesome, nobody gets as excited about gifts that aren't anything they could possibly want, and cake!  Oh my gosh there is cake!

 Bryce got these awesome suspenders from his sister...

 And then we hung out around the fire late into the night.

It was a crazy busy weekend but so much fun.  Such a great way to end our busy summer!

Preschool!

Today I received the information about preschool for Dietrich.  I have been waiting and waiting and checking the mail because I am so ridiculously excited about preschool!  I didn't get to go to preschool because it wasn't readily available and also it was expensive.  And I love school!  I love the first day of school and I love getting new stuff for school and I just know I am going to love sending my little boy to school!

Next week we will get a postcard from his teacher and then I will learn who is first teacher is going to be!  The following week we get to go to his classroom and meet his teacher and see where he will be, and then the week after that he starts school!  We got our list of school supplies and I can't wait to go buy him glue-sticks, and dry-erase crayons, and a backpack that fits a 9x12 sheet of paper.  I called my mom this morning and told her about all the upcoming school stuff and how I want to cry because I am SO SO excited for him, he is going to love preschool!  And then I read this post about growing up/old and the start of school and then I started crying because oh-my-GOD he is STARTING PRESCHOOL.  

I've been a little worried about how he is perfectly potty trained but doesn't like to do any of it by himself.  I have to remind myself this is preschool, these teachers teach 3 year olds, they know that some of them still need help going to the bathroom.  This morning when he threw a fit and hit his friend because he wanted the toy I thought "he can't do that at preschool!" But he is three, and that is what three year olds tend to do, he won't be the first kid in a preschool class to throw a fit.  I don't have to tell the teacher that I am so excited for him but I've also never left him anywhere but with family, and oh my gosh how will I survive that?  That all of a sudden I'm afraid he will miss me and be upset and I just want him to be excited and have fun!  And now I'm not just crying because I'm so excited for him and all the fun he will have but because all of a sudden and without my realizing it this:

 Turned into this:

And he's going to preschool in just a few short weeks, leaving me for 3.5 hours two days a week and Lenorah and I will miss him during that short time and wonder what fun things he is doing without us.  Then he will come home and tell us about the things he made and the letters and numbers he is learning and he will make new friends!  (maybe I will make new friends too!) It will be wonderful and sad and exciting and anxiety inducing and we will all love it.  

Sullivan Lake 2013

 My posts lately have been nothing but us doing stuff.  We feel like this is the busiest summer we have ever had, and although we are having lots of fun we are T.I.R.E.D.

Last week I headed up to Ione on Tuesday to spend a few days at the lake before the bad weather rolled in. We all had fun playing in the water and playing with all the kids at the Larson camp.

 On Thursday Bryce joined us and we set up our own camp.  Just in time for the rain to start.  But raining weather makes for great throwing rocks weather.  We also took the kids on a drive and went on a tour of Boundary Dam.  A great way to spend a rainy day at the lake!

 I think this should be a greeting card that says "you're my best friend"

 A little boy in another camp had a balance bike like Dietrich's and he was so good!  He went really fast and picked up his feet.  Dietrich saw that and started doing it himself.  We are so excited to buy him a bicycle for his birthday next year, hopefully he will be riding a two wheeled bike soon!

 The sun came out for just a few hours Saturday afternoon and everybody hit the beach.  At least we got to spend a little time enjoying the sun and the lake.

 Seriously, I hope these girls love each other forever as much as they love each other now.  Lenorah goes insane whenever Emery shows up, and "Emmy" was the first name she ever said!

Now we are in a crazy couple of weeks where we will be finishing painting the house, getting ready for company, decorating 75 pair of flip flops and making a veil, as well as finding a dress, visiting with friends, and making a pink tie.  I think I can I think I can I think I can!!!