I'm sorry, Sorry, SORRY!

I've been content lately to blog-stalk instead of updating my own blog.  It's so relaxing, exciting, and inspiring to see other's projects, re-dos, ideas and inspirations!  I'm pumped to redo some furniture that I have not acquired yet, but I know it's out there waiting for me. 

I've taken pictures of some things we've done the last month and I won't bore you with every little detail, so I'll just tell you about the pictures I've taken the time to upload (I've got the checking account balanced now ~ while waiting for the pictures to upload ~ just have to say I LOVE Quicken and downloading statements from our bank!!!)

Okay, I MUST disclose that I had these pictures flipped when I uploaded them, but this stupid program, put them back to how they were originally. . . I'm not in the mood to upload and re-adjust in the display of pics again, so you'll have to deal with it.  This is Taite playing basketball ~ they have very real (mature) looking uniforms

 I am sorry these aren't upright!  If you click on them you can see a bigger picture (still on the side) but you can see Taite better :D

 #40 is him, he is such a little man now!  I have to say that was the saddest part about our New Year's celebration.  My little boy is no longer and it makes me sad, but I love the hugs he continually gives me and they are now around my shoulders and no longer at my knees. . .

 I need to get some pics of Brayton at one of his games.  He plays in the Y league so the uniforms are red/white and his is terribly sewn, but I promise to get some pictures soon.  The last game he played was AWFUL!  The other team was obviously in the Y league (typically for those who are clueless about BB so they are all still learning) so they could beat the pants off of every team.  So sad for our little guys. 

On a happy note, I decided to surprise my friend, Lori, with a cute coffee cozy.  I found some perfect snowman fabric at a local shop that sells 5" wide strips for $.50 so they were fun to get coordinating colors and this is how it turned out (again, this pic was turned right side up before uploading ~ also, the fabric around the 'L' is frayed a little).

 You can kind of see the fraying a little better in this picture:

 Taite came home with the Dreidel game (I'm happy that each year there is some student in one of the boys' class that will share their family beliefs and traditions regarding Christmas time) ~ we had to look up the rules, but the boys played for none-other-than  . . ..  . . . clothespins!!  LOL

 Here is picture of Brayton before his Christmas program at school.  It was an excellent show and Taite had a BB game that night so Chris and Taite arrived shortly after the program started and actually had better seats than Tom, Jane and I!  :~)

 This is a picture of Brayton after his pajama/Polar Express day at school!  We picked the boys up from school early that day as we had a Christmas party for The Coffee Cup Fuel Stop that Chris and I were attending because Tom & Jane couldn't make it to represent the "Heinz" family :~)  The boys were thrilled because we rented Red Box movies (it was a 4-5 hour trip), they got to have room service all by themselves in our room, and then we rented a different movie for on the way home!  They also talked their dad into letting them pay for a basketball and football game on their phones (I don't remember who chose which game).

With the end of the holiday season, I am always ready for Spring!  I want no snow, warmer weather and flowers!  At our house, however, we have another season to go through before Spring can get here (at least that's when I hope this is done) ~ Construction!
 Here is our pile of lumber for the framing of the basement walls.

 This is a picture of the bedroom and behind the plywood & insulation (white/green packaging) will be the bathroom.

 Better shot of the "bathroom" and exercise room.  We have changed the plans downstairs a bunch of times, so now we don't even call the architect ~ we just dig out one of the previous plans LOL (the exercise room was going to be the sewing room, but my husband didn't want to finish EVERY SQUARE INCH OF THE BASEMENT, so, it's no longer the sewing room. . .)

 This is the outside door and soon to be my sewing room.  I cannot tell you how excited I am to have a sewing room with a window.  I can already picture it ~ I'll have room for all my tables to be set up, I'm going to have a closet to put things and a pretty thing on the wall to hold my ribbon and gift wrapping if I choose!  The color of the room I see is a pale yellow (it's my favorite color!)  Can you see it?  No?  Well, don't worry, I'll keep you posted and soon you'll be able to!

 On the left side of this picture is the door that goes to the upstairs and where those totes are sitting on the floor, that is going to be our storage area.  This house has so much space and we don't want to waste any of it, we have room to build a 5' storage room for any items and it will not compromise the space in the basement at all!

 On the left in this picture is the "under the steps storage" that every house has and where the wall goes out to the right will be our movie room!  I can't wait for that either and the place we visited in town that does the wiring for movie rooms said the projectors are fabulous now and you can't go wrong with the picture, so it will really feel like a theater!  Oh, and I SOOO have my husband talked into getting a popcorn machine!  He even makes sure there's room in the corner for when we are framing (yes, these pictures are from a few weeks ago) ~ just wait for it!

 This is standing in the movie room looking through the exercise room to the bathroom.  I know, if you'd have seen our basement in person, this would make more sense, but you'll see after we have the walls up, how it's taking shape.

 This is the movie room and there will be a wall about where those white pails are and that's where the popcorn machine's home will be. . . (still to come!)

 December 19th came and with it we had a light snow, but that did NOT stop Bray, Taite & I from venturing out to see the huge train display in the house in Mapleton, IA.  Taite was amazed and in awe, but disappointed. 

 Disappointed, you ask?  Yes, Brayton and I could only take being there for 2 hours, so we didn't come close to lasting the whole 4 hours that Taite was hoping to be there, but a person can only watch so many people coming and going, longing to be one of them until you call "Uncle!".

 The set-up really was huge, but what surprised me is that he had a Holiday Train just like the real one that the CP (I think) has and that came through Rochester a couple years ago.  This train enthusiast had never seen it in person and he got all excited when I mentioned it and that we had got to see it!  How funny!!

 It was so neat to see all the little scenes around the town and tracks.  The police and ambulance lights actually flashed and the rail crossings went up and down ~ very cool!!

 This is the guy who punched the tickets.  He was very real and even had the lantern ~ again, very cool!

 He even humored me when I had them restage this photo-op (Taite got his card punched when I wasn't watching) and then posed again when I wasn't ready for the 2nd time!  Super nice guy!

 This is our first wall built downstairs by us 4 as a family!  The boys are proud to be able to say they helped and we all worked together.  Only the one wall in the basement was finished and we were getting a lot of frost on the block downstairs so we had to build all the outside walls and most of the inside walls.

 Brayton ready to watch his team, the Falcons, play on Monday Night Football!  Too bad they lost!!

 We took a Christmas picture this year and we were not prepared, but I was desperate as it was very late in December!  So, with our broken tri-pod and the help of our couch, we took some pictures.  Here is one that did NOT make the cut ~ can you guess why???
(hint: Chris didn't have his shirt tucked in and looked like he was holding in a big breath, I looked pregnant ~ so nice of my husband to notice!  so we had a wardrobe adjustment and you'll probably see the one that made the cut)

 We made it back to my mom and dad's house for Christmas and we made it just in time ~ we left Wednesday after school and it snowed and blew on Thursday, so it worked out perfectly!

Santa did find us at G&G's, to Brayton's relief!

 Taite got lots of train set items. . .  (he rarely has a shirt on at home)

 Brayton's gifts had the Falcon's theme. . .

 Roddy White jersey

 Everything being displayed:  hat, l/s tee, jersey, gloves, football!

 The boys with their cousin, Josey, and Grandma's dog, Maisie.

 Same picture with a dog swap and Baby in the picture ~ LOL

 Here is how our basement looks after yesterday and today's work:
This is the storage area (the 5' one) looking out from the movie room (we didn't get everything done today)

 This is standing in the living room looking at the door to upstairs on the left, the storage room straight and to the left and on the right is my sewing room with an angled door way!  CAN'T WAIT ~ have I mentioned that yet??

 Looking into the sewing room (note: the big window!!) and the doorway to the upstairs on the right. 

 This is how our lumber pile has shrunk.

 I hope to keep you more up to date on our "stuff" and I'll try to take my camera to more BB games.  It seems that's all we do these days, well, it's definitely all Chris does these days ~ I LOVE that man!  He puts up with all of us and keeps smilin'!! Happy New Year!