Thanksgiving 2013

I didn't take many pictures from Thanksgiving this year, but we had a nice low-key day.  It was our year to be with Rob's family, but they were going to the farm and after moving and everything, we just didn't have it in us to make the drive to the farm.  While we missed being there, it was nice to spend the morning together, watching the Macy's parade and just taking it easy.  Then we headed over to Mimi and Papa's house.  Fielder fought hard on his nap, but Mimi won the battle.  While he slept, we got their Christmas decorations out and put up the tree.  Then we all had a nice dinner together.  Thanks Mimi for cooking!  Claire thought it was delicious....of course she mostly went for the rolls and cranberry jelly.

The next day we started "decorating" the apartment.  We are VERY Charlie-Brown around here.  The tree is just sad....the lights stopped working in the middle section and all the ornaments have to be way up high or else Fielder destroys them.  But Claire loves our tree and she got to stay up late helping me hang the ornaments.  The kids think it's all great, no matter if the stockings are hung by the chimney with care or just a nail in the wall.  :-)

Tight Quarters

A few weeks ago I got frustrated with Fielder waking up so early and in turn waking Claire up too early so I decided to try Plan B....our closet!  Yes, my daughter sleeps in my closet now.  Partly I moved her because we all had colds and I was afraid their coughing all night would wake the other up, but the colds are long gone and she is still in the closet!  I think she likes it all snug in there - she has a clock, her fan, books, and everything.  I've offered for her to go back in Fielder's room, but I really prefer this.  We'll see what she decides!  I just thought I should document this so I can look back one day and laugh!

More house updates

We didn't quite make the goal of being completely under roof by Thanksgiving due to weather, but they finished up that weekend!

And here they've started the siding (can just barely see it on the lower side of the house) - they've just about finished the siding now.

We had our pre-drywall meeting yesterday.  It's our last official meeting before our final walk-through!  Here is our kitchen/living room:

Crazy.  This house is going up SO FAST.  Now that the outside is just about done, I think it's going to seem a bit slower since we won't get to really see any progress when we do our drivebys.  Not that that will stop us from driving by all the time.
We are still on track for a February closing.  They started drywall today.  Fielder and I watched a crane deliver the drywall sheets through the upstairs window - he said "cool!"
   

Construction Updates

Things are happening fast on our new house and it's been so fun to watch the progress.  (Ok, borderline obsessive...we drive by at least once a day!)
Here's the foundation:

Then the lumber was delivered on the 19th:

Framing began!

Day 2 of framing

A visit on Sunday with Bob and Coral:

Fielder and I had fun checking things out this morning.  This giant crane was lifting the triangular framework for the roof - hard to see but even the front of the truck was lifted up to get the right angle.  Didn't look safe, but I'll assume they know about this stuff a little more than me! Fielder loved seeing all the trucks around.
We were told we'd be under roof by Thanksgiving and with all the rain that is expected today and tomorrow, I'm not sure if they'll be exactly on target, but it looks like lots of progress today!  I'm sure I'll be driving by again this afternoon to check things out  :-)

Date night with Claire

When I heard about the Short Pump Christmas parade, I thought that would be a fun "date night" with Claire (even though I am totally not in the mood for Christmas yet.)  Apparently we weren't the only ones who thought it sounded fun because the place was PACKED.  We found a great spot to stand....and then the fastest parade in history began.  Here's me trying to grab my camera when I realized how fast they were walking by:

And here is the end of the parade.  It was that quick!  If you blinked, you missed it.

So we walked around to see the "parade" go by one more time, but by this point Claire knew there was a spiderman involved and was giving a hesitant "hello, but don't come near me" type wave.

We ditched the rest of the parade activities and went to get a big cookie to share.  The thing she really wanted to do was ride the escalator, so we tried them all! 

Never say never....

Kids on leashes are so embarrassing.  I always said I wouldn't buy one.  But....

I caved!  I had to do it...I just couldn't handle the dog, the stairs, carrying stuff to the car, getting a stroller out, all while making sure Fielder didn't dart out into the parking lot or take off running.  And you know what? It works and I don't care how silly it looks! 

Anyone remember Mike Myers in that SNL skit where he's tethered to the playground?!

Totally unrelated, here are a couple pics from our visit with Katie yesterday.  She came over to play and we had a mini-birthday celebration for Fielder.  Thank you Katie, Uncle Matt, and Aunt Alison for the fun plane toy!!

 

Birthday Boy is 2!

Happy birthday to my mischievous, wild, every-boy-stereotype, challenging, sweet, adorable Fielder!  You came bounding into this world 2 years ago, wreaking havoc all along the way, but you have completed our family and we could not possibly imagine life without you!

Fielder's birthday happened to be the same week that we moved so we did not exactly "go all out" for this one.  In fact, Rob and I kept forgetting about it!  Luckily, at 2 he had no idea and doesn't even know what a birthday is.  Andy, Tara, and Samara saved the day and gave us some plans.  We met them at the Children's Museum and then had pizza and cake at the apartment.  Fielder adores Andy and as soon as he spotted him in the museum, he wanted nothing to do with us.  That is a special treat for me because normally Fielder cries if I so much as think about walking away from him.  Andy was forced had the privilege of following Fielder all around and playing with him on the firetruck, bus, and diner.

Thank you Uncle Andy, Aunt Tara, and Samara for creating a birthday party for Fielder!!  And thanks for the fire truck too  :-)