Weekend fun

Last weekend was a fun one for us. On Friday night, we went and watched out neighbor, Tony, play football. Of course Jamie was there, but Alex joined us! They cheered and had fun making noise for the home team. Looks like football games are going to be a part of our future...

On Sunday, Alex turned 3! Jana and Aaron hosted a birthday party at their house. Aaron just finished building the monster truck tree house. What a great structure! The kids just loved it. I was pretty impressed on how it all turned out. Alex got lots of Thomas the Train stuff and really enjoyed opening his presents. Ethan was right there "willing to help" Alex if he needed it. I am sure he is primed and ready for his birthday now.

Plumbing too?

Yes, we've had a huge undertaking with the remodel of our roof. We are still in the process of finishing it, so I'm not posting pictures until it's done. It does look 100% better than when we started, but we have several finishing touches that still need to happen.

So, a couple of weeks ago, Dan was curious why our water pump would randomly turn on when nothing was running in the house. As you know, curiousity killed the cat! Dan began digging around the water line and discovered a leak. Now another project begins. Luckily, this is a quick, one-day project where Dan replaced the water line from the pumphouse all the way into the house. Of course, when Dan was done, Ethan wanted to "help" replace the dirt. I've included a couple of pictures of Ethan "helping" Dan at the end of the day.

Roof construction

Well, I know you have all been on the edge of your seats, just waiting for me to post the 'construction' piece of the roof. Well, your wait is over! There are TONS of pictures,so I am going to post a few of the most interesting. Many of these show the many people who helped us out along the way. Most notably, we are SO THANKFUL for Loren, Jim, Steve, Ross and many others that were part of the adventure.

Roof tear down

As many of you know, we have been wanting to put a new roof on the house. Well, for the last 3 weeks or so, we have been doing just that. We began tearing the old roof off the house at the end of July. Of course, we have found many exciting treasures. To begin, we discovered 3 layers of composite roofing under the existing metal roof. There was also a colony (herd, horde, group, gaggle, hertle?) of bats living in the attic crawl space (insert "ewww" or "gross" or another applicable comment here...)! We counted at least 35 of them coming out one night. We also found an old, abandoned GI Joe - which probably just fell out of Bear's pocket. We all know how much he used to love GI Joe's! Anyway, the scariest part is the live, melted wire we found after removed the old insulation. Needless to say, we are now 2/3 of the way to new electrical wiring all through the house. Expensive endevour, but well worth the cost. So, for now, I'll post the demolition pictures for you to enjoy. We are still doing some finish work, but I'll get some current pictures up soon of the almost finished product.

The two boys...

I know it's been awhile so I'll be doing some catch-up on the old blog. This is just a short one with some pics from yesterday. Alex and Ethan were playing and wanted to "sleep". As you can see, it was too cute!

The Deming Log Show

This year was Ethan's second year at the log show. Last year, he slept through most of it and didn't really get into it. This year is a different story. He was so excited to see log trucks, tractors, and chainsaws! We walked around quite a bit and enjoyed all the exhibits. We eventually ran into Jamie ~ one of his favorite people! Jamie took Ethan down the big tube slide and then on to the swings. He had never been on a slide before and he loved it! At the end of the day, around 4:00, Grandma Linda came to pick Ethan up to spend the night. He was so exhausted (with no nap) that he fell asleep in my arms as we were walking out of the arena! That alone shows how much fun he had. Can't wait for next year!

Guess who got buzzed...

Hey all - I know it's been awhile and I have a ton to blog about, but hey, I've been busy! So, here is a brief one. Last night, after sweating all weekend long and getting mucky hair, I shaved Ethan's head. Yes, his blonde locks are gone. So, here is a picture of my little boy (notice I don't say baby...) I'll have more later. :)

The luau

As you all know (I think you do anyway...) we had a surprise luau for Mom's 50th birthday. What a great time! Jaisha, Jana, Becki, and I made almost 200 shish-kabobs and 6 kinds of Jello shooters on Friday night to prepare for the big day.

On Saturday, people started arriving after 1:00. We parked in the field at our house - lucky for us, Mom is oblivious to these types of activities. She didn't even think the cars in the field were weird! We were all waiting patiently in the shop for Mom to arrive around 3:00 or so. Well, after waiting for 15 minutes, Jana called her and found out she was still at home! Yikes! Needless to say, the party continued anyway and we prepared for the surprise later.

So, when Mom finally arrived (an hour late) we partied! I got her a grass skirt and fun print t-shirt and flip-flops so she could be "Hawaiian". We grilled our shish-kabobs and ate a TON of food. What a great time - there were family, friends, co-workers, and neighbors.



Even though it rained, we all had a great time. Hopefully the pictures come through (we only have 70 of them!).


I hope you all enjoy!

Quick blog note...

Just so you all know, if you click on the picture, it will open it in a new window for you to download if you want to. That way, if you want any of these pictures, you can help yourself! Also, I love seeing your comments. Please feel free to comment on the pictures and/or entries. I have updated it so you don't have to worry about signing into anything. I sure hope you're all enjoying this as much as I am!

Ethan's friend, Jamie

Since we live in a new neighborhood (so to speak), we have made lots of new friends - especially Ethan. He sure loves our new place. There is so much to see and do. One of his favorite people to spend time with is our neighbor, Jamie. Ethan and Jamie have a great time together. In this picture, Jamie helped Ethan with his hairdo - how cute is that?? When she is around, he likes to hang out, show her toys, and play with her. Last weekend, they played in the pea gravel for over an hour with only a styrofoam plate, plastic spoon, and measuring cup. This past week, Jamie came over and gave Ethan her old car. He loves to get in and "vroom, vroom" around the driveway. Ethan is such a lucky boy to have a nice friend next door. Dan and I are happy as well - Jamie is proving to be a great babysitter in the making!

Old house warming

The Larson family had a fun experience this weekend. We attended a house warming party for the new owners of our old house! It was really fun to go back and see the changes that Chelsey and Cody have made. Chels has painted the inside and it looks great! They also have done a great job arranging the furniture in the living room - too bad Dan and I never tried it! Cody did a round of toasts thanking and acknowledging the people who made home-ownership possible. It was great to have such a good group of people there to have the moment with him. We had a fun time even in the rain, but we didn't partake in the full rain gear horseshoe game that was going on in the downpour - we're not that dedicated! There is a picture here taken in our old backyard - I think it's the first good family picture we've had. Enjoy!

The Pond...

Saturday was an eventful day! Jana had to work so I picked up Alex and took him back to our house. Ethan and Alex were playing outside (with Dan as you can see on the 4-wheeler) happily. Ethan was showing Alex his new favorite activity of throwing rocks in the pond. Well, as you can imagine, Alex was excited to try this new activity. He was so excited that, with one hard throw, he wobbled and landed in the pond! He was soaked from the armpits down! He was fine, but that prompted us to proceed with taking out the pond.
Our general rule of thumb was when a kid falls in, the pond goes. Dan proceeded to set up the pump and started the draining process. In the mean time, I gave the boys lunch and sent them down for naps. Well, this is where Jaisha enters the picture. She and I decide that we need to get the fish out of the pond before all the water goes out. We started trying to get the fish from the edge of the pond, but to no avail. Dan and Steve (the mighty husbands...) come to the rescue with their rubber barn boots. Jaisha grabs the fish net (mind you, it's meant for an indoor, small aquarium) and I grab a strainer and away we go! J was also smart enough to grab the solo pair of kitchen gloves to rescue miscellaneous plastic plants (we figured the algae was organic, but hey, why risk it?). We proceeded to "fish" for an hour, with Jaisha catching 4 gold fish and me finding a solo gecko...I mean chameleon...oops...it's actually a salamander! So, needless to say, we are now pond-less, but lucky us, we now have a giant hole that needs to be filled. I am sure one day, there will be a nice deck in its spot for us to sit on and reminisce about this day.

Giggles

Last night Alex came over and he and Ethan played. The two boys are so interesting to watch! They play with each others toys, but always want what the other has. At one point, they were on the couch (see the picture?), rolling over each other, giggling like a couple of crazies! It is pretty fun to be around them. As Auntie Jaisha says, "Their laughter is infectious!"

Easter

So, Easter was fun for the Larson clan. Ethan raked in a booty load from the Easter bunny at his Grandma Linda's house. He especially loves his new stuffed cow. On Sunday, we went to my grandparents for dinner and hang out time. Ethan and Tommy (his 2nd cousin) took some pictures for Great Grandma's computer. Overall, it was a great day.

:) J

New to me...

So, this is a new concept for me - the blogging thing. I think I will try it to use a a journal of fun stuff Ethan is doing. We shall see how it goes.... :) J