Bye Bye Kitchen!

Phase II of the remodel is in full swing. Last weekend we took out all the cabinets, and yesterday we knocked out the wall between the kitchen and the living room and framed in the new wall. It is going to look amazing! Garrett was completely excited to knock the wall out, and went at it with gusto! He was a little worried when Daddy told him to be careful not to hit the gas line at the end of the wall. He said "Why? Will we blow up?" Luckily, his enthusiasm wore off before he got anywhere near the gas line, and he was content to run in and out of the kitchen for the rest of the day asking why we weren't done yet.

Anyway, here's our "before" and "not-quite after" pictures....

Don't forget....

Dear me,
Your children are growing up way too fast, and you're not very good at keeping baby books, scrapbooks, or any other kind of memory books. So, please don't forget....
-How Paige curls up on the couch with her middle and ring fingers in her mouth and rubs her lip with her pinky. (Even though we're trying to break this habit, it's very cute!)
-How Garrett wants to hug me all the time -usually with full body contact-hang-from-Mommy style hugs
-How Paige taps her feet and shakes her hips a little any time she hears a song with a strong beat -even tonight just listening to the singing cards in the Valentine card aisle!
-How Garrett calls out "Mommy!" every time he sees me at school and comes over for a hug.
-How Paige draws on my classroom board every morning, leaving cute people with stick arms, huge smiles, and spiky hair behind to brighten my day.
-How Garrett only wants to wear navy blue shirts with pants that are usually too short for his long legs.
-How Paige only wants to wear her jeans with holes in both knees and her "Rock 'n Roll" Snoopy T-shirt.
-How both kids think that simply having a jacket in their possession (not necessarily on their bodies) keeps them warm.
-How they ask me over and over and over to listen to "Pray for the Fish" by Randy Travis -and then sing along at the top of their lungs.
Since words can't capture all their expressions, words, and actions, you need to go buy a better video camera. Hurry, before you wake up and they're teenagers!
Love,
Me

Robots and Bicycles

Every year, the first graders at our school have a project where they have to make a robot. Garrett first saw this project as a preschooler, and has been waiting for it ever since. He even started off this school year by saying "I'm so glad I'm in first grade because I get to make a robot this year!" He has been planning and thinking about it all year.

Several weeks ago, he came running in the door after school waving a paper and yelling "We got the robot letter!!" And so, construction began. He wanted to make a trash can robot, and Dave, of course, was a more than willing participant. Together they designed a robot that looked like R2-D2 and made several trips to Lowes to find all the gadgets they needed. This was the result:

RT-D2 stands for Remote Trash Droid #2. I'm not sure where number one is, but Garrett wanted it as close to the original as possible without actually stealing the name. I think they did an amazing job! His little control panel on the front even lights up. Of course, now we have to store this little droid until Garrett either decides to get rid of it or forgets about it enough that I can "hide" it away.

In the midst of the robot construction, I tried to take the kids bike riding one afternoon. I quickly realized that Paige's little bike had gotten WAY too small for her! She couldn't even pedal because her legs kept hitting the handlebars. So we made a trip to Target, and here's the big girl on her new big girl bike:

She loves it, and it is so much easier to go riding together now. Bigger wheels = less pedaling=more speed! Now we're just riding at a turtle's pace instead of a snail's pace! She'll get the hang of it soon and then I'll be yelling at her to slow down!

In other news, we also took a trip to the zoo, where we had to take a mandatory picture with the lion statue:

No matter how many hundreds of times we go, the kids insist I take a picture here! I should put together a time lapse photo show of all the pictures I have of them! They're getting so big!