Finally home

But to me it won't be "home" until we are completely unpacked, the house is done being painted, shutters and mantles are on the windows, the hideous overflowing dumpster in the driveway is gone, all the garbage from the construction is picked up from around the yard and there is no need for the contractor and sub-contractors to come here anymore. Wonder what that date will be. I am hoping it is a "home" by the end of September.

Other than that I am glad to be back in my house. I am truly grateful to my parents for allowing us to stay there for a week and store all of our stuff (that wasn't furniture) on their patio. And my dad is being a tremendous help with getting painting done. All the kids' rooms are painted except for trim and doors; Dylan's was done this morning.

The hardest thing for me is having to look at the raw sheet rock. Here are a couple of pics to show you what we look at for now:








Oh and one minor issue we encountered when we got back in was that the main bathroom downstairs, that was only touched to get to pipes, had mold growing in the vanity and all along the bottom half of the sheet rock. So we had to pull all that out and are now waiting on that to be fixed and replaced. I just want it to be all over.

Does anyone read this?

If I only knew how to add a counter to my blog I would know the answer.

Potty Training

Well it's been about a week and a half now since Aidan was potty trained. The first few days were quite hard and I was sooo grateful that Dave was home to help with the process. The first two days were really rough because Aidan would scream and fight us whenever we tried to get him to sit on the potty. Eventually he got the idea and we learned that we couldn't force him we would have to wait until he had to go.
He had only one accident one day at the park but luckily he was in his bathing suit so it wasn't too bad. And he has been really great with not peeing when sleeping. Two nights ago we stopped putting diapers on him at night and he has been really good.
For a process that started off really rough it ended quicker than I thought and with less struggles than initially thought.
This past Friday I took him to Toys R Us for a special gift for the great work he did.
We are so proud of him at how well he has done.

Wow, It's July already

I cannot believe that it is already July and this weekend is 4th of July weekend. Time is going by way too fast. But I guess that is also a good thing because that means it will soon be time to move back into our home. We have been told that the contractor's time line is to be done by the end of July. I don't see how that is going to happen and will keep mid-August as the completion deadline in my mind. We now have to go and look for bathroom fixtures to be installed. Not looking forward to that. And next week the siding should be going up. It was supposed to get started this weekend but of course something failed inspection.
In 5 days Aidan is going to be 3. That is hard for me to believe because sometimes I think he is either going to be 2 or 5 because of the way he acts, lol. And boy does he need to be potty trained; I am so tired of changing his diaper. He keeps telling us that when he is 3 he will go on the potty. So, in 5 days we will see what happens. I am going to refuse to put a diaper on him and let him either wear underwear or go naked.
Well I am off to the party store to find some things for Aidan's party. He wanted a Tropical Rainforest theme so we will go and see what they have.

Awesome weekend

This past weekend was a great weekend.
It started Friday morning with Dylan's graduation from pre-K. It was a special day that was shared with grandparents and Aunt Tracy. Aunt Tracy flew in for the weekend to be Keira's godmother yesterday. The graduating class put on a show for family and Dylan did an awesome job and had absolutely no stage fright. Later that night we went out to dinner with Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Tracy to celebrate Dylan's accomplishment.
On Saturday Dylan had his last soccer practice of the season and then we attended an end of the season pizza party at his coach's house. It was really nice of them to do this for the kids; they are really nice people. Later that night Dave and I went with Tracy to Sawa for a delicious sushi dinner. The only thing that would have made the evening better would have been if Kevin could have been with us. Next time :)
That brings us to yesterday when Keira was Christened. The day started off quite dreary and I was afraid the rain was inevitable and the 30 (I think it really ended up being about 22 at any one moment) people coming to the party would be stuck inside. But luckily the skies cleared and the sun came out and we had a beautiful afternoon to celebrate the occasion. The party was really great as we got to see some friends we haven't seen in a long time and Tracy got to see some friends and family she hasn't seen in years. The boys had a wonderful time playing with their cousins Jack and Reid (Max and Andrew are too young to run around with the rest of the boys) and I thought it would have been so cool to also see Kaeden and Quinton run around with them---I know the day will come when we will see Dylan, Aidan, Keira, Kaeden, Quinton, Jack, Reid, Max, and Andrew all running around playing.
This morning Tracy stopped by on her way to the airport--okay maybe it wasn't really on her way--to say good-bye to Keira and me; she had said good-bye to the boys the night before because she knew Dylan would be at school and Aidan might not have been here as he was going to the store with Daddy. It was sad to say good-bye but I knew it would only be 4 1/2 months before we saw her again (not 18 months like it was since we saw her last). We are planning a trip out to California this coming November and we cannot wait!!

So much has happened and is happening

Well it is has been a little over 2 weeks since I last posted and I am so much more relaxed about the house situation. all of the framing is practically finished if not finished. The plumber and HVAC guys started yesterday, the stairs should be going in today or tomorrow and tonight, hopefully, Dave will give final approval on the siding color. All the windows are in and the electrician should begin tomorrow and I believe the roofing will start this week. I am just so relieved to see such progress and just hope things continue to go smoothly and that all inspections go well.

Here is a picture of the house 3 weeks ago before any work started:



Here is the house after initial work began:


and here it is yesterday:



In other news, Keira is pretty much crawling all over and I cannot believe that she is already 7 months old now. I just want to freeze time and keep her as she is now. She is such a happy baby and is always smiling.
Next Friday Dylan will be graduating from pre-K and it is really hard for me to accept that he will be a kindergartner in September, where is the time going?
As for Aidan well I am continuously hitting a brick wall with him and potty training. The kid just refuses to sit on the potty. I know he knows when he is peeing and pooping but will not use the training potty nor the big one. And he will hold it when he has no diaper on. Once Dylan is done with school and we have nowhere to get to each day I am going to let him be totally clothing free on the bottom half and see how that goes.

I believe it will finally start

Well, after a horrible night the other night with anxiety over the house situation we finally got a call from the contractor. Dave is meeting with him tonight to go over all the final stuff and hand over the key to the house and they will begin on Monday or Tuesday. WOOHOO!!!!

I finally got a somewhat decent sleep last night. The contractor assured us that he know of our deadline and he said it shouldn't be a problem. Now let's hope that you don't find a post from me in a month and a half saying that I am going to have an ulcer because they are so far behind schedule.