6/17 - The Hoyt Family visits

The boys were so very excited for grandma Jo and grandpa Dave to come visit. Aiden would have played games with them 24 hrs a day if we let him. Grandma and grandpa were great sports and played quite a few games with him. Here is grandpa playing Spot It! with Aiden.

Eli wanted to play Sneaky Squirrel so we did play that and I was excited Eli actually wanted to play a game. I guess I don't have to include that Eli quit playing after a game but at least he played a whole game. 

Here are grandma, Brad, and Aiden playing the Very Hungry Caterpillar game. He actually doesn't play that game very often and I was surprised he asked to play it.

We put up the tent in the living room sitting area and the boys enjoyed playing in that. They even got grandma to come and sit under the tent for a while.  The boys were awfully quite at one point so I checked on them and this is what I found (picture to the left). The little stinkers climbed up on the cat gym. Good thing grandma Jo and I built that so strong that it could withstand 2 toddlers on top of it.

Grandma and grandpa let open his birthday present and he was pretty excited about it. He loves the Mag-X magnet toys but was getting frustrated because he didn't have enough 'Xs' to build more stable structures. He got really frustrated though when we tried to help build something. He had an idea of what he wants to do and gets very frustrated if he can't do it just the way he wants on the first try.

Aiden had his true first friend move away. DJ moved to Missouri last week. It was sad because Aiden didn't really get a chance to play with him before he left. We tried to play with him on Tuesday afternoon but his grandma wouldn't let him play. We then tried to play on Wednesday afternoon but his mom wasn't home and his grandma wouldn't let him come over. He finally came over at 5:15pm and we were leaving for dinner. I was so sad for him but told DJ we would come by his house as soon as we finished dinner. Needless to say, when we came by less than an hr later, his grandma wouldn't let him come over again. DJ was sad and had been crying. I felt so bad for him and Aiden. They just wanted to play. You would think DJ's grandma wouldn't mind because she had been watching 3 kids all day long and DJ's mom had already given her permission to let DJ come over whenever. At 7:30pm we realized that DJ wouldn't be coming over again so we walked down to his house and dropped off a good-bye present and bag we had for him. We made him a mini scrapbook and put our new address in it. To the left is what Aiden drew in the book: I love you DJ. So sweet. We put snacks and a few fun things to play with in the bag to help with the long 12 hr drive he was going to have. It was a horrible way to say bye since he wasn't allowed to come over for 2 days to play because his grandma said no. Anyway, we are praying for him and hoping we can stay in contact with him.

To the right is a picture from our dinner at Chick-fil-a. They only have 1 6 person table there and the rest are 2 or 4 person tables. Brad and I got sent to the 2-person table because the boys wanted to sit by grandma and grandpa.

Here is Eli with a helmet on. This has to make the blog book. He is wearing a helmet voluntarily and without crying. That is a first. Although you can't call is a helmet; it's his motorcycle hat :)

Here is Aiden getting ready to open a second birthday present from grandma and grandpa. I didn't take any picture of him playing with it so I'll have to get on that. Below you can see Aiden opening his card. Grandma Jo made it and it was a colorful dragon. 

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The picture on the right is priceless. That look of Eli's ... TROUBLE!! He's so stinkin cute which is good because I think we will see this look from him quite often over the next 20 years.  

Brad's parents like to stay busy so we saved up some projects for them :) Actually we didn't originally plan on help but it was great to have help. My mission for Brad when we got to Jacksonville was to build Aiden a loft bed. We were going to have the boys share a room again but we have decided to put them in their own rooms instead. Aiden is reaching a point where when he breaks down and will not/cannot communicate, he needs his own space and we have a hard time telling Eli he either can't go in his bedroom or the toy room (depending on where Aiden is at) because his brother is having a complete breakdown and is being ridiculous. I wanted to do a loft bed so that he still has space in his room for toys and such. After much searching on the internet, I gathered a few pictures and showed Brad what I wanted. Essentially, I wanted a loft bed with lots of storage space on the ends. I originally wanted a desk built in but after he got the bed framed, I realized it was a tight fit to have a desk area and cubbies. I decided we'll just get a desk/table for Aiden's room instead. The key to this loft bed though is that I need it to be in three sections. With as much as we move, it wouldn't survive too many moves if we had to keep unscrewing things and putting it back together. I wanted two end pieces and the bed part. Brad and his dad sketched out some ideas, decided on what they needed and went off the the hardware store. They came back 2 hrs later with a ton of lumber and ready to build. Over the course of three days, Brad and his dad built the bed. Brad got a new drill and an impact wrench/drill too from his parents for graduation. That helped quite a bit to speed things up since they really needed 3 drills: one to make holes using a drill bit, one to use as a countersink, and one to use with screws. Brad learned about notches for the first time to make the shelves. He's got it down now I think. One of the really cool things they built is a little special tissue box compartment (3rd row, far left). The poor kid is always blowing his nose and sneezing at night so he has a tissue box with clean tissues and one for yucky tissues, and then he has a small box for his stuffed animals or toys. This compartment will make a huge difference when I change the bed because I don't have to take all that stuff off the bed. One end of the bed has 9 large cubbies and the other side has 6 small cubbies (that fit the standard fabric squares) and 3 large ones for some bigger toys. 

Of the boys wanted to help so this is their contribution. Aiden really did help move some boards. Eli tried out what the space would be like once the bed was lofted. It was very hot out the first two days the boys worked on it and the little boys were just sweating sitting in chairs watching the big boys work.  

I took the boys to the store to pick out paint for Aiden's new bed. The boys had fun picking out paint. The only problem is that I was just planning on painting Aiden's bed. I was going to stain it but then thought that since we can only rent right now (which means no painting walls), adding some color to the bed. Aiden picked out blue and green and said he wanted strips. Yikes. Eli then said he wanted his bed painted so I let him pick out a color. He chose orange and blue (no I didn't influence that choice). I will start painting Aiden's bed this week. The boys had a blast watching how the colors were made and the woman at the store was so nice to them.

On Friday night, we all went to Sweet Frogs for dessert. Aiden can't eat anything there because it's frozen yogurt and made with cow's milk so we take something for him to eat. The rest of us had some yummy dessert. Aiden got all done with his and then was doing this (see picture to the left) for a while. He finally put his arm down and told me he was still hungry. His lack of ability to tell me his needs and/or fear of telling me drives me nuts sometimes. This is an important skill he needs to figure out or he will allow himself to be in some miserable situations. I pray a lot for this little sweet boy. 

Eli's yogurt was melting because he had a hard time staying in his seat because he wanted to dance to the music. 

 On Saturday late morning, we went to IHOP for a good-bye breakfast/lunch with grandma and grandpa. After we ate, grandma and Aiden played  'go fish.' He just learned the game last week and loves it. I went to Wal-Mart and got him one of those card holder things and it's totally awesome.

Eli was playing puzzle games on the iPad next to me while Brad and grandpa talked about Brad and I's retirement career jobs. Haha. We have a cool idea and just need to find the perfect air strip (yes, for planes) to make it all happen. Let me know if you see anything for sale :)














It was time to say bye. We all hugged and then parted ways.

The boys were sad to see grandma and grandpa leave. It was a great visit with them.

On Saturday evening, we had family pictures. I can't wait to see the sneak peeks which should be out
in the next day or so. I even made super hero capes and masks for the boys. It was our first time doing photos not in a studio with multiple wardrobe changes and stuff. The location was pretty neat. I'll post some pictures when I get them.

3/2 - Bunkbed Tents!!

OK. So Brad and I took a while to do this project. Actually, I thought of the idea (tents to go around the boys' bunk beds), went on the internet and started researching (not a ton out there), told Brad about it, he came up with an idea, bought materials for it the same night, and built most of it. I had some catch-up to do. Here is Eli looking up at the partial frame that Brad built. 

After lots of researching, I decided on a plan and a type of material to use. I decided to use panels rather than a solid piece because I thought it would be too hot for Aiden for it to be a single piece and I knew he wouldn't want it that dark. I decided to completely jump in and make this as versatile as possible knowing that our boys love tents in general. I bought rip-stop nylon as the fabric because it can handle roughness, should withstand rips/tears/punctures, and can be wiped off and washed. I researched the kind of thread I would need as well as needle.

I learned that cutting rip-stop nylon is challenging because it frays so easily. I thankfully found a YouTube video that showed an alternate way to cut and finish the edges at the same time (I like saving time). I bought a saudering iron for $18 at Home Depot, found some glass to work on (the old insert for the sliding glass door for Bronco) and collected some of Brad's tools. I heated up the iron and cut the material the the sizes needed.

In the meantime, the boys were so super excited about their tents that we had to put up the frame and put something over it. We put sheets for a bit to calm them down yet still keep them pretty excited about the tents.

Just for the record - I am not a sewing expert. In fact, I would barely call myself a beginning sewer. That sounds like I have more skill than I actually do. After some research, I learn that there are different kinds of feet for sewing machines. I knew there were some special ones for zippers but that was all I knew about. Did you know there is a foot that helps keep a straight seam???? Wow. It actually looks like I can sew when I use this. It's amazing! Anyway, for strength, durability, and aesthetics, I needed to create a double hem on the perimeter. The foot to the right is the one that keeps a 1/4 in seam. :)

I needed to roll up the hem and then use plastic paper clip type things to hold it. With rip-stop nylon, you cannot use pins to hold things which makes things a bit more challenging.

Look below at the orange fabric. That looks like a legitimate hem!! Woot woot. So I did that to lots and lots of pieces of fabric.

My original plans were to make panels for each section (2 side panels and 2 end panels for the upper bunk, 2 sides and 1 end panel for the lower bunk). I wanted to there to be a little gap between the sections because I knew the boys would need ventilation and want to see some light. Below is a picture that I took from the top of the stairs of the upper bunk. You can seethe tent draping down a bit. I've also made a larger tent that covers all of the PVC and is more encapsulating but they only like to use that as a very temporary fort.

I put elastic on the corners of the tent pieces along with some velcro. Again, the idea was to make this functional beyond just the bunk bed. It's quick and easy to put up and/or take down.  I have experimented with windows to see what my boys like the best. They tend to prefer an opening rather than just a door (I think it's because they are still so young and a little scared of the dark still).

I made rectangle windows at a particular height for both of them so they can see their clock and still easily be able to see if they are allowed out of bed yet.

Each panel is roughly 35 in x 30 in. It works well for us. Some of them have no windows. I also made a huge tent (6 ft x 5ft) that has elastic at the corners but also has numerous loops along the side to help anchor it down when/where necessary. I got the idea from a product called the Fortamajig. It's a neat product (costs about $80) but is not available anywhere right now; not even from the company. That said, I looked at pictures and replicated it somewhat. I like it because you literally need just one anchor point for the tent and then that's it. I'm making pockets on the one I made so that you can just put heavy stuff in the pockets to make it stay down rather than needing stakes or anything. I haven't made a door to their big tent yet but they don't seem to care. We took the panels and connected them to around the dining room table the other night to make a fort. We took the giant tent and draped it over the living room stuff and it was super easy, it actually stayed up and didn't fall down when it was bumped (which happened with our cloth-homemade forts), and I only had one thing to fold up and put away versus lots of sheets/blankets and then clamps, pillows, and other random things to hold the ends of the blankets down. If you have any other ideas how to make this more fun, versatile, etc., please let me know.

7/12 - Prattville, AL

So here are some pictures from the last week. Brad finally found my camera!!! He was my hero and I think he even found it the day after my birthday so it was like a great birthday present. Here is Aiden playing with blocks that Mrs. Stephanie gave him for his birthday. He was busy building a castle for his cars.

Here are the boys just playing in the living room. Brad and I have had to crack down and make them play more in the playroom. They are just used to playing where we are because the living room was the play room before. It's taking a little encouraging and reminding about a playroom for them to actually stay in there and play.

Here is a picture of the boys' new bunk beds. They love them!! They are starting to get better at behaving themselves and actually sleeping but some times they have a harder time than others. Aiden sleeps on the top and Eli on the bottom.

Here is a picture of the play room. They love it and I love the rest of my house being clean. It's beautiful.

Below is the YMCA of Prattville Children's Play Area. They have free time here throughout the week. The boys love it!! They even have internet for the parents which is cool.

Below is the Children's Pool at the YMCA. You can see now why we are always checking in on Facebook that we are here. This kids pool is awesome. It's a gradual entry pool and the maximum depth if 3 feet, even with the slides. The boys are allowed to go down the slides and we are allowed to catch them at the bottom. They also have 3 lifeguards just in this pool alone. They have another pool with a diving board and bigger slides that go into deeper water just across the covered pavilion. It's pretty nice. We were going to go there and have a picnic tonight but it's raining so we are going to get the kids and go to Bass Pro Shop for a bit.

Here is Aiden kicking around the water.

Here is Eli being cute and loving the water as usual.

Here is what Eli found to be too much fun. In fact, Aiden had to try it because Eli was having such a good time doing it. Here is a series of pictures of the boys:

They were both laughing when Eli got squirted in the face with water.

The next day, I found goggles for the boys at Wal-Mart. We'll see if that encourages them to stick their head in the water.

There is a bird house in our backyard and we decided to add a bird feeder. Here are the boys putting it up and filling it up with bird seed.

The boys had fun the other day knocking down all the boxes and trying to build things. Can you find Eli stuck int he box in this picture?

We've been exploring a number of playgrounds lately and now that I have my camera, I can take pictures of them. This is especially helpful for the boys and I so they can tell me which playground they want to go to.

We went to Chick-fil-a the other night and it was Kid's Night. With the purchase of a kids meal, you got to make a shirt (so you can wear it on Friday which is Cow Appreciation Day) and then you get another free meal. Pretty cool idea. The boys had fun making their shirts. Eli wanted to do his own shirt and didn't want me to help really.

The boys started daycare yesterday. It was great for everyone. The boys had fun and Brad and I actually got some stuff done (including a workout). Here are the boys this morning before leaving for daycare. They are excited to wear their cow stuff tomorrow.

We've been having a good time getting to know Prattville. We are picking the boys up early again today to go to Bass Pro Shop for the first time. Pictures will follow. Hope you are doing well.