Christmas 2010

Christmas this year was really fun, I won't try to go into all the details but we did want to share a few pictures.

We did get the pictures of the kids taken - below are some of the best.

I could not resist adding Dotty's smile.

Suzi's tree looks perfect as usual

Suzi also made seven, yes count them seven, dresses this year. Of course the girls had Sunday dresses that were amazing. This is the front of Dotty's dress (of course it's all hand made, including the detail around the neck)

Here's the back of the dress

Scarlett's matching Dotty's

Dotty also made some fun matching dresses for the girls and the cousins.

(She made five dresses but we could not get all the girls to pose at the same time)

Halloween 2010 - costumes

This year we had some fun with the twins costumes - Garden gnomes! The funniest part was the way the kids loved their hats, and Charlie's walk was hilarious (yes, I know I should have gotten a video of that)

Dorothy's princess costume was really neat - until Henry hit her on the way to the church and her makeup started to run down her cheeks....

Halloween 2010 - pumpkins

The kids had a blast this year with the pumpkins. We're not too artsy so we got a kit with some templates and the kids were able to choose - and customize each template.

Of course Dotty had the creepy cat type pumpkin

Peter was very proud that he was able to do 90% of his pumpkin by himself

Henry did this one 100% by himself - nuff said

Why I love fall

Today during lunch I had the chance to go out to the backyard and play with the kids - luckily I remembered the camera and took some fun pictures!

Charlie loves playing with balls and being outside. He typically has a huge smile on his face while were outside, and screams when we drag him inside!

Waiting for the bus to come pick Dotty up for school - I love the color contrast with the stairs!

Dotty can be really cute when she try's

The Chicago Sunday Tribune - November 22, 1914

Some pictures of the newspaper we found in the attic (see previous post for details)

Our next big project

We've been working on it for a few weeks now, and we've still only just scratched the surface.

Our next big project is to completely renovate the attic. From what we've found so far it appears that the attic was previously finished off in stages over the past 70 years or so. Under the flooring was a newspaper from November 22, 1914 (will post an image in the next post), in the walls were newspapers and a magazine 1942, in the insulation in the ceiling was a newspaper from 1958. There was also a gallon size wine bottle from the mid 80's but we doubt that had anything to do with the renovation.

Below are some pictures taken from when we bought the house - a good idea of where we are starting from.

The ceiling was about six feet, six inches (or less) and the fan would have easily given me a nice bump on the head if I ever walked close enough.

Nail gun and a bad aim

Last Saturday (July 17th) Henry and I ran over to Grandpa's to help out 'really quick'. He was framing in a window and was nailing together a header. Henry asked to nail a couple nails and grandpa said 'sure'. Henry went over and picked up the gun and when to nail... instead of going strait down with the nailer it was more of an arc and hit his foot (insert painful grown here)

What was supposed to be a quick trip to help Grandpa out ended up being 8+ hours getting the nail taken out. Suzi ran Henry over to the prompt care and after a few hours there they said that they did not have the tools to get the nail out and sent Suzi over to the ER. Five hours later they were able to come home.

Luckily, after many hours, x-rays etc they determined that the nail just barely missed the bone and thus surgery was not necessary (phew). Just a lovely tetanus shot, a strong antibiotic for a few weeks, and lots of care to keep it clean.

This picture shows the nail a bit closer... the three inch nail went through his foot and hit the pavement and bent - luckily we weren't on wood, I can't imagine what would have happened if his foot stuck on the wood and we weren't able to carry him to the van. We probably would have had to cut the wood out and take it with us to the hospital!

OUCH!!!

Pictures of the twins and Dorothy

Here are some pictures that Suzi recently had taken at a photo studio - mostly because we haven't had the kids pictures taken in a long time.

You can see the rest of the pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.com/jeff.clines/jcp2010

Scarlett and Charlie

Scarlett

Charlie

Dorothy

The "Girls"

Note, I like this photo but it really bugs me that there is so much white space at the top. I'm not sure what the photographer was thinking, and this isn't the only photo that is this way.

Our weekend project

This weekend we set out to put together a massive sandbox - it was a long time planning and even though we're only about 80% complete we're pretty happy with the results so far. The actual sandbox is 8 feet long and 6 feet wide. It also has two benches on either end that extend a foot off the end of the sandbox making it all in all ten feet long.

We still need to finish the bench lids where we plan on storing all the toys, and to get and install the cover so it's not used as the neighborhood cat box! Plus we're going to make a tent like cover that will attach to the fence and provide a good amount of shade while the kids are playing in the summer heat.

I know most will be anxious to know that there are 6000 pounds of sand in the sand box... enough to last all summer of kids throwing and spilling sand all over the yard! (and yes, all 3 tons were moved from the driveway to the back of the yard one wheel barrel at a time)
What's not apparent in this photo is that the kids at this point are already on their second set of clothes as the first set got so dirty from playing in the sand in the morning that any hope of brushing the sand off had long been forgotten (we had to get the hose out)!

The Boy's 2010 School pictures