T- minus one week?!

So, as of right now, our plan is to move in to our new house on Saturday. But, we have A LOT to do. We've been telling our movers, aka our friends, to plan on the 17th, but there is so much to do, we won't know for sure if we pass inspection until later in the week. Partially because, as of Friday, our house looked like this:

The good news is that we got all of the hardwood floor down - what a project!! Now we've got to finalize the plumbing, finishing the painting, put up the front porch railing, put on all of the door knobs and light plates....um, I think I'm still forgetting things. All of those jobs are different contractors and all say they will be done by Wednesday, so fingers crossed!!

Chris smiling as he cuts one of the last pieces of hardwood.

We have been working around the clock. Saturday night, Chris and I were at the house until midnight putting down the laundry room floor, evidence below:

 If I look tired, I am. 

Chris has pretty much been at work or at the house the last 2 weeks; I have gotten to have a lot of special time, just me and Madeline. She is getting very into the details now. 

We had a tea party yesterday and she had to line up the donuts and tea just right for the 2 babies.

When I told her she only had a few pennies left for the fountain, she took her time and slooooowly threw them in. Of course, she then turned to me and said "more pennies please" but that's a different story. People, send me your pennies!

We took a little trip to the doctor on Friday because she had a red mark in her eye - she got scratched at daycare- and she had a rash on her back. Neither were anything to worry about - thank goodness! And we got a free ear check and I'm so happy to say tubes are looking good and ears were clear.

 Enjoying a snack while waiting for the ped. I have found that cheerios come in quite handy at the doctor's office.

This week we're going to be super busy wrapping up everything at the house. Chris doesn't even know I'm awake and blogging, or I would have been put to work already! :) I'm going to go get to it. Enjoy this beautiful weather!

I DO IT!

Madeline is 22 months old, going on 22! She is VERY independent! Lately, everything is "I do it" or "I get it." She insists on doing nearly everything by herself. 

Like... climbing up the steps to big slides

Or climbing up the slide backwards

She had to hold her own Halloween bucket...

OK, seriously, so she's my daughter, and I'm biased...but was there ever a cuter watermelon?!

She wanted to help daddy with the hardwood floor

It's a lot of fun watching Maddie master language. She was a late talker due to her ear infections but has caught up and is now saying more than most of the kids in her daycare class. She knows all of her shapes, the alphabet, and is putting together short sentences. I cannot believe she'll be 2 next month!!

Chris, our dads, and some great friends have spent the weekend putting the hardwood floor down. Here's a picture of the dining room, in progress. I love the floors!! We are so blessed to have such great parents and friends who are willing to help us with this very big job!!

While the guys worked, Madeline and I had a lot of fun together. Here she is sitting with her grandma's kitties. She loves them!

Running around the park!

Tomorrow, Madeline and I plan to spend some time with baby Hudson and we can't wait!

Maddie makes a new friend!

Another great weekend in the books!

 

Thursday night, I got to be a teenager again. My friend Ashley and I went to the Yum Center to see the Olympic gymnasts perform some Olympic routines as well as some fun routines together. We had a blast!  Lots of little girls in their leotards were there; thank goodness we didn't try to fit in our old ones!

 

On Friday, my grandma came over to see Madeline before she moves down to Florida for the Winter. Maddie always loves seeing her great grandma and had a great time playing with her! We'll miss you this Winter!

As usual, the house has been a flurry of activity.

Tile shower in the master - work in progress

 Madeline sitting on the hearth.

Madeline playing in the cabinets!

 

Maddie has really taken to the new house. Her playroom has some side closets that are pretty small- she calls them her tunnels and she LOVES to play in them. She asks to visit the "tunnel house" a lot; I know she will be so excited when she realizes this is her new house!

 

On Saturday, we went to Dan and Sherri's house for a cook-out. It was Dan's birthday earlier in the week and they had family and some couples from the hockey team over to celebrate. Madeline had a great time playing with Rolfe and Soley. She kept following Soley around saying "So-wee. So-wee." She's met her before, but this was the first time they really played together.

 

Maddie, Soley and their babies squeezed into Rolfe's car. 

Madeline has been cracking me up a lot lately. She is talking all the time and has such a big personality for a little thing. This morning after her bath she wanted to play in her bed (I think because she wanted her pacifier. She only gets it in her bed and in the car.) She put all of her hairbows in the bed with her and then tried to put every one on her. First, they all went up her arms. Then she took them off and put them back around her legs. She does have a diaper on, in case you were wondering. She didn't want to get dressed right away, for some reason. What a sweet, silly girl!

Having fun and building a house!!

This weekend was jam-packed with fun AND work! 

There were all kinds of jobs to do at the house...

 

Building a fire to burn all the brush

Painting all of the closets

Cleaning the kitchen, preparing for hardwood

Planning the hardwood layout

Framing the sidewalk to the driveway

Me with the drill. Kind of scary, huh?

In between all the work, we got to play a bit.

The new playground at the Summit

On Saturday, we went to Gallrein Farm's and we loved it!

Taking a rest in the bounce house!

Running through the bounce house

 Maddie's first pony ride!

After a fun afternoon of ponies, wagon rides and pumpkin picking, we took the kiddos to the Zoo Halloween Party. SO fun!

Ready for candy!

"Does this outfit make me look fat?"

Thanks nana and papa Hughes for a great Saturday! It was so nice to hang out with them and Laura, Cory and Dane.

 Finally, we had to take a quick trip to the doctor's on Monday. I leave you with this picture of Madeline waiting for her ped, looking like such a big girl!! 

Quick trip to Disney!

I think I mentioned that my sister is doing the Disney College Program this semester; she's spending four months working at Disney World and taking classes for her vet degree. Chris and I had planned on taking Madeline, but decided at the last minute (literally, like 2 weeks before) that she was too young.  Before we left, we had some fun time together.

 Eating guacamole at Qdoba.  Madeline can eat her weight in guacamole. Seriously, it's kind of impressive; she LOVES the stuff. Considering I didn't even TRY guacamole until I was 25, I consider this pretty incredible.

We spent a few mornings at the new All About Kids. AAK is a gym that just opened by our house. They have dance, gymnastics, karate, and swimming lessons, as well as a section with bounce houses. This is the ONLY picture I have of Madeline here not blurry. She basically runs around the entire time. I actually sweat chasing her, which is a little embarrassing.

Playing house at Pottery Barn Kids. Madeline is turning into quite the home maker. She likes to take care of all of her friends (Sally the baby doll, Violet the bear, Molly the scarecrow, bunny, etc) and clean. Sometimes she purposefully makes messes just to clean them up.

She loves the fountains at the mall- we stopped here to have a pretzel and watch the water. She loves throwing pennies! She'll throw all day long, which means that fountain has some of my silver coins too! 

It was hard to leave our sweet girl, but we really thought it was for the best.  So, as we headed to the airport, we dreamed about a relaxing few days away from the chaos of building a house, stressful jobs and a wild, willful toddler.....until we got to the airport and were reminded that we were going to DISNEY WORLD. I kid you not, there were 75 kids on our plane! I've never seen anything like it.

This flight is much different than the one to Bermuda...

But, we hit the ground running when we got to Orlando and never looked back!!

Little sis in her work clothes. Disney has some of the craziest outfits I've seen, but Mercedes still looks pretty cute in hers!

Also that day Animal Kingdom...

The next day, we headed to Magic Kingdom. Nearly everyone at Disney wears some type of button that proclaims what they're celebrating: birthdays, 1st visits, reunions, adoption anniversaries, honeymoon, etc. My sister made Chris wear a first visit button which meant workers would shout "YAY FOR YOUR FIRST VISIT!! WAHOO!!" He was a really good sport about it. Here he is, with his button, in front of Space Mountain.

Beating up on little sis in the Buzz Lightyear ride

 The last night - in front of the Epcot Ball.

Those are just a few pics from the trip - I might upload some more later. 

We had a great few days away, except Madeline got very sick. Several hours after we left, she threw up. And it kept coming. Poor little baby. Chris and I felt AWFUL being away from her and thought about her constantly on our trip. We know she was in fantastic hands with her nana and papa, but it still stinks. They did spoil her rotten though. She had to be out of daycare yesterday even though she was feeling much better, so they took her to all of her favorite spots: Panera, Barnes and Noble and the park!  I did get this picture while I was away. I guess someone has to work while mommy and daddy play, right?!

Thanks to nana and papa Hughes for watching Maddie while we snuck away for a few days! We really appreciate it!

Hubers with Hudson!

On Sunday, we took Maddie to Huber's to spend the morning with Hudson. I've been going to Huber's since I was a little girl and I was happy to take Maddie. Chris and I go several times a year to pick pumpkins, apples, and berries. We usually do our apple picking with Kyle and Danielle, and this year, we brought another little couple: Maddie and Hudson! 

This is only the first of many pictures in which we plan to embarrass our sweet kiddos!

Running through the orchard!

Picking her first apple off the tree!

Whoops! 

Sitting on the big tractor!

Feeding the fish!

We had a great day with our friends and babies!