Catching Up!!!!

I feel that I have a lot of catching up to do here on my blog! We have been just a tad busy lately! A month ago I took the kids to Purdue for the Spring Fest on a beautiful warm April afternoon. The kids had a blast while at Purdue not to mention there was so much to see and do while we where there. Here are some pictures of our very fun day!!! The kids loved the goop mixture below, which is simply corn starch and water! It was a fun way to start the morning!

I think Lindsey loved playing in after awhile, she wasn't sure about "getting dirty" at first!!!

My nephew went along with us that day!!! (And Jacob stayed with Chad!)

Doesn't that look like fun! I am starting to think I need to make some of that for the kids to play in here at home! Jacob would love playing in some goop!

Then the kids went to make some rockets to launch to the moon! (Below is Kyle's rocket getting ready to be launched.)

Then it was Chase's turn to fly!

And then Lindsey's turn!!!

Next, the kids went to the engineering tent to build a bridge! Easier said than done for Lindsey and I! The boys totally rocked at building the bridge!!! Us girls on the other hand, well it kept falling apart, no driving on our bridge! Ha! Ha!

Here are some very proud engineers!!!

Then the kids became archaeologists and dug for some fossils.

As we were leaving Purdue we needed to get a group picture! Ironically enough a classmate that was in one of my classes last semester was walking by us when I was taking pictures of the kids and offered to take a group photo for us! What were the odds of them walking by at that moment! Of course it was great to meet my classmates family that they had talked about in class!!!

Lindsey posing as usual!

And then the boys!

After we left Purdue we went to eat a late lunch at a really yummy resturant named Dog n' Sud's, then went to a park that has trails to walk along and of course a really fun playground. The kids loved this! Check out this cool dude! He reminds of Chad!

I am always amazed at how super strong Lindsey is! (Of course she gets that from her mother!) When ever she sees monkey bars she can always make it from one end to the other without dropping! Starting from point A.

And of course making it to point B!

Wow, it makes me tired just watching her! Ha! Ha! I also got a really fun action picture of my nephew while playing tag!

And one last picture that I have of Kyle resting.

Kyle reminds me sooo much of Chad in that picture. It's funny how the boys sometimes do things that their father does. For instance, Kyle sitting a certain way is the same way his daddy sits! Also, the way he will stand sometimes is the same! Like father like son I guess! I think it's cute when that happens! Overall, we had a very busy yet fun day!!! Lisa

The Renovation Project!!!

Oh my have we been busy lately!!! I realize that's it been over a month since my last post! Goodness gracious, all with good reason though! So a few weeks ago well, two to be exact, Chad and I bought a different home and well it's a fixer upper of sorts. But hey, the price was right and we are now one of the many people taking advantage of the foreclosures that are selling like crazy. Someones loss but our gain, sad isn't it! The house that we bought is a Queenanne Victorian built way back in 1866, if I remembered correctly. The house has four bedrooms and only one bathroom. Ugh! We don't plan to move until around the Fourth of July simply because we have soo much work to do on it. We really don't want to move in the house until everything is done. Some of the things that we need to do are as follows!

Take out a wall or two in the kitchen and expand it from 13x13 to 13x19

Rip out kitchen cabinets, ceiling and floor (try to decide on what kind of new cabinets to get!)

Order all new kitchen cabinets and flooring (not to mention finish the walls)

Take out everything in the bathroom, such as tub, sink, toilet and replace it with all new. Plus a new floor in the bathroom

Sand all of the hardwood floors and seal them

Make a final decision on the nasty paneling on the walls (convince Chad that the 70's called and said they want the paneling back)

Clean all of the Irish lace off the walls (Irish lace is the fancy term I use for cob webs)

Paint and paint some more and did I mention paint

Plant some pretty flowers outside

Put in new windows

Fix the siding on the outside

Have someone come fix the brick outside on the front of the house

I'm sure that we have lots of other things that I have forgotten, but hey that's a start!!!

So I'm sure your probably wonder what it looks like inside, unfortunately I have only taken a few! I really need to get in there and take some more before pictures. Below is a picture of the staircase that is all intact still! My favorite is part of the house besides the 9 foot ceilings!

This is the kitchen wall that we are taking out to expand it from 13 foot long to 19 foot long!

As you can see in the picture above the ugly cabinets that are going! Along with that ugly ceiling and window blinds! Well, I guess we have enough stuff to keep us busy for awhile! I can't wait for a nice weekend so that I can get outside and plant some flowers. I had a local interior boutique owner come over and get her opinion on what to do inside and out and she gave me tons of ideas and tips that I can't wait to get done! If only we had more time to work on the house, right now we have only been working on the weekends so not a lot is getting done. I am hoping that this weekend we can get it cleaned of Irish lace, finish ripping out the wall in the kitchen and get some flowers planted in the yard, if the weather cooperates. It's going to be a work in progress so you will need to check back frequently!!! Lisa

Classic Cars, Trucks and Tractors!

Last Friday Jacob and I took a rode trip while Kyle and Lindsey were at school! We went to Auburn, Indiana for an antique tractor show and then to a classic car and truck museum. I'm pretty sure Jacob had a blast, he was so excited to tell Kyle and Lindsey all about his day when we got home! I think Kyle and Lindsey were just a tad jealous that they did get to go! Of course while we were there I took lots of pictures, unfortunately I only had my 35mm lens so I always had to back up to get a whole tractor in the frame, not to mention that lens really only focus on one spot rather than the whole frame! Let me also say that Jacob was such a big boy while we were there, he walked around as if he know exactly where he was going and what he was looking for! It was incredibly cute, typical man I suppose he must have learned from the best! Get ready for picture overload! The picture below is one that makes me laugh, Jacob is caressing a $1,700 pedal tractor! I told him not to touch those tractors and what does he do, ever so gently caressing the steering wheel! Is that funny or what?!

Finally Jacob could sit on some tractors! The little tractor below looks just like on that Chad has! Much smaller of course and a different color!

Here is Jacob on a bigger tractor and he accidentally pushed the horn! It sure scared him at first, but then he thought it was funny!

This picture below is one that see and hear very often, just put a vvvrrrrooommm with that!

Then it was off to the classic car and truck museums! Just check out these fancy cars!

At the museum they had the original art room that car designers would have drawn out new cars. Below is Jacob drawing out his new car design! (Actually it was more like a tractor or truck design!)

Then we found this rather funny contraption! A pay-phone, he had to call collect because he didn't have any money! (Just joking of course the phone didn't really work!)

Below is Jacob actually posing for me! I tried almost all day to get him to look at me and stop and pose, then what do you know, he says "mommy take my picture!".

And finally one last picture for you! Through the eyes of a just turned three year old!

That last picture was actually taken by Jacob, not to worry I had the camera strapped around my neck! Of course I didn't realize until I got home and was going through all of our pictures from the day and the ones that Jacob took how the world looks to him! Poor little guy I felt really bad for him then, that picture above is what he seen most of the afternoon in the truck museum! No wonder he loved the phone booth and model truck displays so much, rather then the real trucks, he could actually see them! I will definitely have to remember that the next time we go some where. Overall though, I think he had a pretty good time, he still talks about it as if he wants to go back! Lisa

Birthday Celebrations!!!

Last Sunday on February 28th Jacob and I celebrated our birthdays together! How exciting is that, I get to celebrate my birthday with such a sweet little guy! I have to admit, he was the best birthday present I have ever and probably will ever get! He was actually due on the 27th, but he wanted to make it easier on mommy to remember his birthday and came on the 28th instead. (I admit it's kinda nice that I only have to remember the year he was born!) So, for our birthday we had a nice quite evening with family and of course my favorite cake! Ha! Ha! As you will see in the picture below, Jacob isn't all about the cake, he wants to open his presents!!! Can't say that I blame him, I would too!

Then he realized that we wanted him to blow out the candles!

He wasn't quite sure about the whole candle thing! I love his expression below "really I have to blow all of these candles out before I can have my toy back!?"! Ha! Ha!

OK, lets get this picture thing over, I want cake he wants to play with his new toys!

And so, that is exactly what we did! Jacob is such a funny little guy, he kept saying that he was going to be five and that I was going to be sixteen! Umm, not sure if I would ever want to be sixteen again! Jacob actually turned 3 years old this year and I turned, well lets just say I'm few years older than him! Ha! I'm sure your wonder what I got for my birthday! Well, I got a Lego beach house, is that funny or what! Yep, I finally got my dream beach house, well except it isn't pink like I wanted! Lego company if you are reading this, please bring back the pink and white beach house that I had when I was younger! Black and yellow just are not my beach colors! I did also get some new stainless steal kitchen aid pots and pans, only because my other red kitchen aid one's are really wore out. (Now I just need to find a really good cookbook!) Jacob and I did have a wonderful birthday this year and we are so blessed to be able to celebrate our birthdays together every year!!! Happy third birthday to my sweet Jacob, mommy loves you!!! Lisa

Purdue Engineering

Last Saturday I took Kyle down to Purdue for a free Day of Discovery Open House event hosted by some Engineering students. Once we got there I found a really nice parking spot or so I thought! Kyle had mentioned to me that the door on the dumpster that I had parked next to had a huge P on it for Purdue, isn't that cool! Of course I didn't think anything of parking in front of the dumpster. So Kyle and I got out and walked across the street to the Civil Engineering building for a fun morning. Once we got there, they had a few stations set up for the kids to make their way through and learn lots of different things. The first thing that Kyle did was make a space ship to fly to the moon like Neil Armstrong, a Purdue graduate. The picture below shows what they used to launch the rockets from, unfortunately you can't see the pictures of the planets in front!

Then we went to go do some electrical engineering. Kyle had to put all of his pieces together on the circuit board to make sound. Kyle really liked doing this project so now I should find one of those box kits somewhere for him. Or have Chad make him one, he's good at that stuff.Then he went to design a helmet that wouldn't splatter the brains (water balloon) on the thumb tacks (road). This one was fun, they had to take into consideration the amount of materials used and think about the cost of using them in the design process. The first one, not so good! The brain went splat!Then on the second one Kyle thought he had it, but Yikes! He didn't! Another big splat! The Styrofoam plates and cotton balls didn't hold up! Then on the last one he did aluminum foil, cotton and I think one or two foam peices. Below, you can see him dropping his helmet and brain on the road!

And then Ta-Da! It survived!

And the last activity that Kyle got to do was to construct a roller coaster and then use different weighted balls (marble, wooden and plastic) to see which one uses more potential energy. Of course he also found out that he had to make sure his track was just right so the ball (roller coaster seat) didn't fly off the tracks!

It definitely took time to get the loops just right!

Kyle enjoyed this activity as well, he said he can do the same thing at home with his Hot Wheels track. I liked the fact that all of the things that Kyle did we can recreate at home in a very similar way. I'm sure Lindsey would enjoy doing some of these activities! When Kyle and I were all done we walked across the street to our van so we could leave and go shopping. When we got back my van was gone! Like completely gone! "Oh my gosh, my van has been towed" I told Kyle. Now were is it! Of course I had no clue what to do, but rest assured the people that had it towed, because it was in front of the dumpster, gave me a card of where I could find it. So I called the towing company and asked if my van was there and they said it was. She also said that they were getting ready to close until Monday! What, no I need my van! So she was nice enough to wait about a half an hour after closing for me to come and get it. I had to wait on someone to come pick us up and take us across town. Of course that cost me $49 for her to wait and a grand total of $200 (of course it had to be all cash to) completely waisted! So I got my van and then went shopping, stopped by the library down there to finish some homework and by that time it was kinda late so I asked Kyle if he wanted to stop at Culver's to eat before we head home. So we did and you will never believe what I seen as I pulled in the parking lot! Oh my gosh! The same exact towing truck that was at the lot where my van was! What are the odds! And then when we went inside I seen the guy and girl that I had just given my money to! I did make a comment to the guy as he walked up to refill his drink when Kyle and I were filling ours. "Hey your the guy that towed my van!" He looked at me like lady be quite! Ha! I thought it was funny, he didn't! I think he was embarrassed! I must admit the guy could have at least taken the girl out for some steak instead of a burger and fries with the money I just gave them Geesh! So over all it was a day full of many learning experiences! Of course, I believe it's safe to say that I have become Kyle's role model of what NOT to do when you get your license! Ha! Ha! Lisa