The Boys Report: May 2014

I can't believe May is almost over!  I haven't done a report on things the boys have been doing or saying in a while.  So I figured while I am waiting for that mouse to get caught in the trap downstairs I would take the time to write a little about what the boys have been up to lately.  :)

Owen: 3 years and about 3 months
-Last weekend when we went camping he was riding his bike around the campsite with Joey walking by him.  He looked at Joey and said uh oh my bike needs some gas, better go to the gas station.  So he pulled his bike over next to a clump of grass and pulled the grass up with his hands and said here's some grass for my bike daddy--this is the grass station.  haha
-Owen has not been transitioning too well with our move.  Lots of changes in the last month for him.  He had a lot of attention and loved being with Kristen every day.  Tough to trade that for a mom who is unloading boxes and trying to multitask.  He also loves Joey of course, and is a little confused why daddy is living far far away at his old house.  (which Joey doesn't actually live in but we've tried to explain that and he isn't getting it.)  He just told me today "I guess I want to go back to my old house where my daddy lives." :(  Therefore--the terrible two's have come at age 3 years and 3 months.  :/  (I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it is all the changes that is bringing out this side of Owen and as the changes settle down so will the tantrums??  I can only hope!)
-He really loves his sandbox and slide in the backyard.  The slide is super fast and he ends up falling on his face about half the time but that doesn't stop him!  :)
-Now that I am not working we have gone to story time at the library twice.  Owen loves it!

Levi: 11 Months
-Levi is still crawling everywhere and getting quicker and quicker at it.  He will pull himself up to stand quite a bit but I don't see signs of him wanting to walk quite yet.  
-He gets into EVERYTHING.  Especially if it is something you don't want him to get into--that is his favorite.  It is amazing to me how much destruction such a small little guy can do!  :)
-He has three words so far--Mama, Dada and Yaya (Maya).  When you ask him to say Owen sometimes he will say Ooooooo...but not always.  
-He gives kisses with a open mouth and lots of tongue--watch out!  But my favorite is when you ask him for a kiss and he just leans in to let you give him one.  
-He can crawl up stairs.  But doesn't know how to crawl down.  He took his first BAD fall off of the patio step onto the patio nose first last week.  So sad!  But he is taking it well and Owen loves to tell people about Levi's owie on his nose so it has worked out fine.  :)
-He has three teeth on the bottom and one big tooth on the top.  :)

Caught in the act!  We now have locks on all the cabinets for this reason.

What mom?

I filled one drawer with blocks to distract him before he gets into the rest of the kitchen.  He will stand there and pick out every block in that drawer and throw it.  Owen love to join him in his mess making ways.

They love making messes!  :)

Here Mousey Mousey Mousey!

After a long day with the kids yesterday I went downstairs to put some water on the stove for some tea.  (no microwave in this house, so you have to heat water the old fashioned way, of course...)  I just got some new tea that I LOVE and was so looking forward to a cup of tea before bed.  Just as I was sitting down with the newspaper to wait for the water to boil a MOUSE ran about a foot from my BARE foot and scurried into a little crevice on the side of the dishwasher!  Nooooooo!  They say what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, but when mice are involved I'd like to take the "I don't want to be stronger" option please.  

Well, who else is going to do it--I just set my first two traps.  I thought I'd try to get him during nap time when I can set the traps where I want without little fingers getting snapped.  Here's hoping we get him.  I guess.  Cause the reward for actually catching a mouse is getting to pick up the trap that has the dead mouse snapped in it.  The joys of pioneer living.

I don't even know if I set it up right!  I hope I set it up so it is a mouse TRAP not just a mouse FEEDER.  I snapped my fingers in it already so I do know the snap works...

Memorial Day

We met up with Joey at Manzanita Lake in Lassen Park for Memorial Day.  We stayed one night there and then came back to Quincy for the rest of the long weekend.  We took Owen on his first hike at Silver Lake and he did great!  It was a beautiful weekend at both Lassen Park and Quincy!

Levi was having a great time before we even started walking!

Owen kicking his feet up and cruising downhill

Mt. Lassen at Manzanita Lake--beautiful!

Owen's first hike--Gold Lake Trailhead.  We made it about half way to Gold Lake and he did so good!

It wasn't the easiest hike for his little legs

So he got a little help from Dad

Levi did great too--but he had it easy!

Climbing back down to Silver Lake

 Right now the big drama of Plumas County is that the biologist are going to kill the fish in Gold Lake to protect the endangered Yellow Legged Frog.  Residents are pretty mad about it.  It made me laugh when I read what they wrote above in the hiking registry--had frogs for lunch.  :)

Opening the Cabin

We had a fun five days up in Butte Meadows opening the cabin.  Owen loved the time in the mountains with his cousins!  When we weren't cleaning or fixing or thatching we got to go to the creek, have a bonfire, catch fish, have Owen do a tennis clinic with Grandpa, go for walks and runs and play in the sandbox.  We also go to do finger painting and the kids got to paint me!  :)  A great kickoff to summer!

Kick the baby out of the pack and play so the "older" kids can play in there!

Painting fun!

Mr. Content had fun watching them paint

They got to paint tiger stripes all over me!

These kids earned their tickets for the wheelbarrow rides by loading the wheelbarrow with the thatch we pulled up!  They worked hard and Eric had to work extra hard bringing them back!  :)

Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar??

Owen loved that Anna could read him stories before naps and bedtime!

Sandbox time!  Building castles for the queen and the princess!

Hello Quincy!

We got up at 5 AM Thursday morning to head to Quincy.  I had the trailer hitched to my car, Maya in the very back and both boys SCREAMING for no real reason except why are we up at 5 AM??  As I said goodbye to Joey I said-- please don’t make me get in that car…

Thankfully both boys were asleep five minutes after we stopped at Starbucks.  Please picture me pulling into a Starbucks parking lot with the trailer that I have no business pulling…   I just pulled in sideways and took up about 8 parking spaces.  Right at the end was a highway patrol.  Oh well.  Coffee was absolutely necessary.  I left both screaming boys in the car (which I NEVER do) and did what I had to do.  Coffee in hand we were ready for our adventure.

We arrived in Quincy at 8:30 AM—about 20 minutes before the moving truck arrived.  Just enough time to check out our new house (that we are renting) for the first time!  It was exciting to walk through it and see the layout and which rooms will be Owen and Levi’s and where we will put our furniture!  The best part was walking outside and seeing Owen RUN to his new “park” which really does feel like a park.  There is a huge swing set with a HUGE sandbox and a tire swing and a rocking horse swing already set up!  It is a kid’s paradise.  Not to mention a half acre of fenced in lawn which also makes it a dog’s paradise.  

 

Thank goodness for movers!!  It was enough to attempt to unload boxes and keep the kids out of the mover’s way and try to keep them happy as they survived on their third day of no naps.  :/  Equally thank goodness for my mom!  Who arrived that evening and stayed for four days and is absolutely amazing at accomplishing any project really—but in this case—unpacking!  She also just brought an energy that we needed after a long three days of moving.   

I’m writing this Monday night (no internet until NEXT Tuesday when I will post this, and as I post this it is actually almost another week later than that) and I can say that all but three boxes in the bathroom the inside of the house is unpacked and organized.  The garage is a different story and I hope that by the time I do actually post this that even the garage will be organized (didn't happen).

Our house is mainly heated by the wood stove—and up here in the mountains we still need heat--especially in our huge house that was built in 1879!  SO—the first two mornings we didn’t have any wood and I was so cold I was actually attempting to split wood with an ax.  There were two huge logs that didn’t fit in our wood stove so I decided I would split it myself.  Splitting wood is way harder than it looks!  But I managed to get a few pieces off and get it small enough to get in the stove.  Thankfully—yesterday we had a cord of wood delivered and I learned how to pack the stove at night so a bed of coals is ready to repack in the morning.  The house felt cozy all day today!  I feel like I’m turning into a pioneer woman!  

It has been a fun adventure so far.  We are anxious for Joey to start living with us again in July and are really looking forward to his weekend visits.  But until then I am going to enjoy extra time with my little guys!

Maya chasing squirrels up the tree--she is happy in our new backyard!

Singing with Maya

Our new house--so much green behind it!

Our backyard is so cool!

Watching the airplane fly by--there is an airport right next to the park

Owen jumped on the slide as soon as we got to Quincy

When Joey came to visit for the weekend we took a drive to Graeagle and went to the Brewing Lair which is a local brewery.  It was a cool place but the best part were the dinosaurs they had out on the patio!

Happy in the sandbox eating sand

Watching Owen at the park

You can't really tell--but this is five Mama horses with five baby horses--it was so cute!  This is on a path from the park to Feather River College which has been part of our daily walk.

Goodbye Redding!

On Wednesday, April 30th we packed our house and loaded up a truck (okay we paid someone to do both those things) with everything we own to make out trip to Quincy.  Wednesday night we spent one final night in our house before it sold on Friday.  We ended up sleeping on the ground because I forgot to tell them to leave out the aero bed… and after reopening and digging through five boxes gave up on the idea and slept on the floor as one big happy family.  J 

We put SO much work into our house in two years and we were so proud of our end product.  As excited as we were for our move, it was really hard to say goodbye to our house.  I took a few pictures of our garden boxes the morning we left--our side yard was probably one of our biggest projects!  We took out about six pine trees, about 20 (not exaggerating) oleander bushes, a HUGE juniper bush and tons of weird lattice that created a fence.  We put in a real fence and built our raised beds and spread decomposed granite around them—just like we had wanted to do.  Even though we only finished about a month before we sold the house--we got to see what we imagined actually happen—and that itself is worth a lot!

I will miss the river trail, our friends, our gym that had the best childcare, and our house.  But we are excited for adventures that are ahead!

Lots of last minute errands at home depot with Owen singing in his car and Levi wondering what is going on

Last day in our backyard as the movers packed the last of the truck we hung out on the lawn.  Levi always seems to have prunes on his face.  :)

Smiling as he gets tackled

Last morning at our house--I had to get some pictures of our garden boxes

My favorite was our herb garden which you could see right out the kitchen window

We planted these by seed and Owen loved harvesting the radishes

We left our buyer a housewarming present of lots of different varieties of tomato plants!