Birthday Legos

Oh, yes, can we please wake Mom up at 1-something in the morning so that she can take a picture now that we've finished assembling the TIE Fighter. As you can see, I didn't actually get up to take this shot. Now let me go back to sleep!!!



Travis busily putting the TIE Fighter together while Therin watches dazed and confused. Why are we putting Legos together now? Why?


All I can say is that I did not tell him how to hold the box or to adjust the box.

So, this box from amazon arrived today and I opened it thinking it was two books that I had ordered. When I saw Star Wars I knew it was the gift Julie and Josh had sent for Therin's birthday. I put it away and intended to give it to him on his birthday. For whatever reason, I read the invoice a little after midnight tonight and since it said, "I know it's hard to wait for your birthday, so we're sending your gift a little early." I figured I couldn't very well keep it until his birthday so I told Travis (who was having a hard time falling asleep) and he proceeded to wake up our son at 12:30ish a.m. to put together this Lego set because "Josh would've wanted it this way." We are all hoping this is a cherished memory. Note to self: NEVER bring up new Lego packages in the house to my husband after 8 p.m.

Thank you Julie and Josh! Therin was pumping his arms in the air after he opened it.

The finished bathroom

Pernsteiners 60th Wedding Anniversary

The Smith Family with the Pernsteiners.


An attempt at a family picture. Kya's dress was made by Grandma Smith with Oliver + s's bubble dress pattern.


Kya got a lot of enjoyment out of Great Grandpa's walker and cane. I think more time was spent walking with one at the party than without. By the end of the afternoon, she was getting smart and would put the cane just out of Great Grandpa's reach and coax him to get up and take it. She'd be an adorable physical therapist!

Flower Fun

More premature birthday planning

Therin wants more Legos and is driving me nuts asking for them. I keep telling him, "Wait until your birthday!" This is not appeasing him; so to cope with the 50 some days left, apparently we needed to start focusing on the planning. I asked him if there was a theme he was interested in and immediately came up with Legos. I searched for some ideas online and thought making letters out of Legos to spell "Happy Birthday (name)" was cool so Therin went right to work. I can't believe how fast, he assembled all of them but is now BEGGING me to take him to the store and print pictures so we can make invitations (Who knows when we'll be having his party but the invitations will be ready). Needless to say, his birthday can't come fast enough (I'm sure Uncle Josh can relate.).......

WHAT???!!!!!

A rather frequent expression of Kya's. I think she always feels jipped about something.

Projects and forts, Oh my!

The most recent fort. Tonight we might have to set up the tent to sleep in-the weather has been in the high 60's, low 70's with a breeze. It feels heavenly to be outside or inside with ALL the windows open!


Therin's own "tiling" project that now looks like a gravestone. We gave the kids this little space in the yard to do what they want with-it changes frequently.

The Bathroom

Getting closer......



Ahh, the bathroom remodel....this is what has been taking up most of our (mainly Travis') summer. There is always something to work on-tearing, plumbing, drywall, painting, installing glass block windows, etc. We have finally lightened the load and are paying someone to do the tile work. We are hoping to finish this project by August, two and a half months later. Clearly, the time and money spent will be worth it but I will be oh, so happy when it's done (no matter what it looks like). It may be a long while before I agree to any other major home improvement projects, indoors at least.

Unfortunately, I have no good pictures of the bathroom before the tear but there had been several BAD patch jobs with the tile, linoleum floor that had not been cleaned well around the toliet, etc.