Happy Easter!

We hope everyone had a great Easter.....we sure did. We woke up Sunday morning and Kate looked around for her Easter basket. Well, to be honest she didn't have to look to hard. I'm not sure we would've kept her interest too long if we didn't make it easy on her. After finding her basket and enjoying her gifts we got ready and met the Weiland's at church.

After that, we went back to their house for an Easter lunch and egg scavenger hunt for not only Kate, but for us "kids" as well. My mom set up a great game for us and the adults all had a great time. After that, Kate woke up and had her own little scavenger hunt. A big thanks to Deb for putting it together. Kate had a blast and we sure enjoyed watching her!

Rock & Read Baby!

The past week or so, we've made it a priority to bring Kate into her room before she goes to bed for the night and rock in the glider while we read books. We termed the activity "Rock & Read". It didn't take Kate long to learn the phrase and she's been saying it quite a bit lately.

On Saturday night, Shelly took Kate into her room and the two of them nestled up in the glider, put a blanket over each other and began reading. Without hesitation, Kate looked up at Shelly and blurted out..."ROCK & READ BABY!" We've been laughing about it ever since!

Her vocabulary has grown so much in the past month or two and beyond that, some of the stuff coming out of her mouth is beyond hilarious! That's our Peanut!

Flooring

Last weekend Greg, Laura, Brooke and Charlie Burch came our way for a few days. I was able to "coerce" Greg into giving me a hand tiling the bathroom since he had done it to his bathroom a few years ago. We also tackled the laminate flooring in Kate's new playroom while we were waiting for the leveling compound in the bathroom to dry. Once that dried up, Greg handled the tiling while I finished the laminate flooring. So to be honest, Greg is the one that did all the dirty work. He measured everything, cut the tiles and laid them. All I had to do to finish it was grout. When Saturday evening rolled around I was so thrilled with what we had gotten done.

The whole crew ended up spending the night and it was so nice to have them up for a few days. The kids had a blast together and we got so much done. A huge thanks to Greg for giving up his Saturday and helping us out. We're so appreciative!

Kate peaks in on the newly floored bathroom

Kate's First Haircut

This completely slipped my mind until just today. I mentioned a couple months ago that Kate had her first haircut. It took place in late January and here's a little video for those who want to see it.

Painting

This past weekend we tackled most of the priming/painting of our basement. Deb & Joe came over early Saturday morning and we got to work. Joe babysat Kate all day, while Deb, Shelly and I spent the day downstairs. I couldn't believe how much we got done in just one short day. We were able to completely prime the whole basement, paint everything but the accent wall in the living room (which is where the bar will be) and part of the hallway.

The next couple days Shelly and I finished the stairwell as well as Kate's playroom and we should have everything completely finished by the weekend at latest. A huge shout-out to my Mom for all your help this weekend. It's so nice to continue to have seasoned veterans helping us with this large project. We couldn't be more appreciative.

The Living Room

The Living Room #2

Milwaukee Children's Museum

This past weekend, the three of us headed down to Milaukee for one of recurring get-together's with our good friends, Tony, Melissa, Aaron & Cassie. Along with Tony's & Melissa's son Eli, the 8 eight of us went to the Milwaukee Children's Museum for the afternoon to let the kids "run wild". Eli is a little more than 6 months older than Kate and the two of them do very well together. We also got a little surprise while we were there...Shel's best friend Abby K. just happened to start working there on the weekends (which we had no idea about) and Shel bumped into her. It's been a while since we've seen her and it was so nice to briefly catch up.

After the museum, we headed back to Aaron & Cassie's place for a wonderful dinner and fun conversation. It was a great weekend and a nice brake from all the work we've been doing on the basement. Speaking of which, we'll be priming and painting all weekend. Once again, we'll post updated pictures early next week.

Kate & Eli go for a Cruise

Presenting......Me!

Hmmm, where does this tunnel lead?

Slide Time!

Go! Go! Golf Ball!

Drywall Completed

Between Ryan, Chris and myself, we've sure spent quite a bit of time downstairs the past two weekends. Shelly along with my parents chipped in as well and after 4 full days of drywalling, I'm beyond thrilled to say we're finished! When Shelly's cousin Andy asked Chris who would be hanging the sheetrock, he stated that we were doing it on our own. Andy's reply, "Good luck!" Now I know why.

That being said, I'm thrilled I/we did it on our own. I now have such an appreciation of the work that goes into a job like this and it feels good to know we've had a big hand in finishing our own basement.

The Plasterer's are at our place today and should be finished sometime tomorrow morning. After that, we start priming and painting the walls. I gotta say, we're moving along nicely and I truly believe we'll hit our April 30th deadline, possibly even with a week or so to spare.

The Living Room

The Bar Area

(The opposite side of the room pictured above)

The Half Bathroom

Hallway to Bedroom & Kate's Playroom

Inside Kate's Playroom

(Looking out toward the Living Room/Bar Area)

The Guest Bedroom

(Looking out toward the Doorway)