Things they are a Changin....

The weather is changing, Jay's holidays are over, the girls are growing, and the property is transforming into our future home!

The insulation is almost done in the house! The drywall should begin this week. Siding was supposed to start but somehow our order of hardiplank did not arrive and there happens to be none left in Vancouver. So we wait for a shipment from the States to come (about 2 weeks). They have things they can do in the meantime but ..... Mom and I will paint all the smart trim so that it is all ready when they can put it up.

For some unknown reason our daughter likes to eat things that are not actually food. This is sand but she also likes to eat crayons, paper and cat food (it is food but not for people). The other day I came up the stairs and there she was with her face in the cat's water bowl lapping it up! I don't know what to do about it!
Paiger has began to crawl and it did not take her long to master it. She is also pulling herself up to standing all the time. She has about one second of standing without holding on to anything.
Look at our girlies!
Here is our fireplace all framed in. That is another story. Went to the stone people a while back to get their opinion on where to place the fireplace so that the stone would not stick out too much from the fireplace. So we enclosed it leaving 2 inches exposed. What we did not know what that there was a lip on the fireplace that needs a flush surface for. Needless to say we ended up (and by we I mean Bruno ended up) boxing it in so that the stone will have a place to adhere to. Problem solved and it will actually just accent the fireplace more from the wall. Phew. But today I noticed there are some scratches on the front that we are going to have to touch up as I am pretty sure they were not there when it went in and I can't prove who done it! No one will be the wiser once I am through with it!
We had to wait for weeks for the windows to our ensuite bath and I helped Bruno put them in last week!
Here is our front door from the inside of the house. It is a wood-look fibreglass door that I need to stain pretty soon before the cold weather comes and the house is southern exposure so I don't want the sun to warp the jams which really are wood. Work, work, work. I called a painter but he never called back.
Here is my sister's boy, Braeden. (Terrible Auntie that I am, I now know how to spell his name correctly!) Also I have noticed that there has been a dramatic drop in pictures I have taken of the kids over the years. Mackenzie has a ton of pictures, Hannah not so bad, Paige not nearly as many and poor Braeden has barely had any pics. So he happened to be over the other day and I was able to capture his smiling drooling face!
The girls have been able to wear the jackets Auntie Diane brought them and they sure do look cute in them! My Mom and Hannah up at the property.
Our garage floor ready to be poured. We were ready for them for a week and they finally came today to do it. We were able to do the girls handprints and all of our initials at the back door. I also put a coin with each of our birth years and the year we built the house and embedded them on the bottom stair to the basement! I have to seal coat the garage floor and stairs in the morning.
Picture of our windows in! I am hoping that the posts and deck to the front and the side of the house will be done in the next few days! The decking guy for the deck off the master will be here in the week to get that done before the cold weather hits and so the siding people can get going on that. We had to forego the cedar post idea. I searched high and low (in a short time span) to get what we wanted but it was just not happening. So we have come up with an alternative.
Here is a picture of the back of our house including the garage. About 70 so odd feet!

Hannah likes to do the things Paige does sometimes. Here she is crawling. Sometimes she pretends to want Paige's food too but hasn't really wanted to eat it when I offer her the spoon. Hannah has really began playing dolly and make believe. It is so cute to see her rock her babies and talk to them. I don't know where all the dollies came from! We seem to be acumulating them. Why is it kids always want what is in another kid's hand? Like dollies, sippie cups etc..

Here is Paiger crawling happily. As you may have noticed in the above picture this was before Hannah discovered I was taking pictures of Paige and then you can see the aftermath of Paige's legs in the air. Not sure how that happened but the legs still go flying from time to time!

Jay was off work for 3 weeks and we sure enjoyed our time with him. It was neat to see the Dad perspective of playtime with the girls. I have been up at the property practically every day since May and not once did I consider chasing grasshoppers with the girls. Bring Dad in to the picture and he is chasing them around the field with Hannah! Just all those little things that make memories. I can't wait to make more of those with Jay and the girls up there! Jay was able to reunite and rekindle his father daughter relationships and you can definately notice the difference between him and the girls now! Although we really did not do too much while he was off we just went up to the property and back to the house most days it was a really good time to spend with him. We did stay up at the property one night after some fun on the quads and a BBQ with friends and family. It made me wish for more summer and some camping but this years focus was on the house. Next year the girls will be older and easier to take and have sleep in those close quarters. Our night out there was pretty good all things considering.
You would think that Paige would like to use the toys we have that are made to encourage babies to start walking but she seems to prefer the Dora chair knocked on its back to push around! She has so much fun with this! It is working! She seems to changed in personality. She is not this docile little baby anymore. She has a stubborn streak in her. I am not sure where that comes from! After a couple of bites from her with her two new teeth while nursing and my little yelps of surprise she has decided that she will not nurse from me anymore. Just like that! But the little girlie will not drink from a bottle or a sippie cup (she just bites the nipples) so we are having to syringe feed her and she is not getting so much fluid but we are monitoring her and offering small sips from a regular cup often.


Bruno, Jay and Brent putting in the windows.

Silly Jay!
Here is an example of Hannah's imagination that seems to be flourishing. I came up one night from putting Paige down for bed and this is what I found. Hannah had gone into the drawer where her apron is (also the drawer where all the baggied spices are). She also retrieved a bib for her teddy from another drawer. Several spice bags were out for the flavoring or whatever it was she was serving up that night and there she was talking to her dollies and feeding them their food. Too cute! Hannah is also learning about manners. When she is done her meals at the table she is encouraged to say, "May I please be excused from the table?" Well she carried it to the next level one night when Jay put Hannah to bed and I was out at a movie. She called him downstairs (when she was already tucked into bed I might add and supposed to be down for the night) and when he came in to the room she asked, "May I please be excused from the bed?" So what could he do? Very difficult to explain the differences to a 2 year old!
Our front door from the outside!
Well I am exhausted. The girls have not been sleeping so well and we have been going all week long. Jay offered to let me sleep last night and he would get up with the kids and he has offered again tonight so I can catch up. I will take him up on it! Now that Paige does not physically need me to go in to see her it is kind of nice for me! And not so nice in other ways. I will still try to feed her but as of right now, she wants nothing to do with me! Goodnight all!