Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Devin-isms

Lately Devin has been doing some really silly things that I don't want to forget about.

* The other night when I was putting her to sleep, I noticed she was pretending to snore like we do when we pretend to sleep. She has also been doing this in the mornings once she wakes up but isn't really ready to get out of bed yet.

* Devin has discovered this book we have that is a little girl asking her mommy, "Do princesses .......?" and the mommy has a different answer for each question. She loves this book and we have to read it twice every night before bed.

* I am pretty sure because of the princess book, Devin has decided she is a princess. The other night I was trying some of last Summer's clothes on her to see if they would still work, and with each outfit, she ran around the house skipping and saying "I'm a princess, I'm a princess!" I also heard her tell her teachers "I'm a princess" the other day when she went into her classroom in her super cute dress that they were noticing.

* Devin is super sweet and caring. If you say ouch or get hurt, she always asks "Mommy are you OK?" She also tells the cats and dogs "It's OK ...." if they are meowing or doing anything that might mean they aren't.

* Devin asks me all the time, "Mommy, do you hear that sound?" I always ask her what she hears.

* If Devin doesn't want to do something, she says " I can't go to bed" or "I can't go potty". We have a lot of I can't going on...I guess it is better than NO!

* If Devin is watching TV and you get in the way, she always says "move back"!

* If Devin thinks something is funny, she will either say "I funny" and laugh at herself hysterically or claim "Mommy, you funny" which I always answer back with "No, your funny!" and we go back and forth with it.

* Lately Chris and I have really been encouraging her to go potty without our help most of the time. She had gotten to where she wanted us to read to her every time we she went in there. Now she goes by herself, but she wants the door closed and wants us to leave as soon as we come to check on her. This is great except for the fact that she only wipes about half the time, and tends to pull her pants up without wiping even if she has pooped. We are diligently working on this one still, but man the independence of that girl! Thankfully she still tells us when she is going into the bathroom so we can easily be on guard.

* A few days ago when putting Devin in her carseat, she was bouncing and dancing to the music on the radio and then I realized she was also singing all of the words to the song! I always thought she was just talking to herself in the back seat but she is back there singing along!

I am amazed everyday by all of her silly little things she says and does and the new things she comes up with on a daily basis and certainly don't want to forget them!

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Backyard Picnics

Chris has been working really late a lot since it is staying dark longer. We are lucky if he gets home at night before Devin goes to bed. It means I am on single parent duty a lot at night, and the time between getting home from work/school and bedtime is pretty darn hectic.

The weather is gorgeous right now, not too hot and not cold. We always go outside when we get home and let the dogs out and clean the pool basket etc etc. Lately, Devin wants to stay outside since the weather is nice. She recently got a water table so a lot of times, I put the table in front of the kitchen window, fill it up, and let her play out there while I start dinner inside and watch her through the window.

She often goes ands its at her little table outside and asks to eat dinner out there too. Who could resist that?! It also makes me take the time to sit with her while she eats which is nice when it is hard to slow down during busy nights.

Baked potato soup has become a new favorite of hers...
From March 11


Chicken nuggets and grapes are ALWAYS a favorite as well...
From March 11


We are enjoying this warmer not too hot weather so much. This is my favorite time of year. We are not looking as forward to the super hot Summer but I would prefer that and swimming over the cold any day!!!!

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Diddo's Little Helper

Devin is such a little helper. While at Nonna and Diddo's house a few weeks ago, she was helping Diddo work on his bike. It was too cute not to capture. I am pretty sure her job was to spin the pedels while he put the oil on the chain and I am sure she did a great job of it!

From March 11


From March 11


I see a little Boney Jean in the making. When I was young Diddo had a bike store and I spent ever Saturday that I could at the store with Diddo working. I always joke that I spent all day Saturday's at his bike shop and my job was to take a rag and dust all the bikes. There were probably around 50-100 of them from what I remember. He would pay me $1 but then I had to pay for my own drink for the day next door at Eckerd's. :) I guess inflation has really changed that!

Saturday, April 9, 2011

The start of changes...

The pool you could say was the start of all the changes. Chris and I decided to replace our pool liner before we took our house off the market because we were losing so much water daily and people could see the huge rip in it. We decided that ultimately it would cost us less to replace it ourselves than to negotiate it into a contract, and possibly sell our house faster.

This very well may have become the turning point that sealed the deal on our doubt about selling. We got some quotes on the deck while the guy was here in case we ended up not selling in time because we had planned to pull our house off the market May 1st since I would be so far along in my pregnancy. We were suddenly finding ourselves planning for our future in our home again and it just felt right.

So a few weeks later the time finally came. The new liner arrived and it was time to replace it. The pool guy came the night before and put a pump in our pool which had it drained by the next morning.

From March 11


By the time the new liner was ready to be installed, we were well into conversations with our contractor who will be adding a study to the back of our house to give us a little more space as well as accomodate Kortnee when she is here and out of town guests. The same week we had the liner replaced, we were doing some major cleanup of all of the trees, bushes and whatever else we had growing on our property. As you can see below, it was WELL overdue! It took them two days to trim and clean everything up! We had to have a few trees removed from the side of our house where the addition will go which prompted more and more backyard work.

From March 11


From March 11


From March 11



So back to the pool. The pulled out the old liner and pressure washed and bleached everything underneath it really well.

From March 11


From March 11


Then they patched up all the spots that had water damage...
From March 11


And started putting the new liner in...
From March 11


From March 11


From March 11


It's looking pretty inviting now if you ask me!
From March 11


I thought it was interesting to see how the liner process worked since I never even knew that pools with vinyl liners existed until we bought a house with one! They arrived that day at about 11AM and were gone by 4 PM. It took about 2 days after that to fill it back up and suprisingly, only added about $125 to our water bill which I was relieved about. I guess we were already running the water so much refilling all that we lost everyday that it wasn't that big of a difference in total!

Thursday, April 7, 2011

The Girls...

A few weeks ago Tia Awol came into town for a weekend visit. This was the first visit she has had to Fort Worth since her mom died two years ago that she was able to come and just play and didn't have any work to do on the house or anything else. It was a nice relaxed weekend with lots of fun with Devin and Bianca!

On Saturday I went to a wedding shower and Tia Awol kept Devin for me. We invited Bianca to come over to play with her that day too. They had all sorts of fun while I was gone. These were just a few quick pics Tia Awol got of the girls all dressed up and coloring!

From March 11


From March 11


From March 11