Baby Day!!!

Yes, I need to post about the house and Isaac and visiting with grandparents and...  I am not doing that now.  LOL


Todd and I had our anatomy sonogram this morning.  It's a:

I made this t-shirt last night as a way of showing Todd's parents, who are visiting us, what we are expecting in March.


Here are a few of the pictures from the sonogram itself:


Profile:

Profile with her hand up near her face:

Foot!

Another profile:

The baby weighs about 12 ounces (3/4 of a pound).  She looked good from everything they were examining.  In our meeting with the midwife after the sonogram, Todd was able to use the heart rate monitor to find his daughter's heartbeat and listen!  :-)  It was a pretty awesome day.

1 1/2-Year-Old Explorer

Started this post yesterday and then got tired of waiting for YouTube to upload my videos...
I decided to just follow Isaac around with the camera on a gorgeous, sunny afternoon Sunday.  He had great fun...


We started in the front yard...

Walking around, looking like a big boy!

Short video, but nice to see his smiling face...

Checking out the progress on the front porch...

And then quickly moved to the back yard, where most of the construction equipment is being stored.  This little gem in his hand is a magnet to pick up loose nails and screws.

He LOVED it because the handle had been lowered to just his height.

Then we moved over to the sand table, where some nails were stacked on top.  Isaac sorted some of them into the bird house.

S-t-r-e-t-c-h!

Which nail is next?

In action:

Electrical outlet around the side of the garage

Dad's lawn mower

Gate on the other side of the yard...

Before heading back to the porch to sit for a second and a half...

Then he decided to carry around this half-full paint can and Jackson came to investigate

I can do it, Mom!

Measuring how high the grill is

Wow!  That's way up there!

Stephanie, this toy reminds me of the tractor at the Kathy Caraway place.  I thought he was going to fall over pushing it...

Just before Daddy got home and we went back inside...

Isaac worked up quite an appetite.  Here he is enjoying some sweet potatoes with dinner:

Stonework Completed

The stone crew returned in full force on Friday and stayed until nearly 8:00 last night finishing things up.  I am impressed by both the quality of their work and their dedication to doing the job well.  I am VERY impressed.


This was before noon, the crew was working on the columns in the center of the porch:

 And on the other side:

Plastic to protect the cedar posts:

Looking down the porch toward the end of the day:

John, our general contractor, measuring to determine where the railings will go.  They are to be installed on Monday.

Front of the house toward the end of the day Monday:

This is one of the pictures that impresses me most.  When the original porch was pulled down, there was no stone work behind it.  The crew filled in the missing stone.  Can you tell where they did it?  I can't and I even went up and stood directly in front of the wall!

Windows and Posts

All of the windows have been installed!  We have one small snag that will be fixed next week, but it's nothing major.  The window company sent us a window with regular glass for our upstairs bathroom and they will replace the sashes next week with obscure glass.  There isn't really a view in or out of the window, so it probably doesn't matter, but I will feel more secure knowing no one is going to see me stepping out of the shower unless they are standing on the roof looking through the sky light.  ;-)


Here are the updated photos from late yesterday and today:

Father and son checking out the house at the end of the day on Wednesday:

New kitchen window.  I can't tell you how much I love this.  It's my new favorite window!

Let there be light!  Finally a usable window in the laundry room!

All new windows across the back.

The lower posts have been "stained" with a clear coat.  They are stunning.  I didn't realize what a difference it would make and I couldn't be happier.

The stonework started at the other side of the porch, so you can see what the bases of the columns are going to look like now.  Getting closer!!!

Finally, one more picture of the kiddo.  Still working on self-feeding.  He's making a mess, but he loves it.  :-)  This was peach/squash yogurt with dinner.

Busy Boy

Isaac had quite a day today!  The windows crew returned to finish installing windows, so he got to watch them work while he ate his breakfast.  He got to have black beans, his new favorite, with lunch.

He is working on learning how to eat with a spoon, so he had a lot of fun making a GIANT mess:

Then this afternoon, we went to see Daddy at work for a little Halloween Spooktacular event at NI.  We had a great time, but, alas, I didn't get many photos.  Here's what we did instead:

These are the 2 photos I managed to snap:

Tuesday & Early Wednesday.

The name of the game this week is WINDOWS!  The crew has been really nice and seem to be pretty efficient.  They got the first 4 windows replaced within 2 hours yesterday morning.  They left early today to celebrate a birthday, which I didn't argue because I HATE to work on my birthday...  They will finish up the last 4 windows tomorrow morning.

Original window on front of house (den):

Bye-bye window!

Replacement window on front of house:

Sliding glass door that we have cursed an unknown, but very large, number of times:

No door at all (already an improvement)!

New door in place (and before Jackson jumped through the screen door a mere 5 hours later):

Original Dining room windows: 

No more windows!  This opening is actually wider than the one for the sliding glass door.  I didn't realize it until they had pulled all of the windows down.

New dining room windows!  The center is a picture window and there are casements on either side.

A view from the outside:

View of the new windows from the front of the house:

Freshly painted surround for the front door.  I need to repaint the door itself, too.

View of front of house this morning (before new windows on top):

Isaac watching the men work.  Thank goodness his grandparents will be arriving shortly after this project is finished because I am not sure what I am going to do for entertainment!

New windows in the master bedroom.  So much brighter!

Front of the house around noon today (with new windows in):

More new windows:

Windows in the master bedroom:

There is a cold front moving across Texas and we are expecting a 40% chance of rain tomorrow.  Hopefully the windows are going to be sealed enough to prevent the rain from getting into the house.  There are gaps around the windows where new windows are perfectly square and the holes they are in are not...  Fingers crossed...

John, our contractor, came by this morning to walk through the project with the stone guy.  The stone bases for the lower sections of the posts are supposed to be installed this week.  Once that is complete, we can have the railings installed and I, for one, will breathe a huge sigh of relief.  They are also going to stain the concrete on the first floor and they still need to paint all of the ceilings, trim all of the windows, and stain the decking and shutters.  There are various other items, as well, but those are the "big" items remaining.