The turning point in the war...

Well, it looks like we may actually be winning the war against our two newest family members. On Monday night we cornered the more skiddish of the two and fed it kitty treats while petting it. Last night, one of them actually voluntarily jumped up on the bed and cuddled with us for a bit. Perhaps this thing will turn out okay in the end after all...

The wonder of children

It's a wonder that the human race has survived this long, with children being as inherently curious as they are. We were over at a friends house tonight, and watching their 19 month old try and do some of the things that our five year was doing was unforgettable (Remind me never to have an elevated/recessed area in any of my houses). Kurtis was running and jumping off of the two-step drop into the living room on and off all evening. All of a sudden, our hosts 19 month old decided to try the same thing. Needless to say, she bit the dust, quite literally. So the question remains, have kids always lacked a sense of self-preservation, or is this something that we have bred into our children?

I give in :(

I will finally end mine and Dan's stand off as to who has to post next.

We finally made our first big purchase for our coming baby. A $250 travel system, which comes complete with stroller, infant car seat and base for vehicle. I did a lot of shopping around and checking reviews on the internet before settling on this particular model. I was very disappointed by the quality that I found at some department stores that I had previously respected. I have added Sears and The Bay to my growing list of stores to boycott. I don't think I will ever make a major purchase again without checking out the small business in the area to see what they have to offer.

Active Kids = Cranky Kids

I don't know what the obsession with kids needing to be physically active these days is, but it is complete and total hogwash! We enrolled Kurtis in gymnastics yesterday and took him to the community league BBQ today and it has spelled complete DISASTER! He has been soooo tired and cranky that we are seriously moving bed-time up by as much as a whole hour, just to try and keep him civilzed. Any mothers out there with words of advice are welcome to give us ideas :)

Something to chew on

Here is a little something that Carmen dug up on the net:

9/11 Pentagon Attack

Now, I wouldn't call myself a conspiracy theorist, but I'm certainly not an American sympathizer either. This video in no way closes off all of the loose ends is exposes, but it certainly does raise some questions about what happened on that fateful day.

A week full of firsts, and it's only Thursday

What a week this has been, first and most excitingly, Carmen can feel the baby moving now (she describes is as something similar to little bubbles popping, I can't wait till I can feel it kicking too). Kurtis started gymnastics today and managed to profoundly shock both of us by remembering detailed instructions on what activities to do, despite have a total mental block about the number 6 with counting.

And last, and by far most disturbing, we had our first snowfall last night! Not that it stuck, but the fact that we got snow indicates that the end of summer is, without a doubt, drawing near. Too bad we didn't get a chance to get the rest of our apples picked, guess that means no apple jelly for everybody this Christmas, maybe next year...

Say "Cheese"

I know at least a few people are looking forward to this, so here it is:

There aren't words enough to describe the feeling of seeing your child for the first time and seeing that it has your wife's toes and your father's nose.

Construction tip of the day

When building/renovating, it is important to remember to close off ALL rough openings. I finally tracked down where our two newest family members keep dissapearing to: Under the tub in the basement suite. There appears to be a gaping hole in the wall between the bathroon and the exterior foundation where they slip through. If I EVER get my hands on the previous owners of this house, they are going to get such a lecture!

Cats are way too smart

We managed to spy on the kittens and catch them being smart last night. While we have had little difficulty apprehending the black kitten, we have only seen the tail-end of the gray one a couple of times...

It turns out that the black kitten plays sentry while the gray one eats, warning it to run if anybody looks they they are coming near! Now if only we could find where they run off to...

Our best guess is that they run UNDER the subfloor in the basement, but more on that later :)

I am finally here

After much coaxing by various family members and my husband, I shall make my first post. Today has been one of the least productive days I have had in a long time. My biggest accomplishment being that I took a nice nap, (oh and I swept the floor). However yesterday's activity makes up for today. The next time I decide to make canned apples, apple sauce and apple jelly all in the same day somebody kick me. As Dan has already commented everything turned out delicious, the crab apple jelly even set into a nice jelly like substance, much to my surprise as I didn't think beginners luck applied to canning.

I'll never look at a jar of Jam the same way again

Well, we finnaly did something with some of the apples from our apple tree. We took a big pail to my grandmother's house and made some preserves. While the first batch of canned apples were a little overcooked, everything else seems to have turned out okay. The jelly is still setting, but it tastes pretty yummy, but who would have guessed that seven cups of concentrated apple juice would take NINE cups of sugar. The second batch of canned apples looks like they will taste pretty good, and the apple sauce should be really, really yummy on ice cream.

At least now we know what we can put in everybody's stockings, APPLE PRESERVES!

It's about time!

Well, it took us one day more than a full month, but we finally finshed our roof! Amazing how it can take so long to get around to doing the last 2-3 hours of work on a project that took 4 men 2 days to get nearly complete.

From this experience I have gleaned one all-important piece of advice, check for two layers of shingles BEFORE deciding to take on the job with the help of friends and family.

Also, for those of you thinking about hiring Home Depot to do some home renovations, DON'T! We were going to get them to redo our eaves and fascia, but were continually dissapointed by missed appointments with unreasonably late follow-ups, and then eventually just dropped us altogether. So Angela, if you're up for it, you can add these guys to your list of boycots :)

Who knew little teeth could be so sharp...

Well, thanks to Carmen's recently awakend maternal instinct, we now have two small kittens... While trying to apprehend the more fiesty of the two, I became painfully aware of just how sharp a kittens teeth could be when it decided that my finger was all that stood between it and freedom. Who knew their teeth were sharp enough to puncture a human fingernail... When we manage to corral them again I'll be sure to post pictures so that everyone can contribute to the coming naming contest...

It finally happened...

Well, looks like we finally caved and built a blog of our own...