Bye Bye Pacifer ( kinda)....Hello Paint

So we have had a fun weekend!! There has been lots of progress on the basement as well as the locker system in the back entryway and the weather finally cooperated enough to allow us to go outside for the majority of the day Sunday.  Friday night we had our normal family pizza night at home. Then Saturday morning I met a co worker for coffee while Eric entertained the kids. Then I met him and the kids at the Bettendorf Library for a 'Preschool Dance Party'. The 2nd Saturday of every month they have a 45 minute preschool dance party where they read books, dance to music, shake rattlers, and do stretches and yoga poses.  SUPER fun. It is technically for ages 2-5 but we decided Kennon was 'advanced' enough to join in the fun :) and he did SO well!! He had a ball. We are definitely going to add this to our regular calendar. Too bad they take the summers off..... All of the pictures are from this event. I think some of them turned out pretty well. I was very camera happy as I am trying to get some good shots for a photography project for the basement.  I think I got a few ( a few a little blurry with the ol' iphone...but our camera is still outta commission so it will do for now) !! Enjoy...The black and white ones are contenders for the photography project. 

'Head shoulders knees and toes..... '

'The Freeze Dance'

'Freeze!!'

'The Bean Bag Dance'

So we KINDA said goodbye to the pacifier this past week. Kennon has been throwing these terribly bad tantrums for various reasons and sometimes unknown reasons. They started about 3 weeks ago....I think we are nearing the terrible 2's.  Nothing will calm him down.  He is physical and screams aloud. We try the paci but most of the time he grabs it from us/his mouth and then launches it in whichever direction he decides. Well, I was tired of getting hit in the head by the darn thing and tired of him hitting Maddox and he hit the bathroom mirror with it last Wednesday evening. The mirror was fine but my patience with this little attitude was up so I said 'that's it...no more paci'!! He did so well that night and Thursday night sleeping through the night with no issues and not really calling out for the paci and not using the paci at school for naps. But, we sorta made a turn for the worse this weekend. He was up in the night and not napping well so I finally gave in out of desperation for him to take a good nap as he was so tired. He just about went out cold when I gave it to him this afternoon and slept until after 5 when we finally woke him up. So we've decide to let him have it during nap and sleep time only which might be a nice happy medium.  He is definitely developing a personality and is getting fed up with his sister pestering him...so much that he up and bit her yesterday!!  after she kept getting in his personal space. It wasn't hard, just enough to let her know that he didn't like her touching him. She is so sneaky. She quietly edges down the couch getting closer and closer to him until she is practically on top of him and her appendages are touching his and then the bickering starts.  Tonight after his great nap he was a little funny guy...he has these cute grins and is talking in 3 word phrases.  Tonight he very plainly said 'hotdog please daddy'.  It was so cute. He is getting much better at asking for what he wants and he is very good at saying please, thank you, and your welcome... We took down the 2nd of 3 baby gates this weekend, the one at the bottom of the steps near the front door.  That just leaves the one at the top of the landing. I think we'll have that one for quite a while yet but it is nice to have the bottom of the steps open.  Tonight the 2 of them were playing in the office and they slammed the French doors ( but remember these have glass Jody:).  I was upstairs and roared down from the landing ' do not slam the doors, leave them open'  They both froze in their tracks below me, stood silent for like 2 seconds then looked at each other and GRINNED as big as the Grinch!! I swear  I could read their minds. They were both saying to each other...'let's ignore her and slam them anyhow!!'  I just know it.  Luckily they didn't....they moved on to something else destructive.  But I had to laugh. I'm sure there is going to be a lot of conniving in the future..... We've decided to switch up the theme of KTK's birthday party from Elmo to Construction Trucks.  The kids LIVES for big yellow construction trucks. Today we pulled over to watch a big crane lifting roof framing on to the top of a house for like 10 minutes. He would have sat longer but big sis was requesting to 'go home'.    He cries out from his carseat when I don't turn onto the road that has all the scoops running building a new CVS pharmacy. Luckily there is a lot of construction going on in Bettendorf so on most of our trips we encounter some sort of scoop or dozer.  Funny, Maddox never really cared much about construction trucks.....the difference between a girl and a boy I guess :)

Silly Kennon 

A little sit down quiet time while we listened to an audio recording of 'Pete the Cat'. Maddox and Kennon were mesmerized....as you can tell. I love MLK in this shot...KTK looks a little drugged up...

Look at their hands.... I'm sure Maddox was the first to do it and Kennon followed suit. He looks up to his big sis for direction. 

So the basement is really coming along.  Since I last posted the doors and door trim have been put up and the first coat of paint has been put on the walls behind the built ins, bathroom vanity, and wet bar. They do this of course before the cabinets are set. The cabinets for the built ins and the bar are delayed a bit ( our first sort of snag) but the trim carpenters have been keeping busy putting up the doors and trim.  I'm assuming this week will be baseboard and once the built in cabinets come in they will built out the rest of the built in shelves above the cabinets.  Vince the main trim carpenter has been busy on the locker system. He tore out the old back hallway closet with the bi-fold doors which was completely unusable since it was behind the door that opened from the garage.  We now have a new garage door ( that closes more tightly and is newer in style) that opens the opposite way into the hallway allowing access to the new locker area. The old closet was opened up vertically and horizontally to allow for more space. We have 6 cubbies with the bottom 3 cubbies each having an outlet to allow easy charging of the iphones ( and less clutter on my countertop  :).  We now have a bench seat with storage for shoes underneath with an adjustable shelf to accommodate boots in the winter.  We will have 4 new hooks and the light switches were moved to accommodate the oppositely swinging door. Vince has done a fabulous job on the locker project and I can't wait to see how the built ins in the basement turn out as he is the guy for this as well.  I am really happy with the paint colors. It is going to be cozy down there which is just the feel I was going for.  The colors are dark, admittedly,  but I think with all the can lights we have it will be just fine.  So the word is the built in cabinets will come today and the bar cabinets are still on order to be delivered hopefully next week.   Soon it will be time to paint the trim, doors, and baseboard white as well as paint the locker system white with the exception of the bench seat being stained cherry to match our kitchen cabinets.  I have to admit I am starting to get frustrated with all the debris, cardboard on the floor, dust etc. The drywall dust was nothing compared to what we have experienced in the kitchen since Vince started working on the locker system. UGH!!  He has set up shop cutting all the boards in the garage so if there is a nice west wind I think a lot of it is getting pushed into the house. But, I am trying to remain calm!!  It will be over soon and we will get such good use out of the basement and the locker system.  The locker system is too tall to really get a good photo so I opted for video...but of course the video upload process is awful. grrrrr....ok well. I was unable to get all 3 videos uploaded so this will have to do for now. I'll try again later this week. They did a lot of work on the built ins today so I"ll have more pictures anyhow!! 

Standing in the game area looking into the playroom. Closet doors in the background.  French doors to enter the playroom in the foreground.  Door to the far right to enter the storage area. 

'Intellectual gray' painted behind the bar.  The ceramic has now been covered up by paper to protect it from the paint. I LOVE this warm color.  It is more taupe color in person. 

Intellectual grey behind the built ins. 

Stamped concrete grey color in the bathroom. Again a nice warm dark color that I love!!  It looks perfect with the tile....again covered by paper to protect it.