Merry Christmas

Holiday Choppers, originally uploaded by leslie_capron.

Merry Christmas everyone.

Family picture

Family picture, originally uploaded by leslie_capron.

We took a familiar detour to San Juan Capistrano and Dana Point today. I uploaded way too many pictures, but I felt I had to fully record the day that Andrew started to like the beach.

There's a new photoset of the day on Flickr.

Desert Drive

Car photo 2, originally uploaded by leslie_capron.

On Sunday me and the boys went to visit Scott in Cathedral City for the last time, because this Sunday my brother, Sammie and Cassie are moving into their brand new house in Chandler, Arizona!

My brother just closed on his first new house! Horray!

Shower tiles

Shower tiles, originally uploaded by leslie_capron.

One week after demo and we have shower tiles installed. Men have been cutting tiles and installing over the last two days. Our tile guy stayed until 7:30 last night to finish the shower. I am amazed at the speed of this project. The look of the shower is hotel/spa like. I choose very neutral tile colors keeping in mind that we will be selling the house in the not too distant future. These will be easy to decorate around. The tiles go all the way up to the ceiling making the shower feel much bigger.

More remodel pictures are in a photo set on Flickr.

Things I've learned this week

There is no time for blogging, cleaning, or cooking when your better half is spending the week in Las Vegas for "training"

Two year olds do not do what you ask them to when you are running late in the morning and need them to find their shoes

Andrew loves ketchup

Do not go shopping for Christmas gifts for your two year old while he is with you. He will not "forget" about the toy on the drive home, nor will he be distracted by movies or food; he will hound you until you cave and give it to him.

Its possible to function at work on 3 hours sleep

It's better to learn how to take the cover to your baby's car seat off before you have to extract the whole thing and put it in the shower to clean it after your baby pukes on it twice on the way home

Taking care of two kids by yourself is hard work

***************************

More pictures tomorrow! The remodel is going nicely. The tile is going on the shower - looks good!

Sick day

No new pictures today. Owen's been sick and vomiting, so we've been in the comfort/clean-up cycle tonight. He doesn't have a fever so I'm just keeping him hydrated and comfortable. Hopefully, he'll be feeling better tomorrow.

Out-takes II

We took the holiday card pictures today. Here are a few that didn't make it to the card. I'm going create another set in Flickr for the rest of these. We had a lot of pictures where one of the kids was cooperating but the other was not. It was a beautiful day today. The rain yesterday cleared the air and there wasn't a cloud in the sky.

Can you believe they want us to sit still?

Trying to wrangle the boys into the shade

Action Shot

Almost made it to the card

SoCalPhoPo

I created a "Holidays 2007" photo set on Flickr. You can check it out via the thumbnails on the right. I'll be adding to this set throughout the month when festive things happen, like the first glass of eggnog and such. Today I uploaded the decking of the condo.

Crisis averted

I woke up this morning with a lot on my mind. I didn't remember seeing our sinks and faucets among the salvage for the bathroom. My intent was to keep those. But I think they were casualties of the counter top removal. I'll just add those to my shopping list. Luckily sinks can be had for a reasonable price.

Back to the shower drama. I texted (is that a real word?) my project manager this morning explaining my situation. (note: I am not a texter, but I wanted to reach him and it was 7:30 on a Saturday morning, and it is programmed into my DNA that you cannot call anyone before 10:00 am on a weekend.) He got right on the phone to call the plumber to see when he was arriving and if there would be time to pick up the required pieces. In the meantime, I scouted out the EXPO Design Center web site to see if they had what I needed. They did! I headed on down to Laguna Nigel (about 7 miles south of us) to be a EXPO door buster. I found what I needed but they were out of stock! Oh no! I asked if it was in stock at another store and yes, I was in luck the Anaheim store had it! I called my guy and told him I was heading inland (about 15 miles) and guess what, he used to work at that store, so he called ahead and verified that the part was there and asked them to put it on hold for me. And he told me that the plumber could come over in the afternoon after I picked up the parts. Major crisis averted. When I got to the Anaheim EXPO, my shower valve and trim were waiting for me. And this afternoon, the plumber arrived and installed the necessary pieces ahead of the tiling on Tuesday. We are still on schedule!

They weren't kidding

Here's what I came home to today:


The bathroom is gone. Yesterday, I was so excited that the work was starting today, but I've run into a little snafu. I want a new shower head and valve trim (the thingy that turns the shower water on and off). I went to the Great Indoors after work and figured I could pick it up in two minutes because I knew what we wanted. We wanted this:

And I found it. But when I started to look for a matching valve, they didn't carry one that wasn't part of a larger set, or that didn't have the mechanism that let's you channel water to a shower or tub. Since it's just a shower, we didn't need the extra channel. After about 45 minutes of pacing 5 rows of plumbing fixtures, I left with just the shower head. I thought, I'll head over to Home Depot, they've got to have what I am looking for. Well they don't. Then I headed over to Lowes. I was running out of time, I needed to get the boys, and I was able to buy a kit with a shower head and a functional valve. I don't love it but it will do. Oh, did I mention that the plumbers are coming TOMORROW?! I went home, and talked to Eric about what I was able to get. And I realized that we don't want to do the bathroom again or touch it after its done so we better get what we like now. So, I bundled up the boys and brought out the big guns: Restoration Hardware. And there they were right on the wall, the fixtures that I wanted! BUT, if I wanted the shower-only valve I would have to special order it. Ugg. So here I am at 11:00 pm the night before the plumbers are coming with only half the fixtures that I want. I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow - I guess we have two options. Go with what I have or wait and get the fixture I want. Stay tuned to find out what we do!

Choppers

A moment of peace for Choppers. She's attacked by babies on a regular basis these days. She's very forgiving though and stoically puts up with the attention.

Help!

My idea about posting pictures everyday was inspired by my desired to take better pictures. I am truely a novice photographer and am frightened and perplexed by all of the nobs, buttons and electronic menus on my Nikon D50. When I go for the instruction manual for help and begin to read about f-stops, apertures and depth of field, my brain begins to melt and oozes out of my ears.

Can my interweb peeps help me?

Here's what I am struggling with: taking photos of the kids at night in my house when the ambiant light is just this side of crap-tastic. I have read one picture taking advice book and the one thing I learned is: DO NOT USE THE FLASH. Which was a revelation for me. Searching for natural light and using it has really improved my pictures of the kids. But what to do when there is no natural light? Night pictures of fast moving kids is a near impossibility without the flash. Are there things I can do with all of the nobs, dials and setting on my camera to make a better picture just using the light around me?

Thanks in advance. And if the answer is just suck it up and use the flash, that's cool too.

We're doing it

Demolition in our bathroom starts tomorrow. We decided to take on our upgrade project in phases to manage costs and to keep Eric from having a coronary.

First up: our master bathroom. Here's what we are going to do:

• New travertine tiles in the shower with built-in shampoo nook with new shower head and valves and frameless shower door
  

• New travertine tiles on the floor with 4 inch tile base boards

• New granite counter top
  

• New lighting sconces

• New medicine cabinet

• We are keeping the existing sinks, toilet and cabinets

Project time line

• 12/7 Demo shower

• 12/8 Plumber (I'm surprised and happy they are coming on a Saturday!)

• 12/10 Hot mop (important step in the shower installation process)

• Week of 12/10 tile goes into the shower, counter top install and floor

• Week of 12/17 shower door installed (this is the slow piece in the project because it has to be special ordered) and done!

After we swallow this one, we'll proceed to the next. Which will most likely be the kitchen counter tops. The implicit thing in all of this is that we are going to be here for a while. Probably a couple more years, so we might as well make it nice and enjoy it!

Tubbers

Snuggly Owen after his tubbers*

*Tubbers = bath

Monetary Policy

Boy, the dollar value must be worse that I thought. Even the gelt's gone Euro.

Happy Hanukkah!

Motivation

I really liked posting to the blog everyday even if some of the posts were, ahem, short. I liked checking in everyday to the blog. So to keep the fun going, for the rest of December I am going to post a photo everyday! SoCalPhoPo!

Buddies

Regan and her parents came over for dinner on Saturday. OMG we hosted dinner and I didn't crack under the pressure of cooking for people that I'm not related too (thanks for the tips Scott!). I feel so grown up. Anyhoo, the kids had a fun time hanging out, playing and sort of watching Ratatouille. Sunday morning, Andrew ran downstairs and said "Where's Regan?". I think they are good buddies.

Owen 8 Months

Owen is super active baby! He crawls and climbs everywhere. The other day, Eric let Owen crawl up the stairs and he went all the way up very easily. With Owen, we are a bit more serious about making sure the safety locks we have installed are actually activated. At this age, Andrew would stay occupied with a toy and stay in one spot for a while. Not Owen. He will explore a toy for a while, then be off to something else. I think the difference is mostly due to the fact that Owen is really interested in whatever Andrew is doing. Owen wants to be in on the action. And since Andrew is non-stop action these days, Owen is picking up the pace a bit earlier.

Andrew and Owen get into wrestling matches and roll around a lot. At Thanksgiving, Kelly and I put Owen and Caleb together to interact a bit, and Owen would start crying if Caleb touched him! It was funny that Owen's much larger brother can attack him and he loves it, but Caleb is "too scary"!

Just this morning, Owen is eating cereal. We've cut up Cheerios in half and he is just munching away. Full sized cereal is still too big for his little throat. And I fear choking above most things and I won't let anything full-sized near the baby.

Owen is now facing forward in his car seat. He's well over 20 pounds now. He has four teeth and is drooling all the time. I think he will have a full set by the time he's 1. Owen is still waking up at night, but it is getting better. We are going to start getting him to sleep in his and Andrew's bed room.

Owen's personality is very happy and smiley and super snuggly.

Mmm, socks.

At the Residence Inn in Dallas, Owen found the jar of candies on the coffee table and figured out how to open it himself and get to the goodies. I just watched him do it because he was so determined to get it opened.

"Hi, I sit forward now!"

"Hey Andrew, what cha doing? Can I come too?"