Happy Mother's Day!

The boys on a field trip for Bryce's school.


Portrait of Stu & Drew taken by Bryce.


Bryce "taking 5" as goalie for his soccer team. And yes, the game was in progress at the time.


A new picture of the house! The weird brown stain on the garage is just a test patch for the final paint color.


Family room with tile and fireplace.


Kitchen with tile and cabinets, but no countertops yet.


Bryce & Drew love the master bath cabinets, but I'm guessing they'll lose their appeal once the countertops go on!


Drew testing out the linen closet shelves.

Ah, blogging with pictures at last! Although the "mystery cord" is still unavailable, Stu's dad downloaded the pictures from my camera for me today. Thanks, Jim! We can finally share some new pictures of the boys and the house.

I hope that all of the mothers reading this had a great Mother's Day! Mine was very nice, Stu & Jim took Karen & I & the boys out for a wonderful brunch at The Range Cafe in Bernalillo, NM. I also received some very cute gifts from Bryce which were created at his preschool. He made me a necklace with beads that he strung himself (including a few that he made from play-dough, which Drew keeps trying to eat), a very cool mosaic piece made from painted egg shells, and a book called All About My Mommy. Bryce dictated the text and illustrated it himself. It's the kind of thing that I'll keep forever, and then drag out to show any potential mates that he brings home. I love it!

It was fun to check on the house this weekend, things seem to be coming along pretty well. The tile and cabinets are in, and we're supposed to get the countertops this week. Our current projected closing date is June 20th, but we're really hoping that gets pulled in a bit. We'll see. Apartment life is actually going ok, but we're anxious to have our own space again.

Bryce's preschool graduation play/ceremony is tomorrow evening, so we'll post more then. We hope everyone had a great weekend!

Low-Tech Blues

I don't really like blogging without pictures, but until Stu produces some mysterious "cable" that will download photos from our camera, I don't have much choice. For me, technology is an undiscovered land, and once I learn how to successfully complete my desired task (i.e. downloading photos), I don't like to have my modus operandi messed with. All I knew was that I needed the printer to download photos, and now, apparently, I don't. Oh well. Hopefully I can get it figured out by this weekend, so that we can post some new pictures of the house.

Things are definitely happening up there, we can see new coats of stucco going up, and we're told that cabinets, tile, and our tile roof will be installed in the next few days. With any luck, we'll be able to close in about a month. Our apartment is feeling a little small, but the boys are adapting well. We are supposed to have 60-65 mph wind gusts this afternoon, so that kind of rules out outside play. I'm not sure, but I think gusts of that magnitude might be able to give Drew a serious Wizard of Oz tornado experience. He still only weighs about 23 pounds!

I will also post some new pictures of the boys as soon as I can...we have some cute shots of Bryce playing on his soccer team last week, and Drew has a brand-new "big boy" haircut. He's really picking up language now, this week he's been working on "putt-putt" (we have a putting green in front of our apartment), "car" & "go", and I think I heard him say "shoe" the other day. He's really been trying to listen and imitate sounds. It's really fun to ask him questions and have him respond with an enthusiastic "Ya!" and a smile. He also loves to say, "No-no," but he's generally pretty agreeable. Bryce is busy rehearsing for his "Graduation" program at preschool, in which he has several lines as a Pteradactyl. I love these shows, the kids write their own lines, so they're generally pretty amusing. He's also working on some Top Secret Mother's Day presents at school, although he keeps accidentally giving me hints. It's so cute to see him excited about having secret projects to work on!

We'll try to get those photos posted this weekend, so check back for updates. Also, Stu and I both have new e-mail addresses, so please let us know if you haven't gotten those. We'll be sending out "Change of Address" cards soon so that you can all reach us (& come to visit) at the new house. Take good care of yourselves, everybody! We love & miss you all!