Believe it or not....the picture above shows what our back patio looked like shortly after we moved in 3 years ago.


The picture below shows what it looks like today.  With many hours of work from Dave, family & friends, the patio has been completely torn out.  Why did we do this?  The patio was held up by railroad ties that were rotting.  To help prevent termites and to keep the patio from continually sinking, we had to get it torn out.  Eventually we will put a deck up, but for now it will be a grassy hill in the back of our yard.  Dave is hoping that it will be a good sledding hill! :)

Thanks to all of you who helped us get this accomplished so quickly!  We couldn't have done it without ya!

Have a wonderful long weekend!!

 Aug 31, 2008 - seeded for grass. 


 

Amazing!  It was so amazing to see our little itty-bitty yesterday!  We saw so many features up close - the head, brain, eyes, lips, fingers, arms, heart, ribs, spine, legs and feet!  So many little features growing beautifully!!!  According to the measurement, the baby weighed in at 13 ounces.  A little on the small side, but not enough to change the due date, which is January 13, 2009.  David & I are very excited to welcome he or she into our family - we can't wait!

This is the baby's left upper body profile (head is on upper left looking down).


This is the baby's facial profile on right side (baby is looking up).


This is the baby's left foot (under the text "LT FOOT"). 

We saw both feet with all 10 toes.  We also saw both hands - each with four fingers, the thumbs were tucked under the hand so we couldn't see them.


 

WOW & THANK YOU!  Those are the only words that can express our appreciation of friends Adam & Chris.  Not only did they give up their Tuesday afternoon/evening, they worked so hard and finished demo'ing the patio - hooray!!!  I was shocked to see that they had it almost done by the time I got home from work, and then had it finished when the pizza showed up for dinner.

Thanks so much for your hard work, guys!  Below is some proof of your hard work.  Dave & I can't thank you enough for all you did!!!  The picture above shows the final product.

 

We started out our weekend by getting the boys' hair cut.  They went to the groomers Friday morning.  You'll notice that Max doesn't look like the picture we posted of him when we first got him.  Not only has his hair lightened up, but it also 2 inches shorter.  I'm sure he stays much cooler without his fur coat! 

My parents, Noah & Whitney were down here for the weekend.  Dad & Noah volunteered to help Dave continue working on tearing out the patio.  They worked really hard on busting up the concrete and got alot done on Saturday afternoon.  However, they highly encouraged Dave to get a jackhammer the next time :).   THANKS SO MUCH DAD & NOAH FOR YOUR HELP!!!!

Mom, Whitney & I went shopping while the boys were working.  Then we all went down to the Festival of the Little Hills for the evening.  It was a beautiful evening and we had a nice time walking around to see all of the vendors (literally 100s of them!).   Dave, the boys, & I went back down to the festival today for funnel cake, fried oreos & a lemonade shake-up!  It was a mid-afternoon craving :)

Below is a picture of the patio progress.  Once this is done we'll start progressing on the interior of our house (I can't wait!).

 

Hope you all had a nice weekend.  It was beautiful here in St. Louis and also in Osage Beach where we spent most of the weekend.  Dave & I joined my parents, Noah & Whitney, Nan & Pa, Eileen, and Janet (we missed you Whit & Scott!).  We had a really nice time We had fun hanging out with everyone on and off of the lake.  Dave had us out on the water in the early mornings to do some skiing and wakeboarding (the water was much calmer in the mornings before 10).  Then we'd go out mid aftenroon and again in the evenings.  I took some pix & a few video clips of Dave mastering the wakeboard.  I only posted one picture because the rest were a little too far away and videos will make you sea sick.  Oh well...something to perfect for next time. 

Our boat has been out of commission this summer, but Dave finally has the engine part to get it back up and running.  So for those of you who would like to go for a boat ride in the most retro boat you will ever lay eyes on - just let us know.  Dave has done a TON of work on it and hopes to have it running in 2 weeks :)

Hope you all are doing well.  Drop us a line to let us know what's up with you!

 

Finally!  David has returned home from his temporary work assignment in Seattle.  He had a wonderful time exploring the area there, and I had a wonderful time visiting him twice, but it is more wondeful to have him home!!!  He arrived home Friday, exactly three months since he left.  Of course he went right to work and mowed the lawn and worked on the landscaping.  He asked me if he could start tearing out our upper patio in the back yard, and I politely told him NO.

We did finish our Friday evening by having an enjoyable dinner at a new local restaurant and played the new Mariocart on Wii - I'm almost addicted.  Saturday I convinced him to go to First Watch for breakfast before we began our day full of errands (he again tried to get out of it by asking if he could tear out the back patio). Then this morning we went to the Boathouse at Forest Park (another favorite breakfast place) and went to run a few more errands.  We made it home early this afternoon so that we could get the patio furniture pressure washed.  We're going to stain it later this week.  I decided to come inside to get a few things organized and soon heard a saw...Yes, he got the saw out to start tearing down the upper patio. 

So, we now have quite the mess in our back yard with more messes to come.  We're getting ready to have our hardwood floors refinished and new windows put in.  As they say with remodeling, things must get worse before they can get better. 

Hope you all are having a great summer.  It's my goal to start updating our site more often.  Keep checking back for new pictures and updates.