Staying Busy

We've been in our new house for 1 month now, and have already done a bunch of fixing up. The boys have been very helpful through the whole thing. We think they are quite happy with their bigger house, yard, and playground close by. The work that Mario and I have started seems to encourage "fixing up" games by MJ and Joey. They really love working with their tools. We've tried to maintain some sort of balance between work and play.

A picture of the boys after a trip to the church playground behind our house. (Their shirts are off to protect them from getting ice cream on them). Oh, and you can't tell in this picture, but for those who were wondering, his stitches came out last Tuesday and everything is healing just fine.

The boys can now add Home Depot and Lowes to the stores that they recognize by sight. It seems that on Saturdays we attempt to go out and shop in the morning to get all we will need for house projects before the ND game starts. Then the boys take late naps while we work and then watch the game a bit. Joey was a trooper for this long shopping experience, but just couldn't make it through Bed Bath and Beyond. (I'm impressed he could fall asleep like that).

MJ was really into the ND game this Saturday... well football in general. He begged us to play catch with him. It was a rainy day, so we had to play in our basement. First, I tried to see if he could catch a ball on the run (he basically ran the same route in front of me and caught the ball, but did it pretty well). When Mario saw his son could do this, he then had to have MJ run real routes. They took turns being the QB and receiver (and of course Mario taught MJ the approriate terms for everything). Whoever was the QB got to make the play and say hike. (I don't see how Mario can stop himself from coaching his boys to play football). After taking pictures and video, I hopped in the rotation so we could also have someone on defense.

This weekend we began our kitchen makeover which involved a new light fixture, pulls for the cabinets, new paint (trim and walls), new outlets, and window treatments. Mario did most of the work (someone had to keep the house in order) but we find that painting together gets the job done much faster. We still aren't finished with the hinges on the cabinets and we are having trouble finding the way to get the window treatments the way we want them. When I get a good before and after picture, I'll post it.

Meanwhile, today MJ tried out some of his photography skills. He took a couple dozen pictures (many of which were pretty cool). He seems to like to take pictures of his feet(?) Anyway, I liked this one, plus it shows off the new ceiling fan that Mario put in our livingroom.