So this is quite delayed, but Luke is now 1! He is quite the opposite of his big sister… He is walking across the room by himself now and even tried his hand at running today. He is definitely the typical boy – he loves cars, balls, blocks and puzzles. He is a whopping 31 3/4″ tall now and weighs 22lbs. His only word is Hi, but it is hilarious to hear him say it when he waves. He continues to amaze me every day and I love spending time with my kiddos.
Hopefully this is the first of many cooking endeavours in an attempt to find a new selection of dishes for the family. I have been collecting cook books for some time, particularly the Pampered Chef Cookbooks, and I have decided it is about time to put them to use. Today I tried my hand at Italian Meatloaf. Essentially it is a meatloaf with various Italian seasonings and marinara sauce. It was a welcomed change to making meatloaf that I normally soak in ketchup. I should have taken pictures but I had my hands full with the kids and I just wanted to eat. I made mashed potatoes and steamed some fresh green beans with garlic. As an added bonus I found out that the kids will eat the green beans whole when steamed with garlic. Yipee!
So the picture a week failed miserably at some point I just ended up forgetting about it. A lot has happened since my last post and we are beginning to embark on new roads…
Carleigh and Luke are growing like weeds. Luke is already at the brink in his 12month sized clothes and fits comfortably in most 18 month sized stuff. He now has six teeth, the last four all came in at the same time (no fun) and he is standing up on his own and will try taking several steps unassisted… I am sure it won’t be long until he just takes off. Carleigh is finally starting to outgrow her 2T clothes at least in the tops, her shorts and pants are perfect for the time being. She now also sings her alphabet and can count to 14.
A few weeks ago Mat and I took the kiddos to the Zoo for the umpteenth time and it is amazing to see the changes in the kids actions. Carleigh now likes to find the animals in their exhibits and count them while Luke is now showing interest in the animals (at least the brightly colored ones).
In any case, I plan on writing a bit more about the kids, if nothing else, to be able to go back later and re-live their developments.
What started out as an attempt by a very mean spirited person to cause our family nothing but headaches became a very easy lesson to learn. We found out a few weeks ago that we needed a permit for our bathroom project completed in January of 2009. We pulled the info off the sight so as not to encourage anyone to do something they shouldn’t and called code enforcement. It seemed incredibly daunting at first, but in fact was very easy. The gentleman I worked with from code enforcement was very nice and helped me figure out the proper steps to take. I went to the building department not completely sure of what I needed to do, and they were even more helpful. The main guy there actually brought out a checklist of everything I needed to submit our fixes and even pulled out a sample of what it should look like. I must say I was not expecting that much help. He made it so easy I went home and in one day got together everything we needed – it helped that we had taken pictures of everything and documented it.
If anyone has any questions on building codes I highly recommend going to the main city hall building and asking the people who work there because they made it so easy. So all in all it ended up working out for the best, we are permitted now and just have to set up the inspection when we get a free day.
So thank you to the awful individual that has nothing better to do with his time than make others as miserable as he clearly is, because what came of it ended up being a better understanding of the correct way to get things done.
I’m not usually one for making resolutions, but with life moving at the speed of light I have decided to post a picture a week to keep up with our remodel, kids, family and life in general. Stay tuned for the first of many!
