New Stuff around here

This whole week I wanted to update about Amber who turned 2 on Sunday, but then on Monday our window people called at 8:00 asking if we would like our windows, we hadn't expected them until the first week in November. I had Amber's 2yr appointment so I told them sure, but I would have to leave at 9:30. Therefore my week has been crazy with moving things and taking down blinds, curtains and all that. When they called I frantically went and took down all the curtains and blinds. Then when they got here after the appointment, I talked to them and found out they install them from the inside of the house, meaning I needed to move a lot of furniture!! Of course Robert at work, my house is a mess from the birthday stuff on Sunday, which is seems like the house always gets trashed on Sunday even when there isn't a birthday. I still don't have everything all put back, and most of the windows are still bare without the blinds or curtains back up.

We changed a big window from our dinning room into a sliding glass door, which I have been wanting the majority of our residency here in this house. We finally got it! Bad thing was our rabbit's cage sat in that space, not sure where she will go now, and there is about a 2 foot drop off from the door to the patio. The kids kept jumping in and out of the door, they love the idea of the door there as much as I do.

Robert's gone at a work thing, so I decided I would make some stairs, which went awful, that is a whole other subject in itself... Making a long story short - going out with a toddler in the shopping cart, a car seat with a baby in the back of the cart, and me trying to get four 92 inch long 2x6's, that alone didn't go great. Then the pre-cut stair frames I got, one of them broke, and so then I had to redo the size, but I had already cut the boards to the desired 46" for the steps, but now that is too far for the 2 braces, I need 3, so I changed it abit, but didn't want to re-cut the boards in case Robert doesn't approve of my carpentry skills. Last time I used his wood tools, I made a new shelf for the twin's closet so I could move their clothes rod down so that maybe they could actually hang up their clothes and not break the hangers as they tried to pull down their dresses. Robert wasn't too impressed with my skills, or the lumber I chose.... but I got it done and didn't have to ask him to do it again. And like the closet, the stairs are fully functioning now!

Here are a few pics of the new windows and door, and my handy stairs (which I am sure Rob will re-create when he gets home.)

So Amber is now 2, she is so funny. She just gets into everything, and she talks so much it cracks me up. Yesterday in our travels, she was saying something, some thing about a cookie, then she said, "I'm just kidding!" She mimics the girls all the time saying, "It's not fair" or "I'm bored" which is funny, but I hear those phrases too much that I don't want little Amber to say it. The good thing about the older girls is that Amber also picks up on things they do that are good, like we are at Walmart (which was an unsuccessful trip since they didn't have the ONE thing I went there for and then after I ended up getting some candles for our pumpkins, I realized I should have gotten the milk, cheese, and diapers I was going to go to Macey's for). So we are at the check out stand and Amber is singing, "Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday...." The lady checking us out was like, she is smart. That was the first time I had ever heard Amber sing that song.

We got a few packs of those little mini-donuts that come in a six pack. I told the girls they could have ONE, and I opened all the packages, so they could choose which ONE they wanted. I heard a knock at the door, so I was tied up with that.... I come back a bit later to find Amber eating the donuts, just a bite or two at a time, but most all the donuts. She scoots a chair just about anywhere on the wood floor she wants to, to get whatever it is she wants... dishes in the sink, my soda, the sugar/cinnamon bowl, the butter if it is out, she is just into EVERYTHING! I have found her before at the sink with her toothbrush in hand, brushing her teeth using dirty water in the sink that is in the dirty dishes, or she has grabbed a cup out of the sink and drank the water in it... which is yucky dirty water. With the whole donut thing, Lindsey is freaking out because, "I wanted a chocolate donut and now they are all gone!!" After trying to calm her down and tell her I have a solutions for her, (she is still crying, "I didn't even get one yet...") I cut the bite marks off the donut because of course no one wants Amber's germs... it would be crazy for them to take a bite after someone has touched their food, and worse yet, eaten off it!

Amber's birthday went well, she LOVES suckers, so we made her a sucker cake. The frosting was suppose to be blue, but I guess the yellow butter plus the small amount of blue paste, made green of course. I didn't really care, so I didn't try to change it. I just thought blue would be pretty, but green was fine too. She was so funny to watch open her presents. That morning for breakfast we made pancakes, she helped stir them with an apron on (the pictures are on the slide show of Amber) and then I put two candles in her pancake and we sang to her and she blew out those candles too. She got a bike but appearently it is a little big for her still. It said for 24-48 months, but I guess since she is just small she will have to wait until spring. At her dr. appointment, she weighed a whopping 25 lbs (must have been one of her "fat" days, since she has never weighed more than 23 lbs here at home on our scales.) She is I think 33 inches tall, which puts her in the 35% for weight and 36% for height, so for her BMI she is perfect the doctor said. Emily as a baby was 26lbs at 6 months old. Emily's first halloween costume fits Amber now, and Emily was 7 months old. Samantha will catch up with Amber I am guessing (Samantha was 16 lbs at her 4 month appointment).

Speaking of Samantha, she is doing really good. She laughs and smiles a lot. She also has learned to scream in a really high shrilly voice when she is happy. She has made the transition to formula now, makes me sad a bit but wasn't much I could do about it. She never really took to a pacifier, which she has taken to her thumb just fine. She is so cute to see sucking her thumb. She gets the whole blanket thing in there too, she grabs a part of a blanket and holds it with the same hand that she is sucking the thumb on. I don't have any of those pictures yet.

I better get on wiht my day, I was hoping for a nap, but I can't seem to do that when I have so much to do (things I NEED to do like dishes and laundry and vacuum, and then the things I WANT to do like move some shelves to Emily's room and go through some misc boxes and piles of "stuff").