Tiling Experts

Shane and I are far from tiling experts, but we have tiled three bathrooms, one entryway, and our kitchen counters in our old house.  When my parents decided to tile their bathroom floor, we decided we could share our “expertise” with them to help them get it done.  We drove down to Ashland Thursday, and Shane got right to work that night with my dad getting the subfloor down.  Friday morning, we cut and lay the tile.  Shane and I have a good system by now – I measure and mark the tile, and Shane does the cutting.  I only had Shane cut one tile completely wrong, so that was good.  (We won’t say how many were a little off).

     

We finished that afternoon, and had to wait 24 hours for it to dry, so we had a little time to relax Friday evening and Saturday morning.  Friday, my mom and I took the boys to Lithia Park, and they had fun climbing up on the slide and playing on the swings.  Asher’s brothers always take such good care of him.  Landon gave Asher a little ride around in the shopping cart Saturday morning.

       

We finished up with the grout Saturday, and my parents treated us all to a little Yogurt Hut treat and a nice walk in Lithia Park.  Asher had a little bath in the kitchen sink since the bathtub was still out of commission from the floor tiling. It was a nice weekend, and we were glad we could help them with something for once after all they do for us! 

 

         

Davis turns 6!

Today Davis turned 6 years old.  He has been so excited for his birthday, asking me all the time how many more days until his birthday.  To start off his birthday, Shane made him crepes for breakfast while I went on a long run with Kara.  When I got home, he was so anxious to open some presents!  He opened the ones from his grandparents, and started playing with them right away.

   

He read his card from Grandma all by himself!  He is becoming such a great reader.

After opening his presents, I got to work on his cake.  I hadn’t had any time to work on it the day before, but I started wishing right away that I had!  Stacey had made one for Ethan for his birthday a few weeks ago, so I followed the directions she sent me.  I used a Betty Crocker box mix, but the directions had you cut the cake into an oblong shape.  Once I tried to frost it though, the edges just kept crumbling off.  Davis, in his usual calm and easy-going fashion, just told me that the sides didn’t need frosting anyway.  I was able to get one side frosted, so I took pictures of the good side.  :)  I should’ve got one of the bad side just for laughs.

 

That afternoon, we had a get-together with the Mended Little Hearts group of Portland, so we went there for a couple of hours.  There was someone there doing face paintings for the kids.  The boys didn’t want to get their face painted, but they decided to get something on their hands instead.

After we came home, Kelly and the Kojimas came over to have a minion birthday party for Davis.  We had pizza for dinner, with apples and bananas (favorite minion food), played some games (pin the eye on the minion and a minion matching game), danced to some minion music, found a treasure of twinkie minions on a treasure hunt, and finished with presents and cake.  It was just right, and Davis seemed to have a fun time.  The only thing that didn’t work out too great was the minion cake. 

       

Davis loved reading his card from “Uncle Smelly Kelly with a big belly”, and Asher thought he better start practicing his present-opening skills to get ready for his birthday next month. 

We love our Davis so much and don’t know what life would be like without him.  He is fun and silly, while also being very kind and aware of others feelings at the same time.  Here he is all tuckered out in his bed, as we found him when we checked on him at night, sleeping with his new minion hat on. 

Snow Days!

The last few days have been filled with snow here in Sherwood.  We started seeing forecasts for snow early in the week, but we see those forecasts a few times a year and they usually don’t end up bringing any snow at all, or maybe a few flurries.  As the week went on, the forecast remained, and it looked like this storm might actually put a few inches on the ground.  Thursday morning, even though it was still dry but cold, we received an email saying they would be sending kids home at 1:00 that afternoon.  By noon, the snow had started, and by 1:00, it was starting to stick.  Shane came home from work about 12:45 to work from home for the rest of the day, and Landon made it off by bus by 1:30.  By 3:00, the boys were excited to go out and start to play in the snow! 

   

 

After a couple of hours in the snow, Shane finished up his work and convinced them all to go in the hot tub with him (it didn’t really take any convincing).

While we were eating dinner, we got a call from Shane’s friend from work that he and his son were out sledding at a park near our house, and asked if we wanted to join them.  By the time we got there, they were just leaving, but they were kind enough to lend us their sleds (we have none!).  The boys had a blast sledding down the hill.  It was just right for them, with a  nice steep decline onto a huge soccer field, with no obstacles to run into.  James was a little nervous the first few times going down with Shane, but after going by himself several times on a smaller hill, he started going down the big hill all on his own and loved it too.  Asher and I watched from the sidelines and cheered them on.

Friday, school was cancelled for the day.  We all went out in the morning, and the boys had fun sledding down the neighbor’s driveway, pulling each other in the sled, trying to make a snowman (the snow is pretty dry), zipping down our slide, making snow angels, and just playing around. 

             

Asher liked getting pulled around in this little blue sled too, but then James took it over and loved using it to sled down the driveway.

  

They took a short break to eat lunch and warm up for a little bit, but Landon and Davis were back out just a little later, and James joined them as soon as he woke up from his nap.  By then, the snow had started really picking up again, and we got another few inches while they played out there in the afternoon.

 

Davis looks like he’s asleep here, but he just felt he needed to close his eyes while making his snow angel.

Saturday we made it to the church to help clean the building.  It started snowing pretty good while we were there, and we were glad we got home when we did.  It snowed some more that morning, and the boys had fun playing outside some more while Shane shoveled the driveway.  Freezing rain started in the afternoon, so we spent the rest of the day inside staying warm and watching the the Olympics.  Shane was especially excited when we got a call that church was cancelled since he was supposed to speak.

 The boys buried in the snow when Shane was shoveling.

We also tried outa recipe for some snow cream.  The boys thought it was pretty good, but it gave Davis a brain freeze!

 

Today we ventured out on a Sunday walk in the afternoon, since we were getting a bit stir crazy.  It felt good to get outside and walk around. James got a little tired of trudging through the snow and had to take a few breaks.  Part of the problems was that he usually wanted to walk in the fresh snow instead of where others had already walked.

     

We already got a message that school is cancelled for tomorrow.  It does seem like things are starting to melt though, so hopefully life will return to normal soon.  We’ve had a fun few days in the snow!