Kayli’s Cotillion Costume Ball

Kayli had her last cotillion of the year last night. It was the annual costume ball. The kids all looked so cute in their costumes. I may be biased, but Kayli was the prettiest girl there. She went as Belle and looked every bit like a princess. I took this picture outside at the country club after the dance.

Afterwards, we went out to dinner at Islands. We both enjoyed eating out with just the two of us. We did the word seek on the kids menu and played tic-tac-toe while waiting for our food. Kayli said that she very much enjoys cotillion and is happy that next year she will be going to cotillion where most of her friends go.

Day 10

The framers arrived at 7 am and were here till 7:30 pm! The finished up most of their work today, but will have to come back later after the inspector comes to finish up a few things. They completed the framing for the roof and attic and put in all but one window. The other window was left out to leave a spot to bring in the drywall. They also finished up the metal ties connecting the new wall in the garage to the other walls next to it in the house.

The twins are so excited about their new room. Here they are looking out where the window will go.

The girls are excited about their new room too. Here’s Kayli in their room.

Talia’s 12th Birthday Party

For Talia’s birthday, we took her and 9 of her friends to Islands for lunch and then to see "Meet the Robinsons". The manager at Islands commented to me on how well behaved the girls were there. Everyone enjoyed lunch and like the movie. All in all, everyone had a great time.

Day 9

I was surprised that the framers showed up to work on Saturday! They finished framing for the new bedrooms and started work on the roof.

The Girls’ Room

The Twins’ Room

Both rooms

New Roof

They also finished up putting in the metal struts between the new garage wall and the wall in the new bathroom.

One of the struts in the garage

Same strut upstairs where it attaches to bathroom wall

It is so exciting to walk through the upstairs with all the framing and be able to see how all the new rooms will be. The twins were jumping up and down in their new room, so excited to be able to finally see what it will be like. Today we also purchased the faucets, showerhead and toilet for the new bathroom. They gave it to us at the price they would have sold it to our plumber. They said they work with him all the time and that he is great. They also knew our contractor and said we are lucky to have such great people working on our project.

Day 8

It rained so hard today! I was amazed that the framers continued to work, even though it was raining. I kept wondering if it was a good idea to be using power tools out in the rain.

Today they worked on the straps in new walls in the garage.

They also started framing the rooms upstairs. They got the office, bathroom and alcove area finished.

The Office

The Bathroom

Alcove

They also started on the other rooms, finishing the framing of the new floor and the framing of the doors and closets in the new bedrooms.

Closet in Twins’ Room

Closet in Girls’ Room

Falyn’s Words

Falyn says lots of words. I’ve been meaning to make a list, so I’ll start one now. Here’s all the words she says: mommy, daddy, hi, hello, bye, bye-bye, uh-oh, up, down, ball, taggie, binkie, cup, shoe, socks, peek, here go, pig, fish and her brother/sisters names.

“I’m famous because I’m in a magazine”

Aidan was so excited to see that his picture was in a magazine. He told the twins, "I’m famous because I’m in a magazine." The picture was taken specifically for this ad. One of the twins godparents works for the company the ad is for and knew that I’ve been working on starting a photography business. So he suggested me to the owner of the company. Aidan didn’t want to do it until I offered him $10. Instead of the money, he decided he wanted a specific Bionicle (the red sea creature one) that I’ll buy him the next time I go to Target.

Day 7

A lot of work went on today! It was day 1 for the framers. They arrived at 7 am and didn’t leave until 7 pm. They removed the old beam and put up the new one.


Finished framing on the new walls in the garage.

Removed everything but the studs from the garage wall facing the street and redid it.


Framed the floor for the new bedrooms where the balcony used to be.



The tub for the new bathroom was also delivered.

My favorite part of today’s work is that I no longer have to sqeeze through the front door! Since they finished the new garage wall, they took down the bracing that was blocking in the front door.

Talia’s Dorsal Wrist Ganglion

Talia has had this bump on her left wrist since about the first week of March. It has been diagnosed as a Dorsal Wrist Ganglion. It does’t hurt and is getting smaller, so they want to just leave it alone. It could take as long as a year to go away. I want to make sure it is getting smaller, so will take pictures of it from time to time with the measure tape. Talia got bored at Science class at drew a smiley face on it. Silly girl!

Doctor visit for the oldest and the youngest

Talia’s finger was not better, so I brought her along to Falyn’s recheck appointment today. Since Falyn’s rash had completely gone away yesterday, I gave her the antiobiotic this morning. By the time we got to her appointment, she had a rash again. So, it looks like she is may be allergic to amoxicillin. Although the bronchitis is all better, she does still have an ear infection. Because of that, the doctor went ahead and gave us another prescription for a different antibiotic. They will wait to recheck her ear till her 15 month appointment next month.

The doctor looked at Talia’s finger and wanted to have it x-rayed to make sure it was not broken. The nurse put a splint on the finger and we had to drive to another location to get the x-ray done. Falyn was not happy waiting there. She was getting tired and hungry and was very cranky. I gave her some rice puffs, but it didn’t seem to help. She kept having screaming fits. After about an hour there, we finally got the x-ray take. The good news is that it is not broken. She needs to wear the splint through the weekend, then start trying to use it again. No softball practice for her today and she may not be able to play at the next game on Tuesday either. Hopefully it will start to feel better soon.