Happy Birthday Pijay!

PJ said for his birthday he wanted to go to Bob Evans and order "something with gravy". When I suggested he might be in the mood for a breakfast, he said he'd just order a side of gravy. No need. He had a meal that came with gravy already. Really an tasty meal, and we all enjoyed the food. Except James who immediately protested the eggs but ate his strawberry jam toast and some of Daddy's food. There was even a balloon, although it wasn't for PJ but for Ava who devoured her pancackes like she hadn't eaten in days. I love eating out with no incident !

We had visitors!

On Friday, Joyce, Betsey and Jacob came to visit. We all had a blast. It went much too fast! We had a nice lunch and visit and the kids played. We had to remind Ava and Jacob how to share (some things never change!) but they did better than they had in the past. It was fun to hear Jacob talk (more,more, more and Thank you!) and see how he's been growing. We miss you guys! Thank you for coming, and we'll make the next trip soon.

the horse

James took an interest in the horse last week so I put him on it and sat right with him. He got how to make it go right away. Tonight we were playing in his room and he crawled right over to it and was pushing it to make it go so we got him on and away he went. He loves going for it, whether it's the horse or trying to race me to the stairway when my hands are full of his humidifier, the little pill. Anyway, here's Cowboy James. We'll have to get him on the pony when we go to Kath's farm this summer!

Last but not least...

James Wallace is 19 lbs, 29 1/4 inches long. Healthy, developmentally sound, and we all love the new doctor.
Ava is 36 lbs, but we didn't get her height. I'll get it with the tape measure later. She loves that thing.

More snow

As I have little success in adding more than 2 pictures to a post, I am adding a couple more because she is that cute !!
I am going to sign her up for preschool Wednesday people. Seriously. It is surreal. She is very excited. When I asked her yesterday if she wanted to go to school, she said, "yeah, what, are you kiddin' me?" With a big old grin on the face. Go get 'em Ava!

Snow

We had a reasonable amount of snow, and Ava got new pink princess snowboots for the occasion. Despite getting over colds, we allowed the patient girl outside in her snowsuit to play in the white fluffy goodness. She had a blast and is always as precious as always!

Jail is at our house

As beautiful as the living room looked right after Kathy left, it is more beautiful to me now. Ah, jail. We love it!

The girl loves her hot chocolate

Okay I occasionally bribe the bird with hot cocoa for being a "good girl" and occasionally she comes through! I think this extra yummy incentive is worth it to her judging by her face.

Tuesday dinner cuteness

Seriously the boy is precious. Inbetween fussing (major tooth discomfort) he posed for a few candid shots. He is so adorable I want to squeeze him all the time!

Jumping

He loves the jumper and still sometimes fusses all the while he is jumping. I don't understand the boy sometimes! All I know is he gets some good air !

Family foto

Peeg reminded me yesterday that I didn't put up a pic of the fam. Kathy was kind enough to take one even figuring out how James screwed up his face in anticipation of the flash in a way that made him look like an Irishman with a mission ! We got it under control, and even had a decent picture!
All is well here except Ava has appropriated every toy in the house for her personal stash giving her brother a block to keep him busy while she hoards everything else, and she got a stuffy nose from somewhere, doesn't really matter where, that we are watching and praying doesnt spread to the boy. He will really freak out at the reality of the sucker ! (aspirator)
Love to all,
Thuringers
ps I've named the new place Affenhaus, or monkey house. It's appropriate. Don'tcha think?

Living room

Need more pics here but for now you can see the pretty room with the pretty fireplace that is not blue!

Dining Room

Okay there are quite a few of these but I will spare you most of them and show the wallpaper, the hard work Kath had to remove it, and the finished product.

Pictures

Okay I will have to break it down as I am having trouble getting pictures up. We will start with the basement.

The amazing transformation

Okay folks the hemmoraging of the savings account has begun. First the plumbers and then the electricians. The electricians were here for about a week. Troy and Dustin were great and with the exception of a tear in the vinyl kitchen flooring which will expediate the necessity of new kitchen flooring we were pleased as punch with their work, especially as they put up the ceiling fan and new bathroom lights upstairs gratis. Next came the waterproofers. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. Suffice to say there was a jackhammer, 3 guys, several 5 gallon buckets, and some concrete mix involved. But the best was Kathy who was very generous with her time and came and removed the offensive wallpaper from our dining room and painted it a lovely shade of green (the one I always gravitate to) and removed the wallpaper from the kitchen so it's ready for paint when the countertops go in, and most importantly painted over most of the blue trim downstairs and made our living room very pretty. Also painted over the green trim in the upstairs bath and now I am a little jealous of the kids bathroom, it's very pretty. Guests will hopefully enjoy ! We had a blast with Kath and although I am sure she was mostly anxious to get back to her fam we love that she was part of ours for the time she was here. We love you! Please come back ! There is more wallpaper ! And BLUE TRIM !!!!! (just kidding- kinda).
Okay here are some before pics. More will follow.
Love,
PJ, NG, Ava and JW

p.s. James eats and drinks by himself now !

Christmas

Merry Christmas !
We went to the most beautiful service on Christmas Eve, 7pm, the kids were good too ! The church school's kids sang some beautiful carols (not really traditional) and there was a beautiful spirit filling the place. Really quite nice.
Christmas morning the kids slept in a little (till 7ish) and Ava came and got us and was squealing with delight at all the presents. James made out pretty well, and since Ava doesn't seem to handle that very well always, James and I stealthily opened his presents while Ava went to town on hers.
Thank you so much to everyone, really, for everything. The toys all are played with and the clothes are being washed (right now actually) so they can be worn. (little mermaid unders? who knew?!)
Attached are a couple of pics from the day. We kept it pretty quiet, and after the hubub of the am moved a bit more from the apartment. Not too much more now!
Love to all,
Ang

trying pics from moving day

okay it has come to my attention that the pics didn't load up from moving day. The reason it is important is that we moved pretty much on the only day it's snowed. Of course.
We finished (almost) moving on the 23rd, with all the big stuff out of the apartment. We have kitchen appliances, and pj even put the black on the dishwasher so we match !!! Kath comes in another week or so. Note to all, the phone number is the same, so is the email, and we are up and running !!!

Moving Day

Okay sorry kids for being out of touch. The movers arrived from South Bend with the items previously in storage, and the kids and I along with our new friends Patrick and Mark kinda moved in!
Of course, it snowed the day before. Thursday evening PJ went over to the house and shoveled the sidewalks for the guys, but scattered flurries that night put quick disappointment to his efforts. He did however come to our rescue on his lunch hour with some salt for the ice and some lunch for us all. There was no melting as it got to a balmy 28 degrees that day, so my number one priority was keeping the kids warm. I kept them separate in our room but needed to be out to direct furniture and boxes. Ava wanted to be a part of the action anyway (a nap was never in the picture really) so it was no biggie. Just kept putting them back in our room with heat from first the heatlamp in our bathroom then the spaceheater when it made it off the truck. Needless to say it was a very long day for us all, but we celebrated that evening with some local pizza and beer from what promises to be a favorite neighborhood spot!
All this the day after PJ arrives home from Indianapolis from a workshop, and the darling shopped till he dropped on his way home at our sorely missed store Trader Joe's. Bless him he bought a case 0f 2 buck chuck but instead of cabernet sauvignon he inadvertantly got sauvignon blanc. Bully for us it's still pretty good even tho neither one of us is wild about white unless its our fruity friend Mr. Gewertztimeiner or Mrs. Reisling. Attached are some photos from the day as well as one of the Christmas tree. We got it on Sunday and put the lights up Monday. As the whole family is together roughly one hour in the evening I think we will wait to put up ornaments till this friday when we can perhaps have a sleepover at the house.
In other news, Habitat Restore came Tuesday to pick up the range, fridge, washer and dryer. I think the fridge was original to the house !!! It was spotless, and they were grateful. Unfortunately the day they came it was raining. Can I get a break on the weather people? My floors will be grateful !!
We are waiting for a quote on the Marmoleum for the kitchen floor, and we have Kath's ticket. She arrives January 3 !!! We are sooooo happy to have us to ourselves for about a week and a half. She will be a busy girl as there is a lot of blue trim and outdated wall paper as evidenced by the photos.
I will stop going on. This is what happens when I don't keep up. I have to go on and on to keep everyone in the know. And Fort Wayne is happening now people !
P.S. The latest plan is to try and move in by the end of the month. Seriously ??!! Well, there is no sense in paying rent and a mortgage payment. Yikes!
Will keep y'all posted...

Quick Update

The house has been closed upon, the movers arrive the 8th with the storage stuff, the kids and I are going over with a vacuum Thursday to get ready, the Marmoleum has been chosen, the countertop guy has been out to give us a quote, and we are off on the latest homeowning adventure!
We had a great time in Arizona for the holiday- it was wonderful to see the fam and friends, really great to spend some time with Brendan (always helpful to me in the perspective department) and a surprise visit with Kath and the extra surprise that she is coming out to do our paint/wallpaper removal. WAHOO!!!
Will keep y'all updated.
The kids are awesome. James woke up inconsolable last night. I wasn't sure if it was teeth or night terrors but from Googling I think it was the terrors. Teeth shouldn't wake you up screaming bloody murder (seriously like he was trying to pass a cruise missle or something) so hopefully it won't happen tonight. The info I have is that it is not uncommon to have the terrors during a major developmental phase (almost crawling, anyone?) and at least I know he is not dying as he was trying to propel himself out of the bouncy tonight during Ava's and my dinner. That boy has the most beautiful happy face and we are so grateful he wears it for us often. It's extra disheartening for that reason tho that the unhappy face and voice (extremely unhappy at times) has been making extra appearances lately due to the teeth that have yet to arrive. Poor boy. Ava has the most beautiful face and sweetest voice and if hers was the only one I heard for the rest of my life that would be okay. She is still adjusting to the baby and not being the center of the universe but the adjustment has been getting better by the day. She is truly and angel (with a little devil mixed in for good measure just like her Dad? or Mom? Both :-)?).
No more rambling. I am thinking of doing a blog for my rambling and keeping this one short and sweet with pics of bebes. With 2 kids? Who has the time?
Love to all
NG

We are good!

Hi all.
We are all good here.
In process of buying a house in a great neighborhood!
We'll talk soon.
Thuringers

Hey everyone.
Sorry we have been slacking on the blog.
Things are good here in the Fort!
Halloween was great. We went over to some friends neighborhood to let Ava trick or treat. She was the cutest cowgirl! Her line when the door opened was, "Happy Trick or Treat!" We started her out with a few pieces of candy and the first house we went to, she tried to give them her candy. It was precious.

One thing we know for sure is that it doesn't matter where you are, bathtime is fun. And lastly, here is Mom and the kids.


Take care all. We love you.
The Thuringers