A McCleve Project: Painting Day 1

grandma said that when her and grandpa built this house, they knew they would need to paint it someday. here in county island and all around there have always been dirt fields. and even though there aren't as many as when grandma and grandpa moved in, the house over the years has soaked up a lot of dirt and grim. so yesterday morning, everyone met at grandma's for breakfast and then we started working outside.
my dad makes the best french toast out of stale french bread. the key is lots of love (or butter) as he says. we ate the french toast with hash browns, sausage, ham, and oranges.

charlene and addison were so awesome the whole day. i was so greatful. brookie was right when she said it was one of the lord's tender mercies. kyle brought charlene's cradle upstairs so i could hear her and she hardly ever made a peep. addison and caleb kept each other busy until she papa mckay came to get so he could take all the grandkids (they were all in town) to amazing jakes. she had a blast and didn't want to come home.

the first thing we had to do was power wash the whole house. there was trouble getting grandma's power washer to have enough pressure, so someone made a quick run to the store to rent another one.

and even though it might not look like it, power washing is a long, hard job. your arms get tired from holding the out so long, your face is tired from squinting to keep out the water that sprays back at you, and you are soaking wet by the time you are done. we were lucky to have great weather that wasn't hot, it even got cold by late afternoon, but kevin did most of the power washing and it took him all day. by the time he he was done, the wind was whipping around and it was cold.

kenna and jalee scraping the walls flat.

i love this. there's always an uncle on their smart phones or ipads.

there were two spray guns going and that helped to get as much done as we did. ladders and step stools were everywhere. oh and plastic. we had a nightmare trying to get it to stay in place with the winds we were having.

not only did we start painting the house, but we also got the storage area of the backyard on it's way to being weed -free and organized. i grabbed all the grandkids that weren't helping with the house and put them to work cleaning up here. not done yet, but it sure looks better.

we burned all the dry weeds and some of the green ones too. it was a lot of hard work, gathering, throwing away, and shoveling.

kyle was the runner who went on the roof to help paint the eaves and i couldn't watch because i was too afraid for him.

taking off the tape and paper.

the painting mask is just sitting on his head here, but i wish i would've snapped a picture when he had it pulled down over his face. my dad loves ridiculous hats and i think loren said this one was grandpa's.

these next two pictures are what the house looked like at the end of our first day painting. we finished all the pop out color and much of the eaves. still have a ton of work to do, but it looks great so far!

oh, and here is what the house looked like before we did anything.

A Little Bit Of Sass

she is changing so much lately. maybe it's part of being two? she puts more words together and talks about new things that kyle and i haven't taught her. she's constantly making us laugh and we both find ourselves running through the house to find the other and share whatever the newest addyism is. we enjoy her so much. kyle and addison have a special bond. kyle acts like more of a friend to her sometimes, asking me if she can come out of bed because she's not tired yet, or can she please be done with dinner - she's just so full and wants a cookie, or how asks me how i can ever say no to that face. he makes me feel like a meanie sometimes. some days i give in.

she is still so skinny and has to hold up her pants when she runs so they don't end up around her ankles. she's so skinny, in fact, that she still wears her 12 months jeans and they are finally getting tight. i'll be glad to retire those pants that looked more like bermuda shorts on her.

love her huge mouth!

we have a hard time when we are away from this squirt and find ourselves passing the time by acting like her or quoting her. then we bust out laughing. try it. it's so much fun.

we gave addy the green light to act crazy and run around for these pictures, so it was hard to reign her in for a few with me, as you can tell. her faces just make me laugh. what is she doing?

her 18 month shorts just slide right off her bum. we'll have to wait a while longer before they really fit her well. otherwise i do love "unerwear" on a cute pair of squishy buns. sometimes she'll come up to kyle and i and let us know we can pinch her buns. so of course we take the opportunity and pinch away, and we are always sure to thank her later for letting us. she is just so nice to share!

she totally needs to be a model. i would just tell her where to stand and she would do her own thing for me as i walked around getting different angles. give it to me baby!

she's so happy!

it's so hard to contain all that cuteness when you're newly two and totally awesome! thanks addy, i'll be sure to book you again.

Terrible Twos - Here We Come

addison's birthday snuck up on us. she has really changed since charly was born and especially this last month. it's so fun to see what she learns by observing the things around her, she catches on so quickly!
we celebrated at papa mckay's the day before her birthday. aunt jen helped addy light the candles... and then she blew them out. love the leftover dinner on her face.

opening her first present from jen. if anyone has been around addison lately, they know her favorite movie is finding nemo so it wasn't a suprise when her gift was her very own...

NEMO!

and she's in love. the rest of the day was spent making nemo swim and playing hide and go seek with him. (yes she still talks to her animals and kyle is their voice. so cute.)all the grand kids go matching clothes. all the girls have this cute pink shirt from grandma with matching pink shorts and cameron has a coordinating outfit. love it!

more books!

her favorite present was having uncle kirt come home for a week from flying planes in oklahoma. kirt loves her too. below: jen, addison, and kirt.

the next day at papa mccleve's addison got her own water and sand box to play in. she loves the attached umbrella and detaches it so she can walk around with it.

kyle and i gave her a few more books, some doggy slippers, and her own pink sunglasses. the sunglasses are her favorite and she goes everywhere with them and shows them to everyone. she even shares with charly every once in a while.

most of the time i can't believe she is two already, but then she gets sassy, and i believe it. love you addison. you'll always be my baby girl!

We Just Think You Look Good In White

name that movie. it's one of my favorites: the best two years. if you haven't seen it, do and you will laugh your head off. promise. and if you don't, well maybe there's something wrong. just sayin.

i can't believe we've had her in our family for two months already! today, at exactly two months old, charlene was blessed. it was beautiful and i'm thankful for all the family that came to support us. we were lucky that kyle's brother kirt was able to come too. he was suppose to be in town the week before but got delayed. so we were only missing kyle's oldest brother shawn.

so here we have some pics of our beautifully blessed charly. she's wearing the same dress addison was blessed in.


i love her sweet little pout and crop of hair. she's just so adorable.

after the block, we had a party to celebrate charlene's blessing day. and just like after addison's blessing, we had navajo tacos. it was so fun to have everyone over! below: kyle's mom julie, my mom camette, janell, and great grandma mccleve

addison was having too much fun to stop and go potty, so she peed her pants in thebackyard. this is kyle multitasking: watching her in the bath and eating. as you can tell, he takes his job very seriously.

below: all tuckered out. we sure do love our charly!