Happy 10th Birthday Eric!

***Warning***

*****Mother is reminiscing about her oldest child reaching his first decade of life, possible sappy content to follow*****

Today, January 27th, our oldest son, Eric turns 10. I just am having a hard time wrapping my brain around the fact that he is 10 years old...I know millions of mothers around the world have watched their children turn 10 without more than a blink, but it seems quite monumental to me. He is more than halfway to becoming 18...that magical age, after this he won't be able to count his age on his fingers, and he is into the double digits. It just doesn't seem possible that I gave birth to him 10 years ago...then, I look at the picture of me and Dennis with him in the hospital, and I realize it really has been 10 years! Yikes, I look like I'm 13 in that picture!!!

Back then, (like it was the middle ages or something) we didn't even own a digital camera! So I had to scan a couple of pictures from his baby book! I apologize for the grainy texture in the photos. He sure was a happy baby...and it seems like he just grew up so fast. After looking through his baby book, I thought I would share a few little-known facts about Eric and his childhood.

1. He lost his first tooth at 5 years old while biting apart lego pieces.

2. He started talking in sentences when he was about 15 months old and still can out-talk any of us-especially on long car rides!

3. His hair was so light-colored and so sparse he didn't need a haircut till he was 22 months old!

4. The year he was born (1999) gasoline was $1.03 a gallon where we lived in NC.

5. I had Eric in cloth diapers...all that rinsing, soaking, washing, line-drying...was I crazy???

6. At age 2 1/2 would eat anything as long as it was dipped in ketchup---yuk!

7. Slept best as a baby when we were camping...and it was tent camping back then too :)

8. Favorite past time is by far....reading.

9. Right now he has 7 baby teeth out of his mouth, and he is looking rather horsey!!!

10. His best quality is always being willing to help out others.

Here is a little video of the gift opening. We celebrated his birthday with family on Saturday, since everyone was around. Today, on his birthday...it is snowing! Finally! Real snow, covering the ground. What a cool birthday present from our maker!

Home School Science Fair

Last week the boys participated in our local homeschool science fair. This year there were 30 entries...from Kindergarten through 8th grade! We had a great time working together on these projects and I think they both learned quite a bit from the whole process. At this fair, 2 judges evaluate each project and give constructive feedback. Each participant got a certificate. Our favorite part about the fair is getting to look at everyone else's projects...it is always so amazing to see how creative these kids get with their topics.

Some of our favorites were:

How a Submarine works (with an actual model of a submarine and a tub of water)

Testing a trebuchet

Geckos and which foods are most nutritious for them

How food color affects our brain and our taste buds

Lemon powered clock (it ran for over 24 hours!)

Here is Eric with his project...Dissolving Pills in Acids and Bases.
Bay and Leah with his display on Birds that come to our Birdfeeder.

Cozy and Finished!

Dennis and I got to finally rearrange the living room to open it up to the woodstove and we got the gas stove moved and put downstairs (not yet hooked up). It seems like we have rearrange this room so many times, but I think finally we really like how it feels. Open to the stove, open to the kitchen and center of activity, yet still cozy and intimate for conversation.

another exciting thing for me was that, because we used the double wall stove pipe, we are able to hang the mantel behind the stove. i was afraid that with the pipe going straight up, we would not be able to hang it, but there is only a 6" required clearance to combustible surfaces from the pipe! Amazing!

Anyways, the pictures below are in order as you enter our front door/foyer and move around the room clockwise.

view from the foyer. the armoire is sitting where the gas stove once sat.

view from the hall between the kitchen and living room

view from the back corner of the living room looking towards the kitchen

view from the bedroom hallway looking out

Cozy Heat in the nick of time!

We finally got our woodstove installed last night....just in time for the arctic blast that is coming today! It is supposed to be a high of 20 degrees tomorrow...below zero at night! We have been contemplating replacing our gas stove with wood, due to the ever-rising cost of propane, and just because the gas one (though we absolutely love it) just isn't quite enough to heat our entire house. So the gas stove is moving downstairs to our newly refurbished basement/playroom.

We fired up the woodstove this morning (the installers left at 10 pm last night!) and already the house is toasty warm---easily 74 degrees in here!

Here are pictures of the process of preparing for the stove. We decided to build our own hearth...at a fraction of the price of a pre-made one that you buy, and much larger and more attractive in our space than a square one. Dennis and I laid out the area to be tiled with 2 sheets of cement board for the base. Much to my surprise, since Dennis had just recently had gotten stitches in his back and couldn't bend and stretch, I found out that I would be the one laying the tile! No pressure or anything on me...

Dennis cutting the tiles...

Heather setting the tiles in the mastic. I did the diagonal tiles all first, then laid the border tiles. I had everything all numbered so we could get them in the right places once they were cut!

I think the border tiles make the project. Here is the job without any grout.


And below, the finished project (except the wood trim has not yet been stained). This is right after they installed the stove, before a fire was built in it.

Transformation for the New Year

Dennis and I decided to kick off the New Year with a transformation of the basement into a den/game room. We have been thinking of doing this for some time, and somehow just ended up plunging into the project during his last few days off from work. It has been quite the project, and was actually lots of fun, as it required me to organize and purge a lot of junk that has been collecting in our unfinished side of the basement.

The plan was this: half of our basement is unfinished and is used for storage. However, there is just too much open space and we wanted to be able to use some of the space for storage, and the rest of the space as living space. We decided to create a 12x12 room for storage, and make the rest of the space a play area for the kids, and a family game area as well. My dad and brother helped out with the 12 foot long drywall sheets, but other than that, Dennis did the construction and electrical work all by himself!

Dennis contemplating the area to be framed. Can you begin to see the stuff that covers the floor of the basement?

Here it is framed and the beginning of electricity being run. Eventually we will put some type of floor down over the concrete, but for now, it's just concrete with carpet remnants here and there.

I like this shot, looking out through the framing to the collection of stuff in the rest of the basement. All that....has to come in here!

View of the finished storage room. The doorway will have bi-fold doors on it soon. When you walk in the storage area, the left side is completely shelves, and the right side is stored furniture (beds, dressers, etc.). It is an amazing transformation! On the far wall behind the ping-pong table we put up a dartboard area, and I have hung some pictures on the walls since taking this picture.We hung a roller shade in front of the heating/water heater stuff just to hide the ugliness for now. It also helps keep stray ping-pong balls from going too far. The kids are having a great time now that they can actually play ping-pong!
The den/toy area. Far from finished, but so much cozier than once was before. We are borrowing my brother's tv/dvd. The kids legos, dart guns, and most of the boys' toys are moving downstairs. We have an old set of french doors we will be installing in the doorway where i am standing taking this picture which will help open the area up to the adjoining room (which is my sewing area off of our bedroom).

Now the fun is done and back to school/life/work as normal! I hope that your New Year is wonderful!