Trying to get a Christmas picture...

Cute kids? Check. Matching dresses? Check. Getting a Christmas picture where our crazy children are not acting up...almost impossible.

Uh, oh.

This one is actually very sweet.

What is she doing?!

No one is looking at me.

Closer.

This is the one we actually used.

Where did Abby go?

Abby looking like an angel.

Libby's about to escape and Abby's looking bored.

My sister's making silly faces.

This is my personal favorite. It's like the little angel and the little devil.

Ahhhh!

Are we done yet?

Whoo! We made it.

Trip to North Bend!

Over the river and through the woods to Grandmother's house we go...or something like that. We headed to North Bend last weekend. Here are the girls hanging out with Gramps.

Libby and Gramps ready for bed.

Abby and Libby playing with Abby's John Deere tractor.


Libby!


Daddy takes the girls for a ride in the wagon.


Whee!

Abby taking Libby for a ride.


This is fun!

We took the girls to see Santa at Pony Village.

We went out to dinner at Roger's Zoo and then off to see the lights at Shore Acres.

Libby loves the lights.

Abby and Gramps.

This year, there were 275,000 lights.




Grandma and Gramps with the girls.

Daddy!



Our Christmas picture.

Christmas tree!

Yay, December is here. I couldn't wait to get a Christmas tree, so the first weekend in December, we headed for Lee's farms in search of the perfect tree. Here are Bill and Libby surveying the prospects.
It was sooo cold. We bundled up the kids, but everyone was freezing anyway.

Libby wanted to find a tree all on her own.

I loved this one!

The girls weren't sure that it was the perfect one, yet.


Santa came out to pick out a tree, too.


Finally, back in the warm car.

We go the tree home and started to decorate. We had to move all the decorations up so that Libby couldn't pull them off and eat them!


Abby putting the star on the tree!

Perfect!

Check ups!

Abby and Libby went in for their check-ups on December 4th. Abby had her 4 year-old check up complete with her first hearing and vision screenings. Libby had her 12 month check up.

Abby weighs in at 51 lbs and is 43 inches tall. She is taller and heavier than 90+% of kids her age.

Libby weighs in at 23 lbs 7.1 oz and is 30.5 inches tall. This puts her in the 80th percentile for weight and 85th percentile for height. However, her head is 47.7 cm around, putting her in the 95+ percentile for having a large noggin. She is definitely her daddy's girl!


Abby go all her shots for kindergarten (5 of them!), so now she'll be ready to go in September (even if I'm not). Libby got the rest of her infant shots (4 of them!). Both girls were really good and Grandma Delphine was very brave to come with us.

Working on the treehouse.

A few weekends ago I started building a treehouse in the back yard. I had to move the rally car alongside the deck to make room to work. As a consequence of the piles of wood I have stacked behind the Rabbit now, I have to finish the treehouse before I can get the car out again! Plenty of motivation.

The main span is about 11', using x2 2"x12" beams sandwiched on 4"x6" blocks that in turn are bolted to the trees using 3/4"x14" lag bolts. There is a notched "block" at the bottom of each of the 4"x6" blocks to keep them from twisting.

Last Sunday the weather was really nice, so I put together the treehouse frame on the deck. Let me be the first to tell you that a 8'x10' frame made of PT 2x8s is heavy!


After I was able to lift it into the vertical position, moving it was not so bad.

2 sheets of 3/4" plywood will cover a 8'x8' section, with the remaining 2' section (on the right side of the picture below,) will have Trex "leftover" from the deck project.



Using ratchet straps to keep it from getting out of hand, I was able to lever it up on the main beam.






A birds eye view:



Next will be to level it out and add in the bracing. After that, I'll put the plywood and Trex down and cover it with a tarp while I build the wall sections in the garage.

-Bill