Almost there.......

Today I went over to clean the cabinets etc. in the laundry room, clean the excess grout etc. out of our shower and wax/dust mop the floors so we could not only get them clean, but see where there is glue that needs to be cleaned off. I got the laundry room and shower finished, as well as cleaning the stainless steel appliances. I also did the floors; but they were quite dusty (even after being swept) so after a while (and 2 cloth mop pads) I was just pushing dust around. But they are clean! I will go back with Tilex and clean the shower and 2 clean mop pads and clean up the dusties!

John was working on the shingling of the front and so I got some pictures in as I was working!

Our house numbers...

The carpet...

Laundry room.

The epoxy floor in the garage. It has dots in it!

The roll of carpet for the two bedrooms (which will be installed tomorrow--John bartered with the installer and he is trading work on his Landcruiser for the installation!) and the nice shiny floor I just cleaned!

John working on the shingles...this is where it previously said Hi in paint!

Here is a shot of the back deck. It's finished!

This is Jacob yesterday at Longs. For Christmas he received a Target GC from Auntie Vaden and Uncle Arlen and we picked up this cart thingy for him. It's great! It covers the whole cart (I didn't have the back part up) and it has shoulder straps for him. Also it has pockets etc. for toys...so he has things to play with and doesn't get all germy from the cart! Thank you Auntie Vaden and Uncle Arlen!

Here is a little video of our washer and dryer! Ha!

Dinner Last Night

These two are actually of Jacob having some spaghetti with meat sauce at lunch time! I couldn't resist the orange cheeks!

Last night for dinner I made Tonkatsu. Not the healthiest by any means, but I had bought things to make it a couple of weeks back, so I thought I should go ahead and do it. The more we can eat out of the fridge, pantry and freezer the less we have to lug with us to the new house! It same out quite good and I had mine with cabbage and the boys had broccoli. I also made Rice A Roni Fried Rice, but I just had a tad!

Here is Justin pounding the pork chops into 1/4" thick pieces! He had a blast!

You deep fry the pork (hence the not so healthy part) but it was really good!

There is also a recipe for the Tonkatsu sauce, but I bought Kikkoman brand. Here is the finished product! Mmm! I need to get some fun plates with dipping dishes like Mom has!

Tonkatsu (Pork Cutlets)

4 pork loin chops, boneless

2 T flour

1 egg, lightly beaten

1/2 cup Panko (Oriental style bread crumbs)

Vegetable oil for deep frying

Tonkatsu sauce

Trim fat off of pork chops. Pound chops between 2 sheets of wax paper until they are about 1/4" thick. Coat each chop; first with flour, then with egg, then with Panko bread crumbs. Heat oil and deep fry chops until golden brown. Place on paper towels to absorb excess oil. Cut chops into 1/2" strips to serve. Pour sauce on or beside chops for dipping. Serve with Stickly Rice and a simple green salad.

You can substitute crumble corn flakes for the Panko bread crumbs.

He STANDS!

Jacob has been standing, with our help, or holding onto something for a while now. Yesterday we found him in his crib, on his knees holding on to the top railing. Last night he did the same in his play yard, and while seated in front of the coffee table experimented with trying to pull himself up. As you can imagine he was getting more and more frustrated because he wanted to do it, but couldn't! When I went to get him from his nap he was in the same position so I put him straight into his play yard because I thought he would keep trying. Well he did, and I actually got him standing up on video! Yippee! The first time we've seen it! Yay!

Weekend Fun!

Saturday on the way home the boys decided to have some fun with some coins and a train...they took 2 each of quarters, dimes, nickles and pennies and put them on the track.....

This is what they could find after the train went by. I must it's pretty cool!

Justin had a book report due today and he also had to make some sort of a project to go with it. The teachers sent home a list for him to choose from, or he can make up his own. The only thing is he can't do the same project twice. This time his book was a mystery about an evil Ice Wizard who took one of the characters in the story and said the others could have her back if they found his missing eye. So it's all an adventure of finding the eye! The eye was eventually found at the bottom of a tunnel in frozen in ice, so Justin decided to make a cake and put pieces of candy canes in the middle of the two layers, to be the eyes! Then the kids in class could get a piece and "find" eyes!

Here's the beginning of Justin's cake!

Here is Justin putting the "eye balls" inside for the kids to find!

Here it is all decorated!

He drew some things from the book, like the sleigh and white wolves.

Shyla was hanging out with us too; she had her face totally shoved in the pillow!

Here's the gang!

Here is Jacob having some fun "drinking and driving". What a nut!

New House Pictures!

Here is the deck! It's finished, and John will work on the hand rail thingies soon! Hee!

The fireplace...

Kitchen sink. That "faucet" on the right is one of those instant hot water things. My friend Dyan always had one when we were growing up. I LOVE it! It's great for tea and I can mix it with cold water and have an instant warm bottle for Jacob!

The sink in the island.

Second shower head in the Master Shower.

The on/off thingie in the Master Shower (for the main shower head) and the key pad for the Mr. Steam.

The main shower head. It's one of those "rain" typed where it's pretty high!

The vanity in the Master Bath.

Sink in the boys' bathroom.

This video is too funny....it's sideways as you can tell and I can't get it any other way! It's our fridge and it actually shows you how many ounces you are dispensing. It was a 20oz. container and John wanted to see it do 20...and it did! You can see the numbers going up on the left...I think it's at 12!

Exploration Time!

Hmmmm...What is this???

Oooh...it's cold and wet....Oh, it's the cat water fountain! You can see a little bit of our black cat, Shyla, on the side there at the bottom wondering what Jacob is doing.....

Jacob has discovered that crawling just isn't some chore that gets him to a toy across the floor. He's realized it can get him ANYWHERE and now he's off! All of the sudden he just started taking off across the floor down the hallway! (A little scary with the stairs) so the days of having him sit on the floor and play with toys while I unload the dishwasher are just a fond memory! He's a quick little devil! This video doesn't show how fast he is...but he's having fun exploring!

Balloon Fun!

Jacob was playing with balloons for the first time, here with Bob, and was having a blast! At first he wasn't so sure, but they were popular with all the kids!