Visiting the Cabin

We spent last weekend up at the Cabin in SD. We had a great time just relaxing and Cole spent most of the weekend outside exploring. He was very excited to get in the lake, and back out, and back in, and back out...

Happy Fathers Day!!

Thought I would share some of the pictures from the father's day celebrations at our place.


Cole & Daddy got metal detectors for searching the yard for treasures.

G-Pa & Cole enjoying a "juice"...aka fruit smoothie.

Daddy made chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast (Mommy was at work)!!

Welcome Deacon Edwin Arnold

We went to visit the latest addition to the Arnold family last night, Deacon Edwin was born on Wednesday. Morgan, Arnie, and Ava are all doing great. Baby Deacon looks just like his Daddy!!

FINISHED!!!

Chris finished the 'new' playhouse tonight (except for the sign that goes above the door). Cole was finally allowed back in after several weeks of staying away; seeing as the ground was laden with nails and other stray 'foot poking' items. He was THRILLED to have a new house, now we just have to find some furnishings for the inside and the hardware needs to be reinstalled on the door/windows. Not sure what the next big project will be, but I will keep you updated as I find out ;-)





Watching Daddy finish the trim



The newly painted interior







Cole's new outdoor playland



p.s. Chris' toes are recovering, however he has learned to wear shoes when working around hot nails!!

Hot poker in my toes

As told by Chris...

So I was working on the playhouse yesterday - nailing on trim, putting up drip flashing, hanging shingles, etc. I was in my normal work garb (shorts, t-shirt, and sandals). I was winding down for the day, proud that I had not severely injured myself yet, so I thought I'd clean up by cutting off the tip of some of the nails that had punched through into the inside of the playhouse (Cole would surely think they were cool and ultimately impale himself). So I went to work with my reciprocating saw, cutting off the end of a nail. Well, by the time I had almost cut through, it was, needless to say, hot. Hot is actually an understatement. It was magma-esk. Well, this little shard of molten metal fell off and miraculously found its way into the crack between my pointer and middle toes on my left foot. So there I was, screaming like a little girl, flailing to kick my shoe off and remove the little bastard. Eventually, I was successful. Maia, who had been working in the pool all the while, looks up, thinking that the roof had collapsed on me or something. I briskly hobble over to drop my foot in the pool, explaining what happened en route. She warns me that the pool chemicals probably wouldn't be such a good idea, so I used the hose instead. What's the point in having a pool if not for this type of situation?!?! After cooling it down, I spread the toes to assess the damage. Sure enough, I have two perfectly symetric blisters inbetween the toes.

So the lesson learned: Though wearing shoes might be a hassle, it's a lot more comfortable than having a red-hot nail fall on your foot.

I hope all your feet are doing well,

- Chris

Picnic in the Park

After my relaxing morning, we decided to have a picnic in the park for dinner. We stopped at KFC (the official drive through of picnics) and headed over to the park. We got there and spread out our blanket only to realize they didn't give us any silverware with which to eat our sides. So we borrowed from the birthday party that happened to be going on at the park as well, and enjoyed our dinner.




After dinner, the boys headed off to play in the sprinkler portion of the park while I stayed nice and dry on the sidelines :-)

What could be better...

...than getting to sleep in til 9, doing a little work outside, playing with Cole, and sitting down with a good book and a cup of coffee (during naptime of course) on a beautiful Saturday morning??
We have had a busy week of home improvements. Chris has nearly finished re-building Cole's outdoor playhouse (pictures to come soon). We painted it a fun blue color with white trim, and Chris has diligently been insulating and caulking the seams to make sure the wasp's are not able to rebuild their nests under the roofing. I believe the finishing touches are slated to be finished this afternoon, as this morning has been dedicated to mowing the yard (it only takes about 2 hours). The pool is up and running, albeit still very cold. We have started to figure out how the chemicals are going to work and the water is slowly clearing up (well water tends to be more brown than clear in such large quantities). Today is finally supposed to be the beginning of a warming trend so we are hoping the water will be tolerable by next week without needing a wetsuit just to stand being in it for more than 5 mintues!!
We also finished up attending our string of weddings last evening, and are happy to have been a part of so many friends memories...but also ready for some weekends spent enjoying the new house.
I think the agenda for today (after I finish my coffee and maybe read just a little more) includes hanging a few pictures around the house and continued work on picking out new paint colors with hopes that we can start painting by the end of the month...

Daddy's Little Helper

Just a couple cute pictures...

My Little Water Bug

So, we broke down and got a fairly descent size pool that will stay up in the backyard. It is a 12' round above ground pool and 36" deep when filled to the top (not our plan). So we brought it home in the box sat night and Cole was already in bed (thanks G-Ma & G-Pa Poutre). We put the box just inside the back door ready to go out to the deck today. He got up this morning and almost walked right past it, when he stopped and doubled back to point at the box and ask Chris, "Pool??"
Needless to say, he was asking about it all day and dragging around his suit waiting to get in. It was a rather rainy day around here, so we finally got around to getting it out this afternoon and started putting it up. It was all he could take not to start stripping his clothes off in the middle of the backyard (he actually tried but couldn't get past the overall straps). Once there was a little over and inch of water, he and Chris got their suits on and headed out to try out the new pool (and smooth out the bottom of the liner). Chris said after about 2 minutes that he could no longer feel his feet the water was sooooo cold (straight from the hose). However, Cole was flinging the hose around in the pool and having a ball!! He actually had an all out tantrum when we made him get out so we could eat dinner.
I think it's fairly safe to say he got the 'water bug' gene...

So, I said I would try and update fairly frequently and then haven't managed to put anything up in FOREVER...oops.
Anyway, we have had a relatively busy week (or at least it has felt that way). Cole got three new teeth this week, so he has been rather cuddly and a bit of a bear all at the same time. However, it was 'hat day' at school today, and apparently he was in a great mood with his new 'Future Husker' hat. Then, he and Daddy got out the swimming pool/sprinkler this afternoon and Cole was all out belly flopping into the (ice cold) water just having a ball. So he must be feeling better!!

Chris got his new cement mixer on Thurs, and promptly put it together and has started dreaming up new projects. I came home to find some "samples" drying on the counter this evening...further updates to come on that endeavor. If you know anyone who needs new counter tops, he is looking for willing volunteers to practice on.

I will try and get better at updating more frequently, so keep checking back!!